Stuff my kids say

In the car, pulling out of the driveway.

Rachel: "I want more!"

Me: "More what?"

Rachel: "I don't know."

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At home in the kitchen, Natalie was holding a soiled Pull-up.

Rob: "Go put that in the Diaper Genie, please, Natalie."

Natalie: "But it's my choo choo bag!"

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We were playing with neighbor kid, Rhett, at the neighborhood park. Rhett sat down, upset--group play with a big bouncy ball was not to his liking. Rachel approached Rhett and squatted down next to him.

Rachel: "What's wrong, Rhett? Why you sad?"

The Big Trip, Part 3: Louisville & Nashville

 The evening of Monday, July 25th, we set out at 7PM in our rental Hyundai Sonata for what we feared might be a 6+ hour trip to Louisville. We hoped the girls would sleep for most of it. They didn't. But thanks, Granny, for loaning us the iPad--it definitely came in handy.

We saw the Gateway Arch as we sailed down I-64, then crossed the bridge into East St Louis. We made it through, unscathed. East St. Louis looks like what SimCity looks like when you are losing the game.

Fortunately, southern Indiana, though heavily populated with corn, is very sparsely populated by humans, so we sailed through in a mere four hours.  It was an uneventful drive, save for an awkward pee-by-the-highway moment with Natalie. With so many miles between each exit, it was either pull over or have her pee in the rental car/seat. Ah, boys have it so much easier.

At around 11PM, we arrived at the disappointing Red Roof Inn near my brother-in-law's house and crawled into the scratchy, questionable sheets for a relatively good night's sleep.

It's not that the Red Roof Inn is so horrible, or that we even had rude neighbors or anything disgusting enough to brag about. It's just--we're used to fairly nice hotels, the kind that have actual hallways and don't reek of cigarettes several years after they were declared non-smoking. And all those news stories in the past few years about the return of bedbugs added up to my feeling too creeped out to sleep well.

So after convincing Rob not to stick this one out, I cancelled the remainder of our reservation. Rob and his brother David quickly found a much nicer hotel (Ramada) for us, last minute, at $2 more per night. Score!

Visiting with my in-laws in Louisville for a week seemed like a daunting proposal. We have two toddler girls. They have two boys, an 11-year-old and a 13-year-old. Then there are the grandparents and my other sister-in-law in town with her husband and 17-year-old son. They are all-around sweet and loving folks, but what would the girls do when they couldn't play with the older boys? Wouldn't the older boys shun them and keep to themselves?

As soon as we walked in the door at David and Carol's house the morning after our late arrival, Natalie and Rachel strode into the kitchen and Tyler and Jacob walked in and high-fived them, like they were best friends from down the street. I was amazed. They got along famously the entire time. The boys were so interested in the girls, so great about playing with them gently, making them giggle, making sure they didn't get hurt. These guys are going to make terrific dads.

Rob and I also thought we wouldn't get out much while we were in Louisville. Wrong! We all went to a community center with a great pool (zero entry, fountains, huge water slides) one day. Afterwards we all went to a Mexican restaurant, where several of these pics were taken.

The next day we all went to a rock climbing gym, where Tyler and Jacob were Spidermen--they've obviously been doing this for a while, and defied gravity impressively. The girls enjoyed the bouldering section, when we could snag a bit of it--the gym was packed on a 100+ degree day.

My sister-in-law, Deb Stone

Carol, Jane and I learned how to belay (manage the rope for the person climbing.) David offered to belay while Rob and I took turns climbing. The girls hated being separated from either of us, but got into the spirit of cheering us on when they looked up and saw how high we were climbing. It was exhilarating.

The Linton Siblings

On one of the last nights of the trip, we conspired with the adults of the family to all meet at our hotel after the girls went to sleep. We took shifts watching the girls, sneaking downstairs afterwards to hang out, drink beer and play Cornhole and shoot pool in the lobby.

We also celebrated Natalie's 3rd birthday on our last day in Louisville. I don't know where those pics are at the moment, but it was a sweet and special little party. My wonderful sister-in-law, Carol, took me to Target to pick up supplies and shop for birthday presents. We bought her a pretty white cake with white icing (her favorite) and blue, purple and turquoise roses. I showered her in girly Mardi Gras beads. She enjoyed all the books and sweet gifts from the Linton family. It was a poignant moment and culmination of our trip. Now that she's 3(!), I think she will remember this birthday and talk about it in the years to come.

We said our warm goodbyes, gathered our increased load of luggage, and followed Jane down I-65 to Nashville, our last stop. We had two nights and a day to spend there before we would board the plane to return to Austin. Again, I thought we wouldn't do much.

I underestimated our capacity to go all out and have a great time.

The afternoon we arrived, went swimming at the hotel. At night, I got to go out (all by myself!) to Jane's house to meet Mary, her sweetheart. We played Wizard, a fun twist on an ordinary card game.

The next day, we all headed out to breakfast at Bob Evans near Opryland, then to a lovely park with a couple of playscape, a nature center and a great rustic outdoor play area. I wish I could remember the name. This park also hooked up to/included a bike trail that winds around the city for miles.

Rob did the double pole slide.

Rachel continued perfecting her stair descent.

Jane showed off her skills on the barrel roll.

We headed back to the hotel (a very nice Holiday Inn) for our daily scheduled nap. This was something we started in Louisville that really made the trip, in terms of our overall mood and energy. No way could we have pulled off all the activities without those naps, and still had a shred of sanity left at the end of it.

Rachel is getting sleee-pyyyy...

After a glorious nap, we ventured out again, this time to the Adventure Science Center. Austin has a Children's Museum somewhat similar in concept to this, but Nashville's version is bigger, with a planetarium and a 5-story rocketship atrium.

It is so cool to be a kid these days!

Natalie boards the bus.

Rachel spent quality time absorbed in this simple Lego table, all by herself (well, except for me) in the toddler zone.

After dinner at Logan's Steakhouse, Jane showed us the way to Centennial Park, home of an impressive Parthenon replica.

A breakdancing DJ entertained the small crowd with 70's funk hits and lots of smooth moves. Natalie joined him on the plywood dance floor. I wish one of those photos had come out! She was in her element, I tell you.

Mmm, snowcones...

Shortly after this picture was taken, Rachel got extremely frustrated with the snowcone situation, and Rob chucked a snowcone into the water. Rachel proceeded to have her first real tantrum, accompanied by Earth, Wind and Fire. Stomp, rage, cry, repeat. I followed her and tried to be empathic and let her do her thing. She started calming down when she noticed a flowering shrub and stopped to inspect it. An onlooker stopped and remarked, "that's your scientist there!" What a moment! Joy, fun and pain all rolled into one.

Really, after such a long and eventful trip, being away from home for two weeks, with a shifting array of strangers who really want to get to know you... who wouldn't have a tantrum? It was a quick, bright hot blaze, and then it was over.

We danced and made yoga pose shadows on the sunlit walls of the Parthenon. We meandered across the great green lawn to the huge shaded playscape across the street.

We played our hearts out, and the girls had a great time getting to know their Aunt Jane, one on one.

The next morning we got up at 6AM, packed up in the best unhurried rush we could muster, and headed to the airport. A few minor hassles later, we were on our way home. A two-hour plane ride seemed like nothing after the huge, exciting two weeks we had.

It was such a great trip!

The Big Trip, Part 2: St Louis

At last, we arrived at the Amtrak station in St. Louis at about 8AM, waited for what seemed like an eternity with tired toddlers for our bags, then caught a taxi to Brian and Kara's house in University City. Greater St. Louis is comprised of several "independent cities", of which UC is one. I marvelled at the much taller trees than we are used to seeing here in Central Texas.

Normally in late July, St. Louis would be cooler than Austin, probably reaching 90F as a high during the day, at most, while Austin would be in the 100's, possibly hovering around 105-110. This year the weather in St. Louis was about the same, if not a little hotter, than the weather we left in Austin.

We had brought with us our trusty single umbrella stroller for Rachel, but after a couple of long and frustrating walks to the neighborhood park (Joseph W. Mooney Park), Rob and I decided to invest in a double umbrella stroller. Here are the girls on their first stroll in the Babies R Us parking lot. I assembled the stroller in the store before we left, which was nice--they dealt with all the packaging trash/recycling.

 Rob picked up a $2 bubble wand, which paid for itself many times over in giggles and smiles in the backyard.


Natalie and Rachel had so much fun with their cousin, Mamie, pictured here with her daddy, my brother Brian. She was 13 months old, playing with 17-month-old Rachel and almost 3-year-old Natalie. There was much squealing, as you might imagine. Rachel and Mamie pushed and pulled each other on a ride-on toy around the house quite a bit.

 Here's sweet Mamie with proud papa, Brian Thevenot.

 The girls eagerly anticipate more bubbles.

We headed over to the St. Louis Zoo, where the double stroller was key to our overall happiness. It's a fabulous free zoo in Forest Park, and on a very hot Saturday, there was quite a crowd. We wove among the exhibits admiring ducks, flamingos, several species of ape, big cats, a gorgeous butterfly insectary, and several fascinating specimens of the human animal. I think Rob said he counted 14 people on Rascals. One family in particular had a penchant for dropping f-bombs around their toddler- and preschool-age little ones. I think about 1 in 4 adults was smoking. Funny that I used to smoke, and now have been smoke-free and living in a smoke-free city for so long, that it's novel and curious to me when I see smokers.

Here's Brian with his lovely wife, Kara, and 13-month-old daughter, Mamie.

 Brian and the girl cousins, Mamie, Natalie and Rachel. We couldn't get them all to look at the camera at the same time.

 Mamie gets a closer look at an orangutan, trying to beat the intense heat, laying in the shade with a sheet on his body.

 Brian points to one of the dozens of gorgeous butterflies fluttering around the insectary.

This was taken moments before Natalie and Rob made a mad dash to the bathroom, which was somewhat far away and hard to find it. She held it until about 10 steps away from the bathroom door, when she couldn't hold on anymore. Rob's back was drenched. He was a good sport about it--all you can do is laugh in that situation, right? We hadn't packed a spare shirt for him. He took advantage of a waterfall outside one of the animal exhibits to rinse off.

 The guys went to pick up the cars while Kara and the girls and I cooled off in the air-conditioned front entrance to the zoo. Natalie couldn't resist pacing the concrete benches.

 The next day, following Kara's suggestion, I took Natalie on a solo trip to Grant's Farm, about 30 minutes away from the house. Grant's Farm includes the boyhood cabin of former president Ulysses S. Grant, and for the past 100-odd years, has been the exotic game ranch developed and later opened to the public by the Anheuser-Busch family. The fleet of Clydesdales is there, as are dozens of species of wild game and other exotic animals from 6 continents. Natalie and I had a blast. She did not enjoy having her picture taken, so you'll have to take my word for it.

 We saw bison...

Longhorn cattle (just like here in Texas)...

Cebu...

 I caught Natalie looking amused at the exotic bird show, before she realized I was snapping photos again.

 We saw owls...

 A literal rat race...

And a bald eagle!

We saw Daddy's favorite animal, the tortoise. The signs said these tortoises were about 60 years old. Enjoying an early retirement, apparently.

 There was an entire carriage house, which was interesting to Natalie, as it relates to the horses and carriages in the story of Cinderella.

The zebra was a little standoffish, which was just as well. Any closer and Natalie would have run away screaming. She was getting into the pre-nap meltdown zone, so we bid farewell to the animals, boarded the free tram, and got back in our rental car...

 ...where she promptly fell asleep.

 The next day, Brian, Rob and I took the girls to the pool at Heman Park (also in the neighborhood) while Kara stayed back to plan a special surprise for Natalie.

The pool was huge and swimming was a big hit, as was playing in the nicely shaded sand volleyball court.

Rob even did a flip off the diving board! I have video I might try to upload later.

Here's Brian holding sweet Mamie.

Good and exhausted, we dried off and walked back to Brian and Kara's house, where Natalie's birthday surprise was waiting.

 Kara had made a beautiful cake, and we all sang Happy Birthday to Natalie, including Rachel, who kept saying, "Happy Birthday Natalie!" all evening. Natalie blew out her candles and opened her present--an Erica Eggplant puppet and book. She was quite pleased until she realized there weren't any more presents! She kept asking, "Where are my presents?" with distress in her voice.

It occurred to me that we've been talking to her about this trip for months, talking about how she was going to have a big birthday party, and she thought this was it. She didn't realize there would be another party in Louisville, and more presents. So she was momentarily disappointed, then confused when I tried to explain it to her. Kara took the whole thing in stride and with a good sense of humor. (Hooray for wonderful sisters-in-law!)


That night after we finally got two very wound-up girls to sleep, we stayed up late, drinking wine (Kara and me) and whiskey (Rob and Brian), playing Monopoly, and then talking under the stars. It was so nice to have some adult time, so nice that I didn't care if I barely got any sleep at all. And somehow, the next day, the lack of sleep didn't affect me much. At least, not that I recall. :)

 The next day was our last day in town, and it turned out to be another scorcher. Still, our kids thrive outside, so out we went, this time back to Forest Park to a big playscape outside the Missouri History Museum. Thankfully, it was a very well-built, modern playscape, with a nice water feature/drinking fountain.

Rachel explored the shady underside of one of the playscapes, including chime bars.

That evening, we bid a bittersweet farewell to Brian, Kara and Mamie, and set out for Louisville in our rental.

 Hugs and giggles all around.

To be continued, eventually, in The Big Trip, Part 3: Louisville...