Our summer vacation could have started with disaster if not for the forgotten carrots.

See what I did there? You're hooked now!

Well, we were leaving on a Saturday morning about  9 a.m. with about 5 hours of driving in the first leg of the trip. I'd packed a picnic lunch in the cooler with plans to stop when we got hungry, not exactly sure when or where. After John pulled the loaded car out of the garage, I pulled the second car in for safe-keeping while we were gone. I hopped back in the wagon, hit the garage door remote and we were off. About a mile later, and before we hit the Interstate, I remembered I'd forgotten to put the carrot sticks in the picnic cooler. Since we were still so close, we decided to go back rather than let them rot in the fridge while we were gone. 

At home we discovered our garage door standing wide open.  Now, truth be told, we have inadvertently left it open overnight before and nothing has happened. And several of our neighbors knew we were going to be gone and probably would have closed it for us. But still...potentially leaving your garage open to your unattended house for a week? Relieved we didn't. The carrots were also a delicious addition to our picnic.

Turned out we got hungry around Fort Dodge, so we thought, "Hey, the kids would get a kick out of seeing the old fort and we can have our picnic there." Unfortunately, we happened to arrive smack in the middle of Frontier Days, the only time all year you have to pay to enter the grounds. We weren't planning to stay long so we opted out of the $5 per person festival fee and used GPS to navigate to a playground. The kids dashed off to play while I laid out the picnic. Then the raindrops began. At first it seemed like a sprinkle light enough to ignore. But as the intensity increased, we threw everything back into the cooler and ran for the car. It didn't last long though and the kids ate enough in the car to ignore the rest and head back to play as soon as the sun came out.

Lake Okoboji view

After about an hour we packed up again and continued on to Iowa Lakeside Lab, our first stop. This is a field station operated by Iowa's three public universities, and the current leadership is interested in developing a broader scope of programming than the traditional nature/ecology classes and research. We had met the director (a U of Iowa biology professor) at a party this winter and he and John had corresponded about John coming up to see the place and consider partnering on writing workshops. Since it was not at all out of the way to head to South Dakota via Okoboji, we made plans to stay there for our first night. They put us up in a very nice two bedroom house (donated to the lab by a family with lakeside property when they decided to upgrade to a fancier house) and even invited us to share in their weekly cook-out for students and faculty.

In the photo at the top of the post, the boys are following a "treasure hunt" tour of the grounds with instructions to help find a series of animal print stamps to collect on your map. They LOVED this, although they were a bit disappointed not to find actual treasure at the end. (State budgets, boys.)

The next day we barreled all the way across South Dakota to arrive at Custer State Park the first of our three-night reservation in Blue Bell Lodge cabin.

On the way we stopped at 1880 Town, where the boys proved they would have fit right in to pioneer life--as the outlaws! Just kidding!

O-ho the Wells Fargo Wagon is a-comin' down the street,
Oh please let it be for me!

Wetting our whistles with a little Sarsaparilla

Dueling pianos

Glad our school has more than one room!

 With our final destination entered into the GPS, we continued on to Rapid City and then South toward Rushmore and Custer State Park. I was surprised at the route the GPS selected as I would have done it differently based on the paper map, but who am I to question the omniscience of Google, Siri and whoever else was steering us?

Well, I am a woman who reads maps, and we should have gone my way. When the GPS announced, "Your destination is on the right" and we looked up to see an empty lot, we were disappointed to say the least. At this point we'd been on the road eight hours and were more than ready to stop. The boys were entertained alternately by their DVDs, DS & LeapPad as well as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on CD.

It ended up taking another whole hour to get to the Lodge and then the friendly staff nodded knowingly when we'd told them of our GPS problems. "Yeah, we've heard that from others." OK, well, here's an idea then, PUT A WARNING ON YOUR WEBSITE!

But we got over it, and were able to enjoy a buffalo burger dinner on the patio while the boys ran around to burn off that all-day-in-the-car energy, stopping back from time to time for bites of dinner.

The cabin itself was very nice--spacious and comfortable with central heating (which would unexpectedly turn out to be very handy) a fireplace, kitchenette, and full bath with tub.

So about that heat--you may notice that we are all basically wearing the same clothes in all of these pictures. As it turned out, the weather forecast was adjusted downward by about 10 degrees between the time we packed (Friday night) and the time we arrived (Sunday.) We only brought one sweatshirt each, and ended up wearing them pretty much every day. Not that I'm complaining--the weather was truly lovely no warmer than mid-60, and we were warm at night (mid-30s!) in our cozy cabin. We just weren't quite prepared.

We headed out to Mt. Rushmore right away the next morning and were pleasantly surprised to discover that the road we took offered spectacular views along the way. There were three places where they'd blasted tunnels to put the road through, and as you entered, you could see the faces of Rushmore perfectly framed through the tunnel. Stunning!

First view from entrance to the Hall of Flags

Did you know that the sculpture originally
was supposed to be more than just the faces?

Friendly fellow tourist took a family shot,
but didn't get the mountain.

John got us all.

 The boys were a good age for this experience--old enough to hike around the full path and even have some interest in the museum display in the artist's studio, and young enough not to dismiss it all in pre-teen angst. We'd read several books about Mount Rushmore in the weeks leading up to the trip, so they were excited to see the real thing.

From there it was down to the city of Keystone for lunch and a few other tourist stops including the Big Thunder Gold Mine and the Alpine Slide. Our mine tour group was small enough that the guide (a college student studying to be a history teacher who reminded me a lot of my cousin Mike) let the boys climb into the cart for a picture.

 He also knew just what details to emphasize--ask them about the "honey cart." Then there was panning for gold afterward and we did manage to come away with a few flakes as souvenirs.

Kind of regretting not buying these

After mining, we headed up the street a bit to the Rushmore Alpine slide. You ride a chair lift up and then careen down on a flimsy scooter--whee! Edward was old enough to ride solo, but we did not inform him of this. He and John rode first and then captured a picture of Daniel's and my descent. Good fun for all!

 

Then it was back to the cabin to wait for our Chuckwagon dinner departure. Daniel fell asleep on the way, which was good, but then we saw our first buffalo in the park and our excitement woke him up, which was not. I tried to tell him that the buffalo woke him, but he said, "No, Mom. YOU woke me up." I consoled myself with how much worse it would have been if he found out he'd missed seeing them. If we'd known how many more we would see (he "counted" 183 over the three days) we would have tried to keep a little quieter about it.

Different buffalo sighting--stopped to wait for them to cross the road.

The Chuckwagon Dinner involved a hayride to an open valley (billed as "closed to the public; open only to dinner guests) where a steak or burger dinner was served at picnic tables while two singer/guitarists entertained us with country/Americana music. The musicians also entertained during the hayride, which lasted an hour. John was aghast to discover the next day that the wagon ride was an hour by design, not necessity as we happened to drive past the access road to the private valley mere minutes from our lodge departure point.

All guests were issued hats and bandannas, which were more popular with some members of our group than others. Daniel very kindly gave his bandanna to the son of the singer when they were all playing cowboys after dinner. But we're pretty sure that three bandannas and four hats will carry us through.

After that busy day, we were very glad for our cozy cabin and slept well.

Ahead of the trip, John and I talked about the "divide and conquer" method of preserving family harmony. On our last trip, this meant splitting two-and-two, but this time we were able to give John a few hours of actual vacation respite (quiet reading time) when the boys and I took a horseback trail ride. By sheer luck, we were the only guests on our ride and had two guides assigned to us--one to lead and the other at the side, which was very helpful when Edward dropped his reins when his horse (Wild Bill) suddenly lowered his head for a tasty grass snack.

I was never so proud as when the guide observed, "Wow, I've never seen kids who talk as much about pee and poop as your boys!" Well, I mean, those horses weren't very modest after all.

Daniel insisted that this was NOT his first time riding a horse, because he once rode in a pony ring at a church carnival in Skokie, IL. I did not try to argue the point. First time or not, they were both thrilled with the experience. They did not seem to feel the same posterior effects as I did, this being my first horseback since my scouting days 30 years ago (oy!) I also found the stirrup forced my knee to an uncomfortable angle. But all in all, a great experience.

Luckily, our afternoon plans called for a trip to Hot Springs to visit Evan's Plunge, a spring-fed indoor pool/water park. Good fun, warm water, strange time-capsule-ish place. (No pictures)

On the way back we thought about visiting Crazy Horse, but decided to make a u-turn and leave rather than paying the $27 entrance fee. We knew we didn't have the time or energy to make it worthwhile, though we acknowledge that our fee would have supported ongoing efforts to complete the monument.

We stopped in the town of Custer for groceries before heading back into the park for our cookout dinner. It was still quite chilly, but took the opportunity of this long stretch back at the cabin to make use of the guest laundry and wash the jeans and sweatshirts we'd been wearing for three straight days. The fire kept us warm.

The next day it was time to pack up and start the trek back toward home. We ate a big breakfast at the lodge and then headed out via the "wildlife loop" in Custer State Park, which turned out to be more "loop" than "wildlife." We saw a few more animals, but ultimately, probably would have preferred a more direct route. Full of pancakes and french toast, the boys did not appreciate the winding road.

We headed back up to Rapid City, where a few more tourist stops awaited including, Bear Country U.S.A., which is essentially a drive-thru zoo. This is where you can be quite glad that we've moved beyond the days of slide projectors and endless vacation reels. These three photos are a mere fraction of those we took, all of us fascinated by the opportunity to be so near to these huge animals. Edward and Daniel took turns taking pictures out their windows, passing Edward's Nintendo DS back and forth depending on which side had a better view. Edward will be happy to show these to any interested viewers.

From there, it was on to Storybook Island, a very nice park built and supported by the Rapid City Rotary. Even though it was lunch time, the boys were more interested in playing than eating the picnic we packed so they tumbled through the park discovering all the nursery rhyme and fairy tale themed playthings.

Daniel tumbling with Jack & Jill

Boys climbing on Pete's Dragon

Daniel assaulting Mary, whose lamb seems unconcerned

Crooked boys in the crooked house

Self-portrait by Daniel

By mid-afternoon we were ready for our final destination--our overnight hotel with its attached water park. This was where John took his turn solo with the boys while I enjoyed the quiet room (and opportunity search for and reserve the next night's hotel in Omaha, which I'd neglected to do before departure. Details, details.)

The water park was a HUGE hit, even after having been to one the day before. Edward was happiest pulling himself along on this rope climber with floating pads, though he took a fair number of turns down the slides.

Daniel was ALL about sliding, racing up the three story stair tower each time he extricated himself from the splash pool. He had no use for the "kids slide" area, though before I got there, they did take a few turns down those smaller slides, including one that slid through the adjoining restaurant (very good planning to limit that exposure to kids only; you know the adult views would surely put people off their appetites!)

 

 

Water park aftermath

It was quite an effort to get up and out as early as we needed to the next morning to have time for a stop in the Badlands before heading all the way across South Dakota for our planned dinner with John's cousins in Omaha. Have I mentioned how WIDE South Dakota is? O.M.G. Thank goodness for the 75 mph speed limit (which may or may not have been strictly observed.)

The Badlands were quite stunning and the boys really enjoyed climbing on the rock formations. We definitely would have spent more time if we'd stopped on the first day instead of the last. We did beg the forgiveness of our generous cousins who held off on their own dinner while waiting for us to get there about an hour after our original plan. (We'd called from the road with updates.)


Over the course of the trip, we kept an eye out for license plates. Daniel has a particular interest and often points out non-Iowa plates at home. Aunt Nora got him this game for Christmas last year (at my suggestion) and he was quite pleased with how many we found. (Full disclosure, by the end of the trip, I was the only one still playing.)

All but Hawaii, Alabama, Vermont, Maine,
Rhode Island, Delaware and Washington, D.C.

All said, it was a great vacation, with lots of memories we hope will last. Many friends recalled their own childhood trips fondly when we told them where we'd been and said they'd like to go again with their kids. Here's hoping Daniel and Edward feel the same in 30 years.

Daniel's tee-ball coach had to chuckle as they came off the field the other night. He came over and said to us, "Did you hear what he just said?"

Apparently the coach had asked Daniel why he wasn't looking when a teammate threw the ball to him at first base. His deadpan response: "I am absent-minded."

In the same inning, a player on the other team became upset when he was tagged out. Daniel's description was more precise: "He is enraged!"
(In this program, all the members of each team get a turn to bat each inning, but they still try to practice force outs or tags. This is rare, however, so it's not surprising that the kid thought it was unfair.)

In a follow up conversation, Daniel explained how he knew the word "enraged."
"From Moby Dick--he is enraged and furious!" (We recently had a children's picture book re-telling of Moby Dick--linked above--from the library.)

We have had a very busy spring with both boys in soccer (different leagues, different parks) and Edward playing baseball for the first time. Three afternoons a week one or both boys have practice or game in the 5 o'clock hour. Because Edward's baseball games usually don't get done until close to 7 p.m., I try to give the boys an early dinner around 4:30 so they'll be fueled for their activity and also so we don't have to stay up too late eating right before bed.

I haven't succumbed to the drive-thru culture yet, but I definitely understand it better than ever before. If it didn't require driving completely out of the way from home to park, I'd be more tempted. But we've been managing pretty well with the crock pot and with left-overs from the few nights we're home to cook an actual meal.

I do feel like I'm always rushing them though. Precision timing is not their forte. They have no understanding that staring at their shoes for 5 minutes before actually putting them on throws off the delicate balance we're trying to achieve.

Daniel for one, is finding it all a bit exhausting.

On Friday he fell asleep in the 15 minutes it took to drive from our house downtown to pick up John and then on to Edward's baseball game. We executed a stealth drop off of John and Edward, and then I just kept driving for another 20 minutes while he slept. I'm not a big fan of driving, but let me tell you I relished those 20 minutes of total silence! Once he woke up we headed back to the park where he flew up and down the path on his scooter while Edward's team got clobbered despite Edward's consistent hitting. He's not alone among his teammates in short-attention-span fielding. In fact he almost got brained by a line drive while he was playing second earlier in the week. Totally wasn't paying attention to the hitter and only noticed the ball just in time to duck out of the way.

Edward at soccer:

Daniel at Edward's soccer:


(P.S. He dressed himself this morning. He thought the brown stripe socks went well with the brown stripe shirt. I had to check myself and admit that I was wrong to suggest he change to white socks. Who does it hurt?)

The boys were so excited about the Mother's Day gifts they made at school they couldn't wait from Friday afternoon to Sunday to give them to me. Edward made a photo holder and two nice "I love my mom because" fill in the blanks. Daniel made a pot holder with his hand print on it. He's seen the box in which I've stashed various keepsakes, most of which are hand prints, and is a bit conflicted about whether he wants me to use it for hot pots or put it in the box. For now it's hanging on the fridge by a magnet.

Maybe next year for Mother's Day they'll get a bigger chair!

Well, I got my rhododendron picture after all. I guess it's survived an Iowa "spring" before and will do so again.

May 1, 2013

It was so bright Daniel had trouble keeping his eyes open

May 2, 2013

Extreme grandparenting

I took the first picture because I knew that something like the second would happen. I've gotten the boys' picture with our front-door rhododendron most of the years we've lived in this house, but this year, there's a good chance it will freeze before it's in full bloom. So I snapped this picture on the way out the door before school. Before school, first thing in the morning, it was warm enough for shorts.

 But later in the day, as we were watching Edward's baseball game (two hits, woo!) the cold front started moving through and by this morning it was back to winter coats. At Daniel's soccer game time it was about 45 degrees. Thankfully, his game ended before the rain started. I had left by then to take Edward to soccer practice, which extended into the rainy evening. Thankfully (again) it is possible, acceptable even, to observe practice from one's warm, dry car.

Daniel, commenting on Edward's incessant humming: "Wow, he sure loves music."
John (in jest): "Yeah, maybe he'll be a professional musician one day."
Daniel, takes a moment to consider: "Then maybe I'll be a professional talker. 'Cuz I sure do LOVE to talk!"

Yes, yes you do. Case in point, yesterday at the Hawkeye Spring Game (intra-squad scrimmage; admission price was a can of food for the local food bank) we had not been in our seats for 5 minutes before I turned to Daniel with an exasperated, "Daniel! How many questions do you think I can answer? I should be counting them to see how many!"
Daniel, in response, with zero irony: "How many has it been?"

A-freakin'-LOT!

In his defense, it was a little confusing to watch the Hawkeyes play the Hawkeyes. And they had a kind of wacky scoring system so that the defense had a chance to get some points on the board. All in all, it was a lovely day to be outside, the boys got closer to the field at Kinnick Stadium than they'll ever be again, and John and I earned another year of "No WAY are we paying to take you to a game when you can't even pay attention for 10 minutes."

Later in the day, the boys and I took a bike ride and ended up running into some friends headed in the opposite direction. We turned around and went with them to their destination park and the boys all had fun playing together (these are friends with boys the same ages as ours; the younger is in preschool with Daniel.) The allure of the creek was strong and despite being told three times not to go in, Daniel and Drew ended up with full mud immersion. I do try to be patient about the love of mud, and I was much more calm about this one than the first thaw mud experience this spring which necessitated washing all the winter outerwear on an already busy evening.

However, I did tell Daniel that if he wants to play in the mud we have to be better prepared with the right gear--e.g. boots or water shoes. I was particularly dismayed at the mud-covered brand-new (three weeks) tennis shoes.

Fortunately, after a dip in this bucket, the uppers were mostly mud-free. However, we're pretty sure that every time they get even remotely wet (dewy grass, rainy day, etc.) the mud will ooze from the bottom resulting in black socks. Oh, well. Daniel himself stripped to underwear behind our front bushes, washed his hands and feet in the bucket and then went straight to the shower.

And for a bit of equal time, here is Edward with his quint-plane--five paper airplanes all attached together. It will come as a surprise to no one (except its creator) that this plane did not fly far. But there was joy in its creation and that of the dozens of other planes flying around our back yard this afternoon. Two fabulous spring days in a row on a weekend. What a gift!

Time for dinner and then a bike ride for ice cream. We know enough to enjoy it while we can. By the end of the week it's back to 50s and rain.

Yesterday started out below freezing--you know, typical April. I asked Daniel if he wanted to go out to get the paper and he responded, "No, it's too cold!"
Disappointed, I said, "Well then why do I even keep you around."
He deadpanned: "Because I'm good for other things...like cleaning toilets."

In his defense, it was quite cold. I outfitted him for Edward's soccer game in his warmest winter coat, snowpants and boots. This did not prevent him from climbing all over the playground, but he did find it was a little more difficult to crawl through tight spaces (like this web climber) with all that extra padding. He never said he was cold though!

After the game, we visited our local bike library and found a bigger bike for Edward. People donate old bikes that the volunteers fix up and sell. Most kids bikes (including ours) are $10. Budget friendly! That allowed Daniel to upgrade to Edward's former bike and we'll soon bequeath the smallest in our armada to a younger friend.

 By the time we got home for riding, it had warmed up to the 50s--sweatshirt weather.


Later in the evening, we were reading a book about Mt. Rushmore in preparation for our summer vacation. The story noted that the sculptor and his family moved around for his work to several states including Georgia.

Daniel: "Georgia!! She's famous--you know Georgia from Yo La Tengo. They named a whole state after her!"

John has been conducting music appreciation with Daniel on Wednesday evenings when I take Edward to religious ed class.

Last week Daniel's school had its annual music concert. I was not expecting to be the videographer, so this is not high quality, but I imagine it will suffice for the limited audience. One of my colleagues who has an older child at the school was using a much better camera with an aisle seat and a tripod. If he ever posts better video, I'll link. In the meantime I give you:

When Sheep Get Up In The Morning


B-I-N-G-O


The Littlest Worm


And since we're overloading the Daniel video, here's a little piece I edited together for our amusement. Daniel has been making great strides with reading and is very proud when he can look at a sign and read it aloud. During Lent we went to the Catholic school fish dinner fundraiser on a Friday night, and as we were driving up, Daniel read the sign, "Fish Dinner, Keep Right." I exclaimed, "Wow, Daniel, great reading!" It took another beat or two before John said, "Wait, that was Daniel? That was great!"

I've been getting books for him from the library that are heavy on rhyming words, so of course, Hop on Pop came back into the rotation. This reminded me of an old video so I persuaded Daniel to let me update it with his new skills.

Team Kenyon was small but mighty this year! Very thankful for the only dry, sunny day in the 7-day outlook. But we must quibble a bit with the gusty wind, which made it quite chilly for our posse. Here we are inside the clubhouse after the walk. (New location this year--Brown Deer Golf Course. Parking was tricky, but the inside gathering space was appreciated!)

Thanks to our friends and family, we have raised more than $3,000 for the March of Dimes and it's not too late to add a bit more!

The colored leis represent healthy babies (green), premature babies (purple), and deceased babies (white.)

 Why would one feel the need to remove the handles from his jump rope and then stick the handle on his ring finger? Edward must be a distant relative of Sir George Mallory, because the answer, apparently is, "Because it was there." This isn't even the first time he's stuck his finger into a hard-molded plastic thing that we then had to attempt to remove with scissors to avoid a trip to the ER. At least this time he didn't freak out Grandma and Grandpa in the process. No more jump rope handles.

On the upside, it was nice enough today for our first al fresco dining of the season. Looks like we might need a bigger table and chairs. Also on the hunt for a bigger bike for Edward. Ah, spring!