Author Archives: Nicole

A Quick Interlude

Before I continue with my “Flight From Hell” rant, I present this small moment of peace from our trip (spoiler alert: we did finally make it there) and my entry for this week’s I ♥ Faces collage challenge. One of the key things I learned from this trip is that I should ALWAYS make time to stop at a store and buy chalk. This activity kept the boys  occupied for hours and my parents were able to enjoy a constantly changing piece of artwork on their concrete driveway for our entire stay, dominated by Star Wars scenes/characters and a full airport blueprint. It seems my children are now more familiar with airports than ever.

Part 2 of the “Flight From Hell” coming tomorrow.

The Flight From Hell Part 1: A Monday Mosaic

As I mentioned last week, we recently returned from a trip to Australia. Whenever we mention to people that we will be travelling to Aus, the very first question is usually “How LONG is that FLIGHT? How will you manage with two kids?”. My response is usually “REALLY long (about 24 hours including layovers)” and “oh, we’ve done this many times. We have it down to a science.

And, it’s true, we have spent the past 4-5 years perfecting our travel procedure to make it the most comfortable for our kids and, more importantly, for us. Surprise toys (bribes) to pull out at key moments; just the right amount of candy to motivate but not send them into a sugar spiral; strategic naps for parents to ensure at least one of us is on the ball at all times.

It’s true that we have done everything in OUR power to ensure the least stressful travel situation possible. However we found out on this trip that some things are not in our power and that at the end of the day we are really at the mercy of the airlines, and that if they choose to screw up your experience then there are really not enough toys to make it bearable.

This is part 1 of my 2 part ode to United Airlines – an airline that I DID NOT CHOOSE to fly with, but who still managed to make ours a flight from hell. If you are not interested in listening to my tale of woe then, by all means, please skip directly to the photos. If you want to hear more, then I will start at the very beginning.

In fairness, the first mixup was my fault. I found myself needing to drop something off at work the morning of the day of our flight so, with two kids in tow, I drove 30 minutes for a little adventure at Mummy’s work. While I was there I thought I would do the responsible thing and take photocopies of all six of our passports just in case…

Then we went home, packed everything up, had a friend drive us to the airport and went to check in our baggage. It was at that moment that I realised I had left two of the passports on the copier at work. It was 2pm, our connecting San Francisco flight was due to leave at 4:30pm and my work was a 1 hour round trip. I quickly went into recovery mode and called a friend at work asking her to have the passports urgently couriered over to the airport while we waited impatiently. In the meantime we were able to check in two of our bags under Thomas’ passport, but had to hold on to the third (this will be important later).

After a tense hour or so, the courier finally arrived, in plenty of time to make our connecting flight, only when we went back to the counter and tried the self check-in we found that it had been delayed. Of course we were asked to go and stand in another line where we could see if another flight was available. There were only two people in line in front of us and the one woman behind the counter was moving at a snail’s pace (actually there were many people behind the counter but only one seemed to be helping anyone. The rest were too caught up in their own conversations to notice the tense looking family who were afraid of missing their connecting flight).

Finally we reached the front of the line and the customer service person proceeded to call another airline to see if there were any seats. Overhearing one side of the conversation it seemed as though we had just missed out (would a quicker line have helped?). We were then informed that our plane was, in fact, delayed but they had managed to transfer us to the United Airlines flight out of San Francisco to Australia. My heart sank. I had purposefully paid a little more to fly with Air New Zealand because a previous flight to Australia with United had been so uncomfortable so I was disappointed that we were no longer able to make our original flight. Well, at least we’ll get there, I told myself.

So, after telling us that she would have to re-tag our bags by hand and handing over three boarding passes, it seemed that we might soon be on our way. I asked why we didn’t receive a boarding pass for Samuel and was told that, as an infant, it was not their policy to provide a boarding pass for him. This, too, will be important later.

After going through security we found that our flight was delayed further until 9:30pm (a problem with the plane, not the weather), but, thankfully we were able to get on another flight and finally took to the air at 7:30pm – 5.5 hours after we arrived at Portland Airport.

As you are probably guessing due to the fact that this is only Part 1, things were about to get worse. Much worse. I’ll come back to share more of my tale of woe tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy a few photos from our time in the airport while I quietly give thanks for Star Wars toys, portable DVD players and plane spotting.

Home Again..

We returned home about 7:30 last night after a marathon flight from Australia. Thankfully the return trip was a lot less eventful that our trip over (more on that soon). We’ve now had a chance to catch up on some sleep but I think we’re all going to suffer jetlag for a few days. Thomas finally went to sleep at around 12:30am after declaring many times that “NOTHING was working” to get him to sleep last night. (Turns out that singing “Hey Jude” helps. Must be the repetition of na na naaa nanana.) He woke the rest of us up at 11:30am. I’m a little nervous about bedtime tonight but hoping that the long sleep was more catching up than time adjustment.

You can judge by the lack of blog posts that internet access during our visit was not ideal – in fact I was completely offline for the last four days (gasp! horror!). Actually it was a nice break, but I am now ready to catch up on the more than 1000 blogs in my reader, many facebook messages and, of course, start posting on here again.

Now I just need to find a little time to download pics of our trip, including the very important photos from my brother Ben’s wedding. Needless to say it was beautiful and I basically cried from the moment I saw my new sister-in-law walk out in her dress to the very late ride home in the taxi to the hotel. What can I say? Weddings make me emotional (as does Oprah. I blame the new hormones I grew when I gave birth to my children).

Side note: I caught up on Lost last night before going to bed at around 2am so comments on key plot points are now allowed.

I’ll be back with more photos soon but in the meantime I’ll share some P365 pics that I took before our trip.

A few days before our trip I went on a mummy-son date with Thomas to see an original production of “Don’t let the pigeon drive the bus” performed by the Northwest Children’s Theater. We caught a free early read-through of the play a couple of months ago so we were eager to see the fully-costumed version. It was a LOT of fun and I hope they are able to take the show on the road. Of course photos were not allowed in the theatre so I had to make do with a pic of the beautiful building. The theatre itself is over 120 years old and is just stunning.

Thomas wanted to take a little time for some drawing on the steps outside the theatre before we left. Part of the play required us to learn how to draw the pigeon and Thomas wanted to practice while it was still fresh in his mind.

We all went out for dinner on the Sunday night (starting our vacation early) and I broke out the wide angle lens. I rarely use this lens mainly because I am too lazy to change from the 50mm. Turns out that I miss the wonderfully distorted portraits that I can get with the wide angle. Must remind myself to switch lenses more often.

I’m also apparently to lazy to wipe Samuel’s mouth.

One of the last nights before our trip is well summed up with this photo – frantic and fast.  I’m not sure if there will ever be a time when I find myself prepared for an overseas trip days in advance of our departure. I was doing laundry to the last moment, dropping something off at the office (and leaving two of our passports there – LONG, traumatic story that was part of our eventful trip over) and shoving things into bags almost as we walked out the door. I’m dreaming of the day when the kids can do their own packing or, at the very least, keep themselves entertained while I do it for them.

So tomorrow we get back to reality – school, daycare and work. I’ll be back to post more after the jetlag lifts and I am able to emerge from a monsterous pile of laundry.

Catching Up: P365

It’s been a crazy busy week (funny, seems I say the same thing every week). The good news is that I have been maintaining my photo-a-day habit and have a few more to share.

The first one is from a dinner-date with my two boys while Kei was at school. It started off in the way the photo seems to suggest – all calm and peaceful. It ended with two boys running around a restaurant while I managed to inhale my dinner and then make a promise to myself that I would think twice before taking the boys out alone for dinner again.

I used a funky preset on this next photo (taken at work). I try to limit my use of presets that drastically change colours, because it is so easy to get carried away with them, but I really like the colour green that was brought out in this one and I am a huge fan of anything that will make ventian blinds look more interesting.

Driving home from a quick trip to Seattle for work – 3 hours up and four hours back thanks to terrible Seattle/Tacoma traffic. I think I took this photo about 3 hours into the return trip while I frantically searched the radio airwaves for anything that was not country or christian music. (apologies to fans of either genre – just not my thing). Isn’t it a human right that you be able to access NPR from anywhere in the country? Well, it should be.

Samuel and I had the rare opportunity to spend some time alone together. He baked me a cake out of plastic easter eggs and then made me sing “Happy Birthday” over and over again while I pretended to blow out the candles.

Dinner at the Japanese Izakaya again. I think that officially makes it twice in two weeks. The food was fabulous but the kids were difficult. I fear our days of eating out together as a family may have to take hiatis until the boys are… well… eighteen… I remember feeling this way with Thomas at around the same age that Samuel is now and, while it took us a little while, we did eventually work up the courage to venture out of the house to eat again.

Back with more soon. I have some more catching up to do.

Never Undervalue a Little Girl Time

Last weekend was the end result of weeks of anticipation and zero planning thanks to a friend’s wonderful mother who kindly loaned her house (and her wine cellar) to five overworked mothers in need of a little down time.

At one point during the evening I declared my appreciation for having close girlfriends who I could share anything with. I may have had a couple of drinks and was therefore feeling a little more touchy-feely than usual, but the sentiment remains.

There was a time when I doubted that I would ever have close girlfriends. I made it through high school and then college without making the kind of lasting female friendships that I hoped for. Oh, I had friends (really!), but few of them survived the trauma of time and distance. Then Sex and the City became popular and, well, that show just rubbed it in. I didn’t have that group of women who I could confide in and talk about relationships, work, men, children and… well… sex.

As it turns out, I just had to wait until my 30’s.

So a toast…

to talking and confiding and letting go…

well, almost letting go…

To being so comfortable, that you’re not embarrassed to pair funyuns and pepperoni sticks with really good cheese and amazing wine…

To feeling like you’re not the only one with that particular problem or concern or worry…

and most of all, to laughing. Lots of laughing.

To the most beautiful women I know (not all pictured here). Cheers.

Looking For The Angle

This week’s I ♥ Faces photo blog challenge is angles – a subject close to my heart. When I decided to start my own photography business last year, I realized that my biggest challenge would be to come up with new and interesting to help share a family’s story through photographs. Thankfully my photo subjects usually help me in that area by all being so wonderfully different, but I am always looking for ways to stretch myself.

So when I went back through some of my sessions from last year, I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of shots and angles. My favourite angle is to get down at the eye level of the children that I photograph, but I was looking for something a little different. This one jumped out at me because my goal was to capture the name of a favourite location with my subjects in an interesting way. I really hope they can look back on this photo in many years and it will remind them of the time they spent at this restaurant, rather than just the day we spent together taking a few photos.

Pretty Things

Today was a whirlwind. I drove to Seattle and back for a meeting and returned just in time to put Thomas to bed. 7 hours of driving. I am officially ready for the weekend.

To celebrate the sunshine that was streaming through my car windows today (and making my drive a little more pleasant) I thought I’d add some colour to the blog. These images are from a recent visit to Portland Nursery – a place I walk into with big dreams for the garden and then leave empty-handed because I am so intimidated by the abundance of choices. Next time we’ll take the van and I WILL buy my eucalyptus tree for the backyard.

In the meantime I’ll just enjoy the pretty things through my camera lens and just wait for them to magically appear in my garden.

Living: P365

This P365 post is really a glimpse at our life over the past week. Well, I suppose that is the purpose behind the project, but I find that some of my photos provide more of a documentary of life than others. There are definitely days when I struggle to find something to photograph – when I can’t imagine taking one more photo of my kids at bathtime – but this week seemed more natural. Maybe it was the craziness of our schedule or the fact that we have an extra hour of daylight. Whatever the reason, I know I’ll enjoy looking back on these images knowing exactly what our lives were like in the second week of March, 2010.

The first photo is something I have been wanting to capture for many weeks – ever since the very last season of Lost began and I invited a couple of girlfriends over to enjoy the experience with me. What began as a small gathering for the premiere has become a weekly ritual that I am going to miss when it is all over in just a couple of months. Yes, I love the show and I thoroughly enjoy discussing all of its intricacies with people who are similarly obsessed, but I think the unexpected side-effect of our get-togethers is the ability to enjoy each others company without the distraction of children or…well…life. We find ourselves chatting for hours after the show ends. Lost is really bringing people together (ok, that was a little corny).

I captured this photo at breakfast a few days ago. I just love the way Samuel is in awe of whatever it is that Thomas is doing. It’s a fair representation of their relationship right now – one of hero worship (although not devoid of arguments).

After-bath hair – one of the many small thrills in our ordinary lives.

The Ishidas had a good week last week so we took an opportunity to celebrate with dinner at a local restaurant called Miho Izakaya. Fabulous Japanese “pub” food. I know we’ll be visiting again.

Fun coincidence: Miho is my sister-in-law’s Japanese name so we should be able to remember the name fairly easily.

Saturday brought a much-anticipated girl’s weekend. My friend’s mother kindly offered up her house while she is out of town so we took the opportunity to drive 45 minutes out of Portland, but it may as well have been 6 hours. I felt like I had a true break. There are more photos of the weekend to come, but for the purpose of P365 I share a glimpse below.

I started writing this on Tuesday, but since it’s now Wednesday I suppose it’s appropriate to wish everyone a Happy St. Patrick’s day. I appreciate it for the simple fact that it takes one more step out of the daily getting dressed decision-making process. Green shirts all round.

Bundled

The I Heart Faces challenge for this week is “bundled”. Of course I immediately thought of my little Michelin baby back in December when we experienced our brief, but impressive, winter snowstorm.

Of course it’s easy to look at these photos while we are experiencing 65 degree temperatures and the leaves are beginning to appear on the trees.

Coming soon: Select photos from a fabulous weekend with the girls (“select” to protect the innocent) and catching up on P365 – I have a whole week of pics to share.

Off to find some time to edit pics.