Open Road

Nothin' like an early morning ride on a long weekend. Happy Summer, friends.

The Flying Dutchmen

The past month also saw us take a trip out to Dutch Wonderland for Pete's Birthday. I gotta say, for an amusement park that sits right on a fairly major roadway in Lancaster, PA, this place has it together. It's clean, well maintained, appropriately staffed and they even offer "healthier" food choices. At an amusement park. In Lancaster. The boys didn't care about any of that though. They just concentrated on trying the place out.

They loved her. Like, gaga love. As in wanted to smooch. Not Lady.

"LOOK AT US! WE'RE IN....oh....it's a pretzel." What you can't see is a little sign to the right of this that said, "Please don't climb on the pretzel."

Breaking for lunch in the sequestered Lunch Bringers area near the monorail station. Major confession here. What you see Pete drinking is the first ever parent-sanctioned cola beverage. They were running really low on energy and we had lots more playing to do. So we did what any smart parent would do - we let them share a Pepsi. Sure, we were kind of guilty but I gotta say, it made the rest of the afternoon amazing. And who cares, it's not like there's any scientific proof that soda is bad, right?

They went on some really exciting rides that they talked about for days after. This wasn't one of them. As evidenced by their expressions. We don't have footage of the Log Flume, Giant Slide or the Kids' Coaster since we were all enjoying them too much to snap a shot.

Sadly, this was taken early in the day. What is it about this time in your life that makes you look tired a lot. Oh yeah - I remember now. Oh well, that's what Pepsi's for. Big ups to the Disutch Wondizzle. We'll be back for more.

Growth Opportunities

I could offer you multiple excuses as to why we've been absent for so long. Work excuses. Home excuses. Travel excuses. They'd be boring, though. And none would make me a better blogger. So I won't bother. Instead, let's focus on what's happened over the past month, and what's happening at the moment. Because there's a lot. Including, some positive growth opportunities on the home front, in the form of our first vegetable garden.

As all good ideas start in this house, this came from Rose. We've been frequenting farmers' markets through the spring and summer months for the past couple of years now. So much that we figured, let's take a chunk of our backyard and cultivate the shit out of it in order to grow our own healthy habits. Done.

But first, we had to get through the rocks. Hundreds of them. Hundreds and hundreds. With each shovel into the dirt, we'd hit two or three. We flexed muscles pulling them out of the dirt. We gave them to the boys to throw. We made a rock border around one of our flower beds (reuse, recycle, re....whatever). And we still have more.

All in all, it's going to be pretty awesome. Rose planted dozens of little seedlings and patiently and painstakingly cared for them until they started sprouting. Swiss chard, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, beets, lettuce, basil, zucchini & string beans. Oh, and an awesome blueberry plant we had to try out. So look out for a vegetable feast coming your way soon. Or kind of soon. Or however long this stuff takes to grow. I don't know, I just dig.

The Lip Whistler

What? These are my real lips. And yes, they whistle. What of it?

Three Years

As all parents say, it's hard to believe our child is another year older. But alas, Pete is three today. We had his party a couple of weeks ago, so I figured I'd share some highlights to commemorate the smiliest, loudest, funniest (that's a shared title) kid around.

Happy Birthday, kid.

"Ok, Dad. I'll show you my pretzel. If it'll make you happy that you have a good shot for Chachi Milk. You got it."

With Auntie Kate, eyeing up Caroline's drink even though he most likely has the exact same thing.

One of the rare, shy moments so far in his three years. "Wait - I love cake and all but I really don't need thirty people singing, clapping, staring and waiting for me to make this fire go away."

Before the wreckage.

Photo of the Moment

Easter Sunday. Two college professors preparing for a morning on the town. Calling upon the author to explain his/her opinion on the Ressurrection, the importance of lillies and just why marshmallow Peeps are so delicious.

Guessing Game

While managing bedtime tonight, I told Pete that we'd be taking him someplace special for his third birthday this weekend. It's still a secret but he wanted to guess, so I let him.

Guess #1: "Milky Way Farm?"

Good guess, but no. Too routine for us.

Guess #2...

"Chick-Fil-A?"

Nope. But awesome nonetheless.

God I love these kids.