Family Vacation 2012

Let me start by giving a tad bit of back story about my touring habits pre-child. In a previous life I would travel to various places, quite often, for short periods of time, and see tons of stuff. I use to go see Abbey for long weekends and see all sorts of things in the two to three days I had there. I never really went on long vacations, which I think lead to my power tourist mentality. I wanted to get the most bang for my buck, which usually involved getting up early, staying out late, and a lot of walking ( it is a long walk from the Washington monument to the Lincoln Memorial, no matter how close the two might look, just FYI). I tell you this, because our weekend trip to Chicago was my first, and possibly last, trip with a small child. So my mind had to down shift about seven gears to take on the new pace. I had to be ok with the fact that I was going to leave Chicago after only seeing a couple things. Don't get me wrong, we had a great time, it was just a big adjustment for my power touring mind. That being said, here is the recap of our, very peaceful, very safe, weekend in Chicago during the 2012 NATO Summit. I saw no police brutality, no protesters, no violence of any kind. If anything I felt overly safe, with tons of police, secret service, and military out and about.

We headed out Thursday evening and made it to Chicago in five hours flat. Don't ask me how we made it with only one stop, for some reason I didn't have to pee five times, like normal. Zane was well behaved and was successfully entertained. The iPad was a huge help, yes I gave it to him, but the car was so packed that if he had dropped it there would only have been about three inches between it and the closest pillow, bag, or stuffed animal. He watched movies, listened to tunes, and played games. He got his own book bag for the trip, full of surprises from Target's One Spot, which just so happened to have tons of Sesame Street things this week, one of Zane's new favorites. Here is Zane, ready to go, with his book bag on.

Once we arrived at our destination we were slapped in the face by the price of parking, which had not been factored into our vacation budget. I will spare you the details, but it was a hit to the pocket book to say the least. No you don't park for free at the Hilton, why would I think that. We got settled in our room and slept like babies in our king size bed. We did bring the pack and play but it was left behind in the car, due to the distance of the garage from the hotel. But there was plenty of room for us all in our big comfy bed.

Friday we were up early, thanks to the choo choos that ran right by our hotel. We headed out to see the sights of the city. I kept thinking that at some point we were going to walk out the door and see a huge riot scene or at least a large group of people, but every time we left the hotel we were struck by how empty the city felt. All the stores/businesses were closed even where we were, quite a ways North of were the NATO Summit was happening. Friday morning, after getting slightly lost, turns out our gut was completely wrong, we explored Millennium park. We saw the cloud a.k.a the bean and the fountains in Millennium park that whistle, which were oh so fun. We wondered through the empty park, enjoying the gardens and the cool morning. We had brought breakfast bars, but Zane was hungry the entire morning so we gave in and bought breakfast. This is when we saw the police force enjoying breakfast in their riot gear. They were heavily armed and highly entertaining to us, since we hadn't seen more than a handful of people all morning.

 It looks like Zane is running free in the park, actually this was a tiny strip of grass. It was the only grass we could find that wasn't barricaded off. Zane was chasing pigeons and loving it. 

My safest breakfast, ever!

This is where my mind had trouble wrapping itself around toddler travel. At around 9:30 Zane had been up for three hours and was tired. So instead of taking full advantage of the gorgeous day and seeing a the entire city in an afternoon, we headed back to the hotel for naps. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed my nap, but it just felt wrong to be sleeping while there was a whole town to explore. The second strange part, we had brought food for lunch and ate in the room before heading back out. This was for a few reasons, first of all it was to try to save money, and secondly eating with Zane in public isn't always enjoyable/easy.

In the afternoon we made the long, trek over to Shedd Aquarium. We decided to take the train and leave the stroller in the hotel. This made for a long afternoon of hauling around a thirty pound child. Zane loved riding the L. He waved to all the passing trains and said hi to all his fellow riders. At what point should he start to be afraid of strangers?? The train got us somewhat closer, but we still had a pretty long walk, up the hill to Museum Campus to make, sans stroller. There were barricades along the streets and only certain places you could enter the campus, yet there was no one walking around.

Note the utter lack of people in what is usually one of the busiest parts of town.

The Aquarium was busy. Everyone in town was going Friday since it was going to be closed for the rest of the weekend. My final review of the aquarium was that it was over priced, but I also can't imagine how much money it must cost to keep it open, so I tried to think of it as a donation to the cause more than just an entry fee. The Beluga whale, which was in the Polar Play Zone, was my favorite. I know what you are thinking, polar bears are way cooler than Beluga whales. This is true, but there are no polar bears in the polar play zone. The penguin exhibit wasn't nearly as cool as the STLs, but there was an area where kids could dress like penguins and slide down "ice" slides, which was fun. Zane thoroughly enjoyed the entire thing and picked out a stuffed Otter for his souvenir at the end.

 The largest alligator snapping turtle ever. It's really a dinosaur, lets be honest.

 Zane and his otter on the long trek back to the hotel.

After our long day Zach and I laid down with Zane at 8:30pm with all intentions of getting up after he fell asleep. You guessed it we all fell asleep and slept until 7am. And there was much rejoicing.

Saturday morning we went back to the park and saw my favorite part of our visit, the big fountain in the middle of the park. It was a gorgeous day and the fountain was amazingly beautiful. The city again felt very empty and peaceful, with only the occasional runner or dog walker out besides us. After Zane's morning nap we decided that we didn't want to be out and about without the stroller again so why not "just walk to the Pier." Those were our famous last words. Turns out it was ever so slightly farther to Navy Pier than we had originally thought. We didn't have the best route planned out, which meant back tracking, which then led to me getting hit by a guy riding a bike while on the crosswalk going over the highway. Yes, that really happened and have the swollen finger to prove it.

However, we did finally make it to the Pier, determined to find things to do that Zane would enjoy, since he didn't have the best time on the hour walk there. So we headed to the Chicago Children's Museum. From all that I had read it was suppose to be like the Magic House on crack, but in my humble opinion the Magic House is much bigger and much better. Just to be fair I am a card carrying member of the Magic House, but still. It was still tons of fun with a large Circus exhibit, a great fire safety/fire truck play area, a digging for dinosaur bones sections, and the standbys of tree house, fishing, water play area, transportation, and grocery store. Zane had a great time, running from exhibit to exhibit with his favorite place randomly being the little room with collections of miniature things. This was the one place that you really couldn't touch or play with very much stuff since it was all secured behind plexi glass, but everything was tiny and adorable.

The journey started out so well. Zane excited for the day in his stroller.

 Super strong Zaney boy, headed to the Circus.

 Sliding down the fireman's poll.

 Here is Zane "cleaning" in the miniature room.

 Getting eaten by a T-Rex, possibly my favorite picture of the day.

 And of course there was a lot of driving of all sorts of different vehicles. 

After the museum Zane got to ride Thomas. I had no idea that he would be riding on the little train himself, so I headed in with him, planning on riding with him. The nice Indian man quickly informed me that "Mommy's stay outside." I then proceeded to have a small panic attack. I am not sure why, since my son isn't scared of much and has never met a stranger. It was a big step though and of course he did great, waving at the crowd the whole time.

Then we headed to the carousel, where Zane saw the crazy spinning chair ride. The one where you are in a seat and you are spun/swung around really fast. Of course that is what Zane wanted to do, "I swing, I swing" the whole time we were riding the quite tame carousel.

 Waving to his public, per usual.

 What Zane wanted to ride.

Then it was time for a snack, complete with a debacle involving my soda cup getting a whole in it, spilling everywhere, and Zane throwing up. All this happened in the three minute time frame while I was in the bathroom. But we rallied and headed out on the long walk home. When we got to Michigan Ave. we did see, in the distance, what appeared to be a group of protesters on the street. The police came and shut off traffic briefly, while we were crossing the street. That was all the more of the NATO excitement that we got to see. Not really sure what was happening, but didn't appear to be very serious.

A trip to a hotel wouldn't be complete without taking a dip in the over chlorinated hotel swimming pool. We hadn't had time the night before, but I was determined not to leave without doing this activity, since my vacations as a child generally consisted of driving somewhere close and swimming in a hotel swimming pool. The pool did not disappoint. Zane of course thought he could swim and float, he can do neither, so as a parent it was a bit stressful. Zane got to wear his new swim trunks (his hand me down pair was too big and kept falling off at the farm, didn't want that to happen at the Hilton) and his matching flip flops. What a big boy.

Then it was up early Sunday morning to get out of town before any unforeseen road closures started. We got on S-55 without incident and had a very long, boring ride home. When we stopped for gas I saw the covers of the news paper with pictures of protesters and occupy people, as though the city had been full of them, but we hadn't seen a thing. We stopped at a lovely rest area for a picnic lunch and some sliding before getting back on the road. Zane was an amazing traveler through it all. He was always in a good mood and up for anything. I have to say he was probably a better traveler than I was most of the time. I am so glad we went, but kind of sad that he won't remember any of it.

Lazy bones, not wanted to get up early on Sunday.

 All was made better when his otter, named Harry Otter (get it) came in for a snuggle.

NATO Summit Weekend

Today is our second day in Chicago and during our morning stroll along the water front and through the parks I took note of a few obvious changes that had been made in preparation for the NATO summit this weekend. First of all the city is empty. I know a lot of people left the city to avoid the street closures and protesters that are suppose to be happening here this weekend. But let me just say that so far we haven't seen anyone occuping or protesting anything. On the flip side of that there is a huge, very visible, police, secret service, and military presencd in the city. I know it is all a precaution, and the president is coming so everyone is on high alert, but this morning it all felt a little bit silly and a lot like overkill as there were probably thirty policemen in the park that was full of us, a homeless man sleeping, and another couple walking their dog. On the edge of the street that marks the place where all streets south of there are closed to traffic they have lined the street with snow plows. I thought I had taken a picture of this on my iPad but can't seem to find it now that I am back to the hotel, I am sure the secret service erased that from iPad ASAP. All grassy areas in the parks are fenced off,and numerous streets have huge metal barricade walls lining them. Zach thinks all of this looks like a zombie Apocalypse, I will have to take his word for it since I have no idea what one of those is suppose to look like. When we arrived back at our hotel after our morning walk there were foreign dignitaries leaving the hotel in their unmarked cars with all sorts of people wearing ear pieces pro trolling the area. I personally liked looking at all the lapel pins, as everyone in suit here is wearing the flag of their country, how fun. Needless to say the city of Chicago is well prepared for the weekends events and hopefully all runs smoothly. For now the huge numbers of police are having quiet days in the park. We saw a group of police yesterday that were in full riot gear, think helmets with face shields and bullet proof vests, enjoying breakfast at Panera Bread, just incase some one tried to protest tastey bagels. I am glad we decided to go ahead and come instead of sitting at home all weekend. We pretty much have the run of the place, though a lot of shops have closed for the weekend. The trains are all running with no increased security, well at least none that we could notice. Zane thoroughly enjoyed his first experience with the metro system and says hi to all the choo choos as they pass. I don't have my actual computer so pictures from all our adventures will have to come later. This afternoon we are heading to Navy Pier, it should be tons of fun. Everyone here is braving for what they are calling a "heat wave," the high is suppose to be 88 degrees with a gorgeous cool breeze off the lake. I hate to break it to them, but anything less than 95 degrees is not a heat wave.

Ten on Tuesday

1. Time is flying by with our busy schedules. Due to two trips, scheduled close together, I have not had very many days off so cannot seem to get things done. I also am missing Zane, but in good news we are going on a family Vaca to Chicago for the weekend.

2. The family vacation to Chicago has been a bit dicey. I found out this weekend that the NATO Summit is being held there this weekend, which means that not only is the President going to be in town, the Occupy people are going to be in town, security is going to be increased, and some roads/public transportation is going to be interrupted. After talking to numerous people who live there and having mom talk to the locals during her visit Sunday, we have decided it will be fine. We will just avoid the area of town where the Summit is taking place. Surely the occupy people aren't anti Children's Museums, right? The main reason we are going is that we got the Hilton on the cheap off of Priceline, so our money is nonrefundable. It will be an adventure to say the least, wish us luck.

3. Needless to say I spent a large portion of time at work today contemplating how to keep Zane entertained in the hotel room for the few hours a night that we need to just chill out and not be doing something. I googled it and here are the ground breaking suggestions I got, "Bring toys, take a walk, go swimming, nap..." Who seriously read that and said, "Oh yeah we should bring toys." USELESS!!! The one night he has spent in a hotel before did not go so great, but he is six months older and I am bringing many more toys/entertainment. If all else fails he will get to play the iPad a lot this vacation, which he will enjoy. I am buying him a magna doodle for the trip, slightly better than the iPad the entire time.

4. Zane's sleeping has taken a turn for the worse, again, which included a two hour stretch last night of screaming, putting him back in bed, cuddles....rinse repeat. The issue is he doesn't just randomly, kind of cry, he literally wakes up screaming bloody murder, like he has had his arm cut off. So we rush in there and he is totally fine. Or what happened last night, we let him cry, because we know that he is fine, and he finally wakes himself up to the point that he got out of bed and was playing... failure. I am out of ideas, but we had a long talk with him this evening about staying in his bed, not screaming unless he had a boo boo, and that he needed to drink the water, from the cup in his bed, not ask for milk when he wakes up. I might as well have been giving that talk to the wall..... sigh.

5. Gardening update: My broccoli have survived to adulthood without much rabbit damage. They all have little broccoli on them and I am super excited. My lettuce grew well but after three salads that were extremely bitter and tasted like dirt I pulled it all up yesterday in attempt to give the beets more room to grow. I love fresh beets, but can't seem to figure out how to make them work. I thinned them out and everything and they are still very little. The bunnies ate the tops of some as well, which I am sure isn't helping. Both tomato plants are doing well, pruned back appropriately and everything. And in the most exciting news, both of my volunteer squash plants are thriving as well. I think my garden might actually have some produce this year. Fingers crossed!

6. Zach and I are still trying to stay on our workout routine, but as mentioned above I haven't had very many days off that we have been home so we aren't doing great. We did work out once while at the farm, which is unheard of and we did work out last night, but then we be gone for three days. Maybe my walking all over God's creation in Chicago will count for some exercise. I'm pretty sure I will always be fat though, sad face.

7. The heat is on to finish my newest nephew's baby blanket. I was doing so well before I went to OK. I am about half done, but have no time to work on it and that baby is coming out soon. I maybe I could work on it in the car. How did I use to crochet blankets in no time, right no child, I remember.

8. On my one day off last week Zane and I went to the zoo with my friend Allie. It was a Friday and super busy but we had a great time. More animals are out at the children's zoo now that it is the busy season. In disappointing news my membership only includes six parking passes now, which is a huge bummer since we go about once a month.

9. I had an uneventful Mother's Day since I had to work. There is a family, whose daughter passed away on our floor years ago, who come up and pass out Mother's Day Gifts to all the patient's mother's and all the people who work there every year.That was nice and I had a patient give me some lotion as well. We brought tons of food to celebrate my friend Amy's last weekend with us. She is going to travel nurse, which is super sad, but I'm excited for her. We all ate till we couldn't breath to celebrate! Zach and Zane had cards and dinner for me when I got home.

10. Zach is the only Engineer at his job now so he is struggling trying to sort through the old Engineers papers/files and do the job of two people, with little help. He is super busy and frustrated. Hopefully they get someone hired to fill the other Engineering spot soon so Zach doesn't loose his mind.

May Farm Time

It has become a yearly tradition (now that we have done it for two years) that we head to the farm to enjoy the beautiful May weather before it turns 100 degrees everyday. This year Zach joined us and his mission was to wire my mom's new garage with electricity. I thought this was going to be a large undertaking, but with Able and Jarrett's help the job only took one day. In my humble opinion they possibly could have stretched it out a bit, but that isn't how Zach rolls. He worked into the dark until it was done.

We flew in Friday afternoon, had a short visit with the Richards, before heading to the farm. As soon as we got in the car in the morning Zane started looking for cows. We would randomly hear "a cow" from the back seat while on HW 270. There are no cows on 270, but we had told him numerous times we were headed to Grandma's so he knew he would see cows by the end of the day. He saw a few on our way out of the city, then fell asleep, but when he woke up he was greeted by some serious cows. My mom's neighbors have a small herd of longhorns, God knows why, they are pretty pointless if you ask me, but they are fun to look at. One of them even had a nose ring, again pointless, but interesting.

Here we are saying "hi" to the cows, quite literally. Zane said hi and waved at them all.

Friday evening Zach and Able got started on the garage project while Zane explored Grandpa's farm. He absolutely loves it there. He has acres of land to explore, with all sorts of animals to chase, pet, and say hello to everyday. This trip we saw chickens, cats, rabbits, lizards, fish, birds, and a real life snake that I almost stepped on and it scared me to death. He loved looking at all the different plants, flower beds, and trees and I love watching him take in the place I call home. This year the wheat was extremely tall and very "turned," as they say, for mid May. During last May's visit Zane and I had to swat down to take our wheat pictures. This year the Grandkids were swallowed up by the waist high wheat. I could look out across a flat field of tall wheat all day. It is peaceful to me and feels like home. Of course it's tinged with sadness as I didn't appreciate or love the land enough when Dad was still here.

May 2011, very green, very short wheat.

May 2012, very tall, very turned wheat.

 Wheat pictures are a long standing tradition from where I come from. The key is to sit down then lean back into the wheat, so you are surrounded by it. Maggie has this technique down pat, the boys weren't catching on, so they all stood in the wheat instead. It isn't quite the same effect, but still a great, classic picture. 

This trip was also the first time that Zane and Maggie could actually play together without it ending violently. They became quick friends, going on all sorts of adventures together. Had they had their way they would have practiced taking turns on the swing all day long. This led to Zane learning a  new phrase by Saturday afternoon, "I swing." 

 Uncle Able even did some "twisty" swinging, which Zane of course liked, but Maggie wasn't so sure.

Since the adults got tired of swinging from time to time we had to come up with other activities. Here were the highlights, chasing the cat, throwing rocks of the bridge, chasing/talking to the chickens, eating icy pops, playing in various cars ( leading to Zane's second new phrase, "I drive"), crawling through the tunnels, porch play time, and the favorite activity of the weekend, swimming in the wash basin together. I could post twenty pictures of these two enjoying the wash basin, but I will try to keep to like half a dozen. Zane did prefer to swim naked, but kept his trunks on for swim time with Maggie.

 Kicking!!!

 Note the huge bandaid on his knee. This was to cover the gashes on his knee from pieces of cement he fell on in the drive way.

I think this one is my favorite, so adorable.

 Cousin love!

You know what takes the castle to another level, a cat to chase through it.

Here is Zane "driving" my Grandpa's 1972 Ranchero. This is the car that my Grandmother use to drive us around Okeene in. I "sat" (or was stored) behind the seat back in the day.

The other big thing that happened this visit was that Zane could not stop hurting himself. He fell down all the time, hit is head on numerous things, the main one being a brick, leading to a large goose egg and a lot of frozen peas to the head. I don't know if he was overly excited or just clumsy but by Sunday night he was battered and bruised. I had some serious concerns that my day care lady would hotline me when we got home, but I think Zach just told her we were at the farm and it was all understood. 

Note the hole in the patio, surrounded by brinks. Not a good combo, Zane was peering in the whole then fell, ending with a brick to the forehead.

 Sadly there was a lot of this face seen that weekend. In this particular picture he was crying because it was Maggie's turn to swing.

 Check out the shiner on his forehead. He was totally past it by this point.

 Oh and he puts things down his shirt, randomly, now.

 I had a great visit with Anna  and Emily, who both some how managed to not be photographed all weekend. Anna brought he husband and her huge dog up for her visit this time which was tons of fun. And I was so happy that Emily, Justin, and Kyser could all came over for the big cook out Saturday night. It was freakishly hot Saturday, but cool down for the rest of our visit. Kyser and Zane had a few personal space issues, such as Zane wanted to continually huge Kyser while Kyser did not want to be touch. But all and all they had fun together as well. Here they are enjoying some icy pops and checking out the tractor.

Maggie and Zane said good bye with a hug/fall on the ground session. The second cutest thing they did all weekend. I wish I had gotten this on video as their squeals and giggles were priceless.

It was great to be home, for a longer visit than usual. I wish Zane could go explore the farm more... maybe one day. My favorite quote from the weekend was when Miss Maggie, out of no where, told all of us at the dinner table, and I quote " I worry about the machine." The machine being mom's oil well behind her house. It as the funniest, though slightly saddest, thing ever. It's always great to hang out with the family. Next up farm camp in June.

Ten on Tuesday

1. Zane has learned how to put his rain boots on by himself. This morning he even got them on the correct feet, hooray!! This morning he went outside with his shorts, rain boots, and conductors hat. Very adorable.

2. Zane is on a bit of hat kick as of late. He chooses his hats carefully and only wants to wear certain ones at certain times. Today, while at Target, Zane picked up a miniature fedora from the kids section and wanted to wear it around the store. I assumed that he would be done with the hat before we got to the checkout line. I was completely wrong. He left it on the entire time, except to occasionally take it off and tell strangers, "this my hat." Of course we then had to buy it. Here is Zane on the couch in his new hat, that he wore all the way home and during iPad time before his nap. The picture isn't great, it was taken on my iPad, in not so great light.

 3. Today is my one day off this week, so I have been busy doing laundry, trying to pull things together for the plane ride, and trying to pack three days in advance. I cannot understand why the packing processes takes forever, but somehow it gets more difficult with each trip. Apparently I am going to need to figure out how to pack hats this trip.

4. My camera is dying a slow, painful death. It's demise started when Zane and I were "running like a horse" at the park and it fell out of my pocket, and onto the cement. This fall broke the mechanism that keeps the door to battery and memory card area closed. Now the battery lasts about a day, for instance during week in the life I had to charge it at least everyday, sometimes more. Now I am back to researching camera's that take really fast photos. I don't know that I really need the $500 camera will all the bells and whistles, but I need a faster camera.... ideas?

5. Zane's new favorite book is "Dinosaurs Love Underpants." I bought it a while ago, when we got his potty seat. Of course initially he wanted nothing to do with it, because he was still stuck on "How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight." But we have moved onto this fun book that tells how dinosaurs became extinct after a large battle with cave men over underwear. LOVE IT!

6. Tonight marks Zach and I starting our new exercise routine. We determined that we just had to cut outside time short, then get extreme while Zane plays downstairs. We shall see how this new plan works, but we tried to do it after Zane went to sleep, but by that time at night I am completely exhausted and could not pry myself off the couch. Tonight went well, minus Zane falling off the couch about 2 minutes into it. Once we got him calmed down he did great and was very encouraging, handing out high fives and hugs the whole time.

7. It has been rain thirty here the past few days. I am hoping that it is sunny and warm for our vaca at the farm. I'm starting to get blue with all this gloomy weather, it takes me back to living in Columbia, MO where it rained everyday.

8. Last night Zane had a very ruff night and I am not exactly sure why. He woke up at 12, 01, fell out of bed at 02, came into bed with us until three, then finally slept until 6. I have no clue why he was so upset/waking up felling like he was pain. I gave him Tylenol, just as a shot in the dark. Poor guy, struggles so much with night time sleeping, but naps so well. I hope tonight goes better.

9. Do you think I should take my Easter decorations down now? They are just so springy and cute, but I guess since it is May it is probably time.

10. On that note, today officially starts my birthday month!!! I am very excited, as always, for my upcoming spa day. I can't wait! I am actually having a little get together the weekend after my birthday, which is probably a first for me, but I figured I should have a birthday party for myself  at least once in my twenties.