Traveling Circus

Just the 2 of us in Chicago

October 6, 2011

Scott and I got away last week, just the 2 of us, for 3 nights in the Windy City. It was a belated 10 year anniversary gift to ourselves.

And it was WON-DER-FUL!!

The city of Chicago is beautiful. The buildings are unique and interesting… truly works of art in and of themselves. We had so much fun walking around the city and taking in its beauty.

The weather was overcast and it rained off and on while we were there. But, thankfully, we were able to enjoy a gorgeous evening observing the skyline at the Navy Pier our first night.

We had a great time at the Art Institute of Chicago. One of my favorite dates with Scott is going to the art museum. We have fun looking at different paintings… picking our favorite in each room, or picking the one we’d hang in our house if we had our choice. It might surprise you to know that Scott’s favorite is always modern art. Before we were married, I’d never have pegged him as a modern art guy. (I know this picture isn’t of modern art…but it was our favorite picture in that room, and I liked the picture of Scott observing the painting). We also attended the symphony, another rare treat for us.

The clouds parted and the sky opened in time for us to head to the top of the Willis Tower (formerly called the Sears Tower)… the highest structure in the U.S. You might recall I am not a big fan of heights…but I didn’t want to miss out on the adventure.

So glad I didn’t… how cool is it to kiss the man of your dreams at the top of the world?

We did lots of walking… lots of talking… shopping…eating… there was no schedule.. no place we had to be… no demands… just time to enjoy my best friend all to myself. And I did… every minute of it.

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An End of Summer Tradition

August 11, 2011

in Circus Shots,Steelers,Traveling Circus

Of the 32 years I’ve been a Steelers fan, I only had the joy of being a hometown fan for only 8 of those years (5 of which I was 5 and under so it doesn’t really count in my book). My sophomore year of college, I moved to PA for 3 years. I was thrilled to get to watch the Steelers on a weekly basis. Unfortunately, this was during the Kordell Stewart, Tommy Maddox era, which wasn’t exactly the Steelers golden era of football. I truly enjoyed watching The Bus in action each and every week. Those were his glory days for sure!

Now, thanks to Direct TV’s NFL season ticket we get to watch our boys in black and gold every.single. week!! But, we still don’t really get that hometown feel.. especially living in the Baltimore area …When I step onto my back deck I am greeted with the icky colors of purple and black ALL OVER my neighbors yard.

So, we’ve begun making the trek to Latrobe, PA in August to watch the Steelers training camp at St Vincent’s College. It’s our little taste of life as a hometown fan. Since it is part way between my parents house and our place, we ended up finding a campground truly in the middle, making a weekend out of it and spending Saturday in Latrobe watching practice. I always feel like Adam Sandler in “Fever Pitch” as we pack up to go and “check out the team.” As if they needed us to scope out the new players. This year Scott was especially excited to check out Baron Batch… a rookie RB he had read about that week who was apparently getting noticed on the practice field.

Scott and I have now been 4 times… we’ve taken the kids 3 times… and even still, I get this rush of excitement as I look out and see the players in person. It’s so different than on TV, they are so much bigger and it’s fun to watch them interact with each other.

This year was especially fun b/c my oldest daughter was SO EXCITED about going. She’s been asking all summer if we were going to go.. and since there was so much up in the air with the lock out, we honestly didn’t know if there’d even be a training camp to go to. When we told her we were going, she packed her bag literally a week ahead of time. She had her camera, Steelers pants, tee shirt, sweatshirt, hat, jersey, and her sign to hold up for the players, all packed into her Steelers drawstring bag. I had to remind her to throw in a few pairs of underwear and socks too. She couldn’t wait to see “the real Steelers players” play a game. Smile Yes, it warmed this Steelers lovin’ Momma’s heart!

As we were walking back to our car I spotted Heath Miller sitting in a cart while Mike Wallace was signing autographs. My parents had just given the youngest circus member his official Steelers jersey that morning… it was none other than 83 Heath Miller… so in true paparazzi style, I grabbed my baby and ran over to the now growing group of people surrounding his golf cart. And then I froze. He was literally right in front of me (just a few teenage boys begging for autographs between Heath and I) and instead of saying, “Hey Heath can you pose for a picture with my baby, he’s wearing your jersey!” Instead, I said absolutely nothing. As if I was waiting for Mr. Miller to look over and say, “Look, he’s wearing my jersey, want to pose for a picture?” And so instead of getting a nice posed picture with this starting TE (who by the way is SUPER TALL in real life)… instead I stood there until the driver started the cart and then I rushed over and stuck my baby by his side while Scott snapped a picture. Classy, huh? I then kicked myself the whole way back for not opening my mouth and at least asking.

Oh well… we got to see the Steelers play, we got to see 2 of them up close, and we all had a good time!! The circus house is abuzz with talks of football season. The first preseason game is tomorrow night against the Redskins!

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He Spoils Us

August 7, 2011

in baby,camping,Circus Shots,Motherhood,Sleep,Traveling Circus

Time and time again our fourth child has blown us away with his easy going, flexible, happy-go-lucky approach to life. It has made the transition to a family of 6, for this family on-the-go, SO MUCH easier—a fact I am truly, truly grateful for.

This weekend, he really went above and beyond our expectations though.

Not only did he fall asleep in the tent both nights, while the rest of us were out at the camp fire, but he even napped in the tent Saturday morning. And as if that wasn’t wonderful enough… today we put his pack and play up behind the tent, on the off chance that he’d fall asleep and Scott could tear down the tent and pack up our gear while the rest of us went swimming… fat chance of that actually working we thought, but we figured it was worth a try…

He laid down, outside, in the daylight, and took a 2 hr nap while Scott tore down the tent and packed up the van.

He truly spoils us!

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An Hour at the Beach

July 12, 2011

in beach,Circus Shots,family,summer,swimming,Traveling Circus

Most people think that perfect beach weather is a bright sunny day, but we discovered unexpected joy in a trip to the Florida beach on an overcast evening following an afternoon rain storm.

Shuttle launch in the morning, nap in the afternoon, beach in the evening, and free Chick-Fil-A right before bed… it was a perfect day in Florida… totally worth the 32 hours of driving it took to get there and back.

~clicking on picture will make it bigger~

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We FINALLY have BLAST OFF!

July 9, 2011

in Shuttle launch,Traveling Circus

Ever since I was a kid and saw the movie Space Camp, I’ve wanted to see a shuttle launch. Last spring when Scott told me that NASA was cancelling their shuttle launch program and their were only 3 left, I began scheming a way to get there and see one.

We planned our entire vacation around the November launch. And while our trip to Florida last November, was one of our best family vacations ever, we didn’t get to see a launch.

Two shuttle launches came and went and I kept wanting to find a way to go. But, work was too busy, weekends were booked and well, Florida vacations are expensive. We just couldn’t make it work. Finally a week before the last ever shuttle launch, we began talking seriously about a 4 day FL driving excursion. 32 hours down and back with a 2 minute show in the middle. Can we make that work? Should we bring the kids? We tossed back and forth about what to do.

Finally Tuesday night at 9pm, we sat down with an actual pro/con list and decided to go AND to bring the kids.

This left us with about 24 hours to pack and prepare.

We got to Titusville Florida at 3:30am on Friday. We were blessed with an amazing parking spot. Scott got us set up while the kids and I rested in the van. A little after 4am we left the van and that was the last rest my daughters got. It was “squatting” time at Space view park.

This is the site that greeted us across the Indian River. It was so cool to see it lit up at night. “I see the space shuttle” my youngest daughter exclaimed with glee!”

Then we set out to wait 7 hrs hoping the launch would go off. The weather forecast wasn’t good and we were due to get rained on as we waited. Praise God the rain never came but even at 8am, they were only giving a 30% chance of favorable weather for lift off. We waited, napped, colored, snacked, snuggled, and waited some more. I was greatly encouraged by the face book comments I kept getting on my phone with people telling me they were praying those clouds away and hoping for a lift off.

By 11am, excitement was mounding. People were getting on their feet, we were making sure we had visual. Someone brought a radio and broadcasted the countdown. “Please, oh please, let it go off,” Scott and I kept pleading inside. We were hoping against hope that it would go off because 1. we really wanted to see it and 2. we couldn’t imagine the thought of pulling another all nighter with the kids right after this one. They really were amazing but every kids has a limit (and so do parents).

The countdown began….. from one minute down…. Scott and I looked at each other, “This is it… it’s going to happen…. we were bouncing with excitement” and then they hit 31 seconds and hold. “NO, please NO!”

problem quickly resolved (hooray for those NASA engineers) and they were counting down to countdown….

Finally we hit that blessed 10 second mark and then 3…2…1…. we saw the fire under the shuttle and screams of joy rang out at the park.

It was incredible!!

Truly, incredible… tears of joy streamed down my face as I watched it lift off.

Earlier in the day I had told the kids what an awesome, historical moment this would be. “This will be in history books some day and you will get to tell your kids and your grandkids that you saw the last shuttle launch.”

After it blasted off into the clouds and the sound made its way across the river, my son looked over at me and said, “Mom, I will definitely remember this.”

So will I, my son, so will I.

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The One Where I Question Our Sanity and Whine Like a Baby

November 12, 2010

in Florida,national parks,Traveling Circus

When a tour company approaches you as you board their boat offering the chance to back out with a full refund, a normal person would heed the warning, take the money and run.

But we aren’t normal. Because we have a quest to visit every national park during our married life together. And this quest brought us all the way down to Key West. And we didn’t drive all the way down to Key West only to turn around and head 100 miles north without first taking a boat 70 nautical miles further west to Dry Tortugas National Park.

So, we boarded the boat with our crew of lil ones, quickly bought some Dramamine and off we set for the Dry Tortugas!

The first hour was nice. We ate breakfast, the kids met the Captain, did a little coloring… then, our 3 yr complained of her belly hurting. We quickly got our supply of “bags” ready and spent the next hour losing our breakfasts. The girls fell first. With the 4 yr old having it the worst, followed closely by her Momma. By the time we reached the island we were both covered in her puke. The only one who was spared the misery was our 6 yr old. Even our baby fell victim to the sea. Scott held out pretty long, and truthfully, I think he was sick more from watching, smelling, and wearing all of our puke, than he did from actual sea sickness.

Ya know how on TV whenever they show women in labor, they show them angry and screaming? Well, I am not one to scream in labor. But, when sea sick, that is a whole other story… Pretty much all I said during that hour was, “I’m sorry and thank you” to the incredible boat crew who kept helping us clean up and “We are IDIOTS… what were we thinking?” to poor Scott as we did our best to hold barf bags for our kids, hold our kids, and puke into bags of our own. This picture was actually taken on the way home… when, with more favorable seas and a more timely dose of Dramamine, the kids slept and all 6 enjoyed a nice boat ride without feeling sick!

It was just as horrible as you might think and I wondered if the island could possibly come close to being worth the trek out there.

Finally when we reached the boundaries of the park with the island in sight, our stomachs settled and we got a view of the paradise awaiting us.

Ft Jefferson was built on the Dry Tortugas in the 1800s to defend our trade routes from Britain. Words can’t even describe how enormous it was and it truly blows my mind to think of how they got those bricks all the way out there and built it. Here is a view of the inside of the fort. They said you could fit all of Yankee Stadium in here. It is massive! And our son loved the fact that each “window’’ was intended for a cannon.

A moat surrounds the entire fort. We enjoyed our walk around it looking for wildlife swimming inside of the moat.

We also enjoyed walking around the halls of the fort as well as the view from the top.

We chose to eat our lunch at a picnic table by the shore. Afterwards the kids enjoyed playing on the beach. The water and adjacent islands were beautiful! One island aptly named “bird island” had a cloud of constantly swarming birds going though there annual matting dance.