"Sweet" Sixteen

My oldest turned sixteen.  Sixteen.  Do you realize how old that makes me?  Do you realize how soon he'll be out in the world and on his own?

Wow.

He had apple pie for breakfast, nachos and cheese fries for lunch, and potato leek soup for dinner.  All by request.  Yes, I'm aware the soup is a bit odd, but he LOVES it.

Love you, Peter!

Eight!

New earrings!

Victoria turned eight this year!!  Eight is big in our girls' lives, because that means they may get their ears pierced.  Her birthday was a bit haphazard, because we had JUST returned from our trip, but she still got her choice of meals, and we had cake with all the neighborhood kids.

Hard to believe my "baby" is so big!!

Love you, Victoria!!

Niagara...again?

After spending the night in Hot Springs, we packed up and drove to Mammoth Caves, Kentucky.  We had a nice big campsite and things started to look a little more like home as far as the countryside, animals, stores, etc.

In the morning, we packed up and went for our tour of Mammoth Caves.  The caves are, as the name suggests, mammoth, so we had chosen one tour (there are SEVERAL).

The kids enjoyed it (although the comment was made that Luray Caverns in Virginia was just as nice), and there was a fun little formation there called Frozen Niagara.  Jonathan commented that we started at Niagara Falls and we were finishing at Frozen Niagara.  Nice little symmetry.

We got in the car and drove on.....when we arrived in Huntington, West Virginia at about 3 pm, the kids and I had a little conference.  We were still about six hours away from home and I knew we were all tired of being in the car, but also tired of being on the road.  The consensus was to GO ON!!!

We arrived home around 10 pm - YAY!!!  Happy to see Daddy, the pets, hot showers, our own beds.  Aaahhhh.....

Friends!!

I have fewer pictures of the last bit of our trip because it was just me taking pictures and because I was too busy talking!!

Moon Crater

After leaving the Grand Canyon, we headed towards Albuquerque, to see some dear, dear friends of ours that we hadn't seen since Caroline was about 18 months old.  On the way, we stopped to see the Moon Crater, and drove through the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest.  Very cool.

We spent the night at the Kubeckas, where they fed us with local New Mexican fare (it was hatch chile season!) and sent us on our way the next morning to go to Abilene, Texas.  We did stop for breakfast in Albuquerque and met "new" family - the daughter of my biological father.  Great fun!

We were to meet some old friends in Abilene - they used to live across the street from us when I was eleven!  I hadn't seen them since Peter was little (he's 15).  What a blessing to talk and spend time with them!!

The next day we had another breakfast meeting with some dear friends that were a tremendous support when we lived in Abilene.  More blessings!!

Then we headed for Arkansas, where the plan was to go to a diamond mine where you could dig for rocks - and anything you found, you could keep.  Unfortunately, we arrived too late to actually dig for anything, so we drove on to Hot Springs KOA.  We didn't see the town or anything, but the campsite was fine and we passed an uneventful night.

To be continued....

Viva las Vegas

We left Heidi's bright and early - it was not a pleasant goodbye.  We don't get to see them often, so there were tears.  But, on we went.

The kids loved seeing the palm trees in California.  As they said, "it's like being in a movie!"  I explained about Hollywood and how lots of shows and movies ARE filmed in Southern California.

On this cross-country trip, I had pick and choose what we'd see.  We simply could NOT see everything.  I tried to make it mostly natural attractions.  Obviously, Disneyland was an exception, as was Las Vegas.  The kids REALLY wanted to see Las Vegas, so I agreed to drive through on our way to the Grand Canyon.  Peter turned on "Viva las Vegas" (Elvis) as we drove through and saw the casinos and then we drove on.

I had also decided that we should at least see the Hoover Dam, so we drove to that as well.  There has been a terrible drought in California for quite some time.  We had seen evidences of it in some dead groves of trees along the roadsides, and as we approached the dam, we could see that Lake Mead was QUITE low.  It was a good time to talk about drought and the effect on our food supply.

We drove over the dam and headed towards the Grand Canyon.  It is MUCH more populated than I remember.  There's a school there!!  Anyway, we found our campsite and started setting up.  As the boys got the tent up, I read the little pamphlet you always get as you enter a national park.  I rejoiced to see that we no longer had to worry about bears!!  And then had to tell the kids that the new threats were snakes and scorpions.  As I looked up to tell them this, Victoria was getting ready to move some rocks that were piled on one another....needless to say, those rocks stayed RIGHT there and everyone gave them a fairly wide berth.

I started dinner (after checking the weather - which forecast NOTHING) and the kids continued setting up the campsite.  Then we heard thunder.  Oh dear.  The tent went up VERY fast and then they started tossing things into the tent.  I finished dinner, grabbed the dinner and ran into the tent just as rain started to fall.  Good thing we could take food in there now!!

The rain didn't last long and we passed a very pleasant evening.  After packing up the following morning, we went to look at the "big ditch", as Tim calls it.  Beautiful.  Just beautiful.

Onward....

Southern California

We made it to Auntie Heidi's house in Murietta right after school was over and were greeting with great exuberance!  It was lovely to be in a house again.  I didn't stay awake very late - I think I only made it to about 8:30!

The next morning we got up and went to DISNEYLAND!!  Peter and I had been, but he was 18 months old.  Obviously, he didn't remember much.  We had a GREAT time!!!  The girls waited in line to see Ariel, and then we all waited to get our picture taken with Mickey.

I took the kids on their first ever roller coaster....that was a "mom of the year" award moment for sure.  Click on the picture and you'll see!  Victoria was actually crying as we came to a stop at the end.  Me?  I was laughing hysterically at my children's screams.  I'm chuckling even now, actually!!

Other than that, we all had a great time.  It was the middle of the week, so there were hardly any people there (well, for Disney) and the weather was beautiful.  On some of the rides, we were able to ride the ride, then get right back in line and on the ride again with only about five minutes of waiting.  It was crazy!

Auntie Heidi got Victoria a "Happy Birthday" pin when we entered, so every character who saw her wished her a happy birthday - even characters in the parade at the end of the day!  She was the perfect age to be there.  So glad we went.

Still on the Road

After leaving Monterey, I tried (really, I did) to drive to Yosemite National Park.  I was following the signs, but then decided to follow the GPS.  <sigh>  I ended up entering the park through the southern entrance instead of the northern one.  In order to see the "cool" stuff in Yosemite, we would have had to drive another hour and a half up and then an hour and a half back.  It was quite frustrating.

So instead, we turned around and headed towards our evening's destination, Sequoia National Park.  It was so amazing to see those huge trees, but the drive....oh my goodness.  Hairpin turns, hills, and not much in the way of guardrails.  At the time, I had no idea how to put my car into a lower gear, so by the time we got to the campsite, I was very stressed out and my brakes were hot and smelly.  After a good cry, some dinner, and putting all of the food and toiletries into the bear-proof box, we went to bed.  It was a beautiful night.  Victoria actually woke me up at midnight to point out the stars.

The next morning we headed out to see General Sherman.  As we drove up, we were discussing whether or not we would see a bear.  As I argued that I was sure we wouldn't, we saw an adolescent black bear leaving the parking area!!  We made sure we were very loud as we went on the trail to General Sherman.  What an amazing tree!!!

Next - to Auntie Heidi's!

Monterey and San Francisco

Lombard Street !

I didn't really get much chance to blog for the rest of our cross-country trip - mostly because I was the only adult and I was a bit preoccupied with driving, eating, bears, snakes, scorpions, etc.  So let me recap a bit at a time.

We left Mt. Shasta pretty early, and for lunch I introduced the kids to In 'n' Out Burger.  YUM!!  We then headed to San Francisco, where we drove up (holy cow) and down (oh my goodness!) Lombard Street!  I had never done it, but we had all heard Bill Cosby's routine on it.  So much funnier now that we've driven
it.  It was, as Megamind says, "exciting!"

We then headed to Monterey, where we lived from July 2000 until April 2001.  On the way I pointed out all the fruits and vegetables growing along the road.  Once in Monterey, we started at the aquarium.  I was so excited to see the kids see everything.  They reacted just as I thought - they were THRILLED!!  Otters, tuna, , jellyfish, penguins...so much fun.

We found the RV park after the aquarium closed and had a pleasant, peaceful night.  Very, very sandy, of course.

The next morning I drove the kids around to the beach, where they enjoyed looking at the tidal pools, searching for shells, and identifying the seaweed they found.  Yes, my kids are weird, I'm aware.

I then drove them up to the monarch sanctuary, and although it was too early for the monarchs, they still enjoyed it.  We saw seals and otters swimming in the bay, too!  We waited until Compango's opened - a little sandwich shop outside DLI, where Tim went to language school fourteen years ago - and introduced the kids to the best sandwiches ever.  I only got to eat half of my sandwich because I made the mistake of letting Peter take a bite.  <sigh>  I will never learn!  The girls split a pastrami, the boys got a club, and I got a #27...breaded chicken, bacon, provolone cheese, and avocado.  Delish.

This last picture is just the kids around a palm tree.  They were a bit enthralled with them the whole time we were in California.  This one they could actually touch!

California, Here We Come

We began our almost week-long excursion into California by driving to Mt. Shasta.  It is only about five hours away from my grandparents' house in Oregon, but I deliberately chose a short day for our first camping day without Tim.

The kids were great!  The boys set up the tent, the girls set up the inside, and I worked on dinner.  As we drove into the KOA, we noticed people all along the driveway picking blackberries.  Apparently, we came in during the Blackberry Festival, and the (very large) patch of wild blackberries were ripe.  They were so delicious.  We scratched ourselves up quite a bit getting them, but oh my, were they delicious.  We played Chinese checkers, I began reading Island of the Blue Dolphins to the kids, and we made it an early night.  Usually when it gets dark, we go to bed, since we awake with the sun.

Oregon

As you may have noticed, I sort of stopped blogging once we got to Oregon.  There's a good reason for that - we were busy!

My grandparents live outside Portland, Oregon, and they have come out to the East Coast every couple of years for as long as I can remember.  They are AMAZING people, wonderful grandparents, and just sweet, dear, Christian people.  We decided that this year, WE would be the ones to travel.

We arrived on the 26th, about 4 pm.  We were a little earlier than they anticipated, but we made very few stops between Idaho and their house.  We were all very excited to see them!  We had dinner, figured out our plans for the next few days and crashed.

Wednesday morning, we got up, packed up a lunch, and headed for the Columbia River Gorge,  Multnomah Falls, and the Bonneville Fish Hatchery.  This is a trip I made when our family visited back in...oh...1992??  A while ago!  It was just as beautiful and the kids loved it just as much as I did.  We saw our first Stellar jay, the kids played in water, saw "silver dollars" growing in the wild, and just enjoyed visiting with their great-grandparents.

On Thursday, we kind of slacked and didn't pack a lunch.  Not to say we didn't have any food, but we didn't make up the sandwiches ahead of time.  We then drove up to Mt. St. Helens.  So amazing.  There was a new visitors center with a movie and lots of interactive displays.  The kids really enjoyed it.  It reminded me how big our God is - much bigger than we give Him credit for.  We sort of confine him to our country, our town, our house, our own little problem.  He's HUGE!!!

Friday was Oregon coast and Tillamook day!!  For those of you who don't know, the Pacific Ocean is COLD....all the way down to California, in my opinion.  My kids did not know that and were looking forward to splashing in the ocean.  Yeah - that was funny.  They did put their toes in, so they could say they've put their toes in both the Atlantic and the Pacific.

Tillamook is a town famous for a dairy...so we sampled their cheese and for lunch....ICE CREAM!  They make their own waffle cones there, in which we got two very large scoops.  Everyone except Caroline ate every bite - and she was really close.  Victoria didn't want any more ice cream for several days.  She hardly had any dinner, either!  Dinner was at Mo's, a famous seafood place.  Delicious.  It was right on the water, so we could see seals cavorting in the water, cormorants, pelicans....it was so much fun.

We were also able to touch base with some dear friends, the Krauses, when we returned that evening.  It was so great to see them again!

Saturday morning was the day Tim returned to Virginia.  We dropped him at the airport and then we all went shopping.  We went to a HUGE used bookstore called Powell's.  I loved it.  If it were on this side of the country, I'd be broke buying all the books I wanted, but I restrained myself.  Then we went to the junk stores (what my grandmother calls thrift stores) and Oregon City to ride the elevator.  It's the country's only municipal elevator.

Of course, in between all our travels, we played games - mostly Mexican Train (a domino game).

We got up Sunday morning to head south.  We were sad to say goodbye, but we had a great visit and were so blessed!

Idaho

Yesterday morning we packed up, drove out of Yellowstone, and headed for Idaho.  We stopped along the way to look at the Grand Teton Mountains.  Wow!!  My pictures aren't as good as the pictures my dad took and had hanging in our house when I was kid, but they're still cool!!

After the Tetons... lots of nothing.  Oh, there were fields of wheat and potatoes, but my oh my.... not much else.  As we were driving, Tim decided we would stay at Mountain Home AFB.  It was lovely to shower, use a stove, and sleep in a bed!  

We awoke pretty refreshed this morning, packed up, and started the drive to Oregon to visit my grandparents.  Stay tuned for further adventures!

My kids and Yellowstone ROCK!!

You might think the title of my post is a little odd, but wait 'til you finish reading.

We arrived in Yellowstone after a very long drive across Wyoming.  When we arrived, it was about 50F and raining.... not really camping weather.  We again made use of our huge tarp.  Tim had the brilliant idea to string it up between two trees, then set the tent up underneath.  The boys, Tim, and I set it up while the girls huddled in the car, staying reasonably warm.  After we got everything set up, we drive to Old Faithful.  We had to wait only about ten minutes, and it erupted!

We ate hotdogs for dinner, cooking at a picnic area to avoid making our tent smell like food (have to beware of bears), then quickly changed in the freezing cold restroom building, washed up with the ice cold water, then bundled up with all the blankets and layers we had.  It was 35F when we woke up.  Yes, that's right - 35F.  The kids didn't complain once!  So we were able to stay the whole day and stay overnight again.

During our driving around, we saw bison (alone and in a herd), a trumpeter swan, elk, white pelicans, cormorants, common mergansers, and yes, finally, a grizzly bear!!  We saw geysers of all shapes and sizes, mountains, valleys, lakes, streams... it was truly amazing.  

Wow...

Yesterday was a very exciting day.  We started in Sioux Falls and headed west... fairly full to start, although we did enjoy the 75 mph speed limit.

We traveled into the mountain time zone, which was good, because we had a lot of exploring to do.  We saw fields of sunflowers and amazing views.  Then we turned off into the Badlands.  Wow.

We saw bighorn sheep, prairie dogs, and the most amazing rock formations.  God is so creative!!  

We stopped off at Wall Drug, which was cool.  Good ice cream, though!!

Next stop, Mount Rushmore!!  So neat!!

This trip has seemed a bit surreal!!  Hard to believe we're actually here!!

We drive in to Devils Tower, Wyoming....

The rock is gorgeous, but the weather was BAD.  We set up our tent, then hurriedly packed it up again as the bad weather neared.  We drove to Gillette to find a hotel and it was an UGLY drive.  UGLY.  Hail, wind, torrential rain.  Thank God they put reflectors up on the side of the road.

Anyhow... We had a decent night's sleep and now we're off to Yellowstone.  I'm hoping the precipitation will finally come to an end...

Rain

I was awakened this morning by a gentle shake and Tim's voice saying, "now don't be alarmed,".... yeah, those are words to keep you calm!!

Well, for some reason, he had decided to check the weather in the middle of the night and discovered we were going to be rained on.  No worries... we had a HUGE tarp we had purchased at Menard's.  (what a cool site that is!).

It starts to rain... we're dry... yay!  Then a voice," I have to go to the bathroom." Caroline.   <sigh>. It's fine, Tim takes her to the building, they come back and they report that it's not nearly as bad as it sounds inside the tent.

We managed to fall back to sleep, then woke up when it stopped raining.  We packed up quickly, before the next wave of rain came, and headed out.  We stopped to get some groceries (especially cheese-we were in Wisconsin, you see), and headed for  South Dakota.

We arrived in Sioux Falls in late afternoon and walked around the falls.  Not as tall as Niagara, but beautiful in their own right.

Chicago

Today's post comes to you from Chicago!  We spent the night at Indiana Dunes State Park.... it was lovely!  We met a German family camping next to us and had an opportunity to practice our German.  We waked on the beaches of Lake Michigan and dipped our toes in.

The extra hour we gained by crossing into the central time zone was well appreciated.  We were able to take showers, sleep a little longer, and be leisurely in our packing up of the car.

We then drive into Chicago - cool!  The kids know about the city from Ferris Bueller's Day Off.  We visited the Museum of Science and Industry, ate deep-dish  pizza, and drove by Sears Tower and Wrigley Field.

We are headed towards Wisconsin now and look forward to eating some cheese!!

On the Road

Good morning!!  It is the 19th of August and I am writing this from our car... inside the Seneca Nation in NY!  We left for a three-week cross-country trip yesterday.  Our first stop was Niagara Falls.  Amazing!  I had been once when I was in high school, but that was a few years ago.

We drive through West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania on our way to see the falls.  We took a ride on The Maid of the Mist... and got soaked, of course.  But it was so beautiful!!  God's amazing handiwork.

We then found our campsite.  This was our first time camping... ever.  It went reasonably well!  We had hotdogs for dinner, got a decent night's sleep, and then are Honey Nut Cheerios for breakfast as we packed up.

We're on our way to Indiana.  There's nothing we're really going to see there, but it gets us closer to Chicago, where we'll sight see on Wednesday.

I'll try to keep you updated, but no promises!

Teenagers!

Two-and-a-half years ago, I became the mom of a teenaged boy.  Scary, yes, but at that point I still had a preschooler and I felt fairly "young".

Yesterday, I became the mom of TWO teenagers when this sweet boy turned 13!  Hard to believe, but it's true!  We had coffee-cake muffins and sausage links for breakfast, clam chowder for lunch, and steak and fettuccine Alfredo for dinner - all his favorites!

I had made "Samoa" cupcakes last Wednesday for the first birthday celebration, then chocolate cake for Saturday (the second celebration), so I didn't have to bake anything for yesterday, as there were plenty of leftovers.

Happy birthday, sweetie!

Bluebells

Every spring, the Virginia bluebells pop up and we go and take pictures.  They look a little like fog or smoke if you're not really paying attention when you drive by the local streams and creeks.  We usually go out to Merrimac Farms and take a hike, finding frogs, salamanders, etc.

This year, we packed up the dog, drove out there...and found that they don't allow dogs.  <sigh>  We turned around, dropped off the dog, packed a lunch and started out again.  Instead of going "all the way" out to Merrimac Farms, we simply stopped at the little creek down the road from us.  Perfect!  A five minute drive, a creek for skipping stones, lots and lots of  bluebells, and beaver-chewed logs.  The kids had a great time, I got my pictures, and we were all happy!

Happy Easter!

I love going to church on Easter morning and hearing "He is risen" and joyfully responding "He is risen indeed!"  Thank you, Lord Jesus!!

After church, we grabbed the dog, went to my parents' house for Easter dinner, and then the girls did an Easter egg hunt.  They know there's no Easter bunny (they help buy the candy and some years they help fill the eggs!), but it's fun to get candy, right?  The boys are "too old" to do the hunt.  We set a rule a few years ago that 13 is the limit.  No more themed birthday parties, pinatas, Easter egg hunts, etc.   Don't feel sorry for the boys - the girls got SO much candy that they're sharing (and they did know ahead of time that they'd have to share).

This year was a little quieter than last , when we had Nana and Papa Mewes down here to celebrate as well.  They left for Vermont a week or so ago.

Birds

We have very much enjoyed watching the birds this winter.  We are one of the few families in the neighborhood that feed the birds, so we had a LOT of birds.  One day, we had a dozen male and a dozen female cardinals in our birch tree!  This picture doesn't show all of them, but it's pretty close.


We have seen red-winged blackbirds (although their call is a tad annoying), goldfinches, blue jays (until we ran out of sunflower seeds and switched to thistle... then they disappeared), purple finches, house finches, sparrows of all sorts, red-bellied woodpeckers, juncos, titmice, and doves.

Snow

I spent a lot of my youth in New England, but I will tell you, I am gosh-darned tired of snow.  We live in Virginia, not Vermont!  The kids have loved the snow...me, not so much.  Here are some pictures.

Christmas and New Year's?

I went to post about this and cannot find any pictures of these two days.  How is that possible?  NO pictures?  Not even one?  I find that very hard to believe, so I'm going to recap a bit and then hunt down some SD cards and see if I can find anything...anything at all.

Christmas was lovely - as always.  I do love Christmas carols and the cookies we bake for everyone.  It's always good for us to get our eyes off ourselves and look to others' needs.

 My parents spent Christmas day with my sister and her husband, while Tim's parents came to church with us Christmas Eve, then home to our house for our traditional "German" spread (cold cuts and rolls), and then presents!

The next morning we opened stockings, had cinnamon rolls, pomegranate, pineapple, and bacon.  Cleaned up from that and started making lunch - beef tenderloin, twice-baked potatoes, Caesar salad, and shrimp.  Then, I officially closed the kitchen!  There were PLENTY of leftovers and I was TIRED!

My parents and the in-laws returned to celebrate Christmas all together on New Year's Eve.  We all draw names, so that's when we exchanged gifts.  My parents went home to take care of their chickens and cat, then returned to have chicken-fried steak for lunch.  At least we eat well for our holidays!

Oh, and I found some pictures.  Not all of them, but a few.  <whew>