Day something of vacation, my brain can't count

And, here we are. We woke up at our initial Chicago hotel and busted it out of there just in time for AM traffic. We drove north up Lakeshore Drive as our first order of business was finding Wrigley Field which, all apologies to Disney, is the happiest place on earth. Holy cow, it's awesome. We took a 10 AM tour of the park and got to see pretty much everything except the innards of the scoreboard. Sat in the stands, went into the pressbox and saw the organ, broadcast booths, etc. Went into the visitor's locker room. Went and sat out in the bleachers in right field. Walked through the Cubs locker room. Sat in the Cubs dugout and stood on the field behind home plate. And took a million pictures. Way too cool. Saw all the statues, pictures, etc. Awesome awesome awesome. Went and check into our hotel for the next 3 night. The Majestic Chicago. The true mark of hotel awesomeness is how the sleeping goes, but this place seems off to a good start. Nice little place that is probably pretty easy to overlook but seems quite great. Stay here if you visit the city. Good part of town and everything. We then hightailed if over to the Shedd Aquarium which was neat. The kids (especially Kate) liked it and it was fine by the parents. Pretty busy, but some neat stuff including a giant anaconda among other freaky critters. We played in some random stretch of grass afterwards just to burn off energy because we haven't walked, hiked, and climbed enough quite yet on this trip. Also, the wind coming off Lake Michigan is no joke. We all also got our first taste of the El which was OK. Busy and public transport is not our favored mode of transport. This may be the first trip we have ever taken where we chose public transport over just walking, solely out of deference to the shorter legged among us. Sorry kids, but pretty sure you'll inherit the crazy walking gene from your parents. We are both equally to blame for that. Back to the hotel and then a half mile stroll to IHOP where no food was left untouched and Drew may have eaten a plate or two. He was beyond focused on what he wanted. As soon we mentioned it as an option, he laid out his menu. Made it come to fruition once we got there (the Rooty Jr with spiced apples for those keeping score). Good server too, no complaints. All in all, an A day in terms of seeing stuff. An A day in terms of totally wearing out anyone currently awake or asleep in this hotel room as I type away. And, we'll pretty much ramp it up again tomorrow.

Vacation day 3 - Start with C, ends with O, and has hicag in the middle

And zero percent of the people reading this have any idea where that came from.

Here we sit in Chicago. How did we get here?

We woke up around 7 in Jeffersonville, Indiana and ate breakfast. Then, we went back south about 3 miles to the Louisville Slugger museum and factory tour? How long does it take you to go 3 miles? Took us about an hour since one of the 3 bridges that crosses the Ohio River was shut down on Friday due to concerning cracks. Comforting. No big deal for us though. We toured and saw how bats get made and we even got free souvenir mini-bats which, as a low end guess, will be taken away from Drew and Ben 10 times in their lives when they are used as weapons.

After that it was a 3 hour drive when we stopped halfway and hung out in Lafayette, Indiana (home of Purdue) and stopped at Columbiana Park and Zoo which is a pretty awesome gigantic playground and free small zoo in the middle of a town that feels a bit like Humboldt. No mailboxes, near as I can tell the mailman walks around drops stuff off at the doors. Anyway, at the zoo you could walk through the wallaby exhibit, pet goats, pigs, miniature horses, llamas, and chickens depending on which animals stand still. Otters, peacocks, monkeys, and a couple of other animals.

Ate at sam's club because they have big pizza for little money and we have 3 voracious children. High society stuff for us.

Back in the car for about 2 hours, ending up in Chicago. The previous post showed the giant windmills we passed. Must have been thousands of them dotting the farmland and the pictures don't accurately convey how weird it is to drive past them.

Ended in the Chicago outskirts at a Best Western - Chicagoland Countryside. Yay, the land that gave us Barack Obama. I'll have to show my heartfelt gratitude to every person I see (Sarcasm mode off). Went and found a pretty cool playground/park to kill an hour at night and played the best game of pretend baseball ever.

We'll have to post the video of Drew at the Louisville Slugger museum swinging against 90 MPH pitches. good grief, baseball appears to be his natural sport.

Tomorrow is another day. Wrigley tour, aquarium. Who knows what else.

Vacation day 2 - more steps than you can shake a stick at

And day 2 is now in the books as we all recline at Comfort Suites Jeffersonville for the night. What did we do today?

Mammoth Caves Natl Park, the new entrance tour. Kate was a little apprehensive at first with the potential for ceiling collapse, but she became comfortable with it about halfway through thanks to the tour guide. Drew really enjoyed the first half, especially the climbing and exploring. Halfway through, he got pretty cranky. Instead of being freaked out by the cave, turns out he was tired. He fell asleep for the last half. Same with Ben.

Hey Ben, if you are reading this in about 20 years, you need to remember your mom is tough as nails. She carried you, often while you slept, through the entire tour in some very tiny crevasses.

After that, back in the car and we drove off to Lincoln's birthplace which was pretty fun. Got to see his cabin, some stuff from his youth, etc. Good time. kate and Drew got to be junior rangers at each park. Good for Ben too, as he got to run around and burn off energy.

Kentucky was pretty much non stop rain and dripping, somewhat the same for the little slice of Indiana we have now seen. We went to the main city park in downtown Louisville for a bit, saw a steamboat, the gigantic Ohio river, and more thunderstorms that cut our time short.

And, in a Phelan family first, we ate dinner at McDonald's. There was sort of a dearth of places to choose from. Dad would be horrified at us not trying the local flavor. Turns out we are a lot more comfortable with known, cheap options.

Beginning of soccer season and day one of vacation

Two, two, two events in one. pics for this and other vacation related posts will probably follow in a couple of weeks.

First game of the soccer season for both Kate and Drew today. Kate scored twice after taking a little while to get into the swing of things. But, she tried hard, picked her spots well, and attacked.

Drew did well in his game. A little more hesitant than we had expected from his practices, but probably first game jitters. He is easily the youngest in the league. No goals, but played hard and had a couple of nice saves in goal.

And then directly on to vacation. We had an awesome time getting past the 85/285 interchange thanks to the entire exit being under construction. But, once we got going time flew quickly. We stopped at Cloudland Canyon state park and hiked to the bottom of two waterfalls. Quite fun. There was a wedding going on at a scenic overlook. Kate liked that idea. Drew said that he decided that we would marry Laura Scott and that looked like a good place. Guess Katie has been replaced at least momentarily. Drew said Laura is good to marry since she always is funny.

Kate may have a new favorite place to hang out, the base of the upper falls. I think she really liked hanging out there and just staring at it.

Ben was ballast. He slept in the car, but far less than he needed.

Back in the car for another 4 hours up to Mammoth Cave where we are spending the night. The kids were wired for sound at the hotel, mainly because they think hotels are cool. Sherri and I think they are unfortunately necessary germ holes.

All asleep now, good day. Spelunking tomorrow, then some other stuff.

Current fave colors

Kate has shifted from pink to purple. Drew has shifted from orange to gray.

Who likes hockey? Kate and Drew like hockey.

Went to the Gwinnett Gladiators game on Sunday and had a fun time with the two older ones. Gwinnett won 5-3 so we got to see lots of goals. There were a couple of shoving matches, one guy broke an arm when slammed into the boards, good crowd, and lots of fun. The kids seemed quite interested. Had a hot dog each as a snack, they loved that We Will Rock You was played on the PA.

Happy Halloween

Drew dressed as Spiderman, Ben dressed as Spiderman. Guess what Kate dressed as? Yup, Spiderman. At least on one day of parties. For actual trick or treating, Kate was Supergirl, complete with a pink tutu to highlight the girl aspect of it.

Good weather and we hit tons of houses in the hood. Drew zonked out around 8:30, Kate made it to 9 and then had a blast sorting and looking at her ill-gotten gains. Ben didn't go out, but he didn't have a clue what was going on anyway.

More balls, less dolls

Talking about adddie's birthday present (Addie wants some princess pjs):

Drew said, "Like Kate likes princesses".  Kate said, "Actually, I don't like
princesses.  I like balls."  I asked, "What do you mean?"  Kate said, "Like
basketballs and soccer balls and baseballs."

Vacation time

Went to Hiawassee and Dollywood. Kate's favorite ride was probably the Dizzy Disk. Drew's favorite ride was the Smoky Mountain River Rampage. Drew through the largest, most random tantrum about going to the bathroom. Don't even really need to blog on it, let's just say Sherri will always have that burned into her mind.

Drew's first real bike ride

Happened at the most nerve wracking place on earth actually. He did a great job once he figured out how to really get moving. Note to self, post a picture. Training wheels worked well.


As for the nerves, he (and Kate and Dylan) rode their bikes at the Hiawassee Dam. There is a walkway about as wide as 1 and a half parking space that goes along the top of the berm for half a mile. This was the riding spot. Can't find a good picture of it, but picture that width. Off one side is a 60 degree hill going 50 feet down. The other side is a 60 degree hill covered in rocks leading to the reservoir.

So that was pretty awesome.

Deep mysteries discussed before bed

Kate: What's wrong with formula?
Chris: Well, nothing's really wrong with it. It's just not as good as mommy milk.
Kate: Why not?
Chris: Well, God made mommy milk to have all of the stuff a baby needs. People make formula and do their best, but it just doesn't have all of the stuff a baby needs.

pause

Kate: Avy drinks formula right?
Chris: Yes
Kate: And, did Dylan drink formula when he was a baby?
Chris: He did
Kate: That must be why he acts so crazy sometimes.

Hello Captain Haircut

And, Ben has now had his first ever haircut. Boy, did he not enjoy that one little bit. All camera work (pictures and video) done by Kate. Hands and head held by Chris. Cutting by Sherri. But, dude looks good as a junior executive.

His first haircut was a little less eventful than the other kids. Kate's was at Amanda's buzz day and involved mass quantities of hair going in front of a giant crowd. Drew's was at Disneyworld with the parade going by. Sorry Ben, you're the third kid. You get gruel and you'll like it.

Yet more pictures

Good parents let their kids play with snakes. Part of our hike.


Kate the soccer stud, and make no mistake. This year she is a stud. 3 goals last game and she is leaving other kids in her wake. Picture the post-battle scene in "Gone With the Wind."


Kate is also taking gymnastics. She has made it quite clear that she got Chris' leaping ability which we are thrilled about.


Kate also climbed Amicalola under her own power. 1 mile in, 700 steps up. 1.5 miles down.


This face is awesome in so many ways. Taken randomly just when the doorbell rang and we caught Drew's reaction. Almost positive this could be an internet meme somehow.

Pictures part 2

Drew and his first organized sport. He is getting more comfortable and less hesitant. Youngest kid in the league.


Ben was very nice to share his birthday cake. Drew, Kate, Andrew, and Dylan all got to eat the detritus off of Ben's hands.


I don't even know what this is.


Yum.


This is a big tree we saw whilst hiking. Sort of awe inspiring.

Kate's future

Kate and I were talking about how she would still have to take hard classes
and classes she didn't like when she chose a major in college (because she
was whining about learning to add by 8s). She said, "Mommy, I can be more
than one thing, right?" I said, "Sure." She said, "Then I want to be a
dentist and a dog doctor and a doctor that gets babies out of Mommy's
tummies and then a coach." I said, "Wow. You sure will need a lot of
school to do all of those things." She said, "That's ok. I don't mind. I
would be so disappointed if I couldn't do all of those things."

Once again, soccer season

Or, an actual OK excuse for Drew to kick things. Kate is back with her crew, most o the team is the same as last soccer season, adding in Sophie which Kate is thrilled about. Rest of her team is Watson, Wynn, Andrew, Katie, Audrey, Zach.

Drew is playing for the first time, and I had forgotten (willfully obstructed) the memories of how much more stressful it is coaching 3 year olds that haven't played before. Drew has Emmie and Addie on his team which is nice. Other random kids are Riley, Theran, Ella, and Ethan. Once Drew decides playing is fun, he'll pretty much dominate I think. May not happen until we get into games though. Plus, he's the youngest one out there.

School updates

Kate is an avid reader. lots of time spent with puzzles, math, parts of speech, handwriting, following directions, creative writing, and probably 20 things I am not thinking of.

Drew spends time with puzzles, learning letters and numbers, and mechanical manipulation of objects.

Kate is a relentless reading machine

And, after the test we gave her tonight, she has proven to read at somewhere between a 4th and 5th grade level.

Week one of Katelyn the Kindergartner in the books

Lots of book technically. She learned all about Leif Ericsson, what a noun is, addition (and other math principles), a decent amount of puzzles/handwriting/and batches of other things. On the flip side, sounds like her friends in elementary school did some coloring. So, that sounds challenging.

Drew's new girlfriend

While he still says he will marry Katie (when he is five), he also says he'll marry Barney the dinosaur, a chair, and the house. So, I think it's safe to say he has no clue what he is talking about.

However, he really does have a blast when he sees Courtney, an upcoming junior that plays for Sherri. She's a tiny point guard who Kate loves to follow around and I think Drew has picked up that habit as well.