The Importance of Having Fun

We decided to drive up to Nipomo last weekend to visit some of our best friends, the Kellers. I was a little hesitant because Axel hadn't been sleeping well recently and the Kellers have a 1-1/2 year old and a 3 month old, so I didn't want to add to their sleep deprivity. But we decided it was this weekend or never, so we packed up the car on Friday afternoon and were off. When we travel by car, we usually leave at Axel's bedtime. He sleeps so well in his carseat, that driving is a breeze this way because we don't have to stop. However, since he hadn't been sleeping well lately, neither had we, and I didn't want us driving at 11:00 at night in an exhausted state. So instead, we left at 12:30 pm and crossed our fingers for a good drive.
Axel actually did pretty well, he took about a 1-1/2 hour long nap and woke up wanting to get out and about just as we were approaching Westwood, our old home at UCLA. We stop here whenever we can and reminisce about all of the good college memories we had there together. Of course, there were a lot of bad memories, like, having no fun at all and studying 90% of the time, but we really only remember the good memories. Like our first date on Sunset Boulevard at Barfly with my sorority where we had to dress up as Hugh Hefner and his Playboy Playmate, or of when we met in Powell Library during midterms and I introduced myself to Johan....and asked him to walk me home....and asked for his number....and asked him out on a date. Or of taking road trips to Mexico and the Grand Canyon, or of sitting on the lawn in the sun in front of Powell Library, or drinking a boba tea (me) or black coffee (Johan) at Ackerman Union, or of just being the dorks on the Engineering/Science side of campus with the boring gray communist-esque buildings instead of the "artsy" side of campus where the History and English majors got to sit in beautiful old brick buildings that are used in all the movies because they look like Harvard. Seeing all of the students doing exactly what we did 10 years ago (yes, it's been 10 years, so sad) makes us so nostalgic. We don't want to go back, we just love to remember.

We always drive down Landfair and look at the awesome old converted house my roommates and I lived in at 471, and we always wince as we look at the grungy Co-op housing for international students where Johan lived across the street. He always talks about how he had to work in the kitchen as part of his cheap rent, and how he got fat because they had all you can eat ice cream and free refills on soda, and he'd fill his ginormous big gulp cup to the brim with Pepsi every day. We were both our chubbiest in those days. We always joke that if we fell in love when we looked our worst, then it must be true love.

We let Axel crawl on the lawn on the UCLA campus to burn off some energy, then put him in his PJ's since it was getting to be around bedtime, and he fell asleep some time around Thousand Oaks. He still sleeps from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. and takes 3 naps. As a side note, we went to his 9 month checkup last week and he was exactly the same weight and length as he was at his 7 month appointment! He still weighs 21 lbs 4 oz, is 29 inches long, and his head is 18.5 inches diameter. I thinks it's because he's been crawling like crazy, he burns off all those calories.

We finally got to meet baby Gavin! He looks a lot like Brielle did when she was a baby, so precious. On Saturday morning, we all woke up exhausted. We were sharing a room with Axel, who was sleeping in his travel tent, and he was tossing and turning the whole night. And baby Gavin is a baby, and as we all know, babies wake up a lot! I think the only well rested one was Brielle. That's awesome that the person with the most energy out of everyone got the most sleep (sarcasm hinted).

So out of sheer willpower, the Kellers suggested that we try and do something fun on Saturday. It just so happened that Justin Winery (where we are all wine club members, yes, yes (my nose is up in the air right now)) was having their Isoceles (their most popular wine) release party that afternoon. So we bit the bullet and took all three kids on the 1 1/2 hour (one way) drive to the vineyard. But our God was merciful that day, and all three babies woke up from their naps at the same time, so we threw all three carseats in the back of the Tundra, while Brit, me, and Johan sat in the front, Garrett drove the Harley, and Brittney's parents followed us in their Cadillac. It was an incredibly nice, smooth drive....until we turned onto the country roads toward Justin and I realized that the gas light had gone off. Uh oh, brain fart, we're almost out of gas, what to do??? We decided that fun must be a priority and had to go for it, we came all this way, let's at least make it to the winery and then deal with the consequences of having no gas. So I tried to coast and not put the brakes on through most of the curvy small roads, and we were almost there, one more curve around the corner and we could see the winery when...."BLECH!" Brittney was like "Tina, stop, stop, she's choking!" I could smell carrot vomit and heard choking coming from Brielle's side of the car. "But I'm on a blind curve with everyone behind me! Let me at least drive past the curve!", "But she's choking, STOP!!!" Oh the drama. I stopped and Brittney jumped out and pulled Brielle out of the car. I looked at her, and she had orange carrot vomit all over her face, dress, and car seat. I told Brit later that she looked like that little vomiting girl from the movie the Sixth Sense with the vomit just oozing out of her mouth. It turned out that she wasn't choking, she was car sick from my driving.

So much for the cute little girl in the pretty dress Brit was hoping for during the fancy wine tour. Instead, she got to wear Axel's dirty farmer overalls that I put on him when he wants to crawl on some dirty surface, heck, she didn't care!

On a positive note, our God was merciful yet again! Brit and Gare Bear had a AAA service that brings you free gas when you run out. So they came to the winery and filled us up. And all the people said "Praise the Lord-ah!"  (I stole that from Johan).

But for all of that, it was so worth it to walk through the wine caves, get fabulous free wine tasting with various cheeses and crackers, hors d'oeuvres, and best of all, to feel like a fancy grown up for a couple of hours.

As we were putting the babies back in the truck for the drive home, Brielle and Axel started holding hands while sitting in their carseats. We knew they were destined to get married. So we decided to get some blackmail photos for the future and take bath photos of them together.

Heck, why not throw Gavin in there too??

It's funny to look at us now, with kids and different priorities. Although, I have to say, I love having friends who still want to try to have fun even when doing so with kids is probably more tiring than the alternative of staying home. We have a tradition with the Kellers and (several other of their friends) of camping every 4th of July at Shaver Lake. I love it that even though we've started having kids, no one has backed out (yet!), even through the births of all the babies. That's what I admire.....a committment to having fun, even if it kills you.

As we were driving home on Sunday afternoon with a gorgeous view of the Ocean as we drove through Santa Barbara, I told Johan how thankful I was to have a husband who liked to do fun things with me. I love that we like to be outdoors together, surf together, and now we're planning on going on several camping trips to "practice" with Axel for Shaver. It might not help, but I love trying to be adventurous with a baby. Because the only alternative, as I see it, is staying home and doing nothing, and that sounds infinitely worse to me than an exciting sleep-deprived trip with fun stories to go with it.