four days in Kansas

We took our last major excursion of the summer to Kansas to visit Andrew's family. The boys have grown so much in the two years since they've been them. I've been dreading the plane ride with the kids as Logan is not exactly 'sit still' material at 3, but they were fantastic both ways (note to self - always keep them separated for optimal behavior, bring a surprise bag of goodies and download lots of movies for the trip!). And hats off to United - both of our flights were on time, the flight attendants were great and paid special attention to the boys and we even got to see the cockpits up close! However, boo! hiss! to the $20 per checked luggage policy.

We stayed at a Embassy Suites, complete with pool and custom made breakfast each morning. Hotels are for kids what all night keggers are for college students - it just doesn't get any better! Running down the hallways, pillow fights, a million channels, and extra late bedtimes. And top it off with showering attention and sweets from loving grandparents, does it get any better?

And while Kansas might not be what you think of as an exotic, luscious and adventurous destination, I will say this. Wow, were the people nice! I mean, its totally true about the midwest hospitality. From the hotel staff to restaurant servers, and everyone in between, just really super duper nice and friendly. On a scale of niceness, Kansas people are way up there. And as another bonus, the weather was unseasonably cool, making it a pleasure to enjoy time outside and take a break from our humid and sweaty August Virginia weather.

Logan with Grandpa George...

Upon hotel check-in, it was off to the pool. Unfortunately, both boys had a mysterious episode of puking about 12 hours after their swim, thus resulting in a pool trust issue. We didn't venture back to the pool for the rest of the stay just in case. It was most unfortunate that Logan's puking episide took place down the front of my shirt, into my bra, after he had eaten macaroni and cheese and two cups of cherry Jell-O.

The next day, Grandpa George correctly thought the boys would enjoy some time at a fantastically kid-friendly arcade. Indoor glow in the dark putt putt, video games galore, train ride and go-karts. Fun for all ages! In total, we scored about 1,000 tickets which we turned in for some candy and a groovy fiber optic lamp for the boys room. We have Chuck E Cheese here, but this place was a million percent cooler, cleaner, and $50 worth of tokens lasted for hours.

Shooting the hillbillies!

Cycle boy strikes again..

If air hockey is a sport in college, Logan is going to major in it.

Of course being boys, they zeroed in immediately on Grandma Celia's treadmill and gave it a workout all weekend. Dylan had it going so fast I thought he would just fly right out the window. And Suki, the dog, decided to hop on with Logan:


The next day, under blue skies and 70 degree perfection, we all headed to an amazing children's farm called the Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead. There were so many things to do and see, three hours didn't even do it justice. Incredibly, this farm was built and its managed by the city, and it was FREE. Bottles to feed the goats were $1, and fishing was $3. If we had this place in Virginia, we'd be there every week.

First, we visited the old country schoolhouse:

Hopefully this is not a vision of things to come...

I'm gonna need more cowbell...

Feeding the goats..

Notice in this photo, Andrew is still, nonchalantly trying to feed the goats..

Riding the pedal tractors...


Doing a little fishing - "little" being the operative word based on the size of the fish! (Disclaimer for animal rights activists - all fish were uninjured and released. They would have not even made one fish taco.)



Taking a little horse drawn hayride with Uncle Alex..

And last but not least, a few rides down the barn slide.

There are so many more photos I could post, but these capture the bulk of our visit. Now we're back home in time for the final week of summer vacation. Its T-minus 7 days until the beginning of the school year and we have to get ready!

the good, the bad and the seedy

Ocean Seedy, that is.

Earlier this summer, I had a little vision to take the boys for a little family beach weekend. I found us a privately owned condo in Northern Ocean City, Maryland thinking we'd go spend some time in the surf and sand, gorge ourselves on soft ice cream and french fries, putt putt to our hearts delight and meandor down the boardwalk, take in some rides and show the boys the beach I went to growing up.

Sounded good. Except late last week, Hurricane Bill arrived on the scene and screwed up our little adventure. We made the best of it, but still ended up coming home a day early. Because when you're at the beach and can't actually go to the beach, there's only so many ways to entertain two active 6 and 3 year old boys.

Boy, Ocean City has sure seen better days. Maybe when I was younger, I just didn't notice the huge barefoot tattooed guys on the boardwalk wearing obscene t-shirts in broad daylight, or the mothers pushing their newborns in strollers while they chain smoked. Maybe back then I didn't mind sitting in bumper to bumper traffic where it takes 45 minutes to go 10 miles. Maybe back then, I just didn't know there were so many other beaches not too much further away that are much cleaner, more serene, more beautiful and not ... well, just not seedy.

I guess I'm a spoiled brat. For the past ten years or so, when we've had a seaside craving, we've escaped to the Outer Banks, NC, Cape May, NJ and Sandbridge, VA. Now I knew Ocean City wouldn't compare, but still, I didn't recall it being so - blech.

Anyway, we tried to make the best of it. And the beach snob in me knows we will probably not go back there again. Rehobeth, Bethany, Sandbridge, Outer Banks.... you all might be a little further but you're totally worth it. If I ever see a guy wearing a Harley shirt that says "My Other Ride Has Tits", I'll know I'm back in Ocean City.

The first night, we drove about 20 miles north to Rehobeth, DE. This is the beach I first went to as a child, when I was four and my brother was a newborn. This sign brings back so many memories. Rehobeth is delightfully family friendly.

Its also a popular gay destination which is pretty much a guarantee for cleanliness, tasteful gourmet restaurants (no all-you-can-eat mega barns here) and as a bonus, the kids rides on the boardwalk were awesome and inexpensive. Even the public bathrooms weren't too awful. We may just have to visit here again next summer.

Look how gigantic Dylan is in his boat. I'm surprised they let him on one.

Rehobeth boardwalk Pirate Blasta ... the boys could have played this all night.

Next, Dylan and I decided to ride the Sea Dragon pirate ship, and we both about threw up halfway through the ride. I've never seen him turn so many shades of green, and I was right there with him. Can't do rides like I used to. I took this while we were mid-air trying not to hurl.

Then it was back to our OC condo for some rest. Letting Dylan and Logan share a bed was not the best idea. No one got any sleep. Logan looks so innocent doesn't he? Don't believe it!

Once rested in the morning (or not) and amply stuffed with sucky Food Lion donuts, we packed up our towels, lunch, buckets, shovels, vests, drinks, and the other trillion things necessary to spend a day at the beach with kids, and headed to the beach. Except when we arrived, this is what we found:

Hurricane Bill caused massive coastline high tides and the water was all the way up to the condos. No sandcastles for us! The waves were huge, and the undertow too dangerous for the kids to even think about venturing in the water. Logan was ankle deep and a wave knocked him right over, to the extent that an older child near him ran over and pulled him up. We lasted about 15 minutes.

So, what do you do when the beach is out? Putt putt. I wish I had video footage of Logan golfing. Because if you could bottle up the level of determination that kid has to whack that golf ball, you could make a bazillion dollars selling it to junkies. At one point, either he hit himself or Dylan hit him in the face with a putter, his tongue was bleeding, but he could have cared less because he was so focused on whacking his ball. He never gives up. Even if it takes him 67 strokes to get it in the hole. I really hope we can help channel that determination towards something useful and productive as he grows older. Liking making us millionaires.



And as a bizarro side note, we couldn't help but notice every single (of the 500) putt putt places in Ocean City dye their water this electric neon blue color. I mean, who do they think they're kidding? I actually envisioned one of the kids falling into the water and coming out looking like an Easter egg, or better yet, turning into a giant blueberry like Violet Beauregarde.


We then braved the 145 block drive down Coastal Highway to take in the plight of the Ocean City boardwalk. We made a quick stop on 4th Street to show the boys the shack I lived in during college. I had a PR internship the summer between my junior and senior year at Towson State, and lived in this roach motel with 5 friends. It was some fine living, as you can see. Fancy! We had the bottom level with the porch, which we furnished with poposan chairs. I remember specifically there was a dead smashed cricket in our bathtub for almost the entire summer, no one ever thought to wash it off. And our laundry room had so many empty kegs in it, we could no longer wash clothes by the end of the summer. We had ribbons of dead fly paper hanging from the ceiling, since we had no A/C or screens on the windows. I probably could have a more civilized living experience joining the Peace Corps that summer, but then again, there would have been a lot less beer involved.



Showing the boys my old summer house led to a discussion of Ocean City Public Relations and Dylan helped us brainstorm their next campaign slogan. Ocean City .... Its Not Sooooo Bad!

At last the Ocean City boardwalk. Clearly, Dylan was doing his best to fit in by throwing out some gang signs.

The end of the boardwalk looking back up.

It wasn't a complete loss. We ended the weekend with some good ole' fashioned family skeeball and arcade fun.

So long, Ocean City of my childhood. I'll always have fond memories, or at least some really good beer goggle fuzzy ones.

19 days

We have a mere 19 days until school begins. I've been trying not to think about it too much, as it means our days will soon be starting MUCH earlier than they ever have before, there will be homework and lots of obligations we just haven't had to deal with since early last June. 19 days. We have two more trips planned this month, we're not letting summer end quietly.

Here's my list of what made this summer rock (other than some great vacations obviously):

1. Weekly playdates with Grandma Lynn. We've been able to swing a day with Grandma almost every week this summer. Most of our time together has been spent wrangling the boys thru Costco or Target while we ran errands, or at the pool. But its been nice spending so much time with Grandma since during the school year its not quite as easy.

2. Free movies. Our local movie theatre (and I'm assuming this is true all over the place) plays free kids movies twice each week during the morning. We've taken advantage of this whenever we've been able to this summer and met friends there, or gone solo. After the first trip of spending $20 in refreshments for a 'free' movie, I wised up and we brought our own snack stash in my bag. How can they justify $6 for a small popcorn and $4 for water? I don't feel even one bit guilty being a snack smuggler.


3. Our garden. Andrew did an excellent job planting our maiden garden and we've had tons of great veggies so far this summer. A few times I've pondered 'what's for dinner' only to suddenly remember there was broccoli or tomatoes ready to pick and all I had to do was walk out back!

4. Free summer concerts. We've attended many a free concert this summer and spent lots of evenings with friends, laughing kids, a glass of wine and great food, while rocking out to some good tunes. I'm really going to miss this when summer winds down.

5. My little rolling cooler. I know, it doesn't seem a likely candidate for this list. But I can't count the number of times we've loaded up that cooler with sandwiches and gone off to the pool or a park this summer. I could just pile our towel and toy bags on top of the cooler and wheel right on into the pool. Priceless!

19 days. Let's make them count.

the olden days

D: Mom, was I born in the olden days?

Me: No, the old days were before you were born.

D: Before I was born? What about Logan? Was he born in the olden days?

Me: No, the old days were before Logan too. Before you guys were here, there just used to be me and Daddy and we did whatever we wanted whenever we wanted. Those were the old days.

D: Like back when trains ran on coal?

Lake Anna Vacation

We kicked off our busy August - the last hoorah of summer - with our annual family trip to the Lake Anna lake house. We go every summer and spend a week with my Mom, stepdad, brother and his family, and my stepsisters and their families. This year we had 10 adults, 3 teenagers, 1 ten year old, 2 six year olds, 1 five year old, 3 three year olds and 2 infants. A housefull and a half for 9 days and nights!

Co-habitating with so many people can sometimes prove challenging no matter how big the house, (try making lunch all at the same time) but for the most part, everyone got along and we made memories and had a lot of laughs. We had plenty of activities this year including a kickball tournament, tetherball, moonbounce, fishing, after dark flashlight fun, a new tube to pull behind the boat (it said 4 person max, but we counted anyone under 4 feet tall as half a person), s'mores a plenty, crab feast, corn hole competition, and of course rotating turns on the boat, jet ski and just plain ole' lake swimming.

Dylan enjoyed driving the jet ski and boat, Logan had many turns on the tube behind the boat, and we all enjoyed a couple of deep water cove swims off the boat. The kids got to spend time and really bond with their cousins and other aunts and uncles they don't get to see often, and that's priceless. By Day Three, Logan and Maya were swimming out to the dive platform by themselves, climbing the ladder and jumping off. Josh enjoyed his first tube ride, too!

Logan looked punk rock when he got off the jet ski...

Dylan shows off his big catch...

And Uncle Chris shows off his...

Logan caught his very first fish...

Lots and lots of jet ski rides. The boys enjoy riding with Andrew more than me, since I don't do doughnuts.

During one particularly rough ride on the tube behind the boat, Granddad lost his glasses lens when we were all thrown off into the lake!

Dylan attached himself to the teenagers, and followed them everywhere.

The boys with Grandma Lynn and Grandpa Robby.

Cousins Maya and Josh.

Late night flashlight fun.

A fantastic week of family fun!

Don't You Forget About Me

This blog has become mostly a chronicle of the daily life with two little boys, our family antics and adventures, maybe a recipe here or there, and a few rants along the way. I don't often talk politics, philosophy, pop culture or movies. And we watch a lot of movies.

Today, the world lost one of my personal heroes from the film world, John Hughes. Only 21 years older than me, he wrote and directed the movies that spoke to me in my teens and 20's like no other director. His films filled my teen life with more quotes and more music than I can even remember. And to think he wrote these movies when he was in his 20's and early 30's is amazing to me. But it also explains how he so well captured the angst of high school stereotypes, and made adolescence a little more bearable for us all. His movies are a part of my history .. Soundtracks I can listen to and still remember how it felt to be sixteen, fragile and invincible at the same time .. Music that changed my entire world of music and opened my eyes .. Movies I can watch today and still laugh out loud every single time.

I'd be remiss if I didn't share a collection of some of my all time favorite John Hughes movie quotes and clips and bid him final farewell.

Pretty in Pink

Probably my all time favorite soundtrack!

I loved Duckie.

"We don't have none of this stuff in the boy's room! Wait a minute! We don't got none of this... we don't got doors on the stalls in the boy's room, we don't have, what is this? What's this? We don't have a candy machine in the boy's room!"

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

"Oh, he's very popular Ed. The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, waistoids, dweebies, dickheads - they all adore him. They think he's a righteous dude."

"You're Abe Froman? The Sausage King of Chicago?" ... "I weep for the future."

Here are some great one-liners from Ferris.

National Lampoon's Vacation

" This is no longer a vacation. It's a quest, a quest for fun. I'm gonna have fun and your gonna have fun. We're gonna have so much fucking fun they're gonna need plastic surgeons to remove the smiles from our fucking faces. We'll be whistling zippity-doo-dah out of our assholes."

The famous urine sandwich.

Poor doggy.

Roll'm up!

"Is that real tomato ketchup? Only the best, Eddie."

The Breakfast Club

"Screws fall out all the time; the world is an imperfect place."

"Well, well. Here we are. You have exactly eight hours and fifty-four minutes to think about why you're here. You may not talk, you will not move from these seats. Any questions?"

"Yeah. Does Barry Manilow know that you raid his wardrobe?"

"Don't mess with the bull, you'll get the horns!"

Wierd Science

"How about a nice, greasy pork sandwich served in a dirty ashtray?"

"You know, there's going to be sex, drugs, rock-n-roll... chips, dips, chains, whips... You know, your basic high school orgy type of thing. I mean, uh, I'm not talking candlewax on the nipples, or witchcraft or anything like that, no, no, no. Just a couple of hundred kids running around in their underwear, acting like complete animals."

And who could forget this scene?

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

The entire rental car scene makes me laugh out loud just thinking about it.

Sixteen Candles

Who can ever forget Long Duk Dong?

"What's your last name?" "Dong."

"What's your first name?" "Long."

"What's your middle name?" "Duk."

"What was he wearing? Well, uh, let's see, he was wearing a red argyle sweater, and tan trousers, and red shoes... No, he's not retarded. "

"You gave me a birth control pill? Do you know what that can do to a guy my age?"

"I really love Rudy. He is totally enamored of me. I mean, I've had other men love me before, but not for six months in a row. "

Some Kind of Wonderful

another great soundtrack

"And these children that you spit on as they try to change their worlds;are immune to your consultations, they are quite aware of what they are going through." -David Bowie

Thanks for the great movies John. We won't forget about you.

belly buster

OH but wait! Grandma Bobbie captured Andrew's trampoline triple lindy on video camera.

And we didn't have to call in the paramedics or the chiropractor. All those years of circus performing clearly came in very handy in developing this keen skill (and several margaritas didn't hurt either!).

cousin time

This past weekend, we hosted a bbq here as a chance to spend time with Grandpa Joe, Grandma Bobbie, Uncle Chris, Aunt Jessica, and Cousins Josh and Maya. We prepared a summer feast and enjoyed margaritas, while the kids splashed in the baby pool and bounced on the trampoline.

There is just simply nothing like watching your children play with your siblings' children. Its enough to make your heart hurt! When I was younger, I certainly never dreamt my brother and I would end up having kids the same age. The kids are done with babyhood and into preschool years now, and it just gets more and more fun. I love that they'll always be in each others lives, and I hope we always live close to each other.

Logan will do whatever Maya tells him to. Immediately. We really need to use this to our advantage and have her demand him to eat some green veggies.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of Uncle Chris performing his front flip, or Andrew doing his triple-lindy. Fortunately, no one had to call an ambulance.

Cherry Jello!

Can you share a chair?