Tales from Goshen: June 2010

The Sweat Life

family 2:46 PM

These days, let's face it, all you do is sweat. It is so stinkin hot outside. There is something wrong with the global thermostat when here in the Natural State, it's 10 degrees hotter than it is in Afghanistan! What!! It's like we're living on the Equator when I know for a fact, we are not!

Rene (or as we have come to call him: Ne') and August

What this weather does is make me grumpy. And makes my dog shed like it's a contest with all other dogs. Oh, and she's winning. I find myself vacuuming up small piles of hair sometimes twice a day. I could have easily created 3 or 4 golden retrievers with the hair Bailey has lost. You may be muttering under your breath that this could easily be dealt if I just left the dog outside. Yeah, but that'd just be cruel. You don't leave a golden outside in 100 degree weather. At least, I don't. She's my other kid! I can deal with the hair so long as my Dyson holds out...

What this weather also does is drive me and the kids out back to our mini-pool! I find myself enjoying our little bitty watering hole so much more than the bigger gym pool. Far less craziness, less "set-up" time, easier to just dry off and walk back in the house instead of carting a small suitcase to the gym with sunscreen, pool toys, life jackets, sigh. Makes me tired just thinking about it. Anyone up for the mini-pool?

Brooklyn and Evergiste

We're on about week 5 with our Rwandan, Rene, and we're really really enjoying life with him. He's officially family. And as an added bonus, this week, we have a second Rwandan living with us. His host family is on vacation, so he's here with us for about 10 days. His name is Evergiste, a French name that I have most definitely never pronounced prior to one week ago.

Rene is a dog-magnet.

He has a completely different personality than Rene, and I think his presence is forcing Rene to be a little more vocal and outgoing. To accommodate transportation, we actually had to borrow my mom's Suburban! We just couldn't squeeze another person between those back row car seats.

Despite the heat outside, the blessings inside this house are too numerous to count. We love our new boys, love hearing them laugh and play with the kids. I taught them both how to vacuum yesterday! The looks of concentration on their faces was priceless. Kyle and I also introduced them to Savers - nothing like a pair of jeans for $5.99! Oh, and for those who will understand the significance of this, I have to share that Rene bought 2 pairs of shorts and is wearing them!!!! (Evergiste wears shorts, so I think Rene felt like it was ok). I really can't complain, even though it seems like I spent the first few paragraphs doing just that. Hang in there, everyone. Eat watermelon and drink lots of water!

Chicago Part 4 (Saturday)

Chicago 2:28 PM

Our final day in Chicago was all about the US' first World Cup match against England. Kyle's firm, StoneWard, had organized a watch party at a local pub and Kyle had to go early to help set up.

As we prepared to leave the hotel, we had an opportunity to see the bridges raise up to allow a fleet of sailboats to maneuver their way to Lake Michigan. It made me long for the days when Kyle and I used to sail often (pre-kids). It was a lovely sight.

Kyle left us for the pub, leaving several hours for the kids and I to occupy ourselves. Having checked out of the hotel, we walked outside straight into a rain shower. Sprinting down the streets, we took shelter in Room & Board. Poor us.

Brooklyn was the official furniture tester. I love that store. They were so good with the kids - bringing us animal crackers, bottled water, leaving me alone to take pictures and sit on couches. Very nice experience. And every single thing in the store was excellent quality.

Finally, it was game time! We all cheered on the US soccer team and had a wonderful time. I don't know if you watched the game yourself, but it was very strange singing along to the national anthem when you're facing off against the very country you wrote that song about. It gave me chills. I'm not anti-British by any means, but at that moment, I felt a deep pride in being American.

It was also cool because Kyle's firm took an old war rally song "The Yanks are Coming" and utilized it in their marketing for the US Soccer team. Nike jumped on the bandwagon and had T-shirts printed using that line - originally put out BY Kyle's firm! Super Cool!

The kids needed some air every now and then and this fountain was a stone's throw from the pub.

Goodbye, Chicago! We love you!

The part we'd been dreading: leaving. Or, as the case may be, not leaving. We were delayed 3 hours. So much fun with a 2 and 4 year old...We did eventually make it home, sometime after midnight. We were blessed with a great vacation. And a huge thank you to my parents for letting Rene stay with them in our absence!

Chicago Part 3b (Friday afternoon)

Chicago 3:08 PM

Even though my kids still take naps, it was difficult for me to justify wasting a single afternoon in Chicago. Although I did bring my knitting and could have made lots of progress (actually I did make lots of progress at night). I did have a stroller and I figured August could crash there if needed. And it worked. Brooklyn, on the other hand, just had to push through the tiredness...which is risky. You enter "Meltdown" territory after a certain point.

Friday was our only family day to play, so we chose to risk it. After exhausting the museum's offerings, we splurged on a cab to avoid walking 10 blocks with our tots (totally would have done it on my own, though - I do have that bit of Donna in me) and headed to Millennium Park. What a cool place. The Bean alone (officially titled Cloud Gate, but referred to unanimously as the Bean) was worth the trip.

It defies explanation.

Staring straight at the Bean

Slightly skewed by the Bean

And there it sits, reflecting back everything it's surrounded by.

Me in the Bean.

Underneath the Bean dead center looking straight up. It makes you dizzy to try to figure out what you're seeing.

I love how the skyline reflected across its face.

It was a hit among the tourists. Almost like some alien egg that you expect to hatch any moment.

You know the drill. Grab a random passerby. Pose and smile.

Meltdown approaching...

Meltdown carefully and skillfully averted.

Millennium Park - free concerts every Thursday night!

The Fountain - clearly a hit.

I was the official Shoe Guard.

Splashing around.

These two enormous towers stood on opposite ends and had faces of real Chicagoans. They blinked, smiled, it was crazy. Then water shot out their mouths, poured over the tops, kept people on their toes.

My crew sticking close to Daddy.

Last stop for the day - The Art Institute. A place where Kyle and I could easily have wiled away a whole day. Easily. We went for the Matisse exhibit (awesome) and then found ourselves lured by the Van Goghs, Toulouse LaTrec's, Monets...I was particularly enthralled with the Modern Design (Carrie, you would have loved it!): fantastic mid-century furniture. I always knew it was art.

I would have taken more pictures, but you had to take them flash-less and it was too much trouble given that the kids DID reach melt-down point. Seriously melt down. August fell asleep and then woke up and it was not good. Brooklyn refused to take another step and we carried her through most of the museum. Needless to say, Chicago was not only wonderful, it was full of unplanned workouts.

The truly perfect end to our day was when we found this lovely little store called Pastoral. It was like my Mecca. It specialized in wines, cheeses and artisan breads. I lingered over their selection and walked away with our dinner: some gourmet sandwiches, a bottle of wine, a baguette and some Vermont Creamery cheese. Bliss bliss bliss. Sigh.

Chicago Part 3a (Friday morning)

Chicago 2:06 PM

If you feel like you're experiencing this vacation right along with me, well, you are! In retrospect, that is. I didn't carry anything with me on the trip to allow me to blog real time, which would have defeated the purpose of vacationing anyway!

I believe I mentioned in a previous post that the Wednesday night we arrived in Chicago, the Black Hawks won the Stanley Cup. We heard through the grapevine that a big parade was scheduled for Friday to celebrate the team, etc. I heard parade and thought...floats, cars, you know, some balloons. What I failed to understand is that there are quite a few hockey fans in the city, and I think every one of them skipped work that day to attend this parade. Which happened to take place right around the corner from our hotel. So. We woke up Friday morning (not too early, since we'd been up after 1 the previous morning) to see the following sights out our hotel window (taken looking down from my window):

Kyle said there were people out when he left for work at 7.

I later heard on the news that people had been out since 4am.

They looked like buzzing bees. Buzzing red bees.

Looking down on this sight, my first thought was: I know there was a flower bed right where they are standing. Yep. Next day, I checked and it was toast. Smushed flat.

It was as though all the cross streets emptied out their fans onto Wacker. What was really bizarre was watching the parade on the news and hearing real-time all the action right outside my hotel. Surreal.

The boats kept milling about trying to see the action while the cop boat kept shooing them away. Kind of funny to watch.

Kyle managed to get in touch with me and let me know he was coming to hang out with us for the afternoon, so we decided to hike to Navy Pier and go to the Children's Museum. It was a blast!

What this picture doesn't capture, but I wish it did is the scene which unfolded immediately after August uneventfully slid down the pole. The boy directly behind August was obviously excited, all decked out in the fireman apparel, but made one critical error. He had apparently never given much thought to his technique in pole sliding.

When August had safely cleared the landing pad, this young guy LAUNCHED himself with all he had at the pole. Yeah, you can probably see it in your head. He smacked headfirst into the pole and then sort of banged and clanked his way down to the pad. Never got his leg or arm around the pole. Just clattered his way to the ground.

There was a stunned silence in the room as we all just watched it happen. Suddenly, from around the corner barrels this large, concerned man, "Son! Son! You OK?!" The boy picks himself up, dusts off his hands and heads back up the stairs for another go at it. Boys.

The Bug Room is where Kyle and Ashley got into the fun. Previously, we sort of half-heartedly cheered at our kids having fun doing stuff that really held no interest for us as grown-ups. Until this. The "Be a Bug" exhibit was pretty darn fun. It took a picture of your face and then you appeared on screen as a bug darting about the city. We kind of hogged it for a bit. That's Brooklyn's face you see looking over the El.

And that would be her Daddy cheesin it up big-time.

Watch out, ladies. This one's trouble.

Bug love.

Me being a kid. Seriously, this was so cool. You stood in front of these screens which had little beads flowing like water. When you stood there, your shadow interrupted the flow. You could form little wells with your body and they would fill them up! Then you dropped your arm and they all spilled out! It was so amazing!