Thanksgiving in Newport, Year Two

So, this is what happens when you sleep for two solid days: You wake up around four in the afternoon of the second day, and when bedtime rolls around several hours later, you are wide awake, and at two in the morning you are still wide awake and suddenly fascinated with figuring out how to get pictures on to your new computer.  I had my wisdom teeth out Thursday morning, and the doctor knocked me all the way out.  I have pretty much been sleeping ever since.  Slept all day Thursday, all night Thursday, and most of today.  So now, here we are, sitting up staring at the computer and drinking warm chocolate.  Not even the percocet have me knocked out tonight.

Which means that it is a perfect time to finally get around to posting a few of our pictures from Thanksgiving.  Especially since Christmas is rapidly descending upon us, and soon Thanksgiving will be nothing but a warm and distant memory.

So here we are Thanksgiving morning.  85 degrees by eleven and a.m. and the turkey is in the oven.  That is Erwann under that towel there.

Seriously, there is nowhere better to be on Thanksgiving than hanging out poolside. And I seriously love this picture of these two.

Thankgiving afternoon, we were back in the kitchen, hard at work.  We nearly burned down Alisa's apartment when we tried to baste the turkey and then the oven started smoking and wouldn't stop. We were all getting smoke inhalation so we had to open the door and turn on all the fans, and the green bean casserole only got half cooked.

Fortunately though, the turkey was perfect.

Relegated to the kids table.

Relegated to the grown ups table.

After dinner, we had pie. And pie. And yet more pie. We are Paulson's after all.  Then we laid around with the cats and watched Elf. And drew names for Christmas.

The next day we went whale watching, which was really dolphin watching, which made it no less spectacular.

It might look like that dolphin is in the water, but really he is in the air.

We saw a LOT of dophins.

And had a snack on the whale boat.

And on the way in we saw these guys, just sunning on the buoy.  I forget what they are. Sea lions maybe?

 Here we are on the pier.  It was all decked out for Christmas

The next day was Beach Day!

And all too soon it was Sunday and it was our last day there. And it was raining. So we drove to Long Beach and took a tour of the USS Iowa.  It's a battleship that fought in WWII and the Korean War.
It was a good way to kill a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Bright and early the nex morning, we kissed Alisa and Erwann goodbye and headed for home. We stopped at the outlet mall in Primm, Nevada, which just about did Will in. We watched Christmas movies all the way home, which just about did ME in. By the time we got home late Monday night, we were all ready to be home.  And by Tuesday night, we were already planning our next trip out there.

The Beautiful Mundane

Painful as it is to admit, middle age is fully upon me. The signs have been blatantly obvious over the past few days.  For example, just today, I got bifocals.  I bought Grape Nuts. I googled Weight Watchers. And I caved in and bought a fake Christmas tree.  I am now a bifocal wearing, Grape Nuts eating, weight watching owner of a fake Christmas tree. 

Also today, I finally got around to washing the sand out of the blanket we took to the beach last week on our second annual epic Thanksgiving vacation.  Details and pictures to  come, if I ever get around to downloading pictures.  I really hate downloading pictures.  Then I washed swimsuits and towels.  Cleaned out the fridge. Thought about cleaning bathrooms.  Went to Sam's and to the car wash instead.  Considered important things,  like new TV's and fireplaces.  Made spaghetti for dinner. 

And then, I went with some of my neighbor friends to see a play that another neighbor friend is in.  I think that going to see plays might be another sign of middle age.  The fact that it was totally fun is probably telling as well.  It was a radio play version of It's A Wonderful Life. I have a very talented neighbor.

Tomorrow, Will is driving to school for the first time ever.  Olivia has a Christmas party at church.  In the evening, there will be a new Christmas tree to decorate and some shopping to do, if  I have any money left after paying for bifocals and Grape Nuts.  Life is pricey predictable, and somewhat monotonous.   And good. Life is good.

Will's Sadie Hawkins Pictures- November 8, 2014

Brave Face. Big Owie. Speedy Recovery.

When we took Audrey to get her ears pierced, Olivia wanted nothing to do with any of it. She wouldn't even watch. But, the more she thought about it, the more she must have decided it was a pretty good idea. That, and she was seduced by all the sparkly earrings.

Nine days after her sister, after much cajoling on Olivia's part, and much reticence on mine, we finally returned to the scene of the crime.  The exact chair, the exact same sales lady.

It all started out so great.  Olivia was brave, and excited, and not even nervous.  Because her friend, who had gotten her ears pierced way back in kindergarten, told her it didn't even hurt a bit. Not one bit.

But then the sales lady started cleaning her ears.  And that was kind of cold.

And then, Oh, the pain! They said it wouldn't hurt. Then they said it would only hurt a little bit.  

They LIED!

But oh well. It only hurt for a minute. And then she was happy again.

And now, we can start collecting all kinds of sparkly new earrings.

Hole New World

Audrey and I got bored on Saturday and look what happened:

In case you can't tell from the pictures, this goofball got two more holes punched in her head.
Finally, pierced ears!

Sadie's

Aww, my littlest boy is off on his first date today.  It's a Sadie Hawkins dance, and they decided to dress up like greasers.

I'm glad I snuck in a couple pictures of him before his date picked him  up.  I had big plans of getting some shots of the two of them together, but in typical Will form, he answered the door, and was off down the street before I even knew what happened.  They are getting pictures taken today sometime, so hopefully, I might get a glance at those one day.

He was pretty adamant about NOT greasing his hair back, but I was like, "Will! You're supposed to be a greaser! They call them greasers because their hair is greased back! Now sit down and let me do your hair!" And he did.  I am kind of amazed I won that battle.

I can't believe my youngest son is 16 and just drove off in a car with a girl.  First dates can be so stressful.  At least for the mom.  I'm pretty sure I fretted over this day much more than he did.  And now I'll be fretting a little about him all day, hoping he is having a good time and being nice.