Assuming WordPress isn’t lying to me, this is our 100th post on this family blog. Fitting I guess that this one is all about a trip we took in late June / early July to visit our family!

Weary hikers with limited tolerance for photographs

Our vacation started, as Woods vacations are wont to do, with a bit of trouble. Sean stayed up really, really late either on the phone or trying to finish things up for his job before he left town for the week. This forced two outcomes: 1 – Sean only slept about 1.5 hours and 2 – because I was doing all the packing and kid-wrangling work, I think I only managed about 4 hours of sleep. On top of that our connecting flight was delayed for about an hour and a half out of Charlotte, so two tired grownups had to try to entertain a couple of rambunctious kids for an extra hour and a half at the airport.

Either way, we eventually made it to Knoxville, TN, where most of Sean’s extended family lives. Our AirBNB house was nice enough, and we could all comfortably spread out and not get in each other’s way. Lolli and Pop and AP and Steele came over and we all had Pizza Palace for dinner.

Steele (4), AP (9), Maya (6), Ian (4)

The next day we went to the family reunion picnic at Sean’s cousin Cathy’s house. This was our primary reason for visiting, or at least our primary reason for the timing of our visit. The kids had fun playing in Cathy’s pool. The grownups had fun sitting still and idly chit-chatting with each other. The kids managed to have such a good time that they conked out during the short drive over to Sean’s Aunt Glenda and Uncle Jerry’s house. After a quick visit there, the still-tired grownups had leftovers for dinner back at the AirBNB house.

After we woke up and had a pre-breakfast, we hit Duck Donuts for our vacation doughnut fix. The kids talked Lolli and Pop into buying them little rubber ducks, and we all enjoyed our doughnuts. They had an out-of-this-world good texture, and the flavors were interesting enough.

Lost Sea Adventure

After letting the kids blow off some steam at the park, we drove out to Sweetwater, TN to check out the Lost Sea Adventure. Unlike our cavern adventure in Texas, this cavern was blissfully cool. We took a fairly easy walk down, down, down through the caverns and then had a brief boat ride on an underwater lake. It was fun watching the fish swim around down there, and I got the impression the kids had a good time.

We enjoyed the country buffet for late lunch / early dinner at a place called The Dinner Bell on our way back to the house. We indulged in a bit of relaxing on the couch before heading into Knoxville proper to test out ice cream from Cruze Farm Dairy and taking a walk to the Sunsphere to go up and see the city.

The next morning we had breakfast at Rami’s Cafe, where I think I would happily eat breakfast every day of my life. We had a slow start that day, but we eventually got the kids out to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for a visit. Sean wanted to take them on the Chimney Tops Trail. It’s one he remembers fondly from childhood, but it’s pretty long and difficult for little kids, and it turns out forest fires had destroyed some of the trail and it hadn’t been fully restored yet.

Maya and Ian hiking with Lolli and Pop!

We chose to try it out anyway. Those kids covered 3.7 miles out and back with a 1400-foot elevation gain on the way there, easily their longest hike to date. Ian was carried just a tiny bit. Maya chugged through it on her own. Both have requested that we go on more hikes.

We had dinner at a place in Gatlinburg called Cherokee Grill. The wait was longish and the service was slowish, but the food was really good, especially after that hike. Sean and I were happy for the experience of the Smokies we were able to show the kids, but it was veeeeery late when we finally got them to bed.

Given that, our last day in Knoxville was a pretty laid back affair. We had an easy morning playing around the house and eating breakfast at Rami’s again. We watched Toy Story 4 at the Regal Riviera and then enjoyed doughnut and ice cream treats afterward. We relaxed at the house through the afternoon and had a leisurely dinner at Fountain City Diner (yum).

Travel into Missouri was uneventful, and we arrived in Friedheim in the afternoon. The kids immediately went into playing mode after being cooped in airplanes and cars all day.

Dinner was sort of funny. My parents pray before dinner, and Ian wanted to know all about the “song” they “sang” before they ate their dinner. I guess the kids had simply never noticed the pre-meal prayers before this visit.

Ian on one of Grandpa’s tractors

The next day, actual 4th of July, the blow-up pool came out along with water guns and water balloons. The kids had a TON of fun with all that, but it was marginally controlled chaos for everyone else. All their aunts, uncles, and cousins came over for the big Independence Day celebration. “Baby Paul” was super smiley and sort of crawling. Maya had fun being thrown around by Uncle Jade.

Fireworks in the country

We did smaller fireworks with the kids in the afternoon and then we all lined the porches for the big fireworks show in the evening. It was a late night and we had blissfully tired kiddos when it was through.

They were so tired, they actually slept until 7:30! That doesn’t happen too often. After a morning full of playing and lunch at Imo’s, we visited Great Grandma Schmidt. The kids are always excited to see her … and her cuckoo clock … and her treats and toys.

A torrential downpour cancelled our creek visit for that day, but the kids still played in the pool at Grammy and Grandpa’s once the rain stopped.

The next day, the kids went out to the pond to feed the fish and turtles. Before we left, out of the thin blue air, Maya asked if they had a fishing pole she could try out. Apparently she’d seen a video on youtube and wanted to give it a go. As luck would have it, there was a fishing pole.

Feeding turtles and fish with Grammy

Grandpa got it all baited up and ready to go while an over-excited Maya drove him crazy. They had to cast a few times, but finally, she caught a fish! She and Grandpa reeled in a little catfish that Maya proudly held. Given Maya’s success, Ian wanted to try too, and almost right away, he and grandpa caught a bluegill! The kids were both so, so excited. And now they have completely unreasonable expectations of what fishing is *really* like.

Catching fish with Grandpa

Becky and Iris came by the house after lunch, and we all went to the creek for awhile. Even after playing in the water all afternoon, they came back to the house and played in the blow up pool again. A little kid plastic slide was added to the mix for even more fun. They enjoyed bath time in Grammy and Grandpa’s giant tub, we had more Imo’s for dinner, and that was that. The next day, we took a late flight home, and as I recall (half a year later), our travel was uneventful.

June was just kind of a busy, fun month. For Texas, it wasn’t too terribly hot, I don’t remember anyone getting sick. And generally speaking, I just don’t recall a lot of drama.

Kayaking with Dad.

The weekend after our little Galveston trip, we went to Sean’s annual work picnic. Every year, they do some sort of food contest, and this year it was all about homemade sausage. Sean’s boss seemed completely convinced that I would be entering. I was completely convinced that I was not. I’m not competitive by nature. Having not made sausage since before the kids were born, I was way out of practice, and on top of that, it’s pretty labor intensive. Plus, I find social gatherings to be stressful by default. Add to it the need to compete and I was worried I’d melt down.

Finally though, over memorial day weekend, I gave in. We had a three-day stretch with no plans, so we gathered up supplies and I made some roasted poblano sausage and some hot dogs, vacuum-packed them, and stored them in the freezer. Even with that done though, I informed Sean that I wasn’t competing. I was just bringing things to share with the group. Sean’s boss can be … and I’m trying to find polite words here … impervious to any argument, well-reasoned or otherwise. Anyway, so I was entered in the contest. I was largely either ignored or harassed through the cooking, and I dropped one of my two pans of sausages when I was moving them from the grill to the table. But in the end, I won the contest. I will not be entering again. The good part about the whole thing was that Maya was SUPER proud that her mom won a trophy, so I’m going to lean into that.

While at the picnic, Sean was able to take the kids out in a canoe, which they both really loved. They puttered in the water and collected shells. Maya played with a little minnow-type fish that another kid had caught in his net. We left without any sunburn or serious injuries.

Alamo Drafthouse family party for Secret Life of Pets 2

The very next day, we took them to one of the Alamo Drafthouse’s fun family parties to see Secret Life of Pets 2. Both kids seems to really enjoy the movie – even Ian, who has a lot of trouble caring about a movie for all that long. He was cheering on the characters and during one particularly daring scene even exclaimed, “That was awesome!”

(And immediately following that, we went a birthday party! After which, the entire Woods clan collapsed into an over-scheduled, socially wrung-out heap.)

All through her entire kindergarten year, Maya was perpetually fussed about all the kids losing teeth. The sting became especially intense once Maya had celebrated her 6th birthday and many of the kids who were still *only* five years old were losing teeth. We talked to her about it and tried to assure her, but it did no good.

First tooth lost … and second tooth lost … all in short order.

She had one very loose tooth that we had been discussing. Is she going to lose her tooth while swimming in the ocean, at NASA, at the picnic, in this dark theater? Finally, on that Sunday night, after the very busy weekend, after hearing her lament the fact that she’d never lose a tooth, we explained to her that if she sort of slowly but firmly wiggled her loose tooth back and forth, she could probably convince it to come out. And she did it! It took a little while, and it hurt a bit, but she got the job done by herself. Pure elation radiated from her body as she shot comet-like back and forth through the house. She was thrilled to have finally lost a tooth.

Since we were working through bedtime routines and getting the house buttoned up for the night, we weren’t paying especially great attention to what Maya was up to. She had a second loose tooth right next to the one she had just extracted. This one wasn’t nearly so wiggly as the first one, but apparently Maya was a girl on a mission. She wiggled that second tooth back and forth and back and forth and eventually coaxed it out as well, albeit with considerably more bleeding. I’m not sure “lost” is the right word here, but the girl had now lost two teeth in a single night. And since then, I’m not sure she’s even had one that’s been loose.

She thinks she looks mean.

Not long after we got library cards, Maya had checked out a book about skateboarding. As we read it to her, her excitement became palpable. She decided that she too wanted to learn to skateboard. We thought it maybe wouldn’t stick, but over the course of a few months, she saved up her money and did some shopping around and on the day she had saved enough, she proudly plunked down her own money to buy her own skateboard. Mom and Dad ponied up the cash for safety gear.

We watched a few youtube videos on how best to get started. After some practice during her first outing with her board, she was able to move herself forward and tentatively balance. The asphalt wasn’t the easiest surface to ride on (or fall on), so we even took her down to the local skate park one morning. Again, she did pretty well for a rank beginner. We had found a relatively quiet corner to practice in, but it was a little terrifying with all the accomplished skaters, roller-bladers, and BMXers zooming around. I didn’t want her to get hurt, and I didn’t want her to cause an accident either. Ian rode his little scooter around while Maya practiced skateboarding. The kids had fun watching the people doing tricks in the big curvy pool part of the park. Maya earned several grins as she cheered people on.

Tie-dying shirts for Dad (and themselves).

We even managed to celebrate Father’s Day. The kids made tie-dyed shirts for Dad (and themselves). Together we baked him some of his favorite aged chocolate chip cookies. And I made him a lasagna for dinner while he built his Steamboat Willie legos with the kids. All in all, it was a quiet day, but I think he enjoyed it.

And toward the end of the month, Sean and I got to go see one of our favorite bands from our college years – Jawbreaker! We missed them when they came through town last year and weren’t going to make that mistake again. The show was great and we had fun, but it may have been nicer if audience members weren’t flinging cans of beer at the band. Honestly, who buys an $8 can of beer just to hurl it at the stage?

The kids have been asking and asking for a beach trip. I am the only non-beach person in the house, so every now and then, I just have to give in. Having not been before, we decided we’d try out Galveston. We had originally thought we’d go over Memorial Day weekend, but we actually decided to save money and fight less crowding by going the weekend after.

We left on a Thursday around 9:30 in the morning. Galveston, without kids in the car at least, is about a 3.5 hour drive from Austin. With the kids and a couple stops, I think it was closer to a 5 hour drive. No matter! We got there in time to get settled into our rental condo and after unwinding for a bit, loaded up the car and drove to Stewart Beach.

Beach day number one

Every website we looked at (which wasn’t many) listed Stewart Beach as the most family friendly. Seeing as it was basically the only one we went to, I can’t offer any comparison notes, but it certainly was easy on our family of four. The beach is wide and relatively clean. We could find plenty of seaweed-free space to spread out our blankets and toys and relax. You could walk forever out into the water and not have it come over your head.

The water is brown, and one’s initial reaction might be “yuck, what am I swimming in?” Evidently, the brown color is largely the result of suspended sediments from freshwater rivers pouring into the gulf and carried around by various currents. Our kids were completely unfazed. As usual, we had to chase Maya to keep her from drowning. Ian was a little more hesitant, but as long as he could hold onto someone’s hand, he was all-in as well. Maya’s favorite game was to walk out where the water was about belly-high and let the incoming waves crash into her and knock her over. Ian wanted to play this game too, except he wanted to jump up high enough that the waves didn’t knock him over.

The scary part for Mom and Dad was that those Galveston suspended sediments were so thick that if a kid fell over in the water, you weren’t seeing them again till they popped back up. Alas, everyone survived and when the sun was well on its way toward setting, we all walked up and showered off the sand and saltwater (and sediment) and bundled up in our towels for the drive back to the condo.

Maya had a fearsome hankering for fried shrimp, so we went to our friendly neighborhood Shrimp and Stuff and settled in for a glorious fried-seafood extravaganza. Ian, being Ian, had a glorious plate of fried chicken strips. We got home late and collapsed in beach-smelling heaps in our rental house beds.

They LOVED the bunk beds. Don’t tell our pediatrician.

The kids, by the way, LOVED their bunk beds. They negotiated over who got to sleep with which giant stuffed sea creature each night but otherwise, the beds were drama-free. Ours, while also drama-free, was one of the most uncomfortable I’ve slept on in recent memory. On one hand, it was probably the smallest queen I ever did see, but it made up for it by encouraging both of us to roll to the center of the bed where we routinely woke each other up. Whatever, we were at the beach and everyone was having fun.

The next morning, we headed out to indulge in what has become a Woods family vacation staple – doughnuts. This morning’s destination was a place called Home Cut Donuts. It was fine. Solid donuts, decent kolaches.

We went back to the condo and got everyone suited up to play in the pool for a while. We had brought a kick board. Someone else had left a couple of pool floaties and a boogie board. Ian swam and even jumped from the edge of the pool, which is something he had been hesitant to do in his swim classes. Maya had fun doing her own Maya thing, but had to learn a few tough lessons about pool courtesy and sharing with others.

We had lunch at a joint called Cajun Greek. I think we generally wound up more cajun than greek with what we ordered, but I recall it being good and that the woman waiting on us was incredibly nice.

We grabbed our jackets and went to the Moody Gardens aquarium pyramid after lunch for our scheduled date with a penguin. Moody Gardens is a sprawling affair with many different attractions to explore, but we were really trying to make this a laid-back beach vacation, so we focused in on just visiting the aquarium. Why the aquarium? Because I learned you could meet penguins there, and I was completely enchanted by the notion.

Fontina, the macaroni penguin

At our scheduled time, the four of us met our penguin expert and bundled up for the trip back into the cold. As we walked past the gate that led out to the penguin habitat, several curious penguins wandered up to check us out. We were right there next to them, listening to their loud calls, smelling their interesting smells.

We wandered back through the food prep area where they showed how they prepared the penguins’ meals. Our guide explained to us the various types of penguins they kept and the conservation efforts they undertook. And then we were ushered into our room. Fontina the macaroni penguin waddled in to make our acquaintance. She made paintings for us, stole the guide’s keys, carried some rocks around, tried to disassemble the latch on Sean’s camera bag. We got to talk to her and pet her and learn a little about her life at the aquarium. Penguins are indescribably soft! I couldn’t get over how soft Fontina’s feathers were.

The kids seemed most fascinated by her painting efforts. They may have been a little jealous that they didn’t get to make a painting too. Ian in particular seemed to really enjoy petting her though.

So many jellies

Both before and after our visit with Fontina, we were able to wander through the rest of the aquarium. We saw sharks and a really neat array of jellyfish, and Maya even saw one poor huddled up giant pacific octopus. We watched seals and sea lions swimming, swimming, swimming in seemingly endless loops. The best part though was the Humboldt penguins. We had seen one early on who we were fairly certain was interacting with us. But near the exit, we saw more Humboldt penguins and they were straight up playing with the kids. Ian would run back and forth with his newly acquired plush seal toy (who he named Seal) and the penguin would just chase him and chase him. Ian would stop and the penguin would kind of wait, watching him. And then they’d start their game over again. The penguin was perfectly willing to chase Maya too, but she lost interest pretty fast.

We snuck into the Strand area of Galveston for a visit to La King’s to acquire ice cream and chocolate malt. Their candy display ran for miles. There was a fellow making taffy in the back. The other side of the store had an old-time soda fountain look and feel. It was magic for the kids. Maya, Ian, and Sean enjoyed their frozen treats and then each made several selections from the huge variety of taffy available there.

After a rest at the condo and an unremarkable takeout pizza experience (they offered toasted ravioli, but they were absolutely *not* up to this Missourian’s standards), we decided a nighttime beach walk might be fun. All we had to do was cross the street. We heard the waves crashing, saw the jellyfish glowing, and unbeknownst to Mom and Dad, someone absolutely loaded her shorts-pockets with seashells. Maya looked like she had been outfitted with saddlebags, her pockets were so distended.

The next morning, we tried out Dawn Donuts. Again, the doughnuts were fine, solid, perfectly acceptable. I did find that pastry-wrapped boudin may be a thing we have to try at home, because YUM.

We played in the pool till lunchtime, and I was noticing Ian acting a little strange. I didn’t really think much of it, having chalked it up to him having had a late night and the swimming consuming a lot of energy. We wandered over to Sunflower Cafe for lunch, and Ian was acting weirder still. After some parental troubleshooting we decided that he felt feverish. Sigh. You know it’s a Woods vacation when one of the kids gets sick. We trucked through our lunch and bought some beautiful baked goods to enjoy later. And then all of us went to the condo where Ian had some medicine and all of us had a nap.

The beach is their happy place

Ian seemed to be feeling a lot better after his rest, so we decided to hit the beach one more time. Stewart Beach had worked out so well before that we just decided to go there again. We again all played till twilight was looming. Then I got the kids bathed while Sean fetched some more Shrimp and Stuff for dinner.

The next day, we made a quick breakfast of leftovers and worked on loading up the car. This was NASA day. It just so happens that Space Center Houston was on our way back home, and it just so happens that admission was covered by our Thinkery membership. We figured we would stop in and see as much as the kids’ patience allowed. We will need to go back.

Saturn V rocket is massive

Our visit started with a tram tour to see Mission Control. The kids liked riding the tram, but they were pretty bored listening to the (very brief) lecture at Mission Control. Our next stop though was Rocket Park. We saw some other “small” rockets, but the highlight of course was the giant Saturn V rocket. The kids had been able to pick it out of a lineup of model rockets back at the mission control building, and seeing it in actual size did seem to leave an impression. That thing is truly huge.

Favorite quote from the displays around the rocket: “… it’s a hostile environment, and it’s trying to kill you. The outside temperature goes from a -450 degrees to a +300 degrees. You sit in a flying Thermos bottle.” Walter M. Schirra.

Back at the space center, we had a quick lunch and then headed outside to see the 747 with the high fidelity replica space shuttle. The kids liked this part because they got to climb around and actually see things. They got bored more quickly than we did though, so there wasn’t just a whole lot of time for reading of museum information. By this time, the kids were losing interest and Ian was starting to look puny again.

Once inside, we made sure we all got to touch the moon rock sample. Then after a quick spin by the gift shop, we loaded up and headed back to Austin. There were some truly amazing looking things at that museum that we didn’t get to see. I feel strongly that a return trip is in order.

May, as probably all the parents of school-aged children probably feel, has been a berzerker. We made it through the usual pile of end of school year events and celebrations, but we added in the extra pain of illness, car repairs, and unexpected schedule changes just to make it truly memorable!

Maya the male mallard duck

First up was the kindergarten pond expo. Maya loves ducks. They are second only to octopuses in her hierarchy of beloved creatures. So when she told us she wanted to dress up as a duck for the pond expo, we weren’t surprised. After all, Maya explained to us, there are no freshwater octopuses. This was meant to be a student-driven project, so we talked about the kinds of ducks she had seen at the ponds she’s visited, but all the decisions and most of the execution were her own. She loves the color green, so she decided she’d be a male mallard. Then she set about designing her costume. I drew the shape of her wings, tied elastic for her feet and super-glued her mask together, but she did all the cutting, painting, and drawing otherwise, and all the ideas were hers. She even had to redesign her duck bill because the first iteration flat-out did not work. It was a very good project. (Funny aside … There were many ducks at the kids’ pond expo, but except for Maya, they were all of the yellow, rubber ducky variety. I’m pretty proud of her!)

Maya LOVES her kindergarten teacher

Teacher appreciation week hit us like an anvil to a coyote. We love our teachers and certainly wanted the kids to show them that, but doing a different thing for each kid every day of the week proved to be pretty wearisome. Maya was all in the entire time; she absolutely LOVES her kindergarten teacher. Ian was interested for the first day or two, but after that, he was kind of half-heartedly playing along.

Ian, spring 2019, age 4

Ian did finally manage to get his spring picture day at school, and of course the photos were adorable. These are the first professional photos we’ve gotten with his glasses, and seriously, that cute little turd just can’t help himself.

Happy mother’s day!

Mother’s Day was a low-key affair. I had breakfast at Ian’s school the Friday before. For the weekend though, I just wanted to not have to cook (and further not make any of the plans or decisions for takeout), and I wanted to hang out with the kids and put together my fancy, new Lego Saturn V rocket set. We spent most of the weekend building it in stages. Ian, understandably, didn’t have the patience to sit quite as long, but he did build some, and  Maya the Lego queen helped me build a fair bit of it. The kids made me really pretty bracelets as well, at the very last minute, of course!

Happy mother’s day rocket!

Ian had been sick the weekend before Mother’s Day – random fever, reduced appetite, otherwise no symptoms. He was better within a couple days. Maya was vomiting for a few days, seemed to get better, and then suddenly was sick again. Right in between those two bouts of illness, Maya managed to squeeze in an art show. She and the other kids in her after school art class assembled trifold displays filled with their artwork. She was supposed to present her work to me and the other parents. Mostly though, she asked how long it would be till she could have some of the punch and cookies offered as post-art-show treats.

Art show!

Maya’s second illness wound up being STREP! I’d never have guessed it. She never complained of her throat hurting and was not really coughing at all. She barfed once and ran a fever. It took the nurses no time though to decide on a strep test and the results of the rapid strep test came back so quickly that our doctor called it before they even told him. The upshot of this is that within 24 hours of starting amoxicillin, she was considered non-contagious, though we let her rest another day beyond that because she was just so worn out!

Tiny dancer’s getting to be a big kid

Ian’s big dance recital was on the 18th. He sported a dazzling silver vest over his favorite rainbow shirt, and his moves were on point. The best part of course is that he seemed so happy and proud of himself! Funny aside: There was a photographer at the event and we went ahead and purchased the photo package he was offering. All the other parents had been explaining which kid was theirs so he’d know which action shots belonged to which family. I started to explain Ian’s outfit and whatnot and the guy kind of cocked his head at me, grinned, and said, something like, “Yeah, I’ll remember him.” I guess being one of only a couple boys the whole day and wearing glasses and a rainbow shirt to boot, he was bound to stand out.

The kids love guinea-pig sitting

The next week, we took care of the McKee-Starling clan’s guinea pigs, which the kids absolutely loved. Sadly, since then, one of these very old and well-loved piggies has passed away.

Bye, bye kindergarten

This was also Maya’s last week of school. Kindergarten has been a very good experience for Maya, and she was in a complicated state of happy-sad about it being over. She loved her teacher. She had friends she enjoyed playing with. She seemed to genuinely enjoy learning new things. We went to her end-of-year party and took silly pictures of her with her friends and watched the play they put on, called The Lonely Fish. Maya played the part of an octopus.

This summer, Maya has been hanging out at Ian’s preschool. Ian, of course, is thrilled that his big sister is coming to his school. Maya seems to be enjoying the mental break (though her teacher asked us very early on if we could send her with an age-appropriate workbook, so maybe she’s not taking that much of a break). We’re doing a couple of local summer reading programs as well, so hopefully those fancy new kindergarten skills don’t atrophy too much. So far, it’s all been going well, and at this point, we have less than a month till Maya starts first grade, and Ian is back to flying solo at preschool.

I’m sure I’ve said before that Maya’s favorite holiday is Easter. She started working on us to gather all the necessary supplies to dye eggs at least a full week before the holiday. That may not sound like much, but this is a monumental display of forethought for fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants Maya.

Working together … sort of.

Both Sean and I have been break-neck busy at work, so many of our things get done at the last possible minute. Ian made crayons and stuffed eggs for his class hunt the day before it occurred. Sean and the kids decorated eggs on Saturday, eggs he had purchased only that morning. The easter bunny bought his extra supplies on Saturday and he and his helper spent part of their Saturday night assembling baskets and stuffing eggs. This all happened really, really late too because Maya was so excited about hunting eggs the next day that she could not sleep. Even the leftover magic confetti from the night before her first day of kindergarten wasn’t helping.

Tradition with Dad

Sean and I made a plan that I would get up at 6 and sneak out to hide eggs. I hadn’t thought through the fact that I would be doing so in the dark. The eggs were hidden though, and I managed to not accidentally step on any of them. I crawled back under the covers at 6:11. At 6:15, I heard Maya spring out of bed, followed shortly by Ian. I guess I will need to get up earlier next year because wow, was that close!

Ian’s basket contained an incredibly soft stuffed bunny who he has dubbed “Easter Bun Bun,” to distinguish from the bunny Maya sewed for him whose name is just Bun Bun. Maya received a chicken puppet who I believe she named Beeyawk! after a line from a book she had recently fallen in love with called “A Hen for Izzy Pippik” by Aubrey Davis.

These two!

After a very hasty breakfast, we got the kids into their fancy duds, and they pelted out into the yard. The eggs were gathered in record time. Cascarones were cracked over heads. Photos were begrudgingly stood for.

Our friend Larry, of the Seattle Leone family, was in town for work, and we wound up spending most of the rest of our Sunday with him. Our kids love, love, LOVE grownups, so they were really excited to see him. Plus, he arrived bearing gifts of PEZ dispensers. At that point, Maya and Ian might have traded us in for him.

We had hot chicken at T-22 for lunch and took a hike up to an overlook for the Pennybacker bridge in the afternoon. Then the kids took him to their favorite restaurant, Freddy’s, for dinner, where both kids insisted on sitting with him.

Poor Larry – they would not leave him alone! 

Larry sports a shaved short hairdo, and Maya was completely obsessed with it.  We have had many, many conversations with our children about respecting personal space and keeping your hands to yourself, but you’d never have guessed it. She kept rubbing his head. We’d get her to stop, but as soon as we weren’t watching her, she was right back to it! Larry took it like a champ, but it was a little much.

At the end of the day, both kids were sad to find out that Larry would be sleeping at a hotel instead of at their house. I guess we’ll have to see if next year, Maya requests a visit from the easter Larry along with the easter bunny.

On a whim, Sean picked up tickets from Costco to go to the Sherwood Forest Faire this spring. It runs for several weeks in March and April, so we managed to set aside the Sunday before Easter for our Renaissance faire needs.

Sherwood Forest Faire, 2019

2019 is Sherwood Forest Faire’s 10th year running, and they really seem to have their game down pat. We were able to print out a schedule ahead of time and pick through their 150 shows for things the kids might be into. We picked up a big map of the grounds on the way in and mapped out our path. As an added bonus, located in McDade, TX, the faire was only about a 45-minute drive away, so we didn’t have to worry quite as much about leaving early to get home in time for the kids to have a good night’s sleep.

After pouring buckets on Saturday, the Sunday morning we went was cool and sunny. Maya and Ian were immediately enthralled by the costumed figures we encountered. Dragons and forest creatures delighted them and the folks tolerated our kids’ exuberance well. They may have even encouraged it. We had barely walked into the place before they had touched a dragon egg, played with a crow, and petted a fox’s nose.

Lady Pan’s Puppet Show

We wandered slowly to Lady Pan’s puppet show, taking in the sights and sounds and smells. Maya and Ian played for a bit in the kids’ castle before we settled in for the puppet show. Toward the end of the show, the kids were invited to participate. Due to Maya’s repeated utterance of the word “octopus” as an answer to every question, they decided that what had formerly been the dragon’s tail was now going to be an octopus tentacle instead, and Maya got to wag it around. Ian decided to sit and pout about not wagging the tentacle instead of responding to the repeated calls for volunteers to work the other puppets.

Kookaburra

I worried that we wouldn’t have enough time to get between events, but we made it over to the Sky Kings Birds of Prey show with no problem. The kids were a bit fidgety, but they loved watching the birds zoom past as they flew from perch to perch. We saw a kookaburra and heard its crazy laughing call. I’m not sure I have my facts quite right at this point, but I think we also saw a Harris hawk, an owl, a vulture, and a falcon. It was a really neat show, and probably my favorite thing we did.

We made a quick lunch of chicken fingers for the kids and meat pies for the grown ups. I washed mine down with delicious cup of mead. The rest of them had genuine medieval sodas.

The kids getting knighted

Next, we scooted over to the Queens’ Bower for the Kids’ Knighting Ceremony. Luck was oddly with us: we accidentally got there right when the big parade from the Sherwood Castle was starting, so we were able to watch that for a bit too.

We confused the two queens a bit because Maya wanted to be a knight and defend the kingdom, preferably with sometime sharp and dangerous. Ian wanted to be a princess, preferably a faery princess, thank you very much. They were both awarded necklaces and sent out to protect the realm.

We brought our bloodthirsty children

Of course, to mount an adequate defense, Maya and Ian would need to be trained, so next it was off to the Children’s School of Sword. To cries of “Bring us your bloodthirsty children!” we arrived at a large, roped-in training ground. The Children’s School of Sword was an alarmingly popular activity, and it was with no small amount of apprehension that we watched our children lined up amongst the crowd and outfitted with wooden swords. They were warned to listen to their instructor, Herr Oskar Hasselhoff, or suffer his wrath, but that’s never motivated them before, so honestly we weren’t too sure what to expect. Maya gamely tried to practice her moves, but Ian mostly dug around in the dirt with the tip of his sword … that is, until it was time for the kids to thrust their swords and give a fearsome war cry. Then, his sweet little voice rang loud and clear as he thrust his wooden sword into some invisible foe.

Thus trained, we were ready to be armed. We had gotten Ian some faery wings earlier in the day, which he was very proud of, but we hadn’t gotten Maya her “one thing” yet. What Maya wanted most of all was a shield. She found a place that sold shields and swords and would cut us a price break if we bought the two together. She seemed so blissed out by the possibility that we went for it. Of course, then Ian was bent out of shape because Maya got *two* things and he only had *one* thing. We tried to explain to him that it was kind of a package deal. He scrunched up his face into a perfect pout and loudly declared, “I want a package deal!” We told him we’d think about it.

Faery Tea Party

We hadn’t really encountered a crowd all day long, but we found one waiting in line at the Faery Tea Party. The brilliantly painted and costumed faeries were beautiful and the kids were completely taken with them. I’m sure it didn’t hurt that between singing, dancing, and storytelling, the fae folk circled the crowd distributing snacks and a punch-like “tea” to all the kids. Earlier in our day when we were laying out where we would go and when, I had mentioned the Faery Tea Party, and Ian had asked if he was allowed to go to it to, worrying only girls could go. We quickly disabused him of this notion, explaining the tea party was for all the kids, not just girls. He smiled and followed his sister in to find a spot with all the others. I can’t help but wonder how long it will be before assurance from Mom and Dad isn’t enough to make him feel confident about his choices. Ian has told us that the tea party was his favorite part of the day. (Maya’s was sword school.)

Package deal

So that Ian could have his “package deal” as well, we took him back to the store where he had gotten his wings to see if he could find a “princess dress” to go with them. I was in charge of keeping Maya from hurting anyone with her newly acquired weaponry while Sean took Ian shopping. An older couple, dressed to the hilt (har har) in their ren faire best, caught her eye and she wandered up toward them. The gentleman was in his full knight regalia so Maya wanted to definitely check him out, considering out loud whether to engage him in battle. We chatted back and forth a bit and he addressed Maya as “him.” We don’t get too bothered about this. Maya has short hair, she likes blues and greens, and she was playing with things traditionally associated with boys. I chuckled and explained that she was a crazy girl, and I had to be careful she didn’t hurt anyone with her sword. The wife patted my arm and explained that she had caught that Maya was a girl. The older man went on and on about how when he was younger the men grew their hair so long, you just couldn’t tell which was which. And the lady told me kind of under her breath something about politically correct bullshit making things very confusing for kids. At that moment, I had to stop Maya from impaling a musician with her sword so I was a little distracted, but I was kind of caught off guard. I thought about addressing it head on and explaining that those things don’t bother us and we try to let the kids be who they are, whatever that means. But then it seemed like a wasted effort. Instead I said we had to go help Maya’s brother pick out a dress, thanked them for their indulgence of my daughter and her sword-play, and walked away. The kids will be paying more and more attention to how we handle those things though, so I should probably think through my approach. With our kids, I’m certain that won’t be the last time we hear about it.

I love the fellow in the background. So many people really get into character for the Faire.

The only thing left on our ren faire to-do list was to get our giant turkey leg fix. Sean waited in line for quite a while, this being critical to many other folks’ ren faire experience as well. He snapped his photos of the kids taking bites of the big drumstick. Then I peeled off some chunks so the kids could share more easily. They devoured it. Barring a few tastes from the grown-ups, those two laid waste to an entire turkey leg.

Trying not to get turkey fat on his new dress.

On the way home that evening, Maya described it as a one-day vacation. They sometimes dress up and play “kings and queens,” and Maya has even been gracious enough to let fairy princess Ian wield her sword from time to time. Maya has repeatedly asked to have more “knight clothes” to complete her ensemble, and both kids would like to go to the faire again next year.

We arrived in Austin from our New Mexico trip on a Friday afternoon, not long after Grammy and Grandpa had arrived in Austin after their drive from Missouri. The kids were so excited to have them visit. It’s all we heard about for most of our drive in from Lubbock.

Grandpa and Ian having a “sword” fight in the front yard

Normally, I try to have fixings for a decent meal and nice drinks on hand, but we were so worn out from the trip that we just ordered takeout for dinner. All of us spent the evening relaxing and playing around the house.

The next day, after Maya’s morning swim class, it was more of the same. As I recall, there were bubbles and pretend sword fights in the yard, art projects, and endless playing. I remember Maya wanting to show off her beginning reading skills and Grammy and Grandpa indulging her.

Playing at Jester King

That evening, we all drove out to Jester King to drink fancy beer, eat fancy wood-fired pizza, and let the kids play in the sand pit with the community toys to their hearts’ content. The weather was ever-so-slightly on the cold side, but otherwise that outing was just about perfect.

We had only Sunday morning before Grammy and Grandpa went back to Missouri. Maya and Ian sent them off with a whole grocery bag full of art they had made from them.

Soldiering on despite the sun and the bees.

After they left, we had sort of a whirlwind afternoon of hair-cutting and bluebonnet photos. Sean had discovered a couple weeks prior that our regular bluebonnet spot had been mowed down. I had asked around a bit about good places, but I get the impression Texans may guard their favorite locations for bluebonnet photos the way Missourians guard the best mushroom hunting spots. Luckily, they seemed to be flourishing on the opposite side of the road. This did mean, though, that the sun was not in our favor that afternoon. Despite squinty-eyed kids, unnecessary distress at our proximity to bees, and a couple of impromptu potty breaks, Sean managed to get some decent photos. And so did the kids! Our two little photographers each took turns arranging the other and capturing their images.

Central Texas puts on a gorgeous show in the spring. We spend most of the summer in oppressive heat with browned grass and leathery dark green tree leaves. These are tough, durable leaves. They’ve lived with limited water. They’ve withstood that punishing sun. These leaves have seen some shit. Not so in spring. Everything is tender, bright, almost glowing green. The wildflowers range from delicate whites and pinks to brilliant yellows and orangey reds, anchored by the cool purple-blue of those bluebonnets. I really do love it that we get those pretty spring photos with the kids every year.

Guh-lasses!

A few other small things… Back in December, we had taken the kids in for their annual medical exams. Ian had his 4-year-old eye test this year. We tried walking him through it several times. He would never admit that he couldn’t tell what the picture was, but curiously enough, he lost interest at the same point in the test every time. Once the dust settled from the holidays, we took him to see our eye doctor in January, and sure enough, the little dude needed glasses. We weren’t sure how he’d take to them, but he LOVES them. The prescription is small and they have sort of rubbery frames with a strap around the back of his head, so they’ve been pretty easy to deal with so far. He has completely embraced glasses as part of his identity, but he isn’t always good about remembering to put them on in the morning. Once, I had to drive them up to school, he was so distraught over not having them.

Maya has been a reading machine. We had tried to encourage her to read a few times before. She’s known her letter sounds for ages and would make words out of her plastic letter beads all the time. I think she could spell “octopus” before she could spell “Maya.” But she could never quite be bothered to read. And then her kindergarten teacher introduced the kids to book logs. Each log has space for 16 books, and when the kids complete one, they get to choose a prize from the treasure chest in their classroom. Maya is now well into her fourth book log. I guess it just took the right motivation.

We also used this as an excuse to get library cards. We now make regular visits to the local library to stock up on reading materials.

Spring 2019 school photos

Maya had her spring pictures at school taken already back in February. I had been holding out for Ian to have his spring photos as well, but we’ll just post those once they happen.

Maya also had a neat school project to do back in March/early April. It was meant to be sort of self-driven based on her interests. Surprising absolutely no one, she chose “octopuses” as her area of focus. During one of our library visits, she had picked up a longer book on octopuses for us to read to her. One day, we read to her about blue-ringed octopuses. But she kept interrupting. She kept shouting out facts about octopuses and explaining that the blue-ringed octopuses are “really poisonous” and that there’s another kind of octopus that glows in the dark and that they had nine brains and on and on and on. I talked to her about the research she was doing with this book and how she could use that research in developing her project. Sean told Maya about papier-mache and its application to a balloon and together they decided that would make a really good octopus mantle.

Maya was very proud of her project

Sean helped Ian papier-mache a balloon. I helped Maya. Otherwise though, this was mostly a Sean and Maya show. Sean gets to do very few projects with the kids, particularly Maya, and I think she really enjoyed it.

We still haven’t done anything with Ian’s papier mache balloon; I think he’s mostly forgotten about it at this point. I figure I’ll save it for a rainy day when he’s fussed about some project Maya is working on and doesn’t have one of his own to do. After all, far too often, he wants to do exactly whatever his big sister is doing.

For spring break this year, we decided to take a driving trip to Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Since our mid-March spring break is so early in the year, we were worried we would be snowed out of some activities, but ultimately there was plenty to keep us busy regardless. With an 11 hour drive either direction, we decided to break our trip into two days and stay over at Lubbock. And since we would only have to drive about 5 1/2 hours the first day, we made plans to leave on Friday right after work.

Well, it was a Woods family vacation, so of course things didn’t go as planned. Our schedule started going off the rails on Thursday already. Sean was destined for Virginia on an early morning flight so he could attend a meeting and then fly home that night. Alas, his first flight was delayed by over four hours, so he’d have to stay overnight and wouldn’t be home till Friday afternoon.

The mood when driving through west Texas

We packed in a flurry once he got home with kids dancing around and Sean fielding a call from work. After a return home to pick up something we had forgotten, we finally started our 5 1/2 hour drive to Lubbock at about 7:30p.

After a largely uneventful drive, we rolled into our hotel around 1:00 in the morning. The kids had just started stirring as we were arriving, having enjoyed a nice 3-hour-long sleep in the car. We waited and waited for Sean to get us checked in. Ian started to grumble. At long last, Sean came out to let us know the bad news – our reservation had been canceled, and the hotel was fully booked. We tried two other hotels in close proximity, but they were full as well. Sean finally gave up and called the reservation line for our original booking and they were able to place us at another of their properties a few miles away.

All of that took us about an hour, and by then, the kids were AWAKE! For my part, I was so tired, I think I fell asleep while they were still bickering and shrieking in their bed. (By the way, they talk about how much fun they have sharing a bed when we stay in a hotel, but they fight the whole time. I swear they even fight in their sleep. This is not my favorite arrangement.)

I want to have it, but I don’t want to eat it

After a serviceable hotel breakfast where both kids insisted on having freshly made, Texas-shaped waffles, though neither kid actually ate them, we started on the rest of our journey to Albuquerque.

Poor Sean was shot. He had had five hours of sleep or less for three or four nights running, and I could see his eyes hanging at half-mast as he tried to slog along the flat west-Texas highways. I wound up driving more than is typical for us.

We arrived at Albuquerque a bit later than we intended, so our first stop was at our AirBNB to drop off our stuff and get a look at the place. The kids had a shared room, but they each had their own twin bed, so it was the perfect set-up for them. They could help each other feel safe, but wouldn’t have to fight over mattress real estate.

After that, we took them over to the nearby Tiguex park, so that they could burn off some energy after having been trapped in the car for so long. The playgrounds there were pretty neat, and Maya and Ian both seemed to be especially fond of this one slide where they glided over rollers that jostled and wiggled them as they slid down.

Blah blah blah deadly rattlesnake

When they seemed to be winding down, we tried to squeeze in a visit to the American International Rattlesnake Museum. The variety of snakes on display was amazing, and they seemed to be healthy and well-cared-for, as far as I could tell. I found it completely fascinating, but I may have been alone. Maya was quite taken with a big tortoise she had found hiding in a corner. She patted his shell and gently touched his feet. After that though, it was a nearly non-stop onslaught of “when will we leave” and “can we buy X piece of fakey junk.” The latter in particular drove me nuts. Is it all small kids that fall into raw acquisition mode when visiting a tourist attraction? There was even a point where one of the snakes was actually agitated enough to be rattling his tail at us, and we tried to show the kids while also encouraging them to back away and let the poor creature calm down. I’m not sure it made a dent. Maya would actually *pretend* to be interested in a snake, presumably to mollify me, look me right in the eye, and then ask if *now* she could go buy something from the gift shop. I feel so manipulated! We left with only their certificates of bravery and temporary tattoos the museum folks gave them as a reward for this alleged bravery. (Bravery, ha! Try stunning indifference.)

We had been seeing lots of art in the medians and in front of various buildings as we were driving around Albuquerque. Many of the overpasses were even painted. Maya was eating it up. She proclaimed once as we were driving to dinner, “New Mexico is too beautiful for Texas!” The couple of Albuquerque folks we floated this past seemed surprised to hear it.

Maya had started reading in earnest maybe a month or so before this trip, so she was into reading everything as we were wandering around. She was teaching Ian how to say Albuquerque properly. “No Ian, look, it’s Q-U. You say AlbuQWERky.” She thought she was hilarious, and of course it was called Albu-quirky for the rest of the trip.

Can’t contain this much crazy

Dinner that night was at a place called 66 Diner. Ian could have chicken fingers. Maya could have a cheese burger. Mom and Dad could try out some of the famous green chile cheese burgers. They pull no punches with their chiles around there, and we loved it! The burgers were simple, but delicious. Maya said she loved the food so much, she wanted to come back to New Mexico again just to eat here. (It’s too bad this trend didn’t continue through our whole trip.)

After a stop by a local Wal-Mart for a few supplies and a stop by Jubilation Liquor for some local beers, we all went home and found ourselves quickly to sleep.

The next day, we had a quick cereal breakfast at the apartment, let the kids play for a while (the AirBNB had a box of toys! I love that!), and then headed to our first stop of the day – the Bristol Doughnut Company. Seeking out interesting doughnuts has become sort of a loose Woods family vacation tradition, and we had a really good run this trip.

Doughnuts! In a bus! On the top floor!

Bristol Doughnut Company is housed in a double-decker bus, and after we bought our doughnuts and some milk, we headed up to the upper deck. My prickly pear doughnut featured a technicolor purple icing atop a rich yeast doughnut, but Sean had chosen the best: a brown butter masterpiece that was so rich, I’m not sure I could have eaten the whole thing in one sitting.

We had planned to hit Explora, the local children’s museum, that morning but it didn’t open till noon, so we headed out to Petroglyph National Monument instead.

We stopped in at the visitors’ center to pick up a map and let the kids use the bathroom. After having to forcibly extract our two little consumers from the gift shop, we drove out to Boca Negra Canyon, the most accessible hiking spot. There were three short hikes and without any planning, we took the hardest one first: Mesa Point. The hike up wasn’t overly strenuous, but the weather was bonkers. It was 50 degrees outside, which to use central Texans sounds kinda cold. We were in our long sleeve sweaters with jackets besides. Even ditching the jackets, it wasn’t long before we were sweating. Sean said it was the best 50 degrees he’s ever felt.

Hi!

The hike was neat. Soft volcanic stone had blackened over time, and then prehistoric people carved away the black to make pictures of people, scenes, and other items that can only be guessed at. Once the kids got into finding the petroglyphs, Maya especially had a lot of fun. Ian, being Ian, was happiest if he was moving.

At the top of Mesa Point though, Ian had his moment. He was looking out over Albuquerque, and he pulled me down so that he could whisper in my ear. He told me he had seen in one of his videos that if you were on the highest point, you could yell out, and there would be an echo. I asked him if he wanted to try it out. He seemed hesitant, so I let him know that it was okay if he did it. He called out with that clear, sweet voice of his and … we heard his echo! It worked! We had to move Maya around a bit, but we eventually got her echo to work as well. Eventually, thinking it might be nice to let our fellow hikers enjoy some peace and quiet, we stopped the kids from hollering from the mountain top, and at that point, the kids lost interest and we began our descent.

After agreeing to let Maya buy some random pink binoculars as long as she agreed that it was worth spending her own allowance money, we made our purchases at the gift shop, stopped to pet a few random dogs outside, and then headed into town for lunch.

The most serious chili dog I have ever tasted

We ate at a place called The Dog House, where you order at the window, and then they cart the food out to your car. One poor lady was handling a very full parking lot. The kids were hungry and jonesing hard for food. Maya inexplicably ordered a burger, but Ian was all in on the hot dog. I had a mustard dog and some tots, but again, Sean won. He ordered a chili cheese dog. That thing was fierce! This wasn’t some shitty canned chili dumped on a hot dog and lathered in enough cheese that you maybe wouldn’t notice. No sirree. This chili had spice and oh my was it delicious. I think Sean may have suffered for it though.

After that, we took the kids over to Explora for big fun at the children’s museum. It started off well enough. The kids made airplanes and Maya especially seemed to enjoy trying to use different shaped parachutes to see which was most functional. We built outdoor structures with blue foam blocks. We played with bubbles and had lots of fun.

And then we wandered past the gift shop. We had been explaining to Maya that souvenirs are meant to remind you of the place you had visited. Then it was on; justification mode, engaged! She launched into a long and obliquely reasoned lecture about how her pink binoculars from earlier were relevant. This time, she found a little blue and white toy jet in the gift shop that had not a single thing to do with our trip. For Pete’s sake, we hadn’t even flown to get to New Mexico! Sean tried to help her understand that this was just a random toy and that she should hold out for something more of the area. She wouldn’t budge. And so she learned a lesson about delayed gratification. There were tears. There was a 6-year-old tantrum in the gift shop.

We questioned the wisdom of doing so, but we carried on and headed out to the Sandia Skyway Tram. We figured we were in trouble when Maya asked if she could have her ipad to pass the time on the 15-minute ride up the mountain (we said no). Once we got on the tram though, the kids were transfixed.

Going up, up, up!

Ian was wary at first, but if anything, in this his older sister is a positive influence on her brother. She was so excited, we had to keep her from pressing her face against the glass. Once Ian saw how Maya was brave and safe, he joined her right down by the window, face inches from the glass, watching the rocks and conifers and occasional patches of snow pass beneath.

Once at the top, we wandered outside and our two little Texans got to play in the snow! They made a game out of finding the unspoiled patches of snow so they could stomp fresh footprints. While I was watching the kids stomp, Sean wandered a bit further out to see what photo-worthy scenes he could find. This couple who we had been in our tram as we rode up the mountain had gone out beyond the safety fence. As Sean moseyed up to assess the view, the lady handed Sean her phone and asked him to snap of photo of the two of them … while behind her, the man had pulled out a tiny box and was getting down on one knee. Sean had unwittingly become an engagement photographer! We found out later that the woman had no idea; she had just wanted a nice photo.

They had to search hard for fresh snow to stomp in

We spent more than a few cycles keeping Maya from skidding hundreds of feet down a defunct ski slope, but otherwise the views were beautiful, the kids enjoyed their time in the snow, and we even accidented into timing our descent with sunset.

We gamely went on to Sadie’s for a rather late dinner (at least for a family with two small children.) Sean and I had the most lovely green and red sauced carne adovada and enchiladas. Ian had a ground beef taco. And Maya, poor Maya, who used to be our adventurous eater, had the first of several ill-advised cheeseburgers.

As I recall, she plowed through this one, but it was through sheer force of will. Evidently, we kept taking her to places that used cheddar instead of American cheese on their burgers. Maya was not impressed and the issue would rear it’s unfortunate head again later in the trip.

We also learned that our kids do not like sopaipillas. They are fluffy pillows of deep-fried goodness. Sean and I enjoyed ours dabbed with some honey. Our kids had leftover Pringles in the car on our way back to the rental apartment. Sigh. And at long last, to bed, to bed, where everyone had some much needed rest.

We had been running the kids pretty hard, so we hung out at the apartment and let them play for a while after breakfast. Then it was off to our next doughnut destination: Rebel Donut. Sean and I were now convinced that New Mexico could do no wrong in the application of chili flavors to things, so Sean had a red chile chocolate bacon donut, and I had an apple green chile fritter. Both, to my tastes, were mild on the chile, but they were delicious.

Rebel Donut

Once we were nicely loaded with sugary dough, we headed over to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History. While there, a friendly staff paleontologist did his level best to check in with the kids periodically and attempt to keep them engaged. The dinosaur displays here were pretty neat and wide-ranging. The kids also really enjoyed the outer space part of the museum. The solar system model was fun, but the big draw was the Mars Rover whose camera they could control so that it focused on them.

Raahr

We attempted to drive to this giant rattlesnake sculpture I had found as a kind of weird roadside attraction, but alas, it was blocked off and we weren’t able to get more than a glimpse of it.

After a late lunch at Frontier, one of those institutions with long hours and affordable food, we launched out on the Turquoise Trail route up to Santa Fe. The drive took 90 minutes instead of the hour the interstate route would have taken, but the scenery was gorgeous. As we headed north, snowy, blue-gray peaks became visible behind the warm-tone stone landscape we’d become used to over the past couple days. If Ian hadn’t been asleep, I believe we might have stopped in Madrid. It’s a small city along the route that appeared to have a kitschy charm that was possibly not contrived.

We got to our AirBNB house in late afternoon. Ian was completely in love with the place. There was neat decorative tile work in the bathroom. The kitchen table and chairs were painted in a flower motif. There was artwork on the walls and a harp and drum hanging around the living room for the kids to play with a bit. I was annoyed because I had messed up and booked a place with no washer and dryer. Plus, it was a historic home, which meant it had lots of character. In this case, it wound up having just a little too much, but more on that in a bit.

We had dinner at a restaurant called La Choza. To start with, even though Santa Fe apparently has a ton of restaurants for a city its size, it also had a ton of visitors. Everywhere we checked was packed. We wound up waiting I think close to an hour to eat, which is always good with the kids. By then, we weren’t far off from closing time, so the woman waiting on us was … terse. The food was good enough, except Maya’s cheeseburger again had cheddar cheese on it. She refused to eat it. Sean refused to let her order food and not eat it. It’s like when an immovable object meets an unstoppable force … it was a long night. We left with Maya having filled up on milk and french fries and having given up on having doughnuts at the next morning’s stop.

That night, after we got everyone to sleep after all the dinner drama, and Sean and I finally got to relax a bit, we noticed that the shower was dripping. But it was more than a little drip-drip-drip. It was more like a trickle. And *some* of us are borderline insomniacs who have a hard time sleeping during the best of times. I was ready to murder that shower.

The next morning, we bathed under that infernal ever-dripping shower. We had a brief first breakfast, making sure Maya had a good helping, and once we were all cleaned up and ready to go, we headed to Whoo’s Donuts. These were probably the most interesting doughnuts of our trip. I had a blue-corn and lavender one which wound up having a fritter-like texture. Sean had a couple, but the one I’m remembering right now was a white chocolate and pistachio number that was incredible.

The kids took turns photographing each other with the robot at Meow Wolf

Then we were off to visit Meow Wolf. Meow Wolf is a giant experimental art installation housed in a converted bowling alley. We were pleased to find that the kids were allowed to touch things with gentle hands and that the experience would be appropriate for them. We were meant to follow this interesting story line to enhance our experience, but after a few rooms of the kids having to wait on us to read things and cipher through clues, we realized we weren’t going to be able to see it through to the end. After a certain point, it became a game of “wooo, look at that cool art! Shit, where did our kids go?! Oh good, there they are” times a thousand.

Maya found a piano

The place was incredible. The kids were hooked before we even went into the building because there were giant sculptures in the parking lot. Once they found out they were allowed to touch, it was on. We climbed through a refrigerator to an alternate dimension, we played mastodon bones as if they were a giant xylophone, we wandered through a glow-in-the-dark aquarium lorded over by a giant octopus hanging from the ceiling. There was a roving cast of characters that would talk to us occasionally, to the kids’ delight. We never got to find out what happened to Lex and his immortal pet hamster Nimsesku, but we had an amazing experience.

Ian wonders what we’ve gotten him into

We spent a really, really long time at Meow Wolf, so much so that it was probably unforgivably late when we finally fed our children. It was so late, that at least Sean and I weren’t planning on having another meal. We had heard from multiple sources that Horsemen’s Haven was the place to go. Sean and I enjoyed our food, but Maya and Ian barely ate.

We went to the Railyard development to let the kids play in the park for a while afterward. It was a little cold and rainy, and poor Maya started her park visit off by trying to jump over a large stone bench and doing an epic face-plant that would have been funny had we not been so worried. After that though, the kids played for a while. We are going to have to get Ian into some sort of rock climbing gym. That little dude was scrambling up piles of boulders faster than I could actually notice him doing so. I shouldn’t have worried though; he’s as cautious as he is sure-footed.

After playing at the park for a while, against our better judgement, we gave in and let the kids have McDonald’s for dinner. And then we decided to relax and stay in for the evening. Well, the rest of them relaxed. Because I had screwed up and rented a place with no washer and dryer, and because I didn’t want to sit around a coin laundry for hours waiting, I used the bathtub to hand-wash the few items we’d need to make it to the end of our trip.

It’s a good thing we all got some rest that night because the next day, we went hiking. We made sure the kids were fed before we left the house, but then we messed around long enough that Sean and I didn’t want to take the time to fix ourselves breakfast and eat it. Instead, we made another trip to Whoo’s. The grown-ups ate pastries en route, and we tucked the kids’ doughnuts away to have as a treat after lunch.

I had plans to go hiking in the slot canyon trail at the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. Too bad for us, there was epic snowfall this year and the trail was not yet open. We had kind of already given up when a week before our trip something called a bomb cyclone had dumped even more snow on the area, so we switched to our fallback plan, which turned out to be pretty great.

Climbing up into a cavate at Bandelier

We went instead to Bandelier National Monument. The main loop trail is 1.2 miles long. Along this hike, we would get to climb ladders up into human-made caves in the stone called cavates. The hike was beautiful, and as much as I could pay attention, informative. The kids really did like climbing ladders to get into the cavates, but they also really loved taking photos with their little Instax cameras. We stopped SO OFTEN to take photos that it was becoming a bit of a punchline.

The view from inside Alcove House

Partway through the hike, we had to make the decision whether we would like to take the spur trail to visit Alcove House. This added a half mile each direction to our hike, but we weren’t too worried about that; the kids had covered that distance before. The element of danger for this hike was the 140 vertical feet we would need to ascend, largely in the form of very long ladders. I helped Maya, who is quite capable of climbing those ladders, so long as someone’s there reminding her to focus. Sean helped Ian. Ian also did a very good job, but he’s a little shorter and would have a bit of trouble exiting the ladder on ascent and getting started on the ladder on the way back down. Sean effectively wound up climbing every ladder twice, because on the descent, which is a lot more harrowing with small children, Sean would climb down and set his camera bag and whatnot at the bottom of the ladder, then climb back up to help Ian down. Also, Sean is not entirely comfortable with heights. But we did it! We conquered the big, scary ladders and were rewarded with a neat view of the valley from the top and of course, the interior of the alcove house itself.

Bandelier

By the time we got to the end of our hike, all of us were ravenous. We tried to just eat at the restaurant there at the park, but they were out of chicken fingers and they didn’t serve American cheese on their cheeseburgers. I don’t even recognize us anymore.

Sean and I had noticed a place on the way out to the park called Fig and Pig. The name sounded promising, so we tried that instead. I don’t remember the particulars at this point, but everyone found something on the menu that they enjoyed eating, and we left satiated and content.

We largely spent the evening cleaning up and packing our things for the return trip the next day and also planning a brief jaunt into Santa Fe itself.

This next day, the kids were kind of pouty that we were leaving New Mexico so soon. They had their last meal at the fancy AirBNB house while we loaded up the car.

After finding parking at the plaza area in Santa Fe, we walked a whole block before we realized it was really COLD and was going to be a long walk to our first destination. Instead, we loaded back up in the car for the drive to the Kakawa Chocolate House. As we were walking into the shop, we noticed a few intermittent flakes of snow landing on the kids’ coats.

Enjoying their chocolate at Kakawa

Kakawa’s focus is on producing historic drinking chocolates. They offered Mayan and Aztec type unsweetened chocolate as well as more traditional European mixtures. And the fine folks behind the counter offer you sample after sample until you find something you truly enjoy. Sean and Ian landed on the Tzul, a warm-spiced, very creamy chocolate. Maya went for the Americano. I’m trying not to judge; she was happy with it. I had the rose-almond, which is unsweetened. The rose and almond were there, but so was a heavy dose of chili – such an interesting flavor combination in my little cup of hot chocolate.

We returned to a now nearly-full parking lot. And then we hadn’t walked very far at all before it started to rain, so we made an emergency stop at a candy store because who doesn’t need MORE SUGAR.

Scavenger hunting at the Georgie O’Keeffe museum

Once the rain had more or less cleared up, we took the kids to the Georgia O’Keeffe museum. They had a great scavenger hunt for the kids to fill out as they went through the museum. Maya filled out her sheet in its entirety, even choosing her favorite painting when she was done. Ian sort of filled his out too, though he was understandably less interested.

By the end, they were both pretty antsy so we went walking. We walked quickly past the Palace of the Governors and the vendors who had set up shop outside the building to sell their hand-crafted goods. I would have been interested in examining some of the wares, but the kids were toooooooo busy to stop.

We had a nice lunch at The Shed, where Ian became convinced that Sean said he could have a dog and Maya spilled part of her soda. At least the food was good! Then we had a quick stop by the Cathedral Basilica of St Francis of Assisi to admire the architecture and the complete sense of peace (even the kids managed to stay calm and quiet and generally respectful). And then we had an even quicker stop by the Loretto Chapel to see the amazing spiral staircase. This staircase completes two full 360-degree turns, but has no center pole for support. Sean and the kids worked in stops for a few quick photos on the way back to the car, where we managed to make it mere minutes before our time there was to expire. We’d have gotten a ticket too – those vultures were circling.

Cathedral Basilica of St Francis of Assisi

We then drove the 5-ish hours to our hotel in Lubbock. Maya and Ian both said goodbye to New Mexico as we crossed the border into Texas. Our hotel stay this time was thankfully unremarkable. We slept well. We ate a good-enough breakfast. The kids had a swim in the pool. We loaded up the car and drove back to Austin.

This trip was what we had wished our West Texas trip had been. Yeah, there was a lot of driving. And yes, there were some tantrums here and there, usually by the kids. But, once we got into the Albuquerque/Santa Fe area, nothing we wanted to see was really all that far away. The places we stayed were generally comfortable. The people we met were friendly. We had a good variety of experiences without overdoing it. I’m calling this one a success.

Maybe this is how it goes every year since, for us at least, the last couple months are so full of events and celebration, but for me, Christmas had kind of a tacked on at the end feeling this year. I blame The Virus. Sean and I were so weary by the time the Christmas travel came around, that I think we were just kind of getting through it.

Santa visited us a bit early in Texas

Maya’s final vomit of The Virus was on Friday, and our flight was on Sunday, so we got lucky there. This year, to save cash, we flew into Atlanta instead of Birmingham. Other than that airport being gigantic and occasionally confusing, our travel went fairly smoothly. We arrived at Lolli and Pop’s at a fairly reasonable time and the kids played for a while then went to bed without issue.

The next day was Christmas Eve, and Darci, Will, AP, and Steele were set to arrive. On their way down though, poor Steele started vomiting. They booked a hotel and asked if they should stay away, but of course, we wanted everyone to be together for Christmas, so Sean told them to come. Poor Steele was shot. And barfy.

Maya at Lolli and Pop’s house

Luckily the next day, everyone seemed to be feeling better and stockings were dug into with vigor and glee. We played Christmas games. We peeled, cooked, and ate shrimp. The kids played with their gifts and with each other. Maya watched Home Alone for the third or fourth time since we had introduced it to her just before we left town.

Ian made it through a good amount of the candy in his stocking before anyone really noticed

The next day was about playing and trying to relax a bit. The neighbors had a see-saw that the kids loved. Down the road a ways, another set of neighbors had a neat swing that the kids tried out. They walked and scootered and rode down the sidewalks.

Then on the 27th, we needed to travel from Alabama to Missouri. This was actually our worst travel day. The two and a half hour drive to Atlanta was fine, but on our way, we found out our flight was delayed. Then when we got there, we found out it was even more delayed. The bad announcements just kept coming, and by the time we finally took off it was three hours later than intended. Yet again, it was late at night when we rolled into Grammy and Grandpa’s house. We can’t seem to avoid it.

And then the next day, Maya vomited. Because that’s our life. Vomit. She spent the day feeling awful. Then the day after that, we all kind of waited around to see if this was the little one-day virus that Steele had had or if it was a recurrence of the monster that she and Ian had in Texas. She spent the whole next day feeling better and slowly getting back on a normal eating schedule.

There are a lot of us these days

Our Missouri visit was kind of compressed after that. We had spent two of our three days either sick or verifying the sickness had passed, so there wasn’t a ton of time left for anything else. Sean and I were battle weary.

She was SO EXCITED to see baby Paul

We celebrated Christmas with the whole family the next day. Carol prepared an insane amount of food. Maya and Ian got a turn holding “Baby Paul.” Leading up to the holidays, Maya in particular was obsessed with Baby Paul. She was thrilled to give him a toy octopus for one of his Christmas presents. She made periodic stops to talk to him throughout the day.

The next day, new year’s eve, was our travel day home. We had booked a very late flight because it was direct and relatively inexpensive and we didn’t have anywhere to be the next day. That morning, we visited Great Grandma Schmidt. The kids again enjoyed their visit. At this point, they know where the toys are stored and they look forward to Great Grandma’s treats and to watching her cuckoo clock. That evening, we met friends of ours in St Louis for pizza before heading to the airport.

They love Great Grandma

The flight was uneventful, as I recall. The best part was that as we were approaching Austin, it was coming up on midnight and from our airplane vantage point, we could see miniature bursts of fireworks here and there. We fetched our luggage and were just boarding the shuttle bus back to our parked car when the clock struck midnight. We even managed to notice in time to do a proper countdown. The bus driver armed the kids with little pretend Champagne poppers and party whistles, and we all counted down to the new year together. The kids enjoyed watching the fireworks occurring around us as we drove to the house.

Over the next few days, the packages we had shipped home from Missouri and Alabama arrived, and the kids were excited to get into their toys and other gifts. Sean and I have been happy to put our house back in order. The tree went down almost right away (it was DONE by the time we got back home.) The various boxes and packaging we had accumulated around the house were broken down and recycled. We fell back into our normal routines. “New year, new you” isn’t really a thing in our house, but after our rocky holiday season, it did not hurt my feelings to say goodbye to 2018.

Given Ian’s love of Frozen and of Elsa and Anna, I had the bright idea to hire an Elsa to come visit his house during his birthday party this past December. I was worried this would be a popular activity around the holidays, so I booked her really early. As little kids are wont to do, he drifted away from Frozen a bit after halloween. His new interests have revolved around Peppa Pig and Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom instead.

Ian and Maya were very worried she might lose control and accidentally freeze someone at the party.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t really back out on our plans without losing money, so we went forward with it, and I’m so glad we did. Ian and a bunch of his friends and of course Maya donned their princess costumes and got ready to celebrate. Ian was already feeling a bit overwhelmed with so many people at his house who were mostly paying attention to him. When Else arrived, he was very shy. She was wonderful with him though, and helped coax Ian into interacting with her by offering him a light-up snowball. Elsa was nice, Elsa was pretty, Ian was hooked.

Ian’s birthday always comes complete with Christmas decorations.

The kids had a GREAT time. Elsa read a story to them, played games with them, sang with them. She posed for photos and even lead the group in singing happy birthday to Ian when it was time to cut the cake.

Icing transfers are a bad cake decorator’s dream.

About that cake … With Ian and Maya having taken turns being sick the couple weeks prior to the birthday celebration, I was woefully behind in my party prep. I baked the cake, cookies, and cupcakes all the night before the party. And it was a night that would never end. I don’t remember specifically, but I think it was around 3 in the morning when I finally crashed. It hurt to wake up the next day, but the party went well. People were fed, entertainment was provided, and best of all, Ian seemed to have a really great time.

This kid!

Had you told me when I first got pregnant that we would be having a princess party at our house, I’d have scoffed at the idea. If there’s anything this parenting gig has made clear though, it’s that I want to stay out of the way as much as possible and let our kids be who they are. At his birthday party at least, Ian was a princess.