Just a day in the life

Ok so I a might be raising criminals at the very least mindful antiestablishmentarianists.

Monday I asked Merrick how school was he told me he didn’t like school, I told him well you have to go to school, this is his story verbatim, “I do not have to go to school. I can break the glass with my head and run into the parking lot. Then I will stay on the sidewalk and look both ways when I cross the street. I will be home when you get home. I will just wait for you on the toilet.” His plan seemed well thought out for a three-year old.

Today is picture day for Sophia and she wanted to wear a yellow dress, but Lisa said it is just too cold out for the dress (beautiful dress by the way). Sophia came back down in green Khaki pants and an all black t-shirt. Lisa said she looked as militant as could be. Viva la revolution, I can really put off their teen years for a while.

Fight the Good Fight

I love the change of seasons, but this summer has been quite fun and we are holding on to it with a death grip even as the leaves start to change color and the mornings grow so brisk. We are trying to spend as much time outside as possible if for no other reason than daydream fodder in late February. We sneaked out mid-week for some canoeing and fishing, on a lovely little lake. Lisa slayed the bass and the kids pretty much just worked their way through the snacks. We found a little time to check out the improvements at the Zoo, a couple of new environments and a nice little restaurant. The badger even gave us some nice opportunities to watch him and the new pronghorns were out as we headed over to feed the giraffes. For the second time this summer we also made it to the 17th hole in mini-golf before getting rained out. This time of year however the rain was big cold drops and we had no interest in playing any hole except the very last hole as it was in a cave. I always feel like such a leader when playing golf, as there are so many groups behind me. The days will drift towards October and apple picking, but until then we will hold on and the kids can continue to play "bubble ball" where Sophia blows bubbles and Merrick tries to crush them all with his bat.

Summer draws down

Summer comes to an end and school starts for the kids and me. We held on to vacation with a death grip and managed to squeeze in one more camping trip at Hartman Creek State Park. The weather was alright, although a good size storm came through on Friday afternoon. When we returned home we learned that the same storm create a deluge of nearly 3 inches of water in little more than an hour and a half, complete with jet skis and canoes in the down town streets. For us the it was just some heavy rain for a twenty minutes of so, enough to soak the campfire wood. The campground had more kids in it than any campground I have ever been in. The site across from us had three little girls and the kids quickly made friends which lead to bike rides and a lot of hopscotch/sidewalk chalk. Showed Sophia how to play solitaire with real cards rather than on a computer screen. As she ran out of the camper to use the restroom in the middle of her game she hollared back "hey dad pause it." The dogs were along for this trip, much to their chagrin, so Lisa and I took turns with the kids at the beach as the dogs were not allowed. The built sand castles, romped with the other kids and collected a multitude of snail shells. We also sneaked out for a little geocaching, but the mosquitoes were pretty thick when bushwhacking was required, and we didn't log a single find-except for a pretty good wild apple tree. The return home also brought the beginning of school for Merrick and then Sophia's first day shortly after. Everyone is adjusting back into the routines of the academic year.

A weekend at "home"

We planned a little Staycation this weekend but still spent some time of the road. Saturday we rebuffed two more distant beaches for a man-made gravel bottomed swimming hole that is only across the river from the house. As it happens this was also the last day the swimming hole was open as it was to close for the winter. It was by far the warmest waters we have swam in all year, having got quite used to the great lakes and the summer norms of mid sixties, the bathwater like water was a nice change. On Sunday we headed down to Appleton and took in a mid day baseball game in which the Timberrattlers hosted a Cedar Rapids team. Not the the kids nor the adults paid much attention to the game except when the benches cleared. Bench clearings are different in baseball than in hockey, it appears in baseball everyone just runs out (including the bull pens with both teams jogging together) to be seen, rather than in hockey where you tend to grab the closest person and hit them. A beautiful day and the kids played in a monster sized sandbox and a large swing set taking a break only to eat some cotton candy and hamburgers. Monday found us on the road again as the kids came to work with me to get some things prepared. We found time on the way home to stop at a park as well as fly the kites that I keep in the truck. It was our first good kite flying of the year and Merrick just kept telling me that "I got the hang of it dad" and then giving Sophia unsolicted albeit good advice. Merrick was master of the spiderman kite, and was even double fisting the line as he pulled in and gave slack to keep the kite aloft. This is such an improvement over the last time he double fisted anything.

Sharks and Ships

A theme week that appears is going to continue. Amidst a flurry of activity around the home front Shark week sneaked its way in like a remora to our busy lives. Not to go unnoticed we donned our appropriate attire and watched some of the new footage to come out this year. We again loaded up the family truckster, which is getting accustomed to racking up the miles this summer, with luggage and technology and headed out early on Friday morning with a bearing set for Ohio. Piled the kids into the truck at about 3 am and we were off. Pretty smooth sailing all the way to Tom and Jane's place and with an ipad, gps, dvd player and two cell phones with internet capability (and likely gps as well) we had more technology than the first space shuttle, so finding Defiance, Ohio should pose no problem. The kids traveled well and we all got a little gitty in the final hours on the road as we spun tails of the elusive "snagglefart." At first Sophia was intrigued by the snagglefart, having never seen one. Merrick immediately hated the snagglefart, in true Grouchy-smurf fashion, "I hate snagglefarts" He warmed up to them later and even thought that he would eat a snagglefart burger if we could find one on a menu. Sophia thought that snagglefart might be a figment of my imagination, particularly when I mentioned that there were only adult snagglefarts and no babies. Saturday found us on Tom and Jane's Sailboat on Lake Erie (Sandusky Bay) there was a little wind but enough to go out and give the kids a taste of sailing. That night we stayed at Castaway Bay, a big indoor water park near the harbor and after waterslides and sailing ships the kids themselves castaway the day for dreams of night. Sunday we were back on the docks and Merrick was right at home, hollering to Tom before boarding "Ahoy Captain!" Sunday was much better for sailing and enough wind to heel the boat with just the head sail, the kids were a little less interested in the boat leaning on it side but Lisa Captained the boat around the bay. Sophia also gave one of her arcade trinket winnings, a pirate flag, to Tom for his boat. Sophia got a little 'fuzzy in the head" from the boat but a little swimming in the pool at he yacht club seemed to be the perfect cure for sea sickness. We got up early again on Monday morning and hit Chicago traffic and our own travel wall--I think we are staying home for a while and give the rubber tramping a rest--although next week is a Tall Ships festival so we will see what happens...

Flash Floods and Fires

The forecast was terrible, and included flash flooding, torrential rains and even a tornado warning. We were driven by the need to use a graciously loaned pop up camper and we wouldn't be deterred. With camper in tow we headed south on Thursday night to Harrington Beach State park. A park that Lisa and I spent a lot of time in while living in the area more than a decade ago. The clouds and rain made it as dark as night as we drove down even though it was only about 5 in the evening. There were only a few sites that were allowed on first-come first serve basis and we wanted one of them. As it turned out we were able to get site 231, a very desirable site and before the weekend was over we had about 5 different groups stop by and ask when we where leaving because they wanted our site. All the a side when we pulled in on Thursday evening there was an stream running through the middle of the site that was at least mid calf deep (on me not Merrick). The camper went up like a dream and it was because of the camper that we even went with such a forecast, figuring we could always just hang out inside drink coffee and play games. The kids loved it and I don't think Lisa will ever camp any other way. We headed into town to a restaurant we used to visit often, Nieslet's Country Inn. By the time we returned the 'stream' was gone. The rest of the weekend weather was pretty nice, sunny during the day and only raining at night--still it was no place for a tent and we were happy to wake up high ad dry. We fished a bit at the quarry in the state park, Lisa being the only one to catch any fish. We were using slip bobbers and Merrick's cast resulted in all of his line unspooling into the depths of the quarry. Apparently his spiderman bait caster didn't have the line tied to the arbor and the sinker/slip bobber combination just lead to a complete unspooling. Sophia quickly lost interest in fishing and really just wanted to hang out at the table in the camper and color and draw. Standard evenings of campfires and smores made a little nicer by being freshly showered. I did have to talk to the ranger, or rather the ranger had to talk to me, because Merrick was peeing on a tree next to the road. Apparently this is not an acceptable practice in a state park. The ranger suggested I walk him up to the bathrooms. I suggested that I would have him pee near the back of our campground because I wasn't going to walk a three year old up to the bathrooms every 15 minutes. Although we agreed to disagree, no citations were given. Had some nice hikes and the kids even got to ride a trolley around the park on last day there. Harrington is very good for geocacheing and we had a couple of good treasure hunts and one that we never did find anything. Sunday was beautiful and we headed to the beach before going home, found a nice strip of sand that nobody else was using and headed over. The algae had washed into that area and the smell was not at all pleasant, Merrick and his weak stomach start gaging and then into full vomiting of cheetos and chocolate all over the beach and he kept puking until we got him up wind. Obviously we swam up wind the rest of the day. All in all a very nice weekend in the camper, the dogs were fine in the campsite (albeit completely exhausted from the hikes) meaning no kennel fees. No kennel fees, borrowed camper all added up to a pretty cheap weekend in the woods. So long as we don't figure in our new "need" for a tent camper.

Head West Young Man

July 2nd we loaded up the truck and started the family vacation out west. We had a lay over and Birthday party for Sophia in Eau Claire and then pushed on to Souix Falls. I original plan was to camp in Yellowstone but after we took a look at the driving distances and the car time that the kids would need to endure we settled on camping in the Big Horn Mountains just outside of Buffalo Wyoming. Still a lot of driving. We got into Souix Falls well after midnight and were back on the road and on our way to Rapid City the next morning. We settled into the hotel and then headed out for a round of Mini golf. Each of us got a legitimate hole in one before we cut the round short due to a massive burst of rain that left us wet and a double rainbow over a neighboring Wal-Mart. We had supper at a microbrewery fashioned from an old fire station in a cool down town setting in Rapid City. The kids had a desert firetruck that required them to do all of the assembly while Lisa and I split a cake roll the size of small child. A little swimming back at the hotel and headed to Mt. Rushmore the next morning. It was very cool to be at Rushmore on the Forth of July. We also had an hour cave tour at Rushmore caves on our way out of Rapid City. Spent a large amount of the day on the road again and were impressed with the apparent poverty and expanse of western SD and WY. Started to see some pronghorn as we headed into the Big Horn Mountains to camp at a newer campground called Tie-Hack. Mule Deer were wandering around the campground as we set up camp and we were greeted with Blue Lupin in full bloom. With the tent up we got back into the truck and drove to Sheridan (Big Horn Equestrian Center) to watch the fireworks against the mountains and managed to get very lost (luckily we had the GPS) when we left and traversed dirt roads I wouldn't have taken at noon let alone at midnight. It was again well after midnight when we crawled into the tent and awoke to drizzle and cool temperatures. I don't think the temperature every climbed above 50. We got a little hike in during the late morning and again saw some mule deer and rabbits. Lisa and Merrick slept in the afternoon and Sophia and I took a small hike again. We all headed down to a reservoir and found areas that still had large amounts of snow. We found elk duds but no elk or moose. We also headed up a pretty steep rock/gravel face only to come back down. Merrick was on my back and Lisa was holding on to Sophia's hand. It was more adventure than we had bargained for and the GPS said it was a 409 feet ascent only to come right back down. We had to go up on all fours so coming down was precarious to say the least. Packed up a lot of wet gear early the next morning and drove to the Bad lands for several hours of climbing and lunch and a hotel with much needed shower. The truck was packed and the kids basically slept in their clothes, as Lisa and I tossed them into the truck at 4 am to start a long drove to Shakopee. The early start allowed us to make several stops including a wonderful lunch layover with Punky and Ken. Actually the kids did some of the driving on this leg of the trip as we hit some of the dirt (minimum maintenance roads) of MN. As Sophia has started reading the Laura Ingells Wilder books we also stopped in Walnut Grove to tour one of many themed museums. Made it to Shokapee in the late afternoon and met up with Mark for some Pizza and beer as the kids played in the pool. The next morning we left for Valleyfair for what Lisa and I expected to be a three to four hour gig, eight hours later with the kids begging for more we left. Strangely both kids puked but not on the rides. Sophia puked the night before and Merrick during lunch while sitting on the tail gate. Lisa asked him why he puked and he just shrugged and said, "I don't know maybe I am sick." Met Mark again that night at a restaurant for a nice supper followed up with a couple of beers near the pool. With that the vacation was winding down as we tried the next day to hit the mall of america, but that was a short trip as Merrick was fried, a short visit in Eau Claire on the way back home followed by the unpacking and normal domestic chores that always await a vacationers return.