Ski Vacation - Part II

Tuesday was another ski day. This time it was adult ski day. Quin was going back to school, and Ethan was enrolled in Woodward, an indoor extreme ski and snowboard school. The warehouse is immense with fake snow ramps that empty into foam pits and trampoline sections to teach people how to tumble with ease through the air. I think Ethan was in for a fun day!

Ethan and I went down to Woodward to drop him off while Jenny dropped Quin off at school. Apparently this day wasn't as easy to drop off as the previous - Quin really didn't want to go.

The ski day was relatively uneventful. We did a few black diamonds (for the ski uninitiated, these are rated as "most difficult," though there were plenty of runs quite a bit more difficult than the ones we did). All in all we skied for around 7 hours straight before packing it in and hitting the hot tub briefly before picking up our little boys.

Ethan had a great time. He was one of only three kids on skis there, all the rest being on snowboards. He learned to do jumps, back and front flips on the trampolines, he went in the half pipe on the hill, and finally was able to do some woods skiing before all was said and done. Quin didn't have as good a time - too bad we are so lazy and he wasn't potty trained - once you are 3 and potty trained you can be in ski school which is WAY more fun. Maybe next time.

The rest of the night we spent trying to eat and drink as much of the way too many groceries we brought up to the hill. Jenny met Maylee and the "younger generation" out at a Absinthe bar in the village while I concentrated on finishing out the beer in the condo.

Wednesday was a travel day - we packed our car and were on the road down the mountain by 10:00. We wanted to get some pizza in Idaho Springs, but it was too early when we went through there, and we weren't sure we'd have enough time to make it to the airport. Our flight was at 3:00.

Fast forward a few hours, the drive down went well. We stopped at a Target to use the bathroom, then had a minor adventure trying to find a gas station within 20 miles of the airport. We were able to return the car by 1:00, got on our bus back to the terminal, then grabbed some pizza in the main terminal before heading through security for the last time and on to our gate.

After getting to the gate, Ethan had some more homework to do, so Quin and I decided to tour the rest of the airport by way of the subterranean train. Our gate was on concourse A, so we took the train to C and walked through. On the way, Quin was propositioned by no fewer than three 30 year old ladies, flight attendants mostly. Two of them were going up the escalator while we were going down. He flirted incessantly with them, poor things. They asked if he would be their boyfriend to which he answered "yes." They asked if they could go home with him and he again told them "yes." To their chagrin, he had forgotten all about them by the time we got back on the train...

The flight back was quicker than the flight out, but Quin had a full 2 hour nap under his belt and was in no mood to sit still. Luckily we were on a Frontier plane where we could purchase DirectTV service for the kids. It went mostly without incident, though I'm pretty sure Jenny was ready for her afternoon drink by the time we were about 60 minutes into the flight.

We got home around 7:30, threw down some fast food, then rushed the kids to bed. We were right behind them after quickly emptying the suitcases into the dirty laundry baskets. It was a nice vacation.

Some random thoughts:

• It's easier to pack for a 6 day vacation where you fly than a 2 day trip to Neillsville. When you are taking a car, you can just keep jamming more stuff in. When you are flying, though, you have to be able to take all of your stuff in a single trip.
• Quinton is "weawy skwong." Just ask him.
• If something can be broken, Quinton can break it.

That's it for this year's kid trip. We don't have any other vacations planned for this year, so who knows when we'll take off for another adventure. When we do, I will for sure be here 'blogging it and blowing your mind with our whirlwind, exciting escapades!

Ski Trip - Interlude

OK, I hope this goes away like almost all other things, because if it comes back and is something serious, I will look like a schmuck. But Ethan had his little spell with sickness yesterday, during which he thought he was going to throw up. He is a fan of the drama! Today, he has a low grade headache as far as I can tell, because he's running around, tubing, and being a general 9 year old menace, but after sitting on the couch for 30 minutes drinking water and eating popcorn he started complaining of a headache again. He stood in the kitchen, looked at me, and said, "I hope this isn't something serious. It probably is, though. I've had a headache for 2 days now - that's not normal, dad!"

He HATES the drama!!!

Ski Trip - Part I

As I sit here in our rented condo, Ethan and Jenny are sitting on the couch studying social studies (Jenny struggles, so they need to study), Quin is watching Monsters, Inc. on the iPad, it is brisk and snowing outside while the gas fire burns warmly in the fireplace. Our first ski vacation in 7 years is in full swing!

This vacation finds us in the beautiful US Rocky Mountains outside of Denver, CO. Though we're already settled and active in our vacation activities, the trip started many days ago. Last Wednesday to be exact. We had settled down for a typical evening at home - Quin and Ethan were sleeping soundly in their beds while Jenny and I attempted to get some last minute television in before our whirlwind trip to Colorado. All seemed normal, that is until 10:30 when Quin called out from upstairs. It's not atypical for him to wake up from time to time, particularly early in the evening. I slowly made my way upstairs to check on him. As I started walking down the hall, the door to his room opened and he walked out, covered in vomit. Awesome! Here we were, less than 48 hours from leaving for our trip, and Quin had come down with the flu! He was up the better part of the night, mostly dry heaving as he had done a pretty good job of emptying his stomach on round 1.

By the time morning rolled around, Quin was feeling fine. Too fine, actually. We had to keep him home, but he was up and bouncing off the walls by 6:30 the next morning already! The good news is that, should any of the rest of us come down with whatever he had, it should be pretty fast moving...

Friday morning came without further incident. Our flight was at 10:30 in the morning, so we wanted to make sure we got out of the house by 7:30 to make time for getting gas and travelling to the airport. The commute couldn't have gone better - chalk one up in our favor! The roads were clear and traffic was light, so we were able to get to the ticket counter by 8:30 - no problem. Travel through the airport was fairly uneventful as well, which was a surprise. Quin has a tendency to run away. To give us peace of mind, we purchased him a "leash" disguised as a little backpack with a tether (yeah, it's a leash). Turns out we probably didn't need it, at least in the Milwaukee Airport, as Quin was so impressed by the whole experience that he stayed close the whole time.

After some breakfast, a trip through the security line (regular metal detectors, no full body scans today), and a short wait at the gate, we were finally aboard the plane awaiting takeoff. This was both Ethan and Quin's second time on an airplane. It was the first time Quin was able to comprehend what was going on, though, as the last time was when he was only 5 weeks old. He was excited and a little scared, but he did great. He and I sat on one side of the aisle while Jenny and Ethan sat across from us. The boys bided their time on the airplane by utilizing many pieces of tech that are worth their weight in gold on a trip like this! Of course, at some point, a three year old's attention span is still a three year old's attention span, and Quin decided he had enough of sitting in one place. He had done so well for almost 2 hours, who could fault him for 30 minutes of ants in his pants?! After bouncing between our seats for awhile, he ultimately ended up in Jenny's lap for a nap for the last 15 minutes of the flight.

After the nice flight and uneventful landing, we started trekking through Denver International Airport. The tentative plans were to land at 12:30, be in Denver for lunch by 2:00, check into the hotel, maybe swim for 30 minutes, then head up to Boulder for the beer festival. Ha, funny!!! By 2:00 we had finally gotten our luggage and made it to the rental car outpost. Things just take longer when you have kids along. At one point, I changed Quin's pants after him having sat in them for 6 hours - he was wet. No more than 10 minutes later he had filled them again... By 3:00 we had finally gotten to the restaurant for lunch (note that is 4:00 our time, lupper anyone?), we did check into the hotel by around 4:00, but there was no time for swimming. I had purchased a ticket to the Avery Brewing Company's 9th annual Strong Ale Festival, which started at 5:00 in Boulder, a 45 minute trip in good traffic.

So, immediately after checkin at the Holiday Inn Select at Cherry Creek, we got into our red Toyota Corolla rental car and headed out for Boulder. The 1.5 mile trip down Colorado Blvd. took a little longer than expected. We were on that road for 30 minutes! We did manage to get to Boulder by 5:30 and I attended a wonderful beer festival! So many beers that I had never tried, and true to the title, they were all strong. In fact, the prerequisite to have a beer at the festival was that the alcohol content was 8% or better. My company has an office in Denver, so I was able to meet up with one of the guys from that office along with his family which made for a less lonely beer festival overall. Surprisingly I saw many people from Wisconsin with whom I started up some casual conversations. All in all, it was a lovely 2 hours spent.

The original plan for the beer festival was to drop me off, have Jenny drive the kids back to Denver for some swimming, then come back to pick me up for the 9:00 closing time. After the hectic, traffic heavy drive, however, Jenny didn't feel too comfortable that she would be successful in this venture, and I agreed. So we compromised - I shortened my night to 7:30 (more than enough time) and she took the kids shopping for the consumables we would be charged through the nose for on the mountain. That worked better...

When we finally got back to the hotel, it was around 9:00 Mountain time. Quin still hadn't had much for a nap, Ethan was tired, I was tipsy, so we got in bed and went to sleep. Unfortunately, that is not where the adventure ended for me that evening. I'm not 100% sure that I didn't drink "too much," but I've had some experience judging this in the past, and I felt I stayed well within my limits on this particular occasion. Rewind two days to when Quin was up puking all night before the vacation - I'm pretty sure that's what I caught. After an hour spent on the bathroom floor, I felt marginally better - well enough to sleep. Jenny woke up with the kids the next morning, took them swimming, got them breakfast, and by 8:00 I was feeling like I belonged among the living again. Again, I'm pretty sure it was just the flu!!!

We checked out of the hotel fairly early on Saturday and went over to Maylee's apartment to await the caravan up the mountainside to our condo. Checkin time wasn't until 4:00, so we had a fair amount of time to wait. Quin and Ethan bided their time climbing on the dog fence outside Maylee's apartment while Jenny joined Maylee, her sister, and her mom to get some groceries.

By 2:00 we were ready to drive. After spending over 3 hours at Maylee's apartment, we were happy to get moving again. However, we weren't gone for more than 5 minutes before Ethan claimed he had to go to the bathroom! As we drove down Colorado Blvd passing gas station after gas station, Ethan was wondering loudly why we wouldn't stop to let him go to the bathroom. So I took a page out of my vacation past and handed him an empty water bottle and told him to fill it up, explaining that we were in a caravan and couldn't just stop and go to the bathroom. To my delight, he managed to tackle the task with vigor, filling it 1/3 of the way to the top, even though it took him quite a while to overcome his "stage fright."

The drive up was uneventful. It was snowing lightly once we passed through the Eisenhower tunnel. Our luck seemed to continue as the weather called for a winter weather advisory for later in the evening, a prediction that partially came true.

We arrived at the condo a little after 4:00 and settled in. The condo is very nice. Two stories with a kitchen, spacious living room with a fireplace, and a bathroom on the first floor, and a master bedroom, loft bedroom, and bathroom on the second floor. More than enough room for the 4 of us!

After unpacking and laying claim to sleeping arrangements, we headed out to check out the town. The Winters had purposely booked this time of year for vacation due to the "En Fuego" party that they were having. En Fuego, according to the signs, is Spanish for "Good Times at Copper Mountain," or something to that degree. The village was lit by bon fires. At 6:30, they had fire dancing courtesy of "Cosmic Fire," which was a troupe of three young people that apparently had no fear of close proximity to flaming objects. After about a 30 minute show, they started a 15 minute firework display to finish off the evening.

After that we basically went back to the condo, had a beer, and Quin and I went to bed. Not sure what other fun happened after 8:00 because I was out for the count. The nice thing is that when Quin woke up at 6:00 the next morning, I had 10 hours of sleep already!

As Sunday morning dawned, we were looking forward to getting Quinton into something more structured. Daycare opened at 8:30 sharp, and apparently they mean 8:30, because we were there at 8:27 and we were unable to check him in. Too desperate? After dropping him off, getting Ethan's rental skis, and obtaining our lift tickets, we were out on the slopes. It felt great to be on an honest to goodness hill for the first time in a long time. I had no idea how long it had been until Jenny and I took an assessment on the way up the hill one time. The last time we had been on a "mountain" run was at Copper Mountain 7 years ago! That's too long...

The skiing was great. There was several inches of powder snow from the previous night, which I'm told is great. For us flat landers, it was challenging getting our legs used to skiing on anything other than ice, and on something that took more than 45 seconds to ski down! By the second run, all three of us (Jenny, Ethan, and I) were feeling very comfortable and excited about what we were doing. I will admit, I felt more than a little nervous on several occasions as Ethan caromed down the hill with what looked like absolutely no control whatsoever. When later challenged, he admitted he had absolutely no control! By lunch time, however, we were all looking like the solid intermediate skiers that we knew we were!

We took in a nice lunch at Endo's Adrenaline Vault in Center Village. Ethan had maybe the largest peanut butter and jelly sandwich ever made! After lunch, we took on a couple more runs before panic struck. Ethan started getting a headache. It wasn't long before he was diagnosed, by both Jenny and himself, as being dehydrated. Much like the previous day, we were no more than 20 minutes from lunch and Ethan needed to stop because he didn't have enough water in him!!! We finally convinced him to do 2 more runs and then we'd head back to the condo for some rest. The first run went fine, but the second was maybe the most tragic skiing incident I've ever been a part of. There was plenty of sobbing and threats to throw up. The poor woman that rode the lift with us offerred to give him a stick of gum and some sage advice to drink water, but nothing was making him feel better.

We finally made it back to the condo around 2:00, which turned out to be plenty of time skiing the first time in so long! We left Ethan to rest on the couch while Jenny and I took in some hot tubbing with the Winters.

After picking up Quin from daycare, we settled into the condo lifestyle for a couple of hours - Ethan recovering, Quin playing, and Jenny and I trying to hold all of it together while planning dinner, baths, and whatever else adults have to do. At one point we were invited to the Winters for a drink, though Maylee was in the village at Endos again. I offered to let Jenny go there to spend some time with her, which she "reluctantly" took me up on. While she was gone, Ethan convalesced from his sickness so the three of us had some dinner, gave Quinny a bath, and hunkered down to watch X-Men Origins: Wolverine. As the movie was winding down around 7:30, Quin sat on my lap and fell asleep. Vacation's hard!

Jenny finally made her way back, hungry and a little tipsy, by around 8:30. She dug through some of our leftovers of mac and cheese and hotdogs from supper while Ethan and I prepared our evening's entertainment. The owners of the condo have a collection of old movies on DVD. One of the movies looked interesting. It was called "Copper Mountain" and starred Alan Thicke and Jim Carrey. The description looked promising, so we decided to give it a try. Wow. I can now say I have viewed the worst movie ever made. At 60 minutes, it was about 55 minutes too long! It makes most porno movies I've seen look like Oscar candidates! There was nothing we could do to top that experience, so we decided to head off to bed after that...

Monday morning rolled around. It was our planned day off from skiing, so we decided instead to do some sightseeing instead. After breakfast we headed into the village to get Jenny and I some caffeine and the kids some doughnuts. It was a little brisk, so we headed back to the condo and enjoyed some relaxing downtime through lunch.

After lunch, Ethan and I went tubing in the East Village. I wasn't convinced going into it, but it turned out to be a blast. We took a video which I intend to link to here once I get it uploaded. That takes us to now - as I sit here "blogging," Quin is enjoying a nap, Ethan is relaxing while watching "The Rookie" on TV, and Jenny is enjoying some more hot tubbing. Tonight looks to be relaxing and low key before tomorrow's adventures - Quin is going back to day care, Ethan is enrolled in "Woodward," a school that teaches kids how to do tricks on skis and snowboards, and Jenny and I have the slopes in our sights, this time without kids. For now, though, I have to concentrate on getting rid of the enormous amount of food and beer that we bought for this trip so I don't feel bad about leaving so much of it behind.

Dancing Quin

This video is hilarious, I think. Obviously there must be some degree of nature going on here as nobody of the non-adopted persuasion in our family can dance like this...

6 Feet of Air

Ethan belongs to the ski club at school. Last week we went skiing for the first time this year. Since Alpine is close to some friends of ours, we were able to meet up with them and their two kids, one of which, Justin, is Ethan's age.

Justin and Ethan were having a blast! Justin snow boards, but Ethan skied. Of course, as soon as he saw Justin snow boarding, he immediately wanted to try that. Jenny tried to convince him that he would want to do that prior to us going, but he didn't want to until he saw Justin doing it...

They spent most of the day in the terrain park. Jenny, Jeff, and I hung out with them when they would allow us, but we were by far the oldest people in the terrain park by double or more! Jeff said he likes to get the kids in the terrain park because it enhances their vocabulary. Indeed... I'll give Ethan credit - even though he lacks in style or skill, he has no fear on the hill. He was taking every jump he could take. Him and Justin would brag to each other about how much air they got and if they "landed it." Ethan proclaimed that he "must have had 6 feet of air" at one point. Below is video proof of the feat.

As I said before, we're re-doing the kids' rooms. Quin's is slowly morphing from a baby's room to a boy's room. The first step was a new bed, but first we had to get rid of the old one. After taking the crib up to Grandpa and Grandma Grady's house, and not yet having a replacement, we opted to put the mattress that was destined for the room on the floor. Quin slept great on it! One small quirk, though. When he goes to bed, he likes to have the ceiling fan on as high as it goes and he likes to put the covers over his head. In the interest of time, I oblige him each time. Hey, it's an easy way to get him to bed.

One of the more interesting Quin tendencies lately that forces us to pay attention to him pretty much every second of the day is his desire to climb on the railing surrounding the staircase. I'm not talking about the inside of it, but the outside, the side that hovers precariously 10 feet above the bottom step below. The first time I caught him doing it we were painting. He called out to me to "look at me," and I calmly crapped myself as I extricated him from the wrong side of the stair railing. This one is a challenge!

Like another time, over Thanksgiving, Quin was playing with my keys. Jenny and I both said, "that's probably a bad idea. We should get those away from him." Well, good intentions being what they are, we spent the next day and a half trying to find the now lost keys. We had to call Brett in Janesville to make a special trip to Oconomowoc to get the spare so we could get home. I even replaced the keys to the tune of $100+!!! My mom spent the better part of the last two weeks looking for them... Should have listened to my own advice.

To follow up, the keys were finally located - last night! They turned up in the snack tray which was safely tucked away in the cupboard for the last several weeks. Apparently the gigantic feast we had for Thanksgiving obviated the need for snacks the remainder of the weekend.

Christmastime

Wow, it's been a long time again! I hope to post multiple times this week to get caught up. So much to talk about!

Well, it started a few weeks ago with Quin getting sick. The sickness eventually spread throughout the house but Quin got it first. The poor guy was just listless, throwing up, no fever, but sick. Every time he threw up over the course of several hours he just did it over the bucket, no crying or anything. He was fine the next day, but now he constantly tells us that he's going to go "throw up."

Several days earlier (or later, I can't remember), we were repainting Ethan's room. We're actually redoing both boys' rooms with new beds and the lot. One night when Jenny had finished painting, she put Quin to bed, left one of the roller trays to dry, then went downstairs to clean up the brushes. Apparently little sweety decided to help out as when I got home from my cub scout meeting I found a little treat on the wall, trim, and carpet. He had gotten out of bed, taken one of the clean brushes and used it to apply some of the drying paint in the roller try to the "wall."

More to come...

Pre-puberty...

My relationship with my oldest son seems to be changing quite rapidly of late. This morning after getting out of the shower I noticed a can of Axe body spray sitting on the sink intended for me.

Let me rewind a little bit - over the past couple of months it has become evident to us that we had "the stinky kid" in school. Ethan would get into the car, or just walk near us, and you could certainly tell he was there! Not wanting to be the parents with the stinky kid in school, we racked our brains to fix the problem. We tried buying him deodorant, we tried making him scrub extra hard on his every other day shower, but nothing seemed to really be working. Finally, fed up, Jenny laid down the law and mandated daily showers along with a strict regiment of male fragrances. He was resistent at first, but eventually he came around, so now he is a daily showerer.

Fast forward to the Tuesday, Jenny went out and purchased Ethan a bottle of Axe body spray, Dark Temptation variety. For some reason unknown to me (perhaps I am the stinky guy at work), she also purchased a bottle for me, but got me the Fever scent. Over dinner last night, Ethan and I were discussing the finer points of wearing our different scents. He really enjoys his, as do all the guys in his class (the girls are less impressed, apparently) while I was not a big fan of "The Fever." So Ethan agreed to let me try his Dark Temptation the next day, which is today. He made sure he gave me detailed instructions of where to spray it and in what quantities. "No more than a second or a second and a half. Like this." At which time he mimed spraying the fragrance on his chest and stomach...

Ah, puberty is going to be fun. Where did my little baby go?

Monsters

Quinny and I played "monsters" tonight. That little boy has quite an imagination. First he pestered me until I came to "play me." So I followed him upstairs where he declared that he saw a monster. For the next 30 minutes we were hiding, kicking, and even kissing the poor monster until his daddy put him to bed (both monsters). Good times...

St. Germain - Summary

All good things must come to an end. We pretty much just got up and left first thing on Sunday morning. It was looking like a very hot day, and the time we did spend outside packing the cars found us swatting at a lot of mosquitoes which had been very sparse the rest of the week.

Lots of interesting things happened during the week, but here is a quick summary of some of the more memorable things:

- I lost my wedding ring (still haven't found it)

- Quin learned to swim with a life jacket

- We vacation with a very good mix of kids that get along with each other very well

- Matt's boat started on fire on Saturday

- We learned that an unopened bottle can explode when introduced to heat

- Chantrelle mushrooms are quite delicious

- Ethan learned to filet a fish (not filet-o-fish)

I'll be publishing the vacation photos in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Prairie Dr,Oconomowoc,United States

St. Germain - Day 7

It was my morning to get up with Quin. He didn't go to bed until 10:00 last night, so it was a bit of a surprise when he got up at 6:00 like normal. Luckily I just convinced him to lay down and within about 10 seconds he fell back to sleep until 8:00. By that time his diaper was a wreck! I was changing the mess that had accumulated saying something about "stinky poop" or something, and Quin said "I poop potty." I asked him, "really?" Quoting a perfect Donkey from Shrek he said, "Really, really." Chalk another one up to nurture.

It was looking to be windy and warm today, so we decided to go take in a game of mini golf before it got too hot. We played at a nice course called the 19th hole, or something equally as cleverly named. Ethan had a blast and Quin even tried to join in much to Jenny's and my chagrin. He played my ball for the first 7 holes and Jenny's for the remaining 11.

After golf and some lunch, Quin took a nap and the rest of the kids went swimming. I was actually afforded some time to read my book which I had ignored to this point in the trip. It's not a bad book if you are able to read more than like 2 pages at a time! After about 90 minutes of reading, though, Quin woke up and I was taxed with taking him swimming. This time, however, we just kind of let him go himself. He had no problem just getting into the water with his life jacket on and swimming out to the raft where he joined the rest of the kids and swam for almost 2 hours! I can't imagine Ethan ever doing that at that age, but then again, we were pretty guarded parents with him.

At some point, just jumping off the raft and swimming got boring for the bigger kids - one of them had the bright idea that they would sink the paddle boat! It was pretty hilarious! They worked on sinking that thing for over an hour and had a blast doing it. I think Ethan said at one point, "we should have been doing this all week!"

When swimming was complete we gathered around and did a little fishing. Quin put a pole in and actually caught a decent size perch! He told me he wanted to kiss it before I put him in with the rest of the fish we were going to eat, but got scared at the last minute and decided not to go through with it. He did make friends with some dead minnows, however. While I was cooking the meat on the grill, Quin took a dead minnow over to the canoe, gently set him in the front seat, then walked to the middle of the canoe and said, "ready fishy?" I'm pretty sure he was going to take the minnow for a ride.

Dinner, and pretty much the whole afternoon was dedicated to mass consumption of all the stuff we hadn't yet eaten or drank from the week. Matt fried up all the week's fish, we put some ribs on the grill, Tim and Laura sauteed some mushrooms that they had found in the woods, and we had a big, delicious meal. After the kids went to bed, we continued on the same theme but with the remaining beer. Matt, Tim Z., and I all managed to complete all of our beer before we left the fire that evening. I'm pretty sure Tim A. would have as well had we not almost blown ourselves up. Tim Z. was digging through his cooler to bring out the dregs of his drinks and came upon an O'Dools. Nobody really wanted to drink it, so he placed it, unopened in the fire. After a couple of minutes it started to whine. After a few more, it started to whine louder, which prompted all of us to get up and vacate the immediate area around the fire. It couldn't have been 10 seconds too soon because as soon as we cleared about a 10 foot radius the bottle blew! It was quite impressive - a large crater had formed at the center of the fire, firewood had been thrown in all directions (luckily it was a small fire), and burning embers surrounded the fire-ring for around 10 feet. There was no sign of the bottle that I could see, though the color-sighted people said they did find shards of it in the ground around the fire. After that episode, Tim A. wisely decided it was time for bed. The rest of the guys made a huge fire and talked smartly about how we should do that again - we didn't...

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Location:St. Germain, WI

St. Germain - Day 6

Last night was an early one - we were all pretty beat from 5 days of vacation, so by 10:00 pretty much everybody was in bed already.

Today started warmer, but still windy. After Jenny and I each had a run we ran into town to get some chai tea and a smoothie. We then ventured into Eagle River to hit the liquor store. All that took a surprisingly long time. By the time we got back it was lunch time!

After a quick lunch of leftovers, we got our swimming suits on and hit the water. Today Quin proved himself to be quite the brave kid once again. Early in the week he proved he could jump off the swimming raft by himself with no problem, but I was still in the water with him. Today he proved that he could do even that by himself. He learned to propel himself through the water by himself and hung out with the other kids without Jenny or I being in the water at all with him! It was weird with Ethan when we could leave him alone and he would play either by himself or with some other kids, but he was a bit older than Quin was today when we were able to let him do the same. Second kids...

A little later on, Jenny and I decided to take the kayaks out with the kids and do a little kayak adventure. Unfortunately Ethan wasn't quite up to the adventure. It was a little warm, and he was wearing a black swim shirt, so after we kayaked for a little while, he claimed he was overheating and had to stop. At one point he stopped and the waterworks started up because he was too hot to go on. Quin and I drove by him and splashed him to try to cool him off a bit. I think he was really just a little over-vacationed by this point and needed to hang out by himself for a little while.

After we dropped Ethan off to recover from his heat exhaustion, Quin found himself a kayak and decided he would pilot it himself. It was beached on shore, so he shoved it out into the water by himself, then climbed in it, procured the paddle, and tried to take off. Luckily the wind was blowing in pretty hard so he couldn't get very far, but it wasn't for lack of trying. I think he actually kept at it for over 45 minutes before he turned his attention elsewhere.

As the night wore on, the Ziegler's and us decided that preparing dinner yet another night was more than we were prepared to do, so we trekked into Minoqua to try out some local pizza. Neither Quin nor Tim's kids had napped that day to speak of, so within about 10 seconds of the 20 minute commute they were all sleeping. Normally that would be OK, but we didn't leave until about 5:30 so the 7:30 bedtime was looking precarious at best. We got some delicious pizza for the adults and spaghetti for the kids before coming home and commencing the long process of fighting Quin into bed - it was 10:00 before he finally went down for good. We will need some time to re-acquaint ourselves with a schedule when we get back home!!!

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Location:St. Germain, WI

St. Germain - Day 5

Still a little cool to start the day, so Quin and I made bacon and egg sandwiches for breakfast before we headed out fishing with Tim and Logan Ziegler. The fishing wasn't all that great, but we did have a close encounter with an eagle. It was pretty awesome, actually. We heard something heavy in the trees, then the eagle flew just above the water not more than about 20 feet from the boat. He skimmed the water across the lake, picked something up, then reversed his path and came right back past us again. He perched up in a tree and ate whatever he picked up in the lake. Thinking back on it I couldn't help but think about the double rainbow guy on YouTube. I had thoughts of me saying, "An eagle! What does it mean?"

After some lunch, Ethan and I went out on the boat with Matt, Jacob, and Devan on his ski boat and did some tubing. Ethan really enjoyed tubing. We weren't able to get him outside the wake, unfortunately, but he had a good time anyway.

The rest of the afternoon sort of passed. We did some kayaking, some canoeing, tried to find the eagle again. In all it was pretty uneventful. Right after supper, Quin and the rest of the "gang" started playing in some round tub that somebody had brought up. That was pretty funny watching them get in and roll each other in the bucket. It's amazing what kids will do when left to explore.

Just remembered the funny quote of the week - I think it was by Jenny last night. She was trying to convince Ethan to take a shower. He was claiming that he was on vacation and didn't need to take a shower. Jenny told him, "You don't get a vacation from personal hygiene."


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Location:St. Germain, WI

St. Germain - Day 4

It was windy and cool today, and I am training for a 1/2 marathon, so I picked today to do my long run of the week. I mapped out a route before we left that took me around the entire lake. While I was supposed to run only 10 miles, the prospect and symmetry of running around the entire lake was too good to pass up, so Tim Z. and I ended up running a little over 11.5 miles. It took us a long time, and it was hilly, but we did it. I now feel I'm ready for the 1/2 in a little over a week.

Because it was so windy, we started a fire early. We also decided to roast hot dogs on the fire for lunch, which are always more delicious than hot dogs on the grill or in the microwave. Ethan even went so far as to say they tasted as good as Uncle Brett's hot dogs, which is not faint praise.

After lunch, it was time for a shower and to dress warmer. After my shower, I went to put my wedding ring back on which I had taken off for my run, only to find that I could not find it. I'm still not sure what happened to it - I think Quin must have taken it off the table and thrown it on the floor. Hopefully it turns up somewhere.

On the topic of naughty Quin, he has developed a new, interesting routine while up here. He has been doing things that he knows are naughty, which really isn't all that different. Where his behavior is changing is that he will look at us after the deed is done and say "Sorry daddy, hug!" followed by a nice hug and kiss on the cheek. Hard to be mad at him when he does that, but if thinks we don't see through him, he's crazy!

It was too cold to hang out outside, and our cabin a little too small to hang out there for too long, so we took a journey into Minoqua for some shopping and to make our daily pilgrimage to the grocery store. It was largely uneventful, though the weather did seem to improve a lot while we were there.

When we got back, the weather had, indeed improved, so we quickly ate some supper and hung out by the water while we waited for rest of the families to eat. The kids started playing with the sand toys and being generally loud and annoying, as they tend to do. Somewhere in the mix, Ethan went back to the cabin, put a towel in his shirt and a sweatshirt on his head and paraded around telling everybody that he was a woman...

We finished the day on a nice pontoon boat ride, courtesy of Micky's parents who came up for a few days and were nice enough to bring their boat. Tim A. drove the boat and was nice enough to let several of the kids to drive. Ethan was one of them, and it was the highlight of his day!

Now it's time to head out to the fire to enjoy some beers and quiet as the kids go to bed. This is my personal favorite part of the day.

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Location:St. Germain, WI

St. Germain - Day 3

Jenny's parents stayed with us last night, so Ethan went to sleep at Jacob's cabin with the Abholds. That didn't last too long, unfortunately. At about 1:30 we heard somebody talking to us through our window - it was Micky telling us that Jacob had gotten sick and that Ethan was now feeling sick, so she was returning him to us for the night. So much for that idea...

By morning, Ethan was feeling fine. It was rainy and a little cold today, so we went up to the U.P. to check out a waterfall up there. It was pretty awesome. Bond Falls, it was called (I think). One really neat thing about it was all the trails around the falls. They had some permanent, wood trails built that gave you very good access to the entirety of the bottom of the falls. They then had some "off road" trails you could take up the side of the falls on one side, and a paved set of stairs on the other side. Ethan found his way up the non-paved side and made us all follow him, but it was worth it. What views!

We quickly ate some lunch then headed into town for some go-karting and mini-golf. Ethan had been looking forward to this all year. Last year we tried to go go-karting but Ethan was foiled by the fact that he was about an inch or two too short to drive the cars himself. He was sure that he would be tall enough this year. Sure enough, he stood next to the measuring line and was clearly tall enough to pilot the go-kart himself. He was smiling from ear to ear! He couldn't wait another minute to go on the go-karts, but this place was a little bit of a strange establishment. They had plenty of different go-karts, bumper boats, mini-golf, and other assorted kid's stuff, but nobody was really on anything, and there wasn't anybody manning all of the different appliances. So we first took Quin over to a kiddie track that offered 12-volt 4-wheelers and gators for the smaller kids to drive. Ethan was starting to get impatient, but it wasn't long before somebody finally came over to the "big-kid go-kart track." He was first in line and managed to get onto the track with Tim and Jacob in one car and Micky and Allison in another, just the three cars on the track. Ethan did very well - I was both proud and surprised. After getting off the track he immediately took another ticket and did it again, this time Quin and I also rode with him. Our car was pretty slow, and Ethan took full advantage and passed us at his first opportunity.

After the second bout of go-karting on the regular go-karts, Tim A. asked if anybody wanted to try the "slick track" with him. Ethan immediately volunteered. After somebody finally came over to that station, he took a look at Ethan and said, "he's not tall enough." We simply looked at him and said, "of course he is." Well, that didn't convince him, so he made him stand next to the measuring line. Apparently the minimum height on this ride was 54" rather than 52", but Ethan backed up to the scientifically measured line and very slyly stood on his tip-toes, just a little bit. Apparently the kid running the ride wasn't all that bright because he just shrugged his shoulders and said, "OK." The slick track was pretty cool and Ethan immediately picked up on how to turn the opposite way of the turn when you started to spin. Pretty cool.

The night finished out like all nights up here - put the kids to bed then went to the fire for some beers before hitting the hay ourselves. Tonight, however, Jacob decided he wanted to sleep over at our cabin. That worked out just fine for awhile. While at the fire, around 10:00 or so, we saw the lights go out in the cabin signaling that the kids had finally decided to turn off the movie and try to sleep. It wasn't 5 minutes before Jacob exited the cabin and headed towards his own cabin. He claimed that his mom would miss him too much if he slept in our cabin, and he didn't have a sleeping bag with him and he couldn't sleep without one. Oh well, 0-2 on the sleeping over attempts.

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Location:St. Germain, WI

St. Germain - Day 2

Day 2 was a lazy day. The weather was beautiful and sunny, so we did a lot of swimming and hanging out at the campsite. Along with your usual swimming, running, eating drinking, and sunshine activities, the following things stuck out:

- Quin introduced the world to his "booty-butt." Somewhere along the line he picked up the term "booty" as a word for his bottom, but he never really dropped the "butt" part. Now he just says them both.

- Quin and I did a bit of kayaking. At one point I started singing "Row your boat," and Quin finished the song for me. He is a wonderful singer!


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Location:St. Germain, WI

St. Germain - Day 1

The trip started out somewhat inauspiciously. I had neglected to pack anything - Jenny packed all the kids' stuff as well as mine, but there was still a pile of things that I needed to take care of the morning of our departure. My parents, Blaine, and Brett along with respective lady friends of each of theirs joined us the day prior to celebrate mom and dad's 39th wedding anniversary by going to IrishFest in Milwaukee. It was a good time, but afforded us a little less "last minute" packing time than normal. I thought we would be fine as long as we just packed in the morning... It seemed Karma didn't want us to leave, for some reason.

First, I had about 4 ounces of root beer extract in the refrigerator waiting to make another batch of root beer. This stuff must be the messiest stuff known to man - I think it was probably easier to clean up Chernobyl than it was to clean up the 1/2 ounce of this stuff that is still smudging up our refrigerator. I put about 40 minutes into cleaning it while Jenny tended to some other things, but by the time I was ready to quit, there was still a bit of the stuff left coating the fridge.

After packing the car and putting away the lawn mower, I went into take a shower, feet covered with grass clippings from the freshly mowed lawn (another thing we had to scramble to do). As I was showering I noticed the water steadily climbing in the tub - looks like we had a clog. Thankfully it was just a slow leak, so we decided to leave it and address it when we got home. Hopefully we remember.

We finally got out the door, but the trip's string of bad starting luck wasn't done yet. We were traveling with one of the Johnson's kids because they were borrowing a boat to bring up for our entertainment for the week. About 20 miles from home, their luck took a turn for the worse when the wheel on the trailer blew. They were able to put the spare on, but had to spend the next 3.5 hours in Madison getting new tires for the boat trailer they borrowed!

Thankfully we finally made it to our destination in time to enjoy a wonderful first day. Thoughts of our earlier misfortunes evaporated quickly as we soaked in the sunshine and beautiful lake views we were able to enjoy for the remainder of the day.


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Location:St. Germain, WI

Last weekend, our friends Micky and Tim, who live on a lake and have a boat, invited us over to their house to go for a boat ride. Ethan has wanted to try skiing all summer - so now was his chance. Thanks to a lot of help from Micky and Tim's instruction, he was able to lift himself from the water on his third try! Not only that, he was able to do so two more times after that as well! Way to go E!

Ethan and I share a lot of personality traits. One of the most pronounced, and perhaps annoying traits (according to his mother) is our love of Weird Al Yankovic. Ever since I introduced Ethan to Al's spoof on Lola by The Kinks he has been hooked. How could we resist when we found out that Al would be playing Summerfest in Milwaukee. Forget that it was a "school night," and that he didn't start playing until 9:00 PM, we were going! We all had a great time - Quin slept from the start of it all the way through. Ethan watched a lot of it on my shoulders, until my shoulders gave out and he had to settle to look at people's backs for a little while.

Lastly, Quin had a milestone of his own the other day. He was taking a bath - before the bath he said he had to go potty, so I put him on there and he peed - he generally does. After being in the bath for a couple of minutes, though, he told me he had to poopy. So I dried him off and put him back on the toilet. I'm used to this game, he generally sits there, does nothing, wipes his butt, and flushes the toilet. This time, though, he grunted and pushed and birthed a small little Mr. Hanky into the toilet. He was so proud, but immediately had to get up and flush it down because it was "ucky." After he flushed, though, he got back on and pinched another one off, again following that with another flush. I think about 6 or 7 flushes later I convinced him he was done. He's followed this up on 2 other occasions, though Jenny and I have really not yet started to "potty train" him...

Quick Hitters

The other day we were at a party where we stayed pretty late. On the way home, Ethan engaged us in interesting conversation, as always. I can't remember the exact context, but he asked something about somebody and if they were "a black." We told him that it was not appropriate to refer to somebody as "a black," it could be insulting. Instead he should use "black person," or better yet, "African American." He took this in stride and continued on with his conversation. After we got home, I was upstairs putting him to bed, when he asked me, "Dad, is it OK to call myself 'a white?' If I do that, am I insulting myself?" I had to tell him that I honestly didn't know...

After Quin's driving incident, one would think we would no longer let him behind the wheel of a car. Tonight he fetched me, took me by the hand, and brought me to Jenny's car, where he instructed me to get in the passenger's seat and buckle my "beatbel (seatbelt)." I asked him where we were going, and he said "work." He is quite obsessed with going to work, apparently.

One thing I find amazing about Quin lately is his memory. Jenny is a bit of a Chai Tea Latte addict. When she has Quin on Fridays, there is a better than good chance that they will go to Starbucks and she will get a latte while Quinny will get a donut. On Monday we were driving in Delafield, a place we don't go very often, and Quin saw a Starbucks, which prompted him to shout, "Donut, yeah!!!" I'm not sure if he was remembering a time when Jenny took him there, or if he has learned to recognize the sign - normally they go to the Oconomowoc Starbucks... Either way, I'm pretty impressed.

Baby Driver

"They call him baby driver." My dad used to sing that song to us when we were young. I don't know if I ever heard the real version, but I remember it almost as well as him saying "wake up and piss, the world's on fire." Anyway, I digress...

It's been a busy spring here at the Grady house. So busy, in fact, that we really haven't had time to do any yard work besides the required lawn cutting so far. This past weekend, that was about to change. The weather was nice, we were going to be home for a whole day after ditching on our original plans to be in Neillsville for the whole weekend, (we opted for an up and back on a single day trip instead), so the stage was set. Jenny went out and bought some annual flowers to plant in the various places throughout the yard. Ethan's and my job was to obtain some mulch and fill in our weedy, mulch-bare flower beds.

My plan was sound. In year's past we have had mulch delivered and dumped in our driveway. We would then spend the next couple of weeks shoveling it into a trailer behind the yard tractor, driving it to a flower bed, then shoveling it out of the trailer. Why waste all that time? This year I was planning to just get as much as would fit in my pickup and drive that on the lawn to the beds - the ground is dry and compact anyway...

Step 1 almost failed miserably. Ethan and I got in the truck, buckled in, and I turned the key to find the battery was once again dead. Something wrong with the truck... No matter, I will give it a jump and we'll be on our way. And indeed, that minor setback proved to be just as minor as I would have thought. In order to let the battery charge a bit, though, I decided to leave it run while we had the load operator load up our 3 yards of mulch and while I went into the office to pay.

Back at home, the plan continued to work just fine - I drove the truck to the various beds around our front yard (the goal for the day) and unloaded mulch directly from the truck to the bed - 1/2 the work of the normal method!

After my first three beds, the truck seemed to be losing some steam again. I don't know cars very well, but I figured that I should probably let it run and let the alternator do its job and charge the battery. So I figured I would do just that as I finished the 4th and final bed of the day. Prior to moving to that bed, however, Jenny informed me that she was going for a run and that Quin would be working with me for the next hour. No problem. Quin climbed into the truck cab with me and sat on the bench seat beside me as I maneuvered the truck onto the street and back onto the yard near the fourth bed. Quin loves the truck, so I decided it would be easiest to just let him play in there while I prepped and filled the bed. What's the worst thing that could happen?

I started to edge and weed the bed, every so often looking back to see what Quin was doing. Remember, though, that I was leaving the truck run so it could charge the battery. Well, at one point I looked behind me to find the truck slowly moving towards my neighbor's house! The truck being a 1990 model, it was not yet equipped with the safety feature of requiring the brake to be depressed before putting it into gear! I remember being quite annoyed by that "feature" on more than one occasion, but now I see the logic! Anyway, I rushed to catch the truck, flung the door open, knocked Quin out from behind the wheel where he was grinning and doing his best truck driver impression, and finally engaged the brake just as we were about to hit the trunk of Harry's pine tree! Honestly, I was pretty lucky Quin decided to steer in a slight arc to the right, because if he would have kept the wheel straight, he would have almost certainly hit the side of Harry's house right where the gas main comes in!

Moral of this story - always engage the parking break if you are letting your 2 year old play in a running vehicle... Of course, on a 1990 truck, I'm guessing that wouldn't have prevented a damn thing...