Vacation 2010 - April 8, Apache Junction

We started the day off again with a run through the Usery Recreational Area. This time we knew where we were going, but that didn't make it any less exciting. We saw three hares (I believe that's what they were) and a roadrunner. Jenny was attacked by a cactus which waylaid us for a few minutes, but overall it was a nice run.

After spending several days with Quin, he seems to be getting smarter all the time! No doubt it's because of the extra exposure to me!!! Anyway, I thought it would be a nice aside to go through some of Quin's latest quotes.

• When Quin wants something to drink, he says "My toostie," which loosely translates to "My Thirsty." Anything can be his thirsty, including something that you though was your drink...
• When Quin does something, anything, he may look at you and say, "I did it." No doubt about what he's saying here. On the ride home we were treated to a variation of that. He would take off his shoes and socks while riding in his car seat and say, "I did it (pause) mommy." He would keep saying that until Jenny would look at him and tell him he did a good job. He would then move on and say, "I did it (pause) daddy." Same drill. Finally he would end with, "I did it (pause) E." E is how he says "Ethan."
• If Quin wants something open, he hands it to you and says. "Ope."
• If Quin wants to put something in his pocket. he hands it to you, grabs his pocket, and says, "Pock."
• However, if Quin is stuck or something he wants is stuck, he says, "uck." There seems no rhyme or reason to why some words are truncated at the end while others at the beginning...
• Sometimes Quin just sings or talks to be talking. Often it will be some variation of
  
• "Daddy... Helloowww."
  

We were able to get into the pool on this particular morning after Jenny and I did our run/Starbucks ritual. The Superstition Butte (that's the park mom and dad live in) pool has some odd rules, most constricting is that kids can use it only from 10AM to 1PM. No biggie, we went at 10:00. However, some of the other rules are a bit concerning. For one, you aren't supposed to use the pool under the following conditions:

• You are incontinent
• You have a skin disease
• You have diarrhea
  
• You may be contagious
• You have leprosy...

OK, I made the last one up, but they didn't give you a lot of good reasons to want to use the pool...

After lunch we went out in search of some outdoor activity. We ended up at a mini-golf course in Mesa called Golfland. Quin started out sleeping, but was awake enough by the time we started golfing and decided that he was going to play as well! Grandma won the round with the lowest score, so we made her buy us ice cream at Baskin Robins before heading back to the park to prepare for our big night.

The evening brought us to the Arizona Opry, a dinner show not too far from my parent's place. The place was filled with Arizona types, and by that I mean oldies!!! Dinner wasn't my family's cup of tea, roast beef with gravy, mashed potatoes (also with gravy), vegetables (gravy optional), a roll, apples, and chocolate cake (no gravy on this one). I liked it... The dinner really isn't what it's all about, though - it's only a reason for them to charge you as much as they do for the show. The show is where the real fun starts.

The "music master" is a guy named George Staerkel. This guy could do it all! I couldn't figure out what his main instrument was since he played so many. He played keyboard on many songs, but wailed on the trumpet and various other brasswind instruments, was solid at many different varieties of saxophone and other reed instruments, and also played a respectable Swiss Horn while circular breathing. None of that was really quite as impressive as how well the guy could sing, though. He actually toured with a group called "The Tokens" in the 80's when they were doing a revival tour. They were the band that had the hit "In the Jungle" back in the 60's or 70's (I can't remember which - maybe the 50's). Anyway, he was pretty good.

The rest of the band was almost as impressive. Few played only a single instrument and they all sang. It reminded me a bit of some of the shows in Branson when we went there a couple of years ago. Ethan had a blast, Quin was a very good boy, only needing to be removed from the performance one time, and it was a 2 hour performance!

Vacation 2010 - April 7, Apache Junction

It was nice to be somewhere that we didn't have to be running all the time! To celebrate, Jenny and I went for a run!!! I had made it out in Denver for a quick 3 miler, but Jenny wanted to get out, so we went to the map and found somewhere that "looked like it had trails." After driving for about 10 minutes, we found a trailhead at the Usery Recreation Area and parked. We didn't have the $2 entrance fee for the self service registration, so we took all my dad's change (we took his car), $1.45, put it in the envelope, and hoped for the best. It was a nice run, but a word to the wise when running in the desert - if a trail has the word "wash" in it, don't run on it! We ran almost a mile on a trail called the Amigo Wash, which turns out to be a dried creek bed. It was like running on a beach!!!

After consulting the iPhone for the nearest Starbucks, we went back, got some breakfast, and relaxed a bit. My dad and I went out to run some errands and to get my tire fixed, Jenny, my mom, and the boys hung out at mom and dad's place and took a walk. After lunch, we finally got motivated to go somewhere, a shopping center south of Apache Junction called San Tan Shopping Center (or something like that). The main attraction was a little store called "Total Wine and More." It is basically a toy store for alcohol enthusiasts. They have something like 4000 wines, 2000 spirits, and 1000 beers. It was like sensory overload!!! I ended up spending just south of $20 on bombers and bottles of things I can't get in Milwaukee.

We then stopped quickly at Best Buy in the same shopping center where I was able to fondle an iPad for the first time. It took all my will power, well, all of Jenny's insistence for me to walk out of there without one! I will have one, some day...

We finally ended up at a ghost town outside of Apache Junction called Goldfield (I think) to do a bit of touristy stuff. We first rode the "choo choo," followed by some ice cream, and finally Ehan and I did a horse ride. It was pretty cool, actually. It was the first time I was allowed to control a horse while on a ride rather than just getting on a "horse train." Ethan was also able to ride his own. He rode Bear and I rode Captain. The 30 minute tour took us through national forest and desert land. Our guide was full of interesting information, like the fact that Arizona had one of the lowest percentages of privately held land in the nation, only 18%. In fact, he said that you could ride all the way from where we did our tour up to Utah without hitting a town or leaving public land. Interesting... Bear and Captain were great, too. Ethan had his hands full with Bear who liked to stop and munch on desert grass he found, while Captain seemed to like nothing better than to smell Bear's butt!

For future study, we learned just a little bit about the "Lost Dutchman," who was apparently some guy that buried a bunch of gold, up to 9 pounds or something, in the Superstition Mountains, which is the mountain range outside of Apache Junction. I didn't catch the whole story exactly but put it here so you can do your own research and to remind me to look into it later.

After taking supper in (my parents were leaving the same day we were for Wisconsin in the offseason and had a lot of food to get through in their refrigerator/freezer), Jenny and I got dressed up and went out on our own! As usual with vacation, we were too tired to do anything all that exciting by the time we actually got out. We ended up going back to San Tan, browsed through Barnes and Noble, groped an iPad at the Apple store, then had a brownie and beers at Gordon Biersch.

Man, even the "off days" are packed full of activities!!!

Talks with Ethan.

It sometimes frightens me to think what Ethan tells people about us. He and I are sitting in the car waiting for Jenny and mom to come out of a store and he's telling me about how he and a girl from school have made up new words to a song that I had made up when I was a kid. Or was a parody to the tune of "this is it" by Huey Louis and the News called "Smell my Pits.". I probably shouldn't be telling him some of te things I tell him…


-- Post From My iPhone

Location:S Signal Butte Rd,Mesa,United States

Vacation 2010 - April 6, Sedona and Apache Junction

I'm writing this three days later, so there is a serious possibility that these memories will be stale... Oh well, maybe I'll get some comments from my wife and parents to help fill in the blanks.

Qunny got up early this morning! 5:00 AM. A 5PM afternoon nap of 90 minutes didn't help us out here at all. We tried to push him over to Grandpa and Grandma's room right away, but he didn't want to have much to do with that. At one point Jenny and I were so mad at him that I took him out to the van to let him cry it out. Eventually Jenny was able to take him over to breakfast and let Ethan and I sleep for a little while longer.

The continental breakfast at the hotel was pretty good. After some food, we headed back up to the canyon to check out how it would look in full sunlight. The day was cold, but it was sunny, which was nice. Predictably, the canyon looks completely different in full sunshine.

We didn't stay long, though. By 10:00 we were heading down 64 to 180 towards Flagstaff with Sedona our interim destination of the day. The trip from Tusayan to Flagstaff was quite breathtaking. One thing that's nice is that all speed limits are 10 miles per hour greater than Wisconsin, so even though we were on 2 lane highways, the speed limits were 65 miles per hour. But the trip - now that was something else. Up and down, windy roads, but we traveled between two mountains, so we saw lots of different terrain.

After getting some gas and directions, we continued south to Sedona. Now that is a drive! Sedona is only about 25 miles south of Flagstaff, but the terrain couldn't be different than that of Flagstaff and locales north. The rocks turn red and you descend several thousand feet almost instantly. The road is so windy and steep that it takes about 45 minutes to make the trip.

We stopped in Sedona quickly for lunch. The place has grown quite a bit since we were there in 1994. There were shops there then, but the shops seem to have multiplied. It was difficult to get around with all the tourists walking around. It looked like Wisconsin Dells in peak season! Now maybe I'm being romantic, or maybe the fact that we were there in the middle of January made it seem more quaint in 1994, but I have to admit it was a little disappointing. The landscape was still just as impressive, though.

On the way out of town we stopped at a roadside trailhead to attempt an assault on Chicken Point, a 1.5 mile hike from the road. The rocks were breathtaking, but the terrain seemed more difficult than the NGS employee lead us to believe. The trail was very rocky and had a lot of up and downhill traverses. Ethan found a lot of rocks that he enjoyed climbing on, and Jenny and I enjoyed getting back to something close to the hiking we used to do back when we lived in Washington back in the late 90's. Quin enjoyed his backpack that we purchased in Denver for him... When we finally got back to the parking lot, we realized that we took the wrong trail! I'm kind of glad we did, though, as this trail was much more interesting than the one we eventually discovered was the correct trail.

We finally left the Sedona area and headed towards Phoenix around 4:00. Directly after getting into the car, I asked Jenny, nervously, where my phone was. For some reason I had a feeling that I had left it on the van roof before we left. I located the phone quickly, however, and we continued on. About 10 miles later, I got a call on said phone from my parents who were driving behind me. My mom asked if my wallet had somehow fallen out of the car. She thought Quin had thrown it out of the window. I looked down to where I had been storing my wallet and noticed that it was gone, and my mind immediately went back to when we pulled out of the parking lot. I had set my wallet on top of the van and forgot to retrieve it before we left! Somehow it stayed there for 10 miles while we drove!!! We pulled off the road, did a U-turn, and traveled back about a mile where my dad somehow located my wallet in the middle of the road. After retrieving it from highway traffic and returning it to me, I discovered that a credit card and another card were missing from one of the compartments. We walked up the road a ways where I caught a glimpse of something on the road which I quickly identified as my credit card. After two cars passed by, it was blown to the side of the road where I was able to retrieve it, slightly damaged. The other card was an XBox Live recharge card which I paid $35 for and inexplicably haven't activated yet, so I was half ready to leave it. For some reason, however, I decided to look the other direction from the car to see if I could somehow find it. Sure enough, I caught it out of the corner of my eye on the other side of the road. I crossed, two more cars passed, and the card was blown to the side of the road again. So as far as I can tell, all of the contents of my wallet are accounted for after I had left it on the roof of my van while driving down the highway! How's that for luck!

The remainder of the trip to Apache Junction was blessedly uneventful. We arrived at mom and dad's place around 6:30. It's a very nice and surprisingly big place in a retirement park in Apache Junction. There seem to be hundreds of these retirement parks down here!!! After unpacking our car I realized that the left-front tire looked a bit low. I measured the pressure which was at 15 pounds... Have to check that out in the morning.

We were quick to bed this evening after the day's activities. Not much to do the following two days which is just fine!!!

Vacation 2010 - April 5, The Grand Canyon

Busy day, this one. We woke up after "sleeping in" until 6:00 at the Hampton Inn in Flagstaff, AZ. Very nice hotel, reasonably priced, with a nice rooms, decent continental breakfast, and most importantly, a POOL!!! After Quin woke up, he and I went downstairs for some fruit, cereal, and juice. Jenny and Ethan joined us shortly afterwards. After we were sufficiently fed, we got into our swimming suits and took in some much deserved swimming. We had the place to ourselves, which was nice since the kids are extremely loud! I'd say we swam for at least an hour this way. Ethan has become a very good swimmer and really enjoys the water. He particularly likes when I launch him into flips, but we can only do that when nobody else is in the water. Quin thinks that he can do anything that Ethan can do, but still can't swim. He really enjoys jumping from the edge of the pool into the water - not really jumping to me, but into the water. I still catch him, though... He hates that!

By 10:00 we were wheels up and on our way to the Grand Canyon. The first order of business was to feed the Starbucks need, though. Using my trusty iPhone we located a Starbucks no more than 1 mile away. During that short drive, we could already see that today was going to be interesting. That pervasive wind from the day before hadn't subsided. In fact, it seemed to be gaining in strength! I really hate wind, even more so when I'm trying to work out. With that in mind, my mind was completely blown when I saw a biker huffing his backside up the mountain we were driving up. It was 40 degrees (a generous exaggeration) with wind gusts up to 50 miles per hour!!! Some people are cut from a different cloth, I guess.

With caffeine desired satiated, we headed up Highway 89 towards the Grand Canyon. About 75 minutes later we crossed Highway 64 and headed west towards Grand Canyon National Park. I've been to the park 2 times in the past. Once with my family on a vacation in the early 90s, and once with a school trip in the late 90s. Both times I visited probably added up to 30 minutes of looking at the park, so I was looking forward to this opportunity to spend some real time here. We were optimistic that the weather forecast was all wrong, too, as the car thermometer read 65 degrees, though it was still windy as hell!

Our first stop along 64 was prior to getting into the park, a little place called Little Colorado River Gorge. We parked there and were immediately blown away, literally, by the wind. We hadn't really been out of the car to experience the full force of the wind yet, and it was brutal. It was so bad that two of the port-a-potties actually fell over. Here's the picture to prove it!

Anyway, this viewpoint, along with most others east of the canyon, was lined with Indian craft salesmen. We wound our way through the sales tents to find our first glimpse of the canyon, and man was it spectacular. This particular vista was of a far east locale but had a great view of the Colorado River. Well, it could have been the Little Colorado River, I'm not sure, but it was awesome. Unfortunately, I started to feel guilty and a little nervous that we had left Quin in the van, which by now was over 500 meters away, because he was taking a nap. So I took what I refer to as the "Glen Grady tour of the Canyon, 35 seconds and out" and headed back to the car. Luckily he was still sleeping peacefully in the van.

We continued west towards the park proper. At regular intervals we would pass views that exceeded the last ones we saw, all from the car. We did the same things that we remember our parents doing to us on trips like this, we kept urging Ethan to look out the window at how beautiful that was!!! He was happily playing his Nintendo DS, though, in what I'm sure he'll remember when he's 37 years old!!! It's refreshing and frightening at the same time to realize that we're turning into our parents!

As we continued to drive, we noticed that the weatherman was getting more and more accurate. The temperature, a respectable 65 degrees at our first stop, had dropped to 50 over the course of about 7 miles. We eventually entered Grand Canyon National Park's east entrance and stopped at the first vista, the Desert View. We all got out of the car this time, Quin in his new riding backpack, and the rest of us on foot, to take in our first real look at the Canyon.

I'll spare the gory details, but to sum it up, Jenny and I took around 400 pictures of the canyon. It seems that every time you move 10 feet, it completely changes. We tried feebly to capture the awe we felt by snapping all of those pictures, but I'm sure they won't quite translate. If you've never visited, visit.

Our stay at Desert View lasted about 1 hour, already doubling my previous two trips to the canyon. We were able to walk up the Observation Tower, an 80 foot high structure that was undergoing some repairs. At the top, the view of the canyon looked much the same, since it is so damn far down there in the first place!!! It was a bit nerve wracking going up there as I realized they were tracking the width of the cracks in the wall, no doubt hoping that the structure wouldn't fall down. One thing we noticed immediately were all the foreign visitors to the canyon. Many people from Asia and Europe were populating the park. Man, that makes our little driving excursion seem small by comparison!

We stopped at a couple more vistas and eventually wound our way around to Tusayan, AZ just south of the park where we were to meet my parents who have recently relocated their winter headquarters to the Phoenix area. This was the first time the kids have seen them since Christmas, and the reunion was precious. I was a little worried about how Quin would react to them, but he did not disappoint, giving big hugs and kisses to both of them, especially Grandpa! Boy does he have a thing for his "bompas."

After an overpriced cafe lunch, we went back to the park with mom and dad for some quick glimpses of the big crack before we finally returned for our pre-planned tour of the canyon, a sunset jeep tour. Our guide was Mike, a foreign (I say British, my dad says Australian) guy of advanced middle age who knew lots of interesting information about the canyon and its surrounding forests. The tour would take us through the Kaibab National Forest and back into the park. Along the way, Mike filled us with little known facts about the park and surrounding forests. Some of bits I remember include:

• In order to control overgrowth, the forestry department allows anybody to come into the Kaibab National Forest and, for a $20 permit, take 4 chords of wood.
• A chord of wood is 4 feet by 4 feet by 8 feet, a volumetric measurement.
• There are trees in the national forest that are 350 years old and older!
• The Hopi and Navajo people both held residence in the Grand Canyon in the past, and at the same time. One was a subset of the other, but I don't recall which.
• They use mules to trek to the bottom of the canyon because horses are too skittish (though mustangs might be able to make the trip) and donkey's are just too stubborn.
• Last year, 22 people died in the canyon. 3 from dehydration, 3 from suicide, and 16 from tragic accidents near the edge.
• If you lose your footing near the edge, the next time you are likely to touch something is 300 feet later. That fall is rarely survived.

After 2 hours and several stops, Mike, who incidentally looked a lot like my uncle Al, brought us to where we were to watch the sunset. We were 30 minutes early, but the weather was already starting to roll in. He kept saying that the weather can change in a heartbeat there, but eventually conceded that it was not going to this evening. We were able to leave early just as the snow started coming down! All in all it was a great tour despite the fact that we did not get to see the sunset.

After our "early" departure from the tour, we were finally admitted to the hotel (long story, I'll post it later if I feel bored, or just ask me over a beer sometime - let's just say the cleaning crew must be very sparse at this hotel). While the kids enjoyed their grandparents for awhile, Jenny and I ventured out to get an overpriced pizza from the Pizza Hut Express in town. We then scarfed that and various sundries we had brought along for the trip while watching Duke eek out a victory over Butler in the NCAA basketball championship game. After that, Quin hung out with Grandma and Grandpa while Ethan, Jenny, and I went to the main lodge to take in some video games and some bowling - yes, they have bowling at this hotel.

Traveler's Tips

• If going to the Grand Canyon and you don't plan on doing spending more than a day, stay in Flagstaff or elsewhere. Tusayan and the GC Village are just too expensive - the lodging, the food, the fuel. We would have probably have been much better off just staying at the Hampton Inn another night and driving back after our tour.
• The Grand Canyon can be cold!!! Pack for all occasions.
• If you can, spend a couple of days at the Canyon and do one of the hikes, not just around the rim, but into the canyon itself.
• The "Canyon Walk" that you've likely seen on TV with the horseshoe glass walkway out over the canyon is NOT at the Grand Canyon National Park. That structure is somewhere 250 miles west of the park and was built by a Native American Group.
• Gas in Flagstaff is actually more expensive than the smaller surrounding communities!!! Who knew?

I think there's a ton I've missed, but I think I've been writing long enough. Today's journey to Sedona will have to wait until tomorrow for details. As a preview, though, we're happy today to be in the Phoenix area where we hope to relax a bit, finally...

Vacation 2010 - April 4, Driving...

OK, I'm a little out of order. Bear with me. April 4, Easter Sunday, was a day of driving. I was actually able to get out of bed and get out for a 3.4 mile run in the crisp Denver morning (41 degrees but sunny). Running in Denver is nice and not so nice. Nice because they have so many running trails and there are so many cute girls that are generally out exercising as well (even when it is cold). Not so nice because it is the "Mile High City" and that seems to play tricks on either my mind or my lungs or both. The first 10 minutes of this run was brutal! After that, though, I settled into a nice, slow trod and was able to complete the run. A couple of "interesting" things I saw on the run - there were a bunch of old men out walking their equally old looking toy dogs, there was a guy that lived in the city that had outfitted his little postage sized lot of land into looking like a farm, complete with 3 classic tractors that he appeared to enjoy working on, and there was this one spot on the trail where somebody had spread out a bunch of bird seed, no doubt meant for birds, but was being hoarded by a group of wayward squirrels that were afraid of nothing!

We managed to get out of town at 10:00 AM and met little traffic immediately. The travel south of Denver was quite nice through Pueblo. We made a quick stop in Pueblo to let Ethan go to the bathroom. I had initially intended to stop there, but we were a bit early and Quin was sleeping, so we called an audible and decided to move on.

We finally stopped for our Easter lunch in Weisenburg, CO, which looked like the next largish town on our way. We saw a sign for Subway and decided to get subs and have a picnic in a town park. Not much went right with that plan. When we got to Subway, it was closed for Easter, so we settled for roller dogs and chips from the Loaf 'n Jug. We still attempted a picnic, but after about 10 minutes had to leave because the wind was blowing so hard! So much for Easter lunch!

The remaining travel south to New Mexico went without incident. We hit one major milestone, the car passed 100,000 miles!

Another 5 hours of driving and we made it to Albuquerque, NM, our intended supper destination. The plan this time was to get something decent to make up for the roller dogs. However, a bid to hit a Best Buy to get Ethan a new DS game took us WAY off course - there was no Best Buy, and we ended up settling for KFC and a much nicer park than lunch for supper.

The remainder of the trip was uneventful. We finished the trip at 10:30 local time, 12.5 hours after we left. Mileage was close to 800 miles, but I don't remember for sure. A couple of brief observations:

- Driving through New Mexico is like watching Cars. I kept wondering when I would see Radiator Springs.

- I wonder why they would build Route 66 right along the I40 interstate. I mean, why take that meandering route if you could go straight through!

- I saw a sign that said "Indian Tacos" on the way through western New Mexico. I wonder if that is code for a reservation bound brothel...

I'm a day late on today's post now, but am tired and need sleep. I will hopefully be able to post two tomorrow, but will likely get lazy and just do two lame posts or one longer posts that cover our two days in the Grand Canyon area. Time will tell.

Grand canyon

Holy crap it's windy!!! Short post for now. Jenny and Ethan are out looking at the little Colorado river gorge about 15 miles east of the south rim park of the grand canyon. It's not too cold out but I bet the wind is gusting up to 50 mph. It's so bad that it tipped over 2 portapotties.

Quinny is napping. We left him in the car to start with but then felt guilty so now I'm hanging out with him. We are heading over to the main park in a couple of minutes and will post a full recount along with pictures later.


-- Post From My iPhone

Location:Unnamed Rd,Cameron,United States

Vacation 2010 - April 3, Denver

OK, back to the standard keyboard. Too much to write to try to do it on my little iPhone.

The day started out pretty early this morning. Quin woke up around 5:00 local time, but that was OK with me since I had fallen asleep last night at 8:30 local. Of course, in a single bedroom apartment, once anybody is up, everybody is pretty much up. By 6:30, everybody was done pretending to be asleep anymore and we got up and ready for the day.

Ethan started his waking day by playing Wii Fit with the balance board. It was pretty fun. He ended up the hoola-hoop champion even though I showed him how to do it! Once we were all ready, though, we left the apartment and were off to meet Jason for some breakfast, but not before going first to the mall to check out the line for the Apple iPad launch!

OK, I fall for these things time and time again. I convince myself that I need one of these things as soon as they come out, then I get there and realize that I have no interest in standing in line for a couple of hours while I wait for the privilege of paying them to give me one!!! I did the same thing with the XBox 360 before realizing how dumb I was and waiting a whole week before I got one... Anyway, we were able to manage a Starbucks run out of the whole ordeal. There were many people in line at the Apple Store.

We left the mall and headed out to our breakfast destination, the Village Inn, which is right next to Best Buy. I happened to know that each Best Buy was allotted 15 iPads for launch and I saw only 4 people in line, so I am pretty sure I could have gotten one there, but breakfast beckoned, and I ultimately decided I could wait (again).

Today's big destination was the Denver Zoo. It's a pretty nice zoo and will be getting nicer as they complete a huge new project called the Asian Exchange (or something like that). It appears to be a very large project, taking up an entire border of the zoo. Quin and Ethan enjoyed themselves, Quin especially loved the "choo-choo." Ethan was interested in getting through the Zoo in time to see the movie I had promised him, "How to Train your Dragon."

After several hours of zoo tourism, we retreated for an afternoon snack at the Bull & Bush Pub and Brewery. This, I believe, marked my first vacation experience of this trip. This is an awesome little English inspired pub that makes their own English style ales and serves them for inexpensive prices. The kids didn't really go for it, but I really, REALLY enjoyed it. I probably would have stayed there all day if not coaxed out of there by my family.

After a few beers and some appetizers, Jenny, Maylee, and Quin dropped Ethan and I off at the movie theater where we saw "How to Train your Dragon," while they went shopping somewhere. When done, we went back to Maylee's apartment for a little dinner and bed.

Tomorrow promises a long day of travel through Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. Should be a hoot. Hopefully I'll have a chance to post again tomorrow night before I crash. The day following should be fun - we'll get to see my parents for the first time in 4 months and will get to see the Grand Canyon for the first time (for some).

By the way, pictures for this trip can be seen at the following link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/grady.mke/SpringBreak2010?feat=directlink

Vacaton 2010 Leg 1

Vacation 2010 Leg 1

So I'm trying a couple of new things this time around. I've recently identified that I require an ipad in order to survive. In order to prepare myself I've decided to post my vacation blog entirely from my iPhone. We'll see how long this lasts. I think I may be too old to learn to thumb type and ignore basic punctuation and spelling rules, but I suppose time will tell.

Our 2010 "trip" started last night around 4:30 central time. Our destinations this year inlude Denver, the grand canyon, then finally Phoenix where my parents have recently "relocated" for their winters. We opted to drive since the thought of flying with Quin makes even a brave man cringe.

The original plan was to leave after Ethans tennis lesson at 5:30, but we found out later that tennis had been canceled, so I had designs on leaving by 3:00. Well, things rarely work out he way you think. Jenny has to run reports once a month at the beginning of the month. On this run, everything that could go wrong with those reports did. When all was sai and done we didn't get out of the house until 4:30. Even then, as we were trying to leave, Ethan fell while rinning to the car and had a boo boo that had to be tended to before we could go.

We managed to make it to Rockford by 6:00 in time to het so e dinner at some ghetto mall in the greater Rockford area. Ethan was treated to some typical suburban teenage language with m-er f-er this and that… I guess they are going to bear that eventually. Ethan heard it from me and my family years ago…

The plan was to drive all night and we accomplished that goal. We used a tested method of listening to a book on tape while we drove which really made the time go fast. I also employed a new technique of drinking a 5 hour energy drink which has kept me up through now. Everything seemed to work out well. We made it to Denver with two stops by 9:00 mountain time this morning.

A couple of observations from the road. Iowa is much more interesting than Illinois or Nebraska. They also have very nice rest areas with wifi and everything. At their least frequent they are spaced at 40 miles and most of the time they are at 20. Nebraska is just damn big and seems even moreso when you don't even get into the state until 11:30. Lastly, as tempting as it might seem at the time, Sterling, Colorado is not a great place to stop for gas or food even though it is the first town of any size in Colorado. Gas is expensive, the water has nitrates, an the fii doesn't taste all that good. Other than that it's nice.

Today has been a bit if a blur. We went to Dave and busters, I tried to take a nap and failed. All in all it was a pretty good first day of vacation. It finally turned into a vacation at 5:00 tonight when I cracked my first Colorado beer.

Tomrrow should be nice regardless of what we do since Jenny and I will be able to amass more than two hours of sleep between us.

As an aside, this posting method is kind of painful. I can't get as much on the page as I want to because this is so slow…. I'll keep trying.

-- Post From My iPhone

Location:Fairmount Dr,Denver,United States

March Musings

On this eve of "the closest thing the Irish have to Christmas," I'm sitting on my couch musing about my hopelessly silly kids. Nature dictates that the oldest is silly like his dad, but nurture appears to have a strong influence on the youngest. Too bad - we thought he had a chance!!!

We were out and about gathering materials for our latest home improvement project, built-in cabinets and a desk in our office (the wood floor was finished up two weeks ago). After we finished getting some things at WalMart we came across some girl scouts selling cookies. I have a soft spot for kids selling things, especially sweets, so I bought a box of Thanks-A-Lots (I think that makes 10 boxes this year). Quin has a highly developed sweet tooth and immediately started saying one of his favorite words, "Cookie." We we opened up the box and all had one. Not more than a minute later, Quin was again repeating "Cookie, cookie, cookie!" Jenny thought he was palming it, or had just put it in his lap since very little time had passed and said to him, "no, you just had one. Where is your cookie?" Without missing a beat he leaned forward and opened his mouth and pointed to it.

His vocabulary is progressing well beyond cookie, though many of his sentences are just negative versions of things we want him to do. "No nigh-nigh" is one I hear each night before bed. He has started to branch out, though. He is very polite and frequently says things like "Thank you daddy." One I particularly liked recently was when I was trying to give him some juice. He took one drink and said "Ucki duece."

Not to be outdone, the older one continues to be goofy in many ways. If you've met Ethan, you know he is quite the talker. We're taking a trip to Arizona next month and I'm pretty sure he will likely talk at least 20 hours of the 30 it takes to get out there... One of our recent conversations was that he hoped he would never be homeless because he didn't want to have to bath in the lake. He said he had heard about these fish that would swim into your penis and eat your testicles. 8 year old boys are apparently fascinated with testicles... At one point he referred to the fish as "nasty little nut eaters!"

Just today we were watching Chowder on Cartoon Network. Not a particularly good show, nor would I recommend it for your children that aren't so demented, but Ethan seems to like it. In this episode, for some reason, Chowder had to prove that he was not a baby or something (I was barely paying attention), so he took off a towel he was wearing. Ethan started giggling and said, "he's showing him the goods. You know... his privates." During the same episode, some fairy things were about to kiss when Ethan announced, "Look dad, they're going to have sex." Well, I'm not proud to say that I was intrigued immediately, but quickly realized that Ethan thought that kissing was "having sex." I can't imagine what he talks about in school... For those that are worried, I did explain to him that it was not, indeed, having sex, it was just kissing. I assured him that I would tell him all about "having sex" when he was a little older and that he would think it is really gross right now... He agreed. Whew - that talk was averted for a little while longer...

That's it for now. I wish you all a Happy Irish Christmas, as Michael Scott would say, and I hope your kids give you as many laughs as mine give me!

Is that a Baby Ruth?

I was traveling to Atlanta this past week, so Jenny and the boys were by themselves for three days! It sounded like things were going pretty well, for the most part, until I was in the Hartfield Jackson Airport in Atlanta awaiting my boarding call to return home to Milwaukee. That was when I received a call from Ethan. "Dad," he said, "what do you do when Quin poops in the bathtub?" You see, I am the poop cleaner in our house. If it manages to get into a diaper or into the toilet, Jenny has no issue dealing with it. If, on the other hand, it ends up somewhere outside the "norm," that's when dad the poopman steps in. Unfortunately, the poopman was 700 miles away and wouldn't be back in time to take care of this situation.

When I arrived home, I asked Jenny how she managed the log. She said she just forced it down the drain. Unfortunately it was so big, she had to use a toothbrush to help force it down! When Ehtan heard this he asked in horror, "Whose toothbrush did you use, mine???" I'm glad to see my talents are still in demand around this house!

No ni-ni...

Quin is starting to talk quite a bit. I'm happy to say that he is finally speaking in sentences! Of course, most, if not all of his sentences are just telling us no to different things that we want him to do. "No ni-ni." "No eat." "No Bath!" I guess you have to start somewhere!

The other day, Ethan, Quin, and I were out to eat and had some time to burn before we went to swimming lessons, so we went to Best Buy. We walked in past the DVDs. I was looking at the Weeds Season 5 DVD with Marie Louise Parker on the front - Quin pointed at the cover and said, "Mommy!" I thought that was pretty nice, because even though she's older than Jenny, she's quite good looking. We then progressed further down the aisle when Quin picked out another movie where he pointed at Brad Pitt and said, "Daddy." Smart boy!

We went to the pet expo down at State Fair Park yesterday. We aren't really in the market right now for a dog, but we thought we'd start looking... Ethan has fallen in love with the Boston Terrier breed. Who knows what will happen ultimately, but it was fun to have the kids interacting with dogs again...

New Year

Happy New Year! In the name of New Year's Resolutions, I've resolved to blog on a more regular basis this year! I've found that blogging is nice on several levels. It allows people who care to follow along with what is going on with our lives (or ignore it, which is nice as well). This is important right now since my parents have moved to Arizona for the remainder of this winter and will be grandchild starved for 3 months! But more than that, it allows us to go back years later and see what we were doing now.

I've been putting off an update for a long time now. At first it was innocent enough - just didn't have time. Soon it started to feed itself, though. I kept thinking of how much had happened since my last update, and thinking that I'd never get it all into a post. The more I thought about it, the more I dreaded doing another update for fear of leaving something out. I've finally decided to take a stand and to post what I think of at the time, knowing that my family will remind me of the things I've forgotten.

Quinton has been growing up quite a bit in the last few months. Physically he has grown into a full blown toddler. I don't recall if he was in a toddler bed as of the last posting, but he is. It all happened because he kept climbing out of his crib and falling down, waking him up. The transition to the toddler bed has been a difficult one, but we have it under relative control at this time. For the first few weeks it seemed much worse than when he was an infant getting up three times a night. I think we got used to getting pretty regular, long periods of sleep, and being torn from that made me quite cranky! Anyway, with the help of The Supernanny, we are now back to where we were at several weeks before he started crawling out of his crib, which is to say that we can put him down to bed awake and he will fall asleep, and he will stay in his room most of the night, even if he wakes up - he has started getting up earlier for some reason, but we'll deal with that as time goes by.

Quin has also started to become more and more vocal. I would say he's a bit behind where Ethan was at this age, but he is definitely starting to roll! Each day he learns new words, though many of them are used incorrectly and most of them are hard to pick out.

His favorite word is "no," which is not as bad as it might sound. No is to Quin like Aloha is to the Polynesians - it has several meanings. The only way to know what he's really saying is to listen to the inflection of the word. For example, "No," said with force and cross eyes really means no. "No," said in a sing-song way with a smile generally means "yes." Confusing? Yes, but I suppose that's what it is to be a parent...

Quin has recently started to show a genuine love of books. He will pick up a book, hand it to either one of us (or any adult, really), and say "Book!" He then sits on the floor and patiently waits for you to read to him. He won't sit through the entire book, though he'll be interested longer if you make funny noises while reading the book!

One of Quin's better qualities is his courtesy. He learned "Thank You" several weeks ago and uses it in the correct context almost all the time. Today we were at our friend's house ice skating. Quin was struggling to get going on the ice, so our friend Tim helped him to move in the right direction. Quin immediately said "dit dyu," which translates to "thank you."

Quin's had a couple of sicknesses in the last month, but recently he's been feeling quite well. So well, in fact, that he appears to have no end to his appetite. He eats and tries to eat pretty much every waking hour. Two nights ago, I put Quin down to bed and came downstairs to take a shower. When I got out of the shower, I found Quin in the kitchen helping himself to some Cheerios. Jenny said she thought it was me eating, and was confulsed why I hadn't responded when she asked me something...

Perhaps one of the most challenging things about Quin right now is to deal with his love of water. He loves all things water. He loves to be in the pool, go down waterslides, he puts his face in the water, he loves baths... He also loves to drink water. Lots of water. And he doesn't wait for us to get it for him either. We have the misfortune of having a refridgerator with ice and water in the door. It is old enough that it does not have a lock on those devices. Quin figured out how to run these long ago. He has recently discovered all the different things he can put under the water dispenser to fill. If there is a glass available, he will fill it up and start to drink from it. If there isn't a glass, he'll go into the tupperware cupboard and fill up one of those containers. He has recently tried to fill some of his cup-like toys with water. The only problem with that is that some of them have holes in the bottom! When he is done drinking the water, he starts pouring it from one container to the next, and eventually will dump it on the floor. He will generally attempt to clean this up, but that usually ends up making more of a mess than the water itself...

Of course Quin is growing by leaps and bounds, so there's lots of things to write about him right now. Ethan is moving right along as well, though there's not that much interesting to write about him. One encounter with him was pretty funny, though. A week or two ago, Ethan was sitting in the car waiting to go somewhere. I put Quin in the car and said something like, "Whew, something smells bad. Ethan, did you poop your pants?" Typical dad humor, and generally Ethan plays along. This time, however, Ethan pulled a new one on me. He said, "Dad, why do you always say that to me? That's insulting." I was kind of shocked - I'd never heard that word from him and was surprised to hear it in the right context, so I asked him what he meant by that. He said, "You are always accusing me of doing things that you know I wouldn't do, but that Quinton would." I couldn't do anything by apologize and to stop insulting him!

Kickles and Hillbillies

Of course my wife reminded me of some things I forgot... If only she knew how to blog!

The other day Ethan and I were driving to Soccer when we passed a section of road we frequently pass. On one side of the road is a pretty steep, tree-covered hill with a couple of houses on top. Ethan asked me, matter of factly, if the people living there were hillbillies. To be honest, I was laughing to myself, but calmly collected myself before explaining that they were not hillbillies. I was a little surprised that I was unable to come up with a really good description of a hillbilly without referencing Deliverance...

Not sure if I mentioned this one or not yet, but it deserves a repeat if I have not. A few months back, Jenny's nephew invited us to his apartment to dinner with his two kids. His oldest is about a year older than Ethan. The two of them get along very well. While they were eating, Matthew asked Ethan if he wanted to play cards after dinner. Intrigued, one of the adults (there were many, so I can't remember who it was) asked him what type of card games he liked to play. He answered, "you know, five card stud, Texas Hold 'em, those kind of games. My grandma taught me how to play them. Ethan looked at him and said, very matter of factly, "My grandma taught me how to crochet."

I also forgot a couple of cute things Quin has done in the past months. He doesn't do it so much anymore, but about a month ago, we were reading a book to him called Fishy Kisses and Gorilla Hugs. Jenny taught him to do both, so he was going around giving everybody fishy kisses with his mouth pursed and moving... He still gives them on occasion, but not quite as much as he did a month ago.

He also loves to be tickled. He pronounces it "kickle." He'll raise his shirt and stand by you saying, "kickle" until you tickle his belly. One day he was playing with a toy dinosaur, complete with growling dinosaur roars. At one point, he took the dinosaur and put him on my stomach and said, in a growly dinosaur voice, "kickle, kickle."

Lastly, Quin has been using the potty lately as well! Well, I guess he's not really using it. He stands by the toilet and asks me to put him on there, pants on and all. He'll sit there for a minute or two, smiling, then grab the roll of toilet paper, take a few pieces (I help him to only take a few pieces), then pretend to wipe his butt. When he gets done wiping his butt, he takes the same piece out from behind him and wipes his face... Not sure where he saw that one. I can only assume Jenny does that.

Freedom...

Quin climbed out of his crib the other day. We were working around the house and he was acting like he was tired. He generally doesn't like to take naps during the day, but we like him to take naps. So I put him in his crib and began to let him "cry it out." I went outside to take care of something, and a couple of minutes later came back inside to find Quin standing downstairs, smiling at me. He hasn't done it since, but we now know it is possible...

Vacation 2009 - Evil River Part II

Here it is, the big vacation update! Of course, it's been a month since we went, so the memories have already started to fade, but I've uploaded some pictures to our photo gallery and the site's slideshow is now showing them. Hopefully this gives a better idea of how the vacation went. To see all of the pictures in the album, either click on the slideshow, or try this link here.

In August of this year, our family joined the Zieglers, Johnsons, and Abholds on a trip to St. Germaine, WI to stay at one of the remote Black Bear Lodge resorts. The resort was pretty nice, 6 cabins arranged along the lake with piers out front, a firepit, a shared fish house, and a "game room." We selected the first off-peak week to book our stay, and were rewarded with some of the coldest weather I can remember on a summer vacation. The first day was pretty nice, in the low 80s, and the second wasn't too bad, in the mid to upper 70s, but that was the end of that. Weather ranged from the 30s at night to windy and 50s during the day. Our cabins faced west, so we took the full brunt of the wind most of the time. Luckily we were able to find activities to do that did not involve going in the water or being outside all the time...

One such activity was going to GI Joe. Early in the week, Ethan and I decided that we were going to see this movie during this week because we rarely get an opportunity at home to get out to the movies. Unfortunately we didn't end up going until the second to the last night, and that was one of the nights that was actually pretty nice from a weather perspective. Nonetheless, we both enjoyed the movie, Ethan moreso than me as he has, or more specifically had declared it his favorite movie of all time. On the ride back from the movie, Ethan was discussing the finer aspects of movie making and asking my opinion on whether they would make another one. He has pretty much figured out Hollywood already as he basically equates the likelihood of a sequel on the money the original takes in. Hopefully I don't spoil the ending, but Cobra gets captured by GI Joe (there, I spoiled it). Ethan summed up the potential of future Joe movies by saying this,

"Everybody knows the bad guys are going to get out, and they're probably going to make a lot of money, so I'm sure they'll make another one..."

Quin busied himself all week by perfecting several new skills. One of the ones he's been working on for awhile now is the ability to walk up and down stairs without having to sit down. I'm not sure why he is so intent on doing that, but once he sets his mind on something, he does it and doesn't stop until he's satisfied that it is done right. So he entertained himself by walking up and down the camp stairs for what seemed like hours on end. By the end of the week, he could do it without falling or sitting down.

It seems silly to talk about now since he has added so many new words, but the vacation up north seemed to be Quin's verbal coming out party. Probably because I don't see him all day, but it seemed to me that Quin learned and used more words on vacation than he's ever used before. Now, looking back, I think that may have been true, but his latest achievements have far eclipsed those of that week. Let's see, he was still using "all done" with great success, he had "go-go-go" down pat, and was also starting to attempt to pronounce some more difficult things. For example, one day he got stuck in a lawn chair. He looked at Jenny and said, "guck." On another day, he picked up a rock and proudly said "cock."

As I said, many of our activities involved things away from camp, and away from the wind. On a particularly cold day, we found our way to the go-kart track. Ethan was very excited to drive his own go-kart. Unfortunately, when we got there we realized that you had to be 53" tall to drive one yourself - he only measuredin at 52" (thank God!). So Ethan abided and rode tandem with me - I let him drive, and let me tell you, it's a good thing he didn't drive himself!!! After the go-karts, he discussed at length the possibility that he might grow an inch in the next 24 hours so he could drive a go-kart tomorrow!!!

In the end, it was a very nice week, despite the weather. We got to see some of the tamest ducks I've ever seen, we saw a dog destroy a muskrat Discovery Channel style, and Ethan and I even fished a little bit. In fact, once I found Ethan fishing off the end of the dock by himself with no prodding or bargaining from me at all!!! Now that the kid's trip is out of the way for the year, it's time for Jenny and I to start planning the adult's-only vacation that we so desperately need!!!

Quin Quickie

I couldn't resist blogging this before my "big vacation update" later this week...

Quin has been talking A LOT MORE lately. I sat down to try to figure out the words he knew now and lost track. He's become much more interesting in the last month or so. Anyway, a game that I always play with him is to push his nose and say "beep beep." Ethan might do it to him, too. So now he goes around and pushes people's noses and says "bee bee" just like we do...

Apparently he doesn't just stop at noses, though. This morning when I was changing his pants, he grabbed his penis and said "bee bee..." Once I figured out what he was doing, I had to concentrate very hard not to laugh so hard that he fell off the changing table...

Kissing Cousins

Kissing Cousins

These pictures are from awhile ago, but I thought they were cute enough to post anyway!!! This is a picture of Quinton kissing his cousin. Man, he's really going for it! OK, they are second cousins once removed, or third cousins or something (you'd have to ask Blaine for the exact designation), so that's probably OK in most You can tell they are from awhile ago as they were for Jodi's baby shower - and they've already had the baby!!! Man, I just don't 'blog enough...

Swimming at the Lake

Jenny and I participated in a triathlon two weekends ago. My parents came down to watch the boys while we were out punishing our bodies (thanks mom and dad). The festivities took place in a state park, so we purchased a state park sticker. Since we purchased the sticker, we've decided we should try to get our money's worth from it - so to make a long introduction a bit longer, we've been going to the state parks in the area all week this week. On Tuesday, Jenny has her tennis league, so it's just me and the boys for the evening. Last night was warmer and sunny, so we decided to go to the state park and hit the beach. Quin just loved the water. I couldn't keep him out of it. He first found some puddles towards the top of the beach where he played for quite awhile. Until, that is, he realized there was a BIG puddle not too far away (the lake). Once he got there I couldn't get him out of there! He just loves the water. He makes me kind of nervous, though, since he has absolutely no fear of, and also no coordination in the water. Eventually he found a way to get around without falling in the water and swallowing a stomach full...

The funniest part of this story is the contrast between the boys taking a trip to the lake alone and taking a trip with mom in tow. When we went to the lake last night, we all put our swimming suits on at home, went to the lake, swam, then remembered that we needed a towel - luckily there was one in the van. We all used the same towel, dried off, went home, and went to bed. Tonight we did the same trip, this time with mom. When Ethan and I got home from work and camp, there was a picnic supper packed, extra clothes, four towels, garbage bags for our refuse, I could go on. Let's just say there are differences between trips that dad plans and those that mom does...

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Quinton has been serenading us with his lovely singing voice lately. We've been shocked lately to hear a very recognizable rendition of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," or it could be the alphabet song... The words aren't that clear, but the tune is spot on. He is already a better singer than Jenny!

Remote Control Car

A week or two ago, I got Ethan's remote control out and we played with it in the driveway. Ethan and I were having a blast, but Quinton didn't like it so much... He spent the entire 30 minutes we played with it on my lap clinging for dear life. Strange what kids will be afraid of.

Marley and Me

A week ago, Ethan and I watched the movie "Marley and Me" while Jenny was gone for a night out with the girls. It is a basic movie about life, family, and the family pet, Marley. If you just looked at the title and watched casually, you would think that the movie is actually about a dog and its owner. If you are an attentive and perceptive viewer, however, like Ethan, you might just take away a different message from the movie. The message Ethan took away from it was quite intuitive. Towards the end of the movie, Ethan says to me, "Dad, do you want grandchildren?" I said, "of course." He replied, "Well, you better hope Quin has some then, because I'm never going to." When I asked him why, he told me, "because kids ruin your life." Apparently the message he took away from the movie was that being young and married with a dog is a blast and you get to "make out" all the time. Once you have kids, though, your life is over and you don't even get to "make out" anymore... Very perceptive, indeed.

Cub Scout Camp

Cub Scout Camp

Last week, Ethan and I attended Cub Scout day camp for our second year. This year we went on the 3 day camp. Camp started at 9:00 AM and went until 4:00 PM. Besides the mosquitoes, it was a bona-fide blast for both of us. Ethan was able to do all sorts of different activities, including archery (which is is very good at), mini-golf (which he is not so good at), highlander games, knight's quest, etc. For me, it was a good opportunity for me to see Ethan interact with other kids and adults and how he did in the different physical and social situations. Let me tell you, if you ever find yourself annoyed at your child, spend some time with other people's children - like 18 of them. You will quickly appreciate your own!

Ethan proved very adept at archery, and we got do shoot each day we were there. He also very much enjoyed the castle out of which his group was based. I was very proud of the fact that he tested into the "swimmers" category, the highest category at camp. To do this, he had to swim 6 laps in the lake swim area on his front, then 2 on his back. Only 2 other kids in his group tested that high! Guess those YMCA lessons are paying off.

The camp is themed for the different years in scouts. Wolf scouts are the Pirates and do their activities around a pirate ship. Their leader is Captain Chris. Bear scouts, which is Ethan's group, are the Knights and are based out of the castle. Their leader was Sir Jim. Webelos are miners (as well as minors) and are based out of the mine. Their leader was Miner Mikey. The staff was outstanding and kept the kids engaged at all times. At one point Ethan assured me that he was going to stay in scouts until he received his Eagle. I would love if he would stick with it that long...

At closing of the second day, the heads of each of the groups declared that for the last day, the kids could shed their costumes and wear regular clothes just like the leaders. The leaders, incidentally, wore clothing matching their role - so Captain Chris wore a pirate outfit, etc. When they said that, Ethan was just about vibrating with excitement. Dressing up in costumes is one of his favorite things in the world. We spent about two hours the rest of the night preparing our costumes, him as a knight and me as a miner. The next morning he could not wait to get to camp! By 7:30 he was already asking me if it was time to go yet. When we finally got to camp at 8:45, he was disappointed to find out that not all kids shared his enthusiasm. In fact, only about 3 of the 80 kids at camp dressed up at all, and I was the only adult... He made me very proud, though, and stuck with his custume throughout the day. His biggest worry coming into the day was that his costume would not be the coolest. At the end of the day, however, he was convinced that his was, indeed, the coolest costume.

Miscellaneous Updates

Quinton has discovered that he likes to drive the vehicles that Grandpa and Grandma Grady bought for Ethan some years back. What is surprising is that he is actually able to drive them to some extent! Invariably he ends up in the weeds and somebody has to turn him around, but he definitely knows how to make them go.

He is starting to say more and more words. He says "bye bye" regularly now and waves. He is very goofy sometimes... When I first see him after work, he gets a big smile on his face and runs up to me, seemingly to give me a hug. When he is almost to me, he stops, bends over, pretends to pick something up off the ground, then hands it to me... Not quite sure what he's doing there. He has also been prone lately to spin around in circles for several seconds until he falls down from dizziness.

I'm sure there's more, but I can't think of it right now. Hopefully Jenny will read this and remind me of what I've missed.

It's amazing how Quin already thinks he can do everything his big brother can do. This morning I asked Ethan to help me take out the garbage, so he wheeled the garbage can that I had sitting out over to the side of the road. Quin, not to be outdone by his big brother, saw that I had the red plastic gas can sitting by the van waiting for me to fill it for the lawnmowers, and promptly grabbed it and started moving it towards the side of the road as well...

Testing out a new "quick-blog" tool from my Mac. It doesn't allow me to post pictures or anything, but should allow me to post more quickly and, therefore, more often.

Quin woke up ata 5:00 this morning! What is the matter with him!!??! About a week ago he went four days straight waking up at 6:30 or later. Jenny had to wake him up one day at 7:30 so she could get Ethan off to school! I don't remember when they start sleeping properly. I know it's by the age of 6 or 7 if their name is Ethan.

Quin's talking quite a bit more.  It helps that he can somewhat tell us what he wants. If he's hungry, he goes and points to his high chair, but normally he just wants a "nana (banana)." Of course, his most effective way of saying that he wants something that we're not providing properly is to scream at a very high pitch. Remember the most annoying sound in the world from Dumb and Dumber? Well, they weren't quite right.

That's about the limit of this new tool's ability to post, so I'm off.

Pets...

Quinton and Ethan's, well, all of our pet Barley passed away on Monday. Two weeks ago she suffered what appears to be a slipped disc in her back. Her back legs quickly became disabled, and over the course of the next two weeks she lost control of her bladder and bowels. She was almost nine years old.

The kids really loved her. Quin probably moreso than Ethan, though she's been a fixture in our house since Ethan has been around. Quinton just loved her, despite the fact that he tried to kick her on occasion and pulled her hair, all of which she handled without complaint.

Monday was a very difficult day for Jenny and I. She spent the weekend at the vet in hopes of a miracle that just didn't come. On Monday, the whole family went to the vet knowing what was going to happen. Jenny and I spent a lot of the time in tears. Ethan looked sad and seemed like he wanted to cry but just couldn't. I think he was upset most by seeing how upset Jenny and I were. Later in the day he did manage to get a good cry out, but it was a confusing time for him I believe.

Her life ended peacefully, though a tad early. One of the main issues we're encountering in her absence is how much we have to clean the floor around Quin while he's eating!!!

She loved to sit on the back of the chair in the sun. She loved to come and welcome you whenever you came over. She was a good dog and we will all miss her.

Sesame Street

Lots has happened since the last time you were updated on my two favorite kids. Ethan and Quin's only remaining great-grandmother passed away, Ethan received his first communion, and Quin has had his first ride on the lawnmower... Let's begin.

To set the table, I used to watch video blogs on the mac while I was feeding Quin last year. It was nice because I was able to control them with the remote control while I used my other hand to hold the bottle. One of my favorite blogs is College Humor. The video I happened to be watching that day was titled "Pot Cookie Monster" about a cookie monster like the one from Sesame Street but instead of regular cookies, he liked pot cookies... Here is the video...



At any rate, about a week ago, out of the blue, Ethan asked me who my favorite Sesame Street character was. It's not unusual for him to ask my favorite of whatever, today it just happened to be Sesame Street Characters... I answered, because I have to, "I don't know, maybe Oscar the Grouch." He responded that his was Big Bird. I then thought about it and said, "wait, maybe Cookie Monster." He asked me, "don't you mean Pot Cookie Monster." I guess the moral of the story is that Net Nanny and other programs to protect your kids from these types of things on the internet aren't that effective if you are letting them watch you browse the internet...

Last weekend was Ethan's first communion. He did fine, but he was a little nervous. At one point I caught him rehearsing the exact position of his hands when he went up to receive the host.

Quin is getting bigger and more bold all the time. He has now successfully climbed the ladder up to Ethan's top bunk and found a way to crawl into the bed! Today I found him on top of the kitchen table!!!

Quin is also talking a bit more. His best expression (the one we can understand the best) is "All Done," which he sings rather than says. Lately he's been making Mmmm sounds, which Jenny hopes will lead him to finally say "mama" but so far no luck. He's also starting to mimic Ethan pretty well. Ethan is a bit of a protector and enforcer with Quin, so when Quin starts doing something "naughty," Ethan says "No no no." Of course, Quin picked that up right away and can now say "No No No" in the right context and everything!

3 S's for Ethan

It's been awhile since I've updated this site on my favorite 7-year old. Ethan's been doing quite a bit lately, now in the home stretch of his 2nd grade year, about to receive his first communion. But why the title "3 S's for Ethan?" Really it all stems from a sad little game I play with my brain when I'm trying to remember something. I figure my brain can only remember 3 things at a time, and then only if I name them interestingly. In this case, I came up with three things I wanted to write about for Ethan, and I managed to make them all conform to some word starting with S. Let's begin:

Skiing

A couple of weeks ago, Ethan, Jenny, and I went to Lutsen, MN for a small ski vacation. We left Quin with his Grandpa and Grandma Grady for the few days we were up there. It was a great vacation, but the nicest part was to see how well Ethan had taken to skiing. This is his fourth year on the slopes, but it's only been a couple of times each year. Nevertheless, he has proven to be a very adept student of the sport, and is now skiing much faster than I'm comfortable seeing. By the end of the vacation, and one day of ski school, he was handling all the hills that Jenny was comfortable with. My only concern is that he is a bit cocky. By the end of the second day skiing, he was begging me to let him go down the black diamond hills, the ones rated for "experts only." I talked him out of it, but I'm sure it won't last too many more years. Where has my baby gone!!?

Segway

In my posts about Disney last year, I mentioned that I got to ride a Segway, and it was awesome. On that trip, Ethan and I tried to convince Jenny that we should buy a Segway for us to use at home. She said we could do that when she got new furniture.

A couple of weeks ago, Jenny ordered a new couch and coffee table from Overstock.com. It was delivered a week later, and while I was putting it together, Ethan came in the room and said, "awesome! Now we can get a Segway." It had been almost a full year since we had talked about it, yet he remembered the conversation immediately upon seeing new furniture in the living room!

Adult Things (wait for the S connection)

On Thursday night, Ethan and I were saying our prayers. I mentioned that we should pray for Grandma and Grandpa so they had a safe trip back from Arizona. Ethan asked me where that was, so I explained that it was in the southern part of the US between New Mexico and Nevada. In fact, I explained, it wasn't far from where Jenny and I were going to take a vacation in the coming months. "Are you taking us?" Ethan asked me, referring to himself and his brother. I told him no, that we weren't taking them. He asked me why that was, to which I answered, "because we're going to do adult things." "Like swear?" he retorted...

Smartest Kid Alive???

I can't be sure, and I'm probably not a good judge since he is my child, but I'm pretty certain that Quinton is the smartest 13 month old to have graced the planet. My first clue happened a couple of days ago. We sat him in his high-chair to feed him and mixed all of the food onto his tray. His tray does have segmented areas, but we generally just put stuff in the large middle one. I think we put some chicken, apples, cheese, and crackers on the tray. He finished up the apples and cheese pretty quickly as they are two of his favorite foods, but the crackers and chicken remained in the center. I turned around to do something (I would claim that I was doing dishes, but my wife may call my lie out on that one), and when I turned back, all but a few of the crackers had been placed in one of the segmented partitions. I watched in amazement as he sorted the remaining 2 or 3 crackers out from the chicken and the proceeded to eat the crackers one by one, all the while ignoring the chicken (he doesn't like meat very much). Some could argue that it is an early sign of OCD, but I'm pretty sure it's an early sign of pure genius!

Another sign showed up a couple of weeks ago. He has a toy telephone that he carries around with him. Lately I've seen him talking on the telephone. I'm not really sure how he got that one. I'm guessing one of us did that to the phone since this is a pretty antiquated toy telephone, looking more like the phones of the 80's and 90's rather than the ones we use today, but he knew what it was for!

Speaking of talking, apparently Quin has been talking to us for quite awhile. It took his grandparents to realize it. We left Quin with them while we vacationed in Lutsen, MN for a ski getaway and when we returned, my mom and dad told us all the words that they recognized. Sure enough, taken contextually, he was saying all sorts of words! Before we left, we thought all he said was "da-da" and "da-di-di-da" and other variations therein. But if you listen close, he is actually saying words. The ones we recognize so far (and this is not all inclusive) are:

• Hi
• Dada
• Thank You
• All Done
• Uh Oh
• Barley
• Ethan
• Peep

I'm sure there are more, but those are some of the more frequent ones.

I haven't even started talking about how well he sings! Oh well, I guess that's good material for another post sometime down the road.

Birthdays and Readers

Quin and Ethan have been busy folks as of late. Quin went and turned one and we barely even acknowledged it! Well, digitally anyway. In true Grady boy fashion, Quin celebrated his birthday not once, not twice, but three separate times so that he could cover all his bases. Our favorite celebration was the one we had at our house with just our little family, though. It was the first time Quin really got to dig into some chocolate cake, and boy do I think he was impressed!!! Here you see him starting his sugar coma! It didn't take him long and he was pretty much demanding that he be fed cake any time one of us was eating some. I had a piece on my plate the other day when he was eating his supper and he spit out the noodles he had in his mouth and screamed until I gave him a bit of my cake! He may have a sweet tooth... Now to figure out how to take advantage of it...

Quin is developing at a nice pace. While his height and weight are only in the 40th percentile for his age bracket, his head is solidly in the 90th, which means he really does take after his dad and brother. He's been walking for about 6 weeks now and is getting quite proficient. Lately he has even mastered the ability to stand up in the middle of the floor. The early connection between actually moving forward and hysterical laughter is now gone and he is capable of propelling himself as silently as you could expect a 1 year old to do.

He's still a very happy boy. He laughs all the time, loves to blow and give big wet kisses. He still loves Barley! Barley is such a good girl with him, and that is saying a lot as Quin really likes to give Barley big wet kisses as well! He likes it so much that he tries to hold her still with clenched fists while he delivers said kisses on her back.

We had a bit of a traumatic event recently - Quin finally got a haircut. We were going in to get his 1 year old pictures taken and decided it was finally time to part with the hair (no pun intended). He was a very good boy in the barber's chair - he didn't cry once. He only fidgeted a little as the hair was falling down over his face.

Ethan is, of course, doing well as always. We recently found out the peril of having another reader in the house. For valentines day, I got Jenny one of those oh so clever cards that said something like, "This card has a wheel you can spin that, whatever shows up, I will promptly provide for you." On the wheel it was filled with the same task, "A night of hot sex." Yes, yes, very clever. Jenny left the card on our nightstand, I assume so she could trade it in at some point, when Ethan got ahold of it. I was walking through the downstairs when I hear Ethan say, "Jenny." I didn't realize at the time that he was reading the card! He got to the point where he was reading the different options on the wheel and repeated several times, "A night of hot sex, a night of hot sex, a night..." Luckily it hasn't come back in question yet.

Brett thinks that Ethan is destined to be a real ladies' man. Last weekend when Brett, Blaine, and my parents were down to visit, Brett was having a conversation with Ethan about various things. Ethan declared to Brett that he, "[knew] a lot about two things, Star Wars, and Jesus." Rumor has it that Brett has him lined up to teach him so he can score a girlfriend!

Quinton's top 10 Lists

Top 10 things Quin does that drive mom and dad crazy!!!

1. Plays with the computer mouse while they're using the computer.
2. Drinks from the dog's dish
3. Plays in the dog's dish
4. Plays in the toilet
5. Takes all the toilet paper and paper towels off of their dowels onto the floor
6. Identifies anything that is not currently on the floor and within his reach and frees it to the floor
7. Eats dog food
8. Climbs the stairs when nobody is watching
9. Touches the TV
   
10. Licks things (like the gym wall and miscellaneous bolts sticking out from it)

Top 10 things Quin does that make us wish we had a dozen more

1. Big wet kisses
2. 100 Megawatt smiles
3. Sleeping 11 hours at a crack
4. Constant laughter
5. Cuddles (for anybody, not just mom and dad)
6. Playing the piano
7. Cat-like curiosity
8. Playing peek-a-boo
9. Saying "da da" (this might be on Jenny's other list)
10. All the rest of the things on the first list
    

Fully Ambulatory

As of last night, Quinton has become one of the walkers of the world.  He took his first tenuous steps from Jenny to myself last night before bed.  Everybody was very excited.  Well, Ethan was a little disappointed since he was in the shower when it happened, but was excited nonetheless.  Looks like it's time to get the house to the next level of baby-proofness.

Another score for the "nurture" portion of the nature vs. nurture debate.  Quinton walked when he was 11 months, 2 days old.  Ethan first walked when he was 11 months, 0 days old.  These results are not scientific by any means.

2009 Update

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a wonderful 2008 and are ready to endure what is sure to be an interesting and trying 2009. I have mailed a "2008 Year in Review" to some of you, those that I knew could take it (it's a 30 minute video of our family). If you would like one of your own and did not receive one, please e-mail me and I will be happy to send one out to you. Now, on to the updates.

Quin
So it's been a very long time since I have posted, so obviously Quin is doing all kinds of things he didn't do since the last time. Where do I start?!? Well he can climb stairs now. Ethan says he is too little to go up wooden stairs, and I tend to agree, but that doesn't stop him from trying. He can "talk," and he still does that quite a bit. The only things that are recognizable are "dada" and "hi," sometimes he even puts the two together. I'm pretty sure it is random, though, as he says it not only when he sees me, but when he sees the dog, when he sees a lamp, etc.

Quin is now quite proficient in clapping as well as waving bye-bye. We haven't quite gotten him to blow kisses yet, but he thinks it's funny when we do it, so maybe soon. He is also not quite walking, though he can stand for longer periods of time than before. I, personally, thought he would be walking by now, but I'm OK with it taking a little longer than I thought it might. He is a MONSTER for getting into things, so when he walks it will only be that much worse.

Ethan
Ethan is doing well as always. He had a wonderful Christmas and is very excited about all the video games and Legos he got (along with everything else). His two front teeth have finally started to come in, so that's good. He has a strong desire to make a movie. Tonight he asked me how long our camera's battery would last. He was very disappointed when I told him it would last only 1 hour since he wanted to make a 2 hour movie... The pose you see here is his idea for a promotional picture for his video of him and his friend dueling with lightsabers. He wants to put his picture on one side and his friend's on the other and put "v" on his picture and "s" on his friend's, "you know, because that means versus." Once he has it all put together, he wants me to put it on Youtube. Maybe I will...

I'm sure there's more, but I can't think of it right now. It's a new year, though, so it's time to resolve to do things that may or may not happen - I resolve to update this blog at least twice a month. There.

Happy New Year again, and I hope to hear from or see you all very soon.

Quin

Quin is literally growing before our eyes. He has at least 7 teeth now, perhaps 8, and is crawling all over the place. This time it's not the army crawl I talked about last time but a full-on, four appendage crawl. And he is getting into EVERYTHING!!! Did I mention he loves to pull himself up on almost anything? I know, I know, for those of you that have kids this is really nothing new, but for the second time now I am astounded at what these kids can do! What's more, after he pulls himself up, he is already experimenting with letting go of the thing providing him support. We're fairly certain that he will be walking before he's a year.

We've also proven ourselves as "second child" parents. The other day Quin had a temperature approaching 104 degrees. Bad, right? Of course. Well, we gave him Advil, gave him a bath, then forced liquids, and got the fever down into the 101 range and didn't even take him to the emergency room once! A day later, the fever broke, and he had his 9 month well-baby checkup anyway, so he got some medicine for a mild ear infection that seems to be the cause of the sickness. Jenny and I are very proud of ourselves. At his checkup, Quin weighed in at 20 pounds and is 29 inches in height. Still rolling right along at the 50th percentile in each.

Incidentally, the picture above is my proof that Quin is now a true Grady.

Ethan

Ethan has been taking swimming lessons at the YMCA for the last 2+ years. He has had to repeat several classes, but this most recent one he has had to repeat like 4 times. This time, he has finally passed onto the new class!!! His front crawl is getting very strong and he can consistently hold his breath for greater than half the width of the pool. We're very proud of him!

What's more, I am constantly impressed at what a good kid he is, particularly since I am his father! He has a boy in his class who is very big - OK, he's fat! Ethan wanted to tell me a story about him the other night and described him as "that boy that wears the blue swimming shirt," and, "the guy that touched the wall last in our swim race." I asked, "you mean the chunky one?" and he said, "not really. I guess a little..." What a good kid.

He's also doing well in school, although he has struggled of late in religion. Jenny has him so scared of him, though, that she threatened him that if he didn't do better on the next test, she would be angry. He was so nervous, he went up to the teacher after he took his test and asked her to grade it right there and then. (He got 100%)

We're teetering on the edge of having to finally tell Ethan about Santa. He is asking questions on almost a nightly basis. Jenny is starting to feel bad that we are "lying" to him. I feel covered as I just divert whenever he asks. For example, the other day Ethan said to me, "Dad, tell me the truth, does Santa come to our house or do you guys come?" I answered, "I don't understand the question - Hey, doesn't that Monsters vs. Aliens movie look cool!" OK, maybe not father of the year material, but those of you that read this blog already know that I've been eliminated from the running for some time.

On a parting note, it has snowed down here again. The snow is showing a similar pattern to last year where we get some snow, it warms up a little to melt some snow, then we get pelted with snow again. The first day we had snow on the ground, I woke up, looked outside, and said "Oh s**t!" I then went upstairs to wake up Ethan, he looked outside and said, "Awesome, it snowed!!!" When I hugged him and got him on the bus, he smiled at me and said, "have a snowy day, dad!" I guess it is good to remember once in awhile what it's like to be a kid. Ethan and Quin remind us all the time.