There is little I love more than planning a great party. Back during the height of the economy, my job allowed me to partake in large budget and creating sexy fun events for customers and vendors. And of late, parties in general have been few and far between. But that hasn’t stopped us from throwing “Retro Backyard BBQ’s” and more.

One of the very many benefits to having a child is getting to relive your own childhood through their eyes, first trips to the beach, the zoo, hopping around an Easter egg hunt…But quite possibly, my most favorite thing is the party planning.

I began planning Tuck’s 1st birthday party when he was only 4 months old, and we were sitting on SpamCan fishing for Trout and my husband pulled a fish in the boat, and Tuck lit up and I said, “Here Fishy Fishy!” Of course, then the fish proceeded to flop on his head. But still.

Between that, and his love of tub time, “Schwimin Schwimin” I knew his party would be a “fishin” theme pool party, and lucky for me, my parents pool will be complete, just in time.

I sequestered the help of my sister-in-law, who bonded with Tuck the day he was born, and they’ve been an inseparable pair ever since. We’re tinkering around on the internet trying to find images that match the ideas in our head, and I’m sending her a bazillion links.

So, a few days ago, I’m hovering behind her computer and I see the images I’ve been sending, and those she’s found, all on one concise website…STOP THE PRESSES.

Are you saying there’s a great way for me to store all these ideas I have on ONE PAGE?

Finally, my kitchen remodel, and my backyard landscaping, upcoming vacations and all my crazy party ideas, recipes and more, have found a home! I’ll never have to email myself links and save pics to my desktop again!

If you haven’t seen this page, and you’re any bit of a visual-developer-party planner-designer, you’re missing out!

Date: February 26, 2012
Trail: University Falls, Quintette
Temp: 43 Degrees
Mileage: 5.8 Miles (plus we had a small detour ¾ mile)
Elevation Gain: 1200 Feet (600 to falls, plus 2-300 foot drops)
Time: 2 Hours 45 Minutes
I had already hiked University Falls once, back in July when my son was only 4 weeks old but my girlfriend and I had started the trail around 10am. Today, trail blazers Shannon and Eric joined me, and we got a late start.

To get to the Falls you drive 11.8 miles outside of Georgetown on Wentworth Springs, to the yellow logging gate. There is limited street parking.

During the high season this trail is well traversed by tourists from near and far, and inevitably, each year, someone is Life-Flighted out of the Falls.

It’s a popular spot because in the summer months the river runs shallow and people can slide down the first two falls (but there’s always a risk of cracking your head open on the granite). What many people do not know is that the third fall is too much of a drop, and people have died attempting it.

In the last week or so, my husband and I had decided we would be tackling Mount Whitney without our son. We had done research on the altitude and some hairy parts of the trail involving rope guides and slippery slopes and decided it wasn’t worth it to take him. Nonetheless I am continuing my training with my son, who weighs in at 18 pounds and is nearly the exact weight I’ll be toting up to the Summit.

Shannon and Eric and I (Hubby was sturgeon fishing) had intended on starting around 3pm, but it was closer to 4pm when we hit the trail head. The plan was to do the hike down in less than an hour and once at the Falls have dinner. I had just purchased a new Flash Jetboil and a few dehydrated meals. We would then trek back up, hoping to be to the car by 6:15.

But after only the first ½ mile we ended up on a ¾ mile detour, as my greyhound bombed off down a trail at the first Y, and since she runs about 45 miles an hour we were not able to recover her, except to follow her down the trail head. Eventually we caught up to her and started back on the trail to the Falls. Tuck was in my new Deuter wire frame pack and had fallen asleep.

Technical aspects as follows: It’s 2.8 miles in total from the yellow gate at Wentworth Springs, with two 300 feet declines, and then a final 600 feet to the Falls. The trail is an old logging road, and thus wide enough for large vehicles. It’s a half mile to your first turn- a sharp left at the Y marked 12N67B, you will then traverse around the mountain ridge and will have a stellar view of the snow capped Sierra Nevada’s.

This is where I need to add a note to the city slickers – If you want to come up to El Dorado County to enjoy our back country and wilderness areas, please leave your spray paint at home. The big blue spray paint marking the trail everywhere is a real eye sore for the rest of us that live here, and make directional references out of wood carvings.

Traveling another mile downhill you will reach the irrigation water ditch, here you need to turn right to follow the ditch for about another mile. You will come to a point where there is an opening in the forest, and a tree is marked “Falls” turn left here and begin your 600 foot decent to the Falls. This area is narrow, steep and rocky, it’d be best with walking sticks, but without them take the trail down the wash out in the middle. During your trek, keep an eye out for the Suzuki Samarai wreck and also the old Chevy wreck. They are gruesome and look like something out of a horror movie, great photo opp.

At the bottom of the decline you hit a shallow part of the river and follow the trail to the left, after a few more feet you will see the Falls in all their glory.

At the top of the Falls decent, we were losing day light rapidly, but were too close to turn back, as Shannon and Eric had never seen the Falls. We had already anticipated that we would be completing the last leg of the trail when dark was setting in. The trail was desolate.

We quickly snapped off a few pics at the bottom of the Falls and started our trek back up. We had about 15 minutes of daylight left, and wanted to make it to the wide part of the trail where we would have stable footing before we lost light completely. Eric packed Tuck out for me.

< At the top Tuck began crying. He is not a fussy baby, so we knew something was wrong. I did a quick diaper change, a few swigs on his bottle, repacked him and continued on. We were moving a quick clip without daylight, it was getting darker by the minute as the moon was just a sliver. Tuck began screaming, without daylight and with the restriction of the pack against his legs, his body temperature dropped rapidly and he was literally freezing.

A snow storm was expected to hit the Sierra’s late this evening and the weather was shifting quickly. Eric took off his sweatshirt and created a sling over my shoulder for which I wrapped Tuck in, at this point I hiked him the remaining 2.5 miles and 1,000 feet out of the Falls in my arms.

It was a team effort, with Eric taking the wire frame pack and Shannon carrying the bottle to comfort him as we hauled up the mountain in the dark. I had strapped a small LED light to my frame pack earlier in the day, and Eric used that to guide us.

At some point, about ¾ mile from the car, Dennis, the Golden Retriever fended off a wild animal, which held us up briefly. We made it back to the car 2 hours and 45 minutes after our start time, at 7pm, and it was pitch black. I quickly shot a text off to my husband that I was “OK.” We stripped Tuck’s clothes off and put him in front of the car heater, within a few minutes he was warm and giggly again.

The Falls is a moderately strenuous hike in daylight, but by the time we reached the car, the temperature had dropped 6 degrees to freezing and CalTrans had parked the snow plow just down the road from us in anticipation of the storm. Needless to say we didn’t get to try out the Flash Jetboil or the Pasta Primavera…we’ll save that for our next hike. But at nearly seven miles round trip starting at an elevation of 4,049 and fighting daylight and freezing temperatures, we feel like it was a great training experience for Mount Whitney.

When I was a kid, I thought having a twin sister (or brother) would be pretty cool. This is most likely because both my Mom’s sister, and my Dad’s brother had twins. Thus the majority of my cousins, was a half of a twin and we were only a few months apart. I grew up living next door to the girl twins on my dad’s side, and spent summers with the boy twins on my mom’s side. At some point, I’m fairly sure I morphed into part of a triplet.

When I was in my twenties, when I had no intention of having children, I thought popping out two at once was optimal and ideal. In my twenties, I wasn’t really considering the technical aspects of having twins.

When I started working at CalFit as the Marketing Director, we used one family as our “token” family for our marketing campaigns. Through in vitro, they had managed to create five kids – at once. Nearly a small litter, known in the human world as “quads.” I remember watching her and her husband manage their five children with a smooth combination of chaos and ease. My husband and I had been trying for awhile, and I remember thinking if we couldn’t get pregnant, the turkey baster would not be something I would consider.

And so when the pink little plus sign appeared on my pregnancy test last year, the voice of my Mom came into the foreground, “You know, all you kids carry the “twin gene” and so one of you is probably going to have them.”

Suddenly it dawned on me that maybe all this “trying for a baby” could have somehow lead to two. And in the minutes before my ultrasound I remember feeling nervous, is it one, or is it two?

But alas, we were blessed with only one child.

My son was born on June 5, and for an entire 13 days he was the only grandchild. His title was swiped from him less than two weeks later when my brother’s daughter was born. Fortunately, he still gets to hold the title of “first grandchild” but only by a narrow margin.

The other night my brother called to see if I could watch his daughter, as his regular daycare had called in sick. I of course immediately obliged. Because my husband and I frequently fend off the “nah, you’ll have another baby” comment, and I was excited to see what having two was all about.

I learned very quickly that almost-twins pack an amazing amount of combustible energy, I beg to argue that it’s more than the atomic bomb used in Hiroshima. At this age, they are able to crawl, push to a stand, and even “cruise.” Which is a unique version of walking which includes placing gummy wet fingers on every object three feet high and using it as a tool to get around. And with Caroline and Tuck only 13 days apart, I got to experience firsthand, what having twins is like.

Wake Up Play Time – Two 8 month old almost-twins (boy and girl) in the nursery together The almost-twins had somehow scored enough points on Super Mario to land themselves real life whirly bird caps. They began nearly flying down the hallways in their matching feet-pajamas. Result: The floors had not recently been mopped in this humble abode, and thus the children solved the dilemma with their impenetrable clothing.

Breakfast/Kitchen Cleaning - Boy in space-saver high chair, Girl in stroller. Baby boy strong arms Momma into feeding him first and then proceeds to attempt to eat baby girl’s breakfast, by putting his hands in her mouth and removing food from her palate. Result: One baby successfully fed.

Laundry/Chores - Boy in Bouncy Seat, Girl in Stand-N-Play. Attempt to fold laundry was met with great resistance, as I had to continually pry toys and clothes from each child’s grasp. Result: Laundry left on the bed in a pile for later.

Shower - Boy given car to push down blockade hallway, Girl in Stand-N-Play. Attempted to shower with door and shower curtain open, cold air blasting in. Boy ultimately pushed car directly into Girl in Stand-N-Play, then proceeded to push with all his might, slightly moving her across the floor. Girl launches into a high pitched squeal and begins slapping motion. Result: A 3 minute 45 second shower without soap, shampoo or a shave.

Drying/Dressing/Combing Hair – Boy in Stand-N-Play, Girl in Bouncy Seat Attempted to dry off, put on clothes and brush hair. Result: Random unmatching articles of clothing pulled on over wet body, hair uncombed.

Drive & 3 Mile Walk with dogs– Boy in ErgoBaby Carrier, Girl in stroller Fairly reasonable sized SUV was too small, so the dogs which had previously been demoted to the back of the SUV, were now forced to stay home. Babies played musical “carseat cry” and totaled an additional 18lbs of dead weight for the walk. Result: Typical 45 minute 3 mile walk, equated to nearly 1.5 hours.

One Hour Naptime – Boy in his Crib, Girl in the Pack N Play in spare bedroom (aka the “Wild” Office). Began Mantra: I may not outnumber them, but I outsmart them. Repeat. Boy settled into his crib in typical naptime formation (standing on the side rails jumping up and down), girl, however screamed bloody murder once set in pack-n-play. Upon inspection, determined that perhaps husband’s Boar head on the wall was scaring her. Attempted to place both children in the crib together. Resulted in tumble play, having the opposite effect on naptime. Removed girl from boy crib and attempted to re-place her in the pack-n-play. Met with further banshee screams, which then woke sleeping boy. Result: Revised Mantra: I may not outnumber them, or outsmart them, but I can plug my ears. 15 minutes of naptime.

Toy/Play Time- Both children “free” The twins have vocal capabilities, but are not understandable, nor do they understand. The seemingly small feat of keeping them contained in a room was nearly impossible. I’d say it’s like herding cats, except cats understand and choose not to listen. Result: Sat baby girl in center of the room and tossed toys at her, while running around chasing baby boy (who has never been this unattended) and successfully managed to open the fireplace and pull charcoal and wood chunks out.

Daddy Gets Home- Both children pinned underneath an arm, pacifiers in their mouth. Husband walks in to a seemingly put together wife (aside from the no-soap shower stench, unmatching clothes and dishelved hair).

“How was your day?” Husband says to wife.

“I’ll tell you as soon as I get back from taking a long walk off of a short cliff.” Wife responds, half laughing.

“Does this mean no sex tonight?” Husband asks.

And thus – a day in the life of almost-twins confirms, that while they did entertain each other for brief episodes throughout the day, I’m very happy with “one and done.”