The Great Escape

Outside it is 102 degrees, but the weather channel says it feels like 105. I say it feels like I need to go to the mountains of Colorado.

But we just got back from the mountains of Colorado yesterday. Oh, yes. The heat made me almost forget. The mountains. So beautiful. So green. So shady. So cool. So NOT like Kansas! I remember now... it's all coming back to me...

DAY 1
We packed up the kids and just about everything else we could fit into the van and drove all day Sunday. Tanner was deeply troubled by our traveling on a Sunday, so he made sure we brought scriptures and Sunday-appropriate media, and we even brought enough food that we didn't have to stop at any restaurants. In the future we'll make more concentrated efforts to avoid traveling on a Sunday.

We arrived at our lovely little cabin (two bedrooms, one bathroom, living room, and a kitchen), unpacked our stuff, and took a walk around the lake. There was a cool breeze and we didn't even feel the urge to jump into the lake and drown ourselves because of the extreme heat. Because there was no extreme heat! :D

The kids all slept in one bedroom. There was a full-sized bed and I turned the bedding 90 degrees so the three oldest kids could all sleep in a row, and Hannah slept in her pack-n-play. It worked wonderfully. And Rob and I got the rest of the cabin to ourselves. Let me tell you, a cabin with two rooms and a kitchen is ever so much better than a little hotel room with two beds. And, rudely enough, I didn't take a picture of the kids in their bed. So let's move along.

DAY 2
On Monday we went to the North Pole. It had Santa's Workshop and Christmas music playing throughout the park, but mostly it was just an amusement park with lots of rides. It wasn't crowded and so we just rode and rode and rode all sorts of crazy rides until Tanner and I got nauseated. On the same ride. I don't know if it was the ride, or the time of day, but man, it was sickening. Kind of a sailboat thing that whizzes around in the air in big circles and you can move the sail left or right to make the boat swing out more and go all crazy. Halfway through the ride Tanner just let go of the sail and looked down at the floor while his face turned whiter and whiter. So he was ready to go home after that. Kevin and Amy had a blast.

Hannah got to ride sevral rides too, but I'm not sure she liked them overly much.

And it had the highest Ferris wheel in the world! So there!

DAY 3
The next day we went to a dinosaur museum. Ever since visiting the Dino museum at Thanksgiving Point in Utah I've been disappointed in Dinosaur museums. This one was no exception. But we got a great family picture of a T-Rex about to eat us. I'd have to scan it to get it on here, so I'll just let you imagine its aweseomeness.

That evening we went to the Garden of the Gods.
We got a family picture at the Visitor's Center (which for some reason is very, very far away from the actual "Garden" but gives a lovely view for family pictures) and then drove to the head of the trail to the Garden of the Gods. This was the boys' favorite place on the whole vacation. And, ironically, it was one of the two free places we went to. Go figure. There were great places for kids to scramble around on the rocks. Tanner discovered that he absolutely loves rock climbing. Look at that boy!

And another family picture, because we're just so cute:


DAY 4
The next day was Zoo day. The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, the world's only zoo to claim to be the World's Only Zoo on the Side of a Mountain. Lots of steep walking. We were clever enough, however, to take the bus up to the top and then walk down. We enjoyed feeding the budgies, watching the hippos eat whole watermelons, seeing the monkeys swing on command; and Rob got a kick out of the naked mole rats. For me the most memorable part was the snack break where this little fellow came and begged:

Before we got involved in giving him his desired snackage, a zoo-keeper drove by and said "I hope you're not feeding that little guy. They can get pretty aggressive and they might bite." So instead of finding the chipmunk adorable and friendly, my kids chose to be terrified beyond all reason. Amy cried, and the boys stood up on the bench and shrieked while the chipmunk and their amused parents looked on in awe.

That evening we went to the Cave of the Winds. I'm not sure about the "Winds" part, but it was certainly a cave. It was very tourist-friendly; we had to sign up for the easiest tour because of our sheer abundance of toddlers. Hannah enjoyed some of it: but quickly became disenchanted with tons and tons of rock overhead. She wanted to be carried. She wanted to walk. No, she definitely wanted to be held. No, no, she wanted to be down. She wanted to cry. We had been told beforehand that if our children became obnoxious (actual word used) we'd be asked to leave, but we'd get our money back. I was hoping that we'd be asked to leave so we'd get our money back, but no such luck. I had to carry Hannah through the cave and try to keep her shrieks to a minimum. Tanner and Kevin were scared, and Amy was too. Rob, however, enjoyed it immensely, so it was worth it.

DAY 5
We asked the kids what they wanted to do on our last day in Colorado. Of the ones capable of speech, the vote was unanimous: the Garden of the Gods! So we went again and did some real hiking and climbing and scrambling. It was jolly good fun! And free!
While we were waiting for Rob to take Amy way back to the trail head to go to the bathroom (because OF COURSE she wouldn't go when we had the opportunity) Hannah discovered her deep and abiding love for dirt. She and the boys were clambering around in a shady little clump of trees and Hannah just loved digging her little hands into the dirt and feeling it and throwing it and tasting it. I had to squeeze in and pull her out when she decided to lie down on her tummy and just start eating the mud like a puppy.

Later that day we hiked up to a waterfall that was within walking distance of our cabin. It was cold outside. Seconds after we locked the front door it started to rain. There was surround-sound thunder ripping through the sky from horizon to horizon. It was muddy and the rocks got slippery and we got a little bit lost. Man, it was great! This was for Rob and me the absolute best part of our vacation. It was just a little waterfall with no public parking (hence the need to walk from our cabin) and we didn't encounter anybody our whole way up. It was too dangerous for Hannah to walk so I had to carry her and try to navigate my ofttimes clumsy self over the jagged, slick rocks. Scary! But it wasn't hot outside, and I loved it. Rob was happy to be hiking again. Not something to which Kansas really lends itself.

DAY 6
The drive home.
Boo.


Other highlights from our trip:

Tanner lost a tooth! He decided he wanted money to buy something from Colorado, so he yanked it out as we were driving. Naturally the tooth got lost inside the seat, and no amount of searching yielded the tooth, but he got his dollar (after he reminded his mother the next morning that the Tooth Fairy forgot to come) and spent it on a spiky shell. Why they sell shells in Colorado I don't fully understand, but people buy them.


We got to eat in our cabin! I absolutely love eating out, so this isn't really a "highlight" for me, but we saved a grundle by being able to do our own food. And Hannah loved not having a high chair.


Man, it was a really, really awesome vacation. It was wonderful to get away from everything for almost a whole week and just be us, the Crazy Chases, with no demands or meetings or phone calls or schedules or appointments. No ulterior motives, no agendas. Just fun. And boy did we have fun.

Thanks for reading!

I'm done now.

Dream Machine

Oh, how I loathed the Beast. It had a 20-inch monitor that weighed at least 50 pounds and took up the entire surface of the desk. Underneath the desk squatted the CPU --- an antique that sounded rather like a lawn mower and ran about as fast as a couch.

And now, as I type upon its replacement, I look back with longing at my dear little Beastie. As loud and slow as it was, at least it was reliable. And friendly.

Unlike the Dream Machine.

For that is what I named it. The Beast's replacement. When Rob and I moved to Kansas to begin our life as "grown-ups" and not "students," one of my first major purchases was a new computer. With a flat-screen monitor. And super-fast features that I couldn't understand. I know it was a good computer because when my brother visited he looked at it and said so. (If you know my brother, you know what that means. Suffice it to say that it was a good computer.) And it was quiet, oh so quiet. This was the Lexus of computers. My Dream Machine.

Little did I know that beneath its sleek exterior lurked the soul of a malevolent, spiteful toad. It was sneaky. It was cunning. It was perfectly nasty. But, like so many villains, it knew to pretend to be my friend. So it flattered me by labeling me the "administrator." It numbed me with its bright screen and sweet sound system. And it popped up these cheerful reminders for me to "update" this or that, requesting my permission before executing various things to suit its fell purposes. I happily complied to its suggested updates, thinking that it knew best and I didn't want my computer to be lacking any vital updates.

Then the troubles started. I'd come into the room and the screen would suddenly go black, like children dashing for the bed when the mom comes to check if they're sleeping. Why wasn't it black already? It was supposed to be "sleeping." I guess the computer preferred to be awake. I shrugged it off, and the computer accepted its victory with greed. It liked to be left to its own devices, so became slow to open my programs. Often it would open up a program only to freeze right after I wrote something witty but before I was able to post it. The words "not responding" appeared after program names with startling frequency. Not a day went by without an infuriating freeze-up.

I used to turn the computer off when not in use, to save energy. The computer resented being turned off, so retaliated by taking a half hour to boot up. This became so frustrating to me that I left the computer on all the time, only turning it off when it was particularly naughty. Most alarmingly, sometimes even pushing the "off" button was insufficient and I had to unplug the whole machine from the wall. But for the most part, the computer was always on. And always running. Like a hamster on a wheel. I never figured out what the computer was doing. There would be no windows open, nothing going on, but the CPU will be whiz-clicking away, little lights blinking like mad. And, as if to rub arsenic in a raw gaping wound, the computer fan got loud, just like the Beast.

So I decided it had to stop. I think the computer could sense something coming when I started backing up my files onto an external hard drive. It told me the data transfer would take four hours. When it reached "5 seconds remaining," it remained at 5 seconds for 16 hours. Jerk.

And that brings us to the present. The data transfer has miraculously completed, and I am ready to wipe the Dream Machine clean and restore it to its original factory settings.

Blame Windows Vista if you want. Blame my own ignorance in dealing with computery stuff. But I know the truth. My computer is the devil. I'd better post this soon before the computer crashes aga

Hiatus

'Twould seem I've taken a sabbatical from blogging. Life has nonetheless gone on as one would expect:

Tanner went back to school. First grade. At the back-to-school night the principal told me she wishes the school had about 400 more kids like Tanner. He's a great kiddo.


Kevin began preschool. He says he doesn't want to go anymore, but he has fun there! He is a homebody like me, I guess.


Rob went to Sweden. Business trip. See him working so hard? : )Rob had sinus surgery. The spirit of charity prevents me from here posting the post-surgery picture I morbidly took of him. On a positive note, he's been healthy since the operation, and it has been so nice to have a healthy, energetic husband!

We celebrated Halloween. Just the trunk-or-treat at the church on Saturday. On Sunday we turned off the outside lights and pretended we weren't home, preferring to eat the candy instead of pass it out.


Kevin turned 5! Kevin is still, as he was as a baby, a joy to his mother. He is our little boppy boy, always happy and trying to be a peacemaker. He loves to make crafts and is so good at sticking to what he's doing. I don't mean he's sticky. Though sometimes he's that, too. : ) We got for him, among other things, a new scooter so he can keep up with Tanner instead of running behind him. I love Kevin!!
We celebrated Thanksgiving without the camera, so no picture will accompany this paragraph either. We went to the Rosengren's house and all I had to do was the turkey! Sherri did everything else! And we both felt like we were getting a good deal! Awesome. The Davises were there too, and they did the pies. Best Thanksgiving ever.

And, two days ago, Hannah turned 1! She has brought so much sunshine into our family. Definitely still a mama's girl, she will nonetheless sometimes reach out for Rob, much to his delight. She can stand up without holding on to anything, and she tried taking one step, but still prefers her limp-crawl with one knee never touching the ground. And she is so stinking cute. She has each one of us completely wrapped around her fingers and toes.

And for anybody wishing to see more pictures of these events, I've posted them at http://picasaweb.google.com/robandkathryn/OctNov2010.

And now we're all decorated for Christmas and looking forward to craft fairs and days off and general merriment. And here I end this post, because I can think of nothing else to say.

Summer Daze

Kansas summers are a delight!

Just kidding. Kansas summers go into my book of horrors right between wasps and drowning. Interestingly enough, it is wasps and drowning that make Kansas summers so horrible. You step outside and as you sprint for dear life to avoid the wasps, you drown in the summer humidity.

But that's beside the point. What I mean is my children are a delight!

We've been having some fun this summer. We went to the Sedgwick County Zoo (the finest zoological preserve east of Missouri and west of Colorado!), where the kids were more interested in statuary than in the tenants.

I'm not really that big into zoos. I get excited at the prospect of going: We're going to the zoo! We'll have a picnic and see the animals!! Oh, the fun of anticipation! Then we get to the zoo. It's hot. Everybody in the county seems to be here. (But it's Thursday! Why aren't these people at work/the pool/the movies/anywhere but here?) It's several miles between exhibits, so by the time we've seen the wild sparrows and the tortoises, it's time for our picnic lunch. That part is, admittedly, usually enjoyable. Then we go into the monkey house. Phooo! Stinky. Then the kids are tired. And thirsty. And hungry again, because during lunchtime they were watching the wild sparrows instead of eating. So, anyway, I like the idea of zoos, if not the actual experience of them.

The hippos were pretty cool, for reasons I cannot fathom (I just think they're neat!).

And the jungle cruise was nice, because we got to wait for 15 minutes in a quiet place and eat churros and feed Hannah while waiting for the departure time.

I think I've mentioned before that zoos are very poorly equipped to handle nursing mothers? Yeah, this was no exception. But the corner of the dock behind the double stroller worked nicely. Everybody who got a glimpse of what was going on steered well clear. They're all delighted to see babboons' bottoms, but a nursing human mother?! Gasp!! Anyway.

We also went to ..... the dentist! And, for my children, this was even more of a treat than going to the zoo. Why? Because they get goody bags! It's as fun as a birthday party! They get to push the buttons to move the chair up and down, they get "Mr. Thirsty" to suck all traces of moisture (tongue included) out of their little mouths, and they get individual attention! And goody bags!

Tanner and Kevin were soooo good and soooo cute. I'm so proud of my little guys. I had scheduled Amy's first appointment too, and she watched very interestedly while Kevin had his turn, but when it was her turn she refused even to sit on my lap in the dentist's chair. She did, however, insist on getting a goody bag.

Summertime!

My children can sense when I'm about to do something productive. In this case, I was about to write a blog post. So naturally it was time for Hannah to wake up. I'll satisfy myself then with the posting of these three pictures and the provision of a link for any who would like to see more pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/robandkathryn/May2010

Things are going well here, as the smiles on the faces of my children will attest.

But Hannah clearly indicates that I am not at liberty to write more now. Have a happy!

St.LouisEasterBirthday

I have fallen so ludicrously behind in my blog posting that I cannot catch up, and will not really try. Here's the condensed version of the exciting things that have been happening lately:

We went to St. Louis!We celebrated Easter!!Tanner turned 6!!
Hannah is cute!!!!
For further details, I'll refer you to the rest of the pictures, many with captions, to be found at...

http://picasaweb.google.com/robandkathryn/StLouisAndApril2010
(you'll probably need to cut and paste the link)

Enjoy!
~Kathryn

Fatness and Fitness

In high school one of my least favorite classes was always P.E. (Granted, most of my high school classes are numbered among my least favorite classes, because high school is mostly terrible terrible terrible, but this is off the subject.) I hated changing clothes in a big open locker room. I hated playing sports. I hated getting sweaty. I hated changing back into my school clothes in the big open locker room and sitting through the rest of my classes all sweaty and gross.

But I was thin.

And so I am now looking back at those P.E. classes through post-baby eyes, and ... they're still horrible in my memory. So I've eliminated the changing-clothes-in-front-of-people and sitting-in-other-classes-all-sweaty-and-gross parts, and what is left is just a cool fitness class that might help me lose some post-baby fat!

It's called "Total Body Express." The name says it all. After the first class, my total body totally hurt! I was so wobbly I was afraid I'd fall down the stairs and embarrass myself as badly as I did when I fell off the treadmill in a full gym in college (pure, unadulterated embarrassment, that was). We did squats and crunches and lunges and push ups. We had to balance on huge "body balls" and do more crunches and other exercises I'd never imagined. I worked muscles I'm sure I've never used before.

Many of the other people in the class, I'm sure, did not have a baby four months ago. They look rather like they were babies themselves a scant nineteen years ago, and have spent a majority of those nineteen years taking fitness classes. So I am ever-so-glad that I asked my friend Megan to take the class with me. Together we can giggle over what might otherwise be extremely discouraging and demoralizing. She hasn't done any fitness stuff since school and childbirth either, so we're on about the same level.

Isn't it amazing? I'm actually doing something for me! I leave the children with Rob for almost an hour and go out and exercise! And I enjoy it! Actually, it's still quite tortuous, but I have hope that it will do me good.

Now if only my sore muscles would let me get off the couch...