Sunday, December 24, 2017

adventures in (terrifying) parenting


Max and Henry spent yesterday afternoon with my dad, while Liam and I went shopping with my mom. While we were gone, Dad, as he often does, decided to include the boys in what he was doing  in this case, rewiring some lights in his garage. Max declined to help, but Henry was glad to go out and get dirty. So out they went, and up to the attic of the garage. They finished the first light and were moving to the second, and just as Dad looked up and said, "Henry, don't step off that b," HENRY STEPPED OFF THAT BOARD. And fell through the attic floor/garage ceiling.

According to my dad, it all happened really fast "just like in a movie." One second Henry was there, and the next he was gone. According to Henry, it was all "just a blur of weird shapes and then I landed." Henry called up to my dad that he was okay, but Dad was already rushing to get down from the attic — he went so fast he ripped his clothes on something along the way. And then the next thing Henry tells Dad is that his music teacher died that way (falling through his attic onto his garage floor). Which is true, and will stick in many of the kids' minds as their first real experience with death, so I'm not surprised Henry brought it up.

I know, you're waiting for the dramatic conclusion. It was a Christmas miracle: He scraped his armpit on something on the way down, but that was the only injury he sustained in the fall. We are all counting our lucky stars around here, especially when you consider where he landed. (Note: My dad's garage is ... not the cleanest or least crowded place in the world.) I would say we should buy a lottery ticket or something, but I think we won the jackpot already.



Monday, December 11, 2017

the tall one

We spent some time in Naperville yesterday visiting the family. It was cold outside, so all the kids retreated to Barb and Kevin's basement to run around and play. It's an unfinished basement, so it's not like a rumpus room or anything, but all the cousins were perfectly happy running around in circles and shrieking at each other. Funny how that works.

Anyway, in the course of our time in the basement, we found a growth chart that dates back to when they moved to Illinois. We managed to wrangle a very sweaty Liam away from running with his cousins for just a minute to stand next to it.


I know it's hard to read, but according to the marks on the wall, Liam is taller now, at age 13, than Mike was in 1992, at age 18! I mean, we knew he was tall, but this is still pretty amazing. Side note: Liam's age is the same as his shoe size, and I definitely hope that trend doesn't continue!


Saturday, November 25, 2017

thanksgiving travels


For this year's Thanksgiving, we chose Illinois Beach Resort at Illinois Beach State Park. It met our criteria quite nicely: (1) it was close enough to drive to, (2) it had a buffet-style dinner for the holiday, (3) it had plenty of available rooms, and (4) it had dog-friendly (!!!) rooms. That last one was the clincher, because while we will board Pluto if necessary, we would rather bring him with us and have him be the kind of dog who is comfortable traveling and exploring different places. We didn't do a great job of that with Charlie, so we've been making a point of taking Pluto where we go whenever it's feasible.



As an added bonus, Illinois Beach is only about an hour from Naperville, so Barb and Kevin joined us for Thanksgiving dinner and a brief stroll on the beach. It was a little chilly, but really not so bad for the end of November. After Barb and Kevin left, there was a lot of lounging around playing video games and watching movies. My kind of holiday!


Friday morning, Henry and I took Pluto out to see the sunrise and walk along the beach. As a little test, I let go of Pluto's leash to see what he would do. Shockingly (or not, because he is a dog, after all), he ran off down the beach, drank a ton of lake water, and didn't want to come back when we called him. So much for all those lessons at dog school! Anyway, eventually he came back to us. Later on, we all headed out for a hike. It was kind of duney, with some grasses, but honestly not my favorite hike or park. But you know what? Any day we get to spend outside together instead of at school/work is a win for me.






Friday, November 10, 2017

a veterans day tale (sort of)


The other day, I picked up Gramps after work to take him to the library. He loves listening to audiobooks, especially Westerns, and the library has a huge collection. I love the library; always have, ever since I was a little girl. But spending time with Gramps is always the bigger draw.

I found him in his office, writing on one of his ubiquitous 3x5 index cards. This has been his habit since retirement, to write down little snippets of things to keep their memory alive. I asked what he was writing about, and he took me to the kitchen, where a freshly polished antique wooden radio sat on the table. And then he told me a short story:
I bought this radio in 1956 as a Christmas present for your grandma. Notice how it has both AM and FM? I believe FM was the new innovation at that time, so it was a big deal. It cost most of my monthly pay to buy it. I think Bev was expecting a ring, but she got a different R word instead. And anyway, she didn't have to wait too long for the ring  I ended up buying one just two weeks later!
 
While he was talking, I glanced at the index card, and noticed that it mentioned his exact salary at the time: $122.66 per month from the army. I asked him about it, and he laughed and said yes, that was his salary, and that was four grades above the basic pay! Then he said, "And did you know they paid us in cash?"

WHAT??

That's right. According to Gramps, once a month, there would be one officer with a big box full of money, and another one with a machine gun or submachine gun standing guard, and all the soldiers would line up and collect their dough. Isn't that amazing?

Gramps with Great-Grandpa Jeff, Midway Airport, circa 1956
As a bonus, Gramps laughed in delight at telling me something I didn't know. He said he's made it his mission to think up things about history that will surprise/amaze/entertain me every time I see him, and it's a triumph when he hits on something like this. 

Could I adore my grandpa any more? I don't think so!

Thursday, November 02, 2017

we pose prettily

Sunday was picture day around these parts! I have been meaning to get the boys' pictures taken for a long time now  our last photos were in December 2015. This time, I decided to coordinate with my siblings so we could get new cousin pictures taken for my parents for Christmas. We also got a bunch of group pictures and a nice mix of family and individual shots (Bethany, J, and Lon also had pictures taken with their kids/significant others/pets, but I'll let them post those on their own platforms). Bethany's friend Charman was our photographer (she also took our pictures last time; she's great!), and we had so much fun tromping around in my parents' woods looking for interesting backdrops. I would say we were pretty successful, but you can judge for yourself. Seriously, go on. Judge away.













Sunday, October 22, 2017

dollywood and the sweet sorrow


Friday afternoon was a real treat! We met Megan and the girls at Dollywood. Lucky girls got to skip school for the afternoon (hey, it's educational!) and we had a chance to catch up. The girls were lovely guides, giving us pointers on their favorite and least rides at the park. In the end, everyone but me went on a roller coaster. The adults got headaches, but the kids were exhilarated. After one particularly fast roller-coaster ride, Henry came running up to us, breathless with excitement.

Henry: That ride went like 200 miles per hour!
Me: Nice! Did you like it?
Henry (still excited): NO!

And that about sums up our day. After the rides, we stopped for some food, and five Forts got their first taste of fried green tomatoes. YUM. We also got to explore all the pumpkin displays for the fall IllumiNights show, which were impressive. I think these were my favorites:


After an afternoon at the amusement park, we kind of wanted some downtime at the cabin, so we settled in. I laid down for a nap, and I woke up because Henry was in the bedroom shouting for me. Turns out that Mike and Max had made a quick grocery and food run, and while they were gone, Liam and Henry took Pluto out for a quick walk. He must have seen a squirrel or something, because he took off, and dragged Liam right into the curb. Liam jammed his big toe pretty badly in the process. Poor kid. Bending the toe was hard for him, let alone walking on it, so we made the executive decision to pack up and head home Saturday morning instead of Sunday. Between the injury and the extreme weekend crowds everywhere, it really wasn't a tough decision to make, and it's nice to be back home.

Until next time, Gatlinburg!

Saturday, October 21, 2017

the golden ticket, part two

After spending Thursday morning in Cades Cove, we decided to head back downtown in the afternoon to take further advantage of the VIP pass. This time, it was all five of us, so we had to pay for one ticket for each attraction, which I am in no way complaining about because it's still a magnificent deal. First up was a trip up the Gatlinburg Aerial Tramway, which I am going to complain about, but only a little. Going up the side of the mountain in the tram was really interesting ... except that we were in a single tram car with 115 new friends. Oh, the humanity! Listen, I have been on some crowded El cars in my day, but this put them all to shame. Luckily, it was only a 10-minute ride.


And the ride took us to Ober Gatlinburg, an amusement park in summer, ski resort in winter. Here again the golden ticket got us wristbands that let us do all the activities. We didn't have a whole lot of time, so we skipped ice skating and the animal sanctuary. Instead, we headed up the chair lift. Mike and the boys got off halfway and went down the alpine slide, which they reported was great, while I continued up the chair lift to the top of Mt. Harrison, where I was treated to some pretty spectacular views.




We ended up taking the aerial tram back down the mountain (this time with 115 new friends who had been drinking beer out of plastic boots hung around their necks!), and by the time we got back downtown, we were all hungry, so we headed to Mike's chosen dining emporium: Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. Surprise! We all got shrimp. Heh. It was delicious, and as a bonus, it turns out that Mike and I know a surprising amount of Forrest Gump trivia (our server gave us a quiz on the movie). 

Once we were all stuffed completely full of shrimpy goodness, we opted to play some more mini golf, this time at Treasure Quest Golf. Part of the course was lit by blacklight, so we had fun looking at each other's clothes and teeth. Mike ended up winning by two strokes (conveniently, Mike was also the scorekeeper), though I again got two holes-in-one. Hmmm, I might actually come to like something golf related! The boys liked it a lot too, though Max found it really frustrating because he was out of practice.



Just down from the golf place was another mirror maze (seriously, a town that can support not one but two mirror mazes?). Mike opted to stay in the front and buy some candy (yes, you read that right, Mr. No Sweet Tooth bought candy. For himself!) while the boys and I took on Ripley's Marvelous Mirror Maze. It was much more intense than the one we had done the day before, and featured an infinity room (think all the mirrors, plus strobe lights). Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" was playing, so the boys started dancing, which was pretty trippy and funny. After we finished the maze, the attendant told us we could go through it backward, which was very exciting for the boys. After much loud maneuvering, we finally made it out and back to the street.



We had promised the boys Ben & Jerry's ice cream once we had done a few activities, and we made good on it even though we were all still pretty full. After that, they decided they were too tired for any more fun. Second day in a row that I could have done more but they didn't want to. Might be a record!

cades cove


Mike's goal for this trip was to hike the Ramsey Cascade, but mine was to go to Cades Cove, a part of the park we didn't get to see last time we were here. So Thursday morning we set out to do just that. We knew it was a popular area, so we figured if we left early, it wouldn't be too crowded. All I will say is that I would hate to see it when it's "really" crowded!


Along the way, we saw a pull-off at Maloney Point, and Mike asked if I wanted to stop. I'm not sure why he even had to ask, given the incredible sunrise we were treated to. When was the last time you saw a sunrise quite so colorful? Last time I saw one this great was probably when we were in Portland three years ago.


So, Cades Cove. It was beautiful, and still filled with fog, which made for some great pictures. But then right away we ran into a huge traffic snarl, and it turned out that the reason for the backup was that a momma bear and her three cubs were foraging for food near the road. Since we were stuck in traffic anyway, I decided to go out and get a picture, and Max and Henry came with me (sorry, Mike, but that's what you get for wanting to always be the driver!). We got fairly close to them — although definitely not as close as the 30 or so other people who were standing super close and taking pictures with super huge telephoto lenses. It was like bear paparazzi!



After that excitement, traffic started flowing again, so we got to see all the beautiful sights. We stopped at the visitor center, where there were probably half a dozen deer around the parking lot, grazing and doing their deer thing. On one side there were two bucks, and for one exciting moment, they charged each other and butted heads. Antler clash! Then I guess they realized that there was no female in the vicinity to fight over, or that there was plenty of room for both of them to get adequate morning grains, because there were no more fireworks. Anyway, we walked around for a while, checking out the historic buildings and the grist mill, and the deer were completely unbothered by us or any other humans.





On the way out, we saw another couple bears, one on either side of the road. The one on Mike's side was climbing a tree (!!) but we couldn't get a good shot of it. The one on my side was kind of wandering around, generally in a direction away from the road. I took some pictures, but Liam piped up from the back seat, "Yes, Mom, we'll get some great pictures of bear hindquarters!" Where did that kid get his snark? A mystery that will no doubt be lost to the sands of time.