Vacation...Part II

Okay, so we're relaxing by the lake in southern Minnesota. Lot's of visiting and rides on the pontoon. The husband even managed to squeeze in a couple naps. (Every day. I've decided to take lessons from him in acquiring some "alone" time. You just disappear, and by the time anyone notices you aren't around, you've managed a decent nap. Of course, that doesn't work as well when your son depends solely on you for his sustenance, but the idea is a good one!)

My husband is not an urbanite. Large cities make his blood pressure rise to dangerous levels. I, however, enjoy what cities have to offer in the way of entertainment. My angel had never been to a zoo before, so I planned a day trip to the Minneapolis/St.Paul area, where my sister lives. The husband, after having seen my sister and my nephew only the day before on the lake, elected to stay behind and catch up on his drinking and napping. (After all, what's vacation for?) Our plan was to visit the Como park zoo and later stop at the Mall of America.

Como zoo is a rather small zoo, but they do have a lot of really neat animals, from silver back gorillas to lions and tigers to zebras and giraffes. Overall, pretty darn cool. And by "cool" I mean ridiculously hot. As we whisked our strollers through the crowds (more like plowed, but whatever) the children began to melt. And finally one little two year old boy (my nephew) had a complete meltdown. (Something about his sippy cup rolling away...and a skinned knee...I'm not sure, my toddler-ese is a little rusty)

Luckily, the mall is air conditioned. This was not our first time to this particular monument to consumerism. (Technically it was the peanut's first time but all he really saw was the inside of his eyelids most of the time.) But the main reason we were stopping there was to see the new American Girl store.

(Side-bar--American Girl is a brand of doll with an almost limitless marketing budget. As soon as a baby girl is born she will receive no fewer than two catalogs a month until she is old enough to realize that the cute little dolls are actually for sale, and then she will receive three catalogs a month. The "historical" dolls cost around $100 each, which is less than I paid for my microwave, and they don't even do dishes or anything! Trust me, if you have a daughter, you will eventually have the "can I have an American Girl doll?" conversation.)

My angel had been lobbying for an American Girl doll for at least two years now. We managed to put her off temporarily by requesting that Santa bring her an off-brand doll for one third the price. Sadly, some of her school "friends" informed her that hers wasn't "real", so she stepped up the begging for a "real" one. Now, my angel is quite girly, and I had no doubt that she would get a lot of enjoyment from the doll. She is also very gentle with her things, so I knew she would take good care of it. The problem is, I don't want her to think she can just have everything she asks for, and especially want her to know exactly how much $100 is! So I told her that she would have to earn the money to buy the doll by doing extra chores around the house. We printed up some American Girl "dollars", and I would give them to her for chores. The beauty of this idea is that the "dollars" couldn't be spent on anything else, and were therefore useless to other denizens of her room who may "mistakenly" think they belonged to him. (You know who you are.) Plus, who has cash laying around to give? (If only she took Visa...) But at least it was something tangible for each chore completed, and it also helped her with her counting and goal-setting.

Problem is, what kind of chores can a tiny seven-year-old complete on her own without constant supervision? I also didn't want her to think that she should be paid for every little thing she does around the house. Some chores you do simply because you are a member of this family. For example, doing the dishes is not a paying chore, especially because I have to stand there and help her and it's actually more work than if I would have just done it myself, but it's the principle of the thing, you know? She also has to fold and put away her own laundry. (A few more inches of height and she can wash it too!) But I'll pay her to fold the baby's laundry. Luckily his laundry is 10% sleepers and 90% blankets and burp rags, so it's not too tough. Another good chore for a 7 year old is to hand her a tube of Clorox wipes and have her wipe down all the door knobs, hand rails and light switches in the house. You'd be surprised how nasty those things get!

After six months, and cashing in some birthday bucks, she finally had enough, so rather than order it online we wanted to go to the store to buy the doll. She chose to buy Elizabeth, who is from colonial times, but I think she was chosen because she is blonde with blue eyes and pierced ears. (Priorities!) I think that my angel considers herself lucky to be able to purchase such a special doll, and she has (so far) treated the doll as such.

In addition to that, we got to see some Nick Jr. characters, like Dora and Kai-Lan. My little nephew wanted to have his picture taken with Dora...until he got up close! Poor guy freaked out! (I would think that a 5 foot Dora would be a little disconcerting!)

All in all, I think we had a great day in the "big city". And the husband? He got to ride a Waverunner all afternoon. Perfect day, all the way around!

Oh, but that's not all! Tune in for the return trip!

Vacation...Part I

Hey everybody, sorry about being "missing" for so long. But you know, it's summer. And on that note, our family recently went on vacation. And by "vacation" I mean a trip where I, the woman, must launder, pack and carry all the items we bring and my darling husband, the man, will drive. Okay, he did check the oil in our vehicle. Husband-2...Wife-467.

So as our "vacation" neared, the husband was working. And, honestly, he works 12 hour days, and with the commute it's more like 14, so I wasn't expecting much help. But we were visiting my family in southern Minnesota, and we were borrowing (renting) a small RV from some friends, so in addition to our usual travel packing, we had to add all of the lake items, like floaty-ies and life jackets, as well as all the camping items like folding chairs and picnic tables.

The husband got off work (off the bus) at 7:30pm. He went to bed so he could get a couple hours of sleep before we left at 2:00ish. We actually left around 4:00am. (Anyone who knows me personally won't be surprised by the delay. But most people that know us might be surprised to know that the reason for the delay is almost never me personally, no matter what the husband might say! He is often late, even though the responsibility for "ready-ing" all of the children falls completely in my lap. And still he will ask, "Why aren't you ready" even though we have been ready for so long that, while waiting for him, I have had to remove the baby from his carseat and feed him... AGAIN!) Now, if you ask around, some people will tell you that I am difficult to travel with. I tend to have a small bladder and a sleepy disposition. This does not an excellent co-pilot make! But I think I may have gotten a bad rep here. First of all, everytime someone asks me to "take over" the driving, it's always at 3:00 in the morning, so of course I'm tired and can't drive for long! No one ever asks me to take over the driving at 10 in the morning! A donut and a RedBull and I'm ready to go! Plus, I've learned through years of traveling that if you sleep, the trip is much shorter!!

I'd also like to mention that my bladder was not actually a factor here. We were traveling with two adults, a 7 year old, a 3 month old and a 2000 Dodge Durango towing a small travel trailer. Luckily, the Durango's gas tank, the baby's stomach and the husband's bladder were all about the same size, meaning we had to stop every two hours or so for one or the other. Still, we took what should be a 14 hour drive and turned it into a 21 hour drive! Luckily my relatives were waiting up for us! (Until 2:00 in the morning!)

But, it was 4th of July, and the lake my aunt lives on has a fabulous boat parade for the holiday, and many people had purchased fireworks out of state to light off! (Illegal in MN, so I won't mention names!!) We got to see multiple relatives I hadn't seen in years, and we got to see how their kids had grown! We had a blast playing on the lake, and I want to send a great big thank you to my aunt and uncle for hosting our party!

But that's only part of the story...tune in soon for more!