The Highlight of the Summer

"Am I bad if this is going to be the highlight of my summer?"

"Really, Curtis? Let's just see . . . this summer you've had a baby, moved across the entire country, fed giraffes with your bare hands, explored Washington, D.C., drove 18-plus hours to Kansas City, relived your love story, and next month we are going to the beach. It might make you bad, but I can't judge you."

So, let me give you a recap of some of the other summer activities. Which one is the guilty highlight? I'll let you be the judge.

Airport Overlook
Since we've driven so much already this summer, our rental car was due for an upgrade. The rental agency is located near the airport, so we decided to make a day of the 40-minute drive and exchange at Airport Overlook Park. This gem of a park is situated at the end of the busiest runways Charlotte Douglas Airport. We arrived at peak takeoff time in the early evening to see a long line of a variety of airliners ready to depart. The runway ran parallel to the overlook area, so we got to see and hear the acceleration in an exciting way! I had to cover poor Livia's ears, but Sebastian just adored seeing these flying cars up close. We've always known that Sebastian did not receive his mother's poor eyesight because he can spot a plane in the sky before anyone else. Whether we are out on a walk, playing in the pool, or just driving to the store, Sebastian will shout "ah-peen!" before we even notice the faint roar of the engine that's been humming in the distance. The sky might clearly showcase a small airplane, a tiny glimmering light, or a simple streak of exhaust, but Sebastian always knows. We were amazed the day he bit his pretzel into a "t" shape and called it an airplane. What imagination. So this was the perfect place to take our boy . . . until we take him to Dad's truck plant (one day)!

Cow Appreciation Day
For the last few years, Curtis and I have tried to take full advantage of the free Chick-fil-A on Cow Appreciation Day. This summer was no different! Chick-fil-A offers customers a free meal during July when customers dress up as a cow (!!!). We really do love Chick-fil-A. It's clean, family friendly, real, and delicious. So how could this list of summer highlights feel complete without this?

Park Serendipity
Moving to new cities every few months doesn't give us a great chance to become experts in the area, so one of our new favorite pastimes is exploring by car. We love driving around both historic and new neighborhoods, dreaming of our future in a Southern Colonial, a natural Craftsman, a fun Mediterranean, or charming cottage style home. As we have driven around, we have found some fun parks to stop and enjoy. Even though Sebastian loves driving around, he loves climbing and jumping and running and sliding even more.

Summer Splash Pads
In addition to finding creative playgrounds to explore, Sebastian has loved the variety of splash pads around the area. We have a pool at our apartment complex, but who wants to jump into thousands of gallons of water when you can jump through a set of extreme sprinklers.

Great Wolf Lodge
Earlier this year, Curtis and I got suckered into listening to a 3-hour timeshare presentation. Free rewards for the long and painful sales pitch: an extravagant vacation to the Mexican Riviera, an exotic cruise, or a family-friendly stay at the Great Wolf Lodge. We were living in Texas at the time, not quite certain if we were soon moving to Portland or somewhere else later in the year. Oh, and we were secretly pregnant. As awesome as it would be to be take our much-deserved vacation, we just don't think this is the year to go all out. Timeshare people: The popular Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, Texas, is very accessible, very family friendly, and very close by. Well, we're likely moving to Portland soon. No worries—another Great Wolf Lodge is located in the lush mountains of Washington. Oh, but we might be traveling for work to North Carolina. And we aren't sure when. There's another Great Wolf Lodge in Charlotte!

Basically, fate made us take this vacation. And Sebastian sure is glad we did! He had a blast at their indoor water park, jumping through man-made waves, climbing up and sliding down Sebastian-sized water slides, running through falls, and wading through fountains. Livia wasn't quite sure what to think about all the spray features and splash landings, but because she's perfect, she never complained. Curtis and I took turns going down some of the grown-up slides. We invaded some families' fun to ride 4-person tubes, but we both loved the mat racer. We would totally come again—for free, that is. Guess we need to find another timeshare presentation!

Pig Pickin'
When Curtis and I were touring the East Coast together with the BYU Wind Symphony seven years ago, we were treated with a traditional Southern pig pickin'—twice. And we LOVED them. Don't ask me why. So when our ward announced that they were having their annual pig pickin' while we were still here, you can bet we were excited.

My first pig pickin', May 2007.  Excuse my chubby cheeks.

A pig pickin' usually includes roasting an entire pig, then picking—literally—the meat off its bones. Unfortunately pig was about three times more expensive this year than it was last year, so our ward budget could only afford three pork butts instead of "the whole hog." I crack myself up. The barbecue was still delicious, of course, featuring a smorgasbord of picnic sides and dessert—which was probably the best part this go around. Not the dessert. But watching Sebastian snack on the dessert. After we were finished eating, Sebastian ran off to play. At one point, I didn't see him on the playground . . . but that's because he was strategically choosing which dessert plate to devour. Grandma Dalley used to make reference to babies having periscope eyes. She's totally right. I bet Sebastian stood by that dessert table for a solid twenty minutes. Did I try to stop him? It would have been utterly futile, so, no. We rarely eat sweets at our house, so we thought the boy deserved some cake, especially since he was demonstrating such independence.

The Perfect Day

I wake up to the sound of clanging in the kitchen. The smell of fresh pancakes is in the air. I look over. Curtis is gone. I hear Sebastian chatting away in the other room. He's already been up for thirty minutes. I climb out of bed and bring my perfect Livia into the living room. The table is set. Pancakes are hot. Fresh strawberries are cut.

After breakfast, we drive to the perfect neighborhood park and splash pad. We warm up on the racecar-themed play equipment, which happens to be Sebastian's new favorite anything. When we hear the water come on, we race over to the splash pad. I sit in the warm sun with Livia in my arms as I watch Sebastian run around. He slips and falls, but runs directly to me, his lifeline, for two seconds of love before dancing back to the fountains.

When we arrive back home, Sebastian is sound asleep in the back seat. Perfect. He has been wanting to skip his naps lately. I carefully unbuckle him and carry him up to his bed. He stays asleep. Curtis changes Livia and makes us lunch, the second meal I haven't had to prepare today. We sit back and relax. We chat and enjoy our precious quiet time until Sebastian climbs out of his bed on his own.

Sebastian, Livia, and I play on the porch under the beautiful stone archway. Curtis locks us out until he finishes doing the dishes and mopping the floor. Perfect husband. We make the spontaneous decision to spend the night on the town, strolling through the streets of downtown Charlotte.

Sebastian falls asleep early and I prepare a perfect meal of creamy peanut coconut noodles. We can't remember the last time we had dinner alone together. We curl up on the couch watching the perfect combination of action and espionage. We fall asleep in our comfortable bed, reminiscing on the day's activities.

This is my vision of the perfect day. And today it happened.

A 4-Day Weekend

I heard the front door open. It was only 8:15 a.m., Thursday, June 19.

"Curtis?" I called out. What on earth is he doing home? 
"The power was out today at work. I looked for someone—anyone—but no one was in sight, so I came home."

So we took advantage of the day together! The Relief Society in our ward sent out a list of fun summer activities in the area. Lazy 5 Ranch, a private animal ranch in Mooresville, caught our eye. We toured the park along this 3.5-mile path, feeding animals through your car window. We fed all kinds of animals, including ostriches, emus, zebras, camels, llamas, pot-bellied pigs, antelope, blackbuck, elk, deer, water buffalo, longhorns, giraffes (Curtis had to stand out of the car window to reach them!), and a rhino (Well, we didn't feed the rhino, but he was still pretty neat to see!). I was terrified of being eaten, but Sebastian made friends with many of the llamas.

Trying to hold still for Mr. Ostrich

I started off with Sebastian in the back seat, but you can clearly see that I'm out of my comfort zone. Curtis "let" me drive and risked his own life to let Sebastian get up close and personal with the animals. 

Sebastian posing with Mr. Llama

And here's a video so you can see how excited Sebastian really was!

Relaxing after lunch

Livia enjoying the sun

It was definitely a welcome and unexpected surprise to spend the day with Dad. If only he could skip out on work more often . . .

. . . and then Friday came.

"Coming. No power again." I got the text at 7:56 a.m. Within three hours, we were on the road bound for Washington, D.C. I wouldn't consider us the epitome of spontaneity, but whoever you are, Mr. Spontaneous, we gave you a run for your money this weekend.

It takes six hours to drive from Charlotte to Washington, D.C., but with all the stops we needed to make, it took us the rest of the day. My dear friend Emma, whom I taught English in Ukraine with, conveniently lives just outside of D.C. We had a delicious pancake dinner at her home and met her husband, Kevin, and her six-month-old daughter, Evelyn, before we retired to our hotel for the evening.

Emma and I holding our babies (June 20, 2013)

Pretty much the only thing I wanted to see in D.C. was the International Spy Museum. Ever since Curtis and I started watching "Alias" three years ago, I've wanted to be Agent Sydney Bristow. Right now, we are following Annie Walker in the new season of "Covert Affairs." We almost exclusively watch spy/action movies and TV shows. In fact, we shared our first kiss during the steamy scene in The Bourne Identity. And we've decided that, if it weren't for my abominable relationship with running, I would make the perfect spy. It turns out, Sebastian would not.

Can you find Sebastian? (International Spy Museum)

Spies don't generally smile and wave as they covertly navigate the ducts. We could easily have spent all day perusing this museum, but as luck would have it, they don't allow strollers. We got through maybe four of the seven exhibits. I was in the middle of learning about code breaking when Sebastian let us know that he was done.

Thinking Sebastian would love the big elephant and fossils, we decided to try out the National Museum of Natural History. Nope. At least there were ducts at the Spy Museum . . .

Time to move on to something more interesting: airplanes!  Sebastian actually loved the National Air and Space Museum. He pulled us to every exhibit that you could go inside: a few cockpits and a vintage airliner. Curtis had a good time too. While the boys enjoyed the planes, Livia and I enjoyed the Time and Navigation exhibit. In case you were going to ask, I think a sextant would make a fascinating birthday gift.

Lovin' the planes! (National Air and Space Museum)

By far, however, Sebastian treasured his time outside, running up and down the Mall, chasing pigeons. And he deserved it after all the driving we did the day before . . . and all the driving we would do the next.

Hooray for independence! (Washington Monument)

Our little world traveler (National Mall)

Chasing the pigeons (National Mall)

In front of the United States Capitol (National Mall)

That evening, we savored authentic D.O.C. Neapolitan pizza at 2Amys and drove through D.C. one last time in the night light. We sure got a kick out of all the cars parked in front of the "No Parking" signs along Embassy Row. Available evening parking hours or abuse of diplomatic immunity?

Curtis and I first met on the East Coast, and being in D.C. allowed us to reminisce on that time. It's hard to decide the best part of the weekend. But perhaps we don't have to decide. We can love it all. We got to do something spontaneous, do something different, do something fun, do something together, and eat pizza (I mean, come on!). 

Hello, Charlotte!

Not going to lie, Charlotte, but our welcome was pretty lousy. I would have thought your Southern hospitality would extend to the sky, but alas.

We scheduled our morning just so, so that we could make it to the airport on time. We made it on time. Then things got ugly. Mind you, we were hauling around two babies, two car seats, four large suitcases, two carry-on suitcases, a stroller, a duffle bag, a backpack, and a diaper bag. Just getting to the airport was an ordeal. Two separate cars were required. Getting inside was another story. We moved, piece by piece, through the revolving doors to a massive line to print our boarding passes. I'm not sure what made the airport so busy today, but curses to whatever it was. Amid the hustle and bustle of a moving line and a moving toddler, we couldn't figure out why my boarding pass didn't look like Curtis's. An attendant, who kindly (and sorely) brought us a suitcase we had left at the beginning of the line, checked our papers and sent us to "Special Services."

Apparently, our first flight to Minneapolis was delayed just enough for us to miss our flight to Charlotte. We would have had to stay the night until Sunday morning. Funny, Curtis's boarding pass alerted him to no such delay. Were they just going to surprise him when he landed in Minneapolis? Shame, Delta! And certainly there was another option besides staying the night in Minnesota. Can you imagine little us, trying to get all that luggage (and babies and car seats and bags and stroller) out of baggage claim, to a hotel, and back to the airport in the morning? Not a chance. The lady behind the counter tried so hard to find another flight for us, but she just couldn't. So how is it, you ask, that Curtis was able to find another flight through Atlanta within 10 minutes? We aren't sure how, but it took her nearly a full hour to find the same flight in her system that Curtis found on his phone.

That's not even all of it.

Trying to figure out what to do with our 11 pieces of luggage

 We rescheduled our flight to Sunday morning, so that meant we had to move all our luggage back outside, go get the cars, drive back . . . oh wait. Did I not mention we already moved out of our apartment? Luckily, we still had our apartment because Eva Lu and Marty were going to use it after Marty's surgery. But there wasn't much in it. And Sebastian's crib was neatly tucked away in the storage unit. And all our clothes were vacuum packed in our suitcases. And we had no food or dishes. And we had only enough paper diapers to last us that day.

Yet, somehow, we survived.

Our flight from Portland left bright and early Sunday morning, and with the layover in Atlanta and the three-hour time difference, we wouldn't arrive in Charlotte until 10 p.m. I had arranged with someone from the ward to help us get from the airport to our apartment since we most likely wouldn't be able to fit all of our junk in the trunk of our (who knows what size) rental car.

The flight itself went well. Sebastian behaved and Livia was an angel. We, of course, didn't expect anything else.

Wearing noise-canceling headphones during nap time

We got some dinner in Atlanta. And then we got a gate change. And then a delay. The crew for our flight was still in the air on their current flight. Fifteen minutes. No big deal. Then another fifteen minutes. I called our help in Charlotte to let them know. Another thirty minutes. I called back. These delays put us in Charlotte around 11 p.m. If she were to drive to the airport, wait for our luggage, wait for our rental car, and drive back, we wouldn't be back until clear after midnight. She assured me it was still OK, but if the flight were delayed again, she would not be able to make it.

Another hour.

"I suppose we'll just have to figure something out when we get there. Maybe we can get a taxi. Or have the airport ship us our luggage." At least we had time to make a plan! Did I mention it was Father's Day? We didn't get Curtis anything.

Happy Father's Day!

When we finally boarded, it was probably 10:45. The flight itself lasted only about thirty minutes. We probably could have driven to Charlotte by now, we thought. Sebastian took another nap (which would help him stay wide awake until 4 a.m.). Since we landed after midnight, Curtis left me to fend for myself getting the car seats, the stroller, our carry-ons, our duffle, and the diaper bag . . . and the babies to the baggage claim area. He sprinted to the car rental before it closed for the night.

Heaven sent us two Southern angels to drive all our stuff to the baggage claim. They pulled my bags off the belt for me and placed them on my very own cart. Then Heaven sent us a compact car.

Now, I believe this is one of those miraculous experiences that science cannot explain: We fit everything we had in that 2014 Ford Focus. Three large suitcases in the trunk, two car seats in two adjacent back seats, two carry-ons under the car seats, the stroller folded in the front passenger seat with the last large suitcase balanced on top and the backpack on the floor. Then I squeezed in the back with the last two bags on my lap. And I believe if we tried to fit everything in there again, it would seem impossible.

Heaven was not finished. We pulled into our apartment complex and looked at the first building on our left. "Well, here's where number 207 is." We got out, unlocked the door, and brought everything inside. It was already after 2 a.m. It wasn't until the next day that we found out every building has a number 207. Did we really just pull up to the exact building (There are dozens of buildings.) on the first try? Lucky break or tender mercy? We tend to favor the latter.

Charlotte, you welcomed us well after a hard weekend. I suppose Southern hospitality is a thing afterall.