A Trip to Remember

Well, summer is nearly to that point where it goes into hyper-speed. We've just returned from our family vacation, and I think it's time for another rambling post to record all of those wonderful and (more frequently) humiliating moments.

Eric and I took a weekend trip to New York at the beginning of the month and had a great time. We saw Philip Seymour Hoffman play Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman--he was fantastic, as was the rest of the cast. And we had a long night out at the W hotel with Alex, Eric's friend from college.

When we got back we had some time to work in our garden, play with the neighborhood kids, and pack up for our next trip, the Hill family vacation. We spent a couple nights with my family on the way to Gatlinburg, where we stayed in a huge three-story vacation house in the Smoky Mountains. Some highlights were the hikes we went on. We saw three different waterfalls; Auden splashed around naked in a freezing stream; we saw tons of salamanders, even three different varieties of them. Logan rode his first go-cart solo in Pigeon Forge. He was a surprisingly cautious driver, even when the ride attendant tried to mix things up by racing him. Auden's two-year molars are coming in, so he's been rather moody and hasn't slept well; fortunately, we had a king-size bed where all four of us slept for a couple of nights.

It was fun to see that our kids and Jackie's Isabel are starting to play together really well. When we asked Logan what his favorite part of the trip was, he said, "Playing with Isabel."

We just hadn't had enough vacation yet, though, so we saddled up and headed to Cavern City, KY, to see Mammoth Caves. Boy, was that a mammoth surprise. We went on a two-hour evening tour. It was an easy walk, but Auden was in a full-on screech mode and Logan was whining about being tired and his belly hurting. Eric and I carried the boys the whole way, and we held our breaths and tried to appease screeching Auden with suckers when the tour guide, who really liked to hear himself talk, gave his spiel about the history of the caverns. We hung back at the back of the group with the back-up tour guide and asked if we could turn around. Things really weren't working out. Besides, the head tour guide had said Giant's coffin was the last place we could turn back. "No," said the back-up guide. "We're a little more than halfway through. Sorry." Great.

On we went, trudging our children along down a dark, damp stairway when Logan starts to complain that he thinks he feels sick. Great. We're in a cave, for chrissake. But at the foot of the staircase were rows of benches, a more formal location for the chatty tour guide to do his thing. Everyone was seated, waiting for him to begin, and here's Logan, feeling sick. Back-up tour guide raced with Eric to a trash can, which was tantalizingly close, just past the stage area. But, alas, they were too late. With about 20 feet to go, Logan threw up right in front of our seated tour group. There's nothing like hearing your kid's vomit splatter on a cave floor, then an awkward silence, then hearing chatty tour guide at a complete loss for words finally say, "Well, that was...Uh, let's just move along to the next site."

I've been toying around with six-word memoirs lately. I have a new one to add to my collection: My kid befouled a national park.

Logan felt great after the whole getting sick in fantastic fashion, and we made it out of there alive. The next day we stayed in a really nice cabin in Shawnee National Park in Southern Illinois. We swam in the lake there and went for a nice hike, again lugging both children along. Saw a turtle and two lizards skittering around. We were supposed to stay a second night and then stop back at my folks' but what with Logan's belly still in an uproar and Auden and us tired and cranky, we decided to head for home a little early.

The boys were great on the car ride back. They even stayed awake to see their kitties and could hardly settle down for sleep. Our garden exploded and the weeds had started to claim more territory, just as they do when we leave for vacation every year. What with it being so dry, though, we were thankful our neighbors had watered for us so that we didn't come back to crispy plants. In fact, I pulled a quarter of a gallon bag's worth of sugar snap peas (our first harvest of those this year--the rabbits have always eaten them to the ground every year before) and a couple meals worth of green beans, as well as some broccoli. Logan even ate the peas, and Auden was eating them as fast as I could pick them. "Nummy Nummy!" he said, shaking his head with a smile. I love summer.

Talkin' Auden

Auden is in that fun parroting stage, where he can repeat back just about anything you throw at him. It's fun, but sometimes causes some confusion because when you ask him a question, he spits back a version of what you asked him, which is not very helpful at all in ascertaining what he wants. He's excellent at saying "sorry," but then again he has had lots of practice with that word. Being a rough kid, he tends to jump on your gut when you're relaxing in a reclined position or he smashed his head into your face when he's trying to snuggle up. Any time you say "Ow!" he immediately follows up your exclamation of pain with "dahwy," Audenese for "sorry."

He's also taken over Logan's old trike and pushes it along with ease. He even pushed the pedals a bit by himself yesterday. It's amazing how fast he's growing.

Zombie Island

For some reason, the flags were flying again at a local park today. Memorial Day was the last time we saw them, and with that came the discussion about remembering soldiers who died serving our country, describing what happens in war and explaining it's a terrible thing. So of course Logan now associates the flag only with soldiers dying. "Well, yes, we fly the flags to honor soldiers who died, but the flag also stands for our country and the good things our country represents, like being free to do and say what we want without getting in trouble for it...usually."
The conversation then spiraled to where we live--our city, then our state, then our country, then the world, and I asked him, "Do you remember any other countries or continents in our world?"
He replied, "I know Zombie Island."

Ahhh, summer break is tantalizingly close...Today the boys and our neighbor's little girl spent some time playing in the sprinkler. What a blissfully simple time...the squealing, the laughter...

After they dried off, we helped daddy in the garden. Weeding, setting up our irrigation hoses. The boys played in the sandbox only moments until Auden launched a few handfuls of sand into big brother's face. So, he was relegated to the yard. Of course, he wandered into the garden to sit between one of the rows of plants. The next time I looked up to see what he was into, I saw he was eating clods of dirt just as happily as though they were chocolate cookies. Now I have to look up the likelihood of his contracting a tapeworm or something of that ilk.

Snoring toy

I've been trying to liquidate the ridiculous amount of toys we have accumulated the past four years. After Logan turned four this month, it seemed especially urgent that I do this, so I thought I would collect and bag up the toys that were seldom used. The boys would never notice, right? I had grand visions of making a killing by having a yard sale early this summer.

Of course, Logan broke into the storage last week and emptied all of my work onto the basement floor. "These toys are great!" he says. Ah, the novelty of it all...Days later I managed to pack up the toys again. Two toys make annoying noises; amazingly, their batteries haven't run down and I see no way to shut them off. If you hit them a certain way, one of them makes a snoring noise, one sounds like a dump truck. My parents are visiting this weekend, and I could see they were a little concerned with the piles of things that have accumulated in our laundry room. Among the accumulated piles are the toys...and, of course, the perpetual piles of, duh, laundry that always has to be done. Anyway, my mom and I were talking in the laundry room where I had left the toys, and the snoring toy kept going off. We asked Logan which toy made the snoring noise. "That's Papa George!" he said. Pretty funny.

And the question remains, should I have a yard sale, or should I just stop kidding myself, take those bags of toys to Goodwill and be done with it!?

Go, Karate Kid! And other miscellaneous updates...

Last week the boys and I went to visit one of my college roommates and her little girl. Claudia, my friend's daughter, is three months older than Auden, but as an only child and a particularly petite one at that, she is still a little hesitant to navigate new territories. The new territory in her living room was a toddler slide. It was maybe three-feet tall, had a little platform at the top of the stairs. Of course, the boys were all over it after we had had our dinner. Both of them climbed up onto the platform and Auden, sitting at the top of the slide, allowed Logan to go by just so he could push him down the slide. The two were cackling like a couple of maniacs. It was just a matter of time for Claudia to get in on the action, really. My friend was complaining that she always has to pick Claudia up, place her on the slide, and help her down. "Just give her time," I said. "I think the boys will show her how it's done." Lo and behold, she made her first trip up the ladder and down the slide on her own. She clapped her hands and said, "Yay!" So we all cheered along with her. "Yay, Claudia!" But for Logan, it became, "Yay, Karate Kid!"

Since I'm making a post and I have several things to update, I'll just start with another story from three weeks ago. Eric signed up to do the Warrior Dash in Lake Geneva, WI. We hopped in the car to stay in a nice hotel with a fantastic water park that was adjacent to the resort where we stayed. When Logan saw the massive waterpalooza, he was a little at a loss for words. He just kept saying, "Oh my gosh!" There was a splash park, complete with three slides and kiddie swings; a lazy river; two huge water slides; an indoor-outdoor hot tub; a 5' pool with an obstacle course, slide, and basketball hoops. All in all, it was pretty cool. Logan and Auden both enjoyed the splash park, though it was a little cold, but he had a blast going down the big water slide. He could go down it if we used these two-seater tubes. Before we launched ourselves down the slide, I was thinking it would be a fairly tame ride, but tame it was not. We were hurtling through the twisting, dark tunnels at mock speed, while Logan, who had already gone twice with Daddy, was squealing and giggling like a little girl. As soon as we splashed into the pool, Logan turned and said, "Let's go again!" I can see swim lessons are going to be a necessity this year, as Logan almost leapt into the deep pool without his floaty belt. I think he's getting a little over-confident around the water. Hopefully this year, he'll learn to swim more independently.

Auden loved the water, too. We took him down the kiddy slides, which he loved, and he had fun splashing around. We also took him down the lazy river, which was a nice, relaxing trip. We were thinking the pool time would wear the boys out and they would sleep like babies...Unfortunately, that's not how it worked out. Both of them woke several times through the night and I was a little crabby the next day, not really in the best of spirits to lug the boys through the Warrior course.

Eric trudged through fake snow, mud, water, and more mud to complete his race. Of course, he didn't train all that much but still finished the race looking like he had just taken a jog--a wet, muddy jog--around the block. Eric's parents were with me--thank goodness! And helped wrangle the boys. They both did well at first, but then they tuckered out and became little beasties. Auden started screaming and flailing each time I tried to pick him up. We ended up at the bounce gym and slide, which made their time at the race (and mine) much more enjoyable.

The next week was Logan's birthday at our house. All of Eric's family, my parents and brothers, and some friends from the block were in attendance. Fortunately, the weather was nice so we could spill out some of the crowd into our backyard. We had an Easter egg hunt for the kids, which was pretty successful. I think I'll make a tradition of that--I'm not that inspired to come up with party games, but an egg hunt is a relatively hassle-free way to entertain the little ones...aside from stuffing the eggs. Thanks, mom, for helping! And thanks, Sue and Jackie, for bringing some! Logan was so intent on finding an egg by our pine tree that he smacked his forehead into the trunk. Auden did really well for himself. He actually found several without too much help, and he didn't look to see what was inside them, so he maintained his focus. That is, until he happened upon a jellybean-filled one that popped open. Then it was time to open the eggs rather than find more.

We went to church the next day and had mom, dad, and Greggie over for some fruit and quiche. And that was our Easter!

Just one final story I didn't witness first-had, but Dawn shared it with me, and I thought it was cute, so here it is: Logan was anxiously waiting for Kaleb to get to Dawn's the other day. Dawn kept telling him to be patient and assured him that "Kaleb will be here any minute." Logan looked at her, sighed in frustration and threw up his hands, saying, "But I just don't know which minute that will be!" Ha.

Happy birthday, Logan!

You seemed so fragile when you were my teeny tiny baby four years ago. Now you're my super hero cheetah who flies down the sidewalk as fast as a...well, as fast as a cheetah. You're curious and opinionated, caring and hilarious. I'm so very proud of you and thankful you're ours. Happy birthday.