Vacation Prep (AKA Needing a Vacation to get over Vacation Prep)

Oh vacation, how I love you.

Every year my in-laws rent a house somewhere big enough for the entire family to go stay and be together for a week. We've done Honeoye Lake twice, Autumn Lake (Adirondacks area) twice, and this was our third year in Salvo in the Outer Banks. We stayed in a different house than the previous two years and really enjoyed the new place!

Now I don't know about you, but planning for a vacation is hard. It's easier now that the kids are older and we don't have to worry about diapers and all the other baby things, but still trying to get a family of five packed for a week and getting two animals prepped to leave is challenging.

To Do Lists!

And this year decided to throw us a couple curve balls.

We knew this year would be a little different. Our house still has a For Sale/Sale Pending sign in front of it, and even though we don't live in a village or city, a lot of traffic goes by here everyday. We were a little nervous about leaving our house vacant for a week, but we took steps to make sure that it wouldn't look fully abandoned: our cat was going to stay here and our neighbor would check on him nightly, and some friends were also going to come and harvest our garden while we were away. It's not as much movement at our house to make it look occupied, but we thought it would be enough. (And it was!)

The one problem about the house still being Sale Pending was that we didn't know if we'd need anyone to come through the house for various appointments during the week, and one even got scheduled for the morning we were going to be leaving....meaning we had to leave the house SPOTLESS. That's hard enough to do on any given day, but trying to get your house spotless while trying to leave for vacation is a whole other level of craziness!

The biggest curve ball of them all we didn't even begin to expect.

We swung by my in-law's house on Wednesday to drop off some things, and my father-in-law commented on how our exhaust was sounding loud. We thought it was just a heat shield, so he said to bring it over early Thursday morning and he'd help Pete take a look at it.

Thursday morning came, Pete took the van over. I'm home with the three kids, babysitting an additional two, and trying to pack. Pete calls: the fixed the heat shield, didn't really see anything wrong with the exhaust, but there's a squeaking and squealing noise. They took it to the mechanic's, and the water pump is dying. And two front bolt springs (I think that's what they were??? Definitely part of the front suspension...) were completely broken and could cause real damage at any point....also known as, van isn't leaving the shop OOOOR going on vacation. Big $$$$$ flashed in front of our eyes!

So Pete and his dad checked into rental vans, and we didn't want to pay the price to rent one. We decided to take our car, and my in-laws graciously offered to take one of our kids in their vehicle so we wouldn't have to have three kids crammed in the back of our car. Thankfully we had fixed the car and it's issues earlier in the summer so all it needed was for the air conditioning to be recharged for it to be ready to go.

Even with all of the craziness and our plans going straight out the window, we are so thankful. We are glad Pete's dad had the wisdom and foresight to check our van, thankful there was space for Paige in their truck, thankful our friends and neighbors were able to look after our house, and just so thankful that we didn't try to take the van on vacation (we probably wouldn't have made it out of the state, or at least through Pennsylvania....it definitely wouldn't have made it over the bridges and bumps on the OBX island!).

We were able to leave our spotless house at 5:58 Friday morning (two minutes ahead of schedule!!!!), with Paigey securely in the back of her grandpa's truck and the boys snuggled in the back of our car. We were Virginia bound for the night, and were praying that all the bumps in the road were already behind us!

Up next: Friday afternoon fun in Virginia!

"Snow Day" Fun: Museum and Lunch

Last week the hubby and kiddos had Spring Break. We spent most of the week working on house hunting and projects, but squeezed some fun in as well. We also had a bonus vacation day: because the school only used 2 of their allotted snow days, everyone was given the Monday after Easter off as well! Woo hoo! After all of our hard work the previous week, we decided that we needed to have a family fun day.

We surprised the kids by taking them to the Buffalo Museum of Science. We have a membership, but hadn't used it here; Pete and I used it in New York City for our 10th anniversary in October at the Intrepid Air, Sea & Space museum, though! We had sooo much fun, and I took a bazillion pictures and movies. I'm trying to limit how many I share, so please bear with me if it seems overwhelming!

Me, being the nerd that I am, had to wear my super awesome space leggings:

We were greeted by this friendly guy!

The kids took turns trying to get the rocket to go all the way to the ceiling. They had to pull a lever back and forth to build up the pressure, and then there was a button to push to release the pressure and send the rocket up in the air. They never got it to ring, but they did get pretty close!

This guy cracked me up!

Mastodon!

My little paleontologists!

I'm such a goon. Like seriously, I was giggling forEVER because this sounded like one of the ridiculous names people call Benedict Cumberbatch!!!!

"Cumberland Monkeyface"

Me and my favorite kind of dino!

This thing is a fish skull! It is HUGE. Totally could have swallowed me up easily. It made us think about Jonah being swallowed up by a big fish!

Ry playing the world's largest playable guitar in the guitar exhibit:

Paigey practicing her surgeon skills! She had to control thread the rope through eyelets, and let me just tell you, it is NOT as easy as it looks!

This was really cool. You put your hands on the bar, and it would tell you your heart rate and then the glowing heart would light up, pulsing along with your heart!

I loved this little visual. Growing up I thought that there were little men operating an elevator, taking the food from your mouth to your stomach, so this just made me feel not as silly ;)

Building cars and racing them!

Paigey building towers, trying to see if they would withstand earthquake forces:

Daddy treated us to one of the 3D National Geographic movies! We saw "Asteriod", and it was pretty amazing what astronauts are working on now and in the future. Then we find out that a big asteroid was coming "close" to earth afterwards? It was so cool talking about what we had learned and why the astronauts weren't worried about it.

It was really nice that we went on a day where most kids were in school. The place was pretty deserted, so it felt like we had the place to ourselves most of the morning. We didn't mind that the kids would run off to explore as long as they were in the same room because it was so empty; that's one nice thing about them getting older, not having to watch them every single second!

There was sooo much else that we did, but I can't get the videos to play in here :( I may upload them all to YouTube and then do another blog post on it. We also weren't able to get to the fourth floor; they're working on putting in a new exhibit (all astronomy!), so we're definitely going to have to go back for that. 

After the museum, we went to Applebee's for lunch. Pete was given a gift card there from his swim team as a thank you for coaching them, so this was a really nice way to finish off our family fun time!

Ry and I played tic-tac-toe....

Nate loooved his chicken mac and cheese and steamed broccoli...

...and this was the "pretty" face I got from Paigey! She just wanted to get back to eating, silly girl!

It was a great way to end our vacation and celebrate all of our hard work. We are definitely looking forward to going back soon!

What is your favorite museum?

The Charcoal Corral and Drive In

About half an hour away from where we live is the Charcoal Corral and Silver Lake Twin Drive In. Pete and I try to get there at least once or even twice every summer for a movie, mini golfing, and ice cream. We usually go with our friends Stephen and Vanessa and pile pillows, bean bag chairs and blankets in the back of our van for the movie, along with tons and tons of food (which we rarely eat half of!). Sometimes we'll go with Pete's brother, but this summer was the first time we took our kids.

Paige and Nate had an awesome school year and their report cards were excellent, so we wanted to celebrate. When we heard that Despicable Me 2 and Monsters University were playing on the same screen on the same night, we knew we'd have to take the kids that week. The only challenge was that the first movie wasn't going to start until after 9...and our kids go to bed by 7. Eek!

Thankfully the kids took later rests/naps, and we were able to go :)

First stop? Picking up our extra cheese pizza at the Charcoal Corral for dinner!

Yummy pizza!!!

Then the kids got to play on the playground; in front of the screen are play areas with swings and slides for kids, and they had a blast. Paige found one of the girls from her class who moved away halfway through the year, so she was so excited about that! We had to pry them away from playing to get ice cream.

Amazingly enough, the kids were still going strong and bouncing off the walls by the time Despicable Me 2 started. We liked the movie, but think the first one was better. The kids were a little scared by the villain in the movie and the purple minions, but we're not sure if it was the characters that scared them or the fact that it was their first time seeing a movie on the big screen. Everything was bigger and louder than they're used to, plus there were fireworks going on at the lake nearby, so they weren't too sure about those, either.

The kids made it through Despicable Me 2, and Pete and I weren't sure if we were definitely going to stay for the second movie. We thought at least one of the kids would have fallen asleep, but they were all excited and begging to stay for the next movie...so we did! Monsters University was awesome, we all really enjoyed it. I thought it was as good as, if not better, than the first one.

All snuggled in the back enjoying their movie

All three kids stayed awake for the movie, and only Ryan fell asleep on the way home. We didn't arrive home until almost 1:30! We expected the kids to wake up early and be super cranky the following day, but two of them got up at 8:30 and the other didn't wake up until 9:30! They were actually in really good moods that day...

...and they're begging to go back again :)

Have you ever been to a drive in before?

Recap of Vacation

Last week was Spring Break for Pete and the kids.

We had some projects to accomplish, places to go, and things to do.

But Mommy got sick. And slept. A lot.

It was just a nasty head cold; I think I caught it because Ryan had a cold on top of his spring allergies, so he was up a lot over a few nights (anywhere from 2 - 12 times a night!).

Sleep deprivation + a sick kid = Sick Mommy.

I was sleeping 10 or so hours a night, then getting a 2-3 hour nap in for a few days. I don't remember the last time I had been so tired!

I felt bad that I put a damper on some of our plans, but then the weather didn't cooperate too well either.

Here's what we did do over our week together:

- Took inventory of what needed to be done this spring/summer in our side yard, and got started on the projects:

Berry patch, three garden beds, and our apple trees
before we started to work

- We redid our veggie garden plan for this year. We're now able to fit what was in our three beds into two of our beds, freeing up the third bed for transplanting our raspberries into part and then planting our blackberry bushes that we ordered in the other part of the bed.

- Ryan fell asleep on Daddy:

Love this :)

- We celebrated Easter:

So much for a pretty picture!

- I had a PLUS (it's our school's PTA/PTO) meeting at Tim Horton's on Tuesday. Luckily I was feeling well enough to go. It was nice to get out of pajamas and hang out with some other adults over coffee and put finishing details on some of the awesome things we'll be doing for Teacher Appreciation week in May :)

- I had some much needed Mommy and Ryan time; he was thrown off having everyone home, so he asked if I could play with him in his room, just the two of us. How could I refuse?

We built a train track together

- I worked at the library for a four hour shift on Wednesday. I LOVE libraries. I feel like I've grown up in one; my mom used to volunteer and then work in the elementary school's library when I was in school, then when I was in high school I began volunteering there as well. In college I worked at their library, and I think it's one of the best jobs I've ever had. Working at a library again, even just for an afternoon, recharged my batteries and I can't wait to fill in again next time I'm needed :)

- We celebrated a birthday!!!! We now have a three year old in the house :)

- We went to the aquarium for Ry's birthday:
 

The penguins are one of their favorites

- We went to our church's annual chicken barbecue and auction. The barbecue raises money for our youth group; they support a child through Compassion, and this helps them provide for their child's needs throughout the year. The auction raises money for short term missions that some of our church's members go on throughout the year. The auction raised about $5400, and was a blast, as always! The theme for the auction is always "bid high, bid often". It is rare to get a good deal on something; food items (cheese cakes, pies, cream puffs) usually go for $50+; cheesecakes tend to go upwards of $100! The only things we walked away with this year were an Almond Joy cheesecake (Pete always makes sure I win that!), an all in one seed started for basil and parsley (my basil didn't survive the winter, and my herb garden doesn't have parsley), and a raccoon hat and mitten set for Ryan.

- We had Ryan's birthday party:

Ryan and his Grandpa opening gifts

Things that didn't get done:

- Our playroom didn't get painted. However, Pete and I did plan out what's getting painted what color, where we need trim still, and I did rip up the carpeting from the stairs. The stairs are actually in better condition than we thought, so we get to save money there. Yay!

Before...

....and after!

- We wanted to go over to Pete's parent's house to shoot pistols; we've submitted our pistol permits and are waiting to receive them. We're in the market for a pistol, but as I've never shot anything but a BB gun, we want to see what we like and would be interested in purchasing. We can do this at another time, but we were hoping to shoot then go shopping over break.

- I didn't get any organizing done in the basement. Not even 5 minutes worth. Oh well!

All in all, we got a lot done. I always make these huge long lists of things do do over vacations, and get disappointed when not everything gets done. But the important things were taken care of: we spent time as a family :)


What have you been up to lately?

Summer Recap: Vacation - Crayfish hunting

When we were painting our counter tops, we stayed at Pete's parents for the week. I'm not sure if you'd really call it a vacation as we were 15 minutes from home and I was here a lot the first few days working on the counters, but it was so nice to get away, even for just a few days!

Day 1 of the vacation was pretty much spent painting the counters. Pete took the kids over in the morning while I taped up newspapers and prepped the counters, and we made it back for dinner.

Day 2 was sealing the counters in the morning and evening, and we went crayfish hunting in the afternoon! Not only had I not been crayfish hunting before, I had never even SEEN a crayfish! We went to a little creek not too far from my in-law's house, and it was so beautiful there.

Walking down to the creek

 The kids had a blast hunting and splashing, but it was frustrating because we couldn't find a single crayfish!

Hunting with Grandpa!

 Pete finally found one, but was having a hard time catching it. Around the time we were thinking about leaving, that's when all the crayfish decided to come out and play!

He's not afraid of a little crayfish!

He loved holding the bucket of crayfish!

 

You want me to do WHAT with that?

How much longer do I have to hold this thing!?!?

Dad found a big one!

That was just the start of our very fun, busy and stressful (not for reasons you may think) week with my in-laws! Coming up next: Wyoming County Fair!

***I hope the picture of Nate is coming through okay; it's not loading for me. Let me know if I need try again, please!


Have you ever been crayfish hunting?

Under Pressure: Migraines vs. Muckdogs

Earlier this summer, Paige and Nate took swimming lessons with a local rec program. One of the big events that the rec will do is go to a Batavia Muckdogs baseball game on a Tuesday night; every Tuesday the Muckdogs are home, the first 50 kids in the gate are free, and they try to arrange it so they go the night that the kids will eat free as well.

Unfortunately this year, our kids were miserable the day of that game, so we were unable to go. It didn't help that it was extremely humid and over 90 degrees that day, either!

The next available date we'd be able to go was last night, and the pressure was really on for all of us to be healthy and have great attitudes as it was the last Tuesday home game for the season. The kids had great attitudes all day. They were healthy. Only one problem:

Mommy had a migraine.

I don't get migraines often. I usually get one a month, and that's about it. So to get one Monday night was extremely unusual. It was even more unusual that it didn't go away after getting a decent night's sleep. Pete had a commitment yesterday morning, so I was home alone with the three kids. Usually they're monsters for me, but they played nicely together! All three of them rested well, which is even rarer than my migraines!

I was stressing because we really wanted to go to the baseball game, and the only thing holding us back was my headache. Nothing was working; my usual stand bys are chocolate and caffeine (cause they're yummy, so they come first!). If those don't work, I'll try a nap (I was passed out for THREE HOURS. I don't remember the last time I took a three hour nap!!!!). Then Tylenol (didn't even touch it). And if that doesn't work, Mommy just keeps to herself and has Daddy take over.

Eventually my head started to feel a little better around dinner, but my stomach was still off. The nap helped me be able to see without everything being blurry, but I was still really out of it. The kids kept asking me with big pleading eyes if we were going to the baseball game. What's a Mommy to do?

We packed up and went to the game.

Happy to be at the game!

Homer, the Muckdogs' mascot

We had a lot of fun; I was still a little out of it, but I'm glad we went. Watching the games always drive me nuts; I played softball for 7 years and was an assistant for an additional year due to physical issues, and playing softball was a passion of mine. As you notice from the pictures, the only pictures of Muckdog players are center field and 1st base players; that was done unintentionally, but those were the positions I played, so I'm biased to those being the best places to be!

First baseman catching a foul ball

Center fielder up to bat; I loved how low his stance was!

It was really confusing as both teams were wearing red jerseys and either white or pale gray pants; the kids were trying to root for the Muckdogs, but were rooting for both teams. At least they have good sportsmanship, right? 

Ryan loved the game!

Last year when we went, we left about halfway through the game (I think it was around the 5th inning). The Muckdogs were safely in the lead (it was like 8-0 or something crazy like that), and the kids were exhausted. This year we left as the 9th inning was ending; it was 9:30 (3 hours after the kids go to bed), and the kids were getting antsy. The game was tied at 2 runs each, so it drove me crazy not knowing who was going to win! According to the Batavia newspaper this morning, the Muckdogs lost 4-2 in the 10th inning.

Striking out a Spike player :)

The Batavia Muckdogs are a minor league team affiliated with the St. Louis Cardinals. All of their operations are run by the Rochester Red Wings. Last night's game was against the State College Spikes (also the team we saw them play last year), an affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates.


Have you done anything fun with friends or family lately?

Our trip to the zoo

I don't know about you, but whenever I return to my home town or to a place I visited when I was a child, I always feel bitter sweet. Things aren't exactly the way you remember them, but there's always this piece that stays the same. This past week I had a day like that when we went to the zoo I visited when I was a child.

On Thursday, my in-laws and J, a girl they were babysitting for the day, joined us as we headed off to the Seneca Park Zoo for the day. It was going to be an exciting trip, as not only was it Ryan's first time going to a zoo, but this was my zoo; no one else in Pete's family had been to this one before.

Upon arriving, my excitement diminished a little as Ryan wasn't acting his normally bubbly and cheerful self. I quickly brushed it aside as he's a very routine oriented child, and I just thought maybe his routine was off and that he'd cheer up as soon as he got inside.

Ryan enjoying the view on Daddy's shoulders

Our first stops were the tortoise, who was doing his morning laps, and a very sleepy snow leopard.

Tortoise out for his morning stroll

...happy kitty, sleepy kitty, purr, purr, purr...

Nate was super excited about everything at the zoo, and wanted to experience all there was available, including getting his picture taken all the time.

Our Boodlefly!

Pretending to be safari guides with Grandma

Posing with the rhino

He loved the tortoise shell!

Paige was excited to be with J, but impatient to get to all the animals. She wasn't thrilled when I stopped her to take her picture; there were just too many other things to see!

Really, Mom? A picture? Now??? I wanna see the elephants!

Paigey and J as Safari guides

Ryan was hanging in there; he was a little scared of the animals. He pictured them to be tiny, like in his books or the size of his toys. Seeing them so big and moving was a little intimidating! He also had a couple strange screaming outbursts, but they'd only last a couple minutes or so.

We couldn't find the gecko at first...then realized he was on the window!

The kids' first bald eagle!

Pete, his parents, and the boys looking at some turtles

There were a lot of little stations set up all around the zoo. Some of them were learning stations, where the kids would be able to feel various animal pelts or skins. One of the stations we stopped at had a stuffed crocodile, a snake skin, and a seagull wing for the kids to touch. Another one had a tiger's skull and pelt.

Looking at the stuffed crocodile and various skins and pelts

They also had areas where kids could create things for free. The kids got their faces (or arm) painted, and that made their day! I wasn't sure how Ryan would handle it as he was cranky, but he was a pro.

Nate with a yellow arm snake, just like the albino boa we had just seen

A happy little zebra for Paigey

Ryan as his favorite animal, the tiger

They love their face/arm paintings!

There also was a station later that I noticed in their new exhibit A Step Into Africa where the kids could make beaded bracelets. I would have loved to have the kids do that one, but by that time we had realized that Ryan's strange outbursts were caused by his having a flare up of a recurring health problem, and we had to cut our visit short.

However, we couldn't leave without visiting the baboons quickly! There were baboon babies, too.

A big baboon baby snuggling

Or the elephants! The kids loved watching an elephant get a bath. This elephant had been eating, but wanted to go back in the elephant house with it's friend (who was getting the bath).

Ry and I watching the elephant

Sometimes when we'd visit the zoo when I was a kid, my parents or grandparents would bring a lunch for us, and then we'd go to a little playground near the entrance of the zoo where we'd eat and get to burn off some energy. I had really wanted to take the kids there for lunch, but there was absolutely no place to park and the playground was crowded.

So we improvised: right at the entrance there were a couple benches in the shade, so we had our picnic lunch there. The kids were a little upset about no playground, but they understood and we enjoyed our lunch regardless.

A somewhat sleepy Nate enjoying the picnic in the shade

My goofy Monkey girl!

The trip home was long; Ryan screamed off and on, and traffic was crazy. We almost got into an accident, and even though we missed the exit we wanted, we made it home safely. Pete packed Paige and Nate up for piano lessons, and I tried to make Ryan as comfortable as possible. He finally napped, and once he woke up and the kids returned from piano, we relaxed with a movie night!

A much more content Ry with Paigey, watching their movie

Even though Ryan had a rough day and we weren't at the zoo for as long as I had hoped, it was still a great trip. The zoo has really updated some things (like the African exhibit), and we loved the little learning exhibits so the kids could see things and feel things up close. It was fun showing my kids the zoo I used to go to when I was their age (and I swear, the looks on their face were like “they had zoos when you were a kid?!?”), and although it was a little smaller than the zoo we're used to visiting, this one was laid out better (so it was harder to miss exhibits), and most of the time we were in the shade (perfect for a hot sunny day!). We're definitely looking forward to going back!

Have you visited any places from your childhood with your kids?