11. July 2012 · Comments Off on Jacob’s Visit to New York · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , ,

Jacob got home on Wednesday from a 3 week visit to New York with Dave’s parents.  He had a very nice — and busy — visit.  He had the chance to go with his Grampy to a classic car show in Stony Brook, he visited the Statue of Liberty in New York City, went to a Long Island Ducks minor-league baseball game, visited the New Hope & Ivyland Railroad in Pennsylvania, and he ate filet mignon at a restaurant not once, but twice!

The filet mignon particularly tickled me because he’s alway so picky about the fat on steak.  Wouldn’t you know, filet is now his favorite cut of steak.

That’s my high-stakes boy!

Here are a couple of pictures from his trip that Dave’s Mom took.  He had a wonderful time!

Here’s J on the ferry ride to the Statue of Liberty.  I couldn’t get over his needing a hoodie on the same day that we were sweltering in the upper 90s down here in Florida.

My mother-in-law got this fantastic picture of Jacob jumping in the sprinkler on a hot day in the backyard.

01. July 2012 · Comments Off on Florida Discoveries 25: Florida Scenic Highway 30A · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , ,

Dave and I took a drive on Saturday.  It’s something we hadn’t done in YEARS — as the kids get older they don’t really have the patience to just sit in the car and enjoy the scenery.  We got into the Mustang, put the top down and headed eastward!

Much of what I had written about Florida recently has been in areas around Pensacola and Destin.  Unfortunately, there is so much congestion in Destin, we rarely get to go east.

I had a brainstorm this week to head down Florida Highway 30A, which is a beach highway between Destin and Panama City Beach.  U.S. 98 is the main route connecting the cities, but if you have the time, check out 30A for some serious beauty…

Of note along Highway 30A is the town of Seaside, made famous by the 1998 film The Truman Show with Jim Carrey and Laura Linney.  The made-up town was actually the center of Seaside.

I love the houses here…but owning one? Forget about it!

The town is very beautiful.  Dave and I parked the car and enjoyed a seafood lunch right on the beach. More »

Since Debby is keeping her distance from northwest Florida, I can safely resume my blogging about our road trip.

After visiting with Dave’s side of the family in Pennsylvania, we said our goodbyes — especially to Jacob, who is visiting with Dave’s parents for a couple weeks — and headed 2 hours back down I-81 to my parents in Martinsburg.

Our visit with my parents was similarly short, and we enjoyed trips to Costco and Kohl’s with my parents.  Costco was awesome since we’re no longer members so my parents bought our stuff and we paid them back.  We could stock up on batteries, “Mexi-Coke“, and I also got a nifty clothes-dryer rack.  I’m seeing how many days I can go without using my dryer!  If you count our vacation, I’m at 12 days so far!

Dave and I drove home on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, and Timmy stayed in West Virginia.  Both boys will be home after July 4th.

I don’t have pictures from when Dave and I were there, but my parents and sister have been sending great pictures of Timmy enjoying the local water park and batting cages.  Last weekend my parents took Timmy and my sister’s family to DelGrosso’s Park in Tipton, PA.

Enjoy some pictures my sister took of the day he had at the park!  She has a fantastic camera by the way…

Jacob’s having a wonderful time in NY, also.  We speak to both boys every other day.

Timmy and his cousins at DelGrosso’s, a small amusement park in central Pennsylvania.

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20. June 2012 · Comments Off on Road Trip 2012 II, Part 1: Driving North and a Train Day · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , , ,

As I’ve mentioned in 2008, 2009, and 2011, our family makes a trip to Pennsylvania every year for Dave’s family reunion in Lancaster County.  I didn’t go in 2010 — Dave flew to PA with the boys while I did some reserve work — so I didn’t write about it.  To be honest, I haven’t written much detail about the reunions themselves.  I guess I just say “We’re going” and that’s about it.  It’s mainly hanging out drinking some Yuengling, eating Hammond’s Pretzels, catching up with the others from Dave’s Dad’s side of the family.  The folks are all wonderful and it’s especially fun to see how grown up the younger family members become year after year.  This year, some of the youngest family members when I first went to a Vollmer reunion in 1994 are about to become seniors in college!!!!  Wow!

We also pay a visit with several loved ones from Dave’s Mom’s side of the family.  Some of them drive in from Philadelphia to Lancaster County to visit with Dave’s parents and our foursome and we’re always flattered and humbled by their efforts.  Each year Jacob seems to top himself with how much he can eat: this year it was a foot-long chicken parmesan sub sandwich!

Enjoy some pictures from the first couple days of our adventures.  We try to spend a day at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania and the Strasburg Railroad, and this year we even adjusted our travel time so we could keep a day ahead of the Strasburg Railroad’s “Day Out With Thomas” event that is always over Father’s Day weekend.  It’s usually a nightmare of toddlers and preschoolers, with families coming from as far away as Connecticut and Massachusetts for the chance to ride behind a REAL engine made up to look like Thomas (and not non-operational Thomas that’s actually pushed by another locomotive, which is what we experienced in Nebraska in 2009 — don’t get me wrong, the Fremont, Nebraska experience is the best-ever Thomas ride we’d ever had out of 5 venues and about a dozen rides!)

The kids have officially outgrown Thomas <sniff sniff> and didn’t mind not riding with him this year.  Some of my favorite memories of my little boys will always be with that useful engine….

We took a detour on the drive northward and took some of Skyline Drive in Virginia's Shenandoah National Park.

We took a detour on the drive northward and took in some of Skyline Drive in Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park.  Check out that stunning view!  We only drove the southernmost 40 miles, from mileposts 105 to 65 or so.

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11. June 2012 · Comments Off on Summer Fun!! · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,

The kids are definitely enjoying their summer vacation so far!  Apparently Jacob was working extra-hard this school year because I hadn’t seen him this happy in a long time.  School and baseball just wore him out, I guess.  They’re enjoying sleeping late, staying up late at night and not having to get dressed until lunchtime.  Oh, the summer life!

Since school ended last Thursday, the kids have been doing little else besides playing games, riding their bikes and playing catch in the backyard.

Sadly, our area was hit with that Gulf Coast deluge of rain over the weekend so we were quite literally stuck in the house all weekend.  Our rain gauge is broken, but I’d estimate around 8-10″ of rain at our house all weekend.  We have good drainage so our house and our property was okay.

While under our virtual house-arrest, the boys got along GREAT and Dave and I could catch up on several household tasks.  We had visited Target on Friday and let the kids choose one video game and one board/card game each.  We enjoyed all of that and then some: Uno, Phase-10, Rummikub, chess, Monopoly, Guitar Hero and even our new “Go” board game.

I also helped out with this week’s Cub Scout Day Camp.  Even though my boys can’t go (because of our upcoming Road Trip), I had received a request to help out with some craft preparations.  I offered my assistance and I received a task that was PERFECT for this past rainy weekend: FiMo clay Star Wars action figures.  You press the clay into the molds, then bake a pan full of them at 230F for 30 minutes to harder.  They are to be used in snow globes (Hoth?) that will be made with baby food jars.

Here is a picture of what I was working on.  Cute, aren’t they?  They weren’t easy but with the rainy weather, we had all the time in the world!  I had to make 150 of these.

Of the dozen-or-so characters to choose from, there are the only ones that will fit through the mouth of a classic baby food jar. These were among the best of the batch. Most of the Yodas looks more like Gizmo from "Gremlins", and most of the Obi Wans and Chewies had no discernable faces. The molds for these were made by "Kenner" years ago. I tried to find a link to the mold product but can't find any.

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22. March 2012 · Comments Off on Spring Break Road Trip 2012, Part 3: Visiting Old Friends, Meeting New Friends!!! · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , ,

One of the things I’m guilty of is trying to balance visiting friends with every trip we take back to the Northeast.  You know who you are!  There are many of you I haven’t been able to see in YEARS because we’re trying to see other friends.

Now that I’m a GeekMom, there are a dozen+ ladies I want to meet on my travels.  I can’t wait to meet more of you!  I’ll be in the D.C. area (again) and Long Island by the end of the year….

On this trip, we got to meet up with old friends from Nebraska, North Carolina, and we got to meet up with new GeekMom/GeekDad friends.

While we were in WV, we drove out to Centreville, VA and met some friends for dinner.

Poor Timmy was sick so he stayed at my parents while the rest of us met the Folzes near Washington,  D.C.  We were neighbors in Nebraska and you might remember these boys from Cub Scout pictures and from our trip to the Ashfall Fossil Beds in summer 2010.  The kids picked up right where they left off — and we grown-ups had a great time catching up.  Dave had so many questions for Nick about his Pentagon commute.

We met up with Don, Maryann, Joey and Johnny at a BBQ restaurant in Durham.  We are so grateful that they made the drive — on a school night! — out to see us!

Maryann looked FANTASTIC!!!  I felt so underdressed next to her 🙂
Maryann took this nice picture of all four boys actually sitting still!

The following day, I headed over to Southpoint Mall in Durham to pick up a long-awaited iPhone 4S (whoo hoo!) and we had a chance to meet up with our friends the Warlicks for lunch in the food court.

Strike a pose!

I had taken about 50 pictures of the boys playing at this fountain with my new phone. But then I had some syncing problems when I first plugged it in…I lost those pictures.  But Wendy sent me everything she had on her camera, thanks!

I was so excited to finally get to meet a fellow GeekMom author in person! We had an invitation to visit one of the GeekMom editors, Natania Barron and her husband, GeekDad writer Michael Harrison. For Natania, Michael and me, it was like old friends seeing each other after a long while, since we talk so much via Facebook, Twitter and our GeekMom discussion boards. But for Dave, he was getting to meet them and talk to them for the first time. We had a fun time enjoying Greek food for dinner — Natania made it all! — and the kids enjoyed a game of Zombie Dice with Michael.

22. March 2012 · Comments Off on Spring Break Road Trip 2012, Part 2: North Carolina · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

This picture was taken minutes before we headed to our truck and started our drive home.

After hooking up the lawn mower to our truck in WV, we headed back down I-81 and U.S. 29 towards my sister’s house in central North Carolina.  I blew through her place — stopping overnight in each direction — driving to and from NY last summer, but this time we get to spend a few days in the area…and this was Dave’s first trip back since we moved away in July 2008.

My sister and I always have great times when we get together.  We often stay up late and talk talk talk until we’re falling asleep on each other!  We discuss books, movies and music and catch up on gossip.  I didn’t take any pictures, we sat at her kitchen table and folded origami cranes while we talked.

The kids take off like a pack of wolves and only need grownups’ attention when they’re hungry or hurt.  It’s actually rather relaxing, believe it or not.

My dear sister made us a cake!

We enjoyed a picnic lunch at a new park in Hillsborough.  Several of us took runs around the 2/3-mile-long track that circles the park.

The little ones played on the playground.

Swinging!

Running, complete with iPod!

Dave liked this park: check out the view he had of this NC Amtrak train!  He on the small hill on the right side of this picture, also photographing it.

Wouldn’t you know it — we had scooters and helmets in the truck!  The kids took turns riding around.

Time for an iPod break.

Soccer!

My sister’s boys have a trampoline on their property. My boys couldn’t get enough of it!

My sister kept the boys while Dave and I had a morning to ourselves to browse Trader Joe’s and Southern Season in Chapel Hill.  Money was spent.

Southern Season: These are just jams and jellies!

Dave was enjoying the fun wine section.

Cake decorating supplies!!!!  I bought some non-pareil cows.  I don’t have immediate plans to make a cow-themed cake, but you never know….
I’ve taken enough pictures of Trader Joe’s — I feel like a dork when I do it.  But I did photograph this beer that we used to get.  We elected not to attempt taking alcohol across NC/SC/GA/AL/FL.

Before we hit the road on Saturday for a partial drive home, we enjoyed watching my oldest nephew’s soccer game in Mebane.

One more post is forthcoming about last week — all the other friends we had a chance to see on this trip!  Stay tuned!

22. March 2012 · Comments Off on Spring Break Road Trip 2012, Part 1: West Virginia and a Circus · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,

Last week was the kids’ Spring Break.  The family headed up to West Virginia to visit my parents, thanks to their offer for us to take their riding lawn mower.  My Dad bought it 1-2 years ago, but they don’t use it much.  I guess they felt sorry for us with our larger-than-necessary lawn…which I discussed last year when I measured how many miles I had walked to cut my lawn with our 22″ wide mower.

We drove a VERY long day on Saturday.  Thanks to some Choice Hotel loyalty points, we got a free hotel room in Roanoke and were at my parents by Sunday at lunchtime.

My parents had arranged a nice surprise for the boys: a trip to the circus!

This is a circus that set up in a gymnasium.  Small, but for the kids, it was a lot of fun!

The Walker Brothers Circus travels around the eastern United States.  It’s a very small operation, with the ringmaster taking our tickets at the front door, and the acrobats selling concessions when they aren’t actively performing.  The entire event is very small, unlike the larger Ringling Brothers circuses, so there were several chances to personally interact with the performers.

Ever see those free tickets at local grocery stores?  That’s the type of circus we went to.

The boys enjoyed the bouncy house before the circus, and the assorted acts.  My parents got them cotton candy and toy light sabers.

Waiting for the show to start.
He loves cotton candy!

The ringleader blew fireballs!

This is Gianni — balancing on tubes. 

A hula hoop act.

I was having a hard time with the camera from the distance we were sitting, so I stopped after this point.

The rest of our visit, we relaxed and hung out.  Dave and Timmy went to the Baltimore area to visit one of Dave’s friends’ train stores, and he met a friend for lunch.  Jacob and I spent a day shopping with my Mom, which was fun.  Jacob desperately needed some new running shoes, so he was stuck with us girls for the day.

We also drove out to the Washington, D.C. suburbs to visit some friends for dinner, but that’s for another post.

Timmy and my parents all got sick during our visit.  That was pretty icky, unfortunately.

Mid-week, we loaded my parents’ lawn mower on a U-Haul trailer and made the drive down to North Carolina, where we visited with my sister.

Parked at a Cracker Barrel on the way down to central NC.

03. September 2011 · Comments Off on Road Trip III 2011: One More Thing · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

When my boys were doing the Turner Field Running of the Bases earlier this month, there was a photographer sitting just past 2nd base taking pictures of the boys.  Some dude handed us parents a flyer with a website and asked us to note the time because the pictures of the kids are displayed by time..

Being the sucker I am, I went to the website…and saw the pictures of my boys…and bought a pair of 5x7s.  I need to get frames for the boys’ rooms, but in the meantime, I’ve scanned them in to share with you.

I’m usually better than succumbing to this.  I’m very good at saying “No, thank you” to these photo offers.  I resist most easily when I’m in the picture looking stupid (which is quite often).  Or if my camera accidentally goes off in front of the computer terminal at the sales counter for such pictures.  Or if the salesman lets you walk around the gift shop with a copy of the picture to take our time deciding whether to buy the picture…and my darned camera went off accidentally AGAIN.  And AGAIN.  (Disclaimer: I may or may not have purchased these hard copies and just took pictures with my iPhone to share them digitally while on vacation).

But this time I did pay for the pictures for sure, since we were back home in FL by the time I could see the proofs.  Enjoy!  And yes, next time we ever do this we will make sure our sons are in real athletic shoes…

19. August 2011 · Comments Off on Road Trip III 2011: Atlanta Braves Baseball! · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,

WARNING: This is a LONG post.  I debated dividing it into two parts, but couldn’t find an easy dividing point.  So instead I put in some headers to try to break up the story a bit.  

It was our entire motivation for our trip to Atlanta last weekend: we had Braves tickets!

During Jacob’s baseball season, we promised to take him to a professional baseball game in the area.  We didn’t realize it would be over an hour away (Mobile, Alabama has a AA team).  Dave suggested looking into Braves tickets, and we could take a long weekend in Atlanta for sightseeing.

I got a great deal on StubHub.com on a set of four tickets to the August 14th Braves-Cubs game right behind home plate.  Someone was probably breaking up a set of multi-game tickets, and I scored some great seats for about $20 each.  It turned out to be near Dave’s birthday, so we considered the trip a birthday gift for Dave.

Even better?  I found us a hotel room right across the street from Turner Field!  Whoo hoo!

Military Ticket Promotion

I had made these arrangements back in May, so the excitement for all my boys was pretty built-up by the time we actually made the drive.  They were so happy to see Turner Field and were incredibly excited about seeing Sunday’s game…

…so excited, in fact, that on Saturday morning Jacob and I walked over to the box office first thing and bought tickets to see the Saturday night game.  We took advantage of the Braves’ military promotion — Active duty military can get buy-one-get-one-free Upper Box seats.  (So can students and AAA members).  And they waived the $3 surcharge for same-day purchase!  Our original tickets were to the Sunday afternoon game.

The Bullpen

Happy Dave.  Sandwiches and beer at The Bullpen.  $3.50 bottles here vs. $7.00 bottles at the ballpark!  Dave opted for a solid red Braves hat.  

After Friday night at The Varsity, then Saturday morning and afternoon at Stone Mountain, we had dinner Saturday evening at The Bullpen, a burger/beer joint between our hotel and Turner Field.  We took a risk heading over there — after all, what restaurant next to the ballpark was going to have seating 90 minutes before gametime?  We thought The Bullpen would be waitress-served meals, and were expecting the worst in terms of a wait for a table.

We were greeted with a pleasant surprise: cheap food, REALLY cheap beer and plenty of outdoor seating.  Sure, it was hot, but at least we had seating.

Parking

Another nice perk — free parking since we were staying at a hotel nearby.  We found out that the local businesses near Turner Field (including our hotel) sold extra parking spaces for $20 per game!  So over the weekend we saved $40 in parking charges, and we had a VERY short walk to the field, just diagonally across an intersection from the gates behind home plate….although the main entrance was behind the outfield.

The Saturday Night Game!

It’s a sight to see — that look on a kid’s face when he see something he’s been excited for for so long.  I remember that look when my boys met Mickey Mouse.  We saw it again when the boys saw the bright green field and the HUGE video screen when we got to our seats.  For the Saturday game, we sat near the very top row, but it was essentially behind home plate.  It was hot, but at least we had a good enough view to command the boys’ attention for most of the game.  The Braves lost the Saturday night game.

These giant baseballs were all over the place — the boys wanted to find them all, but we didn’t do that.  The boys got Braves hats off a street vendor for $5 each.  They are definitely $5 hat quality, but the boys didn’t care and were incredibly excited!
I’m very proud of this picture.  This is the 1991 Braves in the upper part of the picture.  They had a 20th Anniversary reunion event just before the game.  This team started the 14-years-in-a-row of pennant winning.  Five of the players simultaneously threw ceremonial first pitches and I caught 4 of the 5 balls mid-pitch!  From the top row, too!  (the 2nd pitcher from the right hadn’t let go of the ball yet).  Hooray for our Canon camera!

The view from the top.  Not bad.  The giant TV screen (“Braves Vision”) helped us see anything we needed to see in more detail.

You can see how high up we were.
Two of Atlanta’s biggest sponsors, literally: Coca-Cola and Chick-fil-A.  Each of those things are 40-feet high.

The Chick-fil-A cow does the tomahawk chop with his (her?) right arm when the (FSU Band) music played!

The boys all brought in their gloves, but we were sitting a bit high to catch a foul ball.

Plenty of gimmicks to keep us entertained.  When the Braves strike out a batter, the Gas South sign launches two small fireworks and flames fly out of the flames on the sign.  Then, if you squint, you can see the letter “K”s underneath the words “Bring the Heat”.  One “K” per strikeout.

And if there’s a home run, the 40-foot Coca Cola bottle launches a WHOLE BUNCH of fireworks!  This was during the one-and-only home run from both games: Dan Uggla in the 4th inning.  Dave took the boys to get snacks.  I saw it, they missed it.

A word about this 40-foot Coke bottle.  The area that’s usually a label is actually an LCD sign that is constantly changing.  Here you can see the tomahawks that were moving around the right.  Timmy was a bit freaked out by every single digital sign in the ballpark showing tomahawks during the tomahawk chop music.  He learned the cheer pretty early on!

The Sunday Afternoon Game: Foul Ball Drama

The Sunday game gave us a MUCH better view!  Unfortunately, the seats remained in the sun the entire time.  After 3 hours in the sun, during about the 7th inning, we moved to shady seats two rows up.

Those original seats were in the very front row of the upper deck, behind home plate.  About halfway up in the stands…definitely foul ball range!  A most-awesome view!

Statistically speaking, what are the chances of a foul ball landing in one of our original — by then, vacated — seats???  I don’t know, but that’s what happened.  A man from the group right next to the empty seats ran over to the seat and plucked up the ball, full of happiness and celebration.  I tried, but didn’t make it…

Meanwhile, my boys were in tears…Timmy ran back over to the original seats and sat with his glove at the ready for about 10 minutes.  Jacob was pretty upset for the rest of the game.  Dave — whose original seat the ball landed in — explained that he wasn’t really paying attention at the time the foul ball came in and assured the boys he might have gotten hit on the head.

So to accompany that look of delight when the boys saw their first major league ball field, was the anguish of missing a foul ball that we SHOULD have caught!  Oh well…life goes on…

Nice foam tomahawks, right?  This was before the foul ball — and the emotion that went with it.  It fell right into the seat Dave was sitting in here…except we had moved from those seats when the ball came in.

This was our view from our seats.  So much nicer than the night before!  But quite sunny…

I thought the sun would head behind the awning…instead it PARALLELED the front edge of the awning.  So hot…so frustrating.

The Running of the Bases

When Jacob and I went to the box office to get the Saturday night game tickets, we learned of this “Running of the Bases” activity the Braves hosted on after their Sunday home games.  The kids line up after the game to go down to the field and they get one pass around the field.  After yet another loss against the Cubs, not to mention the Foul Ball drama, we weren’t sure the kids were going to handle the LONG line to run the bases.  The kids didn’t know what to expect, so it was clear Dave and I were more excited about this than the kids.

But they stuck it out, with the help of some other kids in the line who had done the activity before and assured the boys that the experience was really cool.  I knew Jacob would appreciate learning how much longer the baselines are on a Major League diamond compared to what he runs in Little League.

After about a 30 minute wait (relatively not long at all), we saw the beautiful field up close!  The kids were put in a line and the whole experience — as cool as it is — is very very fast.  They are sending kids out about every 2 seconds.  I didn’t get good pictures of the running itself, but here’s a video of the boys that gives you an idea.

Yes, Timmy’s wearing a Pirates shirt.  Those two shirts came from Old Navy.

Jacob took this picture…I like it 🙂

The kids in the line leading up to home plate.  Say nothing about the boys being in Crocs (J’s wearing yellow, T’s wearing red).  I didn’t think about how much better this experience would have been if they were wearing sneakers.

The boys received free t-shirts when they finished.  The Braves logo is on the front, this beat any $20 t-shirt at the souvenirs stands!

The Braves Kids Club: A Nice Gift Idea

Photo courtesy of Field Trips With Sue.

The boys kept seeing ads for this Braves Kids Club on the video screens and on posters throughout Turner Field.  This evening I finally remembered to look up the website and see what this Kids Club involved.

Seems like a pretty cool deal.  I was reminded of the old Lego Brickmaster Club from about 2007 or so, when $40 would get you 6+ great little kits, plus coupons, and the magazine.  For $20 you get 2 Braves ticket vouchers AND 2 Gwinnett Braves (their AAA affiliate) vouchers.  Plus a ball cap, Chick Fil A coupons, a certificate, VIP access to the Kids Running of the Bases, among other things.

Since a Kids Club membership is valid for a single baseball season, we convinced the boys that this wouldn’t be a good idea this late in the season.  I put a reminder in iCal to look at the Kids Club membership thing again in mid-November for the 2012 season.

This Atlanta blogger shows how the Kids’ Club items are nicely packaged up for the holidays.