beating the heat

Laura and I have an arrangement this summer: On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, she takes the kids (hers and mine) to the pool or park; on Thursday and Friday, while she works at my grandpa's store, I take them. It's worked out pretty well so far, and the kids all love going to the pool. But today it was WAY too hot and muggy, and when the weather is like this my feet and hands puff up like I'm some kind of pufferfish, so I needed a different plan. And wouldn't you know it, the state parks came to the rescue. Well, sort of.

My plan was to take them to the nature center at Potato Creek, which has air conditioning and a little play room. So we picked up Jimmy and Gracie and Elly, and off we went. It was nice because the nature center is small enough that I could sit in the little bird-watching area and still see/hear the kids wherever they went. There are animals downstairs, and there's a play area upstairs where they put on a little puppet show. Everyone was even getting along!

The wrinkle in my plan came when the nature center closed at 5:00 and the kids wanted to go play on the playground and climb some trees. Which naturally led to them wanting to walk in the woods. Which naturally led to all of us traipsing around in inappropriate footwear in the heat. But hey, I got some pretty good pictures! (And the kids had a blast. They were bummed out when it was time to go, but a promise of McDonald's ice cream cones for the ride home perked them back up.)

henry gets adventurous

For your viewing pleasure...

kerplunk!

I'm not sure if I mentioned it last week (oh, I DID) but I really, really, really loved kayaking. I'm not going to lie, I've been researching and dreaming about buying one of my own. (Mike: "And then we'll have to buy a house on a lake. Where does it end?") But I'm also not totally without reason; I know that I should have more experience before I make a big commitment like that. Luckily for me, Mike was curious enough to want to try it too, so we expressed our patriotism this year not with fireworks but with a couple of hours at Chain o' Lakes State Park. (Incidentally, I think Chain o' Lakes has risen right to the top of my state parks rankings, though I really can't speak for Mike or the boys.)

We got up very early Monday morning ("WAY too early. Why do you do this to us?" -- Mike and the boys) and headed to the park to rent some kayaks ... only to discover that the kayaks they have are these weird ocean kayaks that have holes in them so you SIT in the water the whole time. Yuck! Mike and I passed on those, and opted instead for Nu-Canoes, sort of a cross between a canoe and a kayak, that seat two people. Henry went with me, and Max went with Mike, but Liam insisted that he didn't mind a wet butt, so he got a kayak, and off we went.

First we crossed Sand Lake, then we went all the way down the channel to Weber Lake. It was quiet and peaceful, and so much fun. Henry got a smaller paddle of his own, and he alternated between paddling and resting. Liam went way ahead (despite our warnings not to, naturally) because he's an expert now or something. Mike took a little while to get used to the paddling, but he and Max worked well together and had no problem keeping up. After Weber Lake, we headed along the channel to Mud Lake ... but then we ran into a huge, smelly algae bloom. We tried to keep going, but eventually it just got too gross, so we retraced our path back to Sand Lake.

At that point, we decided to take a little stretch and bathroom break, so we headed to the boat launch. Henry was feeling brave, so he decided to give the kayak a try, and wouldn't you know it, he took right to it! He was happily paddling away all by himself, and we were all very impressed.

The plan was to get back in our respective seats and take a different channel to Bowen Lake, but once we tried to implement that plan, everything turned sideways with a quickness. I mean that both literally and figuratively. Henry pitched a fit because he wanted to keep going in the kayak (despite having JUST complained seconds before that his arms were tired) instead of getting in the Nu-Canoe. We finally got him to sit down, and Liam was holding the canoe for me to get in, but Henry was still ranting, so we weren't as careful as we should have been. Liam thought I was fully seated, so he let go, not realizing that I was still in the motion of sitting down ... so I went right over the side. Oops. I was totally soaked, but the bigger issue was that my phone also went for a swim.

As you can imagine, all water activity came to an abrupt end at that point. We returned our boats and paddles and life jackets, then rushed back to the van, where I had the extremely uncomfortable experience of trying to change out of wet clothes in the back of the van. Thank goodness for tinted windows! Once we were all dry and back on the road, I finally realized that I should power the phone off and wrap it in a towel (I had, of course, already dried the surface). I did a little on-the-fly research using Mike's phone, so our next stop was Menard's, where we bought DampRid, a commercial desiccant. The one that seemed best was "fresh scent," and WOW was it fresh! So the phone went between two packs of this stuff, then got sealed in a plastic bag for 24 hours, and it seems to be working fine again -- praise all available deities. And before you tell me how dumb it was to have my phone on me, allow me to present the following pieces of clarifying information: 1. I had already ordered a waterproof case AND a float strap, they just hadn't arrived yet. 2. I had plastic baggies in my pocket, but I just hadn't put the phone back in after the bathroom break/kayak crisis. 3. I KNOW. believe me, I know.

call of the wild

Today I was out cleaning the van. A lovely way to spend a holiday weekend, right? The boys had left a half-full plastic bottle of milk in one of the seat-back pouches way in the back, so it took a number of days, but it finally did its thing enough that I could smell it in the front (gag!), so something had to be done. I cleaned out all the crap in the van (have I mentioned that the boys seem to think of it as their own rolling dumpster?), then I vacuumed, dusted with odor powder, vacuumed again, found some cloth and upholstery cleaning stuff in the garage, scrubbed all the stains, scrubbed the seat pouch half a dozen times, and vacuumed again. So we'll see.

Anyway, somewhere in the middle of that whole-afternoon extravaganza, I heard Mike and the boys getting excited about something out in the yard. I went out, and here is what I found:

They were looking at hawks!! This one in the pine tree was calling to another one sitting on a power line by the alley. We have hawks! It's *almost* enough to make up for the nastiness of the van. Okay, it's really not, but I'm trying to look on the bright side here, people.

liam at twelve

This year, for the first time, when asked, Liam couldn't easily rattle off a dozen things he wanted for his birthday. In fact, he had trouble coming up with one thing he wanted for his birthday. Maybe I'm reading too much into this detail and he's really just a spoiled brat who has everything just naturally fall into his lap ... but I don't think so. In fact, as one of the people who routinely tells him no, I feel pretty confident that being spoiled isn't the reason. I think it's because he's happy with his life, and he's secure in knowing that he has the things that really matter. I mean, yeah, already having video games and electronics doesn't hurt, but at heart I think Liam is a very content kid. (Which of course makes me a pretty satisfied parent.)

He's also a very funny kid. Earlier today, I heard him on the phone talking to his Grandma Barb. He thanked her for her gifts, and then he told her that he was excited about going out for a birthday dinner to Red Lobster. She must have asked him what he would eat, because then I heard him say, "Oh, I'll probably eat a bunch of biscuits [the free biscuits that they bring to your table while you wait for your order], then order something really expensive that I'll be too full to finish." HA! But if you know Liam, you won't be surprised to learn that he actually did finish his expensive entree, along with biscuits, appetizers, AND a bowl of birthday ice cream for dessert.

At twelve, our Liam is daring and unafraid and sure on his feet. Whenever we go somewhere, he is the first one to look to me for permission to climb a rock or cross a stream on a fallen tree or explore an area off the beaten path. And at home, he has broadened his horizons, riding his bike across the busiest parts of town to spend time with cousin Jimmy -- you know, not to mention the fact that he was brave and determined enough to finish a 30-mile bike ride with his parents this summer. He hasn't really discovered yet that there will be things in life he simply *can't* do, and I'd like to keep it that way for as long as possible.

He's a classic preteen in that he doesn't talk much to us anymore, preferring instead to play on his phone and spend time in his room, but sometimes we catch him at the right moment, and he opens up. When we were doing our training rides for Bike the Drive, just the two of us out on deserted country roads, he told me a lot about school and his peers and how he deals with the pressures of being a sixth grader. And in just over a month, he'll start at a new school -- JUNIOR HIGH -- and be faced with a new set of pressures as a seventh grader. But I feel sure that he'll navigate those waters as nimbly as he handled his first kayak trip yesterday.

He's a kid on the move toward becoming a young man, and in some ways all we can do is watch him go and hope for the best. And that's a very scary thing, but at the same time, I feel like he has a really solid foundation from which he can venture forth into the world ... and watching that happen is a pure joy.

Happy birthday, Liam! We love you so very much.

out of my comfort zone

The thing about this state parks project is that it has opened us up to a whole lot of new experiences. Not just seeing new places, but trying new things. Mike and I have never been what you would really call "joiners," which I'm sure comes as a shock to precisely no one. But this year we've done things like get up before sunrise to go watch eagles with a bunch of strangers, go on group hikes to see birds and caves, and even take rowboats across a big lake. And today, I added another new thing to my list: kayaking. Bethany, Liam, and I headed to Potato Creek this afternoon, rented kayaks, and set off to explore Worster Lake. And it was really fun! Maybe a little anxiety-making at first because I thought I would tip over or sink or whatever, but after I got used to it, I really, really liked it. And Liam did too! He took to it immediately, paddling off like an expert and exploring all the different features and inlets around the lake. 

We picked a really great day for it too! It was sunny but not too hot, and just a little bit breezy. It was peaceful and not crowded out on the lake, so we could experiment with different paddling techniques and make mistakes without worrying too much about it. Turns out that kayaking is definitely my kind of activity. The only things I found really challenging were that the seat reclined a little too far for me to really be comfortable (though it may have been adjustable and I just didn't realize), and that it's really hard to get out of a kayak. I had read about it in advance (of course I did!) so I realized it would be a challenge, but I guess I didn't anticipate exactly how much of a challenge it would be. Luckily, though, I did anticipate to the extent that I brought a change of clothes, so I didn't have to go home soaking wet. 

And now my head is filled with ideas. I particularly want to go back to Chain o' Lakes now and explore all the little channels and different lakes. Heck, if I could get Mike to go along with that plan, I would do it tomorrow! Or the next day, or the next. But don't worry, readers -- I'm not quite daring/reckless enough to try to do it without at least one other adult present. Yet.

morning in plymouth

I was up very early this morning, so Charlie and I went out for a walk and watched the sun come up. It was an exceptional day for it.

and then this happened ...

Ever since I bleached Max's hair for that Harry Potter party, he's been asking me to color it green or orange. Then the other two put in similar requests. Welp, this was their lucky weekend because semi-permanent hair color was on sale at the beauty supply. I had to bleach Liam's hair first because he insisted on the neon green, but luckily I still had enough supplies left from when I did Max's hair. Behold their colorful new looks!

state parks project, part 12: tippecanoe river

Before we set off for today's park, no less than two separate people on two separate occasions offered us the same advice: BRING BUG SPRAY. And after the horror of Portsmouth Island, we never take those sorts of warnings lightly, so we came prepared for our visit to Tippecanoe River State Park. [Side note: Being the nerdy sort, we -- meaning MIKE -- researched bug spray effectiveness, and we ended up stocking up on the Ben's brand from REI last time we were in Indianapolis. It worked really well, and the smell isn't too bad, so hopefully we bought enough to get us through the summer!]

Today's mission seemed like a simple one ... but we all know how that works out. We got the latest issue of Outdoor Indiana (the magazine of the Indiana DNR), and it had a list of Indiana's prairies, and on that list was the Sandhill Nature Preserve at Tippecanoe River State Park: "This 120-acre nature preserve inside Tippecanoe River State Park offers flat sand plains and rolling dunes. Trail 8 explores the nature preserve." PERFECT, I thought. We are all big fans of prairies, particularly the gardeners among us (that would be Mike and Max, and sometimes even Henry). So off we went to the park, through the gate, and all the way back to the end of the line (or at least the end of the park) to the appropriate trail. Spoiler alert: We had as much luck finding the prairie as we did finding the beaver dam at the dunes.

Here's what I can tell you about trail 8: It was overgrown and very buggy indeed. The grass in the middle of the trail was higher than my ankles, which led us to think that the trail didn't get used very much. Or maybe all the trails were like that? We only tried the one, so it's possible. And the bugs! I sprayed copious amounts of bug spray on myself and the boys (Mike declined), and none of us got bitten, but they were SWARMING all over the place. Max and Henry kept complaining that bugs were flying into their eyes, and I totally believe them; I had sunglasses on, and Mike and Liam were wearing glasses, otherwise I'm sure we would have had that pleasant experience as well. Max got the first one shortly after I sprayed him down, and he immediately took his bug-sprayed hand and rubbed his eyes, and then started screaming in agony. So I took the water bottle and squirted it in his eyes to flush them out. It worked, but then he was mad at me because his shirt got wet in the process. The moral of the story: MOM CAN'T WIN.

Once we got a little deeper along the trail, there were some really nice wooded areas with pine needles all along the forest floor. It was very quiet and peaceful, like a forgotten place, only in a much better way than the overgrown areas at the beginning of the trail (if that makes sense). We found lots of things to look at and climb on, and the bugs even kind of let up at the end.

After we finished the hike, we decided to go check out the nature center and the river itself. It was really pretty, and the rangers were doing some kind of outdoor painting class. So we explored for a little while, got Charlie some (more) water, then decided to call it a day. Overall, I have to say that this wasn't my favorite park. It wasn't bad by any means, just nothing really standout. I'm thinking that might partly be just my personal dislike of bugs and heat and humidity. The park is fairly close, so I would definitely be willing to head back one day in the fall or even the winter.

See also: SPP1, SPP2, SPP3, SPP4, SPP5, SPP6, SPP7, SPP8, SPP9, SPP10, SPP11.