The quick weekend trip to Franklin, TN was fun.  The kids and I enjoyed a pool party at the neighborhood pool with Richard & Christy and their kids.  Everyone crashed for serious naps after 3 hours in the sun and water.  Then during a walk around the block with the kids, Josiah stumbled and cracked his head on the sidewalk.  Not just concrete, but concrete-with-pebble sidewalk.  He had a small ragged gash and a big bump.  I debated for a while whether it was worth a long evening in the ER or not, but we finally went, and Brian met us on his way home from the bike race. 

The bump was no big deal, at least not compared to the last Big Bump, which is actually still visible, as the doctor told us it might be for quite a while.  But the gash, though small, was rough around the edges, deep, and seeped blood for quite a while while we waited to be seen.  He was quite the charmer racing his cars up and down the hallway at the end of the waiting room, walking around looking for J’s on any sign with letters, and chattering to the triage nurse, "I bump de head" and a cute "Ow, ow, ow" when she looked at it, instead of crying.  After an hour and 45 minutes of waiting, the physician’s assistant was quick to decide it would heal perfectly with some skin glue (Dermabond).  It was 10pm, Josiah was exhausted, and he screamed through the entire 30 second exam and 30 second gluing, but he was asleep within minutes of when we settled in the car.  His head looks much better, and actually, though it’s still covered with Dermabond, you can’t even really tell where the cut was.  The scrapes above and below and the bump look worse.  We tried to get a picture tonight, but he was moving around too much. 

Brian’s race went really well.  He got 4th in a race with a bunch of pros.  You can see all the details on his new cycling blog, http://toonecycling.wordpress.com/.   There are also photos and race details from his recent races in St. Louis and Minnesota.

Ok, there are a zillion pictures from our trip and of course, I’m way behind.  The trip was great, the kids were amazing travelers, I got to spend great time with everyone in my family, and we did some fun stuff.  We got back at 4am on Thursday morning, and believe it or not, we’re back on the road this weekend, just for a quick trip to visit Brian’s cousin & his family outside Nashville while Brian does a race today. 

But the reason for this post!  We stayed with my friend Michele in Aurora, IL on Tuesday night, and the kids burned off some of their restless car-supressed energy on Wednesday morning before the marathon drive back.  She got some great pictures, and she’s already resized and uploaded them for me 🙂  Whew! 

Morning tea – Josiah, Michael, Analise & Emma

Let me give you some hints:

1. We woke up this morning, and it was only 49 degrees outside
2. Kristine spent the day wearing a sweatshirt and pants
3. It was after 9:00 last night before the sun finally set
4. It was before 5:00 this morning when the sun rose
5. Bear have been spotted roaming around town this past week

If you haven’t guessed it yet, we are in the north woods of rural northwest Wisconsin. It’s been a crazy busy vacation as I spent the first part of it racing in the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. Now we are visiting Grandma Sandy up here in Shell Lake, Wisconsin for a couple days before heading the long 18 hour journey back down to 90+ degree temps and humidity. Fun, fun, fun!

I’ve posted some pictures and blogged about my bike racing over on my new bike blog:

http://toonecycling.wordpress.com

Check it out if you haven’t already! Kristine will be back later to post more pictures from our trip.

Wow – 2 years ago RIGHT NOW I was just about to give birth to my sweet little baby boy.  It was an exciting day!  I still can’t believe Brian blogged about it moment-by-moment.    My how he’s grown!   Still the same little sweet round face and strawberry blonde hair, though! 

The above photo was approved by Brian.  The below photo was not 🙂  Both were taken yesterday at our hotel in St. Louis. 
We’re going to spend the day at the aquarium here in Dubuque, IA and maybe find something fun to do for a birthday lunch. 

Ok, it’s been nearly 2 weeks since we packed up the car and went somewhere, so of course, the travel bug has bitten us again.  But seriously.  We’re leaving tomorrow am for St. Louis, where Brian’s racing a BIG $$ race (the Tour de Winghaven) on Sunday.  We’ve got a 4-star hotel right next to the Arch tomorrow night, thanks to Priceline.  Aside from the fact that anything in the top 20 pays VERY well, Brian’s hoping – planning – to qualify for the pro/elite Nature Valley Grand Prix in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota.  (We’ll post lots more details on this soon!  VERY EXCITING that Brian will probably get to race with the very top pros in the US!)  So we’re leaving from St. Louis, passing through Platteville, WI to see Anna and Hal who are moving to Auburn, Washington next week, and and then we’re heading up to the Twin Cities for the race from Wednesday to Sunday.   We’ll steal a couple short days in Shell Lake before heading home to be back by June 18th.  Brian’s got students waiting to do research with him.  The summer of a professor isn’t quit all care-free!

Usually we travel in Brian’s parents’ car, but this time we’re taking our smaller, cozier, more gas-friendly car.  Should be fun 🙂  We do have a portable DVD player, which is a must to keep the kids happy on the marathon trip.  But they’re good travelers, and we’re getting good at this. 

I’d love to post more, but I’ve got to get packing.  We’ll post more from the road!

We started the busy birthday month of June a day early yesterday with a party at the Birmingham Zoo.  We combined our party with our good friends, Lauren & Anna, who were turning 4 and 2, as well.  Although it was probably 90 degrees yesterday afternoon, our party was at 9:30am, and we finished it off splashing in the water.  We had such a fun time!  I’m sure it’s only the first of many birthday celebrations we’ll find excuses for this month!

We started off with a ride on the carousel, then we had a visit from a zoo volunteer who brought some animal guests!  Kellogg, the corn snake, Miss Lily, the tortoise, and Squeakers, the guinea pig were fun to see up close and touch.  Then we enjoyed our cake, ice cream and drinks before heading off to the zoo train.  Last, we cooled off in the splash pad.  We actually didn’t go around to see any animals, except the ones on our way to the places.  But we have a membership so we can go anytime, and this was fun to enjoy the zoo activities with friends… and escape before the full heat of the day zapped us completely. 

Quick disclaimer… my kids are so cute lately, but the pictures don’t do them justice 🙂  Neither of them were at their smiley-est yesterday, though they did have a super fun time.  

Analise, Lauren, Anna, Josiah and with Kim and I. 
Yes, Josiah’s ready to dig into the zebra cake, which was incredibly tasty.

Analise and Lauren looking on while Drew, our zoo guide, got the candles lit. 

Leaning in to blow out the candles… 2, 2, 4, and 4. 

Josiah making serious work of his ice cream…

…and cake.  He was not particularly happy about the day until we got to this part.  He kept asking for "cake & cream".

Analise and her friend Laurel laughing with their sunglasses in front of the fish and turtle tank.

Not his best photo, but a rare one of Josiah and I.  Though he’s cute with his hat on, his hair has been so curly in the humidity. 
I love his little strawberry blonde curls!

Finishing off the party with some splashing.  His new swim trunks were a little big 🙂

Following his sister around, doin’ whatever she’s doing.

Analise got to play in the new Foam Zone, a huge blow-up pool area filled with bubbles. 
She smiled from ear-to-ear the whole time. 

Finally.  There are starting to be more and more peaceful moments between Analise and Josiah, and it sure warms my heart. 

In the car on the way home from preschool last month, I’d given Analise a package of snack crackers to munch on until we got home.  Josiah started campainging for a cracker… "Cwacker, cwacker, peas…"  I nudged Analise to be a a nice sister, "Could you please give Josiah a cracker Analise?"  "No."  "Please, Analise?  It would be so nice of you to share with him."  Then I heard, "Ank ew!"  "Analise, did you share with him?"  "Yes."  And everyone was still happy.  And my heart about burst.

Just yesterday, Josiah was playing basketball with a little hoop hanging in his room.  It was counting the baskets for him, and Analise positioned herself right next to the game and played cheerleader.  It was so cute.  She’d cheer for him, and he’d stop after every basket and cheer, too.  I hope she’ll always be his biggest cheerleader.

There are still plenty of moments of not sharing, chasing, knocking each other around, but it’s so sweet to see the love between them growing.   

We love hot breakfasts in our house, and I’ve tried many pancake recipes.  And really… there’s rarely a bad pancake.  But these are FABULOUS!  I will never again try another pancake recipe.  Seriously, these are so light and fluffy, and they mix together so easily.  I doubled the recipe (for about 18 4-inch cakes).  I added diced bananas in some of them, mini chocolate chips in others, and big fresh blueberries in the rest.  They were all delicious, but the blueberry ones were heaven 🙂  One last tip… I never keep buttermilk on hand.  But for 1 c. buttermilk, you can use 1 T vinegar and add milk to the 1 cup line.  After just a couple minutes, you can stir and see the curling effect. 

After celebrating my sister Kat’s graduation from the University of Minnesota-Duluth, Josiah and I, Grandma and Charlie and Anna piled into the car on Saturday afternoon to start the drive back to Chicago. We drove from Duluth to Black River Falls on Saturday evening. I think we were all very relieved to start the last leg of the car trip on Sunday. Anna entertained Josiah all the way to Madison, where we met her husband, Hal, at Trader Joe’s. Grandma and I stocked up on a few last things and said our goodbyes to Anna. Man, I HATE saying goodbye to my family. I always cry.

We drove to Chicago, where we met my friend Michele (who we met for the first time last year). Her daughter, Emma, and Analise are the same age, and her son, Michael, and Josiah are the same age. We had a wonderful, relaxing afternoon and evening with them. Michele’s husband grilled a fantastic dinner of steaks, and we had baked sweet potatoes, corn (which Josiah LOVED), and some Trader Joe’s wine I didn’t have room in my suitcase to take back.

Michele’s husband has built some great garden beds in their backyard.
The kids hardly noticed any of the other outdoor toys… dirt makes kids happy!

A peace offering… it was tough on Michael to have Josiah on his territory.

Josiah and trains… he was entertained for HOURS with their Brio train table.

A couple morning pictures of my tousle-headed boy in his Little Einstein’s PJs.

Josiah didn’t want watermelon at breakfast, but mid morning,
we looked over to find him devouring what was still on the table.

Playing with the jewels in the treasure box.

Brian and I were lucky enough to start off our Memorial Day weekend with a trip to Atlanta, just the two of us.  He had wanted to go to a Friday evening criterium (yes, life does revolve around racing), but I wasn’t inclined take the kids for the late night and long drive.  So with a little smooth planning and some gracious free babysitting by his parents, we treated ourselves to an early 5th anniversary trip.  Brian used Priceline.com to get a 4-star hotel – the Grand Hyatt Atlanta in Buckhead – for well under $100. 

Brian’s race was at 9:45pm, but we were worried about the traffic, so we left just after our kids went down for naps at 2pm.  With all the traveling we do as a family, it really was a treat to be just the two of us.  We can have full conversations, listen to our own music, stop or not stop as we please.  We had an extravagant dinner at Panera, (um, it wouldn’t have been my choice, but Brian got to choose since it was his pre-race meal).  We drove through the fancy schmancy upscale Atlanta neighborhoods on the way to our hotel (Vinings and Buckhead) and saw all kinds of houses for sale, including this one.  Gated estate on 3.5 acres, with 10 bedrooms/10 baths for just under $8.5 million.  Whew!  What do you do with a house like that? 

We checked into our hotel before we headed to the race.  Very nice.  The highlight of the room was the iHome alarm clock/iPod dock.  How cool!  I’m really hoping to get one of those for Christmas to use with my new iPod (which I’m loving).  The view from our 8th floor room was out over the Japanese gardens and waterfall, the huge parking garage, below, where we managed somehow to snag free overnight parking (instead of $17 in the hotel lot), and the pretty skyline of the Buckhead skyscrapers… and construction cranes.  Josiah would have loved that part. 

We headed off to the races with plenty of time to spare.  Instead of entertaining kids while we waited for the race, I got to read my magazines and help Brian get ready to go.  And instead of keeping track of kids and dividing my time between them and the race, I was able to cheer and take photos, though they didn’t turn out so well. 

Brian’s the 3rd blur from the left, right in the center.  Yes, the finish was fast!

I think my favorite part of the weekend was sleeping in, which is unheard of at home with our super-early-birds.  We slept until 9:30, which felt so luxurious.  Then we explored the Japanese gardens and managed a quick photo of ourselves in front of the waterfall. 

After checking out, we drove back through the fancy neighborhood, even stopping off at a garage sale.  Nothing we needed, but there was some really nice stuff, though not the best garage sale prices 🙂  In Vinings, we found a cute little french cafe for a fabulous breakfast and picked up our Starbucks for the trip home.  We made it back just before the kids needed to nap.  Less than 24 hours gone, but it was such a nice break!