Spring Break 2014 - Home!

Raining again this morning. As we were packing our room, I was thinking on my post from last night and how I had forgotten to put some important color on it. After the mall, the three boys (Ethan, Quin, and Loudon) and I went swimming in the pool. After we had swum for awhile, a couple of young girls came in - I would estimate they were around 10 or 11 years old. At one point they went to sit in the hot tub, where Quin followed them. I didn't even notice he was gone... I was hanging with my nepphew, trying to show him how to float. A couple of minutes later, Quin comes jumping into the regular pool and asks me, quiely, "dad, where do we live?" I told him Oconomowoc, and he got out of the pool and went back to the hot tub. A couple of minutes later he did the same thing, this time asking what state we lived in... Then went back... It was kind of spooky how natural he was at working these two girls - I was at once impressed and taking notes.

This morning we got up, packed up, then went to Al and Araceli's house for breakfast with them and my parents. It was a wonderful breakfast and nice to spend time with the family before we headed home. The funniest part of the morning by far was when Quin asked Araceli, "Are you a Mexican?" She responded that she was, indeed, Mexican. He then asked her, "how did you get here?" I was somewhat mortified, but at the same time wanted to see where it went. She patiently explained to him that Mexico was just south of the US and even tried to show him on the globe that was handy. I think he lost interest... Still, it was pretty funny.

Fast forward 5 hours and we're home. We've been making a tradition out of saving the last day of vacation for when we get home. It's just more comfortable here and sometimes it's nice to pretend that you don't have a bunch of stuff to do but still be comfortable. So that's what we're doing now. No laundry, no cooking, just relaxing with our own stuff. We even went to a movie, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which I found quite entertaining. Might have been a bit much for Quin...

So that's it for this year's spring break. Tomorrow we're back to almost normal. We have some work on the house to do, need to pick up the dog, and then it's on to a weekend full of soccer, the first of MANY weekends like that. It's been fun, but now life must go on.

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Spring Break 2014 - Mall of America

The day started REALLY late this morning. The plan was to meet Uncle Bryce and Loudon at the Mall of America (MOA) at 10:00 to do rides and other fun stuff. When 9:00 rolled around and we were still having difficulty getting Quin out of bed, we knew we were going to have to delay a bit. It seems that vacation finally caught up to the 6 year old, who went to bed at midnight the night previous and hadn't slept much to date. He sure made up for it last night!

After a shower and a quick breakfast in the atrium (our hotel is pretty nice), we headed out of the room to travel to the mall. Not before we stopped in the lobby for some Starbucks, a vacation staple. While Jenny was procuring the sweet caffeinated beverages for us, the boys and I sat at leather chairs in the lobby having a quick business meeting where I insulted, fired, rehired, and ultimately praised them for their parts in our bunny business. It was a weird morning.

We got to the mall a few minutes early, so Ethan shopped for and purchased a new Jerry Garcia tie (he's obsessed), then the four of us hung out at the Microsoft store and played some XBox ONE. The hope was that we would ultimately convince Jenny that it was time to buy one of our own. Not to spoil the surprise, but we still do not own one...

At 10:30 we met up with Bryce and Loudon and took in the rides at Nickelodeon World. Loudon is a natural and loves rides, and it turns out Quin is as well! He's now tall enough (50 inches) to go on all the rides himself. Ethan was a very good big brother and older cousin today and went on all of the rides with his younger proteges.

A bit of lunch and more rides later, we were thinking of leaving. The kids convinced us that it was a good idea to go on the log ride one more time. We had gone on earlier and Quin and I had gotten REALLY wet - well, Quin got completely soaked, and I got really wet. Since I had gotten so wet the last time, I gave my phone to Jenny to watch while I rode this time around, which was good since we went on it twice in a row (it was a very slow day at the park). Jenny took some video of us on the ride, and once we were done, I found that my phone had completely discharged again. Luckily there was an Apple store only about 100 feet away, so I went there to find out what was wrong with my phone, only to find that I needed a new battery (I really need a new phone, the iPhone 5 is NOT one of Apple's best products, unfortunately).

After dropping off my phone, we took Loudon back to the hotel with us to take in some swimming, then we headed back to uncle Blaine's house for some home-made supper made by Grandma and Grandpa, who we haven't seen for quite some time (a correction from yesterday, we have seen them since November, in fact we saw them in January at Vince's baptism). It was quite a nice dinner and good to see the grandparents and Araceli again.

So, how here we sit again. A pretty low key evening. Quin's still up at 10:00, probably because he got 12 hours of sleep the night prior. Ethan and I are watching Friends while Jenny is watching something while "encouraging" Quin to sleep in the other room. Tomorrow is the last day in MN for us - we will be heading back home to WI for the final days of our vacation. Friday will be a vacation day despite the fact that we'll be home.

 

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Spring Break 2014 - The Museum

Ethan and I knocked one of our meager goals for this vacation off this morning, we had breakfast at Taco Bell! Yeah, we have lofty goals. We piled down a couple of waffle tacos and breakfast burritos each and headed into St. Paul to take in the Minnesota Museum of Science.

The MMS is one of the better science museums I've been to, quite honestly. We easily spent 3.5 hours there without even doing a movie! This included the dinosaur exhibit, which was very cool. I learned some interesting new things, in fact. I had no idea what a rennaissance of dinosaur discoveries we were in lately! I don't think I recognized a single dino in the exhibit, they were all new discoveries in the last 10 years or so. My favorite was an entire new class of dinosaurs, the "titanosaurs." Very cool name.

We spent the better part of the day there. Around 1:00 or so we decided we should eat something. Since it was nice outside (well, sunny at least), we walked around downtown St. Paul in desparate search of something to eat. I suggested we take on one of the hotdog vendors in the square, but Jenny insisted we find something else. After strikingo out at Paluzza (or something named similarly), we finally ended up at The American Burger Bar. After a quick round of drinks, a vacation necessity, conversation switched to more esoteric topics. One such topic was that of ninjas (of course). Quin stated that he was, in fact, a ninja. Ethan said that ninjas don't talk, so there was no way he could be one. I stated that there could be some such thing as a "verbose ninja." Ethan asked what that was, and without hesitation Quin told him, "A ninja that talks but just doesn't tell his secrets." I wrote that one down because, dang, what a great and accurate description!

Our original plan was to go to the zoo after lunch, but after eating, we decided we'd rather drive around a bit and hopefully get Quin to take a quick nap - he had gone to sleep at midnight the night before! So we tooled around Minneapolis for a bit, looked at all of the new sports arenas, saw the hole in the ground where the Metrodome used to be, and generally just farted around.

After an hour or so of that, we finally headed back south and checked into our hotel. Well, we first went to the wrong hotel, then checked into the proper hotel. Dinner plans were with the Johnson's, one of the girls we grew up with and her family, at a Brew Pub like place in Apple Valley. Though the service was slow, the beer and the food were good.

We transitioned back to our hotel for an hour or swimming, which brings us up to the present. Now, Ethan, Jenny and I are watching TV in one room while Quin finally sleeps in the other half of the suite (yeah, we went all out). Tomorrow promises rain and cold, so our plans have us inside most of the day at the mall. Hopefully Ethan and I fulfill the remainder of our meager goals, to see Captain America. Then it's off to see Grandpa and Grandma Grady for the first time since November as they stop off on their migration back to Neillsville for the summer.

 

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Spring Break 2014 - Minnesota

We departed Neillsville sometime between 9:00 and 10:00 AM, right on schedule. Jenny's plans didn't have us overtaxing ourselves today. The plan was to hit a couple of tourist stops south of the Twin Cities, then drive up to spend the late afternoon/evening at Blaine's in Inver Grove Heights.

Our first stop was at LARK Toys in Kellogg Minnesota. This was not our typical drive for a vacation as it involved ZERO interstate time. Highway 10 to Mondovi, then meandered south to the river, across the river, you get the picture. It was picturesque, or would have been if there had been any leaves on the trees. We stopped in Mondovi for a soda as we were parched, and were surprised at how WARM it was outside! I think it's been so long since we've felt warm air that we didn't know how to respond, but the day was beautiful!!

We pulled into Lark Toys around 11:15, parked, then went into the building. Quin still hadn't quite recovered from the prior evening's festivities, what with the tick and all, so he was cranky to say the least. What we found, however, was a nice toy store with a bunch of non-typical toys - things you can't find at WalMart! There were also a fair number of antique toys behind protective glass that was pretty neat. I had read the reviews the night prior to see what we were getting into, and the reviewer couldn't say enough about the carousel and how much fun they had having a "tea party" after riding the carousel. Well, I promised the boys that we would have an epic Tea Party, and Quin and I had that indeed. He was disappointed that there was no real tea, which he doesn't like anyway, but he was disappointed nonetheless. The reviewer said they spent 5 hours there and planned to come back 4 times a year. It was fun, but I guess if you don't have girls that appreciate the British afternoon custom for playtime, it might not be quite the same.

After "tea time" and purchasing some novelties that we didn't think we could find anywhere else, we got some lunch and officially started "spring break" with some umbrella drinks (as seen below). Ethan and Quin also got to ride the carousel, which was actually pretty cool, all of the animals were hand carved at the toy shop, and they were quite impressive!

We left Lark toys around 12:45, just shy of the 5 hours the Google reviewer promised, and headed north to Wabasha for the National Eagle Preserve on the river there. After paying our admission price, we were told that we could still get in on the 1:00 "show" where they told us all about their eagles and even fed one of them. We got in there just in time to see Angel, a 10 pound female Bald Eagle with a 7 foot wingspan, power her way through a raw rabbit carcass. Pretty cool.

Quin was pretty cranky by now, and we had seen enough eagle stuff - including a huge nest on the bridge crossing the Mississippi on the way over. So we decided to head north to Minneapolis, our ultimate destination for the evening. We arrived around 3:00 and had some time to burn, so we just drove around, a time honored tradition in our family. By 5:00 we called Blaine and hooked up with him and had some dinner at Ruby Tuesday, a fine establishment indeed. Blaine then bonded with his nephews while I took Jenny to a planned workout with a friend up here in the area - yeah, Jenny plans out workouts with friends in distant cities... While she was there, I headed up and visited with Bryce and the family - his boys are getting pretty big! In fact, Vincy is already 17 pounds!

Right now we're huddled around the TV in Blaine's living room watching Rush Hour (Quin is still up, Jenny's asleep, Blaine is in bed). Tomorrow we go to our hotel where our "real vacation" begins according to Quin. We're also looking to hit the Science Museum, the zoo, and a brewpub before we get the kids into the pool to burn off some much needed energy.

 

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Vacation - "The Emergency"

Vacation just isn't vacation until there's a trip to the E.R. So today officially started our vacation!

This afternoon was pretty nice outside. It was around 60 degrees, not too much wind, so the kids went outside and played baseball. They were chasing the balls all around the property, including through some longer brush and what-not.

After a long day of playing, and a long night the night before, Quin was pretty tired. So around 7:30 we decided it was time to start what we thought would be a quick descent into sleepy time, starting with a bath. It was your typical bath, even though it was in a strange tub. Once he got out and was drying off, Quin was feeling around and discovered something strange on the underside of his "special purpose." He showed it to me, and I confirmed - a tick!

I gave it a couple of quick tries, not knowing what the protocol was for a dad to be messing around with his 6 year old's nether regions, but giving it an honest try. It wasn't long before I admitted defeat, however, and called up his more nimble fingered mother. Jenny worked at it for a bit before she, too, admitted defeat, and resorted to using tools instead, so she employed a tweezers. That's when things started to go downhill!

She managed to get the main portion of the tick removed with the tweezers, but this little guy was in there pretty good! There were a LOT of waterworks, a lot of screaming, and a lot of convincing him that we needed to try to get the head out of this. It was a mess! We tried pretty much everything, but after all was said and done, Quin looked at us and said, "listen to me! You're hurting my skin, and you're hurting me! Please stop!"

So we started talking through what we should do next. Should we call the doctor? What did the internet say? Was it a deer tick? Was the head really in there (it was)? Quin didn't much like listening to all of this - he didn't want to go to the Doctor! Of course, after a bit of digging around, and telling him that it wouldn't hurt to go to the doctor, he WANTED to go to the DOCTOR, PLEASE!!!

We gave up. We got him in his jammies and I fetched my cell phone and called the number I remember so well from my youth - 715.743.3101. I asked for the nurse on call, then I'll admit, I through my name out there expecting some special treatment (I didn't get any). The nurse informed me that she thought we should bring him in so the doctor could look at him.

Being Neillsville, we weren't expecting this to be too big a deal. It is only about a 10 minute ride to the hospital from pretty much anywhere in the zip code. Once we got there around 8:45, the parking lot was a bit fuller than would be expected. We checked in and were informed that it would probably be awhile - things were kind of busy. The waiting room had 2 other groups of people sitting already. We were lucky to have a television and remote to keep us company, and there was a baseball game on, so that worked out OK.

About 45 minutes later, we were the only ones left in the waiting area. I mentioned to Jenny that, unless there was an ambulance, we should be in shortly. It was quiet there, so we could hear the page coming in that the ambulance was inbound, something about shortness of breath, etc... Yep - bad luck!

Despite the ambulance's arrival, we got in around 9:45 and they started taking vitals, height, and weight. Quin is 50 inches tall (something the tech was unable to figure out, unfortunately) and weighed 60 pounds! After a couple of minutes, Dr. Stanga came in and was able to confirm the existence of a tick head on the underside of Quin's penis.

The doctor gave some orders and left the room. After numbing up the area, we were left alone with our little boy who had lots of questions. "Is it biting me? Why's it in there? Is it moving around?" At one point during our attempts, I explained to him that ticks had teeth that bit so hard that they wouldn't let go, to which Quin informed us that we should just "knock out it's teeth." "That would only hurt the tick, not me!" He continued on that line of thought at the doctor's office as well.

By 10:30, tick head, along with just a little bit of Quinton's tender bits gone, and with antibiotics in hand (they treat for Lyme's in all cases, I guess), we were on our way back to the Tibbett's. Quin took his medicine and he and I went up to finally go to sleep - he did manage to sleep for an hour while we waited to get into the E.R. Of course, he was a little charged up now, so we had some interesting conversation while he tried to fall off to sleep:

"Why is my penis so special?" he asked me, referring back to when I was explaining to him why we had to go to the doctor's. I told him that every part of us is special. Conversation averted, or so I thought. "What do we use our penises for, just peeing?" "A few other things," I said. "How many?" he asked. "Oh, I don't know, six-or-seven." "Well, which is it, six or seven?" This went on for a while...

"Why did they say that's a bad place to get a tick?" he asked me? I explained that there are a lot of nerves in that area, and that it typically hurt especially bad. That got us into a whole discussion about nerves and what function they served to the body.

After many more gripping questions (I'll include more if I remember them), he finally asked me, "can I mess around with my penis?" I told him maybe not tonight. Tomorrow would be OK, probably. "Well, tomorrow's kind of busy," he said. Never too busy to mess around with your penis... Maybe I shouldn't have said that to him, but I like to make a point of not lying to my children...

 

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Spring Break 2014 - Happy Easter!

Welcome to Grady Spring Break, 2014! The itenerary is quite extensive, to be sure, and the destinations exotic!

The trip started yesterday where we left the house in the van around 9:00 AM, heading north! Yes, you read that correctly, we headed NORTH for spring break. Didn't say we were all that bright! The first stop was probably just off of MTV's list of destinations for this year's spring break, Neillsville, WI.

OK, so we're sort of mailing in Spring Break this year. Rather than doing something exotic with lots of driving or flying, we're going to hang out with family near places that we know and enjoy. This weekend we'll be staying with Jenny's family. In fact we just got back from Easter Mass this morning, and got to spend several hours with Jenny's siblings last night where we ate too much and got some outside time (it's above 50 degrees, which means outside time in Wisconsin!).

Today promises to be a nice lazy day. It will be just the Grady's and Tom and Shirley, something that rarely happens. Tomorrow we head to Minneapolis by way of Waubasha, MN, where some gigantic toy store and some eagle place are beconing us. Tomorrow night we'll be staying with my brother, Blaine, and then heading to the real highlight, Embassy Suites near the Mall of America. Should be a hoot.

Ethan and I have two goals for this vacation. First, we want to eat breakfast at Taco Bell. Second, we want to see the new Captain America movie. Yeah, pretty ambitious. I hope we are able to pull it off!

Until then, I'll share pictures as I get them. I'm sure we'll be putting something together for more mass sharing as we get back and synchronize up from our big, non-internet connected camera. Below is a sample of what we're doing today - playing on our devices... That's kind of what we do these days...

 

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6 years ago today...

It was Saturday. I don't remember many of the details of the day, unfortunately, but what I do remember is that we got the call that the birth mother had finally completed the harrowing experience of giving birth to who would come to be our child through the institution of domestic adoption. Over the years we've found that we've been given the gift of a wonderful, healthy, smart, and strong boy with whom we get to spend time with, learn from, be perplexed and frustrated by, and love on a day to day basis. It's been a wild ride and I can't wait to find out what's next!

Today we will celebrate his birth, a delivery story that matched Ethan's almost to the detail save for the fact that he had a different birth mother! We'll start out by going out to breakfast - a buffet at the local brewpub. Quin would have rather gone to Noodles, his favorite, but we convinced him that their breakfast wasn't very good... After breakfast we'll go to the Lego Movie, then home for some sledding as the weather is continuing to cooperate with the winter outdoor enthusiast this year! Finally we'll retire to the home for some spaghetti and "mozzallalla sticks" with some friends. It should be a rollicking good time, to be sure.

Beyond birthdays, Quin continues to keep us on our toes. I've told the story of how he frequently tells us about getting a new mom whenever he sees a lady that he finds attractive (I still can't believe that's a thing for a 5, well 6 year old). Lately he's switched this up by simply saying something like, "Ooh, there's a sexy lady!" He also likes to tell us that he knows how "sexy ladies dress," after which he will lift his shirt and show us his midriff. And if I haven't blogged about the "big long boobs" story yet, remind me to tell you the next time I see you. I think I did write about it, but it deserves multiple mentions... All of this may be an indication that he's starting to have some empathy, however. The other morning he started saying that he wanted a new dad, but caught himself mid sentence and amended his statement to say, "Dad, I don't want a new dad, but I wish God had made you so you didn't fart so much." See? Empathy...

It's not all about the ladies, though, he's also quite curious and thoughtful. I believe I've discussed his deep questions about how remote controls and light switches work. His latest query was asking how puddles disappear. That's one benefit to having children that I never would have thought of - they actually force you to relearn and understand the things that you had cursory knowledge of in the past. I'm actually embarrassed how little I knew the first time through school, but am happy for the opportunity to go through it again through my kids' experiences.

Quin certainly appears to have an interesting inner dialog going on at all times. He's very much enjoying playing sports video games (FIFA 14 is his favorite right now - thanks uncles Blaine and Bryce), his 3DS, and Floppy Bird (sadly he was able to download it before the developer took it down). Yesterday when he was playing Floppy Bird and trying to beat his record, he kept chanting "Believe in yourself, Quinton!"

I'm also fairly convinced that Quin may be the black Bart Simpson sometimes. Last week he was doing some homework while Ethan and I were tossing a ball back and forth (yeah, I'm a good roll model - tossing a ball around in the house). Jenny helped him get started on the assignment which was to copy four new sight words which were provided on the left into a space on the right. Then below those words he was supposed to write out four sight words that he had learned in the past. As an aside, it constantly amazes me what Kindergarteners are doing now versus when I was a kid. I'm pretty sure the most complex thing I did in kindergarten was to cover a pinecone with peanut butter and roll it in bird seed. But anyway, Jenny left for a couple of minutes and came back to check up on Quinton's progress when she exclaimed, "Butt!!?" I looked over at the page and all he had accomplished to write in the provided spaces was "butt," a word that one of his buddies had just taught him to spell the day before. Being the good father I am, I managed to almost make it out of earshot prior to cracking up so Jenny could dole out an appropriate response.

Lastly, this one just cracks me up so I need to put it in here somewhere. I get a kick out of people that mess up the lyrics to songs. One of my favorite ones was from Tim Z's brother who used to sing "Big Ole Jed Left the Light On" instead of "Big Old Jet Airliner." Quin has his own version of Maroon Five's "Move Like Jagger" where he sings "Move My Pajamas."

Well, he's up now, so I must close this out. More updates on "big meathead" and on our continuing attempt to get Mireille to the states in my next installment. Peace.

Quinny Quickies

Welcome to the new year! With a new year comes a renewed hope that I will actually keep this thing up to date. Here goes this week's attempt!

Quin continues to grow up fast. Despite that, he still has the occasional accident at night where he wets his bed - and when he does, he wets it epically (his word). So we typically put him in a pull-up in the evening, which he takes like a good sport. A couple of mornings ago, I had just gotten done going for a run and was getting ready to take a shower. In our house, modesty is laughed at, so I was trekking from my bedroom to the bathroom, where Quin was using the toilet, without any clothing on. Since I had just gotten done running, I had the imprint of my elastic band shorts around my waist. Quin took a look at me, unfazed by the fact that I was completely nude, and gave me a concerned look. He pointed and said, "that hurts, doesn't it!" I didn't know what he was talking about, so I pressed him for details. He pointed at the imprint of my elastic band shorts and said, "there, where your pullup was. That hurts. I know!"

We're also trying to do our best to provide Quin with some positive black role models. It's no small feat living in an area where the school system boasts a 99% white population and 1% "other." But Jenny is quite determined, so she found a class that taught Hip-Hop Dance that had an African-American male teacher named Paul. We kept asking Quin if he wanted to try it out, but he continually said no. Finally, being the good parents we are, we tricked him and took him there anyway. Upon arrival at the studio, Quin finally asked where we were. We responded that we were at the dance class. To his credit, he didn't lose his cool - he just stated plainly that "I don't want to show off all my moves here..."

For those wondering, we're still working on our adoption of Mireille, our daughter in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We have completed most hurdles, but the final ones are eluding us due to various circumstances. I will blog at length about them in coming weeks, particularly if the logjam clears somehow. Just know that we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our daughter on US soil, and are starting to feel the need to learn French.

Peace.

Couple of Quick Updates

We just got back from a vacation in our nation's capital. This post is not about that, however, but I wanted to warn you that an update's coming about that in the coming days/weeks.

A couple of quick ones, though. First, Ethan has had a couple of milestones in the last few weeks. As a seventh grader, Ethan decided he was going to run for his school's student council as the vice president. At first he was quite excited as he thought he was running unopposed. In the days after deciding to run, however, he found out that he would have an opponent after all - and worse yet, he was running against an eighth grade girl. Undeterred he crafted a speech and started a social media campaign (OK, I'm exaggerating about the social media campaign, but that would have been cool) and ended up winning the post.

Ethan's other big accomplishment is that he has finally won the costume contest at his school's harvest dance. He's always had a thing for dressing in costumes. Typically he starts planning his Halloween costume on November 1. This year he went as a convincing Napoleon Dynamite and was finally awarded best costume. Personally I didn't think it was quite as good as his Weird Al costume last year, but he does have many of Napoleon's tendencies... Just now he asked me for some chapstick because his "lips hurt real bad!"

Lastly, a continuation of the updates on Quin's obsession with the fairer sex, and yet another indication of how nurture might play a big part in a child's upbringing (I'm getting in trouble for this one I think). Quin's main female influence is Jenny, his mom. He also has a good eye for pretty girls. So many times when he sees a pretty girl he says that he wants her to be his mom... We've explained that he already has two moms, but he just insists that he'd now like three moms... Anyway, the other night Ethan was watching Saturday Night Live (yes, the bad parenting continues) where Katie Parry was the musical guest. Quin was enamored, staring at the screen for the entire performance. Afterwards when Jenny was putting him to bed he told her that he wanted another mom, a really "beautiful one with big, long boobs." I have no idea where he might have gotten that, I swear!

Too funny to pass up...

I haven't blogged in awhile. Part of it is sheer laziness. That compounds on itself in that there are just too many things to blog about so I just can't find the time to get it done. I'm in that situation right now. But something happened a couple of weeks ago that was too funny not to document - so here goes.

We went to Noah's Ark - America's Largest Waterpark - last week for a last ditch summer celebration. To set the tone (since I can't tell a short story), I am building a deck, and had the guy coming out to auger the holes for the footings in the morning. My assumption was that he was going to be there for about an hour, from 8:00 until 9:00 or so, then we would leave after that. Well, that didn't exactly happen as planned. He was there for almost 2.5 hours, and the fun vacation day to the Dells started out with one very angry wife.

No matter - we got to the park just in time to meet our friends and consume our picnic lunch that we had packed to save on money inside the park. As we were setting up our feast, Quinton and I went to the gate to purchase our tickets. As I was waiting in line to pay for and retrieve the tickets, Quin was watching all of the people walk by. At one point he said, almost under his breath, but loud enough for me to hear, "wow, there are a lot of pretty girls here." Later in the day he lost the shyness and started addressing people directly by saying, "Hello pretty girl!" to whoever he deemed worthy as they passed him in the park. Yes, funny and cute now... I'm not sure at what point it turns creepy, though. I told Ethan that he had most definitely crossed that line.

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!