blatant random silliness

Day 3: Wisconsin to Minnesota

Click here for all of the photos from our day.

My busy boy in the wee small hours of the morning.


Playing at the play area in the West Town Mall in Madison.

Yesterday started early at our hotel room in Middleton, WI.  Even though we had an early start, we took our time getting ourselves together and out of the hotel.  Our first stop was the West Towne Mall in Middleton.  We were going to see a friend from college who works at the Apple Store.  But, unfortunately, she had to leave work early and we didn't get to see her.  We did get to see the shiny new iPads though :)  And the mall had a fun play area for Dylan as well. After letting him climb around a bit, we got back in the car and headed into downtown Madison to see the capital building.  I'm glad we did.  Madison's downtown area is situated between two lakes and when you come across the bridge there is a lovely view of the city.  The capital building itself is impressive and the tilework inside is spectacular.

Downtown Madison as seen from across Lake Monona.


The capital building.


Inside the capital building.


Denny and Dylan check out a really neat mailbox.

We asked the capital tour guide for a lunch recommendation and he sent us over to the Old Fashioned.  Denny and I both had the house hamburger - a tasty burger topped with Wisconsin cheddar, applewood smoked bacon, red onions and a soft fried egg.  Mmm, mmm, good.  Denny had his with fried Wisconsin cheese curds, ooh those are evil good.  Later in the day Denny commented "Wisconsin cheese curds are just one letter a way from being Wisconsin cheese turds".  I laughed so hard I cried (or maybe it was the smell he let out in the car before making the statement that caused the tears in my eyes...we'll never know).  

Interesting snacks to this southern girl.


My tasty burger.


Is this love?

After lunch we headed back into the capital building (we were parked on the opposite side from the Old Fashioned, needed to get postcards and have a potty break before piling back into the car).  Dylan and I rode the elevator, which is always a fun diversion for a 3 year old (or any small child who likes to push buttons).  And then we were in the car and off again.

Here we are on the steps of the captial building.


Dylan and the super cool elevator.


And here's one more photo of the inside of the capital....a closeup of the dome.

We decided to make a pit stop in the Wisconsin Dells as it seemed like the appropriate touristy thing to do.  For those of you in the south, the Wisconsin Dells is akin to a touristy beach town.  Except it's full of indoor waterparks.  It has the requisite fudge, candy, taffy, kitcshy, tshirts, knick knack and other random stores.  It even has a Ripley's Believe it or Not.  My favorite thing was noticing that the Torture Museum was across the street from the Dells Bells Wedding Chapel.  It is worth noting that all of this is around a river that has carved interesting cliffs into the landscape.  We were able to walk to the overlook and take a few photos before our little guy asked for water (which was in the car) since the chocolate we gave him made him thirsty (it's imperative to buy chocolate at the chocolate shops in these towns cause it's always the "best").  After a quick stop to take a photo with Paul Bunyan (and eat more chocolate) we took to the road again realizing we were going to be getting in later than we had planned.  

The little town of Wisconsin Dells. (it's nuts!)


How much is that chocolate in the window?


The river and cliffs of the Wisconsin Dells (at least the ones closest to the road :)


Cracked us up that the Torture Museum was across the street from the Dells Bells Wedding Chapel.


It's Paul Bunyan!


And it's all you can eat!

Wisconsin has lots of farms along the highway (as does Minnesota, more on that later).  By the time we reached the Mississippi River, we'd passed a sign for the Ho Chunk Casino and Lamers Bus Lines.  We decided we really didn't want to go to a Casino where a "ho" blew chunks.  And any bus lines named "lamers" just had to be lame.  

Pretty scenery in Wisconsin.


The hills straight ahead are across the Mississippi River in Minnesota. Can you tell we've splatted lots of bugs on our trip so far?


Crossing the Mississippi into Minnesota.
 

An old barn in Minnesota.

We crossed the Mississippi into Minnesota and the land seemed to immediately change.  On the western side of the Mississippi the hills were larger for a bit before leveling back out into plains again.  With farms, lots and lots of farms.  Our little guy finally gave up and fell asleep around 6 in the car and we pulled into our hotel in Owatonna at 7.  We got him transferred to his bed with no problems (well, except that he decided being awake at 3 would be great).  We were disappointed with our Holiday Inn experience in Owatonna.  I picked this place because they had a Serengeti miniature waterpark complete with animal statues in the pools and a waterslide.  But, I found out upon checking in that they don't open the waterpark til 3.  Which would do us absolutely no good.  We were told to ask in the morning (this morning) if they would open it for us and they wouldn't.  So, we packed up and got out of dodge quickly.   More on that in my next post.  Stay tuned!

Day 2: Chicago, Lincoln Park Zoo, then off to Wisconsin

(There are lots of photos in the post, but more that I didn't post.  To see all of them click here.)

 That's some prime advertising real estate!

Off the highway and into the city.

On Day 2 we all realized we had Dylan's sniffles.  Which makes for a little slower going in the morning. We managed to get up, breakfasted, packed up and to the zoo by 11:30 (granted, we did have traffic on our way into the city and had to figure out where to park).    Chicago traffic on a Sunday was surprisingly thick.  Then again, the Lincoln Park Zoo was pretty crowded by the time we made it there.  

A piggyback ride made everything seem better.

Lets count the ponies.

We had a rocky start after leaving the car....Dylan wasn't very happy and had a meltdown.  But, once that was over with and we had a snack, life was much better and he really enjoyed the zoo.  First up were the farm animals.  We saw ponies, goats and cows.  Then, we went to the main part of the zoo.  Lincoln Park Zoo is lovely with flowers blooming all around.  They have a nice range of animals and we tried to see Dylan's favorites - the rhinoceros, the giraffes and the hippos.  Except they didn't have hippos (their website said they did, but the map at the zoo didn't have them listed).  But, they had a swimming polar bear and that was just as good.  Dylan also enjoyed riding the carousel and picked out the panda he wanted to ride.    

Dylan called these "yaks" which we thought was a pretty keen observation for a 3 1/2 year old. They are really part of the goat family and are called "Sichuan Takin".

"Hey Dylan, do you see that?" (I don't remember what we were looking at here)

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Dylan and Denny had fun playing with the camera while I went to get lunch (which by the way was really good for a zoo...they had lots of choices and delicous looking salads)

Dylan loved riding the carousel! He's been talking about it all morning.

   
What a cool carousel.

The black rhinoceros.

Dylan and Denny spot 2 giraffes.

Our favorite was the polar bear...I've never seen one swimming like this before (except on tv). Really beautiful!

Denny and Dylan walking through Lincoln Park Zoo.

After a fun time at the zoo, we headed back to the car.

Surprisingly, he didn't nap on our afternoon drive like I thought he would (he'd been up for a long, long time). Before heading north, we took a detour to see Lake Michigan and then drove through some lovely neighborhoods before finding the interestate again.

We were speculating about the interesting building out on the lake. Is that the Theatre on the Lake? If you know, please let me know. Thanks!

Lovely sky in Wisconsin. Not a great example of the green, though I bet there will be green soon enough in the field. Wonder what they will grow?

Northern Illinois is pretty flat. But, as we got closer to Wisconsin and crossed the border the scenery changed into rolling hills and lots of green. Dylan went to bed early, and Denny and I enjoyed takeout and caught up on some of our favorite tv shows before calling it an early night ourselves.  

We haven't quite decided what we want to do this morning.  I guess we'll figure it out in a bit!

Day 1: Saying goodbye to Dayton and hello to Chicago

 Dylan and two of his best buds, Jax and Mary-Clare

 MC cuddled up next to Dylan and then played hard to get when it came time for goodbye smooches.

After staying with our good friends Mary, Steve and Mary-Clare all week long, it was hard to say goodbye this morning.  Dylan was so comfortable at their house that he didn't ask to "go home" at all.  Sweet boy.  He had so much fun at Mary's house!  I don't know that he quite understands that this goodbye is different than other goodbyes.  It will probably be a long time before we see our Dayton friends again.  I'm so thankful for being able to keep in touch via Facebook and free long distance on cellphones.  It makes it so much easier to stay in touch when we move.  

This morning was spent packing up and getting the car ready for the start of our road trip.  After saying our goodbyes and making a couple of maintenance stops (gas and tire check, and of course Starbucks) we hit the open road on the way to Chicago.

 I bought this brown bear for Dylan and when Denny saw it he immediately made it our official "road trip to Alaska" mascot. He is riding proudly on the dashboard all the way to Alaska (or until Dylan spots him and wants to hold the brown bear. And I have a feeling after that he's gonna want a red bird, a yellow duck, a blue horse, a purple cat, a white dog, a black sheep and goldfish and a teacher. (if you don't get this, you may not have kids or have never read the book "brown bear, brown bear")

Despite Dylan's runny nose (that of course started yesterday), he was mostly a happy little traveller.  We crossed the state line into Indiana and our first stop was to see the giant candle just off the highway.  It was the Warm Glow Candle Outlet in Centerville, Indiana and served a triple purpose–bathroom break, sandwich making stop, and kitschy photo opportunity next to the really big candle.  Plus they had a koi pond!  

 Dylan and Denny sitting on the bench at the base of the really freakin large candle.

 The bathroom at the Warm Glow Candle Outlet.  Really, really cool as was the whole store.  Too bad it was really crowded or I might have wanted to look around more.  

 Denny and Dylan enjoying the koi pond. Taken with my iphone (as were a lot of these). I will get out big nice camera tomorrow, I promise (because this would have been so lovely dslr).

 One of Denny's favorite things today were the windmills in Indiana. There were lots and lots of these along the highway and as far as the eye could see.

Other than stopping for gas (and snacks - cheese, crackers and salami), and crossing into Illinois, the rest of our trip was fairly uneventful.  We checked into our hotel (The Marriott Oak Brook Hills Resort) where I got a special "romance package" that included champagne, truffles and free breakfast for only $10 more than the regular room price and searched for a nearby pizza place so that we could sample some Chicago pizza.  We ordered a "stuffed pizza" from Giordano's.  What a creation.  First, the aroma that came from the pizza box was heavenly.  The crust is flaky and layered, almost like a pie crust.  Then comes the meat, we ordered pepperoni and sausage.  There wasn't too much of it, (like the famed disk of sausage from another Chicago pizzeria, Gino's).  On top of the meat is a thick gooey layer of cheese and that is topped with their special tomato sauce.  The whole thing was just ridiculously good.

Yum! Too bad leftovers aren't really practical on a road trip. Although early morning cold pizza wouldn't be terrible :).

And now, as my husband says "it's 10:30 to our bodies".  This never fails to make me laugh.  I see time zones differently than he does...I want to adjust immediately and forget what time it is to my body.  And he will remember what time it is to his body for a week.  Good thing we are taking our time flitting from time zone to time zone then isn't it?

Tomorrow I have my fingers crossed for no rain so that we can visit the Lincoln Park Zoo.  Here's hoping!

One More Day

One more day and we'll be in on our way to Alaska.  I realize I haven't posted in a long long while.  So let me catch you up a bit on what's been going on with us since January.  The biggest news is that we are moving from Ohio to Alaska.  We've known for awhile, but didn't get our orders until the beginning of April.  Since then, things have been moving very fast.  Our stuff is all packed and with the movers now, and we've been living with our friend Mary's family for a week.  Tomorrow, we will start our 23 day venture to Alaska.  I'll be trying to post every day (or more realistically every couple of days) with photos and adventures from the road.

Here's a quick rundown of our past few months.  We enjoyed lots of snow this past winter and Dylan and I both experienced our first real sledding down a real hill.  Twas lots of fun.  Winter drug on for awhile, then we thought we were in spring, but the weather warmed up way too quick.  Then it was cold again.  And now we are getting spring weather.  Oddness here in Ohio.  I think Mother Nature was prepping us for the cold in Alaska.

I haven't blogged in quite awhile for several reasons.  The first was that I had a lot of design and photography work the past few months.  Which is good for me and my business.  The second has to do with Dylan.  He was diagnosed with PDD/NOS (Pervasive Developmental Delay/Not Otherwise Specified) back in December.  This diagnosis is considered an Autism Spectrum Disorder.  We went to the developmental pediatrician back in the fall after realizing that Dylan was different socially than his peers.  The really good news is that with Dylan's intelligence and language skills, he should do fine in the future.  We've already seen wonderful proof of this.  He started ABA therapy back in January plus he's been in an inclusive preschool class since November.  Both of these things have helped him tremendously.  His language usage and ability to answer questions and want to interact more with adults and other children has grown so much in the past few months.  It's taken me awhile to get to a place where I wanted to share about Dylan with everyone.  A lot of people are not well informed about Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorders, and if I can do something to help with that, then I will.  Dylan is on the mild end of the spectrum and mainly has problems with language usage and social interactions.  As I mentioned above, he's improving every day.  The real thing to note here is that every child is different and this sort of diagnosis can mean different things to different families (just like "regular" kids).   We love and support Dylan no matter what, and are so thankful he is a sweet, loving, cuddly little guy who loves to laugh and learn.  This diagnosis has presented its own set of challenges for our move.  We've had trouble finding ABA therapy in the Anchorage area, but I did find a Early Language program at a speech school that looks good.  And I've been a bit worried about finding a good preschool for him....I hope that will be easier once we get to Alaska.

Now that I've mentioned his intelligence, I can brag a little bit.  Our little guy has an amazing mind.  His current obsession is letters and numbers.  He's been writing uppercase letters since last fall and as added lowercase letters over the past few months.  He can write all of them with no problem at all.  He even adds serifs to the letters to mimic the "Times" font in one of his books.  These days he's learning sight words and likes to write and spell the words he knows.   He also likes to draw pictures of the words he's learned.  (And he's just 3 1/2!)  He's a happy boy and he likes to ride in the car and sing, which bodes well for our trip.  

So, with all that being said, I'm going to pick up my blog from today and move forward with our trip.  Check back for news from the road!  

finishing up the old year, so I can start anew

Wow, yet again I have let months pass without blogging.  I guess my only excuse is that it's been a busy few months.  My New Year's Resolution is to start blogging regularly again.  So, here is a month by month catch up on what we've been up to here at the Pack house:

July

In July, we flew to Idaho to spend two weeks with Denny's family.  We had an amazing trip full of beautiful backyard time, family, waterfalls, and camping in the mountains.  I (of course) took a ton of photos.  Just click on the links to go to pages with all of the photos from each event.

In the backyard  and In the Garden

Dylan sniffs the daisies.

Eating all the raspberries.

Dylan was fascinated by Sue and Ward's lovely garden.  He found his own little spot amidst the beans that weren't doing so well and used a stick to poke around.  I loved the view of him through the rows of corn that now graces the header of this page.  We also enjoyed looking at all of the beautiful flowers and picking succulent raspberries that didn't make it into the basket.

That's me down by the waterfall.

 The whole family (my camera was perched on a huge rock).

We took several little road trips to see some of the local sites near Twin Falls.  The first was Cauldron Linn, a swirling waterfall carved into the Snake River Canyon.  We took a winding narrow road down into the canyon and walked to the edge.  Amazingly, there is no railing, or anything to block a hiker from exploring.  So, we took turns going down closer to the falls and taking pictures.  

Shoshone Falls

Our second waterfall trip was to see Shoshone Falls.  I've seen these falls before and remembered how amazing they were.  This trip didn't disappoint.  It was a beautiful bright sunny day and the mist from the falls created not one but two rainbows.  What an amazing sight!  

We don't get to see Garth and Aimee very much (only when we head to Idaho to visit), but they are the kind of friends that make you feel welcome, as if you get to see them all the time.  We had lots of fun playing Rock Band at their house (Dylan especially liked to rock the microphone - unplugged of course). This album has a collection of all our random fun in it.

A view of Mt. McGown in the morning.

The second week of our trip, we all loaded up into different vehicles and headed to the Sawtooth mountain range for a family camping trip.  Denny's parents pulled their fifth wheel, and we got to use the little camper that Denny grew up camping in.  I'd never camped in a camper before and I really enjoyed the experience.  We camped on Stanley Lake at the foot of Mt. Gown.  Denny's sister, brother-in-law and niece and nephew were a couple of campsites away and spent most of their time with us.  We played games, had lots of art time with the kids, did a bit of wading in the lake and spent some time digging in the sand.  Dylan really enjoyed playing with his cousins, climbing on the rocks around our campsite, eating marshmallows and playing Hungry Hungry Hippos with Grandma.  

The little camper we camped in...the same one that Denny grew up camping in.

Dylan sleeping in the camper. One of the rare times we were awake before him.

Art time with Grandma and cousin Elizabeth.

Another view inside the little camper.

One of our days in the sawtooth mountains, we drove north to the ghost town of Custer, Idaho.  They have an interesting set of buildings with artifacts on display from the days of mining in the area.

Grandpa and Dylan at the Drilling Rock.

A family picnic in Custer, Idaho.

On our way home, we stopped a few times for lunch and photos. Dylan really enjoyed the whole trip.  For a couple of weeks after we got home he'd randomly ask to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  I think one of his favorite things was the little barrel train he got to ride at the arts festival in downtown Twin Falls.  Lucky for him, Young's Dairy has one too.

Dylan riding the little train in Twin Falls.

August

In August, we didn't take any exciting trips, but we did have fun at home.  We spent lots of time outside, in the little pool, at Young's Dairy, and in Yellow Springs.  We celebrated Denny's birthday and found a beautiful sunflower field.

Dylan and Jax dipping their heads in the water.

Denny and I in the sunflowers (Dylan was napping in the car.

Denny blowing out his birthday candle.

September

In September, we took another trip.  This time, we drove to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania for a Labor Day family reunion with my Dad's family.   I hadn't seen many of these cousins in over 15 years and our reunion was at the same hunting camp that the previous reunion so many years ago was.  We spent three days with my cousins, eating, drinking, playing cornhole (I've never called it that, but apparently that's what the yankees call it....in the south it's just plain beanbags), and catching up.  The weather was beautiful and Denny, Dylan and I did a bit of hiking around the area.  One of the reasons for the gathering was the spreading of Uncle Bill's ashes around the camp, one of the places he loved best.  I was glad that I was able to be there for Aunt Barb.   In true Shermer fashion, my cousin Mark made us laugh several times with stories of Uncle Bill.

This was also the weekend that Dylan started trying to draw letters.  And he wasn't half bad at it...he successfully drew A's, T's, J's and L's.  And possibly some others, but I don't remember which ones.  Since then he's gotten better and better and I've been working on teaching him to write the letters beside each other instead of wherever there is space on the page.

Denny, Dylan and I in the woods of Pennsylvania.

A group shot of the first batch of Shermer's. We never did take a second one after my cousin Scot and his kids arrived. Back row: cousin Mark, Uncle Jack, cousin Tom, cousin Jimmy, cousin Kevin, cousin Eric. Front row: Mark's wife Cecil, cousin Nancy, Aunt Jane (with Eric's son in her lap), Aunt Barb, Tom's girlfriend, and myself and Dylan.

Dylan on top of the mountain of dirt with the hunting club lodge in the background. He loved climbing this dirt/rock pile. We didn't love it so much as that is where the gnats congregated.

Also in September, we went to Day Out With Thomas with our friends.  We did this last year too.  Dylan was excited to see the big Thomas engine and to ride the train.  He also really enjoyed stamping at the art station.

Dylan and I in front of Thomas. This was about the only photo we got with him actually looking at the camera instead of turning around to look at Thomas.

We did Yellow Springs a lot in September as well, up until our CSA ended. One of our favorite trips was going blackberry picking with our friends Mary and Mary Claire. We followed up the blackberry picking with a trip to Young's Dairy to see the pumpkins.

Dylan and Mary Clair walking by the blackberry bushes.

Dylan and Mary Claire next to the huge pumpkin at Yellow Springs.

Dylan on the tractor at Young's Dairy.

October

In October, the weather cooled off and the leaves started falling from the trees. And Dylan loves playing in the leaves.  He also really liked his little orange pumpkin bucket and had lots of fun carrying it around here and there.  I started taking him outside, spreading a blanket out, and having art time.  It was nice to be out in the cool air painting and drawing.  The tricycle came out of the shed and we worked on teaching Dylan how to pedal.  Which he started doing a little bit at a time.  That was very exciting.

One of my favorite photos of that sweet little face after putting leaves on his head.

My little focused painter outside for art time.

Dylan making letters during art time.

Of course the big event of October was Dylan's 3rd birthday. We had a joint party with Dylan's friend Jax (like last year). This year, we rented out the leasing office and decorated for a Curious George and the Zoo themed party (Dylan was into animals and Jax was into Curious George, so we combined them). I spent a couple of weeks before the party making animals and a Curious George out of cardboard. I also sewed birthday streamers that we can use for every birthday. And, of course, like last year, I had great fun making the cakes. We ended up with way to much cake in the end, but, it was all still delicous. I made a jungle themed cake and a little rhinoceros cake for Dylan.  We rented a bouncy castle for outside, we ended up with lovely weather and spent a lot more time outside than we'd planned on.  It was a fun party!

The entrance to the party.

Dylan and Jax ready to blow out their candles.

The weekend before Dylan's actual birthday I flew to Washington, D.C. to take photos for my friend Ingrid's wedding.  It was a whirlwind weekend–I attended a photography workshop, took photos for the rehearsal, spent the day of the wedding taking photos, did a little shopping, saw my friend from college Yehudi, and spent one day seeing as much of the D.C. sights as I could.  I'll make it my next goal to do a post all about my trip.

Two days after Dylan turned 3, he started preschool.  He wasn't very happy about it at first.  The first day we left him crying on the floor (poor guy).  But, after a couple of good days and bad days he leveled off and even started asking to go to school.  

And of  course October isn't complete without mentioning Halloween.  This year I made matching Super Sleuth t-shirts for all of us.  Dylan's favorite show is My Friends Tigger and Pooh and they solve mysteries in the Hundred Acre wood as Super Sleuths.  Dylan had fun trick-or-treating with his friend Elena (who dressed as tigger).

Anytime, Anyplace, the Super Sleuths are on the case.

Elena and Dylan ready to go trick or treating.

November

In November, we spent lots of time enjoying the last days of fall.  One day when we were coming home from school, our neighbor had been raking a huge pile of leaves and Dylan went to jump right in.  Denny came out and helped rake up more of the leaves and we ended up with a mountain of leaves that we all had fun playing in.  We also spent lots of time at various playgrounds soaking up the last of the lovely weather before it turned too cold for such things.

Dylan walking home after school with his backpack.

Dylan happily playing in the leaves.

On our last Yellow Springs Farmer's Market visit, we stopped at the car to put our groceries in before heading to the playground. Dylan climbed right up in the back and asked for a snack.

Dylan still loves to help me in the kitchen and in November we made English Muffins and Pumpkin Pie Brioche dough among other things. I also started teaching him how to sew using burlap, a plastic needle and embroiderers floss. And of course what's November without making turkeys. We made hand turkeys and feet turkeys and he even made a paper bag turkey at school.

Dylan and I sniffing the english muffin dough.

Dylan and his first sewing project.

Dylan shaking some sparkles onto his turkey.

Thanksgiving was spent baking butternut squash, stuffing, pumpkin pie and apple pie that we took next door to our neighbor's house to share. Dylan and Denny helped me make the apple pie. Dylan helped roll out the dough, while Denny peeled the apples. I chopped the apples and then Dylan put the apples into the pie plate. Dylan helped sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar on top and then tried to plant his spoon in the pile of apples.

Dylan sprinkles on the cinnamon and sugar.

December

December was full of Christmas fun and projects.  We made wreaths, ornaments, reindeer, cookies, a gingerbread house and an advent calendar. We were very busy all month.  Dylan saw Santa a couple of times at various Christmas venues.  And he received his very own Santa hat at the band's children's Christmas party.  He insisted on wearing the Santa hat from then on.

The beginnings of our cardboard wreath.

Dylan glues the finishing touches on the cardboard wreath.

Another wreath project, made out of Target bags.

Dylan shows me a sad face while making ornaments.

Dylan putting stickers on his advent calendar.

Dylan meets Santa at the band's children's Christmas party.

Dylan and his "gingerbread" house.

Christmas Eve we went to our friend Rachel's house for a pajama party. There was lots and lots of food (I made bread and pie), good company and fun. Denny brought his guitar and played Christmas carols while we all sang. After the party, we brought our tired little boy home and tucked him into bed. Then, we came downstairs and got things ready for Santa to arrive.

Christmas morning brought full stockings and presents under the tree. Dylan (and the kitty cat) were both mesmerized by the Shinkansen train circling his tiny tree. Denny taught Dylan how to dump out his stocking to see what was inside. Dylan went through his stocking the way he went through Easter Eggs at Easter. When he found food he stopped everything to eat it. He polished off the peanut butter and jelly M&Ms then found a lollipop. After that, he attempted to open presents with just one hand, because he certainly couldn't part with the lollipop. Santa brought lots of fun surprises for all of us and we spent the day playing with our new toys, reading books and just relaxing as much as we could. Dylan's Grandma and Grandpa sent a little guitar for him and he's been enjoying playing his guitar with his Daddy every day since.

Dylan really liked the hammer and table that Santa brought.

Denny shows off the switchblade comb and his spy shades that he found in his stocking.

Sunshine liked what she found in her stocking.

Our traditional Christmas breakfast: French Custard Toast (like my mom used to make).

Dylan and his little guitar.

After Christmas we had snow. Not a whole lot, but enough to make a tiny snowman and to stomp around in. Dylan really likes stomping in the snow and has nice cushy snow pants so that when he sits down, its okay. We also went to see the Woodland Lights display down in Centerville.

Dylan laying down in the snow.

Dylan and Denny at the Woodland Lights exhibit in Centerville. It was cold, but we didn't mind as we walked around looking at all of the pretty Christmas lights. Some of the paths were iced over and Dylan loved holding on to our hands and sliding on the ice.

Phew, that's one long post. But, now I'm caught up and can start the new year fresh. I have a really cute video to post tomorrow. For now, goodnight!

Camping and The Wilds

Yep, I've managed to go another whole month without posting on my blog.  It's a vicious cycle for me, I know I have stuff to post, but it's too much to sort through, so I just shrug and do something else, like some real work, or watching a food reality show on TV (we are loving Top Chef Masters and Next Food Network Star!).  Or I Facebook.  Anything but what I should be doing which is blogging (okay, so I should be doing real work first anyway...right?).

So, I originally decided to do a list post and catch ya'll up on what we've been doing the past two months.  But then I started writing and realized that this would indeed be a post about out camping trip.  So, here goes.

Here's a link to ALL the photos from our trip.

See, I told you we packed.

We headed out the day before Memorial Day for a three day trip.  We packed our Forester with everything we thought we'd need and then some (which meant we had a FULL packed car).   The theme song for our ride there was "Rosanna" that Denny thoughtfully burned on a CD with some other songs he thought we'd get to here.  Boy was he wrong.  Our little dictator in the backseat wanted to hear "Rosanna" again and again and again.  Dylan enjoyed the music and telling us all about the signs we passed by:  "it's a blue sign", "it's a green sign", "it's a yellow sign".  

We reached the campground and it was pretty crowded (until the second night when everyone had gone home after their three day holiday...we were off til Tuesday :).  Luckily the cabin we rented was across a little creek from the main area.  Oh, and did I mention that same little creek ran right by our cabin.  You know what comes next right....creek stomping!  Dylan and I walked all the way to the little waterfall and back a couple of times (and Denny did some creek stomping as well).  

What else is there to do after getting wet in the creek but roll around in the dirt??

Dylan loved this little perch right next to our cabin.  

That afternoon we lit a fire and cooked some burgers, corn on the cob, and potatoes in foil for dinner.  Yum!  Dylan was a bit resistant to bedtime, so we ended up throwing our tired non-napping boy and hopping into our nice air-conditioned car (did I mention it was kinda hot?).  We decided we'd drive towards The Wilds so we'd know where to go the next day.  Blue Rock State Park is nestled right in the heart of nowhere.  It is seriously backwoods on the roads from the park to The Wilds.  The roads were mostly gravel, but the scenery was lovely.  Dylan fell asleep, but we decided to keep going and see what we could see.  We found The Wilds birdwatching area that was free and open to the public.  Beautiful view in the evening.  We began to get excited for our safari the next day.  

"I HAVE MADE FIRE!"

One of the gravelly roads between the camp and The Wilds

The next morning we made campfire biscuits (self-rising flour + cream soda=yum), eggs and bacon, then we loaded up to go see the animals. Going to The Wilds is like going on a safari in the middle of Ohio.  They have all sorts of animals there (including two of Dylan's favorites:  Rhinoceroses and Giraffes) wandering around.  We rode on a small bus through several large gates and entered into the natural habitats of the animals.  The first animals we saw were camels, just milling about beside the road.  Dylan wasn't too excited, he was much more interested in his cupful of strawberries, but once we got him looking in the right direction that helped.  He was much more excited when we got around to the rhinoceroses.  (and did you know that rhinoceroses use their poop as a messaging system?  They can tell who is pregnant, who is sick and which direction the herd is heading by smelling the poop. ) The giraffes were pretty far away from us unfortunately.  Dylan also enjoyed seeing the cheetah, until we had to drag him away because evidently the cheetah was eyeing him a little too tastily (according to the ranger).  Anyway, we have lots of animal photos on Flickr, so you can see the other animals on our safari.  

"Hey Dylan, look over there....camels!"

And Indian Rhinoceros.  We saw the two-horned white rhinoceros and her baby later on.

You can tell he was smiling by the hint of a dimple on his cheek.

Dylan and the giraffe.  The giraffe stayed at the gift shop but we brought the much smaller (and cheaper) stuffed rhinoceros home with us.  

Dylan was quite enamored with the big tall stuffed giraffe in the gift shop, and was not too happy when we told him it was time to go.  But, he took a good nap in the car (and we had a tasty treat at Dairy Queen).  After his nap he asked to go on the bus to see the animals again.  Sweet little guy.  Instead, we went creek stomping and jumped in the lake.  We finished off our camping food with an easy dinner of hot dogs, more corn and chips.  

Dylan and his rhinoceros smooching.

Trekking through the creek.

In the lake.

Our attempt at a remote family photo.  Dylan didn't want to turn around and it was getting dark so when we moved we'd be blurry.  But, you can see our tiny cabin, picnic pavilion and the smoke from our campfire.

Our best meal though was breakfast the next day, when we whipped up our first batch of sourdough pancakes cooked on the cast iron skillet.  Talk about delicious...they were so tasty....a little crispy on the edges, perfectly chewy on the inside.  Mmmmm.  

Breakfast on our last morning camping.  Notice that the pancakes are almost all gone.  In the next photo in this series Dylan is attempting to feed his rhinoceros some cereal.

Before we could pack up and leave, Denny had do change our flat tire.  He noticed it looked low the day before and while Dylan was napping he filled it up with air and bought some Fix-A-Flat just in case.  Good thing he did.  The spare tire did great all the way home.  Our them song on the way back was "Another Postcard" by Barenaked Ladies.  Otherwise known in our car as "Monkeys".  We had the little requester in the back saying "Monkeys again" quite a bit, and making us laugh at his very funny faces while asking.  He napped early on, and was happy the rest of the way home.

"Monkeys again!"

Funny faces.

Trip to Nashville and Back

Yep, I'm a total slacker.  I'll admit it.  Well, not a complete and total slacker, I have been doing some work in my spare time.  Okay, enough excuses.  Here's our trip to Nashville way back in the last weekend of January.
Before I launch into the big long story, I have to say how nice it was of Heather and Michael to let us come invade their home for a few days.  It was wonderful to leave the snow and cold behind and visit good friends.  I love being with friends where there is no pressure for them to entertain them or for me to entertain them.  We can just be together and enjoy each other's company.  Which is a fantastic thing.  Thanks again.

Here are all the photos from Nashville.

We headed down to Nashville on Friday morning.  The plan was to stop in Cincinatti at the Newport Aquarium for some run around time, have lunch with a college friend Kristen, and then get the bulk of the driving done while Dylan napped in the car.  After lugging the rest of our stuff to the car through the 7 inches of snow on the ground,  and letting Dylan make trails through the snow for a little bit, we got on the road.  Unfortunately for us, the google map to the aquarium was not the best in the world and we got turned around a couple of times and didn't actually make it to Newport on the Levy until 10:45.  And the aquarium cost quite a bit more than I was willing to spend for the 45 minutes we'd probably have until Dylan was ready for lunch.  Lucky for us there was a Barnes and Noble next door with a train table.  The ultimate in free entertainment for a toddler.  Yippee.

After some play time and discovering a new book we had to bring home (The Pout-Pout Fish that we read several times a day now) we met up with Kristen and her husband for lunch.  It was great to see Kristen again...I don't think we've seen each other since she graduated.  Too bad for us that Dylan was tired, hungry (and not into pizza at all) and a wee bit cranky.  He did not want to sit in his high chair any longer than he had too.  Oh well, luckily Kristen lives close enough by that we'll get to see her again sometime.

We got back in the car and headed south.  Dylan happily ate a pb&j before konking out for his nap and I enjoyed driving through snow and ice covered Kentucky.  If I hadn't been on the interstate, I would have pulled over to take some photos.  Instead, I blindly held my camera up to the window and snapped as I drove.  I couldn't get over how beautiful the ice covered trees were as they sparkled in the sunshine.  And how their sparkles contrasted with some of the more ominous skies in the distance.  It was so lovely.  And so cold...on my...I think it was 18º and snowing when I pulled off to get gas somewhere in Kentucky.

Somewhere in between Louisville and Bowling Green, the snow disappeared.  It was covering the grass and then it wasn't.  Interesting how that happens.  Dylan was such a good little traveler.  He only slept for an hour and a half in the car and woke up just south of Louisville.  He snacked for a bit.  And his only fit was because I wouldn't read the fishies book to him while I was driving.  I managed to distract him with other things until we made a pit stop for running around and going to the bathroom.  Unfortunately, the first rest area we stopped at had no water which meant no bathrooms.  So, we stopped again a little farther down the road.  

We made the final push to Nashville and arrived at Heather and Michael's house before they got home from work.  We let ourselves in and Dylan took the lay of the land and found all of Sophie and Olivia's toys to play with.  And when they arrived home, he took just a minute to warm up.  He especially liked Michael.  He really misses Denny and seems to like being around daddy-type figures a lot.

The first night, we had to make a few adjustments for bedtime.  He woke up an hour after being asleep and I had to go lie down with him.  And the rest of the time he did just fine with sleeping all night.  

The weather in Nashville was lovely.  On Saturday it reached 50 and maybe a little more than that.  Which was like heaven compared to Ohio's below 20 and covered in snow.  We even got to play outside.  But first, we met another college friend of mine who lives in the Nashville area, Suzanne.  And she lives not too far from Heather, which neither one of them realized before.  We ate at a little southern restaurant, and yet again Dylan was a wee bit cranky.  He and Sophie were both much happier when we let them run around a bit outside.

After naps, we loaded Dylan and Sophie in the wagon and walked to the neighborhood park.  Olivia ran along ahead of us and we all enjoyed just being outside.  

Heather pushes Olivia on the swing.


Michael and Sophie check out the slide.


Olivia balances on the edge.


The part of this photo that you can't see is the little rock climbing wall up to a platform. Dylan wanted to climb up, but he would only use his feet, so I'd have to hold him almost horizontally while he "climbed" to the top. Funny boy.


Heather started a trend of everyone going down the slide face first. Well, except for me and Dylan. I sat at the bottom taking lots of photos instead.


Dylan goes for the tackle at the bottom of the slide.

After walking back to Heather and Michael's house, the kids didn't want to go back inside. So, we played in the courtyard for a bit. We got out the sidewalk chalk and Olivia road her bicycle. Dylan was fascinated by her and followed her around for a bit. He especially liked her helmet and wanted to wear it. Instead, we got out Sophie's helmet and perched it on his head. It was just a little small for him.


Dylan in Sophie's helmet.

Saturday evening we went to "Mexico" for dinner (that's what Olivia calls the local Mexican restaurant). Heather had a yummy margherita (I did have a tiny sip...can't wait til I can have a whole one of those again). It was good food all around and the kids ate well which meant we could eat in relative peace *grin*. Afterwards we went to TCBY for ice cream, which only Olivia ate. I thought Dylan would eat an ice cream cone, but, alas, I ended up eating it.

Sunday we went to children's church with Heather and Michael. Which lasted all of a couple of minutes for Dylan and I. We ended up going to the nursery and playing with Sophie. That afternoon we went drove to a local park that reminds me a lot of the big playground on the Air Force base here. Unfortunately it was extremely crowded and started getting cold, so we didn't stay for a long time. We did have fun in the courtyard again before going in for dinner.



The next day was Monday, and Heather and Michael got ready to go to work and take the girls to school. We had a bit of fun before they left.



While they were at work, we went to a place just around the corner called The Monkey's Treehouse–a play place for kids. We had a lot of fun climbing, playing with the train table, trying on hats, finding play food, seeing big dinosaurs among other things. And that afternoon we went and did a little shopping before going to the bookstore to play with their train table. A two train table day is tops in Dylan's world.


Dylan climbing up the rope to the "tree house".


Olivia, Heather, Sophie and Michael at before bedtime.

The next morning was time to say goodbye. We packed up our stuff and hit the road. On the way back, we took a detour to Hopkinsville, KY, where my mom spent part of her childhood. My grandpa was a golf pro at the golf course there back in the 50s, and I thought it would be neat to visit the golf course. As we were driving into Hopkinsville, it start snowing and I realized that maybe the golf course wasn't open in the middle of winter. But, luckily they were open and we took a bathroom break and checked out the new clubhouse. We walked to the edge of the golf course, but it was too cold to do much else besides get back in the car. We stopped at a Kroger for gas and groceries and then went to our next stop in Hopkisnville–the Trail of Tears Memorial Park. Again, it was too cold to stay out too long, but we took a little walk around and checked out the Little River. We drove through downtown Hopkinsville to go to a burger place that's been around since the 30s. Ferrell's Hamburgers. It was not a place to go eat with a family as there only seating is a lunch counter. But, man, that was a really good inexpensive burger (wish I'd gotten a double). I imagine downtown Hopkinsville hasn't changed that much since the time my mom lived there.


Dylan and I at the Hopkinsville Golf Course.


Dylan watching the water of the Little River at the Trail of Tears Commemorative Park.


Ferrell's Hamburgers.


My tired little tropper on the stool at Ferrell's lunch counter.

We headed north again and it snowed almost the whole way to Louisville. Dylan napped well and we made good time until we got south of Cincinnati. Where we hit rush hour traffic. Which probably wouldn't have been too terribly bad if it weren't for the heavy snow. Traffic basically crawled from south of Cincy, all the way through the city. It took us 2 hours to get to our next pit stop–Ikea. Luckily, Dylan was a good little traveller, content to munch on strawberries and watch the cars. He started getting antsy into the second hour....as I had been antsy the whole time we weren't really moving. We finally made it to Ikea close to 7pm. And let me tell you, the best time to go to Ikea is during a snowstorm. There were maybe 10 cars in the parking lot and we practially had the place to ourselves. I had dinner (Dylan was too full from his car snacking) and then Dylan got to play in their little play area. We ran through the marketplace with Dylan chasing me and picked up a couple of things. We spent about an hour in Ikea, and when we left, the interstate was still deadlocked. So, I found an alternate route that was moving slow, but at least moving and as we got further and further north the road cleared completely and we were finally able to go above 30mph. Dylan fell asleep around 9:30. And then we hit a snag...an accident up ahead had stopped traffice. After waiting fora few minutes, I turned around and tried to find another way to go. I ended up crossing over the interestate and could see it was moving normally again, so I found my way to it and was able to zoom the rest of the way home. Thank goodness. We pulled in the garage at 10:45 pm and I had to lug my sleeping child through the now crunchy snow into the house and head back for some of the essential luggage. We had a wonderful trip except for the last part and were very happy to be home.


Napping through Kentucky.


Stuck in traffic.


So so happy to be out of the car.


Chasing me through Ikea.

EnterTrainment Junction

Dylan checks out the Isle of Sodor exhibit.  He especially loved the flying Harold the Helicopter.  He also enjoyed pushing the button to make the trains start running.

On Saturday, we headed towards Cincinnati to EnterTrainment Junction.  EnterTrainment Junction is a train lovers dream, and Dylan was no exception.  The bulk of the place is models of trains and environments from the beginning of trains to modern times.  Which was interesting, but I had to carry Dylan through the exhibits (they were adult height).  He did enjoy pushing buttons to make sounds for the exhibits.  

We made our way back to the kids area to discover lots of Thomas.  Dylan went from the train table to the Isle of Sodor display and enjoyed pushing buttons to make trains go.  He also had fun shoveling coal on the big climbing train.  

Dylan rings the bell on the train.

Retrieving a piece of coal that fell out of the train.

Dylan's working on the railroad.

Dylan loved the blue tunnel from one train car to the caboose.

Dylan coming out of the caboose.  

He started getting tired and hungry, so we went to the snack bar to eat.  After a minor meltdown, and lunch, he wanted to go back into the gift shop where he had spotted yet another train table to play with.  He was a tired little guy and fell asleep on the way home.

My tired little engineer discovered yet another train table in the gift shop and didn't want to leave it.

spacemen and ice cream

Yesterday, we headed out for a trip to the local Children's Museum with our friends Mary, Steve and Mary-Clare.  We drove all the way downtown, only to find out they don't open until 11 on Saturdays. Grumph.  I really don't understand why places for kids insist on opening so late!  

Mary suggested we head to the Air Force Museum and then go for lunch.   So we drove back towards home and the big airplanes (Dylan loves the big airplanes). Dylan and Mary-Clare had a good time running around the museum. One of the halls has a lot of interactive exhibits with buttons...and Dylan really loves to push buttons. They also had the spacesuit that Dylan got to poke his head in above. After going all the way to the last hanger to "fly" the airplane, my little guy was sooo tired and hungry and I had to carry him all the way back to the lobby (well, almost all the way, he did walk a little bit too thank goodness).

Dylan and Mary-Clare in the cockpit.

After the museum, we went to the local Chinese buffet for lunch. While Mary-Clare scarfed down her noodles, Dylan only wanted fruit...I gave him other things to try and he just played with them. When Mary got MC and herself an ice cream cone, I decided to see if Dylan would eat one. I've tried in the past to give him ice cream (when we've visited Young's Dairy and made our own this summer) and he's never wanted it. But that all changed yesterday. Mary showed him how to eat it, and he started out slowly. He'd put it up to his mouth and get just a little bit on his lip and lick it off. He was most excited that there was "chocolate in dere" (I got him the chocolate/vanilla swirl). He gradually got the hang of it and was an old pro by the time he was finished and handed me his soggy, half eaten cone.

He had a nice, long nap when we got home and we had a fun afternoon of playing at home.

Road Trip Finale: Lansing to Home

After one night in Holland, we packed up our car and headed east to Lansing.  This was the shortest distance in our trip...only an hour and a half.  We arrived mid-morning and headed to the capitol building.  Denny played a gig in Lansing in July at the Capitol building and wanted me to see how beautiful it is.  We both left Holland with the feeling that maybe we should just go home instead of spending the night in Lansing.  But, once we arrived in downtown Lansing, we decided to go ahead and stay.   

The capitol building is really beautiful.  We couldn't get inside because it was a Sunday, but we had fun wandering the grounds. I took photos and Dylan and Denny had fun chasing each other, checking out the flowers and climbing.

After the capitol, we decided to go to the Potter Park Zoo. Unfortunately, as we were riding around trying to find it, Dylan fell asleep in the car. So, we changed our plans and went to find our hotel. We couldn't check in early, but we were able to have a bathroom break before going to grab lunch.

After lunch, we headed to Williamston, to find my mom's cousin Marilyn. We promised Elinore we'd check in on her, and I'm really glad I did. I'd heard about Marilyn a little from my mom, and know we always got Christmas cards from her when I lived at home. She was home and we got to meet some of her family as well. She was so happy to meet us, and enjoyed going through the old photo albums and helping me identify people. She also was able to tell me about my mom when she was a baby (my grandpa was in the Phillipines fighting in WWII, so my grandmother lived with her sister (Marilyn's mom) when mom was born. Mom was an interfamily adoption, and it was really good to hear the whole story of how that came about. Dylan woke up about mid-way through the visit and enjoyed playing with Marilyn's granddaughter Paige.


Marilyn, Paige, me and Dylan.

Next on our agenda was  the Impression 5 Science Center.  Impression 5 is a really neat place with different activity areas for the different types of science.  Dylan really loved the Bubble Room and the toddler play area complete with a toddler sized water table.

This was sooo neat. Dylan stood in the center, and Denny pulled a string to lift the giant circle soaked with bubble fluid. We were lucky that the bubble made it this big. Isn't that cool?

This one was harder to photograph, but the same concept as above. This makes a bubble wall that you can blow on and distort. There were lots of cool bubble experiments in the Bubble Room.

Dylan really enjoyed playing with a water table that was just his size.

We probably should have known that after all of the fun and excitement of the day, that the last thing to do was go to a nice sit down restaurant. But, that's exactly what we did. We passed by the old Lansing train station that is now a restaurant and thought that would be a neat place to eat. They even had a train car that you could eat in...we thought that would be a little to cramped for a meal with a toddler though. Dylan got his food first, didn't eat very much and declared himself all done. To make a long story short, he was not a happy camper and we had to ask for our food to go.

Our hotel that night was the most ideal. We stayed at a Residence Inn, and I think we will be doing that from now on when we travel. There were two bedrooms and a kitchen, which was great...especially after nights spent in the dark with a booklight after Dylan went to sleep. We were able to pop a movie in and sit on the couch together and not have to whisper. So nice.

The next morning, we decided to hang around and leave once Dylan fell asleep in the car. The real reason was so that Denny could visit one of the meccas of guitardom–Elderly Instruments. They didn't open until 11, so we went to the zoo (after finding the correct directions).

Potter Park Zoo is nestled in Potter Park and reminded me a bit of the Hamura Zoo back in Japan. They had a lot of smaller animals, and a few of the bigger ones (like lions and tigers, but no bears, oh my). Dylan enjoyed seeing the animals and even saw some things that should only be seen in nature (luckily he had no idea what mommy and daddy were laughing at).

Yes, they are doing what you think they are doing.

The zoo was a lot of fun, but I think Denny really enjoyed going to Elderly Instruments better.  I sat in the car and read a book while he went in to look around.  Dylan was already asleep, he zonked out after the zoo.  After Denny's guitar heaven, we went to find the house that my great-great-grandparents lived in, and that my mom lived in when she was born (Marilyn's childhood home).  We road past, and I took a photo.  I'm so glad I tracked it down...it's nice to see a piece of your own history.<BR><BR>

We hit the road after that, only to hit a standstill in traffic on the interstate.  We had a map and were close to an exit off the highway, so we took it.  We stopped for gas and lunch, and of course, Dylan woke up before we ever left.  He did really well the whole way home though.  We kept him entertained as much as we could and made a run around stop at the huge Cabela's we saw along the way.  Cabela's is a HUGE outdoor store, with little streams and bridges and animals throughout.  They even have their own aquarium in the store.  Denny's Dad loves Cabela's, so we stopped because we knew he would.

<BR><BR>We made it home in time to feed little man, unpack just enough to get him in a bath and to bed, and collapse ourselves.  It was a really great vacation!  (and now I can blog about something else....yay!).