Departure Day, and Saying Goodbye Part IV: Family

The run up to our departure day was incredibly frantic. As soon as we had the house rented, an amazing transformation came over me and Amy--we started seeing all sorts of the things around the house that needed fixing, replacing, painting, caulking, etc. Some of these projects were major (like replacing our deck), some were of medium difficulty (building a new section of fence to ensure our tenants would have complete fencing for their dogs) and many, many did not take much effort taken one at a time but additvey took quite a bit of time (finally finishing that second shelf in the bathroom, rearranging furniture, getting couch covers, fixing the downstairs phone extensions, and on and on and on).

We managed to pack all of our possessions for a year into seven suitcases, four carry-ons, plus our two laptops and the boys' backpacks. Getting the CORE GIS computer packed securely was a bit of an adventure in and of itself--my dad sent me a hardshell Pelican case (actually a Storm Case) and I bought pick-and-pluck foam designed for this particular case from Amazon. My desktop, two external hard disks, and a Vonage box fit securely in the foam. Unfortunately neither of my large monitors would fit, so I packed Amy's smaller monitor into my carryon with the leftover Pelican foam.

All of our stuff, for four people, for a year

CORE GIS, in a suitcase

Fortunately, Chris and Becky were not only understanding, but stepped up in a major, major way--Becky made dinner for all of us, shoveled hundreds of pounds of mulch into our garden beds, and offered to finish up anything we were not able to get to. Chris took the boys to their house for a sleepover--which all of the kids appreciated tremendously!--and Amy and I worked through the night. At 3:30 I was starting to hallucinate (OK, I exaggerate, but only a little) so I laid down and slept for 1.5 hours. Amy did not sleep at all, she is an amazing woman. We headed over to the Moores at 5:30, woke the boys, loaded our stuff into the Moores minivan, and Chris and Colin dropped us at the airport. We never would have made that flight without Chris and Becky's help, and we are so grateful to them.

The day before departure was pretty crazy. Fortunately our friends Thomas and Mihaela watched the boys all day, but when they brought them home it was clear we were nowhere close to being done. Our original plan was to have everything packed up, the house cleaned and cleared out, and then have a celebratory departure dinner with the Moores at Hales Ales. Alas, this did not happen. Despite our best efforts, there was simply too much to do in the available time.

We departed Seattle for San Diego, where my parents had rented a cottage at Mission Beach. I grew up in Phoenix, and my materal grandparents lived in Solana Beach (just north of San Diego) and we visited them frequently. I have many happy childhood memories of the beach, and we've continued the tradition with our boys for the past 8 years. This year, my brother, his wife Rhea, and their 18 month old son Logan joined us, as did Amy's father. The cottage is just a block from the beach, down a narrow, tree lined walkway. We spent several full days at the beach, building sand casteles, boogy boarding, reading, and just relaxing. It was really great. The cottage we rented is also just a block from the roller coaster, wave house, and arcade, and we spent a few evenings riding the coaster and playing skee ball.

Liam, cousin Logan, and Uncle Andy

Loki riding a wave on his beloved boogie board

Our newly minted 10 year old with an ENORMOUS box of Magic cards from G & G

He kept saying "I lost my legs! Have you seen them?"

Happy kid on the beach

He spent hours digging this tunnel so he could crawl through it

Many waves were ridden on this day

Rhea and the most amazing Mr. Logan

Playing Temple with Grandma

Andy, dad and Lochlan stretching a piece of Pacific giant kelp to its full length

Fancy drink night!

Lochlan hit the jackpot at the arcade

Dan, Dan and Nan, the Three Gs

The hat family

Defying gravity

Clapping cousins!

On Wednesday we traveled to La Jolla for a visit to the Birch Aquarium, which I found really impressive. Afterwards we rented snorkeling equipment to look for leopard sharks and rays in the water just off La Jolla shores. Unfortunately the water was really rough and surpisingly cold, and the rough conditions had a really negative impact on visibility. We snorkeled at the same spot last year, and the water was warmer and calmer, and we saw over 50 leopard sharks. The boys had a very tough time even getting past the breakers and were shivering after just a few minutes, so they headed in to hang out with Grandpa on the beach. Amy and I braved the conditions for another 20 minutes, but only saw two sharks each. It was worth trying, but a bit disappointing after the amazing time we had last year.

Entrance to Birch Aquarium

Some of the amazing sea creatures at the aquarium

Father and daughter about to snorkel at La Jolla cove

45 YEARS!!! Way to go Mom and Dad!

The whole crew

Our last full day was Thursday, which was consumed primarily with packing, haircuts, buying school supplies, and making other preparations for Belize. We did get in a few hours at the beach, and Grandma Stevenson treated the boys to ice cream. Andy and I had some "bro time" over a couple beers in the afternoon, and we all met up for dinner at the pizza joint around the corner from the cottage. Since the next day was my folks' 45th anniversary, Amy, Andy, Rhea and I got some flowers, cards, and a few silly gifts. We sang "happy anniversary to you" at the table, and shared the largest pizza I have ever seen.

After the frenzy of packing and preparing our house, it was delightful to have a relaxed week at the beach with my family. In addition to the all the beach time, we talked about all kinds of things, told (clean and a few dirty) jokes, played games, drank lots of beer and rum punch, and got to play for hours with Logan, the newest addition to the family. He is such a cutie and has an ebullient, musical, and curious personality. He really loved the boys, and by the end of the week was calling them "Lee" and "La" and giving them spontaneous hugs. It was really heartwarming.

We awoke at 4:00 am this morning, packed up Dan Kaplan's truck, said goodbye to my folks, and made it to the airport with time to spare. Our flight to Dallas went smoothly, we changed planes, and are currently crossing the Gulf of Mexico and will be landing in Belize City in less than an hour. I am excited, nervous, and really looking forward to exploring our new home!