Home again, home again!

Yesterday we left Pittsburgh, Karen, and baby Amiya. We were all sad to say goodbye, but there is always something happy about getting home to your own house (and bed!).

Before we left town, we stopped at the Water Steps and the Mr. Rogers statue. We've gone to both before - we've actually gone to the water steps just about every time we've gone to Pittsburgh, and i keep thinking that this time, my kids will  have outgrown it...but no. They still really love to leap around (so dangerous!!!!) and splash and find spots to lie down in the water. At first, Katrina was all, "I'm not going to actually get wet. Just my feet." But by the time we left, she was soaked from head to toe.

The Mr. Rogers statue is sort of cool - there's a whole circle thing behind it that plays Mr. Rogers singing songs on Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, which i actually really liked. And i love that they have a statue. But the statue itself? Kind of weird, and - in my kids' opinion - creepy.

The ride home was uneventful. I read nearly the entire book "The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry" out loud to everyone. I started reading it just to Juanito, so he could be entertained while he was driving, but then a few chapters in, i realized that Katrina was listening, and before long, Houston was listening, and they were all completely sucked in. We got home when there were only a few chapters left, and they were all, "Oh. We're home. Sigh."

Emma was SO happy to see us. Ever since we got home, she's been carrying her toy chicken around with her everywhere she goes, and at first we were all, "Huh. That's cute. And weird." And then we realized that that's the last thing i gave her before we left, and it seems to have become sort of her security toy of sorts, and now i'm all, "That's so SAD! And cute. And sad!"

In which we didn't do much.

Karen worked today, so we had a calm day, filled with holding Amiya, resting, and (in the kids' case) playing Wii.

At about 5:30, Juanito brought the mail in to give Karen. She and i were just talking, and when she put an IKEA catalog in the "throw away" pile, i was all, "Oooo! Are you going to throw that away?" And eventually, she said, "Well...we have an IKEA.... We could go tonight?!"

Houston and Zane didn't want to go, but the rest of us piled into the car and headed there! We went through the store fairly quickly, but it was Juanito and Katrina's first time there, and they had fun seeing it. Yay!

National Aviary!

See the rest of the pictures here!

We went to the National Aviary in Pittsburgh today. It's the kind of place where you walk around, and the birds walk/fly around you, and occasionally zoom right past your head, and occasionally walk straight at you and make you nervous that they'll attack, but they're so pretty that you can totally forgive them.

We arrived at the Aviary, got out of the car, and started walking toward the building, and Katrina's shoe broke. Juanito tied it up with string, and it worked temporarily, and Karen (who was coming a bit later) was nice enough to bring her other shoes for Katrina to change into. Shoes are not our friend this trip!

There were larakeets that we were allowed to go in and let them land on us. The kids (and Juanito) all totally seized that opportunity and tried to convince all of the larakeets to land on them. Zane was all eager until one of the birds pooped right near him, and then he was out of there (at least for quite a while!). I am actually completely shocked that none of us got pooped on all day!

There was a giant bird (a Great Argus Pheasant) who enjoys walking around right on the sidewalk, and he's awesome to take pictures of, but he's a little bit nerve-wracking, because he looks like he could do serious damage if he decided to attack. I was crouched down in front of him, taking a picture, and he suddenly and completely without warning let out a giant, incredibly loud honky-squawk. It startled me enough that i screamed a bit and nearly fell over, but still somehow took a picture, and resulting picture is mostly blurry, but kind of awesome.

There was a guy who worked there who was absolutely in the right job. He stood and talked to us about penguins for about half an hour, and then talked to us for a long time in the Rainforest room too. And he was actually really interesting. When i suggested we leave the penguin area to go see the sloth being fed, Houston was all, "But i want to keep learning about penguins!"

One thing that i've learned about us is that we just spend longer looking at stuff than most people do. According to Google, most people spend about 2 hours at the aviary. We were there for over 4 hours, and we could have stayed longer, except it was closing and we were all starving. And you'd THINK it was because i'm holding everyone up, taking pictures, but you'd be wrong. I usually just keep taking pictures because the kids are still exploring/looking/learning. And Juanito is nearly always trailing behind us all. The world is just such an interesting place!

The Strip District!

Get the rest of the pictures here!

We went to the Strip District in Pittsburgh today. It's a street with lots of vendors and fun stores and Wholey's, the store/restaurant that has all kinds of delicious fish to eat and all kinds of random seafood to see.

There's a counter at Wholey's where a couple of guys stand and clean fish, and while Houston was disgusted and didn't really want to watch at all, Katrina and Zane were enthralled. One of the guys was particularly awesome - he clearly loved his job - and he amused our kids by making a fish into a puppet and making him talk, using a fish tail as a mustache, and just being fun. Katrina wanted to keep watching while being simultaneously kind of grossed out, especially when he had the fish where he had to leave the head on but cut out the brains and jaw and guts. Zane, on the other hand, didn't seem disgusted at all, and actually asked if he could have the fish heart so he could bring it home and pickle it. (Me: No. No, no, no.)

This afternoon, Karen built a dresser (from a kit, not from pallets) and got Amiya's room all rearranged and settled with a little bit of help from Juanito and me. The kids took the little toys and stuff that they bought at the Strip, went to the basement, and (loudly, with much giggling) made movies.

And then we watched the Olympics! Yay!!!

Phipps!

(Google got rid of the slideshow option, so ... no more slideshows for me. Sad. Instead, i guess i'll just post a link to the album, and you can see the slideshow there? Here's the link with all of the pictures.)

My kids have been loving Karen's treadmill, and have been spending hours running. This morning, Zane tried to run on it for the first time, and he fell...but he held on while the track kept going, so he got totally skinned knees (treadmill-burn?) until he finally let go and "went slamming into the wall." He was a sad, sad boy.

We went to Phipps Conservatory today. Yay! It's SO beautiful! It's just giant - you just keep walking and finding more rooms, and it's all just so, so pretty! There's a whole area with bonsai trees, and mist machines to walk through when it's hot, and a desert garden that was just amazing, and butterflies! We kept being all, "This flower! And THIS one! And THIS ONE!"

But! OH. MY. GOSH. It was so, so, so, so hot. I mean, the day was a pretty warm one to begin with, but it wasn't unbearable, but then the conservatory had every room way hotter than outside, and way moister. We kept thinking, "Maybe the next room will be cooler?" But it never was. We were all just dripping sweat and dying of heat. Karen D. lasted for only a few rooms before declaring Amiya (and herself!) way too hot, so they went to sit in the entry by the bathrooms - the coolest spot in the entire building.

By the time we left, after we'd been there for hours, i was the hottest and most dehydrated i'd been in as long as i can remember. So!!! Hot!!!!

So in conclusion: Phipps is awesome. Go on a cooler day.

And then tonight was the opening ceremonies for the Olympics! Yay!!! We all found a spot around the TV and watched. Houston and Katrina fought over who got to hold Amiya. I was somewhat disappointed in the opening ceremonies, honestly. I think China spoiled me a bit. But watching all the athletes come in, all happy and excited, is fun. And It's exciting, because...OLYMPICS! Yay!

Meeting Amiya!

Today we drove to Pittsburgh! To visit Karen D and her new little daughter Amiya! As always, the kids were fantastic the entire time, and it was a pleasant enough drive. With a few mishaps.

We got to about Detroit, and Zane had to go to the bathroom. I noticed that he had on his slippers and said, "You should change into your shoes first, though." At which point he got this shocked and dismayed look on his face and said, "Oh no! I think i forgot my shoes!" Sigh.

I got a few books on CD from the library, but our CD player doesn't work, so i copied them to my phone...but the thing that makes them play through the speakers didn't work either. So! No books for us!

We got to Karen's around 4:00, and nearly immediately snuck upstairs to see the sleeping little Amiya. And she is TINY! She's a month and a half old, and today weighs exactly the amount that Katrina weighed when she was born. And Katrina was my little baby! She's SUCH a cutie, and we cannot get enough of holding her. Katrina and i are mostly fighting over her, with a touch of Houston thrown in.

Zane was all, "I don't want to hold her at all. Nope." When i questioned him further, it was because he's nervous and doesn't think he's good at holding babies. Me; "The last time you held one was when you were 8. You're older now!" Him: "But i'm still energetic!" I did eventually persuade him to sit next to me and let me help him hold her, and he liked it fine, and i'm hopeful that now that he's tried it and succeeded, he'll want to hold her more....

Amiya is absolutely adorable and the most laid-back, quiet baby ever. Katrina keeps squealing, "She's SO CUTE!" and she really is. She's just a sweet little peanut. 

Busy, busy, busy! But in a good way.

This has been a very busy but fun week. And it's not going to get any less busy!

On Sunday we went to a park/splash pad with my parents, my sister Jackie and her family, and my niece and nephew. It was pouring in the morning, and when we woke up, i was certain that we'd have to go somewhere else, but then it cleared up just in time. It wasn't super warm, but the kids totally played in the water anyhow and had lots of fun.

Katrina had a birthday party on Sunday afternoon, so we left the family earlier than we usually do and went to drop her off at her friend's (grandma's) house, where they apparently swam in the pool for 4 hours before quick eating cake. It was exactly the kind of party that Katrina loves - swimming, swimming, and more swimming.

On Monday, Juanito and Houston left for a quick trip to Kentucky. Juanito is staying with his mum, spending most of their time doing zumba, from what i can tell, and Houston is staying with his uncle JJ and his grandpa on their farm.

Tuesday morning Katrina, Zane, and i went to my parents' house for a sleepover! We've often said that the one downside of living so close is that we don't get to do the whole "visit for an entire week and get to spend lots and lots of time together, just hanging out," so my mom invited us over while half of the family was missing anyhow. Yay!

And that's what we did! We hung out and talked. I went shopping with my dad. All of the kids and i went to my sister's house to swim for half an hour. After the kids went to bed, Jackie came over and she, my sister Chellie, my mom, and i played cards for a few hours. And then the next day we spent hours at Jackie's house, swimming again. (The kids were thrilled!)

We took Emma with us, since we'd be gone nearly 2 days, and she completely exhausted herself, and i'm not even sure how. She was on her leash the entire time. It wasn't always being held, but i wanted to be able to grab her when she started chasing my parents' dog around. Their dog (Lily) is a tiny little fluff-ball, and she's a bit intimidated by Emma, so every once in a while she'll just randomly start barking at Emma. Emma takes that as in invitation to play, so she's all, "OKAY!" and then Lily is all, "Scared! Must run away!" except that as soon as she starts running, Emma gleefully chases her. And since Emma is about 10 times Lily's size, Lily's not a fan of the playing. (She's not always super good at not encouraging the playing, though. One time i actually watched her run straight under Emma from back to front. Emma was all, "What the?!")

While we were setting up our bed in the camper, where Katrina, Zane, and i slept, it was about 2:00 in the afternoon and my mom and i were boiling. It felt like the center of the earth, and we were all, "Geez. We might need to come sleep on the floor in the air conditioning instead!" My mom asked, "Will you need blankets? Or is a sheet good enough?" and i was all, "NO! A sheet is plenty! It's SO HOT!" Cut to the middle of the night, and the temperature has dropped by about 30 degrees, and Katrina (who was sharing the bed with me) and i were shivering. I finally woke up enough to stagger out of bed, half asleep, undoubtedly looking like a completely drunken sailor, across the camper to where the blankets were kept. But in my sleep-addled brain, i grabbed the smallest, thinnest blanket, which barely covered one of us and didn't offer much warmth, and we continued to shiver until about 6:30. We were huddled together to share body heat, and i finally asked, "Uh, hey. Should i get another blanket?" I grabbed one of the big, heavy blankets, threw it on the bed, and we both immediately relaxed and fell into a deep sleep. Lesson: Always have a blanket handy! I should know this already!

While we were swimming on Wednesday, i spent a while teaching Zane to swim again, and he did SO WELL. He can now swim the width of the pool, and he's all, "I LOVE swimming! Can we go swimming again soon? And you can teach me more?!" Success!!!

And then, Wednesday night, Beth came over and hung out with us for the night. We ate dinner and watched an episode of Cupcake Wars and then sent the kids to bed and sat and talked and talked and talked. Fun!  

Everything that's been happening this past month

I mean... I can't seem to write more than once a month lately. I have no real excuse. Nevertheless. Here we are.

It's been an eventful month - the end of the school year always is! Field trips and graduations and all of the hoopla that goes along with school ending and summer beginning. Yay! I took a million pictures and narrowed them down to my favorite 140 for a slide show...and then realized that that was way, way too many pictures for most people to want to actually look at, so i narrowed it down again to the bare bones, and those are the ones in the slideshow above. I will, if anyone in the world is interested, put the long slideshow down under.

So! Without further ado! Things that have been happening! (In order:)

1. Juanito has been building shelves and cabinets in our front room, and they are getting closer to being finished. It's all being made from old pallets, and he's doing a beautiful job. I can't wait until it's finished!

2. For the past 14 years, we've had at least one child in the baby/preschool/elementary area of church. Every Sunday, we've had to check a child in and out, and for most of that time, that included wearing a paper armband with the child's number. This month, Zane graduated out of the elementary area, up to Fifty6, and thus our time with the little kids area is finished. Henceforth, all of our kids will be sitting in church with us and then going to their individual areas on Sunday evenings.

Our church makes kind of a big deal out of the "graduation," and Zane was totally excited about participating. They did a whole graduation ceremony, at which they gave each "graduate" their own Bible (Houston and Katrina were totally jealous of the Bible!), followed by a family breakfast.

For weeks, Zane had been complaining that he didn't WANT to go to Fifty6. Couldn't he just stay HOME? Whyyyyy???? And i know why he was so opposed. It's because Houston was never a fan of Fifty6 at all. I tried to convince Zane that he would like it, that HE was not Houston, that Katrina liked it! He was not convinced. And then they had a Sunday where all of the grades moved up to their next group, and Zane got to experience Fifty6...and suddenly he LOVED it and started asking just how soon he'd be able to start going. He's now very disappointed that he has to wait until September.

3. Katrina has been using a school flute for the past couple of years, and she desperately wanted one of her very own. As the end of the school year got closer and closer, marking the point at which she'd have to return her flute for the summer, she got more and more desperate. She started looking up flutes, trying to figure out if there were any - ANY - that she could afford. She found a brand of flutes that were not only reasonably priced but also made in colors. Colors!

At first she totally leaned towards pink, but then she reasoned that she might outgrow pink, and really she likes blue just as much.... And so she spent some of her vast savings and is now the proud owner of a lovely blue flute, which she absolutely loves. (She does have to play it using slightly different fingering for one note, because otherwise the key doesn't press down all the way, but she adapted to that very quickly.)

4. For the first time, we were all able to attend the Great Salmon Release. This was Katrina's very first release, and rather than releasing one fish and then quitting, she made up for the previous years missed by releasing 5 salmon, all of whom she named first (Fred, George, Hermione, Sally, and Bob).

Every year, for the past three years, the kids' school has gotten salmon eggs. The kids get to watch the eggs hatch and grow until they're ready to be released in the spring. The first year, Juanito somehow got pulled in to helping parcel out the salmon into baggies, to hand to kids, who then released them into the river, and since then, he has been one of two guys who's been in charge of that job. This year we also helped with transporting buckets of salmon from the school to the river. And, of course, i take pictures, because...i'm me...and since i know that the teacher in charge of the salmon (who was both boys' teacher in third grade) likes pictures, i sent them to her. A week or two later, i was in the school to pick up the kids, and i noticed that there was a display of giant poster-sized pictures of the salmon release. I was all, "Oh, cool!" and then, "Hey! I took that picture!" and then, "Hey! I took ALL of these pictures!" I'm practically famous. Except for y'know...not.

5. The Sunday before Memorial Day, when it was fairly warm, we went to my sister's house for dinner so that everyone could go swimming in their pool afterwards. The kids were all in heaven. Most of the adults were much more rational and stayed dry and warm.

6. On Memorial Day, Beth, the kids, and i walked around downtown. It was a somewhat surreal experience, because it was absolutely deserted. We went down into an almost always completely full parking garage, and it was empty. Completely, utterly empty. Zombie-apocalypse-level deserted.

7. We went to see Verve Pipe at a free outdoor concert with Beth and Stephanie. It makes me happy that we're able to see them live fairly regularly. I think this was our third Verve Pipe concert. They started out with their kids' songs, which...i actually know and love more than most of their adult songs, and then finished off with stuff for the grownups. Juanito and i sang along with songs like "Cereal," "Wake Up," and "We Had to Go Home," while Zane pouted about having to be there at all and Katrina and Houston half paid attention and half read their books.

8. The fourth grade had their annual field trip to the YMCA camp. When Houston and Katrina had this field trip, it was an overnight, but this year they shortened it to just a day trip. It was a long day - we left school at 8:15 in the morning and got back at 8:00 at night - but i'm pretty sure that we did pretty much all of the same things we did when we were there for two days. There was canoeing and archery and rock wall climbing and crafts and candle-making, but Zane's favorite part was the "fur trading," where the kids had to run around in groups trying to find carpet squares with random animals written on them.

Again, there was archery! And canoeing! And rock wall climbing! But Zane preferred searching for hidden squares of carpet. Weirdo.

In the archery portion, the kids each got to shoot three arrows. When it was Zane's turn, his first arrow hit the dirt far before the target. His third shot went way over the target. But on his second shot, Zane hit a perfect bulls-eye. It was amazing. And nothing but sheer luck. Zane spent the rest of the day telling everyone he could find that he was really proud of himself because he got a bulls-eye.

In the past, the chaperons have been allowed (and encouraged) to go canoeing with the kids, and we were allowed to canoe basically wherever we wanted to on the lake. The rules have apparently changed, because this year adults weren't allowed to go out with the kids, and the canoes had to stay within a fairly small area. It was disappointing that i didn't get to canoe with Zane, but it was especially disappointing that the kids didn't get to really enjoy themselves as much. They spent most of their time just trying not to run into each other. Sigh. Rules.

We were the last group of kids from our school to get to do the rock wall. There are two walls the kids can choose between, one of which is quite a bit harder than the other. Most of the kids chose to do the easier wall, but about a third of our group decided to try the harder side. The guy in charge told us right away, "Just so you know! Nobody from the other groups has successfully reached the top on this side." Most of the kids chose to stay and try it anyhow, and every single one of them that tried made it to the top. It WAS hard, and they needed a lot of encouragement, but they all got to ring the bell at the top. Zane was the very last one to go, and everyone except for his teacher and i had already left for the next event. He was a bit disappointed to not have everyone there to cheer for him, and he had a hard time trying to figure out what to do with those long, long legs of his that got in his way, but he made it to the top and was completely impressed with himself. As he should have been.

9. Festival of the Arts! I told Houston beforehand that he was really just too old to do the paint-in portion this year. It's supposed to be for kids aged 12 and under, and we let him sneak in last year, but this year he's 14, and ... no. And so he decided just to stay home altogether, because he "only likes the painting and otherwise doesn't enjoy it." (????) So the rest of us went without him.

Beth and i looked at the schedule ahead of time this year and actually planned out what we wanted to see and when we should go. I wanted to see dancers, and she wanted to see "The Mines" playing, and there just happened to be a dance group right before the Mines were on, so we chose that group. And it was, absolutely, the very best dance group i've ever seen at Festival. It was a pretty large group, with kids from about age 9 all the way up through high school, and every single routine they did was as fun to watch as the one before it. I wish i could remember their name so that we could make sure to see them every year!

10. Houston went on a class trip to Chicago. It was an overnight trip, and they packed it full of fun things. They went to Navy Pier and took a boat tour and went to Medieval Times on Thursday night, and then they spent all day Friday at Six Flags Great America. He had So! Much! Fun!

11. Zane had his end-of-the-year field trip/party at a park. (Not a park right nearby like you'd expect, though. A park 45 minutes away, because....?) There was sand castle building and water balloon tossing and general playground-playing. Zane and his friend Finneas had both worn their fedoras, so they invented a new game called "hat ball." It was a very low-structure day, which was lovely.

12. We had a graduation party for Houston. It wasn't anything super-exciting - just cake and ice cream and family - but he loved it.

13. Katrina had her end-of-the-year beach field trip/party. It was not the warmest of days, and it threatened rain all day, but most of the kids ended up swimming nonetheless, and the rain held off. So! Success. We went to the most ridiculously strict beach/park i've ever, ever been to. Before you can even get in, the guy at the gate grills you about the rules, of which there are legion. (No running. No flotation devices of any kind, unless it's USCG approved. Goggles are okay, but no face masks. If you build a sand castle, you need to knock it down when you're finished.)

Katrina's at that age where kids are all at completely different stages. Some of the kids in her class still look like little kids, while others look like they could be 18. The boys are almost universally shorter than the girls. Some of the girls ran around in their bathing suits completely unselfconsciously, while others never changed or just kept giant coverups on the whole time.

14. Houston graduated. I already covered that.

15. The sixth grade band never did have a concert, so the band director decided that "anyone who wanted to" could come play at the graduation. Katrina was all excited that she was going to get to play during graduation. She practiced and practiced. (Her: "I'm nervous, because i just don't know if i'm doing this right!" Me: "Well, when you play with the group, are you able to keep up?" Her: "We've never practiced this!" They all went into it completely without every once playing as a group or even practicing that song. What?)

We got to the church for graduation, and she talked to the band director, who was all, "Oh, there's been a change. Instead of playing during the graduation, we're going to play out in the lobby beforehand." So...everyone there was sitting in their seats, waiting for graduation to start, which meant that NOBODY was out in the lobby. The entire audience consisted of Juanito, Beth, my parents, my sister, and my niece. And maybe two other people, but they weren't actually paying attention.

The band, meanwhile, was made up of 10 people, including the director, who played the trombone rather than actually directing. And yet! Everyone who had also been to the 7th and 8th grade concert agreed that they were significantly better than that concert had been. They sounded great, ESPECIALLY considering that they'd never once practiced!

16. Last day of school! Woohoo!!! Of course, Houston hadn't had school for almost a week, what with his class trip and then graduation and all. We went and picked up the kids, and then met Beth at Steak and Shake for end-of-school celebration shakes! Yay!!!

17. Juanito took a couple of days off, and so on Thursday we went to the local Frank Lloyd Wright house for a tour. The kids and i had gone last year, and last time we were almost the only people on the tour, and it was really cool and informative. This time, we apparently picked the busiest day of the year, so there was a giant crowd on the tour with us. It was still interesting and the house is beautiful nonetheless, but the kids and i were disappointed that there wasn't more interesting information. I think there were just too many people for the tour guide to be able to throw in lots of interesting side-bits.

18. We went to Saugatuck to celebrate our 22nd anniversary. We were about halfway there, when suddenly the front right tire spectacularly exploded. (Honestly, it's just so fitting that we should have car trouble on our anniversary! Our entire marriage has been filled with one random car emergency after another!)

Juanito spent approximately 20 minutes trying to figure out how to get the spare tire off of the bottom of the car (there's a tiny hidden compartment inside under the floor mat), and then had the jack nearly tip over, but he got it changed! Yay! (For the record: I know how to change a tire, but i don't think i could have actually changed this one.)

This was the first time Juanito and the kids had been in Saugatuck, and we had a fun time wandering around. The kids all wanted to buy all the things, and Zane did get a walking, squeaking pig, and Houston got a Doctor Who shirt and a book, and we all got friendship bracelets.

This was the anniversary that marks the point at which we've been married for exactly half of our lives. (Or nearly so. I guess that for me it'll be exactly halfway in a month and a half, and a bit longer for Juanito, but the NUMBER is halfway.) It's also completely crazy to me that when we got married, we were only 8 years older that Houston is now. Crazy!!! But i still think we made the right choice, and i'm so happy and lucky to married to my favorite person.

And there i stop. I need to remember to write more often. This was insanely long. Sorry.

Highlights from the past two weeks

So. It's been a whirlwind of a couple of weeks. Some of the highlights:

• Houston got into City High! It's the best school in the city, and one of the very best schools in the state, so it wasn't at all a sure thing that he'd get to go there. We had a backup school lined up, but City is closer and better...and one of his best friends goes there too.  Yay!
  
  He'll have a uniform next year (sort of), so that will be new. I think that he'll probably really enjoy having a uniform, honestly. He's not a fan of having to think about what he's going to wear, and would probably wear the exact same thing every single day if it were acceptable at his school now, so having the only choices be "blue, red, black, or grey" every day? Perfect.
• Easter happened. We celebrated at my parents' house, along with 3 of my siblings and their families. It was warm and sunny enough outside to hide Easter eggs outside for the kids to find. I think i always kind of overestimate either how easy it is to find eggs or how good my kids are at finding things. Maybe both.
  
  (Side note: My kids are remarkably bad at finding things, and i should know this by now. They'll be all, "I can't find ________." I'll say, "Did you look on the table?" and they'll be all, "Yes!" So i'll come and look and ...sure enough. There it'll be RIGHT THERE ON THE TABLE, in clear view. So i don't know why i think that they'll be able to find eggs that we've actually hidden on purpose.)
  
• The kids had Spring Break. The week before Spring Break was beautiful and warm enough for Katrina to be running around barefoot, but then on the very first day of Spring Break, it totally snowed. Like...several inches of snow. And i had a tiny bit of hope that maybe - just maybe - it would melt and warm up so we could do fun things outside, but no. It was cold and snowy and rainy and COLD the entire week. Sigh. They went back to school yesterday, and today is bright and sunny, and it's supposed to get warmer in the next week. So maybe we might possibly get spring after all? Hopefully?
  
• Katrina's and Zane's rooms have been disasters for far, far too long, and i finally reached my limit of being able to ignore them. Katrina's was especially disastrous, so i started there. The first day of Spring Break, i was all, "Okay! We'll clean Katrina's room and then Zane's room and then i'll take a shower and have a little time before dinner!" Except...no. That is not what happened at all, because i seriously underestimated just how insanely messy everything was in there. We went through every drawer and box and shelf, getting rid of giant bags full of garbage, recycling, and stuff to give away. We organized and sorted and TWO FULL DAYS later, her room was finally clean.
  
  I took Sunday off, and then on Monday i tackled Zane's room with him. His room was actually less work, partly because he's not quite such a packrat, and partly because he just doesn't have as many drawers and closets and random places to stuff things. We finished cleaning his room in less than a day. Yay!
  
  One really positive thing i will say about cleaning the kids' rooms? They were both really, really cooperative and helpful and not at all complain-y about having to clean. Their positive attitudes made it a lot less horrible than it could have been.
  
  They are both under strict, "You WILL keep your room clean!" orders.
• Houston and i spent a lot of free time during Spring Break playing games. Skip-bo, Phase 10, Uno, Sequence, and Farkle (or 10,000) were regulars. I taught him how to play Rummikub, and so far he isn't a fan...but i'm confident i can win him over. Or at least wear him down....
  
  I love playing games. I grew up playing games with my family. My Mom's entire family are totally card players, so when we'd get together with them, there was always a game of cards happening. (They even broke out the cards and played a game during our wedding reception.) Juanito, however, isn't really a fan of games. Nor are most of my friends. So i'm really happy that my kids are getting old enough to play actual games. I mean, Chutes and Ladders and Hi-Ho Cherry-O are just not exactly "fun games" for adults to play. And Zane loves to play Othello, but it's not fun to just completely destroy him over and over, so i try to dissuade him from playing that very often. But Houston is old enough to be totally competitive in games now, and even Zane is able to be competitive in games like Sequence and Uno. Yay!!!
  
• Our friends Brooke and Travis, who live in New Zealand now, are home for a visit. Travis isn't actually here yet, but we got to see Brooke and their kids! They came over for the whole afternoon on Friday, and it was so much fun to get to spend a long time just hanging out! They moved away from our town back when Houston was a baby, so the kids really only know them from trips to visit them and their visits to us and from us talking about them. And yet, the kids seem to really just accept them as "our people." For a while, Brooke was sitting on the couch, and Houston just curled up next to her with his head on her shoulder. Katrina and Zane immediately kind of adopted the kids as friends, even though they're all quite a bit younger.
  
  It makes me happy that we still just like their family. Beth and i were talking about how we really only knew Travis and Brooke for about 2 years before they moved away to Saint Louis, and yet they're just some of our favorite people. And i'm glad that they like us too! They're only here for a limited amount of time, and they have a ton of people to see, so they totally don't have to make time to see us, and yet they do! Yay!

Great Wolf Lodge: The rest

The kids woke up at the crack of dawn (or so it felt), ate the delicious little sugary cereal boxes that Karen had brought for them for breakfast, and were dressed in bathing suits and ready to go down to the water park at 9:00. (Morning people. Bleh.)

We swam and did the lazy river and the water slides and the hot tubs and repeated the whole process for hours. Zane's preferred method of doing the lazy river is: Get everyone to make a chain with their tubes. Drag the chain around the "lazy" river at top speed. A million times.

By 3:00, Houston and i were finished, and Katrina and Juanito joined us half an hour later. Houston immediately put on his pajamas, which he then declared he was staying in for the rest of the day. And...i think he did. Katrina got her face painted and then curled up in the room for the rest of the day. Zane was finally dragged away at about 5:00. We got pizza and it was delicious. And then the kids all curled up upstairs and watched TV (Zane was all, "How do you work a TV?") for a couple of hours while we adults sat around and talked and talked and read and ... i don't remember, exactly. Tried not to fall asleep?

And then, at 9:00, we went down to the "dance party." It was the worst dance party ever. (Or so i thought, until the next day when i saw the exact same dance party being repeated in the middle of the afternoon with exactly two kids participating.) There were lots of people, mostly under age 9. The music was really quiet, so you could just barely hear it well enough to dance to it. And they were all songs like "The Chicken Dance" and "YMCA" and "The Hokey Pokey" and other stuff that could not possibly be offensive to anyone, ever. I mean, it's a good policy, to not play inappropriate music with kids there. Obviously, it is. But DUDE. Lame. So Karen, Juanito, and i all danced like it was awesome. Zane sat on the steps the entire time. Houston started out standing near us and pretending to dance, until the "Whip Nae Nae" song came on, and then he was out of there faster than a speeding bullet. Katrina, who was just exhausted, sat on the floor to watch. So it was just us adults dancing, while kids all around us looked at us like, "So...do you think they think they're cool?" I'm not sure why we didn't just give up and leave. It would have been the sensible thing to do.

By the time we were in the room for good, it was 9:30ish. We let the kids watch one or two more episodes of "Full House" or whatever while we sat around and talked and read. And then Karen was watching some cooking channel contest, so i started watching on the second-to-last episode, and then we had to watch the finale to find out who won.... So it was late by the time we got to sleep.

Sunday morning, we dragged ourselves out of bed, packed everything up, and went for all-you-can-eat pancakes at Steak and Shake, which was located just down from our balcony. (All three kids commented on it the first day. "HEY! There's a Steak and Shake right there! We should go!") Once everyone was sufficiently filled with delicious, delicious gluten, we headed back to GWL, changed into our suits, and did all of the water stuff again.

For a while, all six of us played in the pool - Monkey in the Middle, Follow the Leader, contests to see who could swim the farthest under water with a child on his/her back.... It was really fun, even though we had quite an audience when the kids (and Juanito) were leading during Follow the Leader and were doing ridiculous things. When we were talking about our favorite things later, all three kids said that that was maybe their favorite part of the entire trip.

We told the kids that we'd stay until they were finished. Karen had to leave by about 2:30, and i was finished by then too, so we both got dressed, took some pictures, and said goodbye. And by 3:00, our kids (minus Zane) were totally ready to leave as well.

Today was spent mostly in pajamas, resting and enjoying having a day off from school. I'm so glad that the teachers had trainings today, because my kids totally needed the day to completely crash and rest.

So, in summary: It was a great weekend. I loved seeing Karen and getting to have lots of time to sit and talk to her. I wish we lived closer so that we could see each other more often! The kids had tons of fun. Juanito enjoyed having time to just read and read, since he couldn't work on any projects.

All around awesome. Yay!

Great Wolf Lodge, day one!

We are at Great Wolf Lodge with Karen this weekend!

I dragged the kids out of school at 1:30, and Juanito got out of work early, and we got on the road at about 2:00, drove 15 minutes, and then sat in traffic for at least half an hour. Juanito and i were both like, "SERIOUSLY?!" It ultimately took us about five and a half hours to make the four hour trip, which isn't as awful as it could be, but was terribly frustrating. On the bright side, the kids were awesome. For a while, all three kids (and i) sang along to a CD with lots of Taylor Swift songs and other random awesomeness. I think Juanito was torn between amusement and a serious desire for quiet.

We got to GWL, found Karen, brought all of our stuff up, and within minutes of our being here, the kids all had their suits on and were ready to go play. So they played for an hour, and then we all had snacks and fun in our room for an hour, and eventually they went to sleep.

And then Karen and Juanito and i all sat up and talked and talked and talked. And it was fantastic.

Camping!

My parents bought a wonderful fifth-wheel trailer last year, and for the second year in a row (it's becoming a tradition!), they invited us for a 2-night camping trip with them.

We went to Muskegon State Park, which we've gone to several times before with our whole family. It's a great spot, because there's a little lake connected to Lake Michigan by a channel, and the campground is right there in-between. So we play on the dunes by the big lake and swim in the little lake, where it's warmer and less wavy.

I say "We swim in the little lake," but this trip i never even considered putting on my bathing suit, because the high temperature was about 73, and most of the time it was in the low 60's.. The kids were undaunted and spent hours and hours, first playing on the dunes, running up and down the dunes, jumping off of them, and digging giant holes big enough to crawl into, and then (with a short break for lunch) swimming, building sand castles, and dumping water over each other's heads. They just played and played and played together, and it was just incredibly pleasant to watch them.

Today was a bit chillier, with less sun, and it was morning, so they only lasted in the water a much shorter time before being cold enough to give up on swimming. So instead we played cards and ate s'mores, and nobody seemed too unhappy about it.

It was a really fun camping trip, even though it was unseasonably cold. We ate hobo pies and s'mores and ice cream. Zane ate his weight in tomatoes from my mom's garden. We watched the sunset. We sat around the campfire. We got filthy and tired. It was great.

Kentucky: Day 5

One of the things that the kids have been talking about for the past two years is the lemonade stand that they did the last time we were in Kentucky in the summer. They had grand plans about having a lemonade stand again this time, and planned and planned and asked a million times if they could do it today? How about today? Today?

This morning they had their lemonade stand. The still don't know how much they made, but it was "at least a dollar each." That's actually not bad, considering that it was drizzling AND they're on a street with very little traffic. They had a great time, though, and are trying to figure out if they can bring the sign back to Michigan with us.

This afternoon we went into Lexington. Juanito's mom teaches a zumba class there, nearly next door to a big book store. We hung out at the book store while she taught for an hour - Juanito read magazines, Houston found a book by Rick Riordan, which he spent the entire time reading, Katrina found a dozen books that she wanted, Zane read little kid books the entire time, and i looked for books that i'll want to read in the future. Houston and Katrina each bought a book, which they've been absorbed in ever since.

Juanito's mom treated us all to frozen yogurt, which was delicious. We drove to Thoroughbred Park, which we've been to lots of times, but not in several years. The kids remember it fondly and climbed all over the horses for ages. They'd have spent longer climbing on and off and on and off and showing off for the camera, but eventually i declared that *I* was going to go walk over to *that* part of the park, and they all kind of followed.

And tonight we visited one of Juanito's mom's friends. The kids had all requested that we visit her, mostly because she's just really sweet (and she has a lovely Kenyan accent), but also because they love the samosas that she makes. She didn't disappoint and had a whole slew of samosas, which the kids ate with glee. Houston and Katrina eventually declared themselves stuffed. I think that Zane ate at least a dozen and would STILL have eaten more if i hadn't eventually cut him off. They all fell over each other trying to tell her stories. There's something about her that they just love. It's adorable.

Kentucky: Days 3 & 4

Yesterday we went to a fair at Fort Harrod. The fair itself was kind of lame (in my opinion), but we went into the fort for $1 each, and that was interesting enough. I'm pretty sure that everything was a reproduction, but it was still fun for the kids to see what things were like in the 1800's. Also at the fair was a car show, which was very interesting to Juanito and JJ and sort of the boys and not so much interesting to Katrina and me.

Today we talked to Phoebe on Skype, and then headed back out to the farm to bring JJ home. The kids caught crayfish and played in the stream and looked for chickens. Emma ran after the 4x4 and ran through the creek and ran after the other dogs and ran some more.

And then we came back to the house, and Lauren came over, which was just lovely. We haven't seen her in a couple of years, and it was just really great to be able to see her again. More of Juanito's mom's friends came over, and we sat around the fire and talked and ate brats. And eventually everyone fell into bed, exhausted. 

Kentucky, day 2

We spent the afternoon and evening at the farm where Juanito's dad and JJ live. They have chickens and a goat and 3 dogs, a lot of space to run and play, and a little 4x4. (Also lots of other stuff, but those are the things my kids and dog are most interested in.)

Houston held the chickens for a lot of the time, putting them down only long enough to either eat or go out on the 4x4. Katrina held chickens, pet the goat, and loved looking for crayfish. Zane threw rocks by the driveway, threw rocks into the river, threw rocks into the woods.... They all had fun, anyhow.

Emma was slightly afraid of JJ's giant dog, Zeus, so she didn't want to just play with him this time. She was very interested in the goat, until the goat headbutted her. She was interested in chasing the chickens when they were running, but as soon as they slowed down or stopped, she lost interest. She played with the little dog.

After dinner, JJ drove the 4x4 with me in the passenger seat and all three kids in the back, and Juanito drove a little trail bike, and we all drove around the property a bit. I was slightly terrified the entire time, because it really felt like we were going to roll over at any second, and i was picturing my kids in a tangle of limbs underneath the vehicle. Everyone else thought it was awesome, though. Emma ran alongside, and was the happiest dog in the world. The kids chanted her name in support. After we'd been riding along for quite a while, with Emma cheerfully running next to my side where she could see me, JJ slowed down to turn onto a different path. Suddenly, Emma got extremely worried that the 4x4 was ... eating us? She started barking at the tires and trying to eat them as she ran. At one point, she was so busy trying to get the tires that she completely ran into a tree. It would have been sad if she'd been hurt, but she just seemed surprised, and so it was kind of completely hilarious to JJ and me. (Nobody else noticed.)

We drove down to the little creek, and Houston and Katrina hunted for teensy little crayfish while Zane threw rocks into the bigger pools and the dogs all trotted through the creek water. Fun!

JJ came back with us to stay in Wilmore, so we get to hang out with him again tomorrow. Yay!

Kentucky - day 1

We drove down to Kentucky this morning, arriving at about 3:00 this afternoon. This is our first time staying in Juanito's mom's new house, and it's just a lovely little home. The two youngest are starting out the night sleeping in a tent outside. We'll see if they make it out there the whole night.

Tonight we had a fire, and a dozen of Juanito's mom's friends came and sat around the campfire and talked and hung out for an hour or two. Emma ran around greeting everyone and enjoying the grass and giant fenced-in yard. The kids caught fireflies and enjoyed being out after dark.

Generally, though, we've just been enjoying being with mum/grandma and catching up a bit on what's been happening in our lives. 

Trip out West: Part 2 - South Dakota, the first 3 days

I mean, NO. I don't actually expect that anyone at all will actually look at all of my pictures, but this was amazingly beautiful scenery, so i took a lot of pictures. And i want to put them online anyhow, just in case my computer gets stolen or something catastrophic happens, so that they're backed up, and SO. Pictures.

We met up with Beth on Monday morning and headed north toward South Dakota, through Wyoming. With the exception of Juanito (who didn't remember it), none of us had ever been to Wyoming before, and all of us (or at least the adults among us) were just blown away by the vastness and the beauty and the changing-ness of it. It was amazing. As we were driving along, there was suddenly a sign for "Oregon Trail ruts." I was immediately like, "WHAT?!! The Oregon Trail?! That's amazing!" And Juanito was all, "You could get dysentery, going there!" And Beth was all, "Um. What?" So we explained the whole Oregon Trail game, but i was all, "No. It'll take too long. Let's just skip it. It's fine." Beth and Juanito insisted we go, and i'm SO glad they did, because it DID take time, but it was also totally worth it. There are ruts! Big gouges in the earth, where the wagons all drove through the limestone! I kind of love history, and it was just really cool to be able to see that. Plus, the back roads that we then ended up having to take led us to towns like "Manville" and some little mostly-abandoned town with random stray dogs walking down the middle of the road. It was a whole experience.

On Tuesday, we went to the Black Hills. We started the day by stopping in a touristy place with all-you-can-eat pancakes for 99 cents. Apparently it's one of the spots where the made "Dancing With Wolves," so there were Kevin Costner cut-outs and awesomely cheesy things from the movie. They had a giant covered wagon and a smaller covered wagon and a stockade, but they also had some really interesting things, like a guy who really loved his job, who demonstrated how to make a rope. He let the kids choose colors to put in the rope, let them help make it, and taught us how to spin the rope. The kids thought it was the coolest thing ever. We got sucked into walking around the place for way longer than we'd expected, until finally i was like, "We have to go! We still have all of the Black Hills!!!"

We started at Mount Rushmore. As we got closer and closer, the kids got almost giddy with excitement, peering out the windows for their first glimpse. They all went a little crazy when they saw it. It was awesome. We walked down the "Presidential Path," which takes you almost right up under the monument, all along in front of it. We took approximately 13 million pictures. Because...Mount Rushmore! And eventually we left and headed toward the Iron Mountain Road, a road with ponytail turns and sharp curves and everything that makes Juanito happy. There were tiny little tunnels through the rocks, and giant rock formations, and we might have stopped another few million times to take pictures everywhere.

Eventually we accidentally took the wrong way into a separate area of Custer State Park, which turned out to be very fortuitous, because we'd been thinking of maybe doing that a separate day, but we never would have had time. We found buffalo way far away, and then prairie dogs close up, and then buffalo right by the road. There were antelope and turtles and just generally nature-type things everywhere.

We eventually made it back into the part of the Black Hills where we were meant to be, and just as we got to a spot where we wanted to stop and look at the Cathedral Spires, Katrina got a spectacularly bloody nose. And amazingly bloody nose. It bled and bled and bled. We used up all of the kleenexes in the car and all of the baby wipes and were down to the kleenex from Beth's and my purses, which we made her stuff up her nose, when it finally stopped. She was pouring blood for about 15 minutes. There were puddles of blood on the ground. It was super-gross. I was starting to wonder if i should be really worried. She was a champion and didn't complain at all. She cheerfully agreed that it was totally gross.

We eventually wound our way around to Needle Highway. We somehow missed Needle Rock, even though we stopped the car and were walking around RIGHT THERE. It apparently wasn't terribly obvious. The Needle Tunnel was really cool, though. Beth and Juanito and Zane all climbed around by the tunnel, with Zane encouraging Beth that she could do it. He was so proud of himself for helping her be brave enough to climb the terrifying rocks.

The sun was getting ready to set, so we headed to Sylvan Lake, where we climbed on some rocks out to the middle of the lake to watch the sunset. It was slightly terrifying. And then we drove home and all fell into bed.

Wednesday we headed north. Our first stop was Sturgis, which is apparently home to a giant motorcycle rally every year. We stopped at the World's Largest Biker Bar, which had a giant cowboy holding a beer, a huge mailbox, a random donkey wandering the parking lot,  and a lot of other incredibly random stuff.

We went east just a bit to go to Bear Butte, which we really only wanted to go to for the name, which we all insisted on pronouncing "Bare Butt." When we got there, we realized that we needed to pay to go in, except that all we really wanted was to get a picture by the sign, which was just there, inside the park. There were signs saying, "Buffalo are dangerous. Stay in your vehicle," but we'd driven around all day the day before and had only seen a couple of buffalo even though we were totally looking. So we thought, "Meh. Let's just park here and WALK in to the sign, and then we're not breaking any rules!" We carefully, slowly stepped across the cattle grate. We cheerfully walked a bit, until Juanito was all, "Um? See that little hill over there? Is that a buffalo?" I was all, "Nah! It's like, huge! And super-close!" Juanito walked a bit closer. And then it lifted its head, and it was enormous and SO close. The kids all immediately turned and ran at full speed back to the safety of the car, flinging themselves across the cattle grate at top speed. Beth and i ran behind them, slightly less panicked.. Juanito casually strolled back to the car. We drove the 1/8 mile into the park, took the picture (while carefully watching the buffalo), and left. Zane refused to get out of the car for the picture.

And then we drove to Deadwood. I remembered Deadwood as a fun little old-west-type town, from when i went there when i was about 13. Either it's changed or my memory is just terrible. It was a totally touristy town, trying to look old west. We walked through the shops. We watched a fake gunfight in the street. We got ice cream at Dairy Queen. We went to the graveyard where Wild Bill and Calamity Jane are buried. It was ... fine.

And the we headed home. We stopped in Lead, where the town is built up steep hills. We stopped at "The Boondocks," which appears to be an abandoned amusement park of sorts. We stopped and ate dinner at a hole-in-the-wall my cousin recommended, which had delicious food. In the parking lot was a lady who made ice cream fresh with liquid nitrogen. She was super friendly and totally gave us delicious free ice cream because i guess she liked us.

And then we fell into bed, exhausted again.

Home again!

We're back from vacation!

We picked up Emma and the hermit crabs from my parents' house on the way home, and got home late last night. Being home is kind of lovely. As much as i really, really enjoyed our entire vacation, there's just something wonderful about sleeping in my own bed and using my own dishes and sitting on my own couch.

Emma wholeheartedly agrees. She's been incredibly calm and happy all day, just sleeping on whatever is near me and accepting hugs and snuggles whenever they're offered.

It's raining right now, and i have the windows open, and it smells lovely.

I was planning to start writing about the trip tonight, but my computer is being incredibly slow, and i'm too tired to wait for it. So tomorrow! Yay! 

Dog Park Drama

Things i did today in preparation for our trip:

• Went grocery shopping for snacks and things to eat while driving around to see the sights
• Peeled and cut up apples to make dried apples
• Set up the apples and also pineapples in the dehydrator, and then checked on it a million times to make sure they weren't getting over-dried 
• Packed all of my clothes
• Fretted a lot about who will be taking care of the dog

I'm mostly happy about the dried fruit. Yum.

Katrina "helped" me pack. Mostly by playing with all of my jewelry.

ANYHOW. That is not the most interesting thing from today. That honor goes to our trip to the dog park. Most times we go to the dog park, it's pretty calm and the dogs play and every once in a while there's a scuffle with a dog who gets too aggressive, but the owners are all laid-back and friendly.

But today! Oh, the DRAMA! 

There were three different sets of dog owners involved, in various ways. 

First off, we had the two older ladies, who spent the first 20 minutes we were there taking selfies with their selfie stick. 

Then came a lady with a pitbull (Unfortunate, because in my dog park experience, the pit bulls are not usually the problem dogs, but this one was a dog who just should not have been there. It was just too aggressive.) 

Shortly after the pitbull lady arrived, the third party arrived with his two dogs - a doberman pinscher and an old, fat dog. He arrived right on the heels of a guy with three dogs. (Brief explanation of the setup: As you come in, there's a gate that opens to a little entryway, and then there's another gate. This way the dogs can't escape, because they can't get past the second gate.) 

So Doberman Man started opening the gate to the outside while the gate to the inside was still open, and there were about 7 dogs filling the entryway, greeting the 3 new dogs. Pitbull lady says, in a kind of snotty tone, "You can't open that gate! The dogs will get out!" To which Doberman guy says, in an even snottier tone, "OH. I guess i need to go back to college and learn that!" To which Pitbull lady responds, "I guess you DO!" So they got off to a great start. 

Doberman guy put his doberman into the main dog park, and then brought his old dog into the empty small dog section. I don't think Pitbull lady saw where he went, though, because she and the two Selfie Stick ladies started complaining about how he was such a jerk and then dropped of his dog and left! Meanwhile, the pitbull completely started harassing the doberman, and Pitbull lady ran full-steam at him to stop it. Selfie Stick lady completely assumed that it was the doberman's fault, because a couple of minutes later, she totally kicked the doberman when he came too close to her dog. (Kicked. What the?) And the Selfie Stick ladies left. (After unjustly accusing Katrina of leaving the gates open.)

Doberman guy seemed to be getting bored in the small dog area, because he brought his old dog into the main area, where he followed it around, wiping woodchips off his butt. (The dog's butt.) The pitbull came over and started harassing the old dog, and Doberman guy freaked out and made it much worse but jumping in and kicking the pitbull. (Again! Dog-kicking! What is going on here?!) He then swore and screamed, "That dog just bit me!" Pitbull lady was, meanwhile, running full-steam at the dogs to stop them. She dragged the dog away, asked if he was okay, and he was all, "NO! Your dog bit me! I need to see some ID! Has he bit anyone before?!?" (For the record, Katrina and i were 5 feet away and neither of us saw any sign of his being bit.) And she was all, "No, never! He didn't mean to bite you!" And he was all, "Rage, rage, rage! That's not the point!!!!" 

They went off together to get ID or whatever, and the other guy standing nearby and i just looked at each other like, "Whoa."

And during everything, Emma was just happily trotting around with a grin on her face, playing with the friendly dogs and oblivious to it all. As was Zane.

So that was exciting.

Getting ready

In preparation for our trip west, Katrina, Beth, and i all got hair wraps. I did Katrina's, and Juanito did mine and Beth's. They're all really cute and happy. Yay!

Truly, our day was filled with a lot of preparation for the trip. Juanito worked on making a fancy net-thing out of rope to hold the luggage to the roof. I got everyone's laundry clean and folded so we can pack it up.

I put audio books on the kids' mp3 players, and Katrina and Zane both disappeared to their rooms for the rest of the afternoon (3-4 hours) to listen to Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. Katrina was all, "Well, but i've already read Harry Potter, so that doesn't count, right?" And Zane's got something like 25 different Magic Tree House books and 2 Percy Jacksons, so i think he'll have enough to listen to on the road.