Travel day

I just read on another blog that Time magazine has declared that blogging is no longer relevant, replaced by Facebook and Twitter. That makes me feel so much better. My failure to blog isn't due to laziness, business or my kids being less hilarious. It's because I was following a trend without even realizing it.

But here I am on vacation with time to spare (always the sign of a good vacation), so I think I'm going to blog anyway. Even if it is no longer the cool thing to do.

Our vacation started last Friday. The kids were super excited to start the long road trip.

Eight or nine hours in the car - I can't remember exactly how long, plus there was a time zone change at some point in the U.P. - and at last we were close to our destination.

The last time we traveled through Mackinaw - I can't believe it's already been three years - we stayed at the Mackinaw Beach and Bay Hotel. It was brand new at the time. The pool area wasn't quite finished, but we liked the location and how fresh and clean everything was. And so we stayed there again this time. Only to discover that it's no longer fresh and clean. And the pool area STILL looks unfinished. 

The exercise room is equally lame, consisting of two archaic treadmills and a stationary bike. But that probably shouldn't have come as a surprise, considering they don't even know how to spell the word exercise.

In the morning, AJ and I headed to the  beach while Jeff and Sydney went swimming. Watching AJ dodge the waves, I couldn't help but remember our previous visits when he was just a toddler.

(If there's any doubt how grown up AJ has gotten, this was the first trip ever we made it through Mackinaw without him asking for a pirate sword.)

But he's still young enough to totally ignore his mother's warnings to not get his shorts wet.

After checking out, we headed downtown to look around a bit and buy cheesy souvenirs. And yes, AJ's shorts were still wet. He wanted his picture taken here, but neither of us recall why:

I left Jeff and the kids briefly to look through a store with breakable merchandise. A few minutes later I caught up to them and was reminded why I really can't leave them alone for even a few minutes.

Yes, they were spending money to get a fortune.

Sydney loved all the little shops in town. We told her she could only get one souvenir, and so she became quite the selective shopper. At last she knew what she wanted: a teddy bear from Mackinaw's version of Build-a-Bear Workshop. She helped stuff the bear and picked out a purple tutu for it to wear. And named it Snuggles.

And then it was time to climb back  into the car for the second (and thankfully much shorter) leg of the trip - to Boyne Falls, Michigan, where we met up with Jeff's brother's family. It's been a great week of fun, and I'll do my best to write more about it tomorrow.

Even if blogging is no longer cool.

It's soccer season again

As much fun as I'm having helping coach Sydney's soccer team, I'm starting to question if this was a very good idea.

Aside from the obvious reason that I know nothing about soccer, there's the added problem that it's tough taking pictures of my little darling in action when I'm supposed to be busy offering encouragement and helpful tips to the whole team.

A further complication occurs when the first game of the season happens to fall on the eve of our vacation, and all sorts of last minute work emergencies pop up that must be finished before I leave, causing me to be 20 minutes late to the game.

It's a good think I'm only the assistant.

The kids didn't seem to mind. They were too busy noticing and laughing at my work attire. "Why are you wearing that?" One girl asked, noting my dress clothes and heels.

But at least I made it. And I managed to snap a few pictures.

Sydney volunteered to be goalie. I missed most of her stint in the net, but loved the attitude the just seemed to ooze from her being.

Though it sounds like she regretted volunteering. Not because she couldn't handle the pressure. But because she wanted to be part of the action on the rest of the field. Jeff could hear her asking to switch positions. At half time, she got her wish.

It's amazing the difference in her enthusiasm and aggression in just one year. She's still got a lot to learn, but she's figured out the most important part of the game: she needs to play if she wants to score.

She came close to scoring, but sadly her shot went wide. But the fact that she got the ball and made a shot is such a vast improvement over where she was at her rookie year.

On the way home, she wanted to know which team won. (The other team did, but no one keeps score.) I fudged it a bit saying I wasn't sure of the score. Sydney thought about it a moment and said, "If everyone played their best, then I guess it was a tie."

I love how she thinks!

Multisport athlete x 4

This is a record, even for us. In the space of five days, AJ will participate in four different sports.

Who would be silly enough to sign up a child for four different sports? WHAT WERE WE THINKING???

It started last weekend (technically, since I'm showing pictures from Saturday, I guess this lengthens the span to six days). Baseball season is over, but AJ was invited to play in a special tournament. And play he did.

Four games, spanning 13 hours, in cold, wet, windy weather. 

He loved every minute of it.

And because they won their final game Saturday, we got to repeat the fun on Sunday.

Besides the thrill of getting to pitch, as well as to bat against real pitchers (previously he's only face coaches or a pitching machine), AJ also enjoyed getting to apply face black under his eyes. Because as overcast and rainy as it was, he totally needed it to combat the glare.

By Sunday, he looked like something out of a horror flick. I'm glad he's a boy. If he does this with what looks like an oversized tube of Chapstick, imagine what he'd look like if he ever tried to apply make up. That's a scary thought!

We left the ballfield around 1:30, which gave us a little over four hours to grab lunch and take a nap before heading to a hockey arena so AJ could play goalie. 

Monday was a day off for AJ (though he graciously volunteered to play goalie during Sydney's soccer practice.) Then it was double duty again for him on Tuesday. Soccer from 4:30 to 6, followed by baseball practice from 6 to 8 (remember how I said baseball season is over? Yeah, right.) Luckily, the fields are adjoining, but I couldn't help but laugh when I finally arrived after work. There was AJ in the outfield with baseball glove in hand. While still wearing soccer cleats and shin pads.

Sport number 4 begins tonight when AJ picks up gear for football season. In theory, baseball is now done. But I've heard that before and so am not holding my breath. What's guaranteed is we get a one week reprieve from it all because we're about to head on vacation.

Belly up

We are once again a fishless household. 

After unexpectedly becoming the owners of seven goldfish two weeks ago, and then watching our pet goldfish population dwindle to just three within the first day and a half, the final few fish seemed to be holding their own. The kids still checked for floaters every time they walked through the kitchen, but no longer seemed surprised to find them all still swimming.

A full week passed before another one decided to go belly up. And then, another week of no news is good news. Those last two fish seemed to be doing so well. I don't know how exactly one determines whether or not a fish is doing well. But they were still alive long after their fellow county fair prizes had been flushed. And so in my book, that qualifies these two as true survivors.

And then, Friday morning:

How does that happen? These were the hardy ones. I don't know if they outwitted or outplayed the other fish, but they'd definitely outlasted them. And then, in one night, both of them went belly up. Maybe it was a suicide pact or murder/suicide. Maybe they were so deeply in love that flipped on its side, the other soon died of a broken heart.

I'd like to be able to say they'll spend eternity together because they were flushed at the same time. But because nothing can be easy,it turns out one of the children (I know which one, but won't name names to avoid future embarrassment) had recently used WAY too much toilet paper during a bathroom visit. Which meant the fish didn't exactly flush clean away until after a plunger was involved. There's just no dignity in death.

The kids don't seem to mind. AJ, sensitive kid that he is, wondered if he could use the fish as bait. 

We'd already promised to get more fish once we return from vacation. So I guess this is just the end of chapter one. Stay tuned. Though I suspect it won't be a particularly long book.

Running in reality

In my mind, I envisioned cheering on the kids as they ran in a quarter-mile fun run last Friday night, after which I would run the Park Point five miler, and then Jeff would take a wonderful photo of us all smiling at the finish line. Maybe a photo to replace the one on this page. What a happy, healthy family we are!

Right.

In reality, Jeff and the kids got stuck in traffic and totally missed the kid races. By the time they got to Park Point, the road had been blocked off for the race, so the best they could do was stand at the turn-around point. And this is the only picture Jeff took.

The picture in my mind was so much better!

In my imagination, it was also much, much cooler.

The forecast was for temperatures in the mid 70s. I can handle that. I remember telling Jeff on the morning of the race that if it was any hotter than that, I'd skip it. I don't need another race t-shirt that badly that it's worth running in high heat. 

But then I spent all day at work mentally preparing myself to run. And so, when I stepped outside at 4:30 p.m. and discovered it was 85 degrees, I couldn't back down. I drove to the race, doing my best to get there before the 5 p.m. cut off for registration. Silly me. I could have gotten there an hour later and still had plenty of time.

When the race finally started at 6:30, it was still really hot. I carried a small water bottle with me, and drank it all by the half way point. As I approached the turn-around spot, I saw Jeff and the kids. AJ was cheering on the runners. Sydney was sitting on a lawnchair, immersed in a game on her iPod. I had to call her name to get her to look up.

I tossed the empty water bottle to Jeff and kept running. Thank goodness the nice people who live along the race course turned on their sprinklers for us. The last mile was brutal. Probably because I thought I'd reached it much sooner, so to be nearing the end (again, in my mind) and then hear a timekeeper holler out "four miles", it's a bit of a downer.

My chip time was 43:39, which for me - especially in that heat - is phenomenal. Too bad it'll never show up if you google my name. Dana Kapel, however, had a great race.

Getting off Park Point became the next challenge. Because there's just one road, and people are running on it, no one can leave until everybody finishes. And then, everybody has to stop at the one stop sign along the road. And then, just when you think you're home free... the lift bridge goes up. I was within two block of beating it. Instead, I got to wait, along with a couple hundred other sweaty, stinky runners, for 21 minutes before the ship even reached the bridge, and then another seven minutes before the bridge went back down.

To the bridge operator, you are not my friend.

To the guy at the four mile mark, I'm not liking you much either.

To the person who couldn't type my name correctly, how do mistake a z for a p? Those keys are on opposite ends of the keyboard, so you can't even blame it as a typo.

But that Dana Kapel... she seems like someone I'd like to run with. I might not be able to keep up, but I'm sure I look better than her when I run. I can see it clearly in my mind.

The bats weren't hot, but everything else sure was

The Minnesota Twins won their game last Friday. And last Saturday. And on Monday. But sandwiched in between those victories was a rather awful 7-1 defeat on Sunday.

And which of those four games did we attend? You guessed it.

The Twins weren't the worst ball players on the field that day. At least not during warm-ups when a whole lot of mascots played in a game of their own.

The game finally started, and I was thinking we'd lucked out. The weather seemed perfect - sunny skies and not too hot. 

We had great seats - just three rows back from the warning track in the right field.

But then, sometime during the second inning, the earth rotated just enough that we were no long sitting in the shade. And with the sun beating down on us and no breeze, it was brutal.

Sydney and I spent much of the game walking around the stadium, which really wasn't so bad because at least then we were in the shade. 

We were trailing by five or six runs by the eighth inning. Despite the lopsided score, AJ didn't lose hope. Rally cap time! As an added bonus, most of our section had long since gone home, which meant he could now stand in the front row.

We stayed until the bitter end. Not because we were expecting a miraculous turn-around, but because I'd read that on Sundays kids could go down on the field and run the bases after the game. 

While waiting their turn to run, AJ noticed the relatively short wall along the first base line. If I'd angled this shot a little better so that you couldn't see the ground, this would have looked so impressive!

At last it was their turn. They set off together, starting from first base.

By second base, AJ was in his own world, totally forgetting he had a sister.

Sydney didn't seem to mind. Experienced ball player that she is, she knew what direction to run.

I'm pretty sure the run around the bases ended up being the highpoint of the day. At least for AJ. Sydney got mini-donuts at the ballpark, and it's really hard to compete with that in her estimation.

Hot as it was, we all had fun. And AJ, of course, is already asking when we can go again.

The things they say

What is up with kids these days? Mine are saying things to me that I could never have imagined saying to my parents. Not that I was a perfect child - well, actually I was until the age of four. Ask my mom. She'll tell you - but seriously. They're saying things like, "Don't post that picture on Facebook, Mom." And (imagine in a voice filled with dread), "You're going to put that on the blog, aren't you?"

It's really cramping my style and limiting my stories.

But I'm happy to report that AJ not only approved the posting of the following two pictures, he requested that I show them off.

Another successful fishing expedition:

Celebrating with "real Bulldogs" following a hockey camp at UMD:

On a somewhat related note (at least to my way of thinking), this past Sunday marked a bittersweet milestone for AJ and me. In church, when the pastor invited the kids to come up for the children's sermon, AJ stayed behind. For the last 4-5 years I've held my breath and prayed each time he went up there, hoping he wouldn't say or do anything too embarrassing, but taking comfort in knowing it'd be good blog material if he did.

And now he's too grown up for that, too.

(Sigh.)