Days of Logan

Jill's Journal: Goodness gracious, I believe it’s been a whole week since I’ve had a picture of our new niece/cousin on here and I just can’t resist adding one (or two or three) more. Baby Logan is such a content and sweet little one and Kristi and Adam are so adept at this parenting gig that you’d never believe they’re only 11 days in. As for us, we’ve been so blessed to see this little lady every single day of her young life so far…oh my, it’s going to be hard to leave next week!

Logan Admiration Society

Jill's Journal: While I promise this little spot in cyberspace won’t be solely spent in basking in the Logan glow forever, that little sweetie is the focus of our days right now. Here’s the two grandmothers meeting their new granddaughter for the very first time, about three hours or so after she was born. What a special moment.

And the next day, our girls finally got to meet their one and only cousin.

Madelyn, who has always had a soft spot for babies, is head over heels in love.

It’s safe to say they’re all pretty smitten.

Even Erika, with all her talk about wanting to be an only child, would very much like her little cousin to just move right in with us.

Beppy, Kristi, and Logan…three generations of special ladies.

Grandpa has had so much fun with his older three granddaughters that he was kind of hoping for another one. He got his wish! Four granddaughters for Grandpa and Beppy…that always makes me think of my Grandma (the girls’ Great Grandma June and my Dad’s mother), who had four sons and would have been over the moon at the prospect of her son having four granddaughters. I can just see the smile on her face if she were still with us today.

What a cutie! Yeah, we’re definitely all smitten. And Rob and I are so proud to finally be an uncle and an aunt! :)

Introducing…

Jill's Journal: It is my privilege to introduce the precious and perfect Logan Grace, newborn daughter of Kristi and Adam. This beautiful little baby made her grand entrance into the world on Sunday morning after putting her mama, my incredible sister, through a long and arduous labor. True to family form, Kristi did it all without any pain medication and was a complete rock star (us Dutch girls are tough!).

In one of the three greatest honors of my life (the others are being married to my wonderful husband and being entrusted by God to take care of three amazing little girls), Kristi and Adam allowed me to be present at Logan’s birth from start to finish. It was miraculous and phenomenal and magical…and I’m not ashamed to say tears streamed down my face as I was witness to her first breaths and saw Kristi and Adam become parents. I will madly love that little girl –and her parents– until the day I die.

Welcome to the world, precious Logan Grace. You are so loved.

Walk on the Beach

Jill's Journal: Kristi and I took the kids and Cobin the Dog to Cayucos for a nice walk on the beach and quickly found, to our utter amazement, that it’s easier to take a dog to the beach than it is kids. Who knew? One by one, the girls face-planted into the water (or the sand) until they were all caked with sand and salt water. They quickly became, as Madelyn put it, “Cold and miserable.” The dog, on the other hand, was merely a little damp but happy to the end (and I guarantee Kristi was finished cleaning him up in a fraction of the time it took me to clean up the girls). Hmmm.

It’s a Party!

Jill's Journal: One of our first orders of business up on the Central Coast was to attend my sister’s flip-flop/beach-themed baby shower, thrown by some sweet friends of hers. It was the girls’ first “grown-up” party and they were so incredibly excited to attend, especially since parties are few and far between on this RV trip. The women were all very gracious to the little girls and we ended the day with them feeling like little ladies indeed.

Aunt Kristi certainly had her share of helpers during present time.

Here are the two proud Grandmas-to-be, Beverly and Beppy. We’re not the only ones eagerly awaiting this baby of Kristi and Adam’s!

This photo of a spinning Erika was taken by Madelyn…

…but Erika wasn’t the only one dancing. The mama-to-be at nine months along can still shake it!

Palm Springs to Paso Robles

Jill's Journal: Goodbye, Southern California. Our last days in Palm Springs were spent admiring those massive wind turbines…

…and swimming in some pretty wonderful pools at our campground. They’re filled daily with hot, fresh water from natural underground springs.

Driving through L.A. with a trailer is never fun. Does there really have to be so much debris on the road? No sooner did Rob say, “There’s so much crap I’m worried we’ll get a flat,” and we had a flat tire.

But, many long hours later, we finally made it to the Central Coast of California. That’s almost a deceptive name since the ocean is 30ish minutes away, but we’re here for the third and last time during our “tour” of the Golden State. We’re currently staying in lovely Paso Robles, which is cooler than Palm Springs, but still sunny and very warm. It’s beautiful wine country to boot.

We’re here to meet our new niece or nephew and the girls’ very first cousin, who will make an appearance any day now. We feel honored and so lucky to be here during this incredibly special time in the lives of my sister and brother-in-law. C’mon baby!

Family Fun (with silly string)

Jill's Journal: It took us a day to dry out and defrost our toes from the Safari Park, but then we enjoyed some fun time with Kristi and Adam (and constantly-growing puppy Cobin) over the weekend. Uncle Adam made the trip down to San Diego to join in the fun as well.

First up? A silly string fight. Uncle Adam is always a good sport when his nieces are involved.

Adam’s friend Forrest gave the girls the silly string; I don’t think he quite expected to find himself a target.

The adults may have had more fun with the silly string than the kids did…

…or maybe not. Erika was on a mission to get Adam. We need to work on her stealth factor.

We always, always have fun with these people. We are blessed to have such great family.

Madelyn is hugging her future cousin. It won’t be long now! Kristi is pretty much the cutest pregnant woman in history. I hope she has 10 more. :)

And we have another sick little one on our hands. Poor Victoria. Here’s hoping no other family members or any of our visitors catch whatever is going around.

San Diego Zoo Safari Park

Jill's Journal: After nearly two years on this RV journey, there’s a few things I’m pretty confident have been burned into our girls’ memories:

--camping among the wild ponies on Assateague Island
--touring the replica of the Mayflower in Plymouth
--fishing in Maine
--seeing the stars at Crater Lake
--hiking a six-mile portion of the Oregon Trail in blazing heat

--and now our day at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park (formerly the Wild Animal Park).

However, they’re not going to remember the Safari Park for all the gorgeous wild animals in recreated “natural” habitats. Oh no. They’re going to remember it because we went with April and Cat (who were here from Orange County), plus Aunt Kristi and Adam (who were here from the Central Coast)…and we got drenched.

We knew it was going to rain and we were able to walk much of the park before the showers started, thinking we were pretty clever to save the tram tour of the park for last because it is covered. Well, the tram may be covered, but it’s open on all four sides...and moments after we boarded, the storm kicked in. The wind started blowing, the rain started driving, and we got soaked. Completely and utterly soaked. Rob, Adam, and April survived somewhat unscathed, but all four kids plus Kristi and I were so, so, so very wet! We then had a long, cold, wet walk to the exit in the rain, complete with one little girl in tears because she was so miserable.

By the time we got home, the girls and I were walking prunes and were still soaked to the skin. Now that we’re warm and dry, it was quite the adventure. But yes, they’re going to remember this one for a long time to come. Their misery factor ranked up there pretty close to the Oregon Trail! We didn’t come on this trip with the intent to torture our children, but how funny that the situations where they’re the most miserable are sometimes the ones most established in their memories.

I don’t think we quite got the full Safari Park experience because of the rain, but it was great to see nonetheless and certainly memorable, rain and all. Opened to the public since 1972, the Safari Park was developed as a supplementary breeding program for the San Diego Zoo as well as a place of animal conservation. (The Safari Park is particularly noted for its work in saving California Condors from extinction and reintroducing the bird to the wild). The animals at the park are on display in more of a recreation of their natural environments than in a typical zoo setting. The park is on 1,800 acres in Escondido (just north of San Diego) and features over 3,000 animals (of more than 400 species) from six of the seven continents.

This one may need some explanation…Victoria and Adam were testing their wing span.

A northern white rhinoceros, one of only seven left in the world. Two of the seven are here at the Safari Park.

Goodbye Cat! My girls have SO enjoyed our three fantastic days with you (and I sure have enjoyed my time with your Mom!). What fun to experience amazing places like the Safari Park and the zoo with friends.