Costa Rica: How About That Grandma Linda?

Three cheers to Grandma Linda for accompanying Tori to Costa Rica and filling in as a second parent for nearly two months.  It's hard enough to do this job when they're your own kids and you have to, but to volunteer (sort of) for this duty when you could otherwise be kayaking with friends or traveling kid-free is quite impressive!

No big deal.  Linda can handle four kids by herself (that's cousin Gavin in green).

Taking a much needed break.  I hear Linda isn't such a big fan of the Costa Rican heat.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

Tori and the kids have been gone for almost seven weeks now.  This has its advantages and disadvantages.

In the week or two leading up to their departure, I was a total wreck.  I instructed everyone around me (including my boss and co-workers) not to say anything about Costa Rica or my family leaving.  I cried at night when I was trying to fall asleep and I also cried sitting in my office and in the lunchroom.  It was terrible.  

Then when they arrived in Costa Rica and I started Skyping with them, it was even worse.  Trying to hold a conversation with little kids over a bad video connection is hard enough, but I couldn't even talk.  I just cried when I saw their little faces.  And then Zadie would ask Tori why I was crying.  At one point, Grandma Linda said she had to leave the room because it was too painful to watch.  

I'm not even sure why I was crying -- I was just totally beset with weeping for a few weeks.  So that would be the worst of times.

Then it got better and it started to seem normal that I was living in L.A. and my wife and three kids were in another country.  Weird how things just normalize like that.  

And, all along, I knew that I should be using the time away from the kids to enjoy as much adult time as possible.  It was kind of hard to do this with the long hours and long commute, but a few weeks ago I moved into a new house close to work and so now I've had more time to do all the reading and writing I was going to do.  Just kidding!  I've had more time to get hooked on the HBO series "The Wire."  That's what I've been doing instead of blogging and reading books!

The best of times has really been the chance to spend time with family and friends.  I had a really nice adult vacation to San Diego to visit my parents, including a three-hour train ride that went by much too quickly.  I've also been fortunate to spend pretty much every weekend with dear friends that I don't get to spend enough time with otherwise -- with lots of sleepovers!  Here are photos from a very nice day last weekend at CicLAvia, a day when they shut down about 10 miles in downtown Los Angeles for bicycles!

Gourmet brunch at Short Order in The Grove. Just a tad nicer than my breakfast routine when the kids are around.

My bike was unavailable, but Pear let me borrow hers for a spin around 7th Street.

I've been soaking up lots of quality time with Pear, Benny, and Suzan (left to right).

Costa Rica: This Photo Makes Me Happy

Looking at this photo makes me really happy.  First, Zadie is so beautiful.  But more than being beautiful, she just looks so alive and fun.  What a little character she is.

I wasn't happy about the fact that Tori wanted to take the kids to Costa Rica for two months, but when I look at this picture of Zadie, I feel happy that she and her siblings got to have this wild experience.  I think it's been an amazingly fun time for them -- as Zadie reminds me every time we Skype, in Costa Rica she gets to have either an ice cream or a popsicle every day!  I'm not sure how much she and Skip will remember of all their adventures, but I'm pretty sure they'll remember the ice cream part.

Costa Rica: Charlie and the Blue Suit

Tori's sister Katie and her family are now in Costa Rica with Tori, our kids, and Grandma Linda.  Before Katie arrived, Tori and Linda gave her a list of a million items they needed her to bring.  Katie was such a good sport about this.

One of the top items was rash guards for the kids because they're basically spending all day in the sun.  And poor little Charlie is rather on the fair-skinned side.  So Tori found this super-duper blue suit thingie on the internet and had it delivered to Katie's house.  It's quite the funny little number, especially with Charlie's physique!