Minnesota Road Trip

The boys and I drove nearly 20 hours (over three days) to visit my family in Minnesota. On the way, we stopped at Reptiland in Allenwood, PA. The boys LOVE Reptiland! So many interesting creatures to see! I know photos can be great, but I also hate to inundate people with them, so if you want to see more photos from Reptiland, just click on the picture of the turtles, above, and it will take you to my Reptiland photo page.

One tired, worn-out boy, snuggling with his new "friend" from Reptiland.

We arrived safely in Minnesota and spent the first couple of days at Grandma's house. We crammed a lot of fun into just a couple of short days!

I was glad we brought the boys' scooters along with us. It gave them a way to burn off energy right in Grandma's driveway. And anyone who knows my boys knows they have energy to burn!

We celebrated MY Grandma's 85th birthday. Colin was quite upset that I didn't get a pinata for my Grandma's birthday party, because, doesn't EVERYONE love a pinata? (Sigh. Maybe I should have gone ahead and got one.)

Grandma picked up a Slip-N-Slide for another energy-burning activity on the hot, hot days. It was a GIANT hit!

We visited the Mall of America...including Legoland. Colin thought the life-sized Boba Fett made of Legos was VERY cool!

We also visited the "Underwater Adventure" at the Mall of America. It's one of the world's largest underground aquariums. I thought this shark photo made me look like I must be one heck of an adventure photographer, diving with the sharks! Hee hee! It was all from behind glass!

Now Fred has finally arrived for a few short days, and we are at my Dad's house at the lake. I'm sure there will be MANY pictures to follow, but here is a fun one to share. If you click on it, it will take you to the other photos from our visit to Grandpa's house. Enjoy!

Bedlam!...(But mostly the good kind!)

We've had two busy, busy months. We've been renovating our kitchen and our powder room, a project which is still not complete. We've been submerged in baseball and T-ball season, which has taken up about 6 days per week of our life. The boys have also joined Cub Scouts, which is going to add another dimension to the chaos (again, the good kind).

In the midst of all of this, we took a family trip to Chicago. Fred had to go there for his company's annual National Sales Meeting, and I decided it would be a great opportunity for me to take the boys to Chicago to see some of the fabulous cultural attractions there. Since school was still in session for everyone else, the crowds were thin. If you'd like to see the photos from our trip, click on the photo below, and it will take you to my photo gallery from the trip:

On previous trips to Chicago, we have stayed with good friends and family members who were kind enough to open their homes to us. We opted for a hotel this time, first because we didn't want to inconvenience our friends, but also so that the kids would feel more "settled." I realized after our last visit that it was just too difficult for the boys to settle down in a different house every night.

I also resigned myself to the fact that it would be impossible to see everyone we WANTED to see, given that we only had a week and REALLY wanted the boys to experience Chicago's offerings, such as the Adler Planetarium and the Museum of Science and Industry. (And we had Fred's meeting which we had to work around, as well.) People who live in or around a big city might have trouble understanding it, but after living in rural Pennsylvania for four years and not having access to these things (especially when you're homeschooling), I wanted the kids to have those experiences while we were there and had the opportunity.

So, I opted to simply leave posts on Facebook, letting people know where we were going to be on any given day, and leaving it open for anyone who wished to join us to do so. I'm feel really bad because I think a couple of people were really offended by this; but after driving 13 hours just to get to Chicago, I honestly couldn't see making the boys spend an extra 2-3 hours a day in the car to "make the rounds" to everyone's houses. That kind of frantic pace, along with that amount of time in the car, makes the boys cranky to the point where they completely fall apart every 10 minutes...no fun for any of us!

If you live in the Chicago area, and were one of those who I may have offended, please consider this my formal, public apology to you. And please believe me that no slight was intended.

If you are one of those who joined us in our adventures, thank you for making the trek to meet up with us...it was so much fun to see you again!

Our kitchen project is moving right along. It isn't at the stage where I want to post a final "after" photo, yet, but here is a "before" image:

Actually, this is as they were ripping out the Pergo flooring. The black and white tile would have actually looked fine with the countertops we chose, but a large number of the tiles were cracked because they had been installed over plywood, rather than cement backer board. If you are considering tiling your floor, remember that! If you tile over plywood, it WILL crack!

We had two weeks of living with our kitchen island (which includes our stove) in the family room, unusable. The refrigerator and kitchen table was also in our family room. The contents of our island and another cabinet, as well as our kitchen chairs were all over the dining room. My usually chaotic house reached brand-new heights of chaos!



We have the new tile and countertops in, but I'm waiting until all the trim is up and everything is painted to show an "after" photo. I'd also like to wait until the drywall is repaired (that's leftover from our replumbing project). Hopefully, I'll be able to post some "after" photos soon!



Well, that's all for now (but it's really quite enough, isn't it?)!

Exciting Day

Well, we've had some excitement today. We woke up at about 7:45 this morning to some low rumbles of thunder and a very dark sky. I decided to check the radar to see what was coming our way before we drove 2 hours to my mom's house. Hmmm...severe thunderstorm warning and winds in excess of 65 mph headed straight for us.

I headed back into the bedroom, figuring I'd distract the boys with getting dressed and stuff. Not a chance. The wind picked up like crazy, the rain came pounding down...and then the power went out. The room was as dark as night, and the boys were scared. Then the sirens started going off. (My dad's house does NOT have a basement, by the way.)

Knowing that taking cover would possibly scare the boys even more, I debated it, but only for a second. There was a loud THUD on the roof, and I ushered them under the built-in desk in that bedroom and hauled pillows and sleeping bags in there with us, figuring they would at least be protected from flying glass if something should come through the window. We sat under there, listening to debris flying around outside and the loud wind and the thunder and the sirens. Once it finally quieted down, I got up to go see if it was safe to have them come out yet.

Here is what I saw looking out my dad's patio door...and yes, the sky was still that dark and it was now 8:15 a.m.

That tree lying across the walkway to the lake and leaning on the picnic table is NOT normally there. It is a huge oak tree that blew down and took part of the roof off of the building where my dad keeps his fishing and boating equipment.

I decided to wait until it got a little bit lighter to come out of our spot under the desk for good.

Finally, (it was really only about 5 more minutes), we emerged from our hideout. Then, my dad and my cousin, Andy, came home from work to survey the damage.

As you can see, there was lots of small debris laying around all over the place:

Here is a view of my dad's back yard, with tons of debris and the tree on the ground. I don't recall the chair on the deck being up there...I think it was blown up there, and it barely missed the patio door.

Here is part of the oak tree that blew down, apparently trying NOT to land in the lake!


Another shot of the tree and the damage it did to my dad's storage building.

Oh, there's where the roof landed...in front of the door of the building!

More debris:

My dad told me that he heard on the radio that it should be clear for driving now. So, we decided to head up to Minneapolis, considerably later than we had planned.

We stopped a few times as we were leaving my dad's neighborhood, to look at some of the other damage the straight-line winds caused.

Here is a camper that was flipped onto its side:

And a dock and a boat lift all mangled by the storm:

Another mangled boat lift, and a boat completely flipped over:

A pontoon that was COMPLETELY flipped over. Do you have any idea how HARD it is to flip a pontoon?

A broader view:

The road signs were casualties as well...

We learned later today that these were straight line winds that were up to 84 mph.

Hey, Becky, aren't you glad you and the kids weren't camping in a tent for THAT?!?!

ON A HAPPIER NOTE... Fred picked up Juno today! Here he is, at the home of her breeder, holding our "little" puppy!

She's only 12 weeks old...I don't think she's going to be "little" for long!

Evening Reflections

I've been experiencing technical difficulties with my blog for the last couple of days. Nothing major, just difficulty getting photos posted. So, I am posting what I can for now...here are a couple of my favorite photos from the last couple of days...

Aidan & Colin having fun on a big rock in Grandpa's yard:

The surface of the lake looks like glass in the evening. Isn't it beautiful?

More of the lake...

My dad and all the kids out on the end of the dock:

Becky searching for the turtle:

The sunset pinks starting to peek through:

Pretty, isn't it?

I'm listening to the sounds of the lake and the breeze as I write this, and it brings me an amazing feeling of peaceful calm, even as the boys have their "sword fights" with the Star Wars sound effects!

Greetings from Minnesota!

We arrived in Minnesota last Monday, just in time to celebrate my birthday. The boys enjoyed helping Grandma decorate a cake for me.

Next year's going to be a big one!

The boys really had fun visiting a playground nearby. The Twin Cities area has the greatest parks! I wish we had some like this where we live!

Wednesday, our dear friends from Nebraska arrived, and we went with them to the Science Museum in St. Paul on Thursday. There is a cool Star Wars exhibit going on there right now. Aidan and Colin really enjoyed trying out the hover craft:

And seeing Yoda and all their other favorite Star Wars characters...

Colin always loves the "table with the floating balls."

This thing was just cool...I guess it's a glass orb filled with water.

Our friend, Becky, in the wildflower maze in the Big Backyard...

Aidan panning for fossils with his aunt Jeni...

Friday we drove to my dad's house on the lake. The kids immediately wanted to go fishing. I can't believe how my dad manages to keep 4 kids with fishing poles and hooks on a narrow dock under control. Nobody lost an eye, although Aidan DID fall in!

Aidan enjoying a conversation with Grandpa Jim...

Becky enjoying the breeze...

"What kind of cool creatures can we find under these stepping stones?"

Colin got a hook caught in his thumb, and was really upset. He started laughing when Grandpa showed him all of the scars on HIS hands, though!

The pain was quickly forgotten when Colin caught a nice, big fish!

That's a sheephead, though(shhhh.... don't tell Colin that!), so when the kids wanted to let it go, we happily threw it back.


Clearly, all the kids enjoyed fishing. Here's Michael getting the hang of casting with the big rod...

Here is a lovely sunset from the dock...

Saturday, the kids caught a baby turtle...aww, isn't he cute?

The future veterinarian examining her catch...

Look how pretty his belly is!

Becky told Colin to let the turtle crawl on his arm, so of course he had to try it!

The turtle was safely released back into the lake after all the kids had time to check him out up close.

We've also been boating and swimming, and have not made it into town yet. I expect we'll get there sometime today, even if it's just to replenish our refrigerator!