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!

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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!

 

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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!!!

Great West Adventure - Day 8 - Don't look down...

Day 8 was to be a relaxing day! In that right, it wasn't too bad. Mom and dad wanted to show off their new winter home state to us, though, so we headed out of town on Arizona 88 around 10:30 to catch up on some history and engineering marvels. Our first stop was Tortilla Flat, a (very) small stop on the way up to the Roosevelt Dam on the Salt River. What might be said about Tortilla Flat is that it is the last sane place to stop on Hwy 88 before you wish you had brought a dune buggy! After spending a short time in Tortilla Flat getting a beer and looking through some of the buildings, we headed out again on 88 with a destination of the Roosevelt Dam. 88, however, was the real attraction of today's trip. All along my dad was explaining to me how horrendous this road was, and let me drive to prove it to me. Of course I didn't really take this all that seriously - he's old, right!? Well, let me be the first to admit that this is far and away the nastiest drive I've taken in all my years. Not only is it a curvy, mountainous road with little or not shoulder or barrier between the road and the canyon floor many hundreds of feet down, but the road is unpaved and, seemingly, ribbed (for her pleasure). I'm not sure of the science behind dirt roads and why they get so bumpy, but this one seemed to have been made so on purpose, perhaps to keep people from going more than about 15 miles per hour. Anyway, our 28 mile trek from Tortilla Flat to Roosevelt Dam took well over an hour. We did stop for some lunch along the way at Apache Lake where Quin started out napping, and upon waking half way through the meal asked us "where is everybody?" Business was not bustling in Apache Lake today!

The Roosevelt Dam was quite impressive itself. Not so much as the Hoover Dam that Jenny and I toured some years back, but still impressive any time you view an engineering feat like that. We quickly stopped at the Roosevelt Lake Visitor Center and promptly headed to the Tonto Monument, which was very, very cool. Remember when you were in grade school studying Native Americans and you got to the Pueblos built by those in the Southwest? These were those! Of course, these weren't the ones that you see in your textbook growing up as the Salado people were not quite the masons that those in more northern areas were, but it was really neat to see this piece of history that had only been known in books prior.

For the drive back we took the "long route" through Globe on more traditional roads and highways. Now we are resting at mom and dad's place anticipating our return to reality tomorrow...

Disney Day 2

Found this in the archives and thought I would post it. It's pretty dated, but I'm sure it's got lots of good stuff in it!


Good Night's Sleep

Our first night in the hotel was blissfully uneventful.  My biggest worry coming to this resort with an infant was that he would be up and unconsolable in the night and he would wake people up.  Turns out I had nothing to worry about all along.  In fact, I would say that Quin probably slept better at the hotel than he does at home.  That is most likely because we were so close by and it was easy to get up to tend to him.  Either way, it worked out well and I had nothing to complain about.

Ethan slept in Grandpa and Grandma's room the first night, as we thought he might be kept awake by Quin more than by Grandma's snoring.  Nothing really stirred him, though, and he slept quite well through the night.

In the morning, Jenny and I got up somewhat more rested than the day before.  We slept in until around 8:30 having only gotten up once each with Quin during the night, so we felt good enough to try out the 1.4 mile track that surrounds the lake in the middle of the grounds.  The Caribbean Beach Resort is a number of buildings organized into Islands.  Ours was Martinique.  Each of the islands surrounds a big lake in the middle with beaches surrounding it.  Each island also had its own pool, which we took advantage of several times.  Anyway, Jenny and I went for a small run then stopped by the central shop to get water for Quin's bottles and some snacks for breakfast.  After that, off to the parks!

EPCOT

Our first stop for this day was EPCOT, which again stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.  We grabbed a quick snack for breakfast as we had reservations in EPCOT for a character lunch, then jumped on the bus to EPCOT.

Have I mentioned how big the Disney World Resort is?  Let me put it another way in case I haven't properly explained that yet.  From our hotel, we could see Spaceship Earth, the big ball in the center of EPCOT.  It seemed not at all far away.  However, after boarding the bus in the morning, it took us no less than 20 minutes to get to the park!  Now, after having consulted a map, I now know that it took a long time to get there because the park entrance was all the way around the park, forcing us to weave in and out of several highways to get there, but still, 20 minutes, and they are both on the same property!

EPCOT, much like the Magic Kingdom before it, was BUSY!  There were people walking all over the place.  The weather was somewhat better than yesterday, but still not hot, which was OK since there were so many people around, hot weather would have made things uncomfortable.

The first look at EPCOT is no less amazing than that of the Magic Kingdom.  The huge Spaceship Earth structure dominating the sky right at the entrance, with the Beach Boys music playing (why the Beach Boys, I couldn't say), water fountains splashing about everywhere...  They definitely went the extra mile with this park to make it seem different.

EPCOT is separated into two separate parts, Futureworld where there are a bunch of rides and attractions that deal with imagination, conservation, and life in the future, and the World Showcase, which has buildings and attractions attempting to capture the feel of different countries around the world.  Since it was quite busy, we decided to check out the newest attraction first, Soarin', which was located in "The Land," one of the buildings in Futureworld.  Well, that line was already around 2 hours long, so we did the next best thing, we caught a couple of shows.

The first show we saw was called "Live With the Land," which was narrated by Pumba, Timone, and Simba from the Lion King.  This, along with most attractions, seemed to have the actual actors doing the voice work for the video, which is impressive.  The show was pretty neat.  It was all about how we should conserve and live with the land instead of against it.  I found it somewhat ironic that Disney of all companies was preaching conservation when they pump millions of gallons of water through their fountains and use tons of plastic to deliver food to their hungry customers each day, but hey, the message is still important, and the show wasn't too bad.

The next attraction we took in was again in The Land.  This time we boarded a boat (a common theme in many Disney attractions) and toured through some labs that Disney had setup in an attempt to grow things in different ways.  This trip was pretty cool as it showed all kinds of different plants being grown in a huge greenhouse.  They also tried new ways of growing things, like suspending tomato plants in the air so that the air can get to the leaves properly, or growing tomatoes upside-down.  Fairly interesting stuff.

We had made reservations for a character lunch in The Land's table service restaurant for around 2:00, but after taking in our two shows we still had some time to burn, so we headed outside and went into a building titled "Imagineering."  This was basically a big hands-on playground of all sorts of technology that could change the future, stimulate the imagination, or educate in some other way.  They had stations setup with video games, fire

Disney's Hollywood Studio

Wore Out Part II

Great West Adventure - Day 7 - Permission to Board

There was no plan in the works for today other than to drive back to Phoenix at some point. Small portion of the day, only 6.5 hours... Surprisingly, though, it seemed relaxed since we didn't have an itinerary. So we started out the day like we did any other day on vacation, we ate at a local breakfast establishment. This time we found a local favorite, Panera Bread. Excellent bagels and sandwiches - oh who am I kidding, we just wanted something fast.

The only thing we wanted to make sure we did on this day, other than drive back to Phoenix, was to go to and see Coronado Island. On the way, though, we found the Midway Museum, a decommissioned naval aircraft carrier. Wow, am I glad we stopped! It was fascinating! Of course, Quin was a little less than impressed, but I really liked it... Ethan was even able to earn his Junior Aviator wings by listening to the free audio tour and answering a page full of questions about the topics.

After several hours on the Midway, we found our way across the Coronado Bridge to Coronado Island where we parked on a local road, walked through the commerce district, and found Miguel's Cocina, which I found an interesting confluence of English and Spanish. Regardless, the food was quite good. Their special touch was given to the pre-meal chips and salsa where they provided an additional portion cup of cheese dip for your chips. Quin immediately commandeered the cheese dip until it was gone. He ran out half way through a chip and was quite disappointed to the point of crying and screaming until Jenny introduced him to the Salsa. That kid REALLY likes to dip things!

After lunch we found our way to the beach where we got our feet wet in what seemed like 55 degree water - seriously, it couldn't have been much warmer than that! The beach was gorgeous and large and the kids really enjoyed it. We only wish we would have had a couple of hours to spend there so the kids could play more.

Unfortunately, we had to call it quits in California - I wanted to beat rush hour traffic out of town, and we didn't want to get back to Phoenix too late in the evening, so we packed up around 3:30 and took the arduous trip back to grandpa and grandma's house outside of Phoenix. We arrived around 10:00, not bad considering we stopped several times for bio breaks and food. Jenny quickly deposited a large load of clothes into the washing machine and we tried to wrestle the kids into bed so they wouldn't be too ornery the next day. Jenny and I followed quickly behind them - vacation is tiring!!!

Great West Adventure - Day 6 - It's a zoo out there

In case there was any question to the subtitle of yesterday's post, we were watching the weather where the cute weather lady exclaimed that the clouds were pretty moist and deep, and that she wouldn't be surprised to see them start to rain at any time. I found that amusing - I suppose I've never really progressed past the age of 12 as far as my maturity level goes...

I again find myself 3 days tardy in posting this, so I think this will be pretty short. Today was about the zoo. The day started out a bit earlier than any of us would have liked. Around 6:25 AM, the hotel's fire alarm system started going crazy. We awoke in a daze, but figured out what was going on well enough to put some clothes on, grab our "necessities," (my wallet and keys to the car - oh, and the kids), and get outside. We weren't outside more than a couple of minutes before they gave us the all clear stating that it was a false alarm. No kidding... By this time, Quin was finally starting to wake up. As I was holding him in my arms, he took his head off my shoulder, looked up at me and said, "please I push the button?" Apparently to a kid of three, pushing the elevator button is pretty much the coolest thing you could ever hope to do. The entire week he would dash to the elevator anytime we hinted at going up or down in it. Ethan caught on, being the mean big brother, and taunted him at every turn, threatening to push the button instead of him, sometimes succeeding. Of course, being the opportunistic parents that we are, we used it as leverage to get Quin to do the things we wanted him to do. So, whenever we were heading to the elevator, he would ask us if he could be the one to push the button...

After our early start we needed to find a good place for breakfast. I turned to my mad internet skills and consulted "the Google" to find The Old Townhouse Restaurant at Ocean Beach. Now able to navigate the city proficiently, I got us there with minimal assistance from my navigator (Jenny) who manned the iPhone map application. The restaurant was on Newport Ave near the beach. We parked on the street right in front of a hostel, which I mistook as some sort of halfway house - I suppose I wasn't that far off... The restaurant didn't look like much on the outside, but the food and the service were fabulous!

The zoo is pretty much what you would expect from one of the most famous zoos in the world. Completely beautiful. Most of the time I didn't even know we were in a zoo. The animals just blended in with the surroundings. We did get lost from time to time before we finally figured out the lay of the land. Of course we were surrounded by some of the most exotic animals we've ever seen, but Quin was most impressed by the squirrel that passed in front of us. That's sort of his thing right now. Anytime he sees a squirrel, regardless of what he's doing, he will stop everything, point, and scream "squirrel!" Have you ever seen the Pixar movie Up! I believe it was Doug the dog. Anyway, here's a link.

We headed back to the hotel pretty early by our going standards, 4:00, where we finally got to enjoy the pool for a bit while Jenny and I enjoyed a beer on the patio. We finished the night at Oggi's Pizza and Brewing Company which was a short walk from our hotel room. The kids ate free, the beer was adequate, and the pizza above average.

After that, we were spent. Quin fell asleep by 7:30 again, the rest of us watched Gulliver's Travels on HBO (seemed like a short movie to me, though I may have napped through some of it).

Great West Adventure - Day 5 - Moist and Deep

Man, I have to start doing these as they happen. This is my third log today!!! To get me through it, I've gone to the fridge to finish off my San Diego brew sampler with a Karl Strauss Brewing Company Boardwalk Black Rye. Tasty!!!

Today's plan was to go to Seaworld. We figured we would do things a little differently today since we completely missed supper yesterday, so we opted for a smaller breakfast of Subway sandwiches and Starbucks. After breakfast we headed north to Seaworld, San Diego.

Much like yesterday, Seaworld seemed pretty dead. To start the day we were walking right up to anything we wanted to do! Later in the day the park filled up a bit more, but it is definitely nice to be here "off season."

We started out in the penguin habitat where we got to see a trainer feeding some of the penguins out front. Interesting things we learned about penguins included the fact that Seaworld is the only place in the Western Hemisphere where you can see Empire Penguins, and that some birds can dive up to 1700 feet, almost twice as much as a killer whale!

We then went to see an educational program on Shamu - it turns out Shamu is more of a code name for the killer whales than the name of an actual whale. There was once a whale called Shamu, she was Namu's partner in the Pacific Northwest, the first two killer whales purposefully captured and kept in captivity. They gave us a little bit of a peek into some of the training methods they use with the whales - quite impressive.

Most of the day was spent attending shoes, from the sea lions and sea otter show, to the dolphin show, to the Pets Rule show, then back to the Shamu show. The dolphin show was particularly good, and the sea lion show was a family favorite. The kids had their ebbs and flows throughout the day - we did get a quick lunch, but the kids waned in the early afternoon hours while we hit show after show. Later in the afternoon they rallied as we started doing rides instead of shows. Ethan, Quin, and I went on Journey to Atlantis, a combination flume ride and roller coaster. Quin just qualified to go on the ride, so he was pretty excited. Jenny didn't want to go on it, however, since we stood a good chance of getting wet. When it was our turn to board the boats, Quin advanced towards it and tripped, hitting his face on the side of the boat. Looked like it hurt, and the waterworks came on. The people manning the ride were a bit concerned, thinking he was afraid of the ride. I checked to see that he wasn't bleeding, then convinced him that he wasn't hurt, and he came through to smile before they would let the boat go off. It was quite a ride, quick drops, splashes, dark caves, then it went out of water to a roller coaster area. Lots of fun. Quin was all smiles. At one point he looked at me and said, "that was awesome!"

We again spent the entire day in the water park. When we got out of the park we drove downtown for our first glimpse of San Diego proper and got a quick dinner at the Edgewater Cafe. The kids were most likely overtired, and that translated into them being very loud and acting like robots for quite a long time. When we got back to the room at 7:30, we put Quin in his pajamas, brushed his teeth, then kept him still for about 30 seconds before he crashed, which brings us to now. Ethan is complaining that we aren't letting him go to bed, so Jenny and I are heading into the other room to entertain ourselves while he goes to bed on the couch - that's right, Jenny, Quin, and I are sleeping together on the king bed in the bedroom while Ethan occupies the couch by himself. I suppose that's why they call it a trip instead of a vacation when you travel with your kids...

Great West Adventure - Day 4 - A Ton of Bricks

Day 4 - San Diego. Today started out early with Quin waking around 6:00 - he's getting better. He and I passed time playing iOS games on the iPhone and iPad in the second room of our suite while Jenny and Ethan grabbed 90 more minutes of sleep. By 7:30, Jenny got up and I hit the road for a quick run along the water.

By 9:00 we were off for a full day of vacationing. We decided to load up on breakfast since our plans for the day included Legoland, and our guess was that food would be somewhat expensive there. So I mapped out Perry's Cafe near the freeway where we all ate enough to skip the next several meals - well, I did anyway! Delicious!

We then headed north to Carlsbad, the home of Legoland California. Our day there started by 10:30 and the park was next to deserted! Apparently Mondays in October aren't a high traffic time for amusement parks in Carlsbad. No worries. We took in a couple of immediate rides and weren't so impressed. Hopefully this wasn't going to be a stinker! By noon we still hadn't really done much that was too exciting - in fact we waited for about 30 minutes in line for this bicycle ride that was really pretty lame.

Things started to pick up a bit when Jenny and Quinton found full sized, human powered Lego firetrucks lined up for a fireman competition. Our family took on 4 others in moving the firetruck about 50 feet by pumping it like a manual rail car (like in O! Brother Where Art Though), then getting off and putting out a fire using 2 squirt guns, then powering the vehicle back 50 feet. We came in a close second - I blame Jenny as she was manning the device that determined the direction of the vehicle. About 10 feet into our initial surge, she decided to throw it in reverse to test how it worked. I'm pretty sure that cost us precious feet that ultimately would have left us the champs! Oh well.

The day REALLY picked up when we found our way to Miniland, which is an area with Lego models of the United States and several scenes from Star Wars. The Star Wars area was very cool - the designers capturing some of the pivotal moments of all 6 movies and one of the cartoon movies. We spent quite some time there. Then we discovered the USA where they had modeled large sections of San Francisco, Las Angeles, Las Vegas, Washington DC, and New York all in bricks. They even had a small patch that was apparently "The Midwest." I have to say I was a little insulted. The seemed to put thousands of hours of thought and workmanship into painstakingly replicating every last detail of Las Vegas, then the midwest had a couple of tractors, a church, and a rodeo... We had a hard time getting Quin out of this area - he was completely transfixed by these Lego cars that were automated. He stood and watched this piano truck in San Francisco for no less than 5 minutes. We had to tell him about all the other cool moving cars in the other areas. In all I would estimate we spent at least an hour in Miniland.

After a quick lunch (Jenny didn't eat enough for breakfast) we ended up with some really fun rides in Adventureland, Pharoh's Curse (or something), and Castleland. Ethan and I got onto a decent roller coaster, but they wouldn't let Quin on. Even though he qualified for the minimum height of 42", Jenny mistakingly admitted his real age of 3 and a half, when they had a strict minimum of 4. The most fun ride of the day turned out to be in Castleland, the Knight's Quest. It was a strange confluence of new and old with chairs nestled atop these huge robotic arms. Two people would sit in the chairs and select one of 5 different programs, each program getting progressively more aggressive. Jenny and Quin were unable to do any program by 1, the only one allowed for folks under 48". Ethan and I had no restrictions, however, so we went for a 4. I'm pretty sure we could have gone for a 5. Our last ride of the day was the Dragoncoaster, Quinton's first roller coaster. As we expected, he loved it. It's sometimes easy to forget how easy going and adventurous Quin is. I remember taking Ethan to an amusement park in the past, he was 4 or 5, and he was petrified of many rides. We also saw lots of kids at Legoland, kids Ethan's age and older that were crying uncontrollably at the thought of doing a "scary ride." Not Quin, he wanted to ride everything. After the ride he loudly exclaimed, "That was awesome!"

After a long day, we headed back south toward our hotel. Carlsbad is about 30 miles north of San Diego, and since it was rush hour we decided to take the scenic route back, so we got onto Hwy 101 and headed south. Quin fell asleep before we got out of the Legoland parking lot, but the rest of us enjoyed a beautiful drive along the coast. At one point we spotted a large group of dolphins feeding or something, so we pulled off the road and watched them for awhile. It was the first time Ethan saw dolphins outside of captivity.

The day ended much like the previous. Quin finally woke up around 6:30, so we had a hard time getting him to bed before 9:30, but once he went down, the rest of us followed in order and quickly. Vacation kicking our butt once again!

Great West Adventure - Day 3

Since we were up by 6:00 anyway, we decided to try to get an early start at things, so we got ready and left by 8:00. My parents graciously lent us their vehicle - they are currently going without any sort of motorized vehicle of their own, relying instead on pedal power and favors from friends - so we loaded it up and took off on our 6 and 1/2 hour drive to San Diego. Before we left town we had to make a quick stop at Starbucks to get Jenny her vacation nectar, Tall non-fat Chai Tea Latte, and at the gas station for a Pepsi Max for me - it's not a diet soda, it's a zero calorie soda for men! At one point, Quinton asked "where are we going?" I explained we were going to Starbucks to get mommy a coffee - he responded, "oh darn it, I wanted to go to California." I need to take this opportunity to say that the gas station/car wash/oil change establishment at the intersection of Highway 60 and Signal Butte Drive in Apache Junction is perhaps the most beautiful gas station I've ever encountered. From the clean, modern, southwest exterior, to the wide aisles, copious beverage choice, leather chairs, high definition televisions while you wait... It was spectacular!

The drive took us south almost immediately. After about 2 hours we were ready for a quick stop just as we were about to get onto Interstate 8 headed for California where we picked up some Mike and Ikes for Ethan and quickly used the bathroom. As we got onto I8, we had the option to go West to San Diego, or South to Mexico. So I gave the family the option, Mexico or San Diego. Ethan and Quinton both shouted simultaneously "San Diego," so I guess we were committed.

The drive was mostly uneventful to Yuma where we used the iPhone to locate a park, Kennedy Park off of Exit 2, then navigated to it for a quick picnic lunch compliments Grandma Cheryl, meat and cheese sandwiches, Fritoes, bananas and apples. It was nice to stop and stretch our legs and let the kids play on the toys in the park. It was a beautiful day - 95 degrees, not humid, not a cloud in the sky. In fact, Jenny and I were amazed that there was almost nobody out to enjoy the beautiful day. As far as we could tell, people were either sleeping in (until noon), going to church, or it was just not such an oddity for them to have such a beautiful day on their hands so nobody was out taking advantage of it. A day like this in Wisconsin in October would be a recipe for some of the poorest daytime television ratings days of all time!

On our way out of town we had our first vehicle mishap. While putting Quin back in the car and trying to close the automatic sliding door, the door started to "misbehave." We have a similar car at home, and if something gets in the way of the door closing, it reopens then starts beeping crazily. If you try to drive with the door open, it does the same thing. Well, that started happening. The door opened and would not close. When we were able to get the door to close by quickly locking it before it re-opened, it would beep uncontrollably. We drove for about a mile with it in that state until we got to a gas station where we filled up with gas and continued to debug the door. After about 30 minutes, I finally found a combination that left the door closed without any beeping of any sort. Since then, we have not touched it - Quin has been getting out on Ethan's side!

We finally entered California for the last part of our drive. We were mildly nervous that we would get searched at one of three border patrol stops along the way and that they would make us open Quin's door, but our fears were not realized and we cruised right through to San Diego, where the weather finally turned cooler. In fact, we stopped at a gas station for some Slurpees about 20 miles East of San Diego and the thermometer read 87 degrees. Not more than 5 miles down the road, the thermometer read 67!!!

We eased off the interstate on Rosencrans Road and were greeted by a big sign, "Live Nude Girls." Jenny and I looked at each other and wondered without saying anything if our recent hotel luck was going to continue. The last two times we've gotten hotel rooms we've had less than pleasing experiences. Were we staying in the red light district? Well, again our fears were not realized as within a few blocks we started seeing signs for Trader Joes and seeing nice cars parked on the side of the road.

Our hotel, the Courtyard in Libertyville, is nice enough - clean, dry, and in a nice area. We took some time to walk around the area before we ventured out for some supper in the Ocean Beach area, only 4 miles from the hotel. We ate supper at a Mexican restaurant near the ocean while we watched Sunday night football. We then headed down to the beach to let the kids get their feet wet - Quin scared the heck out of me when he started to chase the tide out to the ocean. I had glimpses of the tide taking him out to sea and me having to frantically try to find him in the dark waters, but he must have seen the fear in my face and quickly came back up the beach towards me.

When we got back to the room it was about 8:00 - we got Quin ready for bed and he fell asleep within perhaps 2 minutes - the rest of us didn't last much longer...

Great West Adventure - Day 2

As should probably be expected, since Quin went to bed at around 6:00 local time, he woke up around 4:30 local. I suppose the day was going to start early! We aimed to do quite a bit during this day, but ultimately decided to back it off a bit seeing as how we were still a bit groggy from the previous day's travels. We did manage to get to the Superstition Mountain Museum which is the site of an old Hollywood set for westerns which only recently burned to the ground. We also spent some time at Goldfield Ghost town where we got to see a gunfight, Ethan bought a cowboy hat, and we ended up taking in some old west entertainment at the Saloon.

The day was not without excitement, however. In the morning, Jenny and I went to get some Starbucks and to get some things from WalMart, something we have to do each day during vacation. When I went to get my credit card from my wallet, I was shocked to find it missing! Luckily I remembered using it at a different WalMart the day before, and a quick call to them proved that I had indeed left it there. Something about vacations makes me sloppy with my wallet!

At the end of the day, while my dad cooked chicken for supper and Jenny and mom went to Kohls to look for sweet deals, the boys and I were watching the Superstition Mountains turn different colors in the sunset. Ethan and I got onto the topic of Spanish, saying different phrases in Spanish to each other. At one point, Ethan said to me, "Say shut-up in Spanish." Quinton, without missing a beat, said "Shut-up in Spanish." Not a single hint of irony in his voice... He's got great timing, I'll give him that.