The Curse of Target

Well, I am really lacking motivation these days. It is supposed to be park weather but today it started out 30 with the usual wind, so no luck there. I have given up trying to go the very limited indoor activities around here since they are usually germ-fests and it is way too much work to chase Patrick and watch Anna at the same time. So what is left besides TV? I broke down and took them to Target (along with my own germ wipe because I am just that determined to keep Patrick crusty-nose-free). My intention was to get them each a cheap toy or activity book to buy myself a few minutes of free time so I could clean up this pit.

Let's just say Anna did a good job of pointing out items we "needed". She now has a couple new summer dresses for our Florida trip (I should have looked in the closet first, surely we don't need them) and a bike helmet, all of which will lead to another trip to Target to get Megan some clothes and another helmet too. Of course she got some junky fairy Barbies and Patrick got a loud fire truck, which he was most interested in as I was putting him down for a nap. He kept trying to show me how much he loved it, after ignoring it for the first hour. How do they learn these things so young?? And yes Sean, I should have handed them $100 on the way in. Lesson learned. Somehow the house is even messier now, argh. Now I get to wake Patrick up so I can pick up Anna. Having both girls ride the bus next year will be nice indeed.

Drama Week

Megan is usually pretty dramatic but even more so when Sean is gone. She desperately wanted to go with him to Chicago this week and thought she could just stay in the hotel room all day while he was at lectures. Yeah, what's wrong with that scenario? She then claimed that I left Patrick alone napping in the room at Great Wolf Lodge while the rest of us were in the water park. She finally conceded that argument, obviously never happened, and then she gave up trying to think of a time I had left her home alone here. Now she is just mad that he didn't take the laptop so she could skype with him. It's not that long, geez. Oh, her other suggestion is to let her stay home all week so Daddy will get home sooner because the days seem longer when she is in school. Oh, I disagree. If anyone should be mad about staying home it should be me! He is staying right by the Magnificent Mile and he asked me if there is anything I want him to pick up. It's been so long since I was there I don't even know what stores are there. Someday we'll do a vacation without kids.... everyone else I know seems to make it happen.

I did get the kids outside for a bit today, much nicer weather just windy as usual. I think we will be doing a lot of movie nights for my sanity. Popcorn of course, even after they have had a big dinner and dessert.... Anna then demands popcorn if there is going to be a movie and she really won't shut up until she gets it. Same goes for watching shows in the morning, just easier to give in. I am waiting for the TV to just die so my misery will end.

One funny story from Sean is that he ran into our friend Hans as he was getting off the plane in Chicago. There is usually a great deal of coordination and planning for us to see our college friends, so this was a lucky day. Unfortunately he was off to Memphis so they didn't get to talk long. My only random airport story is the time I ran into my friend Lisa from college during a layover where I was huge and pregnant with Megan and enjoying a large ice cream when Lisa randomly sat down across from me. We were then discussing when our mutual friend might get engaged and we later found out that it happened that night! We were both in her wedding a year later. And thus concludes the most boring post during a most boring week...

May as well take some photos

I missed my opportunity for snow photos back in December, who knew I could make them up at the end of March? Best I could do while keeping an eye on Patrick who was not having fun and just wanted to go up and down the icy steps.

The Weather Really Sucks Weekend

Not that I wanted to see outside....

How is it that they are plowing the roads when it was so hot a few weeks ago that I had to shut my windows??

Weather Sucks Week

Here is Anna enjoying a snack of hail balls that came from the down spout, the one that is a black pipe buried in the ground which really confused Sean, as it appeared that a pile of hail was magically appearing out of the ground. The wind that day also broke some of my flower pots and threw our lawn chairs all over the place, including into the empty lot next to us and there they remain because I am too lazy to go get them in this cold.

Congratulations Joe!

I just saw that our friend Joe was named head high school football coach here, which is just as big of a deal here as it is in Texas. Well, according to Friday Night Lights, it is a full time job in Texas, but in Kansas they make him keep teaching and the pay is symbolic it appears. Sorry Kitra, don't give up your day job. Oh and yes, this is a picture of Coach Eric Taylor, I couldn't find one of Joe, but they do look a bit alike and kind of act alike too. Oh, we do look forward to the years when Kira is in high school and starts dating the quarterback! Those will be some good stories.

Longest spring break ever

After our trip to DC all the kids wanted to do was hang around the house watching movies and occasionally playing with their gross overabundance of toys. Patrick still had the disgusting crusty nose so I could not take him out in public. I know I don't appreciate when people take their sick kids out to the park or to run errands, especially Target where they don't have those wipes to clean the shopping carts, so it was best for us all to stay home. I've literally seen sick children sneezing directly on the cart handles. Nice. If they are too sick to go to school, they are too sick to go shopping with you. I know it sucks, as I have to do it myself at times, but the grocery store is open very late so you can always go by yourself then. That's my rant for the day-- and also my explanation for why our spring break was so very long and boring.

It is now a super windy day although no tornado alerts. I did do a lot of projects around the house this past week so it would only make sense now that we'd get hit by a tornado. Time to start over! Kind of like when you almost get hit by another car and your 2nd thought is, damn, and to think I just vacuumed the van out after 3 months of goldfish and french fries....

Oh, speaking of vacuuming, I did suck up an obscene amount of ladybugs the other day. Patrick loves to eat them and yes, his breath smells like ladybugs and it is so nasty. So I was trying to get rid of them before he would have so many he would throw them up. We've had many discussions about how they get in the house and we still don't know, but we do know where they love to hang out. Of course a new crew is hanging out again so I will vacuum up another round today. Or maybe I will just open the door and let them get sucked out by the wind.

Scenic Kansas

We walk by this valley all the time and wonder how long it will take to recover from the tornado. I am guessing many years which is unfortunate as it used to be so pretty. I'm sure the kids would love to go climb on all these trees, if only they didn't have a significant fear of snakes, which I encourage...

My Suggestion for Sunday

Yes, I know it is a chain restaurant and they are everywhere, but I don't get to go nearly enough so I suggested Cheesecake Factory for our last activity of the trip. I didn't realize so many people weren't fluent in the menu but I think we have some converts after the avocado eggrolls. I followed those up with the Fiesta Sunrise Burrito and I am not feeling so good just thinking about that combo but at the time it really hit the spot.

Gave me the energy to survive the plane trip of whine. Patrick was not loving our trip back which was an hour longer flight time for some reason, headwinds? Saving gas? (No, it was not the changing time zones- trust me, it was an additional hour in the air.) Whatever it was, it was not appreciated by anyone sitting near us as he used that additional hour to cry and throw a trantrum. Sean managed to get him to sleep for 20 minutes until Anna poked him and woke him up. I hope Santa saw that. After that Sean and I would take turns with the bucking child and we tried everything imaginable including letting him empty my entire purse on the ground and sort through everything, something he has been wanting to do since birth I think. It got to the point where I was wondering how much cash I should be handing out to the passengers around us. Enough for a nice quiet bottle of wine to forget it all? Or should we comp their tickets? It was just that bad.

In a stock of genius we decided to save time and park in short term parking to avoid additional hassle upon arriving back in KC. Best $72 ever spent. It was like parking curbside, the parking spot Sean had found was just that good. Patrick was so happy to be back in his real car seat and the girls even slept a bit on the way home, to contrast with not sleeping the whole way to the airport at 4:30am on the way there. Caroline and Andy have a beautiful luxurious SUV that they ferried us around in and I was afraid the van would look all the more pathetic after that, but no, it is still so convenient and easy to load the kids in the van, no complaints. Of course it is at the age where I don't care what they spill in it, so no stress about trashing it anymore either. I cringe to think of the damage we did in DC... sorry Andy!! I know there are cracker crumbs and shoe prints and perhaps a dirty diaper hidden there... haha. Just getting you prepared for Baby Taylor!!

More Monumental Moments

Here's Patrick not whining about the cold for a brief moment. I think he was just happy to be out of the stroller. I should have gotten a shot of Megan in the stroller but then she would have been crying on top of whining. I think we need to get Megan some endurance training before we hit Disney in April. Yep, we will get a double stroller there...

We spent a good two days discussing the stairs at the Lincoln Memorial as the girls were very concerned about how many there were and how they would make it to the top. Sean tricked Megan into going up on her own by getting her to count the stairs, which revealed that Caroline has more stairs in her house, so that was easy. Anna got Bridget to take pity on her and she used her Army training to transport her to the top.

Monumental Day in DC

On Saturday we decided that no trip to DC is complete without your stock vacation photos in front of the monuments. I was painfully reminded of how long it had been since my Peace Seminar trip spring break junior year which was the last time I had trooped around the monuments. They had whole new monuments including the WWII one where I made the kids stand in front of the state they were born in. Everyone else was disappointed that the fountains were turned off but in the 43 degree weather, I was fine without the overspray putting an additional chill on the day.

Hey, I wasn't done blogging about the trip!

I just took a break to sleep. Here are some more photos from around Caroline and Andy's bed and breakfast.


Anna keeping quiet for the moment. Thanks Leapster!

Andy our indentured servant, wondering just what he agreed to in those wedding vows.

Bridget making up for lost wine time in Iraq.

Megan was delighted to stay up for one of the adult meals, not that she would eat any of it.

More Air and Space

Creepiest Space Suit Doll Ever

It's 2009, where is my jet pack??

Air and Space Whining

We went to the Air and Space Annex, the new one they built out by Dulles and thus near Caroline's house, on Friday morning as part of "operation torture children". Megan again had the tired legs and stumbled to every bench possible and even sat on some things that were not benches. Sean took the girls up in some space shuttle simulator thing and I was pleased that no one threw up. Megan was clearly not that impressed by all the planes and the space shuttle. I kept trying to explain to her that this was an amazing opportunity. She just wanted to find the gift shop. So again, a quick run through a museum, someday we will go back without kids and read some of the info.

ND Kickers, Class of 2029 and 2030

Sean has been planning for years to train his son to be the kicker for ND since historically that is a very weak part of the team and let's face it, we don't have the size in our genes for any other position. So we thought we would start young and we're already running some drills, namely, "kick your sister when she is laying on the floor watching TV". Anyway, my dear college roommate Monica just revealed that she also has that plan for her son, Sean. She didn't realize we lined up Andy (former college kicker who clearly should have gone to ND) to run a kicking camp each summer for us, I think starting this summer, right Andy? I'm sure he'd love for us to come back so soon. With double the enrollment it is definitely worth him using up some precious vacation days, haha!

We were fortunate enough to get to meet up with Monica and Dennis for a blissful child-free dinner our first night but alas, I did not take photos. I was too busy inhaling food and trying to convince Dennis to cough up some Secret Service gossip. Then on Sunday Monica brought her Sean over so we could get the boys together. I thought we could use these photos of them playing in the dollhouse together for a football team dinner in 18 years. Patrick also introduced Sean to Anna's Leapster, no doubt the first of many video game experiences they will have together. Somehow I again failed to get a photo of Monica, the kids get all the attention. It's only going to get worse for her as she is having #2 at the same time Caroline is due... hopefully not on September 11th as we all agreed that would be bad. I recommend 9/9/09, for those who are inducing and can choose. Just saying.

1st Stop: Natural History Museum

We got on the road at 4:30am on Thursday so by golly, we were going to take advantage of the day when we got to DC. Did I mention the kids didn't sleep on the way to the airport? Really set the tone for the trip. Anyway, we hit the Natural History Museum first and the whining wasn't too bad. Megan's feet hurt and her legs were tired so we didn't stay as long as we should have. She did perk up with a snack and a trip to the gift shop of course. Oh and Caroline got the best parking spot right in front of the museum, didn't even have to parallel park and there was an hour on the meter. She makes living in the city look easy! Anna also took 100 photos there with my old camera and I am wondering when she is going to ask me to print them out. I'm sure the quality is stunning. She had fun though.

Sax in the City

My snoopy girls snuck into some storage closets attached to the room they were staying in and found Andy's old saxophone. Anna begged to play it and the ever patient and accommodating Andy not only went and dug it out but then taught her how. Did I mention he endured "20 songs" the first night alone? What a trooper. He also drove us all over the city, put up with endless whining from the kids, and did dishes no less than 7 times. I wonder if he will have a business trip next time we come to town?

Busy Patrick

It's a good thing Caroline is already pregnant, otherwise there may not have been any Keenan cousins! Patrick did his best to demonstrate what needs to be child-proofed and he kept emptying their pantry, just like at home. When it was bedtime he would break out the peek-a-boo in a bag trick or start using the ultra hip scooter from Grandma to delay getting sent to the dreaded pack-n-play. He looks fairly happy in these photos but don't let that fool you. The kids were all sick, tired and not eating well... the Trifecta! Factor in some crappy weather and we were ripe for tantrums and crying from all 3. And I still made them hit the monuments and museums because those were some expensive plane tickets and if I wanted to sit around the house with them, I could do that in Kansas. In fact, I plan on doing that all week because I am wiped out.

Bridget Dance Clinic

Bridget brought the girls back these gorgeous outfits from Kuwait and then she taught them a dance which I am assuming is from Slumdog Millionaire. (If only they would show it here in Kansas... ) Shocking how quickly they learned it. One night when we told Anna to go get her pajamas on she came back downstairs with this outfit on again and thought she was hilarious. She sure knows her audience. everyone else agreed with her, except me who just wanted her in bed. Had been a long day.

DC Preview

Back from DC, just a couple quick photos for now. This was the one place Megan wanted to go and she was surprised that it was so big-- and also surprised that it wasn't brown, like on the penny. Yep, good to see some things in person.

Play Bath

I finally have a child who likes baths so now I understand why some people do them every night. It keeps Patrick busy during the witching hour and I usually let him play until his lips are blue or until he starts drinking the water. Tonight I was playing around with a friend's lens which I should have ordered myself a long time ago. Cheap and does exactly what I want- shallow depth of field and it is fast.

Photography FAIL

Okay, now everyone look away from the camera! I have about 74 more just like this one.

What is this? Patrick is looking at the camera, smiling, the lighting is right... but something is wrong. Hmm.

How is this still around?

The kids loved it, just can't believe someone hasn't sued because it is too dangerous. Liability laws must be different here. The kids also get to enjoy merry-go-rounds! So there are perks to living here.