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...

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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

Mid-Winter Update

Another bitterly cold month has passed, so might as well give a few updates! It's been a busy few weeks!

• Iris has been in ice skating lessons this winter. She's doing pretty well! At least, she's spending more time on her feet than falling on the ice, which is an improvement. Felix passed on the opportunity this year. Instead, Nick has been taking him to the batting cages in preparation for baseball this summer.
• Nick's parents stopped by for a nice, long visit in mid-January. Lately, their visits have ended with dinner at Mikey's in Plover. No complaints there!
• We had friends over for a fancy dinner party, complete with charcuterie and cheese board. We're so adult! We let the kids join us for dinner and they behaved beautifully. Maybe we should do this more often...

Awaiting our guests.

• Iris sold Girl Scout cookies for the first time. She demolished her goal of 5 boxes. :o)
• We joined friends for an art show preview at UWSP and snagged ourselves a lovely blown glass bowl offered by a student artist. Yay, atsy centerpieces!
• We then had my parents over for dinner and visiting before they departed on a trip to Mexico.
• I spent three days home with Iris, who was struck down by the flu. Poor girl! Her fever took a while to be gone completely, but all she needed was ibuprofen and rest to get better. Fortunately, no one else in the family was hit at the same time.

Practicing camouflaging while home sick.

• We once again joined the friends we had over for our dinner party when we got together in Wausau for a WPR event - dinner and an Old Time Radio Drama (The Canterville Ghost). It was a lot of fun.

Dapper gentlemen

• Most excitingly of all, the kids competed in the rescheduled Badger State Games and Tri-Norse ski jumping tournaments yesterday. Despite the weather being either 5 or 45 degrees lately, there was enough snow for the tournaments to proceed. This was our first winter tournament, and so it was definitely a new experience! Pretty busy in the chalet, but it was low 30s and snowy, so being outside wasn't so bad. Felix was disappointed that the snow in his eyes made seeing when to jump difficult, so he wasn't happy with his second place finish. It's a learning experience and we're so proud of both of them. Iris didn't have any competition in the U6F class, but she did her best and had fun. We got to watch jumps on all the hills before the awards ceremony, which was pretty cool.

• In case you haven't noticed, the Olympics have been on. Since we stream our TV, we've been able to pick what we want to watch on delay. We've been watching a lot of curling (naturally), picking up the finer points of ski jumping, and exposing the kids to interesting sports like skeleton and freestyle aerials skiing. I admit, I'm cheering for the Norwegian men's curling team's pants as much as any American athlete... ;o)

Much more is in store for us in the coming months, so stay tuned!

Awesome thing(s): The Olympics, The Good Place, huge BSG medals

Felix: 8.5 yrs & Iris: 5 yrs

Winter Times

'Tis the season! Yikes, actually, a little past that, but better late than never!

• Nick and I started our 4th season of curling. It felt pretty good to get back out on the ice.
• Nick and I sent the kids to visit their grandparents and headed down to Madison for a weekend in November. We went to the Badger men's hockey game with my parents on Friday night. Nice win! The next morning, we were invited to go to the UW System President's house for a tailgate party with WPR and got to rub elbows with prestigious people (saw Tommy Thompson and Tony Evers at least). From there, we experienced our first game at Camp Randall in the upper deck in a long time. Another Badger win!

• The kids and I had a five-day weekend over Thanksgiving. We went up to Green Bay for a nice visit. 
• Felix was reevaluated for ADHD and prescribed medication to help get him to focus better in school. He's not hyper, but he just goes off in his own world. We've hit on a good dosage level for now, and it's making a quite a difference. We weren't initially in favor of putting him on medication, but the overall improvement of school and home life have been worth it.
• My friend Lindsey and I had an overnight stay for work in Madison, and took advantage of an opportunity to do some flame-working! We made some beautiful, wonky icicles out of glass.
• We all spent some time at nice holiday parties and got a chance to catch up with friends.
• We had lovely times with family at Christmas. In my family's tradition, we staged a theme Christmas picture. Can you guess what it is?

• We left the kids with Nick's parents for a few days after Christmas and spent a few bitterly cold days in Minneapolis. We saw Phantom of the Opera, ate and imbibed an array of offerings, and generally had a relaxing time.
• The kids were supposed to were supposed to have two ski jumping competitions this weekend, but the wonderful warm spell this week and sudden cold has put an end to those plans, at least for now.

Stay tuned for more adventures!

Awesome things: Schitt's Creek, days above 0°F, Nick's veggie spiralizer

Felix: 8 yrs & Iris: 5 yrs

Fall Adventures

Our fall so far:

• The kids have been enjoying school so far this year!
• Both kids played rec soccer this fall. They didn't have any overlapping games, but it made us doubly busy! Iris's team was mostly Kindergartners, but they started to do much better by the final game. Nick coached Felix's team again and both seemed to enjoy it.

• Nick had a WPR retreat in Madison at the end of September, and I tagged along with him. While he sat in meetings, I visited friends and took nice walks around campus. I definitely miss many things about Madison!
• The kids took up the sport of ski jumping! We went down to the Tri-Norse Ski Club in Adams County for their Tri-It day. The kids picked it up quickly and were flying down the K5 hill in no time. Because they took to it quickly, we signed them up for the tournament there the following weekend...
• ...which was a very busy weekend! We went down to Madison on Friday to attend the WPR/WPT Centennial Celebration. It was rainy, but the kids enjoyed getting their faces painted. :o)

• Saturday, we tailgated and Nick and Felix went to the Badger game with my parents. Iris and I left the tailgate when the rain started. We went back to the pool, swam and watched the game. Got together with everyone again after the game.

• Sunday, we let the kids have a quick dip in the pool, then beat it up to the ski jump hill. Both kids took first place in their divisions, which has whetted their appetite for more ski jumping and competitions.

• The kids had last Friday off, so I took the day off and took them up to Marshfield. Alas, the weather wasn't kind, but we did stop by the Wildwood Zoo for the first time. Hello, Bear!

• And finally, yesterday was Halloween! The kids dressed up and braved the chill to go to a few houses in the neighborhood. If anyone has any need for a Ninja or Astronaut, just let me know.

Awesome thing(s): smart house stuff that works, Dirk Gently, Poldark, The Durrells

Felix: 8 yrs & Iris: 5 yrs

School Year Begins

Summer is done and we are now on to our next big adventure - having two kids in grade school!

The kids started school after Labor Day. Both are very excited about this year. Felix, because he has gotten glasses to correct some farsightedness. Iris, because she's now at big-kid school. They go to different places before and after school (only one more year of that inconvenience), but with my schedule, both are able to come home together on the bus, which is a nice way to end the week.

But back to reminiscing about summer... We had a number of mini-adventures after Felix's birthday. My mom and I took the kids down to the Dells on a steaming hot Tuesday in July. The kids enjoyed the rides and slides at Mt. Olympus. Iris was a bit impatient to get into the park while we waited for my sister to drive up from Madison and join us for the day. She was mostly smiles after that.

Nick and I went to see MST3K Live! in Green Bay on a Sunday night. We enjoyed our date night while Nick's parents watched the kids. The show was fantastic, and it was a definite change of pace getting everyone ready by 6:30 in the morning so none of us were too late on Monday morning.

We took the kids kayaking on Sunset Lake one warm Sunday, and the next day, I headed down to Madison with the kids and my mom to get ever-so-slightly closer to the path of the total solar eclipse. We had a delicious lunch, followed by a long wait at the Memorial Terrace. Unfortunately, it was pretty cloudy, but we could still tell what was going on. After the maximum eclipse, I snagged a pair of eclipse glasses from people that we leaving, so we could see for ourselves how it looked through them. The kids got a bit bored by the whole thing, but I thought it was pretty cool.

The following weekend, we counted ourselves fortunate to be among those invited to the nuptials of our friends, Kristopher and Shane. After their reception, I will definitely be looking at airplane hangers as potential event venues. :o) We had a great time dancing to the full swing band with our friends, Brian and Heidi. I raided my costume box so I could go full-vintage with a dress I bought 20 years ago that was homemade in the 50's (I assume).

Our little peanut turned 5!! Iris had a quiet birthday celebration. We took her out to McDonald's for dinner (her choice), after the elementary school open house. My parents came by later to celebrate.

And finally, both kids are in soccer this fall. Nick's coaching Felix and now Iris has something else to do on those Saturdays besides watch Felix play. Now they get to watch each other. :o)

Awesome thing(s): Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

Felix: 8 yrs & Iris: 5 yrs

Mid-summer Update

The past two months since my last update have whirled by!

The kids finished up their school years, and jumped right into the summer fun at the Y. Felix and Nick were quite busy with baseball. Nick decided to be a head coach this summer, which made things a bit more hectic than usual, with practices and weather cancellations. We've also had the fun of a wedding, a carnival downtown, birthday parties and a Rafters game. Lots of storms, mosquito bites, and typical tantrums as well. Whew!

Felix turned 8 today! He had his birthday party last weekend: a sleepover with three of his friends. Overall, the kids enjoyed it, but I don't think we'll be having any more sleepovers for a while. Felix wasn't happy about his friends messing with his toys. He'll learn. Or not.

Nick and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary with a trip down to Chicago, where we stayed downtown and went to see Hamilton! I had been waiting for eight months since I purchased the tickets. Sooooo good! It was a brief respite, one we should do more often.

We had a very nice 4th of July weekend. Iris nearly got stormed out of a friends birthday party on the 1st, but managed to enjoy herself. We met up with friends for a floating island party at Sunset Lake on the 2nd and a cookout afterward at their house. I took the day off and the kids to see Cars 3 on the 3rd while Nick was at work. On the 4th, we went to the Rafters game with my parents, and Felix was thoroughly engrossed in the big win. :o)

We've got quite a few fun things lined up for the next month and a half. We're very excited about them all! Stay tuned...

Awesome things: American Gods (watched all episodes twice already!), this past season of Doctor Who, the new MST3K episodes, The Kingkiller Chronicle (since I finished the first and second book this spring)

Felix: 8 yrs & Iris: 4.5 yrs

Mid-May Update

On one hand, it seems like just yesterday that I posted about our trip to Orlando. On the other, there's been so much going on that I haven't really processed all we have done in the last month and a half. Well, here goes!

 

Spring sports started up almost immediately after we got back. Nick took on coaching duties of Felix’s rec soccer and baseball teams (on top of his already busy schedule). Iris also did a four-week floor hockey class. She’s got some good moves out there, even when wearing cowboy boots!

Did I mention Felix has been playing sports with a cast on his left arm? He sustained a buckle fracture near his left wrist on April 9th. He fell from a playset and put out the arm to brace his fall. We didn’t know if it was a break or just a sprain, so it wasn’t until the next day that we took him to the doctor. Thank goodness it comes off today, because his left hand has turned an alarming shade of dirt brown...

That was not the only Felix medical drama we’ve experienced. Felix complained about belly pains the evening of May 4th. We thought it was just gas, given the location (left side) and the suddenness. But they didn’t go away, and it kept him in a lot of discomfort for a few hours. Finally at 10:30, we got the opinion of a nurse who told us to bring him in. Nick took Felix to the ER, and I, wide-awake, awaited an update. At 11:45, I got a text from Nick saying, “Doc says he’s full of poop. Paraphrasing slightly, but not much.” The joys of parenting…

We had the opportunity to see family several times, with visits, a baby shower, and Easter thrown in there. The best by far was our trip this past weekend down to Madison. My parents, my sister and her boyfriend, Nick and I got together to see Book of Mormon at the Overture Center. I’ve been a big fan of the musical for years now, and I was so pleased to finally see it. It was all I had hoped for! It was nice to kick back and relax, grown-up style, for most of the weekend. That is, until we reclaimed the kids and dealt with ice cream- and electronics-related tears. Happy Mother’s Day! 

Felix: 7.5 yrs & Iris: 4.5 yrs