The Dining Tarp

My dad really wanted us to have it.

Michael and I had talked about it a couple of times and decided that it really wasn't worth the money or the storage space it would require to have one.

But Dad thought it was a good idea.

And so we got an early Christmas present from Dad.

At first I was sort of bitter about it.  Glad that he'd thought of us, but bitter because of finding a place to store it and because thus far we really hadn't needed it, right?  So why more stuff now?

Then we set it up for the first time.

It was sort of like a dream.

Another room...  for any purpose we could want.  Not only a dining room, but a reading nook, a playroom, a clubhouse, a zen temple, a music room... the possibilities are truly endless.

And so, as usual, I am forced to step back and bite my tongue.

Because Dad is the wise one.  And oftentimes, I'm still the kid.

Summer Schedule.

As summer draws nigh, I am motivated to think out a routine for the kids - mostly for me - to make sure I don't spend all day doing stupid things, like sitting in front of the computer, for example.  I also want to make a list of things we should do this summer as far as little day-trips or weekend trips if we happen to have the extra cash (haha!)

I've already schedule swimming lessons for them, but they don't start until mid-July since we have a family trip to Denver planned to see my brother-in-law and his wife, along with their son, Jeremiah.  We are going on this trip, driving the entire way, with my Mother and Father-in-law.  Should make for an interesting time, to say the least. 

We are also doing a family camping trip on the last day of Jonah's school - I'm hoping it will become a family tradition to go camping at the end of the school year.  We did it last year and it was awesome, except for the fact that Maeryn refused to sleep in the tent...  Hoping that is remedied this year.  We'll see what happens.

I'd also really like to hit up Sesame Place and Idlewild Park this summer.  I think they would be so much fun for the kids, and maybe we can get some friends (you know who you are), to join us for the Idlewild festivities.  Gosh - I miss the summer days when I went to Idlewild several times a year and ate waffle cones piled high with strawberries, vanilla ice cream, and whipped cream topping...

But I digress.

For our routine I am hoping to make it pretty simple.

Mornings will be out on the town, out in the world, adventure time.  Library, pool, playground, water park, hiking, gardening, - crazy play time.

Afternoons will be down time.  Naps for Maeryn, rest time/project/quality time for Jonah and me.  I want to keep him reading and learning throughout the summer for sure.

In the evenings I hope for oodles of family time.

I plan NOT to do a theatre project for the summer.  We'll see how that pans out.

2010

Welcome to the year 2010.

I admit that this turn of the decade does not hold for me the same excitement that it seems to hold for others. I'm not sure why this is. Maybe because I feel like the party we threw at our house last night was sort of lame. Maybe because I still feel that stress I felt yesterday. Maybe because I haven't been hiking in months...

I'm thinking maybe we should schedule a hike for tomorrow.

I wish there was better hiking around here.

It's motivating me to move.

Or it's just my wanderlust kicking in. This happens to me about every four years - you know, like when I should be graduating from something and going somewhere important but nothing really changes. It's a little frustrating. I admit this.

I do have some things to look forward to this year, so I'm going to post them here, so I can share them with all of you, and hopefully not forget about them:

Family vacation to Chincoteague, VA
- We went here a few times during my childhood and it was a really nice place to be. The beach is not crowded, the town is quaint with fun little movie theatres and ice cream shoppes. The people are kind and helpful. And there is nature ALL AROUND. Always a plus for me.

Camping. A lot of camping.
I want to schedule this - just weekends of tent living and bliss. Last year our camping trip was honestly one of the highlights of my entire life, and it was only one night in a tent and one day of amazing hiking and swimming in the open water of the lake and playing on playgrounds and cooking over campfires - but even a cheese sandwich just tastes AMAZING when you're outside amongst the fireflies.

Running my first 10K.
I started with high hopes. I thought maybe at the Flying Pig I would run the half marathon, but instead I figure it's a little more realistic for me to try at 10K. We have yet to sign up for the Shamrock 5K in Baltimore. I'm sad about it, but don't really want to mention it to Michael because we are really short on funds right now. I hate money.


That's not a ton of stuff, but it's enough for me. We'll see how it all pans out, and I'll be sure to update you as we go.

Oh - I did want to add that Jonah now knows how babies are made. Good times were had by all. I'll be adding the book that started THAT fabulous conversation to my Amazon widget.

Happy New Year!

The Adventure Mobile

Our 2008 Honda Fit is the little car we have picked up to replace my old Dodge Dakota Sport. Joe, as I called him, was a good truck, and I felt pretty darn powerful behind the wheel, to be honest, with my V6 engine pulling me along and a bunch of junk to haul in the bed, but we have two children now, and when we found out I was pregnant with Maeryn, we decided Joe had to bite it, so to speak. So we said goodbye and bought the Fit.

We chose this particular vehicle after much research on Michael's part. He loves to research things, make charts and graphs about them in Excel, and then make his choice based on this research. I usually just go and pick what looks good at the time. I think both ways have their merits, but I'm glad we went with Michael's on this one. We wanted to vehicle that got great gas mileage and didn't totally suck for the environment and fell within a price range that wasn't too pricey. This was the first actual new car I've ever had. All of my cars in the past had been used (all two of them).

I must recommend the Fit to anyone in the market for a new car and less than three children. It is incredibly spacious, the back seats fold down completely, and you can fit just about anything in the sucker: strollers, bikes, diaper bags, hiking gear, luggage for a week - you know the drill. It's a good car.

So we call it our Adventure Mobile.

We also have a Dodge Caravan, but for some reason, it's just not the same as the Adventure Mobile. We don't really take it on adventures unless we need more than one bike, and it just doesn't seem very fitting in the bush, though it does make a great camping vehicle if you leave the back open the entire time and make it a base camp.

Some of the adventures posted here will be based around the Adventure Mobile, as is the title of the blog. Some, yes, a few, will be based around the Caravan. All of course, are really just about our Adventure Family, but that URL was already taken.