Sweet Vacation - Alabama

Home at last!

Strange way to start a blog about our vacation to Alabama, but I ended up not really writing during the vacation - something I'm sure I'll regret in the end as I'm sure there is some level of excruciating detail that I will miss out on by not doing this in real time, but in the end I'm sure it will save you, dear reader, from the droning on that would undoubtedly result from a real-time, blow-by-blow that I would have otherwise forced you to endure.

We returned from our vacation on Friday night, April 5, at around 9:30 PM, after having driven almost 9 hours that day. We stopped leisurely from time to time, hung out at a cave for awhile - well, I suppose I'm getting ahead of myself. I can cover that when we get to it chronologically. Unofficially I'm titling this vacation, the Broken Glass Vacation for reasons that I'll get to shortly.

For those looking for the Cliff's Notes version, we went to Orange Beach Alabama, stopping at Indianapolis, IN, Nashville, TN, and Birmingham, AL along the way. We celebrated Easter with some southern Catholics, enjoyed 4 days in a condo with 3 other families with whom we are familiar, then traveled back. There were two days of sun, some rainy, chilly days, and lots of relaxation along the way.

OK, if you're still in - here's the unabridged version... For the abridged version, please visit my Google+ Photo Album at this link.

Thursday, March 28, 2013 - Home to Indianapolis, IN

This day actually started like any other for me, at work. Our plan was to start our travel after work and school, but since school was only a half day affair today, I bolted out of work a little early. I hurriedly dropped Heinz off at his vacation destination, Tender Touch Pet Grooming and Boarding, then raced back to pack up the last of our vacation luggage along with the family to start our great adventure.

As I said, the plan was to leave after work. The thought being that we could put a few hours, and Chicago, behind us, get some rest, then take our sweet time on our way to Nashville the next day. As plans go, it was a pretty good one, and it worked out as expected. We got out of the house around 4:30, in time for Milwaukee rush hour traffic, but luckily it wasn't (nor ever is) very bad. We reached Kenosha around 5:30 in time for our first vacation meal, the exotic restaurant known as Wendy's.

A few more hours in the car and a timezone later we reached south Indianapolis and found a decent Best Western hotel to hunker down for the night. It was 11:30 local time when we stopped, 10:30 home time. We were tired, but the room was very nice. When I inquired about availability and rates I was told that they did not have any double queens, but did have a double king! "Normally it was $79, but for you, Mr. Grady, I can give it to you for $71." Sold. Jenny had ingeniously packed a smaller suitcase just for the voyage portion of the vacation, so we grabbed that, the toiletries, and the kids, and rushed into the hotel so we could quickly sleep. While grabbing the stuff, however, we suffered our first fight of the voyage, I had apparently forgotten to plug up the drain of the cooler, so now we had a huge wet spot on the floor of the van that is still there today (10 days later), which also managed to wet my computer bag and our toiletries. Luckily, nothing was permanently damaged, and our stuff mostly dried over the next two evenings on the hotel heaters.

Friday, March 29, 2013 - The Road to Nashville, TN

As a general rule, we never set an alarm throughout the entirety of the vacation, so we didn't even stir until around 8:30 local time. After stirring and collecting our things, we checked out of the Best Western and walked over to Bob Evans for some breakfast. We all ordered, getting the mandatory breakfast meat staple, bacon, with each meal. Ethan realized too late, however, that it was a Friday during Lent, so he graciously donated his bacon to Quin who had gotten sausage (or as he pronounces it, shaushage) with his meal. Jenny and I powered through it hoping God would forgive us this one minor transgression... I guess Ethan has more to worry about than us!

After gassing up, we left Indianapolis and headed south. One of our group was traveling slightly in front of us and contacted us to mention that we should visit a place at Exit 0 in Indiana where they have a state park called the Falls of the Ohio. We stopped around noon, got out of the car, walked around a bit, and took in the "falls." Perhaps I didn't read enough about the place, but these falls looked entirely manmade. No matter, it was nice to get out in the sun, something we still hadn't seen much of, and stretch our legs.

Right over the bridge of the Falls is Louisville, KY, home of Kentucky Fried Chicken and UPS. Though our trip through there was brief, it seemed like a place we'd like to come back to visit sometime in the future. For one it's only about a 7-8 hour drive from home, making it achievable in the "long weekend" category. For another, there seems a lot to do there, from the Louisville Slugger museum to the horse racing track. There were also plenty of caves in the area and distilleries slightly south of there. Mental note, head back to Louisville someday.

The plan of the day was to only drive about 5 hours, as Nashville was our destination for the evening. Even with the late start, a 5 hour drive to Nashville would have left us too much time to waste there, so we opted to take in Mammoth Caves National Park in southern Kentucky that afternoon. Again being contacted by our travel companion who was a couple hours ahead of us, we were alerted that Mammoth Caves was particularly busy despite the cold, rainy conditions. We decided to try it out anyway, and arrived there around 1:30 local time.

Jenny quickly made her way to reserve tickets on the guided "Discovery" tour while the boys and I found a place to park the van. It wasn't particularly nice out - it was raining and in the low 50s, but we were on vacation in the south, so we were in shorts, dammit!

Our tickets gave us access to the 3:00 tour, which gave us a little while to get some food and walk around a bit. Despite that fact that this was allegedly one of their busiest days of the year, there was only a single, 10 table cafe open to get food. It didn't matter, though - we were seated after a short wait and opted this time to follow the example of our much more disciplined 11 year old and ordered fish and grilled cheese sandwiches.

After lunch we walked briefly around the area to find some hiking trails and other cave entrances around the property. Quin asked if we were going to see any bats in the cave. Jenny said we might, but he said he didn't really want to see any - he was afraid because bats turn into Vampires! Hard to argue with that logic!

After going through a nice museum area, it was finally time for us to take our 75 minute guided tour of some of the larger areas of the cave. Apparently Mammoth Cave is the longest known cave in the world. As of February of this year, man has discovered 400 miles of cave. Our guide informed us that experts estimate there are more than 200 miles that have yet to be charted! Our tour was through the historical entrance, the largest natural entrance of the cave system.

In truth, the tour was kind of boring. The cave was impressive, no doubt, but we didn't really get to go anywhere that any aging, overweight midwesterner couldn't go with their rascal scooter - except for the 60+ steps that we had to traverse to get to the entrance. Regardless, we did find out some interesting stories about the cave. Like at one point a doctor believed the cave air to have healing qualities, so he would take people with consumption (turbuculosis) down there where they would live for months at a time. While they were there, other people would continue to tour the caves, and often times would report seeing ghosts, which they believe were nothing more than the consumption patients being seen from a distance, their pallid, white skin from spending months without sun and the dark circles around their eyes from a lack of sleep giving them the distinct look of a ghost. If and when we go back, we hope to do one of the more adventurous tours that take more time to some of the more interesting areas of the cave. The spots we saw were completely dry and very large.

We left the cave thinking we had another 2-3 hours of driving before we reached our destination for the night, Brentwood, TN, just south of Nashville. Jenny's company is headquartered there, so her connections gave us the scoop on the best places to stay while in Nashville. Unfortunately we were met with bad traffic south of the caves. REALLY bad traffic, and it didn't abate for the rest of the day. Apparently there were more people than us traveling south for the Easter holiday. It took us another 5 hours past the caves to finally reach our destination!

Tired, sore, and ornery, we finally arrived at the Courtyard in Brentwood. I dropped the family off and we argued briefly about what we should do for dinner. We finally decided on pizza. I engaged my trusty iPhone to find a proper pizza place as well as somewhere to buy beer to officially start the vacation off with something locally brewed.

I ordered a pizza from Sal's, a place that promised to be only 1.5 miles from the hotel, and also located a liquor store. Since the pizza was 30 minutes until complete, I meandered to the liquor store first. If you don't already know, I am a bit of a beer snob. I like to try lots of different beers, and my favorite one is whatever is local. Whatever the case, I like variety. This liquor store was huge, but had only a single cooler full of mostly BMC (Bud, Miller, Coors) in it. I eventually located something that looked OK and was locally brewed, but was unable to find anything for my wife, whose pallet is a bit more particular. No matter, I was sure I'd run across something else.

Off to get the pizza, I found out it was an actual restaurant, not a carry-out place, so there was little in the line of carry out plastic ware or drinks for the kids. So after getting the pizza, I had to hit the road again to find a grocery store to score those items as well as, hopefully, some beer for Jenny.

After 90 minutes, I finally made it back to the hotel, devoid of anything for my wife to drink, so I abstained myself - vacation would have to wait to start for another night. After scarfing down pizza, garlic bread, and salad, we put our swimming suits on and headed out in search of the pool that was promised on the website. Quin was crawling out of his skin waiting to get active! Alas, we didn't read the fine print well enough, as the pool was outdoor, and it was cold and rainy outside. Disappointed, we went back to the room and settled for watching TV for an hour before turning out the lights and going to sleep.

Saturday, March 30, 2013 - Taking in Nashville, TN

Saturday morning seemed much nicer. It wasn't a lot warmer, probably low 50s, but it wasn't raining! I plotted a course and took a quick run in the morning while Jenny and the kids got ready. After a shower, we checked out and got some breakfast at McDonalds before heading into Nashville for the day. We didn't really have anything planned, but after the disappointment of the pool from the night before, we figured it better to do something the kids would enjoy and sacrifice our own interests of local history and brewing. So we located the Nashville Adventure Science Center. The entry fee was high, but we ended up spending almost 3 hours in the different areas from the human body exhibit to the solar system.

Three hours was about enough, too. By then it was time to meet up with the Zieglers who had been traveling since 3:00 that morning to reach Nashville by lunch. We selected a nearby brewpub and finally got the vacation started with a much deserved beer and lunch.

After lunch, Laura had scoped out a park called the Fannie Mae Dees Park that featured a large mosaic dragon as its centerpiece, which turned out to be right next door to Vanderbilt University. We spent the better part of 2 hours just running around the park before we finally departed for Birmingham, our final stop before making the final push to Orange Beach.

Our trip was relatively short today, only 3 hours from Nashville to Birmingham. Everything seems so close together in the south! For the most part it went without incident - that is until we were struck in the windshield by something hard. Expecting to see a chip in the windshield we were at first disappointed. About an hour later, however, we noticed a 4 inch crack along with the chip we had anticipated near the left edge of the driver's side. Looks like we're going to need a new windshield!
We made it to Birmingham with relative ease, getting lost only briefly due to Google's inability to find the Hoover Courtyard. After finally locating it, Ethan and I went out to get the family Mexican food for supper. Along the way I was searching for a radio station to listen to, finding only sports talk radio and Christian rock - I was delighted to finally locate a classic hip-hop station. Stuff from my youth - apparently I'm old enough to have listened to classics now! Ethan was less than impressed with the raps - they didn't sample any other song or have a catchy chorus, they just rapped...

Mexican dinner in our bellies and a couple of beers and we were out for the count for yet another night. Tomorrow was Easter!

Sunday, March 31, 2013 - Happy Easter!

Before going to bed, we located a nearby Catholic Church and determined that the 8:30 mass was our best bet, the next one being at 11:00. Our goal was to get to Orange Beach by 5:00, so we'd have to leave town by 11:30 at the latest.

For the first time we set an alarm for 7:00. The kids slowly awoke and found their Easter baskets along with a couple of Easter eggs that the Easter Bunny had hid for them. Quin was delighted to get a movie, the Rise of the Guardians, and also found Ethan's basket by accident. There are only so many places to hide things in a double queen hotel room!

We got to church pretty early, a little past 8:00, to find the previous 7:00 mass was just letting out. That bode well for us - we were expecting a mass of reasonable duration. As we walked in, a younger Korean priest greeted us in the entry way. Seemed friendly enough. We had high expectations for this mass having had a wonderful Easter mass in Branson, MO a few years prior. Apparently those expectations were a little off.

First, the southerners were nice enough, but we were hoping for a little more diversity. We did identify one black family, and another family that looked of Asian decent, but the rest all looked like they were on the same branch of the Alabama white family tree. About 5 minutes before mass was to start, an elderly priest planted himself at the throne on the altar and appeared to fall asleep. For the next 90 minutes we were tortured by this old codger as he performed the mass, mostly from his chair. He got up to give his sermon, which rambled for awhile and followed about 6 different trains of thought, ranging from Hitler to some British Easter song he learned as a boy (he appeared to have an Irish accent). He got lost in several places during the mass, my guess is because they changed it on him again in the past 12 months! And with your spirit, indeed! A few times he repeated entire sections of the mass. Sometimes he would study his mass aid for what seemed like minutes on end trying to find his spot. In all, the mass lasted about an hour and 40 minutes, not significantly longer than what we are used to, but many times more torturous.

We found ourselves with less time than we had anticipated after church, so we decided we'd just get some food for the road after a quick grocery run to Target. Unfortunately, Target was closed, so we settled for groceries and donuts from Wal Mart, then south we headed!

We were informed by Jenny's coworkers that Birmingham was the last decent place to stay before we got to Orange Beach. Along the way we encountered Clansville (seriously the name) as well as a monument to the Sons of the South proudly flying a Confederate Flag. We also found out that day that we had narrowly missed a Klan rally in Memphis, sure, in Tennessee, but the south seems like one big place.

After what seemed like an eternity, particularly the last hour, we finally arrived at our home for the next few days, the Caribe resort in Orange Beach, Alabama. Tim Z. had arrived before us and informed us that the place was so nice he felt like a drug dealer! When we got into our room about 5:00 PM, we were not disappointed. The room was gigantic. I think I read 1400 square feet. We had a massive master bedroom suite with a king size bed, a second bedroom with 2 twin beds and a bathroom, and a large, open Kitchen and living area, complete with modern appliances and ice maker! We had a feeling we were going to get spoiled. The boys were thrilled that they had a TV in their room! With HBO!!!
It was cool there, a little better than 60 degrees, but it was warm enough for us! We quickly got into swimming gear and got to swimming. The resort had 3 large outdoor pool areas as well as three heated indoor pools. We took on the outdoor lazy river for a bit before we retired to the indoor pool for the remainder of the evening. As we were walking around in our suits scoping out the pool situation, Quin couldn't help but jump into every pool we passed. He really likes swimming pools, and after the disappointment of outdoor, cold pools on the way down, he couldn't wait even a second longer!

We settled in for the evening - Quin didn't really want to go to sleep yet, and Ethan didn't want him in their room for some reason, so he lay down in the king size bed watching something on TV while Ethan watched something in their room. Jenny and I relaxed to a beer and discussed what we would do the next day.

That night, Ethan and I put a plan in place for a good April Fool's joke on mom the next day. The idea was that he would wake up, come into our room, and tell Jenny that Quin wasn't in there and ask very calmly where he was. He was in, so the plan was set...

Monday, April 1, 2013 - April Fools!

To my dismay, but completely expectedly, Quin woke up first - our April Fool's plans were dashed! No matter, Jenny and I decided we would go for a quick run and let the boys hang out in the room under Ethan's supervision. That set the stage - new plan! While Jenny dressed, Ethan, Quin, and I made final arrangements.

After a nice beach run, Jenny and I returned to the room about 50 minutes later. Jenny didn't know, but I texted Ethan who had Jenny's phone just as we were walking in. Prior to us leaving, Ethan asked us if they could go to the arcade which was just outside our room. We said no... When we got back to the room, though, he (trying to be straight faced) told Jenny that he didn't think anything would happen, so they went to the arcade anyway. Somewhere along the way, Quin slipped off, and he couldn't find him. Jenny didn't believe him - he had a smirk on his face the whole time despite his best efforts. The kids played it up well enough that Jenny freaked out, just a little bit, at which time the three of us exclaimed, "April Fools!" Worked about as well as we could have hoped...

We opted for an unscheduled day, so we hit the beach, a short, 5 minute walk from our resort. The beaches in this area are beautiful! The sand is completely white and very fine. It wasn't really hot, about 78 degrees, so the sand never really got too hot to walk on either, though I imagine in the summer it might get that way. The kids did a little swimming in the gulf, but mostly we played in the sand.
After lunch, we took in the pools of the area again, hitting the lazy river once again. Later in the afternoon we met the Zieglers for a seafood dinner at Flippers, which was near where their Dolphin Cruise had embarked. The food was pretty decent and reasonably priced...

That evening, our dirty boys needed to bathe! It's never an easy task to get Ethan to bathe, for some reason, though he requires washing daily. Quin is a little easier, usually, but on this trip he wanted to take a bath every day once I introduced him to the whirlpool tub! One bath in there and he was hooked. On Tuesday he actually requested that he be able to take a bath in the "Super Tub!"

Monday was a good vacation day. There wasn't too much to write about... We drifted off to sleep in much the same way we did the night before.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013 - Vacation...

Tuesday promised to be nice again. Jenny was thrilled as she had been fretting about the weather the entire week leading up to vacation. It was sunny and warming again, so Jenny and I took advantage of our older child once again and went for a beach and bridge run. After our run, the day turned out much the same as the day prior, except this time we picked a new location on the beach, closer to the gulf. There we were able to collect copious amounts of seashells, build sandcastles, bury Ethan and Quin in the sand up to their heads, do some body surfing, and eat a simple beach lunch.

After lunch we again went back to the lazy river, but retired early to the room to get some rest before a planned group dinner later that evening. While in the room, Quin had taken to taking my iPad and watching Netflix movies on it. He was doing the same thing with his wind-down period this afternoon. At one point, though, he wanted a snack, so he traveled from his perch in his bed to the kitchen over the tiled floor. He also tried the trip with the iPad. On his way there, I heard a crash... The iPad had met with a rather noisy collision with the tiled floor. He continued in to the living room area and acted as though nothing had happened. I asked him if he dropped the iPad - he casually said Yes. I took it from him, examined it, and noted that there appeared to only be a small dent in the upper left corner of the metal casing. Looks like we dodged a bullet - that was until I examined it again later to find a fairly serious crack in the glass on the bottom of the unit. The second broken glass incident of the trip...

That evening we met up with the rest of the group for dinner at Tacky Jacks, a seafood restaurant in town. We got there about 5:45 and were told we would have to wait about 45 minutes for a table. While waiting for our table, the Zieglers told us that Logan had informed him that he "loved Quin." "Quin likes to do all the same stuff I do, like run around, throw stuff, play in the sand, etc." Apparently he was ecstatic to play with another boy having only his sister to do stuff with most of the time...

We finally got our table by nearly 7:00. We ordered drinks and appetizers and eventually ordered our food when we were told that food was taking about an hour to get out once you ordered... The Chovanecs were traveling with a diabetic, so that wasn't going to work - they asked nicely to get some food early for him, which they were granted, but the rest of us waited until well after 8:00 when they finally delivered 1/3 of our food! Somehow they had forgotten or lost the remaining 8 meals!!! Somebody came out and tried to sort it out, taking all of our orders again, and this time, miraculously, it took only 15 more minutes for our food to get there... The server apologized and even promised that the manager would come over to talk with us - we never met with that manager and were delivered the bill with an automatic 18% gratuity added...

What promised to be a nice early night back in turned into a late one in a hurry, so we were back in the room and sleeping in short order...

Wednesday, April 3, 2013 - Rain

Wednesday turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It was raining fairly hard when we woke up, so we skipped the run, and instead started planning for rainy days in South Alabama. Ethan was happy for a break from the sun having suffered a minor sunburn in the previous two days' excursions. We ended up finding the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, FL, home base for the Blue Angels. Plan in hand, we did a little indoor swimming in a pool that Quin had identified as one that he wanted to swim in - it had a Fishy slide.

After a couple hours of indoor swimming and a little lunch, we headed down the coast first to Yogurt+, a little shop with 24 different flavors of yogurt and 100+ toppings to put on it - you paid by the ounce! We escaped with spending only $14 while the Zieglers suffered a $25 bill for their sweet tooths!
Yogurt in our bellies, we did the 30 minute drive to Pensacola and visited the museum, a wonderful exhibit on Florida's panhandle. It had many full size planes and jets, historical instruction, flight simulators, food, shows - and it was all free! Well, admission was free, but you had to pay for things like the simulator. We cheaped out and denied our children any for-pay activities, but ended up spending about 2 hours at the museum. The most impressive thing to me was the space exhibit. Also, the fact that they had no plane in there that was designed after 1970, and they were pretty cool, meaning that the things that we have out there today must be pretty damn impressive!

The flight museum behind us, we went back to our room early and rested. It was wonderful - we just chilled, nothing to do, and were quiet for about 2 hours. Quin watched the now broken iPad which still functions (I'm writing this entry on it) while Ethan, Jenny, and I watched a George Clooney show on HBO that we got sucked into.

We had the group over for pizza and fresh shrimp that evening. The Zieglers also bought some boiled peanuts, something we'd seen all over the place down there and wanted to try - they weren't good... But the shrimp they bought was wonderful!

People had been vacationed out by then, so everybody left by 10:00 and we settled down for our last rest in our drug dealer condo. Through the course of the evening, Tim, Dan, and I invented several new sayings including an Alabama Cruise Missile (crude) and "Drunk as an Alabama Kindergarten Teacher."

Thursday, April 4, 2013 - Heading Home

Thursday - check-out day. It wasn't raining, but it was overcast and kind of cool, so we decided we would forego any Orange Beach activities for the day and get a head start on our drive. But first, we had one last stop planned at Alligator Alley, an alligator farm on the way. We spent about 90 minutes at the farm, during which time we saw hundreds of alligators of different ages. At 11:00 AM they fed the alligators, although it was relatively cool, and alligators don't need to eat very much anyway, so we were only able to see three that took up the offer of some fresh wild pork. The rest of the time we spent going through the swamp and feeding what looked and smelled like dog food to more alligators back there. Quin and Ethan were also able to hold an alligator - Ethan even kissed one, though he destroyed the picture evidence that we had taken...

After that, the long haul home. Traffic was minimal, so we made good time. To pass the time, they boys traded turns picking a movie for the van's entertainment system while Jenny and I listened to audio books that we borrowed from the library. We tried one called "The Last Centurion" by John Ringo. After about 4 hours of it, neither of us could take it any longer. It started as a promising end of world, contagion type of fiction, but devolved quickly into a liberal bashing vehicle... It's rare anymore that I give up on a book, but we just couldn't do it any more...

We finally made it to Nashville later in the evening, about 8:30. We wanted to stay north of the city so as not to encounter rush hour traffic in the morning. It must be a hopping place to do business, however, as the first three hotels we tried were full. I take it back, one had a double queen smoking room, which we declined. The last place we tried directed us to the Magnuson Hotel about a mile away which used to be the Baymont Suites. They had just faxed that they had 12 non-smoking rooms available. Score!

We drove in, and it didn't look like it used to be a Baymont Inn. My unofficial rule for the trip was no hotels without interior hallways. This had exterior hallways, but we were tired, we had to get personal with the bathroom, and we were out of options, so we bit the bullet and checked in.

At $90 a night, I guess I expected more. First, the door keycard did not work. The hotel attendant let us in with the master key and said the manager would be by later to fix the lock (they never fixed it). Next, the room smelled like they had just declared it non-smoking the week prior. There were stains on the carpet, the curtains were ripped, and the smell was almost unbearable! But, we were out of options - it had 2 beds and a working toilet - at least we thought it was working! After a thorough working over, I attempted to flush it, and it filled up to the top, and then some! It was pretty gross... I found the manager who gave me a plunger and some rags - I cleaned up the mess the best I could and passed out amidst the loud complaints of Jenny and Ethan that it smelled too bad to sleep!!!

Friday, April 5, 2013 - The Final Stretch

Having survived the room, and sleeping in until almost 8:00 to boot (I have no idea how I'm going to get back into a regular sleeping schedule - I'm used to 9+ hours a night at this point), we eagerly packed up and got out of the Magnuson Hotel and took our breakfast at the Waffle House, our last bucket list item of southern cuisine. I compare it to a George Webbs, but it hit the spot.

We had a little over 8 hours to go to get home, so we decided a stop at a different cave in southern Kentucky wouldn't be altogether bad. We had heard about Lost River Cave in Bowling Green, KY, so decided to stop there. Once there we had about an hour before our tour started, so we walked the grounds to find several "holes," or places where the underground river surfaced. It was nice to stretch our legs. The tour was very interesting as well. This cave was, at times, used by both the Confederate and Union armys, was used as a mill, a night club, a garbage dump, and was finally rescued by a group of liberal tree huggers (sorry, flashbacks from yesterday's audio-book) in 1998 where they cleaned it up and started doing tours. It reminded me a lot of Spook Cave near where my parents grew up in eastern Iowa, and was a nice diversion for the rest of the trip.

The rest of the day went by uneventfully. Our stop in Kentucky enabled us to miss rush hour traffic in Chicago, though we had to endure it in Indianapolis, a fair trade. We passed the time by listening to our last book, Silverfin, a young James Bond book intended for 10-14 year olds, but Jenny and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

We finally arrived home around 9:30, seeing our only traffic of the return voyage barely 20 miles away in Milwaukee! The whole family was excited to sleep in our own beds, though we missed Heinz - he didn't make it back from his vacation until the next morning.

Posted with Blogsy

Late February Update

"He's On Fire!"

When I was in college, one of my favorite games on the Sega Genesis was NBA Jam. It was great. You could crank out a game in 15 minutes, everybody could play, and best of all, most of the time, I would win. A couple of weekends ago I got nostalgic. Ethan has all sorts of time to play all these complicated games. I want nothing more than to do that, but have other priorities than an 11 year old boy does (getting old sucks). I figured, though, that I could still play NBA Jam - it fits into my schedule, it's family friendly, and it is cheap.

http://www.ea.com/nba-jam-on-fire/videos/exclusive-nba-jam-on-fire-edition-1st-look

So I bought it - for the family. I have a hard time determining whether it was a good decision or a bad one. On the bright side, Quin and I play at least 2 games a day. He is all over it! He loves the San Antonio Spurs, has a number of special moves that I only marvel at, and really gets into it. I like to think it's teaching him to read large numbers as well. Often times when he's playing himself, he will call out and ask if he's winning. I'll ask what the scores are, and he'll say "I have a four and a two and they have a three and a seven." He also loves to get "on fire" - whenever he does so, he implores me to "feed him all the rock." On the dark side, however, he is a little too attached to it sometimes. Whenever he and Ethan play, fighting ensues. Also, if he wants to play and we make him stop, there is a meltdown of epic proportions. In the end, it's something that the boys and I can do together, even if it is rotting all of our brains...

Getting Older

Jenny and I had a cold dose of reality about a week or two ago when we realized that we were no longer the ones with the best sense of pop-culture in the house. In fact, we have become squares (I think it's probably square to say that, even)! It really hit home when we were in the car going to the grocery store. Jenny was in the store getting something and the kids and I were sitting in the car waiting for her, listening to the radio. A song I had not heard came on, and after listening to a few seconds Ethan told me to crank it - which I did. It's a new, somewhat inappropriate song by a guy called Macklemore called Thrift Shop.

It's a song that's been out for a long time, and I had never heard of it. Ethan found out about it from a guy at school. I have to say, I think it's pretty catchy. We all sing it now, even though I'm sure it's already run its course on the "cool scene."

Another thing the kids have shown me that is cool is our new family friendly obsession, The Aquabats Supershow. This is one just for the boys and I. It's a Saturday morning cartoon style show about a rock band that goes around saving the world, but they do it somewhat poorly and often by mistake. Ethan and Quin found it on Netflix and proceeded to watch all 13 episodes at least twice, many of them three or more times! It touched my heart when both Ethan and Quin got really excited when Weird Al Yankovic made a cameo appearance in two of the episodes!

Naughty Word Cold

Lastly, I'm going to try to coin a new phrase. It's really Quin's phrase, but I'm going to try to socialize it around and see if it catches on, because it's a good phrase. The other night we were leaving the YMCA after swimming lessons and it was windy and cold. I shivered and stated, "wow, it's stupid cold out here, isn't it?" Well, Quin likes nothing better than when Jenny or I say something deemed as a naughty word, and generally repeats it incessantly for awhile. This was no different, but he quickly went through the progression of, "yeah, it is stupid cold. It's idiot cold! It's all the naughty words cold, isn't it dad!!!"

Four Eyes!

Check out four eyes!!!

Ethan has finally succumb to the fates of his genes, or I suppose since we're (yes, that was intentional) learning about heredity in science right now, the alleles that he's been gifted from Jenny and I, and has gotten glasses. His prescription is very mild - he only needs them for class, pretty much, not for sports or basically anything else. But it has begun. Later this year we will probably be putting him in braces (for his teeth, not his legs). Get in line, ladies!!!

Actually, all in all I think he's pretty lucky. I was 6 when I got glasses, and I needed them all the time. He's almost 12 and has just a mild prescription, so it looks like he will be lucky and have Jenny's weak eyes rather than mine (thanks, mom). Of course, that comes with Jenny's bad teeth, too (not my good ones - thanks, mom!).

'Cause I like to party...

I have a running joke with the boys. Any time they ask me a question that begs me to define reasons for behavior, I like to answer, "'cause I like to party." It's a brilliant quote from Talladega Nights - if you're not familiar, check it out here:

Anyway, like most things I'd prefer they didn't, both boys have started using it in daily conversations, with improving timing.

Last week, Quin was in the bathroom at school when a bunch of 8th grade boys walked in. In their conversation with Quin, one of them asked him why he was so cute. He calmly and immediately replied, "'cause I like to party!" Like I said, the timing is improving...

Yesterday was my 40th birthday. While I don't really believe in New Year's resolutions, I do sort of believe in birthday resolutions. If you were to ask me why, I would of course respond, "'cause I like to party." Anyway, I have some more things to post, and I will, and more often, I hope.

Very quickly, I wanted to shout out to my brothers who convened on chilly Oconomowoc from parts throughout the midwest to celebrate my passage into the final year of my 4th decade. It was nice to see all of the friends and neighbors that were able to celebrate with me on the celebration of the day of my birth, but it was especially special to have my siblings there with me. Thanks boys, and your partners in crime as well!

Halloween Update

Adoption

It's all begun again. Jenny and I have started pursuing another adoption, this time an international one through the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire). So far much has been the same as last time around - filling out paperwork, background checks, talking about my feelings - fun stuff. We're getting to the point where we will be having a social worker come to the house to interview us, so we were explaining to Quinton what we were doing. Jenny explained it to him that he was going to have a new brother. He looked very confused and concerned and asked her, "is Ethan leaving?"

Guest Author

Jenny's and my parents both came down to attend Ethan and Quin's Grandparent's day at their school. It's sort of a special year since both Ethan and Quin are in school along with their cousins, Jenny's sister's boys. Since Quin and their youngest are in the same class, and Ethan and their oldest are in separate classes (three classes in all), Ethan hatched a plan where the Kelchen boys could have their other grandparents be with the eldest Kelchen boy, Jenny's parents could hang out with the youngest Kelchen and Quinton, then my parents could hang out with Ethan. A fool proof plan if I've ever heard one! Well, that wasn't how things ultimately panned out...

Anyway, while my parents were down, they were helping the boys get ready for school or something. My dad recounts the conversation better than I could, so here I present my first ever guest auther - my dad, Glen Grady:

Last Tuesday morning, while we were getting ready for the Grandparents Day Mass at your house, Quinn was looking for his DSI- whatever that is. I was helping him look. We went down in the basement to the laundry room to look- when we were down there someone flushed the toilet and I pointed to the pipe and told him that that was where the water from the toilet and bath tub drained out- he looked at the furnace and saw the gas line and asked if that was the same thing- I told him that that was where the gas came in to burn in the furnace. He looked thoughtfully at me and said- you know Grandpa, if you have a fire in the house you are suppose to get on your hands and knees and crawl out of the house and not get up until someone tells you to. I asked him if he learned that at school- he said, "yes, a policeman came and told them that- and he didn't say "you're under arrest." I think big brother has been talking to our little Quin.

Quinton the Worker

Last weekend, Jenny and I ran in our first half marathon together. Let me explain - we've both run them before, but never at the same time, and never together. Probably not that important... Anyway, my parents were again in town to watch Ethan and Quin while we punished ourselves on the cold highways of Lake Mills. When we got home, my mom recounted the story where Quin had hung his own poster. When she told me about it, I immediately thought back to a couple of nights before when an Angry Birds poster showed up on his bed one night as I was tucking him in. I remember him telling me that he wanted to hang it up, and he clearly pointed to the exact spot on the wall where he was going to put it.

As mom recounts the story, Quin got out his toolbox that his other grandparents had gotten him earlier, complete with a plastic hammer, plastic wrench, and plastic, but mechanized drill. Mom said that he somehow came up with some nails (I assume from some other picture he took down from elsewhere in his room), then sized up the wall, took his plastic hammer, and somehow managed to hang the poster up all by himself. When he finally showed up while mom was relating the story, he got very excited and immediately took me upstairs to show me his handywork. I must admit, I was impressed - he did a very good job, and it was only slightly crooked. He then proudly told me that he was a "worker" and that was what he wanted to be when he grows up.

Halloween 2012

As I've no doubt written before, Ethan's favorite time of year is Halloween. November 1st marks the first day of planning for the next Halloween, typically. He helps everybody plan out their costumes. Quin rarely has to pick out his own costume as his big brother will tell him exactly what he should be (he was Spiderman this year, incidentally). In the past, Ethan has been your typical popular character - Spiderman, The Hulk, A Clone Trooper (twice), Darth Maul (which was actually very cool), but each year his excitement was clearly at a much higher level than mine was with regards to his costume. That was until this year.

The plan started hatching sometime in early to mid September. Ethan must have discussed his plan with my mother, because one day when they came to visit us, she showed up with our old accordion. At the time I wasn't sure what it was for - I assumed it was part of her sneaky plot to trick her grandchildren into taking all of her old stuff into my house so she could clean her attic. But this was for some grander vision. When Ethan saw what it was, he let me in on the plan - he was going to be Weird Al. More specifically, he was going to be a UHF era Weird Al.

Most of you that know me are aware that I am a very big Weird Al fan. Jenny has often complained that she has been to more Weird Al concerts than she has been to all other artists' concerts combined. Well, that fandom has clearly rubbed off on my oldest, who has also now been to a concert, has memorized large chunks of his only feature film (UHF), and has now decided that he was going to dress as him for Halloween.

He meticulously planned out each phase of the costume. Granted, it wasn't that hard. With the accordion secured, all he needed was a wig, some glasses, a fake mustache, and a Hawaiian shirt. After a trip to the costume store and Goodwill, his raw materials were assembled, and he was ready. When Halloween night finally came, he got into his costume, and I think I may have actually cried a little bit when I saw him. Honestly, I think he could one day be elected President of the United States and I wouldn't be prouder than I was of him at that moment.

We took a series of pictures as we typically do. One of the photos turned out well enough that I sent it to Al himself. In this day of social networks, it's easy to get something out there and potentially in front of that individual. Al has literally hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers, so I can only imagine the noise that he must get on that account, but somehow, some way, he picked Ethan out of the crowd and included him in his series of "Best Costumes of 2012."

Recognize the handsome devil in the lower left? OK, so when I said I couldn't be prouder, I guess I was wrong. Now he's been validated by the Weird one himself. NOW I couldn't be prouder!

Posted with Blogsy

Time flies, stuff happens, and my writing suffers! It' hard to really comprehend all that has gone on in the humble Milwaukee Grady household since last I wrote on this 'blog, but I suppose I'll try to capture it here for your amusement, or at the least, for you to practice your proof reading skills!

The great family vacation! 

We took a year off last year from what had become an annual tradition, a trip up north. This year we again booked a cabin on a lake in northern Wisconsin for a week. Along with several other families, we took over Kafka's Resort on Lake George near Rhinelander. Kafka's was a very nice place, if not a little on the "quaint" side, with a very stodgy owner who I can't believe actually managed to rent out his place to anybody with kids. Kafka seemed to like things to operate in a particular way, and if you didn't see eye to eye with him, he figured you were trying to put him out of business, and he let you know it!

Well, Old Man Kafka aside, it was a very nice week with beautiful weather and plenty of outdoor activities for the kids to partake in where they would normally be watching movies or playing video games. We spent the days fishing, playing in the sand, swimming, playing on the playground, and different variations of those repeated throughout the week. The smaller kids (there were 12 total kids in our group) launched a fish hatchery business - Ethan and Quinton didn't really participate, though Quin did his best to keep them stocked with fish and did enjoy playing with the fish in the "hatchery."

Quin has actually proven himself to be quite the fisherman. He was up early most days fishing with whoever would help him untangle his Spiderman fishing pole's line and help him bait his hook. By the end of the week he was baiting his own hook and taking fish off himself. He and I went out on the boat with one of the other guys in our group one day, and Quin was able to occupy himself fishing the entire 90 minutes we were out there - and if you know Quin, that is quite a feat!

Ethan had quite a time doing water sports while up there. He had successfully started skiing behind our friend's boat this summer, but while in Rhinelander he became quite adept at it, mastering getting outside the wake and even the smooth dismount to come to a gentle stop in the shallow water so he didn't have to swim back to the launching point. He really likes skiing!

We did have one day that was a bit on the rainy side, so Quin, Ethan, Jacob (a friend's boy) and I went on a Rhinelander Hodag hunt. The boys and I tried to capture as many Hodags on our cameras as we could. In 2 hours time, we located at least a dozen throughout town. Quite the adventure!

The Circus

Quinton has been a big fan of Curious George for many months now. The wonder that is Netflix Streaming gives him the opportunity to watch many hours of this show per day, episode after episode. I think part of the reason he enjoys the show is because George shows him things that he can try to be even naughtier than he is now! That aside, he was really excited when George went to the circus. For the weeks following that episode he was begging and pleading for us to take him to the Circus. "We never go to the circus," was his battle cry.

A few weeks ago, Jenny actually located a circus about 60 miles from our home in Racine. It came across on a Groupon, so we got admission for 4 and 2 pizzas for $35. We didn't really think it was a great deal, but when we got there we were faced with a hefty dose of sticker shock. Normal admission to the circus was $38 per adult! I doubt anybody actually paid that due to different deals going on around town, but other prices were right in line with the admission. For example, you could go for a 2 minute pony ride for $6 or a camel ride for $12. A little cup of lemonade to wash down your prepaid pizza ran $6 a piece!

All in all, the circus was definitely fun. Both of the kids had their favorite parts, and the performers were pretty good for a traveling circus in today's day and age! Quin really enjoyed the "clown" who did an act where he was dancing to a song that was playing on his boom box. Another circus official would come out, turn off the boom box, and in Broken English tell the clown, "No Music!" The clown would turn to the crowd who would boo him, the official would turn around and plead his case, then walk away, at which time the clown turned the boom box back on. Quin was in stitches at the end when the circus official put the boom box in a garbage can and put the cover on to stifle the music, only to have the clown take the cover off of the garbage can and have the music play again. Like I said, big fan of Curious George...

Jenny and I had a favorite part as well. Just prior to intermission, the ring announcer addressed the crowd to inform them that during intermission, several rarities would be available in the ring for people to take their picture. On one side of the ring was a real lemur from Madagascar. In the other side of the ring was a 7 foot python! Then, in the middle of the ring was everybody's favorite Transformer, Optimus Prime! When they announced this, we looked up to see a 6'5" Eastern European guy come walking out in what can only be described as a kid's Halloween costume - in fact, Ethan actually has this costume - complete with flimsy plastic mask! He then proceeded to dance by himself in the middle of the ring while the diapered lemur and snake took pictures with a steady stream of patrons. Our best guess is that this is some sort of circus hazing where the new guy has to dress up as Optimus prime, kind of like Happy Gilmore was enticed to stand on the 18th green at 9:00...

Ethan's first driving lesson

We still have my dad's old truck sitting around in our driveway. I insure it but don't license it, and pretty much just use it to move things around the yard - sort of like a big wheelbarrow. Over the summer we removed a bunch of branches from various trees around the yard and had them stacked up in the back of the yard. A couple of weekends ago we were going to pick up the branches in the truck and drive them to Jenny's sister's house who was going to be renting a wood chipper for the day.

As I was preparing the truck to go pick up the branches, Quin asked if he could ride in the back, to which I agreed immediately. Quickly afterwards, Ethan asked me if he could drive. I hesitated, but then said OK, what's the worst thing that could happen, right? I lined the truck up pointing toward the back yard, put it in park, then slid over to allow Ethan to drive it to the back. He put it in gear, then started rolling right toward the house. I started chanting, "brake, brake!" to which he responded, "I am!!!" I quickly flipped the truck to park, it rolled about 10 more feet right into our front lamp pole, bending it to a 45 degree angle, then finally came to rest. Ethan was frazzled, I was yelling, so I told him to move over and I would drive it - sure enough, no brakes! I suppose it wouldn't have been so bad if our neighbor hadn't been outside watching the whole thing unfold! Just call us the Oconomowoc Hillbillies, I suppose.

First day of school

Last Tuesday was the first day of school. Ethan's first day in 6th grade and Quinton's first day in K4. Quinton was, and still is, very excited to ride on the bus, and has seemed to take to school quite well. I was a little worried that Quin would be a handful at school. He seems like quite a handful at home! On the first day he went in, I was at work when I received a call on my cell phone from a 262 number that I didn't recognize. My mind immediately told me that Quin was already in the principal's office! Well, it turned out not to be the case and Quin's been good enough not to warrant a call home yet.

Well, I suppose we did get a call home the other day. Quin got off the bus and told Jenny that he had sat in some "pokey grass" at school and that he cried. Later in the evening we got a call from his teacher telling us that she thinks he was bit by a bee on the playground and was very upset about it.

He seems to be doing pretty well in school. Last week as I was coaching Ethan's soccer practice, Jenny dropped Quin off for the last 20 minutes of practice so she could meet up with somebody. We were scrimmaging at the time, so I was walking up and down the sideline with my clipboard and practice cheat sheet with me. He asked if he could draw me a picture, so I gave him the practice sheet and pen. What he drew is classic Quinton - a big circle person with stick hands and feet and a circle head. This particular person was kicking a soccer ball. The best part of this piece was that Quinton signed it for me. His name's not perfect on it, but it's definitely Quinton, and he didn't even have anything to copy it or anything. Jenny is bragging that he's been in school only a week and has already mastered the letter Q and is obsessed with soccer.

The Soccer Gradys

I'm not entirely sure how it happened, but soccer has torn through our house as a family pass time. I was hornswoggled into coaching Ethan's U12 rec team. Ethan is doing very well this year and has already scored 3 goals in our first game of the season, a game his team won 12-0. Quinton has started playing U6 ball, which consists of a 30 minute practice followed by a 30 minute game each Saturday. This last Saturday was Quin's first session and he was VERY excited. As soon as he woke up at 6:30 he was asking when we were going to soccer. He continued to ask when we were going until we got there at 10:00. In fact, as we were driving there, he frequently asked us if we were going the right way, and when we would stop at a stop sign he would ask why we weren't going to soccer... He had a great game! He listened very well to his coach and even scored 2 goals, one for each team!

My Little Triathetes

Last weekend was the annual "Tri-ing for Children's Triathlon," a weekend long set of triathlons to benefit Children's Hospital here in town. Jenny and I were both signed up to do the sprint triathlon, a 1/4 mile swim, 15 mile bike, then 3.1 mile run. We've done it a few years in a row now, so that's not what I'm writing about - this year we decided to let our kids participate in the kid's event on the Saturday prior to the adult races.

For Quin this was his first triathlon. He was to swim 25 yards, bike 1/4 mile, then run 0.1 mile to the finish. Even though he'd never done one before, we were pretty confident that he would do well - he's one of the only 4 year olds I know that is on 2 wheels versus training wheels, and he's pretty fast. His race started out well - they started them every 3 seconds until all of them were in the water, and they were chip timed. He passed the girl in front of him in the "swim," which was 25 yards in waist deep water - all the kids I saw walked it, and Quin was no exception. From there, he ran to transition where I helped him putting on a shirt, shoes, and socks - what we would soon realize was a disastrous mistake. As soon as we got his shoes and socks on, he was off on the bike - calling it 1/4 mile was very generous - it was a single lap around a quite small parking lot. Quin was out and back in only a few seconds. From there, he parked the bike and took off on the 0.1 mile run. When it was all over, Quin placed 9th overall at 6 minutes 40 seconds. We're pretty sure if we had just put Crocs on him instead of bothering with shoes and socks, he could have contended! Oh well, next year he'll be in the next, tougher division, so the strategy will have to be learned anew.

After Quin was done with his race it was hurry up and wait for Ethan. He was competing in the 11-14 year old division, the oldest kids at the triathlon. He stood dutifully on the beach watching wave after wave of 5-11 year olds swim their lap in the waist deep water then head off to the bike. Though he claimed not to be nervous, he was getting impatient with waiting and exclaimed, "I just want this to be over." As they went through the different age groups, they continued to move the swimming area buoy further and further apart, until they ran out of room in the swimming area. I started wondering aloud with Ethan how they were going to accommodate his 200 yard swim in that small area, but assured him he would be able to touch throughout the entirety of the swim. As they finally got to Ethan's division, the announced how the legs would be run. They would swim to the far buoy in the swimming area, then out of the swimming area to some of the adult buoys for Sunday's race! What!??! They were sending him out past the weeds where he couldn't touch!!?!?! This was crazy... Well, Jenny and I kind of crapped ourselves, but pulled it together. As calmly as I could, I told Jenny to just back off, knowing she would probably freak him out, and I went up to talk with Ethan. Casually I said to him, "Well, it looks like you are not going to be able touch the whole way." He looked at me with that "duh, dad" look on his face, paused dramatically, then said, "well, I suppose I'll just have to swim then." He convinced me, and he did just that - he swam the whole 200 yards, then got out on his 6 mile bike, and finished it off with a 1 mile run. He wasn't in great shape, and he wasn't anywhere near as good as some crazy good triathlete kids out there, but he finished it - it wasn't a big deal to him - he just doesn't freak out about those things like I do, I suppose, and I'm a little jealous.

Ethan's "I'm just going to do it" attitude inspired me for my triathlon the next day. I'd like to say I ran it fast, but I didn't. Instead, I got the most sleep I've ever had the night before a triathlon and ran a very comfortable race. Because if Ethan can do it, so can I!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Little Quinny

Have you ever heard the "Little Johnny" jokes? For several reasons, I have a feeling that they might one day be replaced by "Little Quinny" jokes. Here's an example of one - Little Johnny was in class learning his ABCs. The teacher was asking the class to name something with each letter of the alphabet in order. Little Johnny raised his hand for each letter, but she kept skipping him thinking that he would say something bad, like "ass" for A and "butt" for B. Finally, she had gotten all the way to R. Little Johnny dutifully raised his hand while nobody else did. She figured, "what could he say that is naughty that starts with R?" So she called on Little Johnny. Little Johnny immediately said, "Rats!" "Oh, that's nice," the teacher said, relieved. "No, Rats, with big penises!" Little Johnny followed up immediately...

Well, I have my own version of Little Johnny in my house. We had some friends over for dinner. All of the adults had gathered outside while the kids gathered in the kitchen. One brave soul went in to check on her son, and came out a couple of minutes later laughing. She said that Quin was teaching the kids the alphabet. "A, B, C, D, E, F, penis..." She apparently kept it together long enough to get outside before she busted out laughing...

Ethan has been showing off his entrepreneurial side again. He and a buddy were out exploring near a train station a few days back and they found what they are sure are chunks of coal. The two of them are convinced that they can sell it for big money on Ebay, only one of them needs an account. So he asked me, and I told him we'd talk about it later, and then left to go to a movie with Jenny. Before the movie we stopped for appetizers at a brewpub and I got a call on my cell phone - it was Ethan, using his iPod as a phone. I answered and he asked if it was OK if he signed up for an Ebay account - he was apparently at the screen where it said you had to ask your parents. So I told him no and that we would talk about it later... It's kind of funny how persistent he is on one hand, yet he's so afraid to break the rules that he insists on calling me even a few minutes after we had already discussed it - and still follows my directions.

Quinny the Spy

Quin and I were at home together the other day - I can't remember why. Jenny and Ethan were out somewhere, I think to get Ethan a haircut. We opened the garage and heard something flying around in there. Before long, Quin had spotted the culprit - a bird had gotten itself stuck in the garage. He was having a hard time finding his way out, and Quin was enthralled! I went into the house and started putting things away from my day's work. 

Quin came in a couple of minutes later and asked for some juice, which I gave him, and he took it outside with him to watch the bird some more. After awhile, Ethan came home, and Quin came inside and asked for something else to drink. I asked him where his juice was, but he didn't know. So I told him he had to find his other juice before I would give him another one. Well, he couldn't find it - and after awhile, I couldn't either. In fact, I was getting a little upset at him, and he could tell, so he told me, "I think the birdie took it." I rolled my eyes, thinking he was just messing with me and was hiding it. After a few minutes, we went outside to look in the garage together. Quin looked up and saw the bird, and said very sincerely, "he doesn't have it!" I'm pretty sure he really believed that the bird had taken it!

 

After looking for a few more minutes, Quin told me that we should call a spy to come and help us find it, because that's what spies do, "right dad?" I have no idea where he comes up with this stuff, but the whole exchange cracked me up...

Happy Memorial Day!

We had the opportunity to travel to Spread Eagle, WI near Iron Mountain, MI for Memorial Day this year. A friend of ours works for a company that owns a "cabin" on a lake up there, which they allow their employees to rent by the week during the year. When say cabin, I mean a 5 bedroom, 4000 square foot, modern home that is situated on a lake up north. So we joined 3 other families up there for the weekend. 

For some reason, the whole day leading up to our travel up there, Quin couldn't stop talking about going fishing! He kept asking when we were going to go fishing. The drive was over 4 hours to get up there, but he kept asking. Once we were up there, he did just that. Not the first day, but on Saturday he fished, and fished, and fished. He was completely slaying the fish around the pier. Each time he dropped his hook in the water a fish would bite. In fact, I didn't really get an opportunity to fish at all because Quin kept reeling them in so fast. When we were getting ready to leave this morning, he was still fishing, and just as we were about to put the fishing poles away, he cast one last time and caught a big bass, the biggest of the trip!

 

On Sunday morning, the kids, our friend Tim, and I were down on the pier emptying the fishing boat of the rain water that had collected the night prior. Quin and Ethan were messing around with some canoe paddles, and Quin of course dropped on in the lake, out of reach from anybody on the pier. Ethan declared that the only way to get it would be to swim after it! Being a reasonable adult, I told him to not do that and that I would get it with the canoe, which I started to do. Apparently Ethan took that as a challenge, obtained an inner-tube, then got in it, fully clothed, and raced me to the paddle. Meanwhile, Quin was sitting on a bench on the pier, which I told him he had to do until I retrieved the paddle, kind of a punishment. He saw Ethan in the water, and apparently was overcome with the notion of being in the water. The next thing I knew he was flying through the air, fleece jacket and all, into the water! Officially I was angry at him, but secretly I was laughing hysterically at both of them. Yeah, their clothes were all wet, but they sure were having a good time despite their old fuddy duddy of a dad!

 

Happy Mother's Day

My boys really don't think much, normally, before a Hallmark Holiday like Mother's Day. Last night, however, Ethan asked me (discretely) what mom's favorite breakfast was. I told him that she liked an egg over easy with toast. He nodded, then said that he'd like to make that for her in the morning.

So this morning, Quin (and I, I suppose) woke up a little after 6:00. He watched Garfield while I watched the inside of my eyelids for an hour more. Around 7:45, I heard Jenny stirring, watching TV in the bedroom. After another 15 minutes, I went upstairs to wake up my tweenager who had only 10 hours of sleep at that point, and told him it was time. He asked me what to do, and I told him. While Ethan was frying the egg, Quin made and buttered toast. Ethan got the egg just right on the first try, impressively! Quin then put a carnation in his teeth and carried the plate while Ethan poured some orange juice in a glass and delivered it to mom for mother's day! I have no idea how it tasted, but Jenny ate it all up, so either it tasted fine, or she is just a good mom - I suppose it could be both...

It was a nice day today - seasonably warm and sunny with no wind. Quin and I were outside mowing the lawn a little later in the morning. He was bored, so I told him he could wash bird droppings off the house with the hose (aren't I a nice dad!). While I was getting the hose ready, he was looking in the sky and told me, "the sun tickles your eyes." Well, in Quinglish he said, "the sun tickles you eyes." I had no idea how poetic my 4 year old was!

Happy mothers day to all (mothers)!

Westward Expansion

I had an interesting experience as a parent last night and had to share it with the world, because that's what we do in the day and age of over sharing... Ethan has a test in Social Studies today. They are covering early history of the United states, from Washington's presidency through the war of 1812. As an aside, I make a way better fifth grader as a 39 year old than I ever did as a 10 year old... That is to say that this information is way more interesting to me today than it ever was 30 years ago. So the way I quiz him is I go through and read the chapters while picking out what I think are key details of the chapters. To my delight, we were talking about Daniel Boone and the Westward Expansion, Louisiana Purchase, etc., and we got to a quote that is credited to DB himself when asked why he continued to move west until his dying day, which was (I'm paraphrasing), "I need some elbow room." That, of course, made me think back to Saturday morning cartoon interludes from our friends at School House Rock. Since I had my laptop sitting right next to me, I quickly searched for the video and was rewarded with the 3 minutes and 10 seconds of goodness that I remembered. I quickly brought it up and let Ethan watch it. I now share it with you for nostalgia's sake:

To me it was one of those moments that I think I will remember for a long time. The perfect blend of experience and technology coming together at just the right time and place. Of course, I guess it all only matters if Ethan does well on the test - if he remembers the content of the cartoon and his chapter and translates it back to his studies. It also makes me wonder if, when Ethan is 39 years old, will he be able to somehow relate "Annoying Orange" to some important history lesson for his children?

Potpourri

The Big Update

First, for the prerequisite apology. My wife and my mother both have scolded me for not having an update out here for going on 2 months now, so here is the big update.

Quin Does Music

Over the last 2 months, Quin has put his musical skills on display. He enjoys listening to music on his CD player in his room - last night he told his babysitter all about the music player he had in his room with at least 10 CDs! He also told her that he had a really big bed. Something tells me that he is starting to develop his pickup lines early. Anyway, he loves listening to all kinds of music, but some of his favorites are "Sexy and I Know It" by LMFAO (he sings it "Sexxies and I Know It") and "Moves Like Jagger" by Marroon 5, which Quin sings "Moves like Quinton." His moves are not to be taken lightly. He very much enjoys doing "The Booty Dance" for us (sorry, I don't have a video), particularly when Ethan is showing us some of his moves. More on that later.

Quinton on Food

Quinny has become quite the food expert. He likes food - a lot. It takes quite a bit of food to support his ever growing body. He likes to tell me, "Dad, I'm growing bigger!" A recent trip to the doctor confirmed that statement to the tune of 45 inches tall and 45 pounds - his 4 year old checkup! I don't like to brag, but he's off the chart for height and at the 95th percentile on weight, though he is modestly at the 50th percentile on the weight per height metric. Anyway - food. Though I believe his favorite food continues to be spaghetti, a newcomer to the race is the corndog, which Quinton pronounces "Horndog!" I'm pretty sure it is among his favorites because of its ability to get large quantities of ketchup into his mouth. We were out with some friends a couple of weeks ago where Quin ordered a "horndog." Though he was the only one using the full bottle of ketchup at the table, by the end of the meal, over half of it was gone...

Quinton on Climbing

Quinton has swimming lessons on Tuesday nights - Ethan has lessons on Thursdays. Our YMCA is equipped with a rock climbing wall, complete with auto-belay systems and equipment for all ages to climb. The first week Quinton had lessons, we let Ethan climb the wall for his first time - well, his first time in awhile. He did pretty well, but Quinton was entranced. He wanted to try it, but we had to go. During Ethan's lesson on Thursday, Quinton got in trouble at school, so his punishment was no rock climbing (yes, meanest. parents. ever.).

Well, finally, a week later, Quinton managed to be good enough at school and home that we were going to try rock climbing with him during Ethan's lesson. We walked up to get his equipment but were almost turned away as their policy had apparently only recently (within the last week) been changed to include 4 year olds in the eligible age group. So they strapped Quin up and put him on lane 5, the beginner's wall. It's still 40 feet high (I think), but the pegs are a little closer together and the wall doesn't vary in and out all that much like the more advanced walls do. His first try he made it up a few feet before he jettisoned from the wall and was gently let down by the auto-belay system. The next time he did about the same. I figured he would be ready to go by then, but he just walked right back up to the wall again and again, determined to climb. By his 4th try, he finally escaped the gravitational pull of the ground and climbed about half way up the wall. The lady that was helping him was stunned - I couldn't stop grinning. This 4 year old was laying waste to several teenagers attempting to climb at the same time. By the time he reached 15-20 feet, he again let go and gently fell to the floor - which I figured would be the end of it, but he went right back to the wall. A few more failed attempts and I convinced him to take a rest, but he was hooked, and had become somewhat of a local celebrity.

We went through one more session of this while Ethan was at his lesson and while Jenny ran upstairs, then I convinced him that we should go play in the family room where they have a cool tunnel toy and computer games. When Jenny came back from her run and Ethan was done with his lesson, I was relating the story to the two of them. At this point, the competitive juices were flowing through Ethan. He climbed well the week before, but had never "rung the bell" at the top of the wall, so he was going to climb. Quin wanted to climb again, too, and Jenny (kind of) wanted to see him do it.

Well, Ethan made it up to the top of several lanes as well as the very difficult rope ladder, for the first time, and Quin again made it up quite high, this time at least 2/3 of the way to the top. Below you will find the video of Jenny's reaction to our newly turned 4 year olds newly found obsession.

Ethan

Ethan continues to stay busy. He continues to take piano lessons and has recently joined the school Swing Choir. While he hasn't had a concert yet, he has been learning the moves to the dances, which he occasionally comes home to show us. Of course, when he shows us his moves, Quin immediately wants to show us his own moves, which are actually very good - sometimes he even ends doing some sort of Little Richard drop to the floor...

Cub Scouts has (finally) come to and end for Ethan and I when we celebrated his receiving of the Arrow of Light, Cub Scout's highest honor. He was very excited to be done with Cub Scouts, but also wants to move on to Boy Scouts and eventually earn his Eagle Scout. We'll see if he can stick to it, but right now that's the plan!

Basketball is also (finally) over for the year. Ethan's team took first place in their league, and also won the St. Killian's of Hartford Tournament. In all he got 2 basketball trophies this year, the first for a second place finish in an earlier tournament. Ethan improved a lot this year, but still has a ways to go before he can compete with some of the other boys on the team. Most importantly, he learned a lot, and had fun doing it. I think he will probably try it again next year, and has actually been shooting around a lot since the season ended.

As a funny aside, the basketball tournament he had was in Hartford, about a 45 minute drive from our house. The way it worked, he played on consecutive Tuesdays, then played the championship game on a Saturday, so we were driving back and forth between Hartford and our house a few times during that tournament. The first game was what we thought was an 8:15 game, which turned out to be a miscommunication, so we got there late like almost the entire team did. That aside, they managed to win the game by 8:30, so Ethan and I were traveling back home through Hartford when we passed a sign that said "Free Scoop if your name is Ethan." I pulled over, parked the car, and Ethan ran into the ice cream shop that was boasting the sign. Being somewhat more cautious, I casually walked up to the shop and noticed that they were clearly cleaning up for closing. A quick glance at the placard out front indicated that they closed at 8:30, and my watch read 8:45. So I hung out outside and watched the scene transpire. Ethan walked confidently up to the counter, talked with a girl in uniform. She nodded, he pointed, she built him a cone, handed it to him, then said something. He shook his head, nodded, then walked out. I later found out what the conversation entailed. After boldly entering the "closed" shop, without missing a beat, he ordered a single scoop of Blue Moon. After the girl behind the counter handed him the cone, she said it would be $3.25. He said, "no it won't - my name's Ethan," and then walked out. I never did tell him that the shop was closed...

 

This basketball tournament was ripe with interesting conversation since we had 90 minutes to kill in the car each time we traveled up there. On one trip, I don't know how the conversation arrived on the topic, but we started talking about sex. I remembered that we had our talk about our bodies with the doctor when we were in fifth grade, so I figured he was going to be getting a lot of information some time in the near future, so I asked him, "so, you know that sex is how babies are made, right?" He answered, yes. I then asked him if he knew what it was. He said, "kind of. Isn't it that thing that people do with those weird balloons?" I didn't know how to react, so I stuck with the blunt approach. "You mean condoms? Where did you hear about those?" He told me that it was in the movie that he and I had watched, "The Naked Gun" with Leslie Nielson and Prescilla Preslie. There is a montage scene in there where the two of them fall in love, and being released in the 80s, safe sex was being preached, so the comical ending to the falling in love montage had them performing safe sex with each other in full body condoms... So I'm not sure how much he still understands, but hopefully he's not getting all of his information from the movies that I let him watch.

 

January update

It's tough for me to write today because my favorite group of millionaires lost to somebody else's favorite group of millionaires in a game I was sure would go my millionaire's way. Oh well, we must persevere!

It's been a typical busy couple of weeks. Today was one of Ethan's last functions as a Cub Scout, the Pinewood Derby. For most kids this is an exciting event, but for Ethan and I, we sort of dread it. Neither Ethan or I really understand what it takes to build a "good car." Our cars generally make it to the end of the track, but rarely very fast, and always much slower than most other cars. After the first year of innocence where we thought we could possibly achieve a place, we settled into the common goal of not finishing last. Last year we only achieved that goal by 1 or 2 places, and that was in the overall results, not just within our den! So it wasn't too shocking this year when Ethan told me that he didn't even want to make a car. Since I'm a den leader, though, I was bullied into pressuring him into making a car, so we did, but we did the barest minimum of work on it. No cuts, he wrapped it in a car wrapper purchased from the local hobby shop, we sanded and polished the axles and wheels like we've heard you should, and finally finished up the car on Saturday night. It wasn't much to look at, but it at least went straight! 

Today we held the derby at our church school. Ethan's car was doing OK. They run each car in 4 races, once in each lane. His car took 3rd of 4 in each race except for the last where he took 2nd, but his times were very competitive. When the math was done, we were shocked to see that he placed 3rd in the den, of 9 kids! It's his first trophy for any sort of individual (or team) event. I'm pretty sure I'm more excited about it...

I can tell he wasn't all that excited because he had to leave early for his other weekend commitment, basketball. He and another boy from school are on a team with another local Catholic school who has a lot of really good players. Their team lays waste to most other teams they encounter, but not because of Ethan's play at all. Today, though, he actually got to shoot 5 times, and almost made several of them! When we were driving home from the game, he didn't say anything about the derby, only that he was sure he was going to sink at least one of those shots!!! He had a feeling he'd score points today!

Quin's been his usual challenge, but is still full of surprising and funny comments. A few days ago, he, Ethan and I were sitting on the couch watching a movie. We all had our shoes off. I'm not sure how it happened, but at one point, Quin had put his foot on mine and Ethan had put his foot on Ethan's. Quin Looked at me and said, "Look Dad, we mad a sandwich!"

A few days later, Quin had gotten up earlier than everybody else in the house (again). He got tired of waiting for the rest of us to get ready, so he went upstairs to get himself ready. When he came down he had on a pair of orange pants and a shirt that was much too big for him. I told him that I liked his shirt, and he turned to me and said, "I know, I'm awesome!" Well, I suppose that self confidence is one of those nurture things...

Catching up with Quinton

It's been awhile, and in the spirit of New Year's resolutions, and in the spirit of the iPad keyboard I got from my parents for Christmas (thanks mom and dad), it's time I start blogging a bit more regularly. But to get regular, I first have to catch up with the past few weeks. Luckily, Quin is 3, and is constantly generating new blog material.

You Like It?

One of the things Quin is always asking is if you like something. Not only does he value your friendship, but he wants you to like the things that he likes. One of the phrases he uses when he particularly likes something is "let's buy it." It can apply to anything from a stick of gum to a store. Of late, he's been trying to impress us with toys or things that he's drawn, and then asking us - "you like it?" If we answer yes, he will immediately follow that up with, "you wanna buy it?"

You Better Not Shout, You Better Not Cry
One of the nicest parts of having a three year old in capitalist America is the holiday season threat of no presents in exchange for good behavior. We are doubly lucky in our day and age in that we can text, e-mail, or call Santa on our cell phones, making the threat ever present. We used it like crazy! And for the most part it worked. After opening our presents in Christmas Eve (a Grady tradition), Quin woke up the next morning, said something naughty like "poopy" or something like that, then looked me in the eye and said, "Santa's not watching me any more..."

Damn you Steve Jobs!
I'm an Apple fan boy - I like to believe that I'm more grounded than the real crazies, but I still spend way too much money on Apple gear. For example, I'm typing this on my iPad (my second), Quin is watching my iPhone 4, my computer is an iMac - you get the picture. Two summers ago when my cell phone contract was up, I upgraded to the iPhone 4 and gave Ethan my disabled iPhone 3g as a glorified iPod. This Christmas, taking after his dad, Ethan asked for the latest generation iPod so he could take video, something his 3g would not allow. So when Santa delivered on that request, Quin inherited Ethan's old 3g, and all the apps that Ethan had on there. We did a first volley of getting rid of all of the "inappropriate" apps (OK, we asked Ethan to do it, which may have been our big mistake) then gave it to Quin. He got rid of the gun apps and some others, but others he must have missed... As we were driving up to Neillsville on Christmas morning, we hear a fart sound coming from the back seat. We didn't think much of it, but it continued, and then Quin yelled to the car, "Mommy, stop farting!!!" Jenny looked back to find Quin pressing a button on some app that Ethan had "forgotten to delete" that made a pretty good fart sound.

It's nice that Quin has his own iPhone now, but it hasn't stopped him from asking to use mine all the time. I suppose it's faster, has better games, etc. The other day, though, he came up to me like he will and asked, "Daddy, please I have your iPhone for Facebook?" Now I have no idea how he knows about Facebook or what he wanted to do about it. The only thing I can think of is that I constantly give Jenny crap about snagging my phone to catch up on my Facebook life. I suppose he does listen sometimes!

Skiing with Mr. Bill.

Last Friday was a day off of school and work for the family, so we traveled down to Alpine Valley ski resort (OK, it's a bump that they make snow on for skiing) for Ethan's ski club and Quin's first time skiing. I took him down the hill a couple of times, but apparently I must have shown my frustration and inability to handle this situation, because a clown skied up to us and offered to show Quin a couple of things. He took Quin up the magic carpet and had him down the hill in no time flat. Before I knew it, Quin was signed up for a private lesson with Mr. Bill the ski clown! I have to tell you, he did quite a job, though! By the end of the day, Mr. Bill had Quin on the chair lift on the big hill. By the time I got him, we went down the bunny hill two more times and all Quin wanted to do was go fast! He didn't even fall once while skiing down the hill.

Hopefully this is the first in a line of more regular updates. I have a hard time getting myself to write these sometimes since the events seem so trivial and boring. But sometimes I go back and read the entries I've done in the past and realize what these are - they are my kid's baby books. There are many things in here that we would otherwise forget - and it's important to remember these things.

Great West Adventure - Day 9 - Travel day

The last day of vacation is always the dreaded travel day. We were lucky enough to be able to get some laundry done at mom and dad's before we left (OK, Jenny got it done), so we (Jenny) would not have to do it when we (Jenny) got home. But travel days are always a pain. Most of the morning was spent biding time until our flight. We departed pretty early for the airport - we had a 1:00 flight and arrived at the airport at 11:00, so we had plenty of time to get some pizza and wait at the gate.

The flight was uneventful. Quin slept for 3/4 of the flight. He woke up for about 20 minutes at one point, long enough to put a movie on, then fall asleep again. Ethan spent almost the entire flight doing homework, but he got it done! In the end, the only casualty was Ethan left his new cowboy hat on the plane. We have a lost and found ticket entered with the airline in hopes it might be returned, but we're not holding our breath.

In conclusion, this was definitely one of the best family vacations the four of us have taken together. That is in no small part due to the advancement in age of the boys. Ethan can be quite helpful when he wants, and is very curious about things, which makes it fun. Quin is full of energy, but you can just see him learning new things right before your eyes all the time - it's incredible.

Some miscellaneous observations that didn't make it into any of the 'blog entries but deserved a little space here in my "epilogue."

- Californians are wearing pajama pants. Not sure what's up with that, but everywhere we went in the "hip and trendy" areas, people were walking around in pajama pants. Mark my words, in a couple of months to a year, it will be a craze around the country. Californians are weird...

- Quin is starting the master the art of blaming his gas on other people. While riding in the car we heard a loud sound come from near my side of the car. Jenny and Ethan looked at me but I claimed innocence. Quin was smiling, but immediately said, "Mommy, you stink!!!" I guess that would be a nurture thing...

- Big thanks to Glen and Cheryl on this trip. Not only were they extraordinarily generous with their time and home while we were in Arizona, but they gave us their car for 4 days while they had only bicycles and their own 2 legs to get them around. I only hope I can return the favor to my ungrateful kids when they are vacationing 20 or 30 years from now. Thank you!!!