Planning A Vacation

Even though I am about 99% sure that this year we won't be going away for a vacation I really do enjoy making plans for vacations.  I'd love a job that was like a party planner, but a vacation planner.  Where I can book the hotel and flights, but also give people a schedule of what to do when and back-up plans for those times that you are running late, want to stay late because you are having so much fun, or are bored and are ready to move on.

Whenever we have gone on vacation we have never had a moment of, "Well, what do you want to do now?"  I always have ideas and plans and directions to get there!  And I always plan for unintended stops.  You know those times where you are on your way and you see something really cool that you want to do, but you are unsure whether you are going to have time?  Well, I plan for those.  We always end up early enough to stop at a cave, or touristy spot.  I think these things should be planned into everyone's trip.  Kids can last only so long before they need a break, and a break is good fro the adults too.

When traveling by car we try to leave very early in the morning.  It's still dark outside when the tuck the kids into the car.  They stay away for a little while, but then fall asleep and the interruption keeps them sleeping a little bit longer than normal.  That way we can make our breakfast stop at 8am or 9am instead of 6am or 7am.  And that makes it so the kids won't become cranky with hunger 2 hours later.  You can plan for only one snack between lunch instead of two.

I recommend the first stop be at lunch time, eat breakfast in the car, as much as you can.  Breakfast isn't the time to get the kids up and going.  You want them to stay groggy as long as possible, so keep them in those car seats!  By lunch time, I found that the kids would have lost their minds if they didn't get some exercise.  Here is when we planned an "unplanned" stop.  We drove until we found something interesting.  Highways always have signs for their local attractions.  Some of the things we have stopped at are caves, road-side stands, theme parks, and mining shop.  Our favorite is definitely caves.

Caves are great because they are not only educational, but they get the kids moving!  Usually the cost is low and after lunch the kids can take a walk through the caves, which vary in length, but we have found that most tours last about one hour.  That's a good walk for little ones.  Don't be tempted to bring the stroller!  The more exercise the longer the kids will handle the second stretch of your car ride!

We have a rule, as a husband and wife.  We won't go anywhere if we aren't going to spend twice the time it takes to get there.  For example:  It takes one hour to get to a friends house, and one hour for the return trip.  We won't go unless we expect to spend four hours there.  Got to make the trip worth the effort and gas you are putting into it.  For the most part this is a good rule to follow with vacations as well.  Who would want to spend only a day at Disney anyway.

Flying is a fast way to get to your destination, but I would prefer to drive in many situations.  Just because of the fact that you can get out and walk around.  The people in the plane don't appreciate you getting up and walking around with your children.  Especially, if your getting up because of a dirty diaper or a case of the wiggles and screams.  Driving does take more patience, but it can also be a lot of fun if you keep a positive attitude and make stops long enough to wear those kids out!

A great website for world travel with kids, or state-side travel, or just local travel is Trekaroo.  Other parents who love to travel with their children rate places and  means of travel, plus give advice and idea's for traveling with kids.


These are some places I have been thinking about since the snow started.  Hawaii- Thank you Josh and Janel for putting those thoughts in my head. *wink*  Florida, not necessarily Disney, and a desert mmmmm...warm!

More Snow

For those of you who keep contact with us via this blog, I want to let you know that we have another storm coming.  They are predicting 6-10 more inches and then on top of that an ice storm.  Fun, fun, fun!

I hate winter!

Someone in Palmer did this in their yard.

Happy Birthday Jordan!

Jordan turned 12 today!  Yeah, she made it!  It was a great day because her birthday gift arrived in the mail!  She wanted a Cosplay Costume of Tohru Honda from Fruits Basket.  Here she is!

Isn't she cute!?!  We need to get her knee high socks, the one's she's wearing are Jason's so they aren't quite the right look.  And we found the perfect shoes in our closet!  Then we found that they were 2 sizes too small. So sad.  So we will have to get her shoes and socks.  But that's ok.

I have talked to Cindy Mulcahy and she has agreed to plan Bailey's Birthday party.  We are going to have a Tea Party.  The girls will dress up and have tea and sandwiches.  It should be a blast!  If anyone needs a party planner, let me know!  Cindy does a great job and is reasonably priced.  Comparing what I spent on Jordan's party and what Cindy will be charging, and she does everything, except clean the house and make the guest list, it will cost only $20 more.  THAT is well worth it!

Cindy is doing the main work for Taylor's sweet 16, and we have attended a few parties she has planned and the kids always have a blast and they are never bored.  I'll blog more about Taylor's sweet 16 when we get closer to the date.

What's Another Few Inches

Jason standing next to the snow bank in our front yard.  Yes, it is over his head.

After working all night and not sleeping well the day before, Jason went out and shoveled the driveway.  Which is something I'd usually help out with, but I was dead to the world this morning exhausted from life, lack of sleep from getting up at 6am, not matter what. Unfortunately, my body is now in a routine, so even on Saturday and Sunday I'm up at 6am.  I hate early morning, but the schools refuse to consider a later start time.  J did ask Ben to come out and help, but from what J said he didn't do much.  It took him over 15 minutes just to get outside, then he moved his car and got that brushed off before he started to help with the driveway.  Then he stopped to talk on the phone.  I'm not sure why getting the car done was so important, because he didn't go anywhere.  But I guess it's just a typical teenager thing to think of your self and your stuff, before thinking about the fact that J had just worked all night long.

So J didn't get to sleep well today.  I took the kids out of the house to help keep it quiet, but being amped up from the shoveling/exercise made it difficult.  He's going to be very tired tomorrow!  Worst part is...we have plans to get together with friends, and then on Saturday we are going to the Temple for 7am. Which means we have to be out of the house by 5:00am.  This is much easier on me, as I'm used to getting up early and it's only one hour.  But for J this will be difficult.  Because Friday morning when he gets home he's going to need to sleep as much as possible.  Then getting together with friends will be fun and will make him really awake, then we have to come home and try to sleep.  I'll probably have no problem, but I worry that J will.

I think I'll drive tomorrow!  

The good thing about going to the temple early, is getting home early.  So he can sleep all day Saturday and be awake and ready for Sunday.  So even though today through Saturday will be hard, at least Sunday will be good.

I have to add to this!  Our neighbors are great!  Our next door neighbor snowblowed out our mailbox, then the plow came and a different neighbor did it again!  Saving J's back, a lot of work and time!  Thank you so much to Bill and Kyle!

Snow, Snow How I Hate The Snow!

 Bailey and Madison are playing in the snow.  They were so excited to have such a big storm!  It dropped about 2 1/2 feet.  Our snowblower isn't working, so we had to be outside with shovels, that adds to the height of the snow banks because it concentrates the snow from the drive way to the sides of the driveway.  Plus, the wind and the neighbors blowers add a small amount to the top.  So the snow was 2 1/2' but the banks were almost 6'!  The kids would take their sleds and try to go down the banks, but they kept ending up in the driveway.  The banks slopped more towards the driveway than the yard!

 We are cheating a little (a lot) in this picture.  Underneath this snow bank is the mound of dirt from the driveway.  When the workers put in our well the dirt wouldn't go back in.  A few weeks later it froze over and so the ground never had a chance to settle.  So we are stuck with a much dirt, and now snow, mound until Spring.  We hope.

This is storm three in as many weeks.  The first storm dropped 2 1/2feet, the second 5" and now another 3" today.  Tomorrow we are supposed to have another storm!
The driving conditions are terrible!  I drove Jordan and Kara (the neighbors daughter) to school, which normally takes 25 minutes.  Today took 50.  So I had drive Madison to school as well, and which normally takes 10 minutes, but took 30.  Four of the school buses arrived at 9am and I  passed another on the road 10 minutes later.

The streets hadn't been plowed at all!  And the sand was from the previous storm!  I don't think I went over 20 and I did that only on long straight aways.  I'm also thinking our tires are going to need replacing, because there were times when I was sliding and other cars were fine.  Just another thing that adds to the cost of living in New England.

I am seriously thinking of moving west. 
Just looking at this picture makes me feel warm.

Jordan's12th Birthday Party

I'm writing this the morning of the party, so I'll post pictures later.

One day you have a baby and everything they do it sweet and tended and special!  Her first word, her first step, her first pair of glasses. her first hair cut.  Every moment an achievement of growing up.  And then one day they see themselves as all grown up.  One day they are looking to you for approval in each step on their journey to adulthood and the next moment they are too mature for silly games, parents or siblings.

The changes at the tween stage in life are so fast!  And so confusing!  One moment Jordan is in a tickle fight, the next she is too cool and too mature for the color purple.

Some things that Jordan has decided are too mature for her are:
Purple, her new favorite color is blue- that's much more mature!
Siblings, they are oookkaayy, I guess, as long as my friends aren't around!
The Bus, all the cool kids get dropped off.
Playing outside, that's for babies! Like 11 year olds!
Cartoons, Anime is what big kids watch.

Jordan got a whole new makeover Friday.  She got a hair cut and when we got home from the salon we got a call from the eye doctor letting us know her new glasses came in.  She looks like a whole new girl!  Very grown up and mature.

Contrasting

Taylor turned 12 and decided that she didn't want to get any older.  So she agreed to be 11 again and has been getting younger every birthday since.
Jordan isn't 12 yet, but says anything an 11 year old would do it way to immature for her!

Everyone expects their children to have different personalities from the other.  You expect younger kids to mature faster than the oldest sibling because the older sibling exposes them to more.  What you don't expect is that influence to be minor, nonexistent or ignored!

On To The Party

For our party theme we chose a "Mystery" theme, or Clue theme like the game, but it's not exactly like clue, but similar.  Let me make sense of my rambling.

We are going to play a life size clue game.  The kids will run from room to room playing games and gathering clues.  They only have to figure out who done it and with what.  We took the names of a bunch of Jordan's least favorite teachers as suspects.  And Jordan's favorite teacher as the victim.  And some every school items as the murder weapon. (Glue bottle, pink eraser, pencil, dry erase board, etc.)

The kids will start in a "classroom" and play a game called pickle. Pickle is when the kids get a 3X5 card with a word on it.  They put it on their forehead and the other kids have to give them clues to figure out the word.  I have a large stack of words for them.  What the word is, is a mystery!

The next "classroom" they will play a getting to know you game.  Answer a bunch of questions on a bunch of cards, which they can look at if they choose to or just quickly answer. Learn your friends secrets!

In the "Gym" we are playing a game in which the kids trace their foot onto a piece of paper, then label it.  We mix up the feet and then it's a race to find your own foot!  Who's who in feet!

Mystery meat game! Of course, the "Cafeteria"!  I have three canned meats, turkey chunks, spam and tuna.  The kids can smell it, taste it, look at it and they have to figure it out.  I didn't make a meatloaf concoction to have them try to identify, I figured I didn't want to make anyone sick.

Then they are off to the Principals office!  There they will be out version of red light, green light.  The girls have to sit in a chair and try to get to the envelope underneath and pull out the clue.  If they make noise or are caught moving they get sent to the principal.  Which is the other room.  Jason will them "interrogate them" and try to convince the kids that one person or another is murderer and what the weapon was used.  Obviously, trying to keep the principal off the suspect list.

And to get their clues, you noticed that I didn't mention that yet, did ya?  Well, in each room after each game the girls get a bunch of balloons to choose from and pop.  And whether they  get a clue or not is a mystery!  Each balloon has a slip of paper, so even we don't know which one has the clue!

I'll post pictures as soon as the clean up crew, me, has finished.

Jordan the Author

Jordan has penned an article that will hopefully make it to The Fedora Chronicles shortly.  She decided to write about Women in Anime.  Without giving too much away, before the article is published, she wrote about her favorite character and her friends favorite character, and how they have tried to take on the positive qualities of these fictional characters.

The we recorded a podcast, I was hosting, Jason and Jordan were the "guests." Our friend has to receive it, edit it and see if it was quiet enough in the house to use it for the website.  I hope it works, but if it doesn't I still have it and can always transcribe it so that it can be another article.

Jordan's Birthday is on the 31st of this month and she wants to dress up in Cosplay and go to the Anime Convention in Boston.  It's not too expensive ($25 to get in for one day) and she has a friend who's parents are willing to let her go with Jordan.  So Jason and I will try to get Press Passes, like we do to the comic book convention in NY City.  That should cut down our expenses.

So Jordan's Cosplay dress is Tohru Honda 
And this is the cartoon character.

We got the costume made longer in the leg than the cartoon.  We are going to have to work on the brown shoes.

So the only issue that will come into play is that we are going the day after Taylor's birthday!  The convention is on April 22, 23 & 24.  We plan on going on Saturday the 23rd.  Taylor is against going, she isn't interested in Anime at all.  I'm sure we'll figure things out.

The next challenge we have is that all three girls are going to be part of Taylor's best friends Quinceanera.  Which means new dresses for each girl, and shoes, and tights.  Thankfully, Melany's mom is good at hair, so we won't be going to a salon!  They are very excited though, new dresses and a chance to dress up.

So look for Jordan's article on the front page of The Fedora Chronicles!

Christmas, New Years and Beyond...

This was a good Christmas.  We didn't expect it to be, but overall it went really well.  Sometimes you think you aren't going to have anything to spend on your kids (husband included), but some how it works out that they all get what they wanted.
Madison got to play Santa and hand out presents.  It's a tradition that a Santa hat is worn to do this job.  But this year Meme found a new Santa had that sings and dances on your head! Still pictures don't do it justice.

The most exciting gifts were from Ben. Madison got a Bike, Taylor a Crystal owl, Jordan a cellphone and Bailey an ipod touch!  When Jordan saw her cellphone she didn't know what it was.  It's a Twist phone.  You don't slide it or flip it, it twists.  It looked like just a blank screen, until we told her to twist the top, when it pooped open she was so excited!  Bailey LOVED her ipod touch! As you can see by the picture.  It wasn't charged, so she couldn't play with it until later.  Now it's her constant companion!

Here lady is waiting for her gift.

Here Lady is hating her gift.

Lady is having puppies around February 17th.  We are hoping for February 14th, but there are no guarantee's with anyone's pregnancy.  Except those who get a c-section, but we aren't going to that expense with a dog just to have the puppies die because they needed more time in the cooker!

We spent New Years at Jason's parents with Suz and her two younger kids.  It was fun.  The boys couldn't seem to figure out how to play with out killing each other.  And even the girls were over tired and cranky.  I think it's better when these kids can get 8-10 hours of sleep and then play!  (No pictures, not because there was nothing to take pictures of but because I forgot my camera)  We went sledding down a HUGE hill!  That was so much fun!  Even lady enjoyed it until the sled tipped over, then she just trotted away like it was nothing and the person on the sled got a face full of snow.  It helps to have 4 legs!

I sent in Lady's information to the newspaper to have it published as Pet of the Month.  They said it will show up in March.  It's only the local paper, so I'll see if I remember to take a picture of it to show it off here.

I really can't think of anything else exciting going on.

I lied, I just thought of one.

Ben is thinking about going on his mission early.  I guess the Ward or Stake Senior Missionary couple, the Stake President and the Bishop have decided that Ben should leave now for his mission.  He still has some things he needs to put into order.  But once he does they want him to go.  This messes with his entire plan.  And he doesn't like it when plans change.  He sets a goal and works towards it.  If things change it makes him feel out of control.  So he is praying about it to see if they are prompted by the Lord, or if they are just trying to see him off sooner.

Personally, I'd like to see him go sooner.  He seems to be stuck to me.  He's working, he's being a good kid, but he has a life to live and it's like he's waiting until October to start it.  So I prayed that he would find an answer, the right answer.

So it will be exciting if he goes early.  It will be just another day if it turns out he has too much to put into order first.

Oh, and our friends, the Dahl family, Mark, Kat and Canon, came over for Christmas day.  They have no family in the area, so we invited them to come with us.  Here Canon is playing with his giggling Elmo that TJ and Co bought for him.  Isn't he so cute!  The girls just love him!  We have to be careful though, I think Bailey and Jordan might love him to death.  Unintentionally, but literally I'm afraid.