Showing posts with label trips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trips. Show all posts
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Friday, November 28, 2008
Shopped til I dropped
I got everything on my list. I started at 3, standing in line at Staples. From there, we went to Target and then to Meijer. We were done by 7:30 and I have finshed Xmas shopping online by 9.
Now we are in St Louis so you will have to wait a few days for a proper update
Now we are in St Louis so you will have to wait a few days for a proper update
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Run Turkey
I was supposed to go to a friend's parent's 40th anniversary party today. I wasn't thrilled with the idea of driving all the way down there so when my mom suggested taking out the boats, I decided to do that instead. We got up this morning and she told me that my dad decided he didn't want to take the boats out. He says that The Boy doesn't like it and he wasn't hauling the boats to the river to fight with him about it. We talked about just going without but decided that it would be too hard to pull the The Boy with the tandem boat and RF paddles a whitewater boat which is impossible to pull anything with. He offered to paddle a flat water boat, but we decided that loading everything with just the 3 adults would be a huge pain. We started looking around for something else to do outside, because the weather was too nice to stay inside. Mom finally suggested Turkey Run, in Indiana. It is a lot of hiking trials, canoeing (no thank you) and horse back riding. I thought maybe we could work out horse back riding because I'm not thrilled with the hiking either. We got over there and found out that you had to be 8 and there was no doubling up so the kids were out.
We decided to hike one of the "easy" trails which ended up being a long distance away and we would have had to drive there. Instead, we hiked the trail to the "Ice Box" (formerly known as Devil's Ice Box), which is listed as "rugged/extremely rugged" Good call, right? Ms Thang has her mother's aversion to nature and was rather unpleasant for most of the time. Because of all the rain and flooding, most of the trail was muddy and every time she had to go through it, it was a huge ordeal. Finally, my mom took her shoes off, until I found glass on the trail and forced her to put her shoes back on. Mom told her to sit on the rock to put her shoes and MT said "that rock is all slimy, I'm not sitting on it" She ended up having to just hold her in one arm and put the shoes one with the other because Ms Thang refused to sit on any of the rocks because they were all "too slimy"
On the trail, we saw a baby turtle climbing up a rock and the kids stopped to watch it because it was probably the best part of the trip. We found the Ice Box (when we used to go there when I was a kid, it was down right cold in there, today it was merely cool, although the weather wasn't as hot as normal) and The Boy climbed around in there for a bit, then we turned around and hiked back. MT bitched the whole way back and I was ready to leave her in the woods by the time we got to the suspension bridge. They played by the river, skipping rocks and watching the minnows for a while. Then, we came back to the nature center and had lunch and then drove home. Not before, MT had ANOTHER melt down about having to go to the bathroom before we left.
I doubt I'll be back to Turkey Run, probably ever. Maybe when the kids are teenagers but not until they are old enough to ask to go. I like the horse back riding, but I'm sure I can find something closer when the kids get big enough for all that.
We decided to hike one of the "easy" trails which ended up being a long distance away and we would have had to drive there. Instead, we hiked the trail to the "Ice Box" (formerly known as Devil's Ice Box), which is listed as "rugged/extremely rugged" Good call, right? Ms Thang has her mother's aversion to nature and was rather unpleasant for most of the time. Because of all the rain and flooding, most of the trail was muddy and every time she had to go through it, it was a huge ordeal. Finally, my mom took her shoes off, until I found glass on the trail and forced her to put her shoes back on. Mom told her to sit on the rock to put her shoes and MT said "that rock is all slimy, I'm not sitting on it" She ended up having to just hold her in one arm and put the shoes one with the other because Ms Thang refused to sit on any of the rocks because they were all "too slimy"
On the trail, we saw a baby turtle climbing up a rock and the kids stopped to watch it because it was probably the best part of the trip. We found the Ice Box (when we used to go there when I was a kid, it was down right cold in there, today it was merely cool, although the weather wasn't as hot as normal) and The Boy climbed around in there for a bit, then we turned around and hiked back. MT bitched the whole way back and I was ready to leave her in the woods by the time we got to the suspension bridge. They played by the river, skipping rocks and watching the minnows for a while. Then, we came back to the nature center and had lunch and then drove home. Not before, MT had ANOTHER melt down about having to go to the bathroom before we left.
I doubt I'll be back to Turkey Run, probably ever. Maybe when the kids are teenagers but not until they are old enough to ask to go. I like the horse back riding, but I'm sure I can find something closer when the kids get big enough for all that.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Bathroom water, CEc and Zelda
I don't like drinking water from the bathroom. I realize in my head that it is exactly the same water that is in the kitchen. However illogical it may be, I can't convince the rest of me that the water is the same. I'll drink it sometimes but if given a choice, I drink from the kitchen. Strange I know and it has no real point. :)
We were out shopping today and took the kids to Toys R Us to spend their gift cards. Lizzie picked out a pink Little People Castle (When we pointed out that buddy already had a castle set she said "yep, now I have pink castle and it has a princess") and a "Musical Tea Set" Much to my dismay, she seems to prefer girly things :( A side note, she tried to play with one of C's toys the other day and he told her she couldn't because she was a girl and girls only like makeup and dolls. GAH!! I pointed out that I'm a girl and I like (and never did) neither of those things.
He said "did you like video games and superheros"
"Yes, actually I did"
"so you were a geek?"
" yes I was and in case you haven't noticed, I still am"
"no you aren't" What a sweet boy LOL
He bought Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass for his DS. He started playing the game with my dad and he was having a hard time with it. When we got home, he asked for "help" (which means, play my game while I watch) so I was playing it for awhile and the game ROCKS. My absolute all time favorite video game is the original Legend of Zelda. I played it for years and years and years and finally beat the first half of the game on an emulator a few years ago. I haven't managed to beat or even figure out the second half and likely never will. Anyway, this game is like a cross between orignal Zelda and Final Fantasy 9, which is another in my top 10 best games ever. I may have to start a game of my own on the system because it is that much fun.
While we were shopping, we decided that we were going to take the kids to McDonald's to let them run off some energy. We drove by the one by the mall and it was PACKED. We decided to try the other one but the kids freaked out and said they wanted BK instead. Mom decided that she wanted to do something different and while she was thinking about it, she came up with Chuck E Cheese in Bloomington. So we ran home, grabbed my dad and headed for Bloomington. We had pizza and played games and spend 2 hours. Lizzie napped on the way home and C played more of his game.
We were out shopping today and took the kids to Toys R Us to spend their gift cards. Lizzie picked out a pink Little People Castle (When we pointed out that buddy already had a castle set she said "yep, now I have pink castle and it has a princess") and a "Musical Tea Set" Much to my dismay, she seems to prefer girly things :( A side note, she tried to play with one of C's toys the other day and he told her she couldn't because she was a girl and girls only like makeup and dolls. GAH!! I pointed out that I'm a girl and I like (and never did) neither of those things.
He said "did you like video games and superheros"
"Yes, actually I did"
"so you were a geek?"
" yes I was and in case you haven't noticed, I still am"
"no you aren't" What a sweet boy LOL
He bought Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass for his DS. He started playing the game with my dad and he was having a hard time with it. When we got home, he asked for "help" (which means, play my game while I watch) so I was playing it for awhile and the game ROCKS. My absolute all time favorite video game is the original Legend of Zelda. I played it for years and years and years and finally beat the first half of the game on an emulator a few years ago. I haven't managed to beat or even figure out the second half and likely never will. Anyway, this game is like a cross between orignal Zelda and Final Fantasy 9, which is another in my top 10 best games ever. I may have to start a game of my own on the system because it is that much fun.
While we were shopping, we decided that we were going to take the kids to McDonald's to let them run off some energy. We drove by the one by the mall and it was PACKED. We decided to try the other one but the kids freaked out and said they wanted BK instead. Mom decided that she wanted to do something different and while she was thinking about it, she came up with Chuck E Cheese in Bloomington. So we ran home, grabbed my dad and headed for Bloomington. We had pizza and played games and spend 2 hours. Lizzie napped on the way home and C played more of his game.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Weekend round up
We did a couple of fall themed events this weekend, which were pretty enjoyable. Saturday, we went to Harvest Fest at Prairie Farms. It was great. They had hayrack rides, bounce houses, face painting, apple painting, pumpkin painting, necklace making, balloon animals, etc, all free. They were fully on the ball too. We got there at 10:50 (it was supposed to start at 11) and not only was it open, everything was set up and the tables were manned and ready to go. The only things that weren't up and running at that point was the hayrack ride and the balloon animals. The kids were able to get in and get things done before it got too crowded, which was great. Lizzie had a horrible melt down that resulted in my dragging her out of the park, while she screamed, cried, assaulted me and begged for her nonni (grandma). My apologies to any local mommies who got to witness that spectecle (sp). She went home and took a 2 hour nap :) C and my mom had such a good time, they ended up staying for 2 hours after we left and doing things several times.
Today, we went to pumpkinpalooza at Allerton Park. The best word to describe the whole thing is unorganized. We got there about 10:50, when it was scheduled to start at 11 (yes, we do generally show up for things early). We pulled in and the parking lot was full. There were a couple of spaces, but they looked like they were in front of a drive of some sort. I asked the girl working by the gate if I could park there and she shrugged and said "I guess, I don't know". So I went ahead and parked there and it turned out to be ok but I later found out there was a large parking lot behind one of the barns that we could have parked in. Once we got parked, we headed inside the barn. The only people in there were vendors so we walked on out the back and found the people that were working (this is probably 10:55 so 5 minutes before they were supposed to start) in a meeting where they were being assigned jobs for the day. None of the crafts were set up, no one was selling tickets for anything, etc. We walked back in the vendor barn and looked around for a few minutes. When we came back out, they had opened the ticket booth, although there were still nothing set up to spend tickets on and set up one craft. At that point there were probably 15-20 kids milling around. Since there was nothing else to do, they were all crowded around this little table trying to make leaf magnets and popcicle stick pumpkins. C started making a pumpkin but after having to wrangle for glue and paint and everything else, he finally gave up and just brought it home to finish. Mom also grabbed a couple of the leaf magnet kits for the kids to finish later. We wandered over to the hayrack ride and found out they were getting ready to take a group back to the pumpkin patch. We hopped on and headed back. It was, swear to God, like 100 yards away but the kids liked riding the on the hayrack. When we pulled into the patch, I noticed there was a gold pumpkin laying on the ground. I told C to grab it and he hopped off the hayrack and did just that. It had a sticker on the bottom saying to take it to the ticket booth to claim your prize. When we got back, C and I headed for the ticket booth and the guy who was selling the pumpkins followed us and said "any pumpkins you picked in the patch is 4 dollars" I sort of looked at the guy and said "this is a prize pumpkin, I'm not paying $4 for it, especially since I probably won't get to keep it". "Oh, I didn't know there was any prize pumpkin" All I could think was "if you had read the 3 whole paragraphs worth of information on the flyer that everyone got as they came in, you would have known it because it said it right there" We took the pumpkin to the booth and they gave us a little stuffed scarecrow guy. C asked if he could keep the pumpkin and the guys responded with "I don't know, I guess so" and C was stoked. He actually started to walk away without the scarecrow and then when he remembered it he said "I don't need that thing, I'll give it to my sister since I get to keep the pumpkin"
About that time, we noticed that they were finally putting up some signs showing where things were, only 30 minutes after it was supposed to have started. We went back in the barn and played some games and got face painting done. When we asked the girls running the games if there were anymore outside, we were told no so we wasted all of the tickets at the couple of games inside. Then, we went back outside because they finally had the pumpkin painting set up. Lizzie went to do that and mom and C went to build a scarecrow. C was bored to tears and they quit after a few minutes but not before we found out there were actually more games outside. We ended up getting some more tickets so that C could do the ring toss and pumpkin bowling. He is quite the rockstar at pumpkin bowling. He managed a spare both times and won himself and Lizzie candy bracelets. :) Lizzie tried real hard at the ring toss, but just couldn't manage it. The guy running it was super and gave her a piece of candy for her efforts.
Th day ended with another trip to the pumpkin patch, picking some HUGE pumpkins to carve our cool designs on (we bought books with princesses and superheroes at Curtis Orchard) and another screaming meltdown when I told Lizzie it was time to leave. I drug her to the car while C spend his last ticket doing the ring toss for warheads sour candy and mom bought a bracelet. We didn't get off the drive into the park before Lizzie was asleep. She ended up taking a super long nap which caused problems at bedtime. In fact, when I started writing this, I was thinking that my last line would be "and if she doesn't sleep soon, I'm going to FREAK OUT" Fortunately, while I've been writing this, she finally went to sleep.
And now, it is time for bedtime for me :)
Today, we went to pumpkinpalooza at Allerton Park. The best word to describe the whole thing is unorganized. We got there about 10:50, when it was scheduled to start at 11 (yes, we do generally show up for things early). We pulled in and the parking lot was full. There were a couple of spaces, but they looked like they were in front of a drive of some sort. I asked the girl working by the gate if I could park there and she shrugged and said "I guess, I don't know". So I went ahead and parked there and it turned out to be ok but I later found out there was a large parking lot behind one of the barns that we could have parked in. Once we got parked, we headed inside the barn. The only people in there were vendors so we walked on out the back and found the people that were working (this is probably 10:55 so 5 minutes before they were supposed to start) in a meeting where they were being assigned jobs for the day. None of the crafts were set up, no one was selling tickets for anything, etc. We walked back in the vendor barn and looked around for a few minutes. When we came back out, they had opened the ticket booth, although there were still nothing set up to spend tickets on and set up one craft. At that point there were probably 15-20 kids milling around. Since there was nothing else to do, they were all crowded around this little table trying to make leaf magnets and popcicle stick pumpkins. C started making a pumpkin but after having to wrangle for glue and paint and everything else, he finally gave up and just brought it home to finish. Mom also grabbed a couple of the leaf magnet kits for the kids to finish later. We wandered over to the hayrack ride and found out they were getting ready to take a group back to the pumpkin patch. We hopped on and headed back. It was, swear to God, like 100 yards away but the kids liked riding the on the hayrack. When we pulled into the patch, I noticed there was a gold pumpkin laying on the ground. I told C to grab it and he hopped off the hayrack and did just that. It had a sticker on the bottom saying to take it to the ticket booth to claim your prize. When we got back, C and I headed for the ticket booth and the guy who was selling the pumpkins followed us and said "any pumpkins you picked in the patch is 4 dollars" I sort of looked at the guy and said "this is a prize pumpkin, I'm not paying $4 for it, especially since I probably won't get to keep it". "Oh, I didn't know there was any prize pumpkin" All I could think was "if you had read the 3 whole paragraphs worth of information on the flyer that everyone got as they came in, you would have known it because it said it right there" We took the pumpkin to the booth and they gave us a little stuffed scarecrow guy. C asked if he could keep the pumpkin and the guys responded with "I don't know, I guess so" and C was stoked. He actually started to walk away without the scarecrow and then when he remembered it he said "I don't need that thing, I'll give it to my sister since I get to keep the pumpkin"
About that time, we noticed that they were finally putting up some signs showing where things were, only 30 minutes after it was supposed to have started. We went back in the barn and played some games and got face painting done. When we asked the girls running the games if there were anymore outside, we were told no so we wasted all of the tickets at the couple of games inside. Then, we went back outside because they finally had the pumpkin painting set up. Lizzie went to do that and mom and C went to build a scarecrow. C was bored to tears and they quit after a few minutes but not before we found out there were actually more games outside. We ended up getting some more tickets so that C could do the ring toss and pumpkin bowling. He is quite the rockstar at pumpkin bowling. He managed a spare both times and won himself and Lizzie candy bracelets. :) Lizzie tried real hard at the ring toss, but just couldn't manage it. The guy running it was super and gave her a piece of candy for her efforts.
Th day ended with another trip to the pumpkin patch, picking some HUGE pumpkins to carve our cool designs on (we bought books with princesses and superheroes at Curtis Orchard) and another screaming meltdown when I told Lizzie it was time to leave. I drug her to the car while C spend his last ticket doing the ring toss for warheads sour candy and mom bought a bracelet. We didn't get off the drive into the park before Lizzie was asleep. She ended up taking a super long nap which caused problems at bedtime. In fact, when I started writing this, I was thinking that my last line would be "and if she doesn't sleep soon, I'm going to FREAK OUT" Fortunately, while I've been writing this, she finally went to sleep.
And now, it is time for bedtime for me :)
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