Sister Update

Ie Li

Last week:

• We became a pull-up free household.  It's so nice to only have to buy one size and variety of diaper.
• Celebrated Mi Na's birthday with a balloon, flowers, bunting, swimming, cupcakes, and a present
• Finalized Mei Li's party plans.  It's going to be fun and simple.  Mei Li has already approved all the plans.
• Hung two things on the wall in our living room.
• We had dessert with Rachel and Ken on Saturday, and then they watched our kids so we could go to the adult session of stake conference.  Thank you so much, Rachel.
• Took care of my garden.
• Played with my little ones at the pool and at home.
• Summer school with Mei
  
• Cleaned the church together and attended a baptism.

Next week:

• Pool
• Play games
• Garden
• Summer school
• Service
• Exercise
• B-day party
• Just relax and enjoy everything

Ana

 Last 2 weeks:
-Took the family vacation we have been talking about since our first weekend in Boston to Palmyra and Niagara Falls.  We visited the Smith Family Farm, the Whitmer Farm, the  Hill Cumorah and the Sacred Grove.  It was a perfect trip, except for getting yelled at by the Canadian Border Inspector.  Man, you miss one tiny stop sign and Canada never forgets...
-Found out that our packers and movers were coming 5 days earlier then we had expected because we had booked them so late.  They came and packed us up Friday and moved our stuff out Saturday.  We fly out tomorrow afternoon and thanks to generous friends and neighbors have had blow up mattresses, sheets, towels, blankets and lamps. 
-Because the wii, tv and most other electronic devices were shipped to CA, a deck of cards has been our only source of amusement.  We have taught Jack how to play war (which he LOVES), solitare, slap jack, and GOLF.  Its been good to have so much down time as a family. 
-Went out to our most decadent meal in Boston thanks to Michael Christensen.  It lasted almost 3 hours and contained 7 courses.  Everything we tasted was delicious and the view on the patio during dinner was amazing.
-Yesterday was a perfect day in Boston.  Deep Blue skys, green as far as we could see, a cool breeze on a warm day.  It was the kind of day that if only Boston had more of would have tempted me into staying here and making it home long term.  Darn those ridiculously freezing winters that last through April.
-I turned 31.  Somehow that seems a lot older then 30 felt.  Maybe its because I am huge and tired all the time. 
-Zack now has three promising jobs on the horizon.  One start up, one innovations job at Disney, and one software company in San Diego.  Stay tuned to see what happens...
-Canoed one last time on the Charles River. This time we made it up past our house which was fun to see from the river.  Someone asked what I will miss about Boston. Top on my list is the river.  I have loved looking out at it every day.  (even the days that I yelled at it for being still covered with snow).  I will also miss how green everything is.  Our apartment feels like a tree house during the summer months, a little safe haven from the world.

This week:
-Pack up our bags and get on a plane tomorrow to San Diego.  I can't see past that right now.  Maybe next week I will have a better idea of what life will be like.

Rachel

For some reason I can hardly remember a thing!

Last Week:

• I never made it to Costco for the sheets.  Blast.  I could have but on my free night I actually totally forgot.  Oh well, I must not want them so badly.
• Played with Mei Li and Stephen on Saturday night.  They are so cute.
• Met up with the Earnests on Sunday in Richmond.  Aside from some inexplicable traffic in both directions, it was a quick and easy trip.  Next time we might try taking Route 1 to see if it's faster.
• Taught 6/7 y.o. in primary again.  They are intense but nice.  I feel bad that I'm kinda glad I don't have to go back next week because Ken does have to go back...
• Finished the yarn wreath.  Post with a photo coming soon.
• Visited the Vienna Farmers market and proceeded to have an extraordinarily productive Saturday which made me so happy.
  

This Week:

• Dentist appointments for me and Ken.  I can't remember the last time I went, but I had zero cavities or issues at all.  I am glad the Z's have good teeth genes.  I should wear my retainer though.
• Play with Haley on Monday.  (Since Monday has now passed...) We went to Lucketts, visited Mom's Apple Pie Bakery and a scrapbook store (supplies for Ken's bday this weekend).  It was awesome.
• No work on Friday, woo!!  I'll spend the day baking, wrapping and finalizing preparations.  So excited.
• Plan my next sewing project...
• Head down to NC on Saturday afternoon for 4th of July!!  Pool time!!
• Ok there's not a lot of major goals on here, but I can't think of anything!  Maybe it's because I don't have my planner in front of me.  Guess it'll just be a low key week!  

Sarah

Last week:

• helped Scott weed out his closet and drawers - took 4 giant lawn bags of clothes and shoes to DI - did that much volume actually fit in there before?
• experimented with curling my hair - first time i've tried since i cut it short. i think i like it. need to figure out a better technique that doesn't result in as many burned fingers.
• hiked the Y at 6:30am on friday with a friend - very winded. hopefully we can make it a regular friday excursion.
• baked cookies and delivered them to Brenden at camp via the supplies truck that drove up daily. Unfortunately I missed the part about putting treats in a metal container and by the time he got back to his tent a squirrel had eaten through the plastic bag and eaten all the cookies.
• huck went to nursery by himself for the 2nd week in a row! can we call this a successful transition? can't say the same for june, though.
• planted tomatoes, basil, cucumber, zucchini, cantaloupe, and green beans in our garden
  

This week:

• The Abbey Road Show at The Rooftop Concert Series is on Friday - still need to laminate the access credentials, set up for the merch sales, pick up CB radios for the security guys to use, organize babysitters for the day, and hopefully arrange everything well enough so I can sit down and enjoy the show myself too
• catch up on work - I haven't put in a solid day since we've been home from our trip. my manager's on vacation and it's too easy to just lay low. need to make some visible progress on my project.
• catch up on household finances. figure out how to pay for our unexpected tax bill we just received (bye bye new car money)
• i've really got to start eating better and exercising again. i feel like garbage.
• try to remember to get someone to take a better picture of me at some point during the week so i'm not scrambling on the last day and resorting to taking it myself.

Christine

Let me be completely honest here, I have lost my little sister.  I have no idea if she was last in Jerusalem, or Egypt, in a tunnel or some random Middle Eastern desert.  Rachel says she's coming back to DC soon.  I'll believe it when I see it.  Christine, are you out there?!

Annee

I know, my picture is more than a week old.  It is the hardest part of the Sister Update for me.  I never seem to want to pose for that awkward photo of myself.  Do you suppose the more picture you take of yourself, the less awkward it gets?


Last Week: 

• Got totally obsessed with the cutest Library skirt that I found on a blog.  I forthwith had to make one.  It took a few days.  It was intense.  I love it just as intensely.  Check it out on MOM.  
• Got equally obsessed with Masterpiece Classic: Downton Abbey this week.  I shifted many of my runs to the treadmill just so that I could watch just-one-more-episode.  Have you watched it yet?  if you haven't, you are so lucky!  The next season won't start until the fall.  I feel a distinct void in my life right now.  
• Listened to the abridge version of "The Constant Princess" by Philippa Gregory, and finished listening to "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand" by Helen Simonson.  This means two things;  I have been doing a whole lot of sewing, and or sitting by the pool.  Neither are terrible options, but maybe my life should have more meaning?  I recommend both books thoroughly.  I would have enjoyed the unabridged version of "The Constant Princess" more than the abridged, but I didn't even realize it was abridged until it was almost over!  
• I feel a little bit like I'm stuck in a period drama with all the entertainment I've been taking in lately.  When Darin and I both surrendered to our bed this afternoon around 4pm, exhausted by the summer heat, and the languid pace of life, I thought to myself, "Well this is very British of us.  What else did they do in the olden days between lunch and dinner but read, and rest up for the big effort of dinner".  And that is just what we did.  Don't judge.  
• Best item of all was Sunday Dinner with the Fitzgeralds at a random Mimi's Cafe in a random VA town in between us.  I felt a compelling need to get my dresser out of the back of Rachel's car so that I could begin working on it.  I'm glad we had an excuse to meet up for Sunday dinner.  It was fun to realize that though it's kind of a lot of driving, it's not totally out of the question to meet up halfway.  It was fun.  

This Week:

• Work on refinishing my dresser.  So far this has involved a lot of staring at my dresser, being intimidated by my dresser, reading a million different blogs about painting furniture, and culminated in a trip to the local hardware store where I visited with a super old guy who taught me all he knew about painting furniture.  A good start?  I can do this, right?!
• Darin will leave us tomorrow for Scout camp.  It mostly makes me laugh that he's going.  Did you know he never went as a young man?  I hope he has fun! 
• Clean the house.  Things have gotten a bit lazy around here with the onset of summer vacation.  This house used to be super clean.  I used to have tons of hours in my day to thoroughly clean each level, and it would stay that way for many hours until the kids came home.  It's okay that it's kind of messy now.  That's life, but it's a lot harder to reclaim it from this position!  Also, my kids need to have some jobs, for that reason alone I will make it a top priority this week.  Clean the house!
• We are down to just 7 more days of swim team!!  We can do it!!  It has been so good for all of us to have such a healthy reason to get out of bed in the morning.  
• The Fitzgeralds are coming for the long weekend.  I think we're waiting to see Cars 2 until they get here.  The kids can barely wait.   

That's a wrap.

These girls graduated from Kindergarten:

One with her front teeth in place, one without!  

And though it was only three short weeks ago, it honestly feels like last year's headline.  The school year went by so darn fast, I still have not wrapped my mind around it.  Though summer has definitely introduced a different pace.  The days are long and slow and hot, and there simply isn't enough ice cream, popsicles or soda to satisfy the never ending cycle of KP duty for me.  Is it okay to simply feed them ice cream, popsicles and soda for the remaining seven weeks of summer?  I'm rapidly heading in that direction.

Though I did eat a salad today while we sat waiting outside of Loco Pops, until it opened at noon.  What, people don't think you should eat gourmet popsicles before noon?   What if swim team ends at 11?  What do they think you should do?   Since it also shares the parking lot with Whole Foods, I thought I could at least preface my Popsicle with a salad.  I could not persuade any of the offspring.  Henry got the flavor called Fluffernutter.  All day long he kept thinking about how delicious it was.  George asked me if we could go back on Wednesday and Friday too.  I could stand firm about Wednesday, but it's highly likely I will have lost focus by Friday.

Do summer freckles get any cuter than this?!

(Ruby wanted me to photograph her with her favorite picture book of Colorado, while we were doing a photo shoot of her new "Library Skirt".  My latest Made on Maple creation)

Darin's summer class will end tomorrow, just in time for him to head off to Scout Camp for the rest of the week.  Do not worry about me, I have a dresser to refinish before the Fitzgeralds arrive for the 4th of July festivities.  Too bad Chapel Hill had to cut "4th of July festivities" out of the 2011 budget.  We will simply have to find a neighboring festive town.  Durham maybe?

Long live summer!

I went and visited Rachel in VA.

I mostly took pictures of furniture, but I loved having a sister available to spend the weekend with.  You can read all about it HERE.

Is it summer vacation yet?!

Wow.  It has been a whirlwind, and it's only June 11th!!  Starting back on May 25 and 26, the Z's all started gathering on the East coast for Zack's Harvard Business school graduation (jump to Ana's blog for the cute photo re-cap.  I forgot my camera at home on that trip!!).

We had to make it a quick trip.  Each one of us, (with the exception of the Wiley's who were already a few days into their grand East coast summer trip) had to hurry back home to get our families packed up to meet up at Corolla Beach, NC (OBX).  This was going to be our first year testing out an ubber ginormous beach front house, with a pool, on the Carolina coast.  Could it live up to its West coast compatriots?!

Pretty sure it beat out the competition.  Offering 9 bedrooms, 12 bathrooms, a pool, hot tub, in-home theater with movie theater seats, we wonder if Southern California will ever see us again :)  Did I mention the weather?!  Well, maybe the weather wasn't totally dreamy, after all, 90 degrees and sunny does get a little bit toasty when humidity gets involved.  But we managed to enjoy our week without too much trouble.

Naturally, I didn't take enough pictures.  Naturally many relatives have sent me pictures.  I'll open them and download them and find them all someday.  But I need to see progress here at this blog, so my collection will have to due for tonight.  My sister-in-law Ie Li is doing a thorough recap over at her blog.  She's patient enough to go day-by-day.  She is great at journaling.  I am great at broad strokes, yes?!

The beach, it was grande!

Complete with cousins:

Beach babies:

Super fun aunts and uncles along for a good time:

Aunties who were almost always available for castle building:

Huck who is always the life of the party (and super special because he learned my name on day one):

Of course, it wouldn't be Beach Week without grandma and grandpa:

The beach front adults:

 Who were always just one iPhone click away (poor reception and all) from beach front fun facts, about sand crabs, ghost crabs, jelly fish, you name it.  Even the answer to our most mysterious beach question "Why is the water freezing cold one day, and warm the next?"  Not a joke, that question was iPhone asked and answered.  It has to do with the direction of the wind.  In fact, this particular sampling of adults are so efficient they surely should have a name?  The Beach Front Council of Adults (BFCAs)?  Any other suggestions?!  Ooh boys did we have a good time.

Nightly dinners, nightly games as Uncle Steve was slowly falling asleep on the couch.  Christine's nightly disappearances to re-join the YSAs who were less than a mile down the beach (ha!ha!). The excursion to the Wright Brother's Monument and flight museum where I summoned my teaching skills and led a mini tour for the 6 and under crowd.  It's all about making it relevant to your audience!  Our first official BWBC!!!  Can you believe I convinced my whole family to read the same book, and actually sit down together on Wednesday night as we had an official book club meeting.  Honestly you probably have to be there to believe it, but it was so great.  So, so great.  Christine's cookies were the icing on the book club cake.  Thanks for baking them CZ!  Jet skiing!  Crabs!!  The list could go on and on.




It's impossible to write enough words, or take enough pictures to capture just how much this week means to me, my kids, and I hope the whole rest of our family.  It is a yearly highlight.  We thank Mom and Dad (grandma and grandpa Z), from the bottom of our hearts who make it all possible and bring us all together, year after year, after I hope a million more years!  Long live Beach Week.

Until next year....