Connor the cyclist

This is a picture of Connor, after he finished an epic bike ride to Grandma Candis' house and back, about a mile. We were headed over there to pick up the mail, and I was planning on just walking, when Connor said, "Can I ride my bike?" This is the same kid who, at the beginning of the summer, would say, "I don't want to ride my bike, I'll just run instead." He was a champ. He made it up and down all the hills between our houses with only a little assistance from me!

My heroes!

So the only way I could get the boys excited about taking their birthday picture was to tell them that there was a special superhero surprise up at the studio at my work. One of the editors is working on a project with a superhero theme, so for some reason we have all these costumes in the studio. Regular spider-man, Black spider-man, superman, captain america, and a few others I didn't recognize. I managed to get them to pose for me in normal clothes, only by promising that they could try on the costumes. As you can see they are a little big, but the boys didn't care. In case you couldn't tell, Riley is demonstrating how to shoot webs.

Hangin' ten at the beach

IMG_2450, originally uploaded by gonewest98.

This was a recent trip to Lake Michigan, with two rare occurrences: Water temps in the mid 70's, (practically bathwater!) and waves! Big enough for the boys to ride, with a little push from Daddy!

We have a teenage driver in the house

IMG_2436, originally uploaded by gonewest98.

Yup, Katie's 17th birthday was a few weeks ago, and although she doesn't have her license quite yet, she's getting lots of practice in her new (1997) Toyota Corolla, courtesy of Grandpa Bob (mostly) and us (we basically picked it out). All of the adults involved are greedily imagining all the ways that Katie's driving ability can be used to our advantage, i.e., trips to the store, babysitting, etc., but I think she is just looking forward to being able to get out of the house on her own!

Update: Please update the updater

From the world of computer speak.....

Children of the Corn

The title of this post was suggested by my best friend from college, Jaclyn, or Auntie Jaclyn, as I like to say. All of our close friends seem to have been turned into honorary aunts and uncles, which may be a little confusing for the boys. I can't wait until the day they go to school and have to draw a picture of their family, and wear their crayons down to nubs trying to draw pictures of all their various "family members." I actually think it is pretty cool, since it just means they have a whole lot of people who love them.
We went down to Geneva, Indiana, last Sunday to visit Jaclyn, who was escaping the dog days of summer in New Orleans and visiting her family. Aaron and I usually only get to see Jaclyn on our yearly trip to the Big Easy for Jazz Fest, so this was cool. Since we tend not to take the kids on our forays into the French Quarter, Jaclyn hadn't seen the boys since they were tiny. The house in Indiana is gorgeous, her parents are adding onto and remodeling her grandmother's farmhouse, but the setting is so Indiana. I mean so midwest it could be straight our of a John Mellencamp song, like back when he was John Cougar Mellencamp. To get to this place, you drive about 20 miles off the highway, take a right at the blinking light, then pull into the driveway in between the giant cornfield and the cemetery. We had a great time there. A place like that is perfect for kids. Jaclyn's dad took us on "bear hunt" in the woods, where we rode this vehicle which was a cross between a golf cart and a gator, down a trail and looked for bears (actually stuffed animals tied to the trees—this was so cool, I am totally stealing this idea for our trips to Drummond Island). The boys shot them all with water guns, so we're all safe, don't worry.
We also swam in the pond on the property, where Connor gave me multiple heart attacks. The kid has absolutely no fear. He kept dunking himself completely under the water, and jumping off a raft into the water, which was shallow, but still made me really nervous. We managed to swim for a while without any mishaps though, so that was good.
Afterward, we were sitting on the porch eating, and Connor and RIley decided they didn't want to eat the fabulous barbecue Jaclyn's mom, Patti, had made, so they went of to play in the yard. The temptation of the cornfield got to be too much, so they started playing around the edge of it. I wasn't really worried, since they always stay pretty close and usually come when they are called. Apparently this was a major lapse in judgement.
Jaclyn had been watching them, and when they ducked out of sight, she went over to check on them, only to find that they had both disappeared into the cornfield. When I said earlier that this was a giant cornfield, I meant it. Acres and acres of corn. Jaclyn went in and found Riley pretty quickly, but then she yelled back to me on the porch, "Jill, we really lost Connor." I thought he was just hiding from Jaclyn, since this is the boys' newest game, one that they find hilarious, since they have no idea what it means to an adult to lose a kid. We called for him, I yelled, threatening "trouble,"— no response. I crawled on hands and knees looking for a glimpse of him, we stood still listening for his movement, nothing. I internally started to freak out, imagining all sorts of horrible scenarios, because the cornfield was so big, if he had taken a wrong turn, he could have walked for a very long time and still been in the corn. I was also thinking that he would start to get scared. If you have never been in a cornfield, it is actually kind of scary. I have done a couple stories on corn farming and had to go into the fields, and gotten really disoriented, really quick. I don't consider myself claustrophobic, but corn freaks me out.
Just when I am really starting to get worried and Jaclyn's mom is getting ready to call the fire department, Jaclyn's dad, Bob, spotted Connor walking back towards the edge of the field, corncob in hand. According to him, he didn't hear the four of us yelling and screaming. When I asked him what he thought he was doing in the corn, he said, "I was just looking for a piece of corn." Right. Like he couldn't have grabbed any one of the hundreds of pieces of corn on the EDGE of the field. Of course not. At this point I was just glad he was okay, so I had a hard time yelling. He did get a stern talking to, though, about how he scared mommy and, "Don't EVER do that again!"

I wish I were still at the beach

So we've been home from our vacation at Long Beach Island, NJ (LBI for those in the know) for about 2 weeks now, and I can't say I have really adjusted to being back home. LBI is where my parents used to take me and my brother when we were little, and now we are continuing the tradition for the boys. My mom so kindly invited us to her rental house about a block and a half from the beach, and we spent the week jumping waves in the really cold (58 degrees!) ocean, digging giant holes in the sand, flying kites and eating ice cream. It was so nice to just get up, whenever, make breakfast in no rush, change directly into a swimsuit and just play, play, play. We took the boys to LBI two years ago, just before they were 2 and it was fun, but I think we all got so much more out of the trip this time. But now we're back, and I've been kind of wandering around in a daze, dreaming of our next trip (Possibly Maine for our anniversary in Sept.!) and trying to figure out how I can work less and vacation more. Short of winning the lottery or making a career change to the teaching profession, I don't think it's going to happen, but I can still dream, right?

If you want to see them all, here's the link to my flickr photos from the trip.

Here's a sample:


Aaron wasn't able to stay the whole week, so he flew out and met us on Wednesday. He obviously didn't get as much sun as the rest of us, but he was able to get in on the miniature golf and fireworks action. Aaron looks great, he's been on a real health kick lately. I would also like to point out that this is the first bikini I have bought in about 5 years. Screw the strech marks, I've been working out too!




This is me and my long-lost friend Jennifer. We tore it up in high school as members of the Eastern High School Marching Eagles. She and her husband Darren came over from Philly for the day so I had some help wearing the boys out. I have to say that after a few days of lifting each 35-pound boy up to jump waves, my back was killing me!



A couple days later, my friend Sarah, former coworker at the Kalamazoo Gazette, came up to visit with her husband PJ and stepdaughter Amber. It was great to catch up with Sarah as PJ dug holes with the boys, and later, back at the house, Amber chased them around as they played Indiana Jones.



Yes, that's a lobster on his plate. Our son has expensive taste!




Riley and I on the Himalaya. I actually got yelled at for taking this picture. Apparently they're afraid you're going to drop stuff and its going to hit the other passengers or something. Party poopers.



My awesome mom and the boys at the Barnegat Lighthouse. We declined to climb the 200 or so stairs to the top of the lighthouse, but we did go on an epic, Indiana Jones-style adventure along the rocks that make up the jetty that protects the end of the island. The rocks are flat on top. but arranged so that there are cracks in between. The boys jumped from rock to rock for about a half a mile, singing the Indiana Jones theme song all the way.

I can't wait to go back, although the next time we vacation with Grandma, it may be to Disney World!