A Taste of Summer Vacation

Our goal for the summer was to get to KL as quickly as possible, since we knew that it would take a while to get through quarantine and get settled in.  That meant that we were leaving on the first flight we could after school was done, which didn't leave any time for a real summer vacation.  School was limping through the last couple weeks online, and our house was all packed up, so we rented the Airbnb we had last summer (affectionately known in our family as "the pool house") to have a taste of summer fun.  It has a pool, an air hockey table, and a big yard.  Our plan was to invite some friends over as well for extra fun.

As soon as we checked in, the girls got into the spirit of things with pool time and air hockey.

Our first guests were our D&D group, and we had a great, in person session.  Hopefully our next in person session will be when they all come to visit us in Malaysia.

On Tuesday, we had some of our best family friends over for Vivian's pre-birthday pool party.  We'll be out of quarantine by the time her real birthday comes around, but she wanted to do something with friends in the U.S. as well.

It was fun for the whole family, since we each have a buddy.

Of course, we were having so much fun, that I forgot to serve cupcakes.  It was fine though, because the kids came back to play some more the next day, and we did cupcakes then.

It's great to spend time with friends, but it's tough to say goodbye.

We had another set of friends come over the next day to cheer us up, so all was well again.  They got to use the pool for their baby's first swim, and the girls took their older one to run around in the grass.  A good time was had by all.

Friday was the last day of school, and the day we had to move out of the Airbnb.  It was also the first celebration of the new federal holiday, Juneteenth, so Jeff had a surprise day off.  It was great to have his help, but because the decision was made at the last minute on Thursday, which suddenly became his last day of work, he had a bit of a stressful last day making sure everything got done.  He managed it, but it set the tone for our last few crazy days in the U.S..

Saturday was car selling day, so Jeff and I drove our two cars to CarMax.  If we could have kept the Hyundai, we would have, but they drive on the other side of the road in Malaysia and don't allow hybrid imports, so we thanked it for its service and sold it so that someone else could enjoy it.  We managed to pay off the remaining balance and clear a profit of $1.87, which we considered a great success.  The sale of my car was all profit, but we're debating whether or not we want to turn that into a new car or skip the car and just use it for vacation money.  Everything is going to be close in KL, and I am not a fan of city driving.

We were hoping that selling the cars would be less involved than buying them, but when we thought we were almost done, they said it would be at least an hour before we could sign the final paperwork, and they would call us when it was our turn.  By that point, Mom had already shown up to pick us up, so we decided to take her out to lunch while we waited.  There was a Red Lobster across the street, and since that seemed like something we wouldn't be finding in Malaysia, I went all out on a lobster feast.

It turned into three different meals (I got a bunch of green beans too), so I felt it was money well spent.  

While we're excited about our new lifestyle in Malaysia, we know that things won't be as easy and convenient as they are in the States, especially since KL is in the middle of a lock down, so one of the priorities was getting everyone's hair cut.  Vivian just had a full hair makeover, so she was set, which meant Elena was up first.  She was excited for the hair washing part, and she was not disappointed.

She had also gotten it into her head that she wanted little buns.  She had full faith in the stylist's ability to do this, and while it wasn't something the stylist had ever done before, she was so charmed with Elena that she was willing to give it a try.  She did it while Elena's hair was still wet, and they came out pretty well.  They just required a few bobby pins and some maintenance throughout the day.  Elena was pleased as could be.

Sunday was also Father's Day.  Jeff had planned ahead and ordered books for both our dads, but on the day, I felt like I should do something.  Dad decided he wanted BLTs for lunch, so I went with him to the farmer's market and bought fresh tomatoes.  Then I cooked the bacon and prepped sandwiches.  The girls got Nutella instead of BLTs.  It wasn't much, but he seemed to enjoy it, which is the point of Father's Day.

Jeff's Father's Day present was a new watch for tracking his walks.  We had left it at the house for safekeeping, so the girls and I went there to present it to him.  Vivian, being the ham that she is, went for full speechifying on the wonderousness of Daddy.

Jeff definitely earned his daddy cred that day, because our other Father's Day activity was our covid tests for travel.  Even though we knew it would probably only take 24 hours for the test to come back, no one would guarantee less than 48 hours, so, since we were flying on Tuesday, we had to do the test on Sunday.  I had found a drive through CVS that would do it.  It was a bit bizarre, because they handed us each a brown paper lunch bag with the test kit in it, and then we were supposed to swab ourselves in the car and put our finished test in a drop box.  I had read up on it before we went, so we came prepared.  Vivian was in the front seat with Jeff, and I was in the back seat with Elena.  We each swabbed one of the girls, and then did ourselves.  It actually wasn't too bad, and we got the negative results back in less than 24 hours, so that gave us peace of mind for our trip.

The last few days before we left were a bit of a hectic scramble, so even though it was hassle to move into the pool house and move back out of it, I'm so glad we made the time to enjoy summer with our friends.