My brother and niece were in town and we took the 7th bench picture. Or sixth, if you choose not to count last year’s curb pic. I’m not sure if I do or not.
2022:
If you look at the previous pictures, you might ask yourself if that’s the same bench as in previous years. LSU apparently rearranged the furniture a little, because they seemed to have moved the bench over about six feet to the right and removed the tree that was on the right side in all the pics (that’s now the shrubbery behind Linus and Ellie.)
We determined that this is the old location of the bench, you can see that the concrete is a bit lighter where it was:
Irritatingly, the children would not help us move the solid concrete bench so we could more accurately recreate the old photos. Jerks.
Here are the previous bench pics. Watch everyone get smaller!
The boys and I went to California last week to visit my brother and sister-in-law and niece, and I will never be able to spell “niece” right the first time.
It was a tough decision to go, after we found out that Molly’s services were being held while we’d be away. She was never far from our mind during the trip, especially on Monday.
We arrived Wednesday evening, and were pretty exhausted, so we had some pizza and went to bed. I slept terribly that night, for some reason (oh right because I’m old and have insomnia) but fortunately, we didn’t have a ton planned for Thursday. Ellie and I went for a walk, where we did a little light celebrity stalking. Later, we went swimming in the neighbor’s pool and hit up Target for supplies because Friday we…
went to Disneyland! We got up super early and were on the road a bit after 6 so we could arrive around 7. In the cars on the way there (I was in the girl car with Jennifer and Ellie, and the boys rode with Uncle Evan) we all were on our phones at exactly 6:59:59 to get reservations (or whatever they call it) for the new Star Wars ride. I managed to get them for us, yay!
We spent the entire day at the park. This should really be its own post. We rode a bunch of rides (the Rise of the Resistance was completely worth the stress of getting on it, and we didn’t have to wait in any line at all, which was nice) and walked a zillion steps and had dinner at a Tiki restaurant (so good) and my feet are still disgustingly blistered, but it was worth it.
Oh, and Linus is now obsessed with Dole Whip. Hard to blame him, it was delicious!
Saturday we mostly rested, except we went and got some famous Italian sandwiches from a place down the road for lunch. In the evening, Evan and I took the boys to a LAFC (Los Angeles Football Club) game. It was fun. The food was good. I got a jacket which will come in handy during football season here (they have the same colors as the Saints) and the boys got jerseys and as usual when we go to pro soccer games, the score ended us 2-2.
(I guess we have a streak of draws too.) (When we got home, we watched Season 2, Episode 1 of Ted Lasso.)
Sunday, the kids and I went to visit my friend Robyn who used to work at Automattic, and I made a new best friend who is three years old. We had delicious ice cream after hanging out at her house and eating pizza.
Maybe my favorite picture from the entire trip. My heart was in a puddle here.
Monday was the day of Molly’s service, and I still needed to take the boys to the beach, so we stopped for some flowers on the way and made a little tribute to her at the beach. Now, she probably preferred a more tropical beach, but I like to think she would have appreciated it, even if it was cloudy and the temperature was hovering around 68 degrees.
The boys filled their bathing suits with sand and Miles swallowed half of the Pacific Ocean, so we left after a couple of hours before heading back to Evan and Jennifer’s to relax and pack. (Boo!) A few of us went to the Huntington for a sunset stroll, which was stunning, but also, my feet were still killing me. So kind of painful too.
We came home yesterday after a long day of travel to a heat index of 105 after a week of 70s, but Daddy and Ziggy were very happy to see us!
Last Thursday, I took the day off to spend with Ellie, who was in town while her parents went gallivanting around New York City with some tennis players or something.
Yes, this Ellie! ❤
Okay, not exactly that Ellie. More like this Ellie:
She’s a little taller now. I mean, 13 years does that to a person.
We dropped the boys off at school, and got beignets (her first! okay, my brother says she’s had them before but she doesn’t remember so they don’t count)
and wandered around the sculpture garden at City Park a little bit (shh it wasn’t open yet but the gates were open so we wandered around a bit and didn’t get caught – we’re such rebels!)
Then we went to get manicures. She got blue and I got red.
After that, we went to my favorite local fabric store and she picked out some blue fabric so I could make her some pants for school. With pockets! Then we went and met our cousin Lisa for lunch at this great place called Toast. Ellie and I had crepes, yum! I didn’t take any pictures at lunch, boo! So unlike me. Ellie was very excited because there was a Tesla parked outside. She is a tad obsessed with Teslas.
It was pouring, so we headed home so I could start on her pants before we had to head to the bus stop to get the boys. We didn’t embarrass them too much there but of course, I did make them take some pictures together.
Goofballs. Don’t worry, that house is vacant.
The boys were supposed to have soccer that night, but it was canceled. For the life of me, I can’t remember what we did for dinner. I know the night before we made pizzas, which was notable because we got a cauliflower crust from Trader Joes for one of the pizzas and no one noticed! SCORE! Oh well, I guess it doesn’t really matter what we had for dinner that night.
The next day we headed to Baton Rouge to hang out with my brother and sister in law, who were back from NYC, and we did fun things like swim (MY MOM WENT DOWN THE WATER SLIDE) and went to LSU to take the bench picture again and I made Jennifer an apron for her birthday. Pics!
Jennifer in the apron I made her
Pants for Ellie
Jump!
In the pool!
Linus and Miles and Ellie underwater
Miles
Miles
Ellie
Later, we went to LSU to take the bench picture again (here are the 2012, 2015, and 2017 versions) but it was pouring rain. When there was a break, we got the photo. Whew!
Playing in the rain:
They went home the next day, but we’ll see them again in just a few months at Thanksgiving!
I haven’t posted a normal post in a while, just an update on what’s going on in the world. So let’s see…
The boys are a couple of weeks into fourth grade. So far so good. Except they’re not super fond of the bus driver, who is apparently very strict and gruff. Which is exactly how bus drivers should be, I’d say. Well, except for last Wednesday when he forgot that school got out an hour early so we waited at the bus stop for over an hour. Fortunately, the bus stop is the mall, so I dropped into Ulta and made an appointment to get my hair did. Fun colors to come!
Speaking of fun colors, last night, I put in some extra-orange color (blood orange, to be exact) into Oliver’s hair because it was getting too hard to tell him and Linus apart at a glance. Better now. Pics later.
I have a work trip coming up in a couple of weeks, to Whistler again. I’m super excited to see everyone, but the forecast for the next ten days is not making me happy. I need some autumn weather while I’m there, dammit! I’ll get there a few days after the end of the forecast, so all I can say is, a cool front better arrive before I do.
Speaking of weather, it’s very weird here, thanks to Harvey. Pouring one minute, clear blue skies the next. Can’t complain, though. Seeing what’s going on in Houston makes my heart hurt. Just sickening.
I made pesto (no nuts, George is allergic to most of the ones that would go in pesto) out of the basil I grew this summer. First time it really thrived, probably due to the very wet summer we had. It was not bad, but maybe I’ll put one fewer clove of garlic in it next time (sorry person I worked out next to this morning!)
A good thing this week – Evan and Ellie are in town! I love seeing that girl (okay, both of them, really) and I can’t believe how grown up she is! (Look, we’re both bigger! Hahaha)
2005
2017
Ooops, I went down a rabbit hole looking for old pictures of Ellie and me, and found this…gah!
One last cute thing…Ziggy now has his https://www.instagram.com/ziggymcziggerson/ so you don’t have to look at boring pictures of my kids to see what you really want – DOG.
I’ve been a terrible blogger. I get my awesome new .blog domain and then I just fall apart.
To be fair, life has been awfully busy. I went to Los Angeles for work, then Thanksgiving week was mostly spent in Baton Rouge with my family, and this week Linus was sick one day and I’m getting ready for their birthday and school stuff and gah.
So let’s get this out of the way.
Los Angeles:
Hot butterbeer!
Automattic-versary cupcakes!
Working hard
Hardly working
I got to see Ellie there!
From my pictures, it may look like we spent most of our time at Universal, not working. But I assure you, lots of work got done, it’s just not as picturesque.
And then the day after I got home, the boys and I headed to Baton Rouge to spend the week at Grandee’s, since my brother and sister and everyone was there. We also celebrated my mom’s 70th birthday a bit early.
And oh also last week we had our annual holiday party for the New Orleans Moms Blog and I got lots of fun swag and that was awesome. And I made a lemon cake from lemons picked from my tree! And also lemonade that was crazy delicious.
I suppose that brings us about up to date. I am getting ready now for the boys’ slumber party tomorrow night. The problem with a slumber party for triplets is the guest list is exponential. At first I said “one guest each” but that seemed stingy, and what about their mutual friends? So it ended up being two guests each on average and now I will have nine little boys running around the house and ACK! But I’m sure it’ll be fun. RIGHT?
I have let so much time pass, and I haven’t finished blogging about our trip to Los Angeles, so I’m just going to drop a bunch of pics in here and consider it done.
Flying there, In n Out, visit to Uncle Evan and Aunt Jennifer’s office, monthly pic (with Ellie.)
Train to the beach! Santa Monica Pier, Ferris Wheel, playing in the water.
Only one kid wanted their picture taken. Guess who?
UNIVERSAL! HARRY POTTER WORLD! SO FUN! Even with a 2 hour wait in line for the HP ride. Butterbeer. Minions. Simpsons. Donuts. Good times.
Last day, boo! Lunch at Pink’s with my friend Robyn. Trip to the Grove for ice cream and a trolley ride. More cousin time, then back on the plane to go home on the redeye.
And finally, the traditional “Uncle Evan with Ellie and the boys.” See the others here.
The boys and I are in Los Angeles, visiting my brother, sister-in-law, and niece. We’re all loving the mild weather, and I love that Ellie made another appearance in the monthly pics.
I really wanted to use one of the pictures I took against the hedge wall they have alongside the driveway, but this is the kind of tomfoolery I had to deal with.
Ten years ago today, my first niece Eleanor was born, and I never thought I’d love another child as much as I loved her. I really worried that my own children wouldn’t measure up. Well, you know, I do love my boys a lot, and my Emily and Andrew, of course. But Ellie will always hold a very very special place in my heart.
pyjammy dot blog 