Motorcyclin' Miller

Miller decided he wanted to ride Grandpa's motorcycle this visit. For those of you that recall Miller's earlier obsession with "mo-mo's" this shouldn't be surprising.

Friday, my mom and dad started prepping Miller by letting him try on her helmet. I assumed that would be the first battle since I remember those helmets being heavy on my head as a kid. I guess Miller has a pretty good size noggin' and they make them much cooler than when I was a kid. He loved it. Her's has a regular face guard, visor, and flip down sun visor. They talked about how they would ride, how fast, etc.

Saturday morning was the day and I don't know who had more ants in their pants; my dad or Miller? Both were so eager we had to try to remind them it was cold out and too early for revving engines in the neighborhood. Miller suited up with his jeans, Captain America sweatshirt, my mom's riding gloves, and her helmet. Funny side note...Miller has never had to bundle up so getting those gloves on was hysterical.

They did a short trip around the block and he was all smiles so they went further around the neighborhood. It was a success and we snapped a few shots. We told him after his nap in the afternoon they could go again. Miller was so tuckered out, he took a long nap. My dad was pacing, turning on music, making noise trying to wake him up. They re-suited up and headed to the industrial park near their house for a longer ride without traffic. They both reported back a fun trip. Miller's legs don't quite reach the foot pegs so he was getting tired of balancing. I wouldn't doubt by this time next year he's touching the pegs. Next thing I know, they will be going to Daytona together.

PS: Auntie Em, Uncle Sean, and Uncle Erik gave Miller a motorized cycle when he was around Mason's age but he was too big for it and rode it very little. Mason has found it to be the perfect toy recently and has been cruising all over the driveway and sidewalks. He's a little large for it too but still loves it. He had NO desire to sit on the real thing. It was too big and scary and that was BEFORE we started the engine. Silly boy.

Mini-vacation to Grandma and Grandpa Sladky's

We took our annual trip to my parent's house to visit the pumpkin patch and get a little Busch Gardens time in. It felt more like a mini-vacation this year since we left at noon on Thursday and came back on Sunday.

Mason is a terrible car rider. That is why we don't travel and will continue to be a reminder of why we don't travel. By the time we got to my parents, we were happy to let the kids and dog out of the truck and watch them run around under Grandma and Grandpa's eyes. In fact, after dinner Ryan and I left to go to a little dive bar in Zephyrhills to watch a band play (we met the guitar player for pizza last time we visited). The band was good. We are just not used to smoke filled bars. Ick! We would have stayed later but it was a 30-45 minute drive back to my parents and frankly, we were sick of sitting in the car.

Friday we got up and headed to Busch Gardens. Mason loved all of the park and was quite content to ride in his stroller and people / animal watch. He was a little hesitant of rides but once he did them, he loved them. He drove cars in Sesame Street, explored the tree forts, rode the hippo flume, rode the big carousel in the main park and went on the Grover roller coaster. Miller was slightly shafted as the main section with a few of his favorite rides were under construction and the Rhino Rally was also closed. He did have a blast playing in the bigger tree fort, rode the roller coaster probably 5 or 6 times and helped his brother on a few rides.

On Saturday we headed to the pumpkin patch. We normally go at the beginning of the month and are there right when it opens. This year we were there on the last weekend and got there an hour after they opened. It was full of people. We had to wait to get in and all of the pumpkins left were the super expensive large ones. We opted for a quick photo op with the pumpkins and went to the local church that the boy scouts sell at later that day.

Miller knew what he wanted to do, he played on the hail bails, played a water pump game, shot the potato gun, and led us through the corn maze. Mason was a little rough in the morning so it took him a while to warm up. He loved the hay ride and the tree fort. He fed some goats too. Rosie the cow was on the other side of the pasture/fence this year so no kissing her. We ate a picnic lunch and headed into the corn maze. Mason had fun running from the "bears" and "monsters".

Miller had his first motorcycle ride with Grandpa. That will get its own post and pictures. We capped Saturday off with a trip to The Freezer. The boys took good naps so it was a late night adventure. It's a restaurant that is literally built out of an old freezer. They have fresh shrimp and it's on the water. They were packed so we ate on the back porch with a view of some spooky halloween decorations and crazy bikers. Even though it was super late, the boys were so good. We ate enough shrimp to last us a few months. It was great but my lord, a 1/2 pound of shrimp each is a lot of shrimp! No pics of the shrimp but trust me, it was overflowing.

Sunday we got packed up and headed home. It was a great time and I think everyone had fun. No major meltdowns and both kids went to bed pretty good.

Survival

Ryan is back from his annual hunting trip. The 9 days without Ryan had highs and lows. My mom came to help for the weekend (Thank you Mom!) and a few days during the week. I have no problem admitting I struggle with the kids when alone. Ryan does the cooking and the school pickup is on his schedule, not mine. While he was gone that meant an earlier wake up time to get myself in and out of the shower before the kids got up. The actual morning routine wasn't too different other than that.

I worked from home the whole time so I could start work early, skip a lunch break and leave early to get the kids and still get home in time to make something to eat before 8pm. Some days they were great while I got dinner ready and others not so great. Some nights they ate like champs and others were complete battles. Again, nothing new there.

The biggest realization is that they don't listen to me no matter what. I had this vision that without Ryan around, they would realize I am boss and listen to me. No such luck. I tried to keep my cool but the last night I lost it with Miller in a battle of wills. Clearly the calm, rational approach didn't work. Neither did the yelling. Nor the removal of privileges. Eventually we were in the epic battle of him taking a time out for 5 minutes in his room. It went on for about 50 minutes. I held strong and won in the long run.

On the positive side, Miller read his first book by sounding out all of the words. It was so cool to finally see him putting all of the sounds together. We have his first conference next week. I hope it's a good report.

We went to a new park on the weekend. Mason was actually playing like a big boy and doing quite well on the equipment. He's definitely benefiting from being in the newer classroom at school. In the morning he is with his older friends (about 6 months older). Watching them interact is fun. I missed out on seeing that with Miller since Ryan took him to and from daycare everyday.

Mason's doing well with potty training too. He always goes when put on the potty. Some days he's dry before he goes and others he's not. I figure we will work out way through this last batch of diapers before trying out pullups. He is interested but since he's so stubborn, I don't want to push him too hard. The teachers said the same thing. They ask him and if he puts up a wall, they leave him alone and just change his diaper.

Both boys enjoyed "Grandpa" Jean time. Mason decided calling her grandpa was funny and stuck with it the whole time. Miller and Grandma found a disgusting caterpillar and caught it. They were being brave and adventuresome. I stayed inside during that adventure. Yuck! Lots of books were read, adventures in the yard, some coloring, some car play time, swimming, etc. I think Grandma is learning how to play with boys more and more. Next up, teaching her how to transform a Transformer.

I don't know how single parents do it. These kids are quite a handful. I am glad to have Ryan back for tag teaming when things get chaotic.

Savannah Trip

Ryan and I finally had a weekend away from the kids. We bribed my parents to come spend some quality time with the kids and animals so we could go to Savannah. The drive up was pretty uneventful with the exception of a terrible lunch (Denny's truck stop). Never order non-breakfast food at a Denny's. Ick! We knew after that meal we would not have to raise the standards by much to have a good meal.

We scored a great room at our hotel. Top floor, corner suite, tiny balcony, nice views. After checking in we started walking the historic district. We did the usual touristy stuff (walked up and down River Street-several times, tourist shopping, drinks, food, trolley tour, ghost tour, museums, etc.).More details on a couple of those in a bit.

The vacation was kicked off with drinks on the patio bar. The weather was perfect. Low 80's, no humidity. We met some local bar owners and listened to a few suggestions. One led to lunch on Saturday (good choice) -The Crab Shack on Tybee Island and the other led to 40 oz beers on Friday night at their bar (bad choice) - fed my terrible hangover.

A co-worker recommended we eat at two places (The Cotton Exchange and the Old Pink House). We hit up The Cotton Exchange the first night and the Old Pink House the next night. It was Jazz Fest the weekend we were in town so we walked down to the large park to check it out. Jazz is not for us. We quickly headed back in search of other entertainment.

We stopped in some neat bars and found out on our trolley tour one was from a movie Julia Roberts was in. The tour was nice (sitting down) and informational. Definitely a nice way to learn a little more about the city. We decided to do a walking ghost tour that was recommended by the concierge. Epic fail! The guy was a history buff and told us it was 1.5 hours long. At the 2.5 hour mark we checked out. He could have told us half the info and it would have been cool.

We visited Fort Jackson, the train museum (pretty cool-we had a tour guide who made it worth while), a modern art museum (not cool-glad the lady screwed up our admission price because paying full price would have been a bigger let down), visited a historical house museum (interesting but afterwards, Ryan and I were trying to piece together some inconsistencies in the tour info), and did I mention lots of walking?

It was a great escape and the area was very pretty. I definitely recommend it as a place to visit.