Here are a few tasty pics from the day:
Loved snack time
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Travel Day Update
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Yes, Virginia...It Snowed the Crap Out of this Weekend
Everyone and their mom has a "Snow Spectacular of 2009" story. Mine is this:
Amy Noll left to go home on Thursday.
Matt was in a wedding this weekend, so he had arranged to have three college boys watch our kids all weekend so that we could have a weekend away together.
We saw the forecast on Wednesday night calling for snow-serious snow on Friday night.
Called off the babysitter.
Amy left town.
Ben was not going to be babysitting or staying here.
Matt left town to go be in the wedding.
Instead of a weekend away with my husband,
I had my kids all to myself.
Get this-
for the first time since October.
I know that seems outrageous.
To me too.
To be honest, it did not go so smoothly.
I just wanted them to entertain themselves all weekend.
It didn't exactly work out; what with losing power for several hours on Friday night, 10 inches of snow, no Ben or Amy around to play with them.
I had to get over myself and relearn how to play and enjoy time with them.
Hard to look at myself and be honest about it. But, that's the truth.
Since I work during part of the week and we have people living with us all the time, it's not often that I have to do that much playing.
We live a crazy full life with lots of people around and to some, it can be too much and not enough at all the same time. There are benefits and detriments to people living with you and people coming over everyday. You just never know what they are until it jumps up and surprises you at how dependent you've grown upon it.
I mean, I know it sounds like I'm some kind of snob-"Oh no! I was in charge of MY OWN children." Ugh. But, it's been a while. And they can be a handful. Especially since they are used to a constant stream of people to play and hang out with.
But the good news is it turned out to be great.
We had a really fun time-AFTER Friday night.
But first we had to come to an understanding if you know that I mean. (And I think that you do)
Getting snowed in was probably the best thing for our relationship to get kicked off on the right foot again (that sounds so weird) and now everything is pretty solid around the house. Take a look at what we experienced.
This was in the middle of the snow storm.
Our lawn chairs are not excited about this.
This is my Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Shot.
You're welcome.
The morning after.
Our porch the morning after. Take a look at all that snow!
I posted this for the special few people who understand that one of our neighbors is a professional motorcross rider. He got up early on Saturday and chopped up our road with his dirt bike.
Our road that WAS perfect for sledding, was now made perfect for falling down and crying.
Adorable little snowman.
Who can resist this precious thing?
Not her brother.
Cause that is his bottom on her face, with her face being smooshed into the snow
But I'm innocent. SEEEEEEEEEE????
Whoops! I couldn't resist!
HAHAHAHAHAHA
Who cares about the naughty list?
Guess who loves a good joke? And putting a snowball in someone's face?
Wait. Are you serious about that whole Naughty List thing?
Lucy didn't want me to get any pictures of her, so she was hiding the whole time I had the camera out. This was the best I could do.
Until I managed to snap this one.
Lucy walks the lonely road. The only one she's ever known.
Lucy walks the lonely road. The only one she's ever known.
Looks like I'm about to get a snowball right in the expensive camera. 
Perhaps a lumberjack came home from the wedding just in time to rescue me? 
She couldn't hurt a fly.
Except that is a giant hunk of ice.
Glad we have an "understanding" now.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
HOMES
We made it home. But not without incident-OF COURSE!
We left CC at 8am. Before we left, we had to clean our rooms...which we left to the last morning and we overslept getting up at 7:15 instead of the recommended 6:30. So we had to rush around and we had the two kids to feed, pack last minute items and get out of the way while we remade beds, packed up pack and plays, cleaned bathrooms and vacuumed. Exahausted yet? Then we had to get all EIGHT of our bags, plus carry-ons to the bus. We were the last to arrive and people were getting antsy to leave which made it a perfect time for Asher to freak out about getting on a bus full of people that he just spent the last month of his life. Once we got him settled down, we got on the bus for our two hour commute to Denver.
The kids were kind of fussy, but more like antsy on the bus. So they whined, but we made it. Once we got to Denver at 10am, we had until 2:30pm to board our first flight of the day. So we checked our luggage and got some lunch. Oh, I forgot...the guy who checked us into our flight did a GREAT job and really helped us out by not making us move some crap around to get under the 50 pound rule. So Matt gave him a tip. A $3 tip. I laughed outloud. And so did the guy. But he took it like he was a skycap. Hilarious!
We ate lunch and still had TWO MORE HOURS. Lucy eventually fell asleep in the baby backpack while Asher ran around with the rest of the kids stuck in the airport. We finally got through security and got to the plane. We sat on the ground, on the plane, with the door closed for at least 45 minutes. No explanation. No apology. Just sitting there. Lucy started whining cause she was hungry. Asher started whining because of Lucy and because he still had not had a nap yet. All I wanted to do was get off of the ground. We did and the kids whined and cried and finally fell asleep. Then woke up and whined and cried until we landed in Houston. Repeat this EXACT sequence of events for the flight from Houston to Columbia. Except, subsitute that it is now 8pm and we don't get into Columbia until 11:30pm.
Then Matt and I had an argument on the plane that pretty much created stoney silence until the kids were in bed, asleep at Matt's parents house at 12:30am. Ah sweet travels.
Then we all slept like BABIES until 11:30am the next day. That's right. My kids slept dang near forever. Matt's mom said she had never seen anything like it. I mean, most kids no matter what time you put them to bed will still wake up with the sun. That is called "BALLERS" ya'll. Who is going to be traveling with black felt from now on??? All of you???
Anyway, the whole day got thrown off because we slept so late. So we just lounged around and went shopping until dinner time. Then Matt's brother and his wife and his grandparents came over for dinner. It was great fun!
The next day, we packed up (again) we went to the lake and had a great time swimming and laughing. It was gorgeous!
Then we got to pack up again (for the third time in three days) and head for the hills. But before we could get out of the house, Asher decided to throw another fit and keep saying, "NO!" over and over again. We had to have a little time out after time out session. After one of the sessions, we noticed he was eating something. We tried to get "it" out of his mouth, but had no idea what he ate.
We eventually got on the road and about an hour outside of Asheville, both kids have meltdowns. I get in the backseat and start to feed Lucy. I give Asher his drink and a snack, but he doesn't want it. He doesn't want to watch any videos anymore. He is just pretty much being a pain in the you-know-what. Then we hit Hendersonville and he just all of the sudden starts throwing up. Not make a big deal out of it throw up. But just dribble down you shirt and heave about five or six times. That was when I was so glad that he ate BLUEBERRIES that morning because everything was a lovely shade of purple.
We were nowhere near an exit, so we had to sit in the car with this puke smell for like ten minutes until we could get out. We pulled into Hardees at which point Asher (who is COVERED in blueberry vomit) starts saying, "Yummy mommy! Yummy mommy!" No way. So we get out, get him stripped down and I head for the bathroom to clean him up. Nope. No papertowels, no changing table, no soap. NOT EVEN TOILET PAPER. "What kind of place was this?," I asked myself. The kind of place where my kid could now run around naked in while I got napkins from the main dining area.
While all of this is going on, Matt is trying to clean up the nasty puked on car seat. Yuck. We discover that we did have an extra car seat with us due to the airplane travel and so we just traded the old one out, got Asher dressed and were home 40 minutes later.
That was when we got to unload the car, unpack the bags and take a look at our mail from the last month. FUN TIMES.
The only bright spot of the day was that Ellen and Karl Troyer had mowed our grass, cleaned our house from top to bottom and went grocery shopping for us so that we could have a few fresh staples at our house when we got home. God bless them.
We left CC at 8am. Before we left, we had to clean our rooms...which we left to the last morning and we overslept getting up at 7:15 instead of the recommended 6:30. So we had to rush around and we had the two kids to feed, pack last minute items and get out of the way while we remade beds, packed up pack and plays, cleaned bathrooms and vacuumed. Exahausted yet? Then we had to get all EIGHT of our bags, plus carry-ons to the bus. We were the last to arrive and people were getting antsy to leave which made it a perfect time for Asher to freak out about getting on a bus full of people that he just spent the last month of his life. Once we got him settled down, we got on the bus for our two hour commute to Denver.
The kids were kind of fussy, but more like antsy on the bus. So they whined, but we made it. Once we got to Denver at 10am, we had until 2:30pm to board our first flight of the day. So we checked our luggage and got some lunch. Oh, I forgot...the guy who checked us into our flight did a GREAT job and really helped us out by not making us move some crap around to get under the 50 pound rule. So Matt gave him a tip. A $3 tip. I laughed outloud. And so did the guy. But he took it like he was a skycap. Hilarious!
We ate lunch and still had TWO MORE HOURS. Lucy eventually fell asleep in the baby backpack while Asher ran around with the rest of the kids stuck in the airport. We finally got through security and got to the plane. We sat on the ground, on the plane, with the door closed for at least 45 minutes. No explanation. No apology. Just sitting there. Lucy started whining cause she was hungry. Asher started whining because of Lucy and because he still had not had a nap yet. All I wanted to do was get off of the ground. We did and the kids whined and cried and finally fell asleep. Then woke up and whined and cried until we landed in Houston. Repeat this EXACT sequence of events for the flight from Houston to Columbia. Except, subsitute that it is now 8pm and we don't get into Columbia until 11:30pm.
Then Matt and I had an argument on the plane that pretty much created stoney silence until the kids were in bed, asleep at Matt's parents house at 12:30am. Ah sweet travels.
Then we all slept like BABIES until 11:30am the next day. That's right. My kids slept dang near forever. Matt's mom said she had never seen anything like it. I mean, most kids no matter what time you put them to bed will still wake up with the sun. That is called "BALLERS" ya'll. Who is going to be traveling with black felt from now on??? All of you???
Anyway, the whole day got thrown off because we slept so late. So we just lounged around and went shopping until dinner time. Then Matt's brother and his wife and his grandparents came over for dinner. It was great fun!
The next day, we packed up (again) we went to the lake and had a great time swimming and laughing. It was gorgeous!
Then we got to pack up again (for the third time in three days) and head for the hills. But before we could get out of the house, Asher decided to throw another fit and keep saying, "NO!" over and over again. We had to have a little time out after time out session. After one of the sessions, we noticed he was eating something. We tried to get "it" out of his mouth, but had no idea what he ate.
We eventually got on the road and about an hour outside of Asheville, both kids have meltdowns. I get in the backseat and start to feed Lucy. I give Asher his drink and a snack, but he doesn't want it. He doesn't want to watch any videos anymore. He is just pretty much being a pain in the you-know-what. Then we hit Hendersonville and he just all of the sudden starts throwing up. Not make a big deal out of it throw up. But just dribble down you shirt and heave about five or six times. That was when I was so glad that he ate BLUEBERRIES that morning because everything was a lovely shade of purple.
We were nowhere near an exit, so we had to sit in the car with this puke smell for like ten minutes until we could get out. We pulled into Hardees at which point Asher (who is COVERED in blueberry vomit) starts saying, "Yummy mommy! Yummy mommy!" No way. So we get out, get him stripped down and I head for the bathroom to clean him up. Nope. No papertowels, no changing table, no soap. NOT EVEN TOILET PAPER. "What kind of place was this?," I asked myself. The kind of place where my kid could now run around naked in while I got napkins from the main dining area.
While all of this is going on, Matt is trying to clean up the nasty puked on car seat. Yuck. We discover that we did have an extra car seat with us due to the airplane travel and so we just traded the old one out, got Asher dressed and were home 40 minutes later.
That was when we got to unload the car, unpack the bags and take a look at our mail from the last month. FUN TIMES.
The only bright spot of the day was that Ellen and Karl Troyer had mowed our grass, cleaned our house from top to bottom and went grocery shopping for us so that we could have a few fresh staples at our house when we got home. God bless them.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Well we made it...so far
We are in Winter Park, Colorado. We left Asheville yesterday at noon and drove to Columbia, SC. Then we left Columbia by plane at 6:30am, flew to Houston and then onto Denver. In Denver, we boarded a bus with the assigned team and drove up to Winter Park. We are in a hotel until Sunday when we get to move into camp. So here is how it went:
Phase I: Asheville to Columbia.
We left right when we wanted to at noon. Asher and us all ate in the car and both of the kids took a nap. Asher watched some Wiggles on the ipod and we got into Columbia, pretty much without incident. It was great. We arrived at the Sloan's where Matt's sister Buffy and her twin girls were waiting on us! It was the first time that we got to meet Zoe and Tori and my oh my are they cute!
We put Asher down for a real nap in the pack and play and all of the girls played. Well Lucy played and Zoe and Tori grunted and ate.
About 5pm the barrage began when Nate, Watts and Maggie all arrived to play. Linda and Mark got home from work, David and Mary Lane came over and it was a zoo! But it was so great to be around family and all of the kids playing together. Then we ordered pizza and celebrated Asher's birthday! Asher's great grandparents even arrived for the celebration. It was great fun!
Then, Matt introduced his family to the camera on my laptop and how it can distort your face so you look ridiculous. Here are a few of the favorites:
I am not lying when I say...EVERYONE took pictures. It was one of the funniest things that I have seen in a long time.
Then everyone left, we put the kids to bed and stayed up too late getting ready for today.
PHASE II: Columbia to Houston
Matt ended up going to bed around 2am. Then Orbitz kindly placed a complimentary phone call to Matt at 3:15am to let us know that our planes were ON TIME. uggh. Then Asher decided he wanted to get up at 3:45 for the day. So Matt got up with him. Lucy and I got up at 4:30am, got dressed and into the car. Matt was not especially fun during this phase of the trip. But he gets a pass on that since he only got one hour of sleep.
We got the airport and the guy checking us in was not happy to be there either. So that was fun. We managed to get the kids through security and to the gate. But we kind of lost track of time and had to be paged because the plane was close to leaving us! We boarded the plane and Asher played and Lucy slept. It rocked.
PHASE III: Houston to Denver
Asher was so tired from being awake since 3:45am that as soon as the plane left the gate, he was sound asleep. Lucy, on the other hand decided that was a good time to play the role of classic screaming baby on the plane. I am not kidding when I say, SCREAMING HER BLOODY HEAD OFF. She wanted a bottle and I messed the bottle up and it was leaking all over the place. I coudn't get it fixed without standing over a sink and no flight attendants were very helpful. Finally after ten minutes of cursing and sweating and unbelieveably dirty looks from other passengers, a flight attendant approached and offered to help. He took the bottle and dumped it out and brought it back full of the perfect temperature water. Lucy took her bottle and was asleep within minutes. Glory. Everyone slept-except me for most of the flight.
PHASE IV: Denver
We arrived in Denver at noon. Our bus was not coming the airport unti 2:30. So we had two and half hours to kill. Which wasn't that bad because both kids needed to burn off energy. So Asher ran around like a maniac until he was literally falling down he was so tired. He hit his head hard twice on the floor of the Denver airport and has two magic eggs on his forehead. We got on the bus, very tired and very worn down by whining and just general crankiness. The addict needed a fix from the Wiggles and we caved to his demands. He fell asleep in about thirty seconds and so did Lucy. They both made it for about an hour and with one hour left, they both decided that they had "had enough of traveling. thank you very much." And so they just fussed and were crankpots for about an hour. Then we made it to the hote;.
PHASE V: We are in the hotel.
We have made it. But both kids are sleeping in pack and plays about three feet from each other. I am pretty sure that Lucy is getting sick and might have an ear infection. So we'll see how this plays out for the next three days.
I am sitting in the hallway typing this because I am downloading 30 Rock off of itunes so that I can watch a little something before I go to bed. Sorry for the giant recap, but I am simply amazed at how well this trip went. A little complaining and whining I can handle. Giant meltdowns and getting kicked off of planes...I can't deal with that and I am so relieved that did not happen to us today.
By the way, best parent hack travel tip so far. Buying black felt for helping to make the room dark. We aren't using it for that purpose, instead I draped it around Lucy's pack and play so that she can't see us and wake up, Asher can't see her and wake her up. Also, it blocks out light from getting in her face as I get ready for bed. I am POSITIVE that I will be traveling with black felt for years to come.
Phase I: Asheville to Columbia.
We left right when we wanted to at noon. Asher and us all ate in the car and both of the kids took a nap. Asher watched some Wiggles on the ipod and we got into Columbia, pretty much without incident. It was great. We arrived at the Sloan's where Matt's sister Buffy and her twin girls were waiting on us! It was the first time that we got to meet Zoe and Tori and my oh my are they cute!
We put Asher down for a real nap in the pack and play and all of the girls played. Well Lucy played and Zoe and Tori grunted and ate.
About 5pm the barrage began when Nate, Watts and Maggie all arrived to play. Linda and Mark got home from work, David and Mary Lane came over and it was a zoo! But it was so great to be around family and all of the kids playing together. Then we ordered pizza and celebrated Asher's birthday! Asher's great grandparents even arrived for the celebration. It was great fun!
Then, Matt introduced his family to the camera on my laptop and how it can distort your face so you look ridiculous. Here are a few of the favorites:
I am not lying when I say...EVERYONE took pictures. It was one of the funniest things that I have seen in a long time.
Then everyone left, we put the kids to bed and stayed up too late getting ready for today.
PHASE II: Columbia to Houston
Matt ended up going to bed around 2am. Then Orbitz kindly placed a complimentary phone call to Matt at 3:15am to let us know that our planes were ON TIME. uggh. Then Asher decided he wanted to get up at 3:45 for the day. So Matt got up with him. Lucy and I got up at 4:30am, got dressed and into the car. Matt was not especially fun during this phase of the trip. But he gets a pass on that since he only got one hour of sleep.
We got the airport and the guy checking us in was not happy to be there either. So that was fun. We managed to get the kids through security and to the gate. But we kind of lost track of time and had to be paged because the plane was close to leaving us! We boarded the plane and Asher played and Lucy slept. It rocked.
PHASE III: Houston to Denver
Asher was so tired from being awake since 3:45am that as soon as the plane left the gate, he was sound asleep. Lucy, on the other hand decided that was a good time to play the role of classic screaming baby on the plane. I am not kidding when I say, SCREAMING HER BLOODY HEAD OFF. She wanted a bottle and I messed the bottle up and it was leaking all over the place. I coudn't get it fixed without standing over a sink and no flight attendants were very helpful. Finally after ten minutes of cursing and sweating and unbelieveably dirty looks from other passengers, a flight attendant approached and offered to help. He took the bottle and dumped it out and brought it back full of the perfect temperature water. Lucy took her bottle and was asleep within minutes. Glory. Everyone slept-except me for most of the flight.
PHASE IV: Denver
We arrived in Denver at noon. Our bus was not coming the airport unti 2:30. So we had two and half hours to kill. Which wasn't that bad because both kids needed to burn off energy. So Asher ran around like a maniac until he was literally falling down he was so tired. He hit his head hard twice on the floor of the Denver airport and has two magic eggs on his forehead. We got on the bus, very tired and very worn down by whining and just general crankiness. The addict needed a fix from the Wiggles and we caved to his demands. He fell asleep in about thirty seconds and so did Lucy. They both made it for about an hour and with one hour left, they both decided that they had "had enough of traveling. thank you very much." And so they just fussed and were crankpots for about an hour. Then we made it to the hote;.
PHASE V: We are in the hotel.
We have made it. But both kids are sleeping in pack and plays about three feet from each other. I am pretty sure that Lucy is getting sick and might have an ear infection. So we'll see how this plays out for the next three days.
I am sitting in the hallway typing this because I am downloading 30 Rock off of itunes so that I can watch a little something before I go to bed. Sorry for the giant recap, but I am simply amazed at how well this trip went. A little complaining and whining I can handle. Giant meltdowns and getting kicked off of planes...I can't deal with that and I am so relieved that did not happen to us today.
By the way, best parent hack travel tip so far. Buying black felt for helping to make the room dark. We aren't using it for that purpose, instead I draped it around Lucy's pack and play so that she can't see us and wake up, Asher can't see her and wake her up. Also, it blocks out light from getting in her face as I get ready for bed. I am POSITIVE that I will be traveling with black felt for years to come.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
travelling
We are heading to Colorado late next week and I am in need of some airplane tips with toddlers...I have found these so far:
Sleep in clothes--we had a flight that took off at 8 am and so we left the house around 5:45 am. Booo. It helped a lot to have the boys already dressed, down to the baby's socks and Robeez, and it didn't seem to disturb their sleep one bit. My older boy is potty trained by day but sleeps in a diaper so I just put his underwear on over his diaper and whipped the diaper off when we had time at the airport.
Use your carseat bag for more than just carseats. This is a high risk/high reward kind of hack, because if you're checking your carseat and it gets lost, you're in trouble. I gambled, though, and put our coats and blankets in the bag with the carseat--this meant I didn't have to deal with wearing them (we are always hot on the plane, it seems) or carrying them and worrying about losing one.
Double umbrella stroller! An absolute must, and gate-checkable. Hang everything off of it.
Once you get to your seat, immediately dole out snacks and customize the seat area to your needs. I like to stick a pack of kleenex, a pack of wipes, and a bottle of water into the seatback pocket as well as a plastic bag for trash. That way you aren't hunting around for these things when the inevitable messes come, and you have a central place for all the trash you will immediately begin to generate.
We aren't going to bring a stroller and will use the baby backpack instead in order to have two hands to manage the boy in the airport.
Are there any suggestions out there to make travelling easier? Or good toys/activities to pack for such a major trip?
Sleep in clothes--we had a flight that took off at 8 am and so we left the house around 5:45 am. Booo. It helped a lot to have the boys already dressed, down to the baby's socks and Robeez, and it didn't seem to disturb their sleep one bit. My older boy is potty trained by day but sleeps in a diaper so I just put his underwear on over his diaper and whipped the diaper off when we had time at the airport.
Use your carseat bag for more than just carseats. This is a high risk/high reward kind of hack, because if you're checking your carseat and it gets lost, you're in trouble. I gambled, though, and put our coats and blankets in the bag with the carseat--this meant I didn't have to deal with wearing them (we are always hot on the plane, it seems) or carrying them and worrying about losing one.
Double umbrella stroller! An absolute must, and gate-checkable. Hang everything off of it.
Once you get to your seat, immediately dole out snacks and customize the seat area to your needs. I like to stick a pack of kleenex, a pack of wipes, and a bottle of water into the seatback pocket as well as a plastic bag for trash. That way you aren't hunting around for these things when the inevitable messes come, and you have a central place for all the trash you will immediately begin to generate.
We aren't going to bring a stroller and will use the baby backpack instead in order to have two hands to manage the boy in the airport.
Are there any suggestions out there to make travelling easier? Or good toys/activities to pack for such a major trip?
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