Living on the Surface of the Sun

It's summertime in Bakersfield. This is the time of year when I question the wisdom of moving away from the gorgeous coastal climate of Marina del Rey to oven-baked Bakersfield for love. Then Fall comes along and I forget all about the miseries of summer. I assume this phenomenon is no different than living in the Midwest or Northeast in the winters, though. No one can tell me subzero temperatures are a party. It's the same deal. You stay inside more. You take advantage of artificial climate control. You grit your teeth and bear it because you know it's just a couple uncomfortable months, and it'll be over soon. And there's a reason such a huge percentage of the population of the country live in places that don't have perfect weather all year long. Those places are frickin' expensive! So we sacrifice a couple months of yucky weather for home ownership, low-stress commutes, and some expendable income to visit those perfect climates on demand. I think it's actually a pretty good deal. I just have to give myself the sales pitch a little more frequently when the temps jump past 100 degrees... :)


Wyatt is 15 months old now. Hard to believe. He runs. He climbs. He dances. He speaks Wyattese peppered with English here and there. (His favorite word is "Daddie", which sounds like "Daddy" but actually means "Sadie", our dog. Ha!) He has a sense of humor and plays pretend and has very strong opinions about all sorts of things which show in his myriad of facial expressions. I keep flashing back to the tiny bundle of a being he used to be. I keep remembering how we'd grasp at straws to assign personality to little instinctual baby behaviors. And now here he is, projecting his personality so boldly, there's no mistaking it. He's stubborn and goofy and stubborn and mellow and stubborn and loving and STUBBORN. Tons of fun and frustrating to the core, all at the same time!


Hard right. Next week, we're going camping. But before you get a picture of tents and cooking over an open flame in your head, you should go back and read my "camping" blog from a year ago. Just so we're clear, I'm a spoiled brat in that arena. I grew up going to a beautiful cabin in the Sierras with all the comforts of home. I don't think making life harder and less comfortable on purpose constitutes a vacation. But I think this trip will be a lot of fun. To start, we're going to be camping in Peteluma right on the Russian River. That means wineries and civilization are nearby. Did I mention wineries? Yes, wineries. Also, our friends Travis and Amber are loaning us their motor home for the trip. It's a really nice one, so we'll be far from roughing it. And lastly, our son will be a 15 month old on this trip instead of a 4 month old like he was on the last one. I won't be nursing, something I did not enjoy despite all my attempts to be a good little earth mother, and I won't be trying to decipher different kinds of cries from a squirming blob. Yes, I like having a toddler better than I liked having a baby, even with the occasional tantrums and him getting into everything. Because even with all that frustrating work, I still feel a lot more fulfilled parenting a little person than simply keeping a little blob alive. I know. I know. Everyone has their own opinions on that. But for me, when we have another one, I could just skip to him/her being about a year old, I'd be a happy camper. (Bada bing. Hope you pun-lovers enjoyed that one.)



I'm sure there's more. There has to be, because this is my first blog in like 3 months. But I don't have the energy to tell you about it right now, and you could probably do without several more paragraphs. So, stay tuned. Maybe I'll do a little better at keeping this sucker up to date now. Maybe I won't. :-)~

Vacation, Kuhns Style

Those of you who know me, know that I'm not a camper. I love the mountains, but prefer to experience them in a cozy cabin with all of the amenities of home and plenty of room to stretch out. Especially a cabin with a cleaning service. When we were kids, our family had a nice cabin up at Huntington Lake. Vacation was laying out on the deck getting a tan while reading about 5 new novels and watching sailboats. There were a couple hikes, maybe a day on the lake in a houseboat, and possibly a couple hours of light fishing. Most of these were just alternate ways to work on my tan. We'd make s'mores in the pot bellied stove in the cabin, or down at the country store fire pit. To me, that's a vacation in the mountains. I like the smell of the woods and nice views of a lake. But I've never understood the point of purposely roughing it. Let's pretend we're homeless! Not you style...? Okay, well step it up. Let's pretend we live in a trailer park! I guess I've just never quite understood the appeal.



This week, we're heading off for a vacation, Kuhns style. We're going to Mammoth. We're staying in our trailer (more on that in a second) and will be spending the week doing activities with various members of Ryan's immediate an extended family. And, we'll have Wyatt with us on this adventure, of course. I really want this to be fun. I especially want it, because I know Ryan is totally excited about the trip. I like it when Ryan's happy. And there are certainly aspects of the trip that I'm looking forward to. It'll be cool to see the whole family. I like Ryan's family. They're an entertaining bunch. I also know there will be more hands than usual to hold Wyatt, which is always a plus to a new mom. He'll get to meet his new second cousin (who is only like a two weeks younger than him) Elliott, too. Ryan will hopefully not be working (on job work, project work, or any other work -- crossing fingers), so he shouldn't be overly stressed out or tired. At least I hope that's the case, because I think that's the whole point of being on vacation, right? The air will be clean. The weather should be nice. I've also heard that Mammoth is a pretty cool town. So good stuff, right? Yeah, mostly...



I do have some concerns, however. One, of course, is staying in the trailer. I know, I know. What a princess I am. But as a long-time insomniac, new mom, and general relaxer during vacations, I foresee a few discomforts and inconveniences that in the past, I have never associated with vacation. First is the trailer itself. It's nice enough for what we paid for it, but you know, it's no Ritz-Carlton. The premise for our purchase of said-trailer was for "if sh!t hits the fan". My husband was doing the very responsible thing of protecting his family in case of natural disaster, societal breakdown, or great depression. It's good to have a "just in case" trailer. I could have sworn that was why I was okay with getting a trailer, when for other reasons...like I don't know...vacationing... hadn't convinced me prior to that. So I'm mildly bummed to be vacationing in our "if sh!t hits the fan" trailer after all. Maybe that makes me a spoiled brat, but there it is. I'm also not stoked about the general lack of room when we have so much needed baby gear. And of course, to be perfectly honest, I have protested the very idea of camper/trailer/RV vacations from the moment I met Ryan, because as my grandmother always said "If mom has to take her chores with her on vacation, it's not a vacation for mom". And so... yeah... a few concerns. To Ryan's credit, though, the positives should outweigh the negatives. So there's that.



The truth is, I think we'll have fun, for the most part. That's what I'm hoping. My goal is to be positive and embrace the new vacation standard. I mean, otherwise it's a losing battle. After all, my last name is Kuhns now. It's just one of the many changes I've encountered now that I'm married. I'll let you know if I succeed with my goal to enjoy myself... :)