Facebook Vacation

I'm taking a vacation from Facebook.  It sucks up way too much of my time and mental energy.

I realized this when I saw that a "friend" checked into a certain restaurant for lunch and then a different restaurant for dinner. I thought, what a hungry hippo.  Wait, that's rude!  Why am I thinking that?  Why do I care what that person eats? 

Then I saw that a certain person "said" something to someone else and I thought, why did that person say that?  Why do I care?  It's between them, not me!

Long ago, I "hid" farmland and gangster wars and bejeweled and other games because I truly, truly DON'T care what your scores are.

Then I started "hiding" some people altogether because I couldn't stand to read the ridiculousness of their posts, such as, "Ugh, it's Monday," and "Hooray, it's Friday," among other inane thoughts.

Worst of all, I didn't call someone that I should have - the person had been on my mind, but I looked up the person's status and decided that I already knew what was going on.  

Then yesterday I was involved in a conversation about setting boundaries on your kids' computer time.  My guys are too little, so I just listened.  I thought about the discussion throughout the day, then when I read about the aforementioned person's restaurant choices, I realized I need to set some boundaries on myself. 

So, I'm taking a Facebook vacation.  I'm not sure when I'll be back.

I'll keep blogging, you just won't see the updates on facebook - I know some of my readers rely on it for updates, but I hope you'll understand and come back via other means: your favorites list or your blog readers lists.

Oh, and please don't think I'm talking about you or dissing you for liking facebook.  I like it.  A lot.  But I think I like it a little too much and need to spend my time a little more wisely.  That's all.  
 
 

 

Tennessee: Dining, Dixie, Drenched, Donuts

This is the third and last installment of our week-long-multi-generational-family vacation to The Great Smoky Mountains.

Matthew and Nathan enjoyed several meals al fresco on the deck.

We called it "feeding the bears" (that's to be taken both figuratively AND literally)

Here's Evan entertaining his cousins while the big people dine

Dixie Stampede dinner is served without silverware!

This is such a fun show, complete with horses, games, Dolly Parton, and blinking costumes!

It was also our 8th anniversary dinner date...:)

Cheers, Aunt Kim and Uncle Steve!  

Our anniversary dinner immortalized.  Awwww....

Last day of the trip, we chose to hike to Laurel Falls, just 1.3 miles

UPHILL.

Ever push a 40lb. stroller + 43lb. of baby uphill 1.3 miles?

We did!  

Okay, Steve did.  I pushed for maybe 5 minutes.  Steve had been pushing for half a mile or so, and kindess (guilt?) got the better of me, so I started pushing.  A couple minutes later, one guy passed, looked at Steve and said, "Why aren't you pushing?"  He wouldn't let me push it anymore!  We admired the falls for about 10 minutes before the skies opened up and it started RAINING!  Are you KIDDING me!  So we hustled back down the hill in record time.

Then it was time to go.  We hugged and kissed everyone and began the long drive home, with a pit stop at

to fuel our caffeine and sugar tanks for the road.  Approximately 16 hours later (we barely took our feet off the gas - and I navigated through Chicago, thankyouverymuch) we looked like this:

The end.

Tennessee: Bears and Fish

Last week's blogging absence was due to our family vacation to Gatlinburg, TN.  We met my parents, sister, brother-in-law and two nephews down there and spent the week hanging out and seeing the sights.  Because my husband and I completely lost our minds, due to flight complications, we drove from MN to TN, and due to vehicle complications, we took a Buick Lacrosse, the loaner car from the body shop.  I just mention it because you'll see it in the upcoming photos and because I think it's quite funny that we drove such an old man car, putting 2000 miles on someone else's vehicle! 

Okay, first things first.  We got there on Saturday and while we were driving up the mountain (yes, UP a MOUNTAIN) and into the drive, we saw a bear just steps away from the place we were staying.

Here he is, walking away from the car- that's the door handle behind the driver's seat you see!

He's hard to see because of the window glare, but he's behind our car, in between the boys!  (They were SO POOPED from the long drive, not to mention mom and dad.)  Our family friends (at whose house were were staying) had warned us of the bears and while we hoped to see one - way off in the distance - we didn't expect it to show up while we were pulling in on our first night!    We sat in the car, wondering if we should get out for several minutes.

Fish: Father's Day was Sunday, and the whole family spent it together at Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies.  It was quite an impressive aquarium, too - something you wouldn't expect to be found in a mountain town!  Kudos to my sister for coordinating the event!

Nathan and Steve get up close and personal with some fish

Matthew's turn! Both boys enjoyed being "inside" the cylindrical fish tank.

Then we took our little sugar bears back to our mountain house and grilled steaks on the deck with the family for our Father's Day dinner.  Happy Father's Day, Steve!

P.S. Stay tuned for tomorrow's blog: Tennessee:Dollywood and Dixie Stampede!

P.P.S. To my blog friend who requested traveling tips: don't drive from Minnesota to Tennessee.

"i cant even believe you take care of these kids everyday by yourself!

1. Happy 30th Birthday to my wonderful husband!  Welcome to the club - glad to have you along, finally!  May this year be filled with more wonderful blessings and much love.

2. I confess, I took a few days off of blogging and LIFE.  Hubs and I took our first "vacation" since the boys were born.  I know, you're all like, HUH?, remembering our pics of Hawaii and St. Maartin last winter, but the truth is, we haven't had a vacation- just the two of us, WITHOUT him having to work for at least part of it, for 3 YEARS.  Yeah, I know!  Ludicrous.  So, we left the munchkins with their grandaparents and flew off to an undisclosed location for 3 FABULOUS nights.  What did we do?  Next to nothing!  Seriously, we took maybe a dozen pictures- 10 of the sunsets and two of us eating.  Because we just laid on the beach, ATE, and slept in. 

• Those of you with twins know that you spend the first year of their life sleeping with one ear open.  I know I don't have much to complain about, since they've been sleeping through the night since they were 4 months old, but...I got to sleep in till 8:30!  Isn't that crazy?!  (Well, sort of crazy, since 8:30 EST is like 7:30 CST, which is only 30 minutes later than every day of my life, but you get what I'm saying.)  Because after that I got to take a shower without having to put the kids down for their morning nap first and eat my breakfast without having to cut it up into a million tiny pieces for the boys to share.  Heavenly!
• The best part was when my 19 year-old brother-in-law texted me this: "i cant even believe you take care of these kids everyday by yourself! haha"  I haven't laughed so hard in months!  

3. Did I miss the boys?  Hm.  How do I say this kindly?  Well, I thought I would and I did call no more than twice a day to check on them.  They'd never been left behind before.  We talked about them a lot, but it was kind of like they were 4 or 5 and would have really enjoyed a beach trip.  For example:

• We watched several families with kids playing on the beach, in the water, building sandcastles, collecting shells.  I would think (and say) that the boys would have so much fun doing these things.  Then I would laugh!  They're 12 months old!  They would eat the shells and sand!  Who am I kidding?
• We'd see families with older kids (lots of them had 2 boys!) eating out.  I'd watch and think, isn't that cute?  Aren't they so well behaved?  Wait!  All those kids were texting, or playing handheld video games or watching a DVD.  Will I really sink to this level in a few years? 

4. When we (finally) got back last night, the boys were just fine, having been well-taken-care of by their grandparents, aunt and uncles.  I suspect they were fed marshmallows for dinner once, but no one's fessing up to it.  I know they missed me, though, because I put them down to bed - like normal, none of that grandma-rocking!- and this is what I hear, mournfully, through the monitor: "MaaaaaaMaaaaaa!  MaaaaaaaMaaaaa!  MAAAAAAMAAAAAA!"  Yep, my little mama's boy is crying out for me, (My little daddy's boy is already sound asleep!)  and I had to go give him some snuggles.

All in all, a wonderful trip, but I'm glad to be back "taking care of these kids everyday by myself!"

Back to Regular Life

Yesterday Steve's family headed back to Michigan after a fun-filled week we called "Staycation," and we're sad to see it end.  Even though the weather was cloudy, foggy, and overall just plain yucky, we managed to fit a lot of fun into a short amount of time.  Now the fellas are looking around the house like, "Where did everyone go?"

We had so much fun playing Wii bowling at the house - here's Aunt L being "fierce" -

that we decided to go "for real!" Nathan and Matthew enjoyed watching all the action and playing with us between turns.  And before you get all, SHE TOOK BABIES TO THE BOWLING ALLEY?! on me, this was a fantastic local family bowling alley that was totally smoke-free.  Again, what took us so long to do this?  It's literally a mile down the road!  And Grandpa's back was bothering him too much to bowl (too many water slides the day before?), so we just took the babysitter with us

Here's Steve being "fierce!"  What's funny about this is that us girls beat the boys three games in a row!  No thanks to me, though.  It turns out that I'm not such a hot bowler, even though I played Wii for WAYYYY longer than I'll admit to on Friday night in preparation for the big day - and yes, I earned my pro status back.  However, it did not help one bit at a "real" bowling alley.  Grandma A, who hadn't picked up a ball since she was 8 and a 1/2 months preggy with my hubby, kicked all our butts!  Go Grandma, go!

Uncle A and Matthew with one more baba...I'm really impressed with both of my brothers-in-law, who did an incredible job playing with and feeding the fellas.  Don't worry, guys, we'll work on diapering skills next time!

Everyone is back home, back to work, and back to school today.  Back to regular life.  When my sister and brothers-in-law hear their college friends talking about Spring Break, I hope they'll know how much it means to me that they chose to spend it with us in the lousy Minnesota weather that's not really winter or spring to be able to spend time with their nephews.  Love you all and can't wait to see you again.

Staycation Report Three

Our staycation is winding down, but there is still one more day of fun to be had. The family photos finally came online, so here are a couple of shots:

I'm glad we started with the boys' 9 month photos because they were very smiley in the beginning.  Our normally-serious Matthew was loving the photo shoot.

You want me to do what?  Smile?  Gimme a break - I do that all day long.

What a cutie pie!

Nathan finally smiled in this one, but we didn't buy it because Matthew's waving cast a shadow on this face.  He was waving at the photographers!

And didn't L do a great job on my hair?  Wowsers, wish I had her here every time I needed it done!

Matthew LOVED the Water Park of America!  He immediately wanted to crawl in the water.

Look at those big-boy swimming trunks!  They're hardly babies anymore *sniff*.

Here we are after cruising the Lazy River, my favorite part.  Both boys LOVED the park - they splashed and played, and enjoyed watching the masses of kids riding the rides. It was our first indoor water park experience - wonder what took us so long?  It was great fun!

Staycation Report Two

The boys are loving all the attention and action this week!  I'm afraid they'll be bored out of their skulls next week when we're back to the ol' grind, but until then, let the good times roll!

Like I said, the boys and I opted out of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts/Punch Pizza/Downtown Tour on Wednesday, so I don't have any great pics of that adventure for you.  You all want to see the boys, anyhow, so we'll move on to Thursday, Staycation Day Four.

Thursday is ECFE for us, so we took special guest, Grandma, to class with us!

I caught Nathan kissing himself in the mirror!

Just had to snap this cute shot of little girl friend A, Nathan, and Matthew all dressed in green stripes and playing with the green balls in the green bucket.  Too cute!

Here we are at our favorite restaurant, Teresa's, celebrating Grandma and Grandpa's 32nd wedding anniversary.  The boys are sitting in big boy chairs like the pros they are!

Aunt L and I made their anniversary cake from scratch: Silver White Cake with Lemon Filling and Fluffy White Frosting.  It tasted delicious and was worth the humongous mess we made in the kitchen.

Here's where I would add the family photos we took that evening at a local portrait studio, but the proofs aren't yet online as of this writing.  But I can tell you they look great!  Aunt L gave me the salon treatment before we left so my hair and makeup looks incredible!  Oh, and everyone else looks good too! The boys behaved well and Matthew was smiling like crazy, so we got some beautiful shots.  Nathan refused to give us his million-dollar smile in the studio, though.  He reserved it for the car rides there and back, of course.  But no fear, we got some good shots of him, too.  I'm glad to finally make it into a family portrait!

Then we sent Grandma and Grandpa on a surprise anniversary date complete with prime rib and roses.  They seem to have had a good time.   Daddy and Uncle A were in charge of the baths last night, and they did a great job because the fellas conked out and we didn't hear a peep until 7 am this morning.  The rest of us who weren't on a date or sleeping played Wii bowling all night.  Unfortunately, I'm out of practice and lost my pro status (Boo!), but developed an interesting running-at-the-tv technique that scored me 4 strikes in a row!  So maybe I can earn my pro status back tonight!

We're off to Waterpark of America right after morning nap, so stay tuned for some cuter-than-cute baby swimsuit shots at our next update!

Staycation Report One

Whew!  Finally, a break in the action to fill my clamoring audience in on the details of our family "staycation!"  Steve's siblings are on Spring Break this week, so his family came out to the Twin Cities to spend some time with us and the babes.  We're having a blast and keeping busy showing them around some of our favorite spots in the area.

Here's me, Matthew, and Nathan at the beginning of our day at the Mall of America, visiting Nickelodeon Universe where Uncles D & A are about to spend many hours fighting G-forces.

 Uncle D, Me, Uncle A, and Aunt L: I conceded to riding ONE roller coaster of their choice - The Fairly Odd Coaster.  I found it fairly odd that the thrill wasn't quite the same as it was more than half a decade ago, when I last rode a coaster.

At the Rainforest Cafe, Nathan and Matthew tried out the "big boy" restaurant high chairs for the first time.  They sat and ate very well, but seemed a little leery of the big yellow Moray eel staring at us and the gorillas beating their chests overhead.

 Here we are in in the "Tropics Trail" at the Minnesota Zoo on Staycation Day Two!  We saw monkeys, turtles, flamingos, and a Malayan tapir in there!

We took the monorail around the zoo to see bears, bison, tigers and allegedly, moose.

Aunt L and Uncle A enjoyed Discovery Bay, where kids big and small are allowed to touch the starfish.

Days One and Two wiped the boys out, so I'm home with them this afternoon to rest while the others galavant around the Minneapolis Art Institute, Punch Pizza, and heaven only knows where else!  Stay tuned for more Staycation reports!

"Mister, your baby is staring at me."

We're used to people asking questions about the boys when we're out in public. We have prepared answers for "Are they twins?" Yes. "Are they identical?" No. "Do twins run in your family?" They do now. But what do you say to the little boy waiting behind you on the jetbridge who says as you're boarding the plane, "Mister, your baby is staring at me!"

That's how our mini-tropical St. Maarten trip began on Saturday night. My funny husband said, "It's because he wants you to take care of him on the plane ride tonight," and pretended to hand Matthew over to the kid! (Actually, it began with 8 oz. of breastmilk dumped into our diaper backpack as we backed out of the driveway going to the airport, but that's not a fun anecdote to start with.)

We spent one night in Atlanta because we didn't feel like we'd make a 40 minute connection between flights on Sunday morning. The night in the hotel was unremarkable, but I have to mention it because I snapped this adorable pic. I wonder if the Crown Plaza needs baby models, because this is an advertisement if I've ever seen one!

We bought this Snap and Go stroller for 20 bucks off of Craigslist because we need one that fits through the Xray machine when we fly. It clearly had a rough life before we adopted it, but we like to think that we gave it some love in its golden years. Now, the poor stroller has two wheels in the grave, because when we landed in St. Maarten, the rear axle was bent so badly it wouldn't move. My muscle-bound man wrestled it into barely-working order so we could squeak around the island for two days. Stroller funeral will be held upon our homecomeing to MN. Please send condolences to the blog comment section.

Me, Nathan, Matthew and aforementioned stroller enjoying the sunset.

Steve actually DID have to do some work on Monday morning, during which time I put the boys down for a nap and washed their dishes in the bathroom sink. We headed out to the pool when he came back and it was a good thing, too. The fellas had been practicing their flipping-over skills on the beds, desperately trying to reach the tile floor.

Matthew's unblinking stare!

Steve and Nathan's self-pool-portrait

Nathan loves to splash in the water!

Matthew just loves swimming!

We were able to dip their toes into the Atlantic, too. The ocean was a little too loud or a little too sandy or maybe they were a little too tired to think it was fun. The boys were not upset or crying about it, but they were not enjoying it, either. So that excursion was a short one...it took longer to get us all slathered up with SPF 50 then bathed afterward than it did to visit the ocean. But it was worth it!

It was a lot of hassle getting there and a TREMENDOUS hassle getting back (try missing a flight and renting a car to drive from Atlanta to Michigan OVERNIGHT to make it home for Christmas when you've been awake since 4:30am - now that's what I call a good time!), but when someone asked me if it was worth it, I say yes. Wouldn't you?

Nathan sleeping, Matthew with Steve on the balcony watching the planes land. Airplane geeks, stay tuned: I'm saving the most incredible airplane shots for its own entry!

Hawaii Highlights

Yes, we did.  We took two five-month-olds to Hawaii.  Now I know we are officially crazy!  Hubby had to do some business in HI, so we decided to extend his trip by a few days and take our first family vacation.Let me share with you some highlights:

1.   The plane!  We couldn't have done it without help, so Grandma A. and Aunt L. came along.  We flew from MSP to Honolulu, then caught a flight from HNL to Kona, on the Big Island.   The boys were very good on the flights, but would NOT sleep!  You've read about how Matthew won't close his eyes and he was true to form on this trip. 

Aunt L. and me suiting up to go through security at MSP.

Matthew, Nathan, and Grandma A. playing on the plane.

Me, Aunt L, and the boys with ALL OUR JUNK in Kona, waiting for hubby and the rental car (ok, mini-van-no convertible on this trip!)

2. The condo!  We spent a lot of time hanging out at the condo, more that we would have on a "normal" vacation, but I've decided that nothing is going to be normal again!  Not that it ever was, though....  Anyhow, we stayed in a really great place with both ocean and mountain views out the windows.  Hubby and I had to keep the pack 'n plays in our room, which was new to us, so we got a little less sleep than "normal."

Nathan and Matthew doing tummy time Hawaiian style.

 

First Hawaiian sunset just steps from the condo

Aunt L, Daddy and Matthew hanging out.

3. The pool!  This turned out to be one of my favorite activities!  We don't usually spend a lot of time at the pool, but it looks like we will now that we have children.  The boys really seemed to enjoy the dip!

Steve and Matthew

Nathan and me.  I love this photo for two reasons: first, Nathan is just so stinkin' cute here, and second, it makes me look great in a swimsuit!

The four of us playing motorboat

4. The beaches!  The van was full of chairs, umbrellas, boogie boards, snacks and a cooler - our days of taking just a towel are long gone.  Having four adults made it possible for everyone to snorkel, boogie board, swim, and walk along the beach.  The boys really seemed to enjoy the sea breeze and slept most of the time.

Nathan sleeping at Place of Refuge

Daddy, Matthew and Aunt L. putting on sunblock at Turtle Beach

I dip Matthew and Steve dips Nathan into the ocean for the first time at Kahalu'u Beach

The beautiful walk that wasn't.  Every trip has to have a meltdown and Matthew had his at Ka'upulehu Beach while we were strolling down a MAGNIFICENT path in front of the Four Seasons Resort.  If this were a video, you'd hear Matthew's ear piercing screams as we walked back to the van.  (Sigh)

5. Mountain Thunder Coffee!  You might remember my  previous post about visiting a coffee farm; we got to go again.  All of us on the trip are big time coffee lovers so it was the perfect place to visit on our last day.  While we drove up the mountain, the temperature dropped from 85 to about 68, and it became misty and grey.  It's like driving through a jungle, then opening your van door to the delicious aroma of roasting coffee beans.  Mmmm...

Our first visit to TMC in 2007

2009, starting them young!  Just kidding, the boys and I are not drinking coffee...yet.

6. Coming home.  Not a highlight, but I had to have an excuse to add this pic.  See how tired we were when we boarded the plane?  You can only imagine what we looked like by the time we got home!

7. Many thanks and much love to Grandma A and Aunt L, our nannies, photographers, and sanity-savers.  We love you!