Playing Strong

We love the Strong Museum of Play! It's been two and a half years
since our last visit to Rochester's children's museum, and I'm fairly
sure even AJ didn't remember it. But that certainly didn't slow them
down. We could have easily spent all day there exploring the many
interactive exhibits. If the kids had to rank the exhibits, the "sandy
beach" surrounding the pirate ship would have made the top five,
because, hey - it's an indoor sandbox with a pirate theme. Doesn't
take a rocket scientist to figure out its appeal. The Berenstein
Bears, Super Heroes and the Giant's Playhouse (as in, the giant from
Jack in the Beanstalk) and the theatre stage also seemed to hold
universal appeal. Okay... AJ thought the Berenstein Bears were for
girls, so the carousel probably beat them out on his list.

I have plenty of photos and stories to share, but right now am limited
to blogging by phone, which means I can post only one photo, taken
with the phone's camera, per entry. And so, as a hint of what's to
come (and as a reminder to me when I again have Wi-fi access) here are
just a few of the ways we've been having fun:
Marine Land
Niagara Falls
Swimming pool
Playground
Ice cream truck
More swimming pools
More playgrounds
Soccer practice

Tomorrow, I believe we're heading to the cottage. (That's New York
speak for a cabin.) Right now I need to go rouse AJ from his show (New
York speak for watching a DVD) and put him to bed. Sydney's already
sleeping. She crashed on the drive home. That's how much fun we're
having.

It's all relative

If the proverbial gene pool were filled with water, one look at these cousins would be enough to convince even the bravest swimmer to close their mouth before diving in.


Hooray! We made it safely to out hotel in Niagara Falls, despite Jeff's and my apparent efforts to complicate the process. I don't know which of us is more deserving of mockery. Jeff printed out directions from Map Qwest, listing only "Niagara Falls Ontario" as the end point, omitting a certain key detail - the address of the Best Western where we had reservations.

I, meanwhile, figured we would rely on my iPhone's nifty map service. Turns out my travel planning also overlooked a key detail. Two minutes over the border in Canada, our phones sent us a nice little text message reminding us that we are now subject to international roaming fees of $15.36 per MB.

Oh Canada!

I don't have a clue what that means or how it would translate on our next phone bill, and I really have no desire to find out. So off went the smart phones and my access to an atlas.

Using Jeff's partial map, we made it to town and pulled off at a gas station, where the clerk, whose name tag read Aziz, paged through the phone book and tried to explain, in his nearly impossible to understand accent, that there are four Best Westerns in Niagara Falls. He ultimately gave me some semblance of directions to the nearest Best Western a few miles away. And as luck would have it, we got the right one on the first try.

Other memorable moments:

• Timing is everything! Stuck in a long line of very slow-moving vehicles on the bridge from Port Huron, Michigan into Canada, we slowly inched toward Customs. And that's when Sydney announced... you guessed it... "I have to go potty." We were stranded on that bridge for at least 10 minutes with no bathroom options. Amazingly, when we finally had a chance to stop, Sydney was still dry. Even more amazing, she slept the last two hours of the trip.

• It can only get better from here! We got stuck in a traffic jam on the Queens Highway, the last 30 kilometers before Niagara Falls. The source of the delay? A three car accident... involving an entire wedding party! A total of five cars were pulled onto the shoulder, two with serious damage. Surveying the wreckage were the new Mr. and Mrs., along with a whole bunch of bridesmaids and groomsmen. Let's hope that years from now they can look back on the incident and laugh. At least for me, it suddenly made traveling without a map seem like no big deal.

Tomorrow we'll visit the Falls and Marine Land, which I'm told is like a smaller version of Sea World. Then it's off to Rochester. Where I can turn my phone back on.

On the road again

We survived day one. The kids did amazingly well during the drive. It
was when we finally stopped and released them from the restraints of
the car seats that craziness reigned. If there was a way to harness
the giddy enthusiasm of two young children forced to ride in a car for
10+ hours, it would solve our nation's energy crisis.

All together, we stopped five times en route to Gaylord, Michigan. Two
emergency potty breaks, lunch at a Big Boy in Manistique (thus the
picture at the bottom), a beach stop somewhere along the endless drive
leading to St. Ignace, and then in Mackinaw City.

Mackinaw was as beautiful as always. We hit up the Crossings shopping
area so that AJ could visit "the knight store" where he got a plastic
sword on our last vacation. The sword broke a while back and he's been
asking to replace it ever since. Our standard response has always
been, "okay... the next time we're in Mackinaw." Time to keep our
word! Sydney, meanwhile, picked up some rubber dragon bathtub toys and
is just as happy as can be taking care of them. They joined us in the
pool, and she later tucked them all into bed.

We're now en route to Niagara Falls, a trip that should be at least 90
minutes shorter than yesterday. Any novelty of riding in the rental
mini-van is gone and the kids are pretty possessive when it's their
turn to pick the movie on the DVD player. In other words, we're
rotating between Dora and the Super Friends.

Taking a cue from my dad, who suggested we have the kids count cows,
we customized it for the state we're now driving through. Sydney's on
the lookout for wolverines. I suspect she's looking for something
bright yellow with pointy black ears and sideburns like her brother's
superhero Wolverine Halloween costume. Oh well, it's keeping her busy.

I think this is going to be a good day. How can I tell? Sydney just
announced she needed to go potty. Right as we were passing a sign
announcing a rest stop coming up in one mile. Are we ever that
lucky?!? We're now back on the road just outside of Saginaw. Time for
me to play navigator so we don't miss the exit to Flint.

What a trip

And we're off! New York, here we come. Jeff and I are going on about
four hours of sleep, with a 10+ hour road trip planned for today.
Adding to the fun factor, the kids are wide awake. The plan had been
to set out insanely early so that they'd sleep the first few hours.
No such luck.
They both woke up during the transfer from bed to car seat at 4 a.m.
That's meant all sorts of fun conversations already. Five minutes into
the trip, Sydney started asking if houses we were passing were Ellie
and Ben's. A slight variation of "are we there yet?"
AJ, meanwhile, has reminded us that his favorite sharks are
hammerheads and mako sharks. Oh yeah, and Carribean reef sharks. And
his favorite warriors are Daddy and George Washington.
Fifty minutes into the trip, he suddenly announced he had to go potty,
which, with him, means right now! Of course we were in the middle of
nowhere in the wee hours of the morning - not a lot of options
involving indoor plumbing. Not a lot of options (or any, for that
matter) to even turn off on a side street, and so to the side of
Highway 2 we/he went.

We are now 1 hour and 20 minutes into our trip. I'm beginning to
regret packing AJ's new book about the presidents. I suspect I will be
able to recite them all in order by the time we return home. This is
going to be so much fun!

Dana

Sent from my iPhone (so please forgive any typos.)

Order! Order!

Think you know someone who's a little on the obsessive compulsive side? Get in line.

Note that I didn't call it a disorder. I'm thinking it's simply an indication of a 3-year-old mentality. When AJ was that age, he used to line up all of the rubber ducks and other squirty toys on the edge of the tub at bathtime. For Sydney, the line-up process is her way of taking care of her "friends."

For modesty reasons, I skipped the bathtub photo opp, during which she had AJ's five Scooby Doo figures lined up on the edge of the tub, each covered with a wash rag "to keep them warm."

Once bathtime was over, her "friends" came with her onto her bed, where she carefully tucked them in.

She put a lot of thought into which blanket to use to cover them. Initially she was going to use the pink blanket to cover Scooby's friends Daphne and Thelma. Because they're girls, and girls like pink, you know. The boys were going to get the yellow blanket.

But ultimately, since the pink blanket is her favorite and she needs it to cover her up at bedtime, she decided that everyone wanted to be covered by the yellow blanket instead.

She's checking with Dora in the above photo to make sure she's okay with the arrangments. Diego was next to join them.

With her friends all safely snuggled together, Sydney's mind was finally at ease. Bring on the bedtime story and glass of milk. Whatever you do, don't mess with the pink blanket, and don't mess with her bedtime routine.

Captain Ghost Hands

Someday he'll ask, "Mom, how could you?"

To which I'll answer, "How could I not?"

To AJ's 5-year-old way of thinking, Jeff's old dress boots complete the ensemble, turning him into the ultimate pirate. Not just any pirate: Captain Ghost Hands!

Aaarghhh!

And yet, I wasn't the one laughing the loudest. Sydney was. She giggled nearly non-stop, taunting her big brother to chase her.

She figured out pretty quickly that AJ, wearing the loose boots, couldn't catch her. No matter how hard he tried.

And so each time he'd try to sound tough, announcing he was Captain Ghost Hands, Sydney would squeal and laugh, calling out, "Hey Pirate Boy!"

In this era of the three R's: "reduce, re-use, recycle," these boots have been put to a great new use: backyard entertainment. And so I have to ask: does that make them the fourth "Aaarghhh?"

(Bad pun! How could I?)

Oh say can you see?

Have you ever tried that practical joke of simply staring up in the air to see how many other people look up to see what you're watching? Apparently, the kid version of the joke involves peering through slats in a dock.

Sydney started it, getting down on all fours on Grandpa Bill's dock.

Within seconds, her big brother had to have a closer look.

So what was swimming in the murky depths that they found so fascinating? We'll never know. The depths were too murky to see anything. Yes, I admit it, I took a look, too. Sydney claimed she was looking for fish. And she probably was. But as brown as the water was, there's no way she could have seen anything even if there was something down there.

We visited Grandpa Bill and Grandma Jo late in the afternoon on July 4th. Their campground had a great picnic. Unfortunately, the 89-degree temperature, super high humidity and almost total lack of wind (check out how calm the St. Louis River is) made for a pretty uncomfortable visit. So much for Duluth's natural air conditioning.

Later in the night, after another rainstorm had passed through, dropping temperatures and awaking mosquitos, we headed back into Cloquet to watch the fireworks. Let's just say it was about as enjoyable as the parade earlier in the day.

Last year, AJ loved the fireworks. Sydney was terrified of them. This year, both children decided the booms were too loud for their taste. AJ huddled under a blanket and Sydney curled into my lap hiding her face and covering her eyes.

God bless America. Even if half our family don't appreciate the traditions that go with it. There's always next year.