Days 4-5: Illinois, Iowa, Prairie Park, All The Corn (We Broke Into a Zoo)

(Still backdated.)

Night 4: In a Caboose, On a Prairie Farm, the Middle of Nowhere, Illinois

We crossed the Mississippi back into Illinois and drove away from St Louis, going north into the middle of nowhere. (The town is Hanna City, but trust me, it's in the middle of nowhere. Google maps calls it a village, which would cause me to type the laugh-cry emoji if such a thing existed on this non-mobile PC qwerty keyboard.)

So in Hanna City, well not in but near Hanna City, there is this prairie park that Natalie told me about, and while I had never even heard of a prairie park and didn't fully understand what it was, apparently they had cabooses you could rent for the night, so I rented one and we drove there. Because my kids like cabooses and I like adventures.

So it turns out it's something of a cross between a state park, and a campground, and a zoo, but really it's all three of those things put together. It was totally fun!

We checked in to our caboose, which was like renting a cabin or something for the night. Very basic, not fancy, but my lower bunk was super comfy and the kids were effing delighted.

And then we went and explored the park. There were a few playgrounds, one of which had a giant slide down the side of a hill.

The map showed us there was some sort of zoo, which we assumed, once they locked us in the park all night, we could go walk through any time. But it turns out it was closed for the night, but, I mean, look at that gate. It's totally jumpable.

So we broke into a zoo.

Why, what do you do on your family vacations?

(Stop clutching your pearls, we only wanted to walk through it and see the animals, we weren't going to hurt anything or get into any trouble. Our kids were fairly scandalized though. Convinced the police were going to come take us to jail. SUCH RULE FOLLOWERS. They totally get that from Mark.)

When we got to the back end of the loop around the zoo, we saw some other people - someone who must take care of the animals at the petting zoo. We just blatantly played on a swingset nearby and they didn't say boo to us. What's that thing about how if you act like you're supposed to be somewhere, you will get away with it? Yeah, that.

Basically though, halfway through our walk, we got a little creeped out. A zoo, after hours, with no handlers around, even though the animals were all in cages (although Mark was not reassured by some of the "enclosures" which were wide open on top for, like, mountain lions), totally spooked us. We felt like we were in Jurassic Park by the end. That eerie feeling that some sh!t is about to go down.

(We are all rule followers at heart, is what I'm saying, even me.)

We're scared in a zoo after hours and I don't
think our tour guide can even read that map

Anyway it was a delightful night in a caboose, and if you ever find yourself in the middle of nowhere, Illinois, you should absolutely go spend the night there. It's a beautiful part of the country.


Day 5: Iowa

The next morning we kept driving north and then crossed the Mississippi (again) into Iowa.

I should stop here and say two things:

1- is your midwestern geography as bad as mine? When I first learned where all these states were, in relation to each other, I was like wuuuuut. Is this how other people feel about the deep south? Or New England? Anyway.

2- There is so much corn in America, y'all. At this point we had been driving through corn for two straight days, and there was no end in sight, and when we got on back roads in Iowa it was just corn and corn and corn and corn. I thought I was ready for it after my trip last summer, but what you can see and wrap your brain around from major interstates is NOTHING compared to the miles and miles and miles of nothing but corn that exists when you get deep into those counties. How are we using so much corn? How?? HOW. I mean yes, I know it's in everything, but. But. It's so much. Nothing I write here can describe it. It's hard for me to remember anymore how many other things we grow in America, because you can drive for two days (and even more!) and see nothing. but. corn.

Okay so after miles and miles of corn, we arrived at the Field of Dreams movie site for a picnic lunch! This was a totally delightful stop worth going a bit off the beaten path for. It was pretty, and easy, and oh man what a beautiful day.

Mark and the kids threw the ball around (yes we remembered gloves, of course we remembered gloves, my secret superpower is maybe packing lists), and ran the bases, and crept in and out of the cornfield like creepy creepsters pretending to be creepy historical baseball ghosts, Anneliese had a minor breakdown (the first Incident of the trip!) but lunch turned it around.

Speaking of packing, our intelligently-packed cooler was such a great move for this trip. It made meals cheap and easy and ready whenever we were. I am very pleased with myself for that level of planning, I have to say.

(Self-five!) (Are you picturing Tina Fey right now? Good job.)

I should do a You Know What You Should Do type blog post about my pro tips for road trip packing, but. Another day.

Road Trip, Days 1-2: Millers Creek, Tweetsie Railroad

Y'all. Remember how I drove up the country last summer with Another Nathan, and it proved delightful? I tempted fate and did it again. This time with Marky and all the kids. Intentionally slowly, with many stops along the way, making a vacation out of it, and you know what?

IT WAS DELIGHTFUL AGAIN.

I know, I kind of can't believe it either. Except I can. Let this be a public service message to people with toddlers, doing nightly rounds of abject weeping about the state of chaos: it gets better. Babies are cute but big kids are awesome. You can throw them in the car and drive around the country and all fully enjoy each other. I know. I KNOW.

Anyway. Now backdated, but here goes.

Yes, yes we did buy a selfie stick.

Day 1: Millers Creek, NC

We spent the first night on the road at my Grandpa's farm. I was so full of feelings, knowing it would be the last night ever to be there, since he died earlier this summer. Grandpa built the house himself, in the 50s, when my dad was just a toddler and they were living in what's now the rec room as he added onto the rest. My dad and aunt grew up here, and as grandkids we had so many summer and Christmas visit memories, and it's such a special place. I was glad for one more night to wander through and smell the smells and touch the counters and books and furniture, and cry a little. It's beautiful.

We also had Igloo hot dogs and ice cream for dinner, because obviously.

Day 2: Tweetsie Railroad! 

(This is an amusement park. It's named after a train that used to go over the mountains between NC and TN. I had no idea how many people didn't know what I was talking about when I posted this on facebook. It's just... a train themed, wild west expansion themed, slightly politically incorrect amusement park.)

Okay, so my previously nervous children have apparently become Amusement Park People this year. My dad took Nathan and Anneliese to Carowinds earlier this summer, and they rode a ton of rides, and generally became fearless (??) so when we were at Tweetsie, they clamored to do things that, a year ago, I would never have dreamed they'd be interested in.

Look at this! It's a thing that drops from the sky! Anneliese basically bounded onto it. What??

Also Nathan and Anneliese rode this fast spinny thing many many many times, and never looked less happy/thrilled than they do right here:

Even Charlotte was quite insistent on any ride she was tall enough to get on.

(She also walked straight into a beam and conked her head got a giant goose egg, so some things stay super normal even on vacation.)

We rode a chair lift and I only freaked out a tiny bit. Nathan and Anneliese rode the spinning teacup thing at least ten times, enough that Mark and I had to bail and watch from the sidelines because we were done. (See? Big kids! Best!)

Oh! And there was a little petting zoo area, where you could pay fifty cents and get some feed for some animals, and they told us to please try not to let the goats out (!!!) and also don't pick them up (!!!!!!) and we didn't know what they meant until we got inside and there's like... goats wandering around. Not in pens but on the sidewalk. Like puppies. (It was surprisingly hard not to pick one up. I can see why they had to ask people.

Anyway so my suddenly fearless children are not only not scared of rides, but now not scared of animals they don't know. Apparently. They happily fed goats and lamas and alpacas and all manner of petting zoo creatures. From! Their! Hands!

Also, we sat in a covered wagon and I joked that that was all I even needed from a road trip so we could just go home now, and the kids pleaded with me not to, because they are very serious humans, apparently.  So earnest! I WAS KIDDING, DEAR CHILDREN.

And then we drove down the mountain (this portion of our trip sponsored by Dramamine) and drove north and west.

We stopped at a rest stop at the Kentucky line for dinner from the cooler, including monster apples I had purchased on the sly at Tweetsie.

We made it a few more hours, as far as Lexington, and we stopped for the night. We threw the kids in bed and high-fived oursleves on pricelining a great hotel suite and for remembering to put beers in the cooler at the rest stop. Cheers!

Aaaaaand I thought I was going to write our whole northbound journey in one blog post, but HAHAHAHAHA *wipes tear* y'all knew I couldn't do that, right? Stay tuned.

Summer Bucket Did-it List

It was an easy first week of the school year with the girls here at home, since they aren't staring back til this week, and verrrrry graaaaadually. (Well, I say "easy" without accounting for the bickering, which I am about sick to death of, and also the fact that Anneliese has been stuck in The Grandparent Hangover That Will Never End, alternating between delightful and then suddenly sobbing, pushing my nerves to the outer limits of human understanding. And without accounting for the heavy job stuff still hanging around like a wet blanket over our ability to feel relaxed, or Nathan side-stepping a little to find his place, and yeah, suddenly now writing this it doesn't sound like an easy week at all.)

*record scratch*

Okay, well it was a slow week together with the girls, at least. I just couldn't make myself do much besides hang out here at home. After we get through our variety of first days this week and the mmo/preschool schedule officially kicks in, it will bring an era of one-on-one time with each of them, which is yay! for me but maybe not as super for them? So I just wanted us to be home and be together for a few more days. Normally I cherish and protect my afternoon quiet during their naps, but these days I have been pushing errands and appointments for that time instead of dragging the girls along in the morning, and reserving mornings for relaxing and playing.

I just want to BE.

Anyway.

(Mark and Another Nathan have been laughing at me for how often I say anyway. It seems it's not just a written tic in emails/blogs, but an out-loud voicemail disease I can't cure myself of.) (Leaving voicemails in the first place is apparently another one.)

ANYWAY.

What am I blogging about again? I don't know. The end of summer? Yes, okay. That.

It was a good summer, y'all! I wanted it to be, I was ready for it, and I was also prepared to feel over it -- but aside from a few frustrating days, I really haven't. Basically this summer taught me that I want all summers home with my kids, and whatever work I go back to (someday) will maybe need to allow that. Like, the content of the work matters of of course, but the "career potential" might matter less than the schedule. (I have to put that in quotes. It seems so laughable. I don't know what I want to be when I grow up! Still! "Career potential." Ha.) So yeah. Our super summer means that kind of thing has been stewing in my head a bit.

So! Super summer! We did (almost) everything on our bucket list:

1.) Eat hot dogs in the back of a pickup truck. DONE.

2.) Throw water balloons onto the side of the guest house. Oops? Totally forgot about this.

3.) Make surprise crayons. DONE, with side effects.

4.) Go to that place where everyone gets to choose their own restaurant. The mall food court, hell slash paradise. DONE.

5.) Take swim lessons. DONE.

6.) Take dance lessons. DONE. (I will post more about this. Soon.)

7.) Go on lunch dates. DONE.

8.) Go to the beach for the day. DONE.

9.) Read 99 books. DONE. Look at sweet Nathan with his complete and stapled list!!

10.) Make a cake that looks like dirt with worms on it. DONE.

11.) Go downtown and go up in that big tower again. DONE.

12.) Camp in the backyard with Daddy. DONE.

13.) Go to lego camp. Oh y'all. This was a heartbreak of the summer. We found out at 5pm on Friday before his camp started (Monday morning) that it had been canceled due to not enough kids having signed up, which, first of all, what. Not enough kids interested in legos? I don't understand. Also, a little more notice would have been great, considering it was the last week of summer and they gave us no time to make alternate plans and oh my heaven he would have been crushed, so good thing we had added Montreat in and were fresh off the heels of that. Boooo lego camp. This one is definitely happening next summer. (Also if y'all want to see Mark's rage face, which doesn't come out very often, cancel his kid's lego camp at the last minute. Rage face!)

14.) Go to the zoo and ask Charlotte what her favorite animal is. DONE. Her favorite is a dutt! (She calls all birds dutts.) (And dinosaur statues too, apparently.)

what is this, Daddy? this is not a dutt.

15.) Have a dinosaur pool party. DONE, and with gusto.

16.) Dance in the car. DONE.

17.) Have sleepovers in Mommy's room. DONE.

18.) Do a picnic at the airport. Ummm we forgot about this too. I went to the airport, more times than I would have preferred, for less glamorous reasons than I preferred (lots of picking up and dropping off and not enough of me going anywhere myself) but we did not picnic or watch planes and we should have!

19.) List item added by Grandpa: go visit Grandpa! (And other various grandparents and relatives.) So all the kids got to visit grandparents at some point this summer, but Anneliese really knocked this one out of the ballpark with a marathon ten-day trip to three different houses. Which was fun for her, and logistically/driving smart, but too achy for me. Will share more pics of that at some point too. You should see the outfits she (my mom?) picked for some of her outings. Internet gold.

Not on the bucket list but also completed: catch the kitchen on fire, have many Starbucks dates, play in the pool a ton, kill a snake with a shovel, have an incredible trips to Chicago and Montreat, watch the trailer for this upcoming dinosaur movie three hundred thousand times (that youtube link has 371 thousand views, and 300 thousand are from Nathan), eat a lot of post-gym dunkin donuts in our sweaty clothes, and drive ourselves nuts trying to solve The Mystery of the Sticker Mail.

That'll do, summer 2013. That'll do.

Dinos at the Zoo (Of Course)

While Mark is out of town this week, I've been using some of my quiet time to sort through a month's backlog of camera pictures. Oh, the things I find.

Mark took the big kids to the zoo a few weeks back, one day right after school was done for summer. Nathan is entering that (apparently requisite) Obsessed With Dinosaurs stage, so when the zoo advertised a new dino exhibit, it briefly caught my attention. It somewhat crossed my mind that it was weird. But I assumed hey, they are indeed animals, a zoo is a place to learn about animals, it's not that much of a stretch to have a dino area, not that weird, right? And then I saw the pictures.

Um. It's weird.

It's a far cry from the outdoor fossil museum exhibit I was picturing. These are not skeletons with educational signs describing each species. They're huge, and colorful. Big ol dino statues. Oh except they move. And also make noise.

What.

They... roar, I think? The video sounded like roaring to me. Do we know that dinosaurs roared? Do we know what sounds they made at all? Really? Anyway they make noise and move their head and arms (arms?) and yeah they're kind of like... robot dinosaurs.

Y'all, our zoo is full of robot dinosaurs. Weird, right?

But, Nathan and Anneliese* loved it. Of course they did.

Just riding a dino robot at the zoo. Like you do.

Did you know the brontosaurus isn't a Thing anymore?
Well, yes, but apparently never WAS a Thing?
I know. My son has told me. Many times.
We say *brachiosaurus* now. #themoreyouknow

Careful babies! Good thing it's only an *extinct* animal at the zoo!
And also a robot.

Gotta get the souvenir photo of your... dino safari prom? Okay.

In case this sounds like less than a ringing endorsement, it's not. The kids liked it, so I like it. It keeps them engaged and having fun and playing outside and chattering and spending a day with Dadddy, and I don't care  at all that it only makes half a lick of sense. Dinosaur win.

Weird but win.

*Mark loved it too. Don't let him tell you otherwise. He was verrrrrry into the t-rex dino robot. Facebook told me. Facebook doesn't lie, y'all.

Zoo Firsts

Nathan and Anneliese and I went to the zoo on Monday with my oldest friend Jenny.  We needed one last North Carolina playdate before she leaves our home state and moves to a land far far away (Georgia).  Jenny is so awesome and so wonderful and always easy to talk to and hang out with, and even if it's been months since we've seen each other, it's so comfortable with her.  One of those people I can always truly be myself around.  I love her and I can't believe we've been friends for more than twenty years.

Anyway.  The zoo.

This isn't the first time Jenny and I have taken our babies to the zoo together (see: last summer), and it's also not the first time I've found myself wandering the zoo on a hot summer day at eight months pregnant (see: the summer before that).  But we did have a handful of other zoo firsts:

1.) Anneliese's first time not sleeping through the zoo. In fact, she was wide awake and curious and (of course) called every animal a puppy, and pointed and laughed and seemed to love it.  She rode in the stroller about half the time, but when we let her roam free and explore, she didn't hesitate.  Puppy!  Puppy!  Puppeeeeeeee!!!!

Yes, it's a special kind of puppy.  Called a zebra.

2.) My first time making a predictable mom comment about my kid being the one who belongs in the zoo.  I texted this picture to a friend, saying something along those lines, and immediately had to send a follow-up text apologizing for saying the most predictable mommy thing of all the mom things I've ever said since becoming a mom.  Wow. 

But no, seriously, he kind of looks like he belongs in the zoo... right?

3.) Our first time with kids who are old enough to notice the animals are naked.  *sigh*  Nathan and Katie were fascinated by the chimpanzees; they kept their attention longer than any other zoo animal we saw.  They made noises, they climbed trees, they hugged and kissed each other (so cute!) but most importantly (when you're three), you could see their bottoms.  And that's apparently hilarious.  Anneliese laughed and stared right along with them, but I am very sure she had no idea what was so funny.  Also: Nathan now knows the word booty.  Awesome.

4.) Our first time with a kid who will sit on the statues without crying.  Nathan and Katie?  Notsomuch into this.  But mommies love the photo op, and once Anneliese did it and smiled about it, the big kids were more likely to try it out too.

5.) Our first time with kids who incessantly ask questions.  Where are the polar bears?  Why are they sleeping?  Why do they like to sleep inside?  What's your favorite animal at the zoo, Mommy?  What's that chimpanzee's* favorite color?  Why is that lion sleeping when it's not alone time?  What's Daddy's** favorite animal at the zoo? What does the lemur like to eat?  Does the puffin not like the penguins?  Does the giraffe like to eat the tree but not share with the zebra?  Why does Anneliese think that's a puppy?  Hey Katie what's your favorite animal at the zoo?  Hey Katie what's your favorite color?  If this still sounds cute to you, it's because A- you don't live with it, or B- you can admire the inquisitive nature of bright children.  For me, both of those things are true, so I waver between cute and ohdearlordpleasestoptalkingnow.

You guys love it when I talk nonstop, right?

I don't know what he's chattering on about, but *I* love it!

Anyway it was a happy HOT fun day at the zoo! 

*repeated question for every. single. animal. we saw.
**repeated question for every. single. person. we know.

More Free Fun -- A Helicopter at the Zoo

Since we recently blew through our "spending" budget (and then some) in about two days, we have been looking for freebie stuff to do while Mark is on relief and doesn't have much to do in the office. His company is a sponsor of the NC Zoo (and everything else around here, it seems), so they have a card good for free zoo admission for up to 8 people on any given day. One of Mark's job perks is access to this pass. Not gonna lie, that's kind of a cool perk.

Since the pass was available, and the car had a full tank of gas (we're also low on our gas budget, so that was a key factor), we decided to make an impromptu zoo visit.

This was Anneliese's first trip to the zoo, and we got exactly one -- ONE -- picture of her. She looks sort of odd, and she could be anywhere. But I promise she's at the zoo, so let this picture live in infamy.

But we're so glad we went! The weather was nice, and we felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. Turns out not that many people go to the zoo on random Wednesday mornings in January. Who knew. We literally turned Nathan loose and let him run around wherever he wanted -- that's how empty it was.
It felt like a totally different place than last time we were there!

We saw giraffes (and we saw them running! Have you ever seen a giraffe run? It's weird -- go here and watch), we saw an elephant really close, we saw the gorillas (yes, Nathan was scared again), and we saw a beautiful lion sleeping in the sun. Nathan roared at him. It was awesome. We saw sea lions (with ears) and an ostrich and some alligators.

But best of all, we saw... a helicopter. What? Isn't that what you go to the zoo to look at? There was a station near the elephants that showed how they track and tag elephants in the wild, and part of the exhibit/station was a helicopter you could climb in and on. Yeah that's pretty much zoo heaven: a helicopter with elephants painted on the side. :) Anneliese ate a snack near the polar bears and the rest of us joined her for a meal near the giraffes. We had packed a cooler full of food for a picnic lunch, and it was much more fun to eat it in the zoo than in the parking lot, so I'm glad no one batted an eye when we brought the cooler in. Or maybe they just didn't notice it in the massive stroller's worth of stuff we rolled in there. A toddler and an infant and two grownups don't travel light on zoo trips, it turns out.

Not bad for a day when we never had to pull our wallets out! Yay for free and fun entertainment!