Vacation 2014 Post 2 - Como Park, the 1st time around...

So, something else the boys and I did while momma remained at the hospital, is go to Como Park, which turned out to be not very far from our hotel.  

It's a free park, with the exception of the "amusement park" area, which I wasn't real interested in anyway.

So the first time we went there, we had our bag with frisbee's, baseballs, a football and probably other stuff. 

We played some frisbee first but Robby kept getting sort of sick feeling from the heat (it was H.O.T.!!!) so we walked a bit, stumbling onto a water fountain in which we scooped piles of water over each others noggins in an effort to not boil over.

It worked for a little while but then we'd all get hot and need to take a break again.  And so the day went.

So what did we do?

Glad you asked!  Have a look:

This is obviously during the "baseball phase" of our summer and Robby fancied himself a catcher.

Caleb was HOT and ORNERY!!  He was sort of enjoying himself, but was frustrated at his inability to throw accurately.

After baseball, we played some mini-golf.  I smoked these two hon-yonkers!  Oh, and this was not free either...  so, I guess a good portion of the park is free, but some things in life require down payment.

Caleb's body language at this point pretty much tell you that he is frustrated that the silly little white dimpled ball will NOT go thru the dang windmill!!

That was the amusement park entry straight across from mini-golf.

And a shot of a cool looking apparatus in the park area.  There was much more stuff to play on in the park, I just didn't photograph much of it fearing that if I moved too much more, I would suffer heat stroke!  Just kidding, but did I mention that it was hot?

So that's it for this go 'round.  Next up is the Como Park Zoo.

What the H3!! Have We Done!?!?

So what's with the title of the post!?

I'll tell ya!!

Today was the first Sunday after the boys' VBS (Vacation Bible School) had ended and it just so happened to coincide with the the ice cream social at Oakwood United Methodist Church in Pleasant Hill, IA.  So we worshiped there this morning in the stead of our own place of worship, Lutheran Church of the Cross (LCC).

Here is lad number 1 and 2 in the masks that they had created earlier in the night at VBS, in which the theme was "Weird Animals".

No worries there, right.  I would agree.

However, today also marks the day that our oldest boy, Robby (a.k.a. Larger American Boy) was to leave for Riverside Bible Camp.  Again not such a big deal, right?

He's been gone for a night or two in the past correct?

Well, this time, we drop him off... with complete strangers, on Sunday afternoon and do not have any contact with him until Friday afternoon when we pick him up!

Obviously, I am simply NOT equipped for this kind of parenting!  It was even my suggestion to sign him up for the full bore 6 day (5 nights) excursion, instead of one of the 3 day versions under the guise that, "I know my boy", and he's going to first be getting fully into it by the third day and be HOT when we arrive to pick him up.

I still believe that but not quite with the same conviction as I did a few months ago when we signed him up.

He will be fine, indeed, but will I?

Nobody had a checklist for daddies and what they can deal with!!!!

So to recount the story of this past week, I'll do my worst.

Robby was starting to sort of get nervous as the week progressed.  Rightfully so as he's never been away from his immediate family for more that a day or two at a time and for that matter, has always been watched by extended family!

This is a little different...

So last night (saturday), as we returned home from Crystal Lake,  he was N.E.R.V.O.U.S.

Both Momma and I had some talks with him and he seemed okay.  So did we, for that matter.

This morning was fine as they woke up on their own, had breakfast, we went to worship/ice cream social, and Robby met up with his lifelong friend, Noah (seriously, they've been friends since 5 months of age!!) and then we went to the grocery store. Cooked and ate lunch and got the boy ready to go.

We delivered him to North of Story City Iowa at the Riverside Camp and started the process.

Let's have a look...

That's Robby's cabin towards the left.  They are the conquerors and I don't know any of the people in the picture... neither does the boy.  These cabins are called the tree houses , because they are suspended over a steep drop and there's the lagoon directly behind the huts.

The beautiful boy who is the focus of ALL of my current anxiety!!

This is on the back of his cabin and this little walk-way connects this cabin to the one on the right in the photo above.

You can sort of see the lagoon down thru the trees, to the left of Robby in this photo.

And a shot of the horses, one of which, the boy will ride at some point during the next five days.

So what's wrong with all of that?

Absolutely nothing!

Except that this is yet another thing that people, the people in charge, do not prepare you for as a parent.  

I was a big mushy mess driving away from there tonight as Robby went from nervous, to confident (hoping that we would be alright without him), back to nervous and very clingy when it was actually time for us to leave.

I was a mess all the way back to Pleasant Hill wondering why we do the things we do and also why it felt like somebody had cut off my right arm!!! 

We dropped off our boy, with no way to contact us (oh sure, emergency numbers are provided and so on) other than a self addressed stamped envelope, with total strangers, in a cabin with two camp consoulers and probably 12 - 14 other boys and drove off.

What a dreadful feeling!

Oh sure, he'll have a good time.  He'll become more of a young man thru the experience.  He'll learn problem solving skills as he only has $15 of credit at the store and will probably blow that on a stuffed animal in the first couple of days and NOT be able to buy something he NEEDS later on.  He'll meet a few friends for life and probably experience a hundred other things that I am not even considering at this point.

So when I, Momma, and little Calebber got back to Pleasant Hill tonight, we decided to go for a walk around Copper Creek.  We ran into Robby's favorite teacher from his pre-school years and just as we piled back into the van to go home, a couple of girls walked by with a gorgeous Boston Terrier that made the heart ache even more!!  

UGH!!!

So here we are,  three of us aching for the one of us who is very likely having great fun by this point.

God bless you all and GOD BLESS MY LARGER AMERICAN BOY!!!

Love You Robby!!!

Silliness...

Nothing fancy about this post.

Anybody who knows me, seriously knows me, that is, knows that I'm goofy and  I like it that way.

Proof positive.  I'm in for a "Whiz Quiz" yesterday, meaning that I had to go potty in a cup for a company that likes that kind of thing prior to a fella being employed by them.

Okay. No big deal.  I've gone potty in stranger things than that although that's not part of this story.

So, I'm back in the room with the "urine collection lady" and she's asking me pertinent questions to fill out her form.

Full name.

Official address.

Social Security number.

Then, we get to birthday.  She ask me to state my birthday.

I reply, "seven ten of seventy".

She scribbles it down and then says, "Well, happy belated birthday!  Did you do anything special?".

With a completely straight face and as dead-pan of expression as I could muster, I replied, "I did!  I awoke to a dead dog so I found a lid to a printer paper box, and after retrieving her life-less carcass out of her crate, I gave her one last neck scratch and belly rub, "to go", before wrapping her in a towel and putting her downstairs in the storeroom for my wife to deal with her after she got home from work.  Didn't want to freak out the baby-sitter,  ya know...".

The lady, quite slowly and deliberately went back to asking questions and writing my answers but never again swayed from the actual questions on the page.

For my own behavior, I managed to NOT giggle until I made it all the way out to the car.

That's how you make you make pee'ing in a cup fun!!!

Happy...  uh,  whatever.

Vacation 2014 Post 1 - The Minnesota Zoo

I figured that I had better start posting some of our vacation pics from this year or school will be starting along with Fall sports and I'll be that much further behind. 

And since its been more than 6 hours since vacation has ended (more like 3 weeks!!), I can't recall the order in which things happened, not that it's important.

I do know that our vacation started with 4 days in Minneapolis, MN.  As I type this, I'm still waiting for the response to my appeal of a $128 fine for going down a perfectly good road where they no longer want you to drive.  Jokes on them though!  It was my third time down that road, so when you divide that up, it's really like a $43 toll road...   I guess the jokes still on me.

Regardless of that silliness, we're starting the vacation posts off with the trip to the Minnesota Zoo. Mom stayed at the UoM hospital with G'ma and G'pa while Aunt Molly, Dear ol' Dad and the boys went to the zoo.

I won't bore you with pics of the animals, but rather a few of a couple of fantastic boys! 

The varmints, prior to it really getting hot out. 

At this point, it was not warm either... it was HOT!  We got some waters and found a seat in the shade.  Something cool to note about this zoo and this picture is the big monorail behind Caleb.  It goes thru pretty much all of the major exhibits and sometimes, like in this shot, you're a good distance in the air.  It just happened to be closed during our visit, but looks like something to explore, should we ever make it back.

This was in the Big Bugs section.  Pretty cool area that we nearly missed.  These are, quite obviously, the ants.

...and, the spider.  Yeeuuucccckkkkk.

The coolest, and most life-like, was the tarantula.  This thing was just creepy. And BIG.

This is the shark "petting" tank. Robby stepped right up and participated.

Caleb did too...  only after big brother went first followed by several other kids, non of whom were eaten.

As our day came to an end and we were left to face the twin cities traffic yet again...

The Rhu-Barbarians! (you need to watch Veggie-Tales!)

The boys are helping in the kitchen!  Really, that's not all that surprising although Robby usually starts reluctantly, while Caleb is bubbling over to help.  

Then Caleb wanes first while Robby stays on the job, enjoying it "more than he thought he would".

Go figure...

Anyway, we had a large rhubarb crop this year so Momma took the boys out for a bit of harvest (maybe the 3rd harvest, counting the neighbors) and decided since they had so much to make us and the neighbors a nice little rhubarb crisp!

Robby, cuting the leaves and "dirty end" off of the stalks.

Caleb "feeding" him more as he plows thru it.  Also, Caleb was in charge of composting the extras.

Chinaman, posing for a pic, mid-work.

Positively gorgeous!

Glasses or not, I think the boy is positively gorgeous!! 

Oh sure, I may be mildly biased, but that's the way I feel! 

Robby in his new (x-ray, laser!) specs...

Rosey Lynne...

Life is weird...

What do I mean?  Well, it's my birthday today, July 10th. That's not the weird part as I really don't care about birthdays and the such.  However, today was sort of odd.

You see, I can remember 24 years ago today when my dad called me up and said, "Guess what?  Your ol' Dad is a murderer!".  He was referring to the fact that earlier in the day, he had to take our family dog, Snickers, in to put her down as she was not doing well.  Could he have waited until the next day to call and tell me?  Probably.  

Did he?  Nope.  Not how he rolled.

So fast forward 24 years and it's my birthday again.  I'm obviously 24 years older and wis..  well, older.

Our dog Rosey, just turned 12 years old on June 25th.  Exactly 5 years ago today, she had her first seizure.

Why do I remember that?  I remember that because I had taken the day off from work to finish up some loose ends on the deck we were building on our house and was home alone with Rosey when she had, what I believe to be, her first seizure.

She's had them periodically in those 5 years and they've never been very severe or lasted for very long.  About 2 months ago, when I was alone with her, she had what I would describe as her first violent seizure and it scared me bad.  Much more than scaring me, it made me crazy sad.  I do not like to see anyone or anything suffer.  At all...

So after we got back from vacation, Rosey seemed to be doing well, enjoying having her family back as much as we were enjoying having her back.  

She started in on Tuesday morning with a seizure, continuing on thru the day and had 8 of them on her way to the vet after I got home from work and piled her and the boys in the truck for the drive.

She never really recovered and last night, July 9th, we decided if there was not marked improvement from her prescription meds, we would take her in to have her euthanized as she was way too good of a beast to watch her suffer another evening knowing full well that it would be the second dog to die on my birthday.
 
Ugh...

I'm relieved to say that we did not have to make the decision.  She died on her own sometime this morning between 4am when I last checked on her and 5:20am when I got up to start getting ready for work. 

I prayed last night before bed that "if she's not going to get better, please, please, please, take her before morning arrives". 

I miss her but I'm so relieved she is not suffering another night.

Get some rest, girl.  Those last two days were ROUGH!

Knee High By The 4th Of July

For whatever reason, we started having our photo taken by the corn stalks of Iowa every 4th of July.  I think we started back when Robby was just a toddler but I'm unsure at this point.

Not really much to share other than it's interesting to see myself getting fatter...

2014 Chaos Unit in our back yard...

2013 Chaos Unit up in Crystal Lake, Iowa.

Again in our back yard for the 2012 shot and the first to feature the little Chinamen!  We were heading to Adventureland right after this photo, hence the swim wear on the varmints.

Chaotic Updates...

After what seems like nearly a year, we're back from our vacation after a "psuedo-vacation". I understand that after a comment like that, I have some 'splainin' to do... 

I am also keenly aware that we have returned from our 2014 vacation and I still haven't posted the final post from the 2013 vacation which finished up in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.  Yes, it does seems nearly pointless now, but I'll probably still do it since that's the way that I am.

This year, our vacation was a bit ad-libbed since a family member was recovering in the hospital and we weren't inclined to leave unless we were confident in their recovery. Eventually, and very thankfully, our family member returned home and is currently recovering there.  We stayed an additional day or so and then took to the road to see what kind of trouble we could find.

Regardless of all of that, the boys had done various jobs for us and the neighbors to earn money towards their own kindle that they could take with us for the drive.  They did good and received their kindle the week before we left home.  The big deal to them is that they receive it in time to not only take it on vaca with us, but to also load Minecraft on it before we head out. 

This is a shot of Robby playing Minecraft and Calebber McCheese watching and picking up tips as to how it's done so that when he gets his turn, he can move freely ahead.

This is why I had allowed them to play the kindle instead of going out to play and enjoy the day.  We had a wall cloud move thru and disrupt the "ordinary" happenings of the day.  This is looking nearly straight West...

This is from standing in the same spot looking Northeast.  The cloud went horizon to horizon for us.

Luckily, nothing much came of the storm.

Also luckily, our kin was released from the hospital and we eventually went on vacation and did some "stuff".  We had a blast and everything worked out just fine and dandy like it usually does.

That will likely be the next several posts...  you know, after laundry and all of that good stuff.