... but this is the LAST trip for a while!  It's hard to complain about going to Hawaii (even on business), but I found it hard to get up much energy for packing when we're not even unpacked in the new house.  Oh well, we'll sort it all out in July I guess.  We're back in Sac late on the 4th of July, so I'll post tropical pictures of us relaxing on the beach (yeah right... with a 1-year-old?!) when we return.

We received a beautiful, extravagantly large delivery of tulips from Ilke and Lulu yesterday.  I felt greedy just putting them in vases... like I should be sharing with those who are less fortunate and don't have any tulips! 

There were pink ones...

and white ones...

purple and yellow ones...

and red and orange ones...

 

They are absolutely gorgeous... thanks you guys!  When Sophia got home she was immediately drawn to them.  And when Esen told her, "Lale, lale!" she was really cute and pointed to herself and smiled.  :)  Because there are FOUR Sophia's in her new daycare class, we actually wrote Lale on her little name tag that gets pinned to her shirt every day, so we hope the teachers are using both names.

 

Despite the smokey air here in NorCal, we've tried to enjoy our backyard in the evenings when it cools off so nicely.  We usually go out after Sophia has had her bath and is already in footie pajamas.  She's been wearing her hot pink crocs (from her aunties)... although they're still too big for her, they fit nicely over footie pajamas.  She really enjoys chasing the kitties and Suzy around... see for yourself:  (permanent links: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3191133562259138804&hl=en and http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4215130324264827735&hl=en)

    

 

    

 

Sophia turned 16 months on the day we moved in.  I found the pink pig and finally got around to snapping a few pictures of her with it (and no, I didn't bother with the post-it note this time since she never leaves it on anyway):

 

Finally, in soccer news, it was an exciting week for Turkey... making it to the semifinals in the European Cup.  We met our German "friend" Stephan at the bar to watch, although it was pretty tense international relations at our table.  Here's a picture of them at the half when it was still tied:

Stephan's wife is of Spanish descent, so I suspect their house will be awfully uncomfortable during (and after!) Sunday's final game.

1.  Our stuff is in the new house.  After we managed to get all the pets moved over, we only had enough time to get Sophia's room set up (because we had to take apart the damn crib to get it out of the old room) and our own bedroom put together.  We spent the evening playing and making Sophia and the animals feel more comfortable in the new environment.  Surprisingly, everyone slept reasonably well despite all the changes.

 

2.  The kitties have their own little shed in the back corner of the back yard.  It is not ventilated at all, so we didn't feel comfortable closing them in for the night.  At the old house, we closed them into the garage (which was ventilated) at night to protect them from other cats and critters that wander into the yard.  I'd like to do the same here, but it just doesn't seem to be an option.  As a result, I was a little nervous this morning about how they fared last night.  We're a little closer to the river here and I worry more about racoons and such.  We all went out to check on them and when we got to the back of the yard, there was a TON of fur (Lucy's by my estimation) all over the grass.  I immediately feared the worst and scooped up Sophia while ordering Esen to look inside the shed.  Ethel was in there (in her kennel), but Lucy wasn't there.  Fortunately (I think), Lucy was safe and sound in her new hiding place on the side of the house.  I guess the stress of the move just made her lose a lot of fur.  I was pretty sure there was going to be a dead Lucy carcass somewhere in the yard.  While I'm not particularly fond of the cat (Ethel either), I really don't want to be the one ultimately responsible for their deaths.

 

3.  There's an air quality advisory in Sacramento due to wildfires in nearby Fairfield.  The sky is an odd shade of grey and the air smells sort of smokey.  Sophia's daycare is keeping the kids indoors for play time, which I think is a good idea.  She's been coughing for the past few days with no other cold symptoms, so I think the air might be bothering her a bit.  We're not in any danger as far as I know... Fairfield is roughly halfway to San Francisco from us (maybe 45 miles or so).  Just thought I'd clarify for those who are hearing about all the CA wildfires on the news.

 

OK... that's all I have time for.  The kitchen needs to be unpacked today because I think I'll go crazy if we have to eat another meal out or do take-out again.  We also have to get over to the old place to clean it and round up the last few items that got left behind.  Esen was kind enough to bring back some coffee this morning after dropping Sophia off at daycare, so I'm hopeful the half-decaf / half-real-stuff will give me enough energy to get some good work done!

10:30pm the night before our scheduled and we are basically all packed and ready to go.  I'm not worried about our "stuff" making it over to the new house, but it might be a little tricky getting all the animals over there tomorrow.  I think they'll all be more freaked out than Sophia will be.  She's been a pretty good sport through all this... no screaming tantrums as we packed her toys or anything.  Although it's a stressful time for all of us, we've tried hard to occasionally lighten the mood.  Yesterday morning, for example, after a HOT morning walk to the coffee shop, we had a little dance party:  (permanent link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4096442226807613501&hl=en)

  

 

And today, over at the new house, I was finally able to harness her into doing something productive!  Take a look for yourself:  (permanent link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=32565667544444492&hl=en)

  

After she walked around for about 30 minutes "playing" the floor was much cleaner!  I think she's got a real future as my head Swiffer-er.  Given the amount of dog hair that is sure to accumulate in a house with hardwood floors throughout, that's a really good thing.

 

I'll try to post again later this week to let you all know how we're settling in, and then it's off to Hawaii on Sunday for a conference.  By the time we get home, Esen may not be able to get me to leave the house.  I'm ready to be a home-body for a while.

I went to bed last night and asked a higher power to send us some moving elves to magically fill boxes.  This is what I got this morning:

Hmmm... not exactly as helpful as she thinks she is...

It's officially all ours.  We have the keys, it's empty, and just awaiting our arrival.  Oh man, is the central air conditioning nice!  Getting into see the new house today was just the incentive we needed to get packing!  I'm so anxious that I might even adopt Esen's packing system of throwing things into boxes and asking questions later.  :)

What greeted us on our first day back in Sac?  102 degrees.  Nice.  After the cool (and frequently rainy) weather in ND, it was a real shock to the system to even be walking around in such heat today!  I'm staying in the air conditioning and waiting it out... supposed to cool off a bit in a few days.

 

So, I'm pretty tired and am really hoping for a quick shower before bed.  That means that my blog post will be boring, short, and to the point.  Sorry... perhaps sleeping in my own bed will restore some creativity?

 

I took surprisingly few pictures in ND.  Sophia was quite a handful at times, so I just didn't always have the energy or presence of mind to get my camera out.  I started out pretty good, but tapered off quickly.  I'm hopeful to post some additional pictures shared by others soon.

 

Some highlights...

Trying out the new crayons before we even got on the plane:

 

First night at cousin (and fairy godmother) Jen's house... Sophia was totally smitten with Rachel and Grace... followed them around like a little puppy dog:

 

Grandpa and Grandma working at their usual stations in the kitchen (making German potato salad)... 90 and 92 years old, and not much has changed over the years really:

 

Sophia hanging out in the front yard...

On the steps with Baba:

 

Checking out the puppies across the street with Uncle Jerry:

 

My grandparents celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary with several events (a mass and dinner out with family, and a big open house with several hundred people).  I have no pictures of any of it.  Why, you ask?  Because Esen had already left for a conference in Dublin and that made chasing Sophia around my full-time job.  The mass went reasonable well (with just a small break at the back of the church to let her move a bit), but the dinner that followed involved lots of RUNNING up and down the halls of the hotel.  I was exhausted and grateful that she even sat for a little while so that I got to eat.  The open house the following day was pretty overwhelming for Sophia... lots of people, lots of noise, lots of people trying to cop a feel of the great granddaughter.  She wasn't into it and only started to enjoy the situation once most people started to leave.  I was pretty relieved that she made it through at all given that it was during her nap time and she was short on sleep. 

 

After that, we headed up to Minot to spend a few days in the Sautner compound.  Both of my sisters were home from their respective college towns, so it was nice to get the family together.  I took so few pictures it's alarming.  Here are a few of her playing on the floor with Ione, who fortunately saved some of Sally and Katie's toys:

 

Although she also played with some legos and blocks (destructively!), the little kitchen set was her clear favorite.  I know Sally has several cute videos that I'll get from her and post later.  I suspect the Sautner camera has some cute shots, too, so stay tuned!!

 

In other news, we signed papers on the house today and should be getting keys on Monday.  We're excited, although I'm really, really, really dreading the whole packing thing that lies in our near future.  Maybe I'll feel more ambitious after a few nights of good sleep.