January in the BVIs

It's been one month since my last post.  That makes it sound like I'm about to confess something, and have to say three Hail Mary's to be forgiven.  So, here's the confession...when I have too much to say, my defense is to just not say anything.  When I think about posting something I think, "Well, I can't post about that until I post about this huge thing that is hanging over my head!"  That huge thing, this time, was our trip to the British Virgin Islands.  So...here goes.

On January 3rd, Ahren and I walked away from the "Disaster Caused By Christmas" in our house, dropped the kids off with Gigi and Poppy, and hopped on a plane to St. Thomas to spend nine days in Paradise.  I've never been so stressed out about a trip in my life - leaving the kids for nine days, right after Christmas, leaving the kids for nine days, did I mention that we were leaving the kids for NINE DAYS!?!? I was sure I would never be able to relax - I'd miss the kids way too much!  But, Ahren's lifelong friend Tony was getting married, and since we did not want to miss the wedding, we put on our brave faces and hopped on the plane.  I'm not sure the plane had actually taken off before I was in vacation mode.  Kids?  We have kids?  Yea, it was good stuff.


We landed in St. Thomas and didn't even make it into the hotel before we started running into people we knew...or, people we were going to get to know.  It was an immediate party, and we didn't have any kids to put to bed.  Life was good.  We stayed on St. Thomas only overnight before boarding a ferry in the morning to Tortola.  The plan was to arrive in Tortola, take a cab ride to the other side of Tortola, and the get the next ferry to Virgin Gorda where we would be staying at the Bitter End Yacht Club for five days.  The day didn't exactly go as planned, but it was the beginning of the Caribbean learning curve...get used to sitting and have another drink.  You're going to be here awhile.  And it's a pretty good technique - the more Pain Killers we drank, the less we cared that we were still sitting in the little cafe in Tortola, still waiting for a ceasar salad, and still not at the BEYC.

Arriving at the Bitter End was arriving in Paradise.  It is an amazing resort filled with luxurious yet rustic cabins all nestled into the hillside, and along about a mile of white sand beaches.  You can only get to the resort by boat, so it is quiet, secluded, and absolutely gorgeous.

During our five days at the resort we were lucky enough to spend time with a lot of Ahren's old friend from Westboro - some of whom we never see, and some who we see all the time.  They are a great group and so much fun to spend time with.  Tony and his bride, Sarah took very good care to make sure we had fun while we were there.  They took us out for a sunset champagne cruise on Thursday evening, a snorkeling trip on Friday morning, a delicious and very fun rehearsal dinner on Friday night at the Saba Rock Resort, and then, of course, the stunning wedding on Saturday.  It seems like all we did in between the activities was eat and drink.  We would get up in the morning, go to breakfast, sit for at least an hour while friends came and went, then walk to the next restaurant and have lunch and drinks, and then it was time to get ready for dinner.  It was so fun, and so relaxing.

On Sunday a complete stranger (to us) offered to take us to The Baths on his boat.We grasously accepted his offer, and then worried the rest of the day that he was going to drag us into the boulders and murder us.  Luckily, he turned out to be a very nice guy, and it was because of him that we were able to see such an amazing sight.  It was my favorite day of the trip.

After five amazing days at Bitter End, Ahren and I made our way back to St. Thomas on Monday.  We had planned to stay an extra couple of days on St. Thomas, and while it was nice to have some time alone, we were less impressed with the beaches of St. Thomas than those in Virgin Gorda.  By the time Wednesday arrived, we were ready to get back on the plane and home to see our babies.  They had been fine, and so had we, but after nine days we were ready to cash in on all the hugs and kisses we had missed.

We are so grateful to Tony and Sarah for giving us a reason to go to the BVIs.  We hadn't had a trip away without the kids since we had kids and we are glad that we took this opportunity.  Gigi and Poppy were so wonderful to take the kids for us for nine days.  They are good kids, but they have a busy schedule...one that I can't work without the help of my mom.  So it was a big deal, and they did it for us happily.  We are so, so lucky to have had such a wonderful opportunity, and I still enjoy looking back on the pictures and smile remembering how perfect those nine days were.

While we are already talking about our next trip to the BVIs, for now it's back to reality...a reality that we're happy to belong to.

Here  and here are all of the pictures from the trip.

Nibble

Tonight we had movie night - a fun evening in the Lippman house where Lexi usually complains about the movie we choose up until thirty seconds into the movie when she is so enthralled she forgets to eat her dinner, and Zach, while seeming to enjoy the movie, will ask us every ten minutes if it's over yet, or why we're laughing.  It's always a fun night. 
This evening's selection was "Horton Hears a Who", previously vetoed by Lexi who believes she is too grown up to watch anything even slightly funny, so we had to trick her into watching it...i.e., just don't tell her the title until we're safely thirty seconds in. 
The cartoon movies often drive me crazy because I can recognize the voices of the actors, but often have trouble placing them, and tonight was no different.  The kangaroo in the movie made me nuts.  I could swear she sounded like Carol Burnett, but for some reason I didn't think that seemed right, so I kept trying to figure it out.  When the movie was over I came to the computer to find out, and when I saw that it actually was Carol Burnett, I commented, out loud, that it was amusing.  Lexi wanted to know why it amused me, which lead me to tell her about "Annie", my all time favorite childhood movie.  To show her who Carol Burnett was, I pulled up a youtube video of her singing "Little Girls" from the movie.  If you've seen it you may recall that she sings, "I'd like a man to nibble on my ear..." and is quite drunk during the scene.  About halfway in, a minute or so after the nibble line, Zach turned to me and said, "Mama, did a man bited her?"  I tried to stifle my laughter and said, "No, honey, no one bit her."  He paused and said, "Oh.  Well, why is she sad then?"  I guess three might just be a little too young for "Annie".  Although, after watching those scenes again as a mother, I'm not sure it's entirely appropriate for a six year old either, despite the fact that I fondly remember watching that movie and loving it at Lexi's age.  Either way, we all have "Annie" fever now, and have already decided that it's the next movie on deck for movie night.  I can't wait!

Party Pants

While Ahren and I were away in the Virgin Islands for nine days (it's coming...we took 600 pictures so you're going to have to be patient) Gigi and Poppy took care of Lexi and Zachary for us.  It was wonderful for all of us (especially Ahren and me) and I know the kids had a blast!!  On Sunday, Gigi was trying to get the kids ready to go over to the hosted run.  She sent me this conversation that she had with Zach that morning:

Trying to get ready to go. 

Gigi:  "Zachy, here are some nice pants."

Zachy:  "Well, those are my pants for when I go out."

Gigi:  "We are going out, to go to the party."

Zachy:  "Well, those are not my party pants.  Oh, here are my party pants!"

I had no idea he had party pants, although I'm not surprised.  That boy loves to party!

New Years 2012

2011 was a good year.  We all faced some frustrating challenges throughout the year, but I believe we are  coming out on top.  Sometimes I can find it difficult to not dwell on the tough parts of life, but this year especially I have tried every morning to be thankful for everything I have.  I'll tell you that when you start your morning out saying "Thank you for..." and creating the list in your mind of everything you feel grateful to have in your life, it's hard to think of a reason to be sad.

Lexi reminds us to have the right attitude

We spent New Year's Weekend in Vermont with my parents this year.  It's the perfect way to celebrate - fun, but quiet and relaxing and surrounded by family.  It was the first chance we had to get out on our skis this year, and the kids had a blast again.  Lexi's confidence is growing, and after quite a few runs down the bunny hill, she was almost skiing by herself.  We were all very proud of how hard she worked all day - all with a huge smile on her face.  Zach enjoyed a few runs, but was feeling a bit tired, and didn't want to ski as much as his sister.  No one felt sad about sitting in the lodge drinking hot cocoa with him.

Whose got two thumbs and is ready to ski??  This girl!!

Zach was ready for a nap

Ski bunnies

A lesson from Poppy

Mom takes the reigns

We only skied one day (Gigi and Poppy skied one day before we arrived) but that was plenty for our first trip out.  In the morning Dad and I got in our now traditional New Year's Day run.  We ran the same loop we ran the year before, but in reverse.  I complained the entire way that this way was hillier.  After five miles of trying to explain to me that it would be impossible, Dad seemed to agree with me while he struggled up the last hill.  ;)  It was a great run, and a perfect way to start off a new year.  Ahren and the kids took to the hill once more for some sledding and snowman making, before we hopped back in the car for our 3 hour drive home.

Lexi made a snowman Mom, Dad, Gigi, Poppy, Lexi and Zach

It was a wonderful and refreshing way to start 2012.

I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions for two reasons.  First is that I think that winter is a very hard time to stay motivated, and second I think that if there is something you need to improve in your life, there is no better time than the present, and no need to wait for a random day to come along.  I spent a lot of the past year trying to focus on small things that were bothering me, and fixing them, or working to improve them, one by one.  So at the end of the year, and facing a brand new 2012, I feel ready to continue tackling the small things, and enjoying the big things - our amazing family and friends, our community, our home, all of the things that we've worked hard to get, and the things we're not sure we even deserve.

Christmas 2011

After just spending nine days in the Virgin Islands (more on that later), thinking back to Christmas feels like thinking back to last year...like a whole year ago, not two weeks ago.  I wish I'd been able to find time to write this post before we left, because now Christmas is just a blur in my totally relaxed head.

As we do every year, we celebrated Christmas Eve with a house full of about 6o guests at Gigi and Poppy's.  Since the kids were born the party has been getting more and more fun each year.   There is just nothing like watching them get so excited about Santa's visit, and then running wildly through the house playing with their cousins and eating cookies until they're ready to explode.  It's chaos, but it's wonderful and this year certainly didn't disappoint.

This year we had over a dozen cousins running around.  Many of them see each other only maybe once or twice a year, but they all play so well.  It's really fun to see.  When Santa finally arrived with his sack full of gifts, Lexi was very happy to receive her gift, but even at six she does not trust the man in the big red suit at all, so she made Mom escort her up for the present.  Zachary was fearless, as usual, and thrilled to run right up there and thank Santa for his present.  He was very excited, and even got to sit on Santa's knee with his cousin Angelina, with whom he played so nicely all evening.

Santa's Angels

 After the evening ended with a bang, or, a snap rather, when poor Bobby broke his leg, it was time to wind down, and continue the long standing tradition (close to 40 years now!) of Poppy reading "The Night Before Christmas" to the kids.  Sweet Cassie was the only one who couldn't stay awake long enough for the reading.

The night ended late as always, so it was tough to rouse the kids early the next morning when we woke up to the call that Santa had come again, and this time filled up stockings!  When I woke up Zach he opened his eyes wide, stood right up out of bed and said, "I'm going to be tired!"  He was right.  But we rushed right back to Gigi and Poppy's where present opening began immediately, and continued on for what seemed like several hours after that.

Zachy's last minute whale request dutifully fulfilled by Old St. Nick.

Happy cousins!

Happy Mama!

Meet Stephanie.

Zach saw Auntie's shirt, and worried she might try jumping over fire.  He was prepared.

 

After playing for awhile, and then getting dressed we had another wonderful meal made by Gigi.  After one final quick round of gifts after dinner, the entire crew was really ready for a long winter's nap...

The dolls were ready to eat.

My best gifts.

Zach almost made it to dinner...but just couldn't stay awake.

The following morning, after all sleeping in and spending some time playing with our new toys, the four of us jumped in the car to head down to Boxing Day in Rhode Island.  We all agreed to a very relaxing day, and apparently to me that meant not taking pictures, because I have pitifully few!  But we had another wonderful day filled with family, great food, wonderful gifts, and a ton of fun.  We even had some time in the evening to celebrate Hanukkah.  We really managed to do it all this year.  And the great news is that Grammy has offered to pay for medical school for all of the grandchildren!! They're going to need it!

The kids prepare to care for Auntie Kae.

Eva is concerned that her colleagues may not know what they're doing.

At least he cleans up after himself!

What kind of an establishment is this, anyway??