Great Eastern Adventure Day 6: New Hampshire

We spent the morning being blissfully lazy. Yay! Nothing to do. Except... being blissfully lazy means that the kids have time to be bored, and to fight and quarrel and complain and cry. It didn't help the situation that no one has gotten to bed before 11 p.m. for the last four days.

Then, in the afternoon, Victor and Camilla came and got us (with their trusty-rusty GPS) and helped us get out to Hampton Beach, New Hampshire. Partially, because I wanted to go to a beach so we could say we've been to both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in the same year, and partially so we can knock New Hampshire off our list of states visited.

Amazingly, we found a great beach, and had a grand time.


We did decide, though, that we're Pacific Ocean people. Or at least not Northern Atlantic people: it was REALLY cold!


It was a great afternoon!

Great Eastern Adventure Days 4 and 5: Cleveland to Boston

There is a reason I haven't posted in a couple of days. It involves a traffic jam on the I-90 outside of Erie, Pennsylvania where we went two miles in two hours, getting mildly displaced once we got into Niagara which meant checking into the hotel around 11 p.m., and in which we could connect to the wi-fi, but got absolutely no internet connection.

What is a vacation without adventures, right?

So, in the past two days we hit four cities (and drove lots and lots and lots):

Cleveland
Russell checked the map and realized that where we stayed at the hotel was really a jump and a skip from Lake Erie. And who can pass up a chance to see one of the Great Lakes? (Not me.)


And, since we were going to be down at the pier, why not stop at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame museum... which the girls were not as game for. It was overpriced and the girls were kind of bored (Megan complained), though the younger two found the costumes and instruments interesting, but Russell was fascinated by it, and enjoyed the museum.


Kirtland
From there, we drove to Kirtland, where we wildly mismanaged our time. We stopped at the visitor's center first, and caught the (very nice) movie. By then, the younger girls were complaining of being hungry, so we drove around until we found a pizza place to eat. After eating, we headed to the temple to see if we could take a tour there, but the next tour wasn't for a half hour. So, we dashed back to the Church sites to see if we could get into the Whitney Store. (We couldn't.)

We latched onto a tour, went through the Whitney house, and then dashed back to the temple to make the tour there. Another video (interesting the differing perspectives on the same events...) and then into the temple. Kristen and Alison were squirrley and bored, and the tour wasn't all that interesting, so the girls and I bailed on the lower room and just hung out on the grounds until the tour was done.


Niagara Falls
We meant to do the falls in the evening on Tuesday. But, since we didn't get there until 11 p.m., we opted to do them first thing Wednesday morning. Our hotel wasn't terribly far from the falls, so we opted to walk down. It was a lovely... and would have been better had it been sunny and warm.

The falls (even from the American side) were impressive: the spray from the horseshoe falls was high enough that it felt like it was raining on the observation deck.

(Something which would have been nice had it been sunny and warm!) Russell was the only one brave enough to go all the way down, though Caitlyn, Alison and Kristen ran around a bit, getting wet but not soaked.

In the end, the girls enjoyed looking at the falls, walking around, and browsing in the gift shop... the souvenir of choice was those stamped pennies, interestingly enough.

This was taken by an Australian gentlemen, a fact which pleased Megan greatly...


Palmyra
From there, we piled into the car and drove the hour and a half to Palmyra. We managed our time better there: we ate first! And then took a tour of the Smith homes (they've changed a lot since Russell and I were there as kids).

Not how I remembered it.... And they moved the road as well....

The sister missionary was lovely, involving our overactive Kristen as her companion for the tour. She let Kristen hold her Book of Mormon, and she asked her questions and let her explain things. It was all very cute.

We then walked through the Sacred Grove (again: changed from what I remember): there's a very nice path through the woods, with benches to sit and reflect. The challenge was keeping Alison and Kristen from a) running and b) shouting. *sigh* Someday they will be grown up and I will miss this. Or so I tell myself.


From there we headed to the Hill Cumorah, (the girls said: "No more videos!") where we discovered that pageant preparations were underway:

and found we couldn't climb to the monument at the top. Thankfully, a helpful missionary pointed us in the direction of the road that goes up there... and we were able to drive to the top.


We hung out there a bit, and then hit the road (again), this time for Boston.

It was a longish drive, though shorter than we were expecting, and we were all exhausted by the end of it. And at the end of it, we discovered that Boston is not a fun city to navigate around. Thankfully, our friend Kristine Haglund (with whom we are staying until the family reunion begins on Friday) found us and rescued us and helped us find her house. Hooray for friends!

Great Eastern Adventure Day 3: St. Louis to Cleveland, OH

So today, we drove. And drove. And drove and drove and drove.

Amazingly, the girls did well: a minimum of fighting, complaining, and only watched one movie. So what kept them entertained?

A couple of things: audiobooks (today it was The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), and my (now infamous and much-requested) travel mix CDs. They are special: I ask everyone for 10 songs, and then mix them in order: Russell, me, Megan, Caitlyn, Alison, Kristen. That way, everyone knows that once every six songs, they will have one they love. And, they end up liking most everyone else's as well.

I'd list it here, but you really don't want to read through 60 songs do you? (No, of course not.)

Then we got to the hotel, which was sadly lacking a pool, and, having crammed all six of us into a somewhat smallish room, shunned the (kind of lousy) cable to watch things like this:



Ah, family bonding.

Great Eastern Adventure Day 2: St. Louis

Today we were lazy... in the morning, the girls played with new friends (especially Kristen -- she has been attached to her "new friend", Mara, since they got up), and then we went to church.


It ended up only being Sacrament Meeting: a watermain broke, and they canceled the rest of church because there was no water in the building. So, we took the opportunity to head out to see (but not go up, much to Megan's disappointment) the Arch.






After toodling around up there a bit, we wandered down to the river to see how high it was.

The answer? Very high.



After a yummy dinner, we headed out to the Laumeier Sculpture Park. Caitlyn was very excited to ride in John's Mustang convertible.


We enjoyed wandering around the sculpture garden, in spite of the heat and humidity (oh, MAN, I have forgotten about HUMIDITY. Wow.). The kids liked climbing the sculptures in spite of the "No Climbing on Sculptures" signs. Seriously. How can you NOT climb on these?




It's been a fun pit stop, and the Welches have been wonderful hosts!

Stuff Happened and Then We Left

So. We're currently in St. Louis, enjoying the hospitality of our wonderful friends, the Welches, but since last week was mostly getting ready, I guess I still need to write a letter....

Stuff that happened:

• play dates with friends
• play group
• swimming at the pool (twice, though once was thunder-stormed out)
• thunderstorms
• hail
• Chinese boxing
• watching TV/movies/extra bonus features of Harry Potter 7.1
• sleep overs
• creating zoos out of blocks and play animals
• going to the paid waterpark with a friend and swimming for 5 hours
• cleaning
• haircuts
• Raingutter Regatta
• massage
• going into work
• volunteering at the library
• a quick trip to our new favorite ice cream (frozen yogurt, but don't tell Kristen) place, Orange Leaf
• pedicure
• shopping
• packing
• last-minute running around
• last-minute arranging for someone to watch the house since the person we asked ended up in the hospital with an unusual tick-related (they think) virus (we hope and pray that our girls camp survivors don't catch it!)
• asking "Is it Saturday yet?"
• commenting "This week is going SLOW!"

And then yesterday morning, we up and left. After a lot of driving, we ended up her in St. Louis. The Welches are part-owners of a boat, and took us out for some skiing, tubing and a picnic. It was a delightful way to spend the evening after a long day of driving. Today, we've been lazy around the house while the kids played (I haven't seen Kristen in a while; she adores their 5-year-old, Mara). We went to sacrament meeting with them (and we thought our sacrament meeting was loud... it's not!), ran into our bishop's sister and her family (small world!), and then headed downtown to see the arch (they wanted to go up; we said no), and the very, very swollen Mississippi river. We're off to a sculpture garden (I'll put up photos later, promise) right now, and then are heading out for Ohio tomorrow morning.

I do love vacations. (Remind me of that in two weeks.)

Great Eastern Adventure Day 1: Wichita to St. Louis

Day one consisted of lots and lots of driving.

Things heard:

"Are we there yet?" (no!)
"How much longer?" (too long; don't complain yet!)
"Is this the longest drive we have?" (no)
"Can I watch a movie?" (when we'd been on the road less than an hour)

Thankfully, when we got there, our friends the Welchs had a wonderful surprise for us: a boat trip/picnic on the Meramec River. It was a perfect end to a long day of driving!



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John is an awesome teacher: he worked with Megan until she got up on the skis (and stayed up!). Thankfully, Russell went along and got a pic.



The girls were exhausted.... A good way to start a vacation!

Camp Week

Megan and Russell were gone to camp this week, and both had a grand time. Many people thanked me for the loan of my husband; he's appreciated and needed at camp, and I'm glad to let him go. Megan had a good time, even though her first words when walking through the door were: "I'll take 110 degrees over bugs any day!" Apparently there was an epidemic: everyone came home with chigger bites and ticks (I'm trying to convince Russell that the copay to get a blood test for Lyme Disease before we leave on Saturday for Boston is a good thing and not a waste of money...). It was a good camp, though; I'm glad they go. (As an aside; the red fence is one Megan helped paint during Youth Conference up in Lindsborg. We hunted it down when we were up there on Tuesday so we could get a picture.)

The rest of us survived the week. We

• stayed up late every night watching movies (I Hate Luv Storys, Tortilla Soup, Much Ado About Nothing, Blue Crush -- some of it, anyway -- and Maverick. I failed to watch Inception; the disc was broked)
• got up early: or at least either Kristen or Alison did....
• drove to Lindsborg to take Caitlyn to a day camp. It was called Prairie Days, and she hiked, made a rag doll, learned about Swedish pioneers, and made Dutch oven bread. I took her up while Porter babysat Alison and Kristen, and then we all drove up in the afternoon and played a bit while we waited for Caitlyn to get done. Then we had ice cream and dinner (in that order).
• went to gymnastics, zumba, swimming lessons, and play class
• cleaned Caitlyn's room (only one trash can full of stuff...)
• hid from thunderstorms that blew through
• fought some, but not as much as we could have
• played at friend's houses
• got some visiting teaching done
• went shopping for a new DVD player for the car and father's day presents for Russell and food for us
• never cooked (Megan cooked on Monday, and the rest of the week we just basically had low-maintenance food, since that's all Alison and Kristen will eat.)
• went to the pool twice for two hours each time
  
• nearly passed out (well, that was me, and my fault for trying to give blood right after spending 2 hours at the pool with the girls...)

And that's it. This week is spent running around, cleaning, working, and packing. We leave bright and early Saturday morning for our Grand Eastern Adventure....

Swimming Lessons

Summer equals swimming lessons. This year, it was Caitlyn, Alison and Kristen up.

Caitlyn has had issues with swim lessons in the past; most specifically, she hates chlorine. It burns her eyes and her nose, and she has to plug her nose to get in the pool, which hindered her from passing things off. This year we came up with the solution: snorkel goggles. Worked like a charm.

Pictures are from the last day of class (Kristen's on a two-day-a-week-for-four-week schedule, so she hasn't had her last class yet. Pictures of her are coming later...)

First they got in to do their tests...



Yes, Caitlyn was the tallest and only girl in her class.

Then they went through the strokes and skills that they needed to pass off...







They both passed a level! Caitlyn's now a level 5 (she's very proud, since she got stuck at level 3 when she was 8), and Alison's a level 3. They both have said they're going to miss swimming lessons; they had good teachers, and they had lots of fun.

Kristen actually missed her last day: we're going to be on vacation for the last week of class. However, we did remember to get a few shots of her in the water.

She is nothing if not enthusiastic.

She decided pretty early on that this boy, Dustin, was her best swimming friend. She was always by his side, and was his biggest cheerleader.

It was very cute.

I'm glad I have girls who love the water as much as I do.

Weather and Fish and Lakes, Oh My!

Three big news events:

1. The weather: it was hot. Very Hot. Blasted Hot. 100 degree Hot. End of July Hot. So, when Thursday rolled around and we got a cold front moving in, we got Weather. Tornadoes (one was sighted just a couple miles south of us), hail and blessed rain. Though we could have done without three inches in an hour. Thankfully, nothing flooded (too bad). You would think that the weather would cool things off, which it did for a little bit, but we're back up into the upper 90s. The weather hasn't been consulting the calendar this year...

2. Fish: As part of Riverfest, they have these get back to nature days. One was at a nearby park, and included an hour of catch-and-release fishing. Since that's something Alison has bugged Russell about in the past, he gamely took the morning off and took the three younger girls out there to go fishing. They had a blast. Everyone caught something -- Kristen caught a turtle who wouldn't leave her lure alone -- and came home bubbling over with excitement and stories about how cool it was. In other fish news, we got some. One of the other faculty members in Russell's division is moving (considering taking a job in Florida, actually) and wanted to get rid of the tank. And, because he knows we have kids and Russell probably has mentioned it sometime in the past, he offered the tank (plus fish and food and all the other "stuff" we needed) to us. Of course we'd take it! Fish are about my speed, after all. Anyway, it's nice having it down in the family room, puttering away. I find them so soothing.

3. Lakes: Yesterday was the Elder's Quorum activity at our big puddle, Lake Cheney. It was a perfect day for it: warm but not unbearably hot. The girls all had a blast: they played in the lake, managed not to get cut by zebra mussels, and because there were two boats this year, went tubing out on the lake. Because a grand time was being had by all, we stayed later than we planned, originally. We only came home when Russell's headache got bad enough for him to start getting sick. Now, that's a day at the lake!

And in other assorted news:

Alison started a gymnastics class this week. She's been asking for years, and we finally scrounged up the money to enroll her in one. SHE LOVES IT. Which means, we may have to keep scrounging up the money. (And time.)

Caitlyn, Alison and Kristen started swimming lessons this week. Which they all really enjoy. Kristen was having SO much fun, that she got upset her class ended 15 minutes before her sisters'. She cried. I was a bit leery about doing lessons this early because the pool's usually been cold, but not this year. Thank heavens.

Megan and Russell are off to girls camp this week. They are very, very excited. I got to thinking: next year, with half the family gone, it's going to be more interesting. At least this year, I have a babysitter.

Speaking of babysitting, we let Caitlyn and her friend Maddie (who was sleeping over) babysit for us so we could go see Taming of the Shrew in the park. They did a grand job. And the show was fun, though the ending is a bit tough to swallow for a modern audience. Afterward, we went out to Orange Leaf, a newish frozen yogurt place in town. We liked it so much, Russell took the girls back there for a treat yesterday.

As an aside: the picture of the eagle-like things are made from marshmallows, white chocolate, coconut and cashews on an Oreo. The girls loved making them, and after I'd eaten two, I tossed the rest. That combination of tastes isn't a big hit in this house (with everyone except me; and I didn't need 5 of them!).

Last of the Riverfest

I didn't get pictures of all of it, but for Riverfest this year we:

1. Went to the opening night fireworks (which were much better than the ones we've seen on the Fourth of July)
2. Rode some of the rides in the kids area
3. Went fishing
4. Went to a play -- Chicken Little -- for kids (they had fun; it was a silly production)
5. Wandered around down by the river
6. Played in the fountains
7. Rode some more rides in the kids area



Things we didn't do, but should have:
1. Gone canoeing on the river
2. Gone on the zipline over the river
3. Gone to at least one of the music concerts

Not a bad have done to should have ratio. We're so glad they moved Riverfest to June so we can enjoy it more!