Category Archives: Travels

Denial

i’ve been in denial that this day would come since we stepped off that plane. for the record, 10 days is long enough to make you actually start to believe that you don’t have to return to your normal life, ever.

we’re packed, we’ve said good bye to the pacific, we’re getting in our last squeezes and hugs and wrestling matches (uhhh for the girls. not the adults). but i’m still not ready to go. it’s painful to think about leaving LA and heading back to columbus. especially since i just checked the forecast and it seems we’re coming home to a whole week of rain.

still, i’m excited to get back to our house and our mommy + daughter routine. we have other excitements planned for this week – hopefully i’ll help good friends bring a baby girl into the world. now THAT is something worth coming home for.

dear friends, we love you dearly. I’m so glad we/I got to spend so much time with you. we will miss you until the next time, which will be soon. I promise. love, elaine and darla.

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darla and elsa at the end of the santa monica pier with their friendship necklaces

“it’s totalary magical and you get to believe it”

Posted in Kiddie Hangouts, Travels by

california has been a whirlwind of wonderful activities, so far, and it is thoroughly kicking my butt. yesterday we took the girls to Disneyland. It was darla’s first time in an amusement park. she was amused. here’s just a bit of the day:

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well, what can i say about the day? thanks to the precision science the buzzker family has perfected of amusement park going, we thoroughly covered the parks. Our coined phrase was “thrilled to the max.” Darla was pretty enthused about her first trip to disneyland.

i hadn’t been on a rollercoaster since before darla was born and it was soooo good. i have this, ummm, we’ll call it a “condition” where i just start laughing uncontrollably on rides. it’s prominent in the teacup video if anyone wants to hear. i’m sorry that the audio in that is just me laughing hysterically. being whirled through space just makes me astoundingly giddy, i guess.

hubster, i soooo wished you could have been there. i wish you could be here for the whole trip. in the words of elsa bun as she was preparing d for the disney experience:

“IT’S TOTALARY MAGICAL AND YOU GET TO BELIEVE IT!”

yes, it totalary was.

ummm i have to do THAT again in 9 days???

Posted in Momma Needs a minute..., Travels by

ok. WOW. i thought flying with darla yesterday would be a piece of cake since it was about her 12th round trip flight but it was quite a test in patience. i basically told my friends to keep my child away from me for at least an hour so i could reprogram and get myself back to a good mommy place. that wasn’t really a problem since elsa and darla revolved in their own world for most of the night, just happy to be together.

i won’t bore everyone with details but it went a lot like this: i bought darla a muffin for breakfast. it was a very crumbly muffin. darla bit right into the center and then basically the whole thing crumbled into two pieces and fell on the ground. freaking $4 airport muffin. Then at lunch all she requested was a banana. She unpeeled the banana and proceeded to bite right into a big brown spot and then the banana split in two pieces and fell on the ground. freaking $1.75 airport banana.

it wasn’t all bad. it’s pretty endearing to see your child charging her way through the airport towards her bestie. darla said she would race me to be the first one to see elsa. as she sped past me on the ramp she turned around and shouted “i tooted at you to slow you down!”  she did, in fact, get to be the first one to elsa. their reunion was the thing nickelodeon movies are made of. i mean, it amused the lead singer of linkin park, who was coincidentally in the airport because of some nickelodeon awards event this weekend.

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it was all worth it to see these two together again. I am SO happy to be here.

I packed my bags last night pre-flight

Posted in let me let me update ya, Travels by

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i’m sitting here with a to-do list of which only about half will get done by the time we have to get on the plane for california tomorrow morning.

yeah, that’s right. once i said that in my brain i thought “the hell with it, i’m going to california tomorrow! i don’t have to do it if i don’t wanna.” so i went downstairs and made myself a cocktail instead.

here’s to 10 days with friends, and sunshine and new scenery. annnnnd here’s to putting things off for a good reason. clink. clink. i just cheersed myself. and made up the word cheersed. see i’ve been so much more productive after this drink.

ps. cali friends we’re so excited to squeeze you. columbus friends we’re excited to squeeze you when we get back, too. oh gosh, and everyone everywhere else we’ll be excited to see you and squeeze you when we get to see and squeeze you. there. did i cover everyone? no one offended? good. ‘night y’all!

weekending 4.0

Posted in let me let me update ya, Travels by

we’re still in indiana and hopefully i’ll have something wonderful and insightful to say about what i wear and how i dance to Tennis tonight – since i never really seem to be able to focus on musical merits – but here are some of our out-of-doors doings from the weekend.

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visiting nashville, indiana

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a girl’s first chai

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grandma love

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on our way to the old fashioned nut shop. yummy.

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we named him fizzgig.

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and i took the girl creeking. it makes me sad sometimes that we live in the city and darla doesn’t get to roam the rural areas i did as a wee one. but, thankfully, we have grandma and grandpa’s. every child needs a creek.

we saw lots of animal tracks, darla found interesting rocks, we looked at trees and plants and all sorts of nature things with the highlight of the visit to the wilderness being that we saw a mink. A MINK, i tell you. it’s the only one i’ve ever seen in non-coat form.

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anchor hocking in my creek

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she took her socks and shoes off for the full effect. i love her.

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and here was the big surprise of the weekend: darla’s very own tractor from grandpa. unfortunately, i think she will have her mother’s driving skills.

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 lastly, darla’s picture of her Grandpa Tom. do you see the resemblance?

i love our retreats here to indiana. looking forward to our visits again in april when i’ll hopefully be supporting another couple’s birth of an aries bambino. i was joking with Sarah, the mother of my first doula experience, that i will just block my schedule off in april every year and advertise doulaship only for Aries babies. being a ram myself, i’m pretty partial.

membership

Posted in kiddie-do, Travels by

our cosi membership pulled through for us in yet another city. here’s our morning at the indiana state museum last week. i was loving some hoosier history.

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IMG_15491. robert indiana sculpture

2. gazing upon the old L.S. Ayers holiday display

3. feeling how a gargoyle is carved from indiana limestone

4. loved the indiana art gallery

5. daddy daughter cheeseface

6. getting a curiously strong after lunch mint at Yats. seriously some of the best food indy has to offer is at this restaurant. spicy thai peanut etouffe??!! it was good.

7. momma daughter love

before we move straight on to christmafying our lives…

Posted in love and happiness, Travels by

the tree’s up at the wruckers but before i post those photos i wanted to make sure to share just a few more from our thanksgiving weekend. i feel sorry for turkey day sometimes, getting passed over pretty much, but then i think “hey, it’s thanksgiving’s own fault for not coming up with some catchy radio singles.”

1. coloring with grandma  2. she looks a little apprehensive about what’s at the bottom of that slide  3. jumpin’ in a pile of leaves  4. makes a gal happy  5. this is where i think i told mike to pretend we were drunk hobos at union station  6. best pretzels i’ve had in a long time at the flying saucer.

we had such a great weekend. a big thanks to mike’s parents for making the weekend special and comfortable. there’s a little girl here that’s already talking about coming back. and a big girl talking about it, too.

late night date night number two

Posted in love and happiness, Travels by

michael arranged a pretty radical belated weddin’ anniversary celebration for us while in nashville. we really took advantage of the babysittin’ while there. oh, yeah, after bein’ down there for five days i’ve decided to drop all the “g”s in my vocabulary. thanks.

we stayed at the union station wyndham downtown and started with dinner and beers at the flyin’ saucer. the place has over 40 taps! the bar not the hotel. afterwards we walked down to broadway and stopped into a few honkey tonks before we finished the night singin’ karaoke in front of insanely talented strangers. we finally made our way back to base camp where i made mike sit with me in front of the fire. hey, i had wanted us to turn in on the early side but he made me rally so he had to pay the price by indulgin’ my fireside inclinations. here is our night in pictures, in no particular order. why? because i am freakin’ exhausted from NOT bein’ in bed by ten and now i’m too tired to arrange them. sorry.

i guess nashville causes us to make funny faces. also, the red photos have no filter on them. that’s just the red light special life at robert’s western world. it’s a western apparel shop with a bar inside = best idea i’ve ever head. all in all, this was a pretty great way to celebrate a year of marriage with a pretty great man.