Spring 2021

The sun is shining (today, anyway), the snow is gone, and things are looking up! I'm cautiously optimistic that we've turned the metaphorical corner. (Granted, in recent years, we've had rogue snowstorms in April, so I'm still holding my breath.)

16 days ago, Nick and I got our one-dose J&J COVID-19 vaccination! I put in a vaccine request on a whim (even though we weren't in any of the priority groups, and I made it clear that we weren't), and we were contacted a few days later to schedule our appointment. Nick wanted the one-dose vaccine, so we left the kids with my folks and drove up to Weston on a Saturday to receive it. Felt so relieved afterward... also achy with chills and a bad headache. That makes me think that I never got COVID over the past year, and would have had a rough time of it had I contracted the virus. 

10 days ago, Nick's folks (now a month past full vaccination) took the kids for the weekend. It was nice for everybody - they got to see the kids, the kids got to be somewhere else, and we got to have two kid-free nights for the first time in 15 months.

5 days ago, we left for a little spring break trip up to Superior and Duluth. It was nice to see different walls for a change of pace. Not only walls, but waterfalls! Spring melt made for some spectacular waterfall viewing at Amnicon Falls and Pattison State Parks in Wisconsin and Tettegouche and Gooseberry State Parks in Minnesota. It also made for copious amounts of mud on our 3-mile hike at Tettegouche... We spent much of the time with my parents, who joined us. We got back yesterday afternoon.

One of the more spectacular views we saw

We're now turning our attention to the future, with summer ball starting up soon (Felix has his first tournament team practice tomorrow night). Soon, we'll get the kids signed up for summer camp. We're just about set for our kids to return to in-person school next year. 

Awesome things: It's baseball season (Go Brewers!), hearing Bob Uecker call ball games (worthy of its own mention), being able to take a vacation, science and vaccines!

2 Weeks In

With COVID-19 dominating the headlines, we decided on March 11 to cancel our road trip to Disney World planned for spring break. It wasn't an easy decision, but we didn't want to risk catching anything at a crowded theme park. It's good that we took the initiative, because Disney closed its parks a week later. 

After a spirited discussion of the pros and cons and the writing on the wall becoming clearer with each passing day, we took our kids out of school and stayed home together on Friday, March 13. How apt, as that became Day 1 of social / physical isolation for us. And later that day, school statewide was canceled starting the following Wednesday, although our school district chose Monday, March 16 instead. 

Today marks Day 14 for us. Here are some highlights... 

• Nick and I have both teleworked every day. It's old hat for me, but Nick's getting the hang of it. We just stake out our own areas. Nick's got the kitchen table. 

• The kids made up their own school-mimicking schedule! It worked great for the first week. (we let them relax and do what they wanted for "spring break.") They go back to the schedule next week. 

• Iris and I used semi-permanent purple hair dye on 3/13. It's a race to see what ends first: the color or the isolation. 

• We have since made 2 family trips outside the house: to get some baseball gear with which the kids can practice at home and to do a drive-by scavenger hunt created by my parents around town.
• Iris and Felix have booth been keeping touch with friends via Messenger on their tablets. 

• Nick's folks were visiting his sister in San Francisco when the lockdowns started. Unfortunately, they didn't get to do much, but fortunately, they were able to travel back without contracting anything. 
• I picked up my Walmart grocery order last Friday and was disappointed many items I selected weren't available. So, I went to a supermarket that turned out to be pretty busy. Despite keeping my distance, shopping quickly and wearing gloves, I was accused of risking my life (and by extension, my family's) for carrots, lunch meat and beef for jerky. That attitude I could do without. [as of this time, there has been only 1 positive test reported in our county thus far].

Also, it should have been Opening Day for MLB. I like having games on the background, so I've searched for old football, baseball and basketball victories. At the same time, it's uncomfortable watching so many people in one place. 

Awesome things: PEOPLE WHO ARE TAKING THIS PANDEMIC SERIOUSLY (and don't hoard stuff!), Trailer Park Boys, sous vide Old Fashioned mix (swap brandy for bourbon, put orange zest in a tea ball, SAVE THE CHERRIES), curbside pick-up. 

Felix: 10.5 yrs & Iris: 7.5 yrs

Spring 2019

Spring/summer sports season is nearly upon us, so I figured I would take a moment and catch up on the what we've been up to since my last post.

We celebrated Iris's half birthday on March 2nd. Normally, we wouldn't but since her teacher was celebrating summer birthdays at the kid's half birthday, we decided to take advantage and give Iris the friend birthday party she's never had. (It's difficult with her birthday falling before the school year and Labor Day). We had a pool party at the Y and she had a great time.

We hunkered down in March, enduring more snow and cold.

But finally, some excitement: Spring Break. We decided to stay a little closer to home, and took the kids down to Chicago. We spent three full days in the city, letting the kids decide our itinerary.

Day 0: Arrival
We arrived on Wednesday afternoon at the hotel in Skokie. I was in the midst of a bad cold/sinus infection, so I declined joining the others in swimming in the hotel pool. We drove over to Wheeler, to visit with our college friend Kyle, his wife Delphine, and 2.5-year-old daughter Louison. The kids played nicely, and we had a nice time catching up and eating deep dish pizza. :o)

Hello, friends!

Day 1: Downtown
After taking advice from Kyle, we drove downtown, parked, and walked along Michigan Avenue to the John Hancock building. The kids wanted to go up, so we did the 360 Chicago experience. We got there just after it opened, so it was nice and quiet. Great (albeit hazy) views. We stayed about an hour and a half before the kids got bored.

Looking north toward home

Felix really, really wanted to go see The Bean, so we walked back south to that. I'd never been up by it, and it's very popular. The weather was cool, but nice, so it wasn't too bad walking.

We ate lunch at a nearby French cafe. The kids were so-so about the haute cuisine. (¯\_(ツ)_/¯). They really wanted to go swimming next, so we headed back to the car. Because we had the Tesla, we stopped on the way to charge it. It was the Brewers opening day, so we followed along with the game while we waited. Finally, back to the hotel. We all went down to the pool this time. The kids swam until Iris whacked her head doing a flip. At that point, no more swimming. She got a nice egg-sized bump but was otherwise fine. We went to the nearby outdoor mall to get some dinner and wander. The kids enjoyed the outdoor play area. Back to the hotel for a quiet night.

Day 2: Shedd Aquarium
I gave the kids a list of many of the museums and experiences available to us in Chicago. The Aquarium was one they agreed on, so that's where we spent Friday. Again, we drove down and parked. We walked along the lake shore (chillier and windier today) until we reached it.

Had to wait in some lines, and the place was sooooo crowded. Why do people bring babies in strollers to places like this?? It might have been because of the crowds, but the kids were less enthralled by the aquarium than I thought they'd be. Oh well. We did walk around just about every exhibit. And, we ran into another family we knew, of all things. That was pretty funny.

Waving at dolphins

We headed back to the hotel after charging. Had another quiet evening and ate at that mall again.

Day 3: Museum of Science & Industry
Last day in Chicago. Both kids were excited to go to the MS&I. We spent several hours walking through the different exhibits (ooh, mirror maze!), going to the Tornado Alley movie, and letting the kids get souvenirs they watched get made on an assembly line.

Day 4: Brewers Game
Since Milwaukee was on the way home and the Brewers just happened to be playing an opening weekend series against the Cardinals there... We took advantage and took ourselves out to the ballgame. My folks joined us for the afternoon game. It was so cold and windy - thank goodness for the roof! We had great seats, stayed for the whole game, and saw a great come-from-behind win. Because the parking lot needed to clear out before we left, we let the kids do the run-the-bases thing. They both enjoyed that, despite the very long line. We had an uneventful drive home after that.

Go Brewers!

Since our trip, we've endured yet another snowstorm (Seriously? 10" in April? Again??), but have started looking forward to summer. Iris has been doing an intro-to-hockey class, and will be doing both rec soccer and softball this summer. Felix is on another tournament baseball team and will be doing league ball as well. Things are looking to get very busy, very quickly! Stay tuned!

Awesome Things: American Gods season 2, thundersleet, 80° days, melting snow.

Felix: 9.5 yrs & Iris: 6.5 yrs

DC Spring Break

My 200th post! Our big excitement since my last post was our Spring Break trip to Washington, DC, last week. We left on Sunday, March 25 to begin the kids' first road trip and returned seven days later...

​

We were up and out of the house by 5:45 to begin our road trip. Prior to this, the farthest we had driven with the kids was the 3.5-hour trip we took to Milwaukee last year, so we didn't know how the kids would handle DAYS in the car. Turns out, with enough stuff and snacks, surprisingly well! We drove through Chicago (with the kids marveling at the skyline) to Indianapolis. Felix's stomach did not handle the bumps of Indiana well... Good thing I brought many garbage bags and we were due for a stop. Both kids enjoyed visiting​ the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Felix took pictures of every single vehicle. I set Iris on tasks, looking for things like all the cars with a #1 on them. Unfortunately, snow on the track kept us from doing a track tour. A couple hours later, we were at our hotel outside Dayton. The kids were pretty disappointed that the lock to the pool door died just as we tried to open it, and the hotel was unwilling to fix it. :(

Future drivers?

The next day, the kids got to add several more states to their quickly-growing collection: PA, WV, MD, and VA. They enjoyed getting sandwich makings from a grocery store and eating lunch at a scenic overlook in Pennsylvania. Lots of mountains, and we spotted a license plate we hadn't seen before: Newfoundland and Labrador. Sweet. ​We got to our airbnb outside DC in late afternoon and settled in. We started watching our first season of the Great British Baking Show, and got takeout from a nearby French restaurant.

Lunch at a scenic overlook outside Uniontown, PA

Our first day in the city! ... turned out to be pretty gray and cool. We decided to take the kids to the National Air and Space Museum. We gave the kids their first taste of the Metro and they both liked it a lot. Unfortunately, we found out pretty quickly that we weren't the only ones with Spring Break plans in DC, as it took us 45 minutes in line just to enter the museum. Once in, we split up - Felix with Nick, Iris with me. I let Iris lead me anywhere she fancied around the museum. She especially liked the interactive kids exhibits we found (like getting to sit in a Cessna and play with the controls), and spent a whopping 10 minutes just riding the escalators while I watched. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Iris got a stuffed space shuttle and Felix got a model Blue Angel as souvenirs. We also tried "moon cheese". We were a little late leaving the museum to get food at our first choice​ of nearby food truck, so we settled for the "best crepes in DC" food truck. Delicious, despite the rain. We didn't think the kids were up for more museums, so we headed back to our hotel to relax. We got dinner at a nearby Dogfish Head Alehouse. Nice time, that! Another quiet evening. Or it would have been, if we hadn't spotted a mouse in the apartment... Nick was less than thrilled, but our airbnb host made amends.

Tall kids, taller rockets

Crepes!

Wednesday's forecast was again rainy and cool, so we opted to buy tickets for the DC Trolley Tour. We started off late and headed straight for Arlington National Cemetery. We got on a tram which took us on a tour of the cemetery. We witnessed the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and saw a full military funeral with band, guard, and horse-drawn caisson. I'm not sure the experience really sunk in with the kids, but it was meaningful. After the chill of Arlington, we headed to Georgetown on the Metro and visited a restaurant recommended to us by our host, Thunder Burger. That was quite tasty! From there, back on the Metro to get us to where we could pick up the full Trolley Tour. We caught it kind of late - around 3, but there as enough time to take the full tour. It was kind of raining, so it was good to be inside seeing the sites. Iris kept thinking the big buildings were the White House. Finally, we saw it. The trolley driver was nice and let a small group of us hope out to see the MLK monument, which I hadn't seen yet. He also went out of his way to drop us off where we could get some dinner by Chinatown. Felix was a bit crabby by that point and it was busy with hockey fans, so we headed back for base camp and a quiet evening.

It may not be exciting, but it's important.

All aboard!

Thursday morning we spent in, getting some laundry done and watching the end of the Great British Baking Show while the kids played ski jumping with their animals. We headed out after an early lunch and made our way to the National Zoo. The very high escalator on the way out of the station scared the kids. It was a lovely day - bright and nearly 80! That meant many other people had same idea. The zoo was quite crowded. Iris was a bit crabby to start, but she warmed up and both kids ended up enjoying themselves, especially after we rode the carousel and got the kids small stuffed animal souvenirs. We especially enjoyed going through the Amazonia exhibit. From there, we walked back up to the zoo entrance and met Nick's sister across the street for dinner at Duke's Counter. The kids were great, the food was great, and Nick got a chance to catch up with his sister. That was a lovely way to end our time in DC!

Loving the Amazonia exhibit and the arapaimas

Yay for family visits!

The two days spent driving home involved a lot of rain/snow/windy weather, more carsickness from Felix, and increasing irritation. But on the plus side, we did get a hotel with a functioning pool on the way back, and Nick got to test drive a Tesla at a dealership in Chicago. We were all very happy with the trip and to be safely back home.

The front seat of the Tesla model S sure looks spacious...

... compared to being squashed between two kids seats in the back!

Awesome things: Kids who CAN handle road trips, the Great British Baking Show, and The Good Place.

Felix: 8.5 yrs & Iris: 5.5 yrs

Orlando!

Yes, we were among the hundreds of millions of families (seemed like, anyway) that descended upon Orlando for Spring Break 2017.

We started planning this trip along with my parents many months ago, and after months of (im)patiently waiting, planning and packing, it was finally time to go. We drove down to Milwaukee the afternoon of March 26 and checked into our hotel with a chirping smoke alarm outside our room (thankfully, they put in a fresh battery before bedtime). We swam in the pool, ate dinner, and got ourselves ready for the travel day. We were in a pickle, because the hotel said no shuttles between 7 am and 9 am, and we needed a shuttle around 8:30. Scheduled an Uber for the next day.

After we feasted on the hotel breakfast the following morning, we packed up and waited. Lo and behold, we got a hotel shuttle all by ourselves at the right time. Not sure what happened exactly, but it worked out in our favor. We checked in our bags, and gave the kids their first taste of queuing for a ride - in the security line. :o) We had some time to kill at the gate, so we wandered a bit. Iris and I found a play room - and so did a friend of hers from daycare who was also on our flight! They played together until it was time to board. We flew a direct Southwest flight to MCO. Nick and the kids took a row, I sat across the aisle, making for one of my most relaxing flights. :o) This was Iris's first flight, and Felix's second flight (his first was to Mexico when he was 1.5 years old). The lovely people at Southwest gave them first flight certificates and wings. We arrived in sunny, warm Orlando mid-afternoon. We got a shuttle to our hotel, Disney's Pop Century Resort, checked in, and met my parents there. First stop after unpacking: the pool! After swimming, we had a low-key dinner at the resort and got ready for the next day.

Tuesday was Magic Kingdom day. The kids were very excited to join the throngs of people also going there that day. It was hot and sunny. The day was made extra-magical by the Pixie Dust Iris got in her hair. We rode the Barnstormer, the Seven Dwarfs Mine Ride (Iris said the drops on each ride "scared her private parts"), the Haunted Mansion, the carousel, had lunch at the Colombia Harbour House, took a ride on the steamboat, and waited for our Big Thunder Mountain Railroad FastPass times. Iris declined to go on it, so my mom took her to the Tiki Room show instead. Felix loved the roller coasters after some initial fear. We all joined up to go on Splash Mountain. Iris freaked out as we approached the boarding point. She DID NOT want to go on any more drops. Mom took her out of line, but then suddenly, Iris changed her mind and wanted to go on the log ride after all. They ended up being on a log a few back from us, so we couldn't see how she handled it. 😬 She was all smiles after, but that was it for rides. She had had enough of hiding in Grandma's lap on the drops. 

We caught the train back to Main Street and waited for the parade. While the rest of the family watched that, Felix and I were on a quest for his souvenir - a foam sword. We reconvened and decided it was time to go. Further delays ensued: someone cut their leg on the bus that was to take us back to the resort, meaning EMS was there for a long time, then they had to take that bus away for cleaning and we had to wait longer. Anyway, finally got back to the hotel, and went to the pool. Ordered in dinner. It was nice having adjoining rooms for the adults to chat after the kids went to bed.

What could go wrong? 

Wednesday, we went to Animal Kingdom. The park was much less crowded than Magic Kingdom. We wandered through the different areas, which were shady and cool. We went on the safari ride, pet a snake in another nature area, had lunch under the burning sun, and cooled off on the river rafting ride. The kids enjoyed earning Wilderness Explorer badges. Nick and I rode Expedition Everest while the folks watched the kids in the Boneyard playground. We hunted down some stuffed animal souvenirs and then called it a day. We took so many steps in these two days! More swimming back at the hotel. Nick and I left the kids with the folks, and headed to Disney Springs. We ate our way through the Sushi and Sashimi Pagoda at Morimoto Asia, and enjoyed Irish beverages and dancing at Raglan Road. It was a lovely night to walk around.

YES. 

Thursday, we checked out of the hotel, and all headed over to Disney Springs. We went to the Disney Store and the Lego Store, then ate lunch at Raglan Road. From there, the folks took the rental car and the kids and drove up to Weirsdale to visit Grandma Maxine and Grandpa Dennis, and we followed. We had a nice time chatting and relaxing. The kids swam three times in their pool, and met the horses. It was a clear night, and we were able to see the launch of a SpaceX rocket from 90 miles away. This was especially exciting for Nick and Iris. It was a quiet night.

And a quiet morning on Friday. The kids swam and swam again. They also went riding on one of the horses. I also gamely went for a ride in the yard. The kids liked it. We said goodbye after lunch and headed back to Orlando. We checked into our hotel for the night. The kids went swimming again. We decided to go to an "authentic German restaurant" nearby for dinner. It was quaint and kitschy, and completely deserted except for our family. A rather strange experience to be the only ones in a restaurant for over an hour. But the food was good, and the kids didn't bother anyone else. So, yay? We had a quiet night back at the hotel afterward.

Saturday, we goodbye to the folks (who were driving back), packed up and headed out. I was cranky until we got to the airport, then I settled down. Waiting in line to check our luggage took a lot longer than the security line. The kids were still excited to ride on the plane, which helped. What didn't help was that our flight out was delayed an hour because a nor'easter cancelled our inbound flight. Once they started boarding, they did it so quickly that I forgot about my phone at the charging station until we were on board the plane! Thankfully, my panic was short-lived, because the flight attendants were able to get it to me before the door closed. Whew! The kids had a tougher time with pressure in their ears on the way into Milwaukee. But we survived with no major problems, got back to our car, and treated the kids to ice cream to celebrate our return. The drive home was uneventful, and I scheduled pizza to be delivered minutes after we arrived. 

It was a great time, and we left a lot for us to do the next time we go down. We saw the license plates from 38 states, which was a new personal record. :o)

Felix: 7.5 yrs & Iris: 4.5 yrs