Day Date

Today’s day trip took us to Lynchburg, TN where the Southern drawl is thick, the iced tea is sweet, and the whiskey is smooth. We had lunch at Miss Mary Bobo’s Boarding House and ate a family style dinner of fried chicken and all the sides. I gasped when the middle aged man from California asked what okra was, and I chuckled when his wife asked what the green beans were. I guess she’s only had DelMonte beans out of a can. The Vandy nurse who was clearly used to eating nothing but quinoa and broccoli passed on everything but the chicken and two green beans. She quietly tried to motion to her husband to keep her three year old from eating the fudge pie served for dessert, but that didn’t go so well. The kid ate it in three bites and then the mom whispered, “She’s only had pie three times in her life.” My 14 year old had a bag of Doritos and left over Valentine cookies for dinner last night. Clearly I saw nothing wrong with the girl eating pie, but I nodded in agreement with the sinful amount of sugar intake. 

We walked down the street to the general store and Wes played checkers with a local. 

We toured the distillery and quickly ascertained our local docent was speaking a language foreign to us - called Tennessee Drawl. I think I would have understood more in Spanish but did we chuckle listening to that accent. 

The tour was informative, the grounds were beautiful, and the smells were terrific. Wes got a bottle to bring home, but sadly the tasting room did nothing to persuade me to drink whiskey. I will stick to an occasional mimosa and my diet Dr Pepper. 

Glass Blowing

I have a friend who doesn’t understand spending hours in the car driving to and from soccer training. She spends her free time touring, shopping, and exploring. I knew when I found a glass blowing workshop she would be the first to join me. Today we blew glass to make ornaments.

I will be the first to suggest you learn to blow glass in a month where the temperature is not already hotter-than-Hades. 

I also suggest you choose a gallery for your lessons as opposed to a farm with biting flies and a parking lot that looks like this. 

And be sure to take a friend because laughing sweetens the adventure! We are making candles next month.

Friday Family Fun Day

We are all at home today with no big plans. No school. No work. No games and not even an afternoon practice. The weather is too perfect to be inside, so we drove to Nashville to walk Fort Negley.

 

While on our tour, Keagan wanted to know what it was like to party in college. More importantly, he decided he wanted to go home and practice beer pong so when he gets to college he will have the game mastered. He reasoned he would be rather good at it since he's good at basketball. We refused to agree to the purchase of red Solo cups and a ping pong ball. 

 

The view of the skyline was better than the limited Civil War history. I love this city!

No trip to the city is complete without food, so we had lunch at a restaurant downtown near the river. Keagan decided he wanted to go to the bar, slam his fist on the table and demand "the strongest thing you got." He settled for a coke. Love the sense of humor and laughter that comes from this kid!

The afternoon for me was spent on the back porch with a book. Wes wanted to take a nap, but just as he was  dozing, Evan came running down the stairs exclaiming HELP! Wes jumped up to hear Evan explain Keagan got his braces stuck in the carpet. Wes could hear Keagan crying and rushed up the stairs to find him laid out on the floor. Just as he tried to speak calmly and offer some help, Keagan sat up with a fat grin and yelled, " Gotcha!" 

Never a dull moment with this kid!

Rollin' on the River

Our summer of fun continued today with a scenic boat ride down the Cumberland River with the extended family. 

We rode along the bluffs and saw blue herons, turtles, and ospreys, but the kids were most impressed with the mallets used to crack peanuts at the snack station. 

The kids played bouncy ball games, observed birds with binoculars, and just enjoyed being together. 

What a perfect day!

Summer of History Lessons

For today's summer adventure, we toured Historic Rock Castle. I think I missed my calling and should have majored in history. I found it very fascinating, but none of us were as taken by the story of Daniel Smith like we were of last week's Lotz family. Then again, our tour guide wasn't wearing green eye shadow with a knack for dramatic stage performances. 

However, I can't imagine someone giving me 3000 acres of land and then crossing mountains in a wagon to claim it. Nor can I imagine building a house with a bell tower so I can alert the field hands of Indian attacks. Nor can I imagine having a sugar chest that locks away my sugar in a safe place since it's sold only once a year when the boat makes the trip from the Caribbean.

The boys didn't even make me buy them lunch today. Evan was horrified that most of the population was eating lunch at the ungodly hour of 12:30. "We just had breakfast; how can they eat lunch now?" Oh, to be a teen on summer vacation and sleep until 10:00!

3/4 Family Fun Day

The boys and I spend at least one weekend a month in Franklin, but we are always playing sports and never have the time or energy to do the fun stuff. So today's summer family fun day is in Franklin, or as Keagan refers to as 3/4 family fun day since Wes is at work.

Stop #1 is the ropes course. Both boys said their muscles were already sore after only two hours.

I had to sell a kidney on the black market to pay for it, but the boys loved it! 

Stop #2 is a refueling stop. Evan chose Scholotsky's because their iced tea is served cold. Keagan chose bundt cakes from a local bakery for dessert, and it did not disappoint. 

Stop #3 is the neighbor's swimming pool because 98 degrees is hot! There will be no crazy, loud boys running through my house tonight because they will be fast asleep as soon as their bellies are refilled.

Old Kentucky Home

See? We do more than just play sports on the weekend! The teacher in me couldn't pass up a chance to tour a historical site; the brown highway sign was calling my name. 

So when we had free time between soccer games in this weekend's tournament, we took a short detour from the hotel and toured Abe Lincoln's birthplace. 

Keagan wanted to know how anyone, especially a president, could live in such a small place. Then, having enough of his history lesson and unable to resist running through the fall leaves on the wooded trails, he left the monument in a sprint, stopping only to roll down hills and kick up leaves. 

All of that after playing two soccer games. Now he's in the hotel pool. 

And I'm the one looking to take a nap. 

Music City

You can't be this close to Nashville and not do the country music thing. We ventured to the city last night, through heavy downpours and a lightning storm, and did the live, country music scene. Keagan was so excited to be at the Grand Ole Opry that his little hand squeezed mine all the way to our seat. He was completely taken with the idea of hearing someone famous perform.

He wasn't nearly as excited to hear the songs performed by the elderly with the hits from the 1950s, and truth be told, I wasn't either.There's just something about an old man singing a wistful song about being famous again that's just terribly depressing.

Keagan didn't hear anyone he recognized from the radio, but he decided a couple of performances were good enough that they should be on the radio. We agreed our favorites were Jimmy Wayne and the Texas duo, Sons of Fathers.

Can't wait to do it again real soon - old guys, heavy rain, and all.

St. Simon's Island

Ten years ago today I flew to St. Simon's to visit my good friend Rachel who was living there at that time with her husband and newborn son. Five children later, more than fifteen moves between us later, and ten long years later we met up again in the same locale. It is just as beautiful and quaint as I remembered!

Our kids had a great time together. Can't you tell?

Okay, so maybe it wasn't the walking tour in the heat of the day that was the real fun. It was only 95 with a heat index of 104.

But the beach was just right!

Fort Morris

What better way to spend the July 4th holiday than at Fort Morris, the site of the 1779 battle between the Patriots and British? After the opening ceremonies and the flag raising ceremony, the boys participated in pre-Revolutionary War games, games that we are all fairly familiar with like spoon races and sack races. 

And there were games we were not as familiar. Like games that involve the chunking of hatches.

And I have been worried about the boys playing in the yard with toy guns.

When the four year old girl wanted to give it a try, you can rest assured we hid behind the closest tree. Her chunking was not predictable.

When Keagan threw the ax, the audience ooohed and awwwed. No one believed such a little guy could have such strength.

When Evan threw the hatchet, the people at the next game station, ran for the nearest tree. He threw it that far. All four times. He doesn't know "chunk softly."

For each activity, the boys earned gold doubloons. At the end of the tour, the boys traded their gold pieces for a prize. Keeping the tradition of colonial toys and traditional games, Keagan selected a gooey plastic worm and Evan selected a paddle ball set made in China.

Memorial Day

We spent the morning in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania at the National Civil War Museum, a Smithsonian sponsored museum. It was a wonderful museum, and we were, sadly, just about the only ones there. It had many original pieces and a very nice multi-media approach similar to the Marine Museum at Quantico.

With lots of talk of good guys and bad guys, violent battles, hospitals in wagons, and various weapons, the boys went to the gift shop to buy guns. Don't let the irony of our attempt to show the hardships and violence of war become lost on our children who wanted nothing more than to reenact the violent battles. We weren't home five minutes and the boys were outside in the tree line playing war. After hours of playing outside, they returned to the house to say, "We won two wars, Mom."

If only it were that easy to declare victory and be done with the battle.

Hershey Park

I knew I was getting old, but a day long trip to an amusement park confirmed all of that this weekend. 

First, I do not know how anyone goes to a park with flip flops, but every female under the age of 30 had them on. I am old school and couldn't fathom wearing anything but my running shoes. And my feet still hurt at the end of the day.

Riding a water ride was about the worse thing the boys could have asked of me. Walking around for hours in wet clothes is just not fun. I don't remember it ever fun as a teenager but that didn't mean I didn't do it. Luckily, it never occurred to the boys that you could get wet in street clothes. We avoided the entire water section.

When I laid my head on the pillow last night, my first prayer of thanksgiving was for that sixteen year old boy who had one too many corn dogs at lunch didn't upchuck all over us while riding the Flying Falcon. It was a close call. Really close call.

I was in bed and asleep by 9:03. Wes was asleep at 8:15, snoring at 8:30.

And then I woke up with three big gray hairs. I guess the seven hour day filled with riding roller coasters did more than I ever imagined. As I began to pluck them out, Wes asked if I really thought I would reverse the aging process by removing them. Maybe not, but I was grayless today.

But don't let all of this make you think for a moment that I didn't ride some rides because the park is known for coastin', and I did plenty of it. I squealed as loud as Evan or Keagan with the pure joy of steep falls, sharp turns, and dizzying spins.

Until next time...Let's hope it is at least another year so that my feet and hair have time to recover.

Adventure Saturday

If you have never been to see a performance at Adventure Theatre at Glen Echo Park in Maryland, then try to take the kids to see one soon.

We saw the musical "Flat Stanley", our second show, and we loved it as much as we did the last. After the performance, we took the boys to the playground to play and have an ice cream. 

Air and Space Museum

Today we took my grandmother, aunt, and cousin, who are here for the week, to the Chantilly museum. We have been many times before, but the IMAX always has something new for us to see. Today we saw Fly!, and because it was Girl Scout Saturday, we were also able to participate in some additional activities. 

While Wes and Evan took pictures of the planes, Keagan and I made candy airplanes, engineered towers out of straws, and made a star clock. And then we all came home and took naps that lasted in the hours. Not bad for a rainy Saturday.

Terra Cotta Warriors

We drove to the National Geographic Museum today to see the Terra Cotta Warriors traveling exhibit. Last fall Evan read The Magic Treehouse book about the Dragon King, and along with my seven year old, I learned all about the Terra Cotta Warriors. I am sure my 9th grade world history teacher must have mentioned it at one time, and I was so taken with Egyptian history and King Tut that China slipped right past me unnoticed.

I couldn't believe my luck when I learned the exhibit would be in DC for a few months this winter. Although only fifteen of the original 7000 warriors were actually brought here from China, there were several replicas and other artifacts. Forget the actual warriors, Evan was transfixed with a piece of artwork that depicted the attempted murder of the first emperor. 

Keagan, on the other hand, was more impressed with a photograph of a penguin in the mouth of a seal on display in the museum lobby.

All of this history. The stories that were told around every corner in the museum. The beautiful pieces of jade. The beauty in such detailed stone work. And both boys were taken with violent images. The death of a man and the death of a penguin. 

Hartland Orchard

For the third year in a row we made the drive out west on I-66 to Hartland Orchard to pick apples. This year it was cooler so there were fewer bugs buzzing around our faces; there were fewer people so we found an apple picker tool for Evan; and there were hundreds of apples on the tree so I am now tasked with the job of making apple pies. Evan, the connoisseur of apples, was more than pleased to make the trip. The boy can name more varieties of apples than most adults, and because he usually eats one to two apples a day, making the hour long drive to the orchard to buy bushels of apples is actually our way of stretching the dollar as much as a past time. 

Keagan climbed every tree he could find and practiced his baseball skills with every apple thrown to us on the ground. On our walk to the farmhouse, the horses were placed in the stable prepared for their daily brushing. All three of them had covers around their eyes to keep the flies out, and Keagan declared, "Look, Evan! The horses have underwear wrapped around their heads!"

Silent Drill

After flying home yesterday afternoon, we drove to the Iowa Jima Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery to watch the Marine Corp's Silent Drill. The boys were restless, and understandably so after a two hour drive to the Dallas airport, a two hour wait in the airport due to our plane's mechanical failure, and a two and a half hour plane ride. However, the "dual" between the Sergeant and the Private peaked their interest, and Keagan determined that "the boss" won with the best rifle tricks. (There is no dual, contest, or boss, but with little boys battles of supremacy always make for a more interesting story.) This was one more event I can cross off of my list of must-sees before we leave next summer.

National Harbor

A friend of mine suggested we spend a day at the National Harbor. This person does not have young children, and although it might be a great place to go at night to have a good meal, hear live music, or to take a walk around the water, it is not the place to go with two young children when it is 90 degrees! The best part of the day for us was climbing on the huge God of Water buried in the sand at the edge of the water.