Toddler Travels

We are finally going on our first family vacation! We've been out of town for 3-4 day trips but typically we had other reasons for going like lot's of weddings. This will be our first 1 week, summer fun family vacation and we are stoked! The only goal is to have fun as a family! Jon and I are very giddy and are getting the kids super excited. My parents will also be joining us for a couple of days and hopefully my bestie Megan will be as well. In 3 days we will be headed to San Diego to show the kids the beach, take them to the San Diego Zoo, Seaworld and anything else fun we come across. 

As excited as we are, I am extremely nervous about a 6 hour car ride with two 2 1/2 year olds. I have spent hours and I mean hours scanning mommy blog after mommy blog for ideas. One thing I knew for sure was I would continue my mom's tradition of giving gifts every hour or so in the car, if you remember she did this for the kids last September when we went up North. The hard part is finding activities that young kids can do in the car that will also entertain them for more than 3 minutes. Here are the activities and/or toys I have wrapped and ready to go:

1. Color matching with pom poms: All the pom pom's have magnets on them so they hopefully won't be rolling everywhere!
   
2. Popsicle stick puzzles: These also have magnets on them!
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Fishing Game: I can't find the awesome blog that gave me this idea but I'm curious if it'll work. I made fishing poles with yarn, dowel rod's, and magnets. Then I printed images of fish, whales, starfish, sea turtles, etc, cut them out and added magnets to them. I plan to throw these all over the floor of the car and then the kids can "cast" their fishing pole to the bottom of the car and see what they catch! 
4. Window clings: I'm nervous their little arms won't be able to reach the window's so we'll see if this one works.
5. Lap tables from Amazon: Of course I got one in pink and one in blue. I will let you know if they live up to their 5 star reviews! 
   
6. ID Bracelets from Amazon: I was reading a Yahoo news article about a woman that lost her child at Disneyland and at the end she suggested an ID bracelet or a kid's GPS tracker. Since my kids are not old enough to know that my real name is not Mommy or remember a phone number I thought this was a great idea. I choose these bracelets because they cannot be undone with 1 hand so the child cannot take it off. My kids love bracelets so they are going to think it's a neat gift and I can be contacted if we get separated - win win! Another cheaper idea is to write your name and phone number on the tag inside the child's shirt. I decided against that since it's not as easily seen.
   
7. Snacks: Lot's and lot's of snacks but I wrapped up some of the cheeze-its, oreo's, chips ahoy, and teddy graham's that are found at registers for $1.
   
8. Fart noise cups: Kid's love making funny noises especially fart noises - we will either love or hate this one by the end of the trip!
9. Play dough
10. Shape matching: All the shapes have magnets on them!
11. Map to track our progress: I loved this idea. It's hard for little kids to grasp the concept of a 6 hour drive so this gives them a visual. While I was writing this update I thought of a cool idea to add. I'm going to make magnets with their faces on them so I can move it along to show how far we are! I forgot to take a picture of this one.
12. Quiet Books: You remember the creative book I made, right? I'm bringing that one and one my mom made. They've been hidden for awhile so hopefully they seem like new to the kids!
13. Pipe cleaners: Kid's love random things, pipe cleaners are one of those. They can bend them into all sorts for shapes!
14. Crayons
15. Plastic Animals
16. Sticker books

I am hoping that is enough activities along with some sing along time, looking out the windows, if we are lucky - nap time, playing at a park in Yuma, potty breaks, and stocking up at Chile Pepper. 

Wish us luck - 3 days and counting :)

Playing in Payson

I think we've started a Lyons' family tradition - 4th of July camping! If you don't remember, we took the kids camping at 10 months old last year Colorado Camping Craziness. Luckily I took some pointers from last year and only went an hour and a half out of town - far enough to cool off a bit but close enough that we didn't go crazy in the car ride. Payson was the perfect break from life that our family needed.

Last time we went out of town the kids did not sleep well and they have pretty much outgrown their pack'n'plays. We weren't sure how the sleeping situation was going to work but realized the kids sleep on cots at daycare so why not try that? On Monday we found relatively cheap cots on Amazon so we ordered one in blue and one in pink. 

 
By Thursday we still didn't have the cots even though they were shipped using Amazon Prime.

Friday morning rolls around and still no cots. I'm feeding the kids when Jon walks out of the bedroom and tells me he knows what truck the cots are in and he's off to catch the postwoman. He returns about 15 minutes later with 2 cots in hand - success.

We pack the minivan and are on the road right on schedule - 9am! We get to Payson and pull into Houston Mesa campground a little after Lisa and Ryan. Our campground is perfect! It's down a dirt path and tucked in, surrounded by trees so you can't even see your neighbor! Baby Audrey is happily playing on a blanket and my kids each go over and say hi to her. It was adorable.

We were even more excited when we learned we were at one of the only campgrounds that allowed campfires - more success! Camp was quickly set up and we just let the kids wander around, play in the dirt, throw balls in the bushes - you know the normal outdoorsy kid things. 

Lisa & Audrey

Me with a s'more

That evening we helped the kids cooks s'mores - I have the most adorable picture of the two of them with their marshmallow roasters. Baby boy was more interested in cooking the marshmallow than eating it and baby girl was more interested in eating it than cooking it. 

After the kids went to bed, we made some adult beverages and had a ladder ball competition by the campfire. Jon and Ryan played first and Ryan won. Then Lisa and I played and I won. We had to determine a winner so Ryan and I played and I won. I was winner of the campsite! I'm awful at ladder ball but apparently in the dark when we are camping, I do really well!

Saturday we attempted to go on a hike but were stuck behind a Payson 4th of July Parade which consisted of golf carts decorated in red, white, and blue, American flags, and other 4th of July decorations. It was pretty comical - small towns are more excited about being in the parade than people watching it - I think the whole town was in the parade! After the delay, we finally arrived at the hiking spot. We got out of the minivan and at least 5 bee's flew straight into the car. I had Audrey in my arms, grabbed one of my children and ran. Lisa got out and ran too. We closed the minivan and proceeded to decide what to do. We were informed there were bees on the trail and as we stood there deciding what to do, Ryan got stung. That was the deciding factor, we were not hiking with bees especially since we have no idea if any of the kids have allergies. We sent Jon back to the minivan to drive it down the road and get the bee's out before we got in with the kids. He did a fantastic job, it only took 3 times of opening doors, throwing a child in and quickly closing the door before we got everyone in with no bees! Audrey might have sat on Jon's lap in the driver's seat during the shenanigans - she thought that was pretty exciting! 

That afternoon we hiked on a nature trail at the campground and then Lisa and I pushed 3 umbrella stroller's with all the kids in them around the campground for over an hour. It was the only way they would sleep as the tent was pretty hot during the day.

Sunday we took our time packing up, Jon took the kids to the airport that was close by since baby boy loves planes. Then we grabbed lunch at a delicious Mexican food restaurant before heading home. If you are ever in Payson try Sal & Teresa's Mexican Restaurant - it was well worth it. 

It was a fantastic weekend with family - a tradition worth keeping!

Lisa, Ryan, and Audrey

Me and my sister

Stranger Danger

Birth mom has not had a visit with her kids since October. On Friday I had a missed call at 5:15pm from our new case worker. I have never met her and my first call from her states the kids are having a visit on Monday from 1-3pm. Her case aide will pick the children up and supervise the visit. 

You'd think I'd be used to this by now and be over it but I'm not. Don't you think you'd want to talk to the foster parents first before just setting up a visit? You are new on the case and have no idea what is going on, such as the kids nap at daycare from 12-2. So they are going to get picked up at 12:30ish, go on a visit for 2 hours, come back to daycare and not get a nap. Thank you CPS for making my daycare frustrated and angry. Thank you CPS for ruining any sort of schedule my kids had - any study you read says kids need structure in order to grow up healthy and happy. In fact, my foster parent training and guides provided by the state talk about providing structure in your foster home. Thank you CPS for most likely testing my patience tonight with my kids as they will be extremely tired and cranky and won't want to eat dinner and won't want to take baths because they are too tired to function. I'm already angry with all of that but I think I've kept my composure all weekend in order to continue providing that happy, healthy home to these beautiful children and then on Monday at 12:30pm I get a phone call from the case aide.

"Hi, my name is ___ and I'm picking up your foster kids today, can you tell me their names?" With all my heart I wanted to say yes, their names are Jane and John Doe because that's what that question deserves as an answer. She then continued with "Okay, thanks I think that's all I need" I responded stating she can just go into the Toddler Room and sign them out, the daycare girls are aware the kids have a visit today. She responds with "Toddler room? How old are the kids?" Again, I wanted to say oh they are 8 and 9.....they are in the TODDLER ROOM so somewhere between 1 and 3. How in your right mind is it your job to pick up a child, supervise the visit, and then return the child? You don't even know the child's name or their age? Do you have the appropriate carseat? Do you know they are twins so you actually need 2 carseats of the same kind? How as a parent am I supposed to feel comfortable with this woman going to my daycare, picking up my children, and supervising a visit when she can't even figure out their names.

As my kids are getting older, we are learning more and more about parenting and I'm starting to think about how baby girl says "hi" and waves to just about everyone she see's and meets. Very cute but at the same time, a little worrisome. In my head I start thinking about teaching her about strangers and how she is to never go anywhere with a stranger but then I remember that about every 6 months a new CPS stranger picks her up to take her to her visits. How am I supposed to explain that one? "Okay baby girl, you are never to go anywhere with a stranger because they might be dangerous. However, if a stranger comes to daycare to get you, that's okay, just ask for their CPS badge to make sure they are legit." Please tell me how to explain this situation to a toddler. Please tell me how to properly parent as a foster mom. 

I really need to find a foster to adopt parent support group so I can see how other foster mom's have dealt with all of this. Each day seems to be getting more and more difficult for us to handle as we realize we still have such a long journey that still could end childless. The kids are bonding more and more to us and our family everyday, I just don't know how to explain this to them so they are prepared in case they are sent somewhere else. How do you prepare a toddler for that? Where is their lawyer? Isn't she supposed to be fighting for them? For their stability? For their happiness?

I am ready to fight the system but I am not sure where to start. If anyone has any ideas or any contacts, please let me know. The Arizona CPS system is very messed up right now and it needs to change.

UPDATE (2/10/15):
When I picked up the kids from daycare yesterday evening I was told by the daycare that the case aide showed up without car seats. My daycare obviously did not let her take the kids so she left and returned with 2 car seats.....uninstalled. She did not know how to install the car seats in her vehicle and requested the daycare to assist her. They did, then she requested they assist her with properly securing the children in the car seats. I was livid to say the least when I was told this story. It is absolutely unacceptable for a Department of CHILD SAFETY employee whom transports children to not know how to install a car seat in her vehicle. I have already sent an e-mail complaint to my case manager along with her supervisor. I have also already obtained a formal grievance and plan to have one filed by the end of the day. I will also be taking a form to my daycare and requesting they file a grievance as well. I do not take my children's safety lightly and I wouldn't think the state would either. I let my agency know the situation and she agreed with how I was handling it but also stated this isn't the first time this has happened to her foster families. That just further made me want to fight the system - something is severely wrong in Arizona's foster care system.