Summer Vacation 2007, pt. 3

ROGER & MARLA'S MOST AWESOME PLACE

By the 3rd day at the Sleep Inn, we were pretty sick of the waffles. For now, my kids deny ever having done the happy dance when the waffle iron was spotted. This morning was for toast, muffins and fruit. I grabbed some of the hard boiled eggs thinking that maybe the family would enjoy having some protein, but I was wrong on that count.

We went to visit some friends of my husband who live in Idaho. They purchased several acres overlooking a lake and are working on building their dream home on the property. Roger and Marla have a gorgeous view -- truly breath taking. Marla has some pretty high end taste and it really shows. They have 3 buildings on the property so far. The first one they built was a 2 car garage which they lived in for a while as they built and completed construction on Roger's wood shop. When it was completed, they moved themselves and their furnishings into the wood shop, where they will live until the house is completed. The house exterior is built but the interiors are still unfinished. The house is up the mountain a bit and has amazing vistas of the surrounding range and the lake. They do live a little removed from the city but it is worth it. This visit has given my hubby nothing but grandiose ideas for what we can do with a little piece of property we own about 45 minutes drive from our home which has water and mountain views plus beach access. True, I would love to do what they're doing. But that is for a time when we are feeling a little less pinched than we are now. As we were leaving though, Roger said something to me that made me feel less pinched. He said, "This place is our legacy. You have yours riding in the back seat."

Marla made an amazing lunch of grilled burgers and corn on the cob for us. We were stuffed. Knowing we had at least a 6 hour drive ahead of us, we told the kids to go potty and took that advice ourselves. I began to get worried about my husband after he had been in there for 10 minutes or so. He joined the rest of the party outside while I was trying to get the kids back into the car. Hubby asked, "Do you guys have a plunger?" As awful as it is, the toilet had gotten clogged. Here's what's even worse. Marla and Roger only have the one toilet. Both of them went scrambling around their property looking for the plunger that both swore they had bought on a recent trip to Home Depot. But alas, no plunger was to be found. And then my husband said something that reminded me why I married him. "Well, it isn't the conventional house warming present, but I'm not a conventional kind of guy." Funny keeps marriages strong.

BANFF

We headed north. We took a border crossing out of Idaho that was really quick. Seriously, there was only one car ahead of us in line. It is, incidentally, the place where the border crossing agent didn't know where the heck McClennan is. After driving for what felt like forever, we arrived at our campsite at Banff. The ranger who checked us in told us that sadly, there wasn't any firewood left for us to take so we would be getting a refund for that expense. We found our site and using braille and our 2 flashlights, hubby managed to put up our tent while I heated up 2 cans of chili over our camp stove. We didn't have firewood and I looked over at our neighbors and realized where all the firewood had gone -- they had enough for a small bonfire. Well, just because you're out camping doesn't mean that you're not jerks. Jerks in the cities just become jerks in the wilderness when they go camping. It had been a horribly hot day so we didn't even bother to put the fly up over the tent. We came to regret that later.

I had bought foam pads for us to sleep on. When you set up your tent on gravel, like the rangers ask you to do, a little 1/2 inch - 3/4 inch pad of foam doesn't do much to keep you comfortable. We were exhausted, so we did fall asleep eventually, but at around maybe 3 or 4 in the morning, the wind was ripping through the tent and we were just miserable and cold. I had considered going and "camping" in the car. At least the car seats are padded and the wind can't get through. I kind of just kept rolling over like when you're on the beach sunbathing. One side of my body would get sharp pains from laying on gravel so I'd make a 1/4 turn. Then I'd catch a couple of minutes of sleep. Then that part of my body would wake me in pain so I'd make another 1/4 turn. And so on, and so on, through the night. Anyway, the next morning I cooked up an amazing breakfast -- mostly amazing because I did it on our camp stove using a very tiny frying pan. We had sausage and eggs and some bread. And after we breakfasted, we were off to explore.

LAKE MINNETONKA & BEAR PROOF TRASHCANS

The first place we went was a mountain lake. It's called Lake Minnetonka. And I may be making that up because my memory is not too good. It was a gorgeous place. The water was an amazing turquoise blue. There weren't too many tourists, but the ones we ran into were from all over the planet. Even the Canadians there spoke French, just to make us feel more and more like we were in a foreign country. Hubby calls Canada, "Europe Lite."

A remarkable thing about the parks there is that every outdoor trashcan is a bear proof one. You need to use your clever human fingers to deftly unlatch the lid and insert your garbage. What I didn't realize was that not only are the trashcans bear proof, they are also idiot proof. I don't mean that in the sense that it is so simple to use, that an idiot can use it. I mean the phrase in the same context as the bears. If you are an idiot, you cannot figure out how to open the trashcan. I cannot tell you how many coffee cups and food wrappers I found just placed out in front of the trashcan like it was a shrine to trash instead of a receptacle, because whoever brought them up to the can just couldn't figure out how to open it. Sad really. But maybe that means that the education system EVERYWHERE in the world is just kind of shoddy and maybe we Americans should stop beating ourselves up about our education system. But who is to say that the idiots who couldn't open the bear cans weren't US graduates of our public schools? Oh well.

That afternoon, we went up Sulfur Mountain in the gondola. That was an amazing ride. There is a sense of vertigo as you get higher and higher. Older daughter was a little freaked out so being the supportive and loving family we are, hubby, son and I swayed back and forth in unison, rocking the gondola but not coming anywhere near close to capsizing it. Oh now, don't think she was freaking out completely. She ultimately thought it was funny and joined in the swaying, but at first she did get a little scared. When we reached the top, we got to see some mountain goats pretty close up. We walked the entire pathway up to the higher observatory peak and former camp of a weather guy for the range. I learned recently that you only retain about 10% of what you read and I cannot for the life of me remember the name of that old weather guy who used to hike up Sulfur Mountain back at the turn of the century, so he could monitor snow & rain fall levels and temperature readings. I read that information and it is amongst the 90% of information that fell out of my brain a.k.a. the sieve. The little one did great and walked the entire way. The way down was just as fun as the way up. We didn't buy the way overpriced picture of us on the gondola but we did take pictures up there that were pretty spectacular.

That evening, we put the fly on the tent. Lesson learned. More to come.

2007 Summer Vacation pt. 2

JUST SAY NO TO DRUGS

The novelty of waffles and waffle iron had kind of worn off by this time but we hung in there and ate our misshapen waffles cheerily. The kids had begged to start the day with more swimming but we told them that this was the day for Boulder Beach -- Silverwood's water park.

I really want to commend Silverwood for being creative in keeping kids off of drugs. I say this because they sure have come up with clever positions for teens to take during these hot summer months instead of hanging out in the Safeway parking lot and listening to hits of the 70's, 80's & 90's which is piped out of the store speakers, while trying to score a six pack of beer. Paid positions like the Locker Key Boy (LKB). See, you rent lockers at Boulder Beach for $5. They give you a bracelet to wear. Then you show your bracelet to the LKB on duty. The LKB walks you to your locker, unlocks it for you, and hopefully, you can figure out the rest. If you can't, the LKB will be more than happy to explain how to lock your locker. Just be sure to show him your bracelet.

Most of you have seen my husband and know that he is 6'9. These locker geniuses at Silverwood gave him a locker closest to the floor. Does this make any sense at all? No. But, since they have LKB's, clearly they're not looking for logic much. Many times, there were not enough LKB's to be found and you just had to grab one from across the locker room and drag him over to your locker. To their credit, they never once huffed or complained or said, "that's not my sector..." They just walked over and unlocked our locker for us. Good on them.

WATER FUN & THE QUEST FOR FOOD

The water park was the most fun of all. It being Saturday, the crowds were fierce, but we spent a great deal of time in the wave pools, Polliwog Park and Toddler Springs so we didn't have a lot of line waiting. Well, sort of.

We decided to splurge and buy lunch at the park. A prime table had opened up in the eating area so I sat and fed the baby. My husband got in line and waited. And waited. And waited. After about an hour, in which 2 families had sat beside me, eaten their food and left, my family finally returned with enough fried food to kill even a marathoner. My husband is incredibly intolerant of lines, but he did okay. I was proud of him after it all. He didn't whine too much but he overcompensated on the food because there was no way he was going to wait back in that line again. I was also proud of the kids. They didn't complain too much and didn't say the dreaded, "I'm hungry," over and over again, when really, we couldn't do anything about it. We did decide, however, that we would never, ever, on any future trip to Silverwood, buy food from the park. It was overpriced, over greasy, overly long waited for, fried food. What's the point? The only thing that kept us going was the thought of returning to Cafe Chulo's at the end of the day. It shone like a beacon for us in the distance. Fresh salads and roasted meats. Tasty fish tacos. Yum.

The older kids and I went on the Avalanche Mountain ride which was an absolute blast! My 6 year old laughed like a maniac the entire way down and both kids directly disobeyed my order to remain calm and not scream. (I was only kidding.) It was so much fun that hubby and the boy went for a second time. The girls and I spent a lot of time in the toddler springs and polliwog place which was a blast while the boys went to tackle the large water slides.

THE JERK AT POLLIWOG PLACE

Cool thing about Polliwog Place is that they have sprayers and hoses that you can blast perfect strangers. It's all in fun and people are generally pretty cool about it. I was holding the 2 year old to walk her up to the little slide when some jerk just started blasting me in the back. Usually, I'm pretty game, but I was walking the baby!!! I blocked her from the blast with my back but this jerk was relentless. When we finally made it down the slide, and I got the baby out of range, I turned back to deliver a scathing evil eye, only to realize it was my darling husband manning the hose. He did catch the evil eye, but it only made him laugh harder.

After we had dried off, we went back to the dry part of the park so the girls and I could explore the Garfield tree house (pretty cool) and the boys could get to the roller coaster they had missed the previous day. Turns out they waited extra long so they could be in the absolute first car. They had a great time. While they did the big roller coaster, the girls and I went on the tiny roller coaster. It went around part of the tree house 8 times. I know it was 8 times because the baby decided that it was too boring after the 5th revolution and tried to climb out. Thankfully, the coaster went so slow, she barely would have skinned a knee but I held onto her tightly anyway.

Cafe Chulo's hours are open until 10pm on Saturdays so when we pulled up at 9:30pm and saw the lights out, we were crestfallen. We went to the drive through and they said that it was so dead, they decided to close up early. What is wrong with the people in Coeur D'Alene? This is AWESOME Mexican food. Support this restaurant! But they were so great, they made up 4 fish tacos for us and we ate it in front of the Safeway while listening to the hits from the 70's, 80's & 90's.

More to come.

Back to School Ice Cream Social

My son had his meet & greet at his new middle school yesterday evening. It was an ice cream social. His dad took him because for the past week, I've been laid up with the flu. But I did want to find out how things had gone at the function so I asked, "Did you meet your teacher?"

"No, Mom." He sounded a little affronted by the idea to me.

"You mean she wasn't there?" I was a little confused.

"She was there."

"Well, why didn't you meet her?"

"No, I met her mom. You said, 'Did you eat your teacher?' I didn't eat her."

Oh. Yeah. Clearly, my bad.

2007 Summer Vacation

WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' PLANNING

About 2 weeks ago, the day before we departed, my husband announced that we were all going on a family vacation road trip, to visit his sister and her family up in Canada. To say that they live out in the middle of nowhere would be unfair. Because they are so far on the edge of nowhere, people at the border crossing didn't know where we were headed. It is an uncomfortable feeling to have the border crossing agent ask where you're going and for him to say, "Where is that?" I was worried the full body cavity search was on its way because he thought we were making up the name of the town. It is McClennan, Alberta. Way, way, (and yes, one more) way north of Edmonton. We made a couple of fun stops before we made it there, and at one point, the bickering level in the car between the two older kids was so bad, the threat of nothing to eat but peanut butter sandwiches for the rest of the trip was made. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

We started out our journey, after a day of furious packing, locking up and oodles of laundry, by going to REI. We needed a luggage rack for the van because with the kids and a 5-day cooler, our van felt like the inside of a package filled with styrofoam peanuts. I didn't think we'd get hurt, but we had very little wiggle room. We bought a Yakima rack from a sales associate who looked strangely like the guy who played Robin on Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. So we will refer to him as Robin. Anyway, Robin met us in the bowels of REI to install the luggage case to our roof rack. He and my husband did a great job. They loaded up the case with the camping gear. Robin explained how to open and how to lock the beast. We waved goodbye to REI's Boy Wonder and were on our way to Idaho -- Silverwood Theme Park.

SLEEPING IN IDAHO

We arrived at the Sleep Inn about a 25 minute ride to the theme park. The kids had fallen asleep by then but perked up considerably when they saw that there was a pool and hot tub in the hotel. We were told by the gal at check in that as of that morning, the park had a line of cars several miles long outside of the parking entrance at opening, so we might have to go early. I cannot fully explain the sheer horror I felt at that announcement. We live in a sleepy small(ish) town and when a few cars are backed up on the main road, I get a little anxious.

I woke up at 6:30am. We hadn't arrived until 11pm the previous evening, but there I was at 6:30am. I quietly got dressed and went downstairs to see if they had the other great thing my kids love about hotels -- the waffle iron. And they did. All was right with the world. When the kids did wake up, there was much joy and dancing because the waffle iron was there. Okay, maybe no joy and dancing, but they were happy.

We hit the road a good half hour before the park's opening and managed to get there just before opening. We were let in and went on the log ride (which my husband managed to rig to spray extra water on us), repeatedly on the elephant ride (which looked suspiciously like Dumbo but as it isn't a Disney park they were just elephants) and also on an airplane ride. There were things for the 2 year old to do and a great time was had by all. There is a big sign before you enter the park that says that you may not bring outside food and drink into the park. I think that is pretty standard. Supposedly, "you'll love ours!" the sign also reads. Well, the first day, feeling a little poor, we went to the parking lot and raided our cooler. I love our cooler. It really does work and the ice stays frozen. But while we were out there, I said to my husband, "Why don't we put the camp chairs in the roof box? The kids feet are crowded by them." My husband saw merit in my suggestion and opened the box, just like Robin showed him how to do, tested the lock, just like Robin said, and the kids legs could dangle in the car once again.

We went back to the park and more fun was had by all. The last ride of the day was a family rafting ride. It was great, but managed to get us wet all the way down our pants, and the girl who was riding with us had her siblings waiting for her by the "pay $0.25 for extra water hosing of the passengers" so we were thoroughly drenched.

WHERE'S BATMAN WHEN YOU NEED HIM

We decided to get dinner at a nearby restaurant, instead of trying the delicious fried food at the park. So we loaded up in the van and off we were. The first sign that something was wrong was a strange flapping noise that lasted about 10 seconds and then was gone. When my husband looked in the rear view mirror, he saw the top of the roof rack flying off to the side of the road. Thankfully the flapping sound wasn't followed by the sound of squealing brakes and crushing metal. I have to say that the people of Idaho who were following us that day were amazing folks. A total of 5 cars stopped to help us. 3 had pulled over to the side of the road and gave us the stuff sacks and sleeping bags that they had collected. Only one sleeping bag was not recovered. A marine and his wife stopped to stay with me and our gear while my husband took the van and looked for the missing gear. Someone had said we lost a tent, but that turned out to be an erroneous report. What had happened was the front passenger side latch had failed. This created enough of a gap, that air blew under the lid an ultimately opened it. The bags had been flying out for a couple of miles so people were alerted to our problem and stayed well away from us. THANK GOD NOBODY WAS HURT. We were shaken and ultimately didn't return to the park that evening. We did, however, have the BEST Mexican food we'd ever had at CAFE CHULO. We went back to the hotel and swam in the pool there. Exhausted and grateful, we returned to our room. More to come.

The New Math

A day late, I went to the local bookstore to pick up the last in the Harry Potter series. I'm kinda of the camp that wants to see Harry cooked. Not that I don't like Potter or hope that in his imaginary world, he lives to see a ripe old age, but his doing in would be a true finality to the series. Come on, don't we all wish on some level that Rocky ate it after Rocky (the first movie)?

So anyway, my 6 year old daughter accompanied me on this mission. She wanted to get a princess coloring book but got completely sidetracked by a Klutz activity book on how to draw a cat and a My Little Pony sticker book. Tough decisions I know. Well, the cat book was about $10 and the pony book was $7 dollars. (I rounded up.) Anyway, she was using some birthday money and the frugal girl that she is, she wanted to know which one she should buy and still have the most money left over.

"The cat book is ten dollars and the pony book is seven dollars. Which one costs more?" I had seized on the learning moment.

"Well, I'll get the cat book because it costs less."

"Wait a sec, which is more, ten or seven?"

"Seven is more than ten, Mommy."

Not wanting to give her the answer, we went through counting all the way up to 10 and I asked again, "which one is less, honey, ten or seven?"

"Ten is less than seven." She was solid in her thinking by now.

"Let's think about it this way, if I were to give you just seven dollars or ten dollars, which would make you happier?"

She chewed on that one for a little while and then answered quite astutely, "I'd be happier if you gave me eleven dollars."

Turned out that she was getting confused because seven and eleven sound alike, but I thought that her answer was pretty good anyway. It was accurate to say the least.

She ended up getting the sticker book and has been pleased as punch. I have a feeling that I'll still have to look for a Barbie princess coloring book.

Back to School Shopping

This coming fall, I will be going to an RN Refresher course. After having been out of nursing for the past 10 years, I'm getting my license back. Thankfully, this state requires you take a refresher course if you've been out of practice for over 3 years. I'm glad for this opportunity because frankly, I'm terrified to go back without some kind of refresher. Things just have changed, that's all. They don't still use leeches, do they?

I have to say though, I am nervous about going back to school. I'm guessing there are a lot of people in the same boat as I am. My sweet husband has no worries about that. He says that even though I'm older, I'm still smart. Bummer though, I think that this time through, I'll have to get reading glasses.

But along with the granny reading glasses, I get to buy all new nursing stuff. Over the past couple of days, my doorstep has been receiving cool new gear. One day, 3 of my textbooks arrived. Okay, that was a bummer. I had forgotten how heavy these bastards are. I figure I can work out just by carrying my books around. "How much do you press, Tess?" "Oh, I've worked my way up from RN Drug reference book to the full Med/Surg textbook." The next day I got 2 sets of scrubs. I got some that look a little more updated, but still in that lovely ceil blue. I had never *heard* of ceil blue before shopping for nursing clothes. Lastly, I got my stethoscope.

I was excited to get my stethoscope because my last one had been stolen when I last worked. My mom had bought me a lavender Littman Classic II for Christmas. I had a tag with my name on it and everything, but it walked. So I was shopping, and while I loathe most things pink, I did buy a pink stethoscope. See, 3M was donating $5 for each of these pink stethoscopes sold for breast cancer research, and the stethoscope costs the same as all the other colors, so why not? I ended up getting it engraved with "Tess Haddon, RN" just in case.

My son was very excited to see my stethoscope and had a suggestion on its use.

"Mom, before you go use that on people, can I go listen to a tree?"

A lot of what he says to me just leaves me bewildered. And I think it will be that way for the rest of our lives together.

"No, Mom, you can hear the sap going up the tree. For real."

"What does it sound like?" I asked.

"I can't exactly describe it..."

"Does it sound like sucking on a straw?" I made a slurping sound.

"No. Just go listen to one, Mom. We did it in school."

I rolled my eyes at him. Another crazy idea. But now, after having shut him down, I'm feeling like a jerk. Turns out that it is possible to hear sap go up a tree trunk during Spring. You're supposed to pick a thin barked tree and listen very quietly. You'll be able to hear the sap going up the trunk to the branches and leaves.

I suspect that I'll be listening to our trees with my Breast Cancer Awareness Littman Classic II S.E. Stethoscope this coming Spring. I'll have my son show me how.

Baby Lizzie Borden

Cooking with a toddler in your kitchen is never easy. Yes, we have the cabinet locks on all the doors within reach. Yes, we keep the knives and cleaners high and out of reach. Yes, we have a pretend kitchen in one corner of the real kitchen so that she can "cook" just like Mommy can.

The one thing that she loves to do in the kitchen is wash her hands. I'll turn the water on a trickle and pull the stool up to the sink. The kid will play in that little bit of dripping for hours. If there are dishes or some spoons in the sink, all the better. She'll mix potions and explore how much water each container can hold, including the floor. Grins all around. The nice thing is that she's right beside me while I cook and I physically can stand between her and the stove so she can't get burned.

Last night I was cooking a dinner of pork tenderloin chops in marinara sauce served over whole wheat penne pasta. While keeping and eye on the pasta, the marinara and the pork chops, I had my back to the baby. She contented herself in the sink, which by this point in the meal preparation, was full of dirty utensils and dishes. She was having a ball. Every now and then she'd pat me on the back and I'd make a show of being amazed with how when she turned the cup of water over, the cup would suddenly be empty -- like magic! These interruptions were frequent but nice. I was concentrating on not overcooking the chops and stirring the sauce when I felt her scratching on my back.

"Just a second, " more scratching, "I just have to flip this last chop over."

And that second later I turned around to see my 22 month old baby with my chef knife in her right hand and my small utility knife in her left hand. It was like in Dungeons and Dragons where your half-human/half-elf chaotic good thief will equip a sword in her right hand and a small dagger in her left. And since the attack was from behind the target, she gets a bonus dice roll for damage. My baby had been scratching me on my back with my knives! Thankfully her XP (experience) level is so low, her agility is so low (she's got immature motor skills), and her damage penalty is so high for equipping 2 weapons at once, she did no damage. I guess I have some pretty good AC (armor class) in this cotton nursing top.

No babies or mommies were harmed, I want to assure you. I think these were in her reach simply because I was using them to prepare the food. They went back up on the shelf over the sink and out of her reach and I gave her a whisk and a spoon to substitute for the scary sharp knives. She was happy with those and I was able to pat myself on the back for remaining calm and nonchalant so as not to freak her out.

So Mom, and all the Aunties & Uncles out there, don't you freak out. We're all fine. Really. Well, mostly.