Another Trip to NY

Oops, it's Labor Day weekend and I haven't posted anything new in a while. Which is too bad 'cause we've been pretty busy and lots of interesting things have been happening. For example, once again we are in NY visiting my parents.

We drove up here almost 2 weeks ago. That was an eventful week for all of us. It started with an earthquake in Raleigh. Then we were busy packing and preparing the house for Hurricane Irene. Then it was time to drive to NY. Once again, we chose the backroads over I-95, partially because we wanted to make it a 2-day drive, not 1-day. It's more relaxed and more pleasant that way.

Driving through the mountains in western VA we noticed something great, the Blue Mountain Brewery. It was about time for lunch anyway and the place looked amazing - fermentation tanks with local brews, a huge veranda with fantastic views, a promise of cold fresh beer and locally-grown organic food.

Afterwards we pressed on and in another hour or so arrived at just about our favorite stop of the entire trip, the Frontier Culture Museum. Let me tell you, it's worth a trip in and of itself! I think this was our 4th visit there. So we figured we'd spend just a couple of hours there this time. I was actually a bit worried that our stop would be too short since, as it turned out, the African Village was closed in preparation for Hurricane Irene. Well, we ended up staying there for not two, not three, but almost five hours!

In fact, the visit turned into a great treasure hunt game for M. He found lots and lots of little treasures - a bit of washed wool, a feather out of a rooster's tail, wood shavings, a real iron nail that was made just for him and many many more exciting things. He petted a cat, fed chickens, tried his hand at carding, weaving, getting water out of a well, playing Jacob's ladder, etc. In short, it was awesome.

After a night in a crummy Best Western somewhere in Frederick, MD, we drove to Hershey, PA. I've been meaning to take M to Hershey for a couple of years. This time we were going for sure. Nothing could stop us, not steady rain nor threat of a downpour from the approaching Hurricane Irene.

I didn't realize how huge Hershey was! There's a ton of stuff there, in and around the factory. You can spend a whole day having fun and then, on Day 2 hit the Hershey amusement park next door. But we only had about an hour or so.

What I had in mind was to go on a little 15-minute World of Chocolate ride and create our own chocolate bars. Of course, the exit from the ride was through a gift shop and so it took us some extra time. But then we were on our way and arrived at my parents' house just 3 hours or so later.

Beach Trip - Part 3

We were at the beach for just a couple of days and it's taking me 3 times as long to write about it. Funny, ain't it? So this is the last post about our mini-vacation on Corolla. And it's going to be mostly pictures (at least that's the plan now; we'll see how well I can stick to it 'cause you know, I loooove talking).

We took a few group pictures while on island. Of course, one of us is always missing, having to operate the camera. I guess we'll just photoshop that person in later. I like this picture above of gals only + the little kids (A. was swimming with her dad).

This picture is not bad either. Vadim is missing from it 'cause he was behind the camera.

Then there's this one, taken on our last day as we were all returning from the beach. This time Masha was taking the picture. No worries, we'll photoshop her in later, I guess :)

When it comes to pictures of myself, I usually don't have many. I generally don't like being on pictures 'cause my hair is never right, my weight is never right and having fun posing for a picture is just not something I know how to do. But seeing Masha and Irina having so much fun being photographed, I decided to give it a try. The result is above. See what I'm saying?!

Photographing others is fun though. Here's my super-sexy hubby enjoying the surf.

Now, before setting out on our trip, we made a list of things we wanted to do while at the beach. Kite flying was one of them. So on the second day of our stay we went to fly kites. It was so much fun!!! I just wish we had the time to make our own kites instead of buying them. But we'll leave this idea for another time.

Another thing we wanted to do was to go out to a restaurant. It wasn't even that we wanted something special to eat. But we hardly ever get to go out and so the experience itself is pretty special to us. We took M with us even though it was pretty late and he was going to miss him regular bed time. But you know, it's just so much fun to take him along. Plus the restaurant we chose was very casual and had this little pier jutting out into the Sound with a little boat house at the end of it. So there was plenty for M to explore while we waited for our appetizers. Something I completely forgot to put on our "beach to-do" list was to dig a giant hole in the sand. Fortunately, we were reminded of it on our last evening there by a family that dug an absolutely enormous hole. Seriously, it was more like a mini-crater than a hole. Very inspirational. So M wanted to dig one just like that. And he wanted to do it all by himself. No fair! It was my idea in the first place!
Fortunately, as he got about mid-way through it, the hole became too deep for him to dig from the outside and he needed my help widening it without crashing the sides in. And then we decided to keep digging until we hit water (although there was a brief discussion of how awesome it'd be if we hit oil instead).
Finally, the giant hole was dug and all the little ones wanted to climb into it. Preferrably, all at once. All except for baby Jake who just wanted to pour water into the hole 'cause that's what he is into.

I honestly planned on getting up early at least once to see sunrise. Every evening I made plans for it. But then, around 5:30 every morning I'd wake up briefly and think "no freaking way" and go back to sleep. Sunrises are tough for me. Sunsets are much better. Except we didn't get to see sunsets either. We tried once, but were late by maybe 2 minutes. No matter 'cause it was beautiful anyway. BTW, Chris is NOT chocking me (this is his manly hug) and he is NOT in the Navy (the word "Old" in "Old Navy" is obscured by my big head).

Did I mention that the house my cousins rented came fully stocked with like everything? Down to board games! So our second night there we all played Life after all the kids went to bed. I'd never played this game before and I wish I did. I almost won too, taking the third place (out of 6). I think nobody noticed that for the first half of the game I wasn't supposed to draw any salary (being a substitute teacher). I didn't notice that for sure, being busy drinking wine.

Like father like son for sure and so adorable!
M was very upset that we had to go back to Raleigh. He wanted to stay for longer. So to soften the blow and help him (and selves) with the transition, we stopped by an icecream parlor in Kitty Hawk on the way back. M got an ice-cream cone, looked at us (we didn't buy any for ourselves) and asked "как на счёт вы вдвоём купите себе мороженое?" [how about the two of you buying yourself some ice-cream?]

The Lighthouse Family

It's a title of one of M's most favorite Recorded Books (books on CDs). He listened to the Lighthouse Family: the Storm too many times too count. He also pretend played the story with me being Pandora the Cat, himself - Seabold, the Dog. Also, as I'd take him to our favorite local seafood place, we'd look at the framed prints of lighthouses and tried to choose the one that looked most like the lighthouse in the story. But he'd never seen a real lighthouse before.

Needless to say, he was very excited when I told him that while at the beach, we'll get to see (and climb) a real life lighthouse. Just the kind that Pandora lived in. Hooray!

And so we went there, the three of us and my second cousin, A. M was absolutely thrilled to see a real lighthouse and even more so 'cause this lighthouse was red, M's most favorite color (yes, still). He couldn't wait to go inside. But we had to stay in line which was difficult with two impatient kiddos. So instead we left Chris to stand in line and I took the kids into a gift shop. There I made an unwise promise which seemed like a really good idea at the time...

You see, the brochure said that there were 214 stairs to the top of the lighthouse. I was a bit apprehensive about M climbing them without my help. And I really didn't feel like carrying him up or down, especially in the narrow and steep part of the spiral staircase at the top of the structure.

At the gift shop M was so taken with the little model of the lighthouse and wanted it so very much, that I promised to get it for him IF he were to climb up to the very top and down again without asking to be carried. His cousin wanted a little toy wild horse and a similar promise was made to her except the condition was she had to "behave" (yeah, rather nebulous, but she's 7 so I think she knows by now what it means).

Then we climbed all 214 stairs to the very top. The 360-degree view from the top was amazing! Except (and that's where "not so wise" part of my promise became evident) the kids were in such a hurry to get their toys that they didn't want to stay up and enjoy the scenery. Instead, they wanted to hurry down and into the gift shop! Still, we managed a couple of pictures. I must say, A behaved and M climbed every single step, just like he promised! So both got their gifts (and I got a mood ring for myself 'cause I wanted one after listening to Judy Moody Predicts Future 100 times, another of M's favorite Recorded Books).

We then walked over to get some ice-cream for the kids. This was a good move since it allowed us about 10 minutes of sitting in the shade quietly enjoying the views.

That day M carried the lighthouse toy with him everywhere (did I tell you, turned out it had a little battery-operated light and so was even more amazing). And he listened to The Lighthouse Family while in the car.

Later that night, before going to bed, he wanted to play the Lighthouse story. So we invited A. to join us. She wanted to be Laila, the little Mouse. And the three of us had some awesome lighthouse adventures - several severe storms, a wild horse that showed up and became Laila's pet, and a sudden appearance of Luke Skywalker on the island.

And the next day we went back to the lighthouse. Except we didn't climb it. Instead, we walked over to the Wild Horses Museum. Turned out, they had a "paint your own wild horse" activity going for kids. So M and A got to paint little horses. A's horse turned out all pretty and very real-looking. She spared no details and worked very diligently on painting it. M's approach was different. He worked in bold brush strokes, laying thick layers of paint. I was afraid it was all going to turn "the preschool slime brown" color, but he stuck to the pallete of red, orange, a bit of brown and lots of pink and it turned out kind of sunset colored.

Finally, we walked on a nature trail all the way out to the Pamlico Sound. M was in a terrible mood 'cause he was very tired and just wanted to go back to the house. But we'd have none of it. The Sound was too beautiful and just a few steps away, just past a forest of reeds. Fortunately, after reaching the Sound, M felt a bit better and even joined in on the fun of dipping his feet into a very shallow and very warm water.

I love this picture. Am I not married to like the most handsome guy ever? Just thought I'd brag.

Corolla - Day 1 and 1/2

Last Tuesday was just about the longest day ever! M and I had to wait for Chris to come home from work and the day just dragged. Mostly because M kept asking every few minutes if Papa was on his way home yet. I was busy as a bee trying to get stuff done, like wash the dishes, clean up, make sandwiches, pack, leave extra food and water for the cat and on and on.

Finally, we were on our way. Took us a while to get out of town since we had to make a last minute stop to pick up some wine for when we get to the island. By the time we got to the rental, it was already past 10pm and M was way overtired and past his bed time. So first, I took him to bed and then we just chatted with my cousins and their wives for a little bit.

The next day we all slept in, including M, which was very unusual and very nice. Then we went to the beach to find crabs. M's idea, before leaving home, was to catch a small crab, put it into a jar and bring him home as a pet. And he marched off to the beach proudly carrying his brand new catching net. And then, at some point while walking on the soft sand, it occured to M that crabs hide under the sand and can pinch his feet whenever they feel like it. That was the end of crab catching and almost the end of beach going (I had to promise him to go the part of the beach with no crabs from then on).

The water was very cold though so we didn't swim or even waded much (mostly just for pictures). Instead, after a short while we returned back to the cottage and jumped into the pool. Ok, so I might be exhaggerating a bit about the whole jumping in part since the pool was also cold (or it seemed so 'cause it was nearly 100 degrees outside).

M splashed around in his life preserver and inflatable sleeves and had lots of fun with all the different water toys and floaties. His cousin joined us and the two of them had a blast. M learned a new phrase "dog paddle" and was splashing around screaming it off the top of his lungs. Except he was saying it as "paddle dog". Too funny.

Next thing we knew it was time for the little ones (the two toddlers) to take a nap which meant M had to stay very quiet, something he has a hard time doing. I mean, he tries, but keeps forgetting to speak in his quietest indoor voice. It was too hot to go to the beach, so instead the four of us - Chris, myself, M and his cousin - went to the Currituck Lighthouse (to be continued)

Weeks 8 and 9 - Zoom, Zoom, Zoom

These two weeks zoomed by so fast that didn't have a chance to update my blog. Things were constantly changing. For example, in the space of 3 days our departure date (from NY) changed 4 times!

As you might know, Chris had to come home earlier than planned because he took a nasty fall (actually, a series of 7 or so nasty falls). As a result, he is on crutches for the next few weeks. What was at first thought to be a nasty sprain is in fact a full-blown fructure. So here ya go - a BIG change.

Then a bit out of a blue I had a pretty big and extremely urgent project for one of my clients. In fact, I was so busy with it that I had to put a few other biz projects on the back burner. And then I had to catch up on those...

But we still managed to have some fun and get some stuff other than work done.

During our last week or so in NY, M got into building with unit blocks. Most of the stuff he built was part of his Space Exploration program - a house for the astronauts (see above), another building where they'd train for the missions (see below), a launch complex, a hangar for the space shuttle, etc.

There was also a huge change in how he built them. He used to ask me for help balancing the blocks or even coming up with design ideas. But lately he's been building completely on his own. Which obviously makes me very happy and proud.

Now the only thing he asks from me is to take his picture next to his latest creation.

The weather cleared up some. Even though it still remained very cold, at least the snow melted. It started to feel like spring! Change in the weather meant that M and Grandpa could finally launch some real rockets. You can imagine the excitement!

No snow meant that we could finally go to a playground. Sure, there was mud all over the place, but that just upped the fun factor. Except on the first day when it was so cold that after about 20 minutes M asked me if we could go home already.

In our last week in NY we spent quite a lot of time in the backyard. M got to sit in Grandpa's new airplane! And check out the first greens in Grandma's veggie garden. We also played soccer with this huge dirty mostly deflated Chuck E. Cheese-themed ball. Even Grandpa got in on the action.

We also built this structure (above) from a playhouse someone junked and Grandpa picked up months ago. Do you know what this is? Nope, it's not a house or a castle. And it's not a rocket or a space station or a space shuttle.

Ok, I'm going to tell you - it's a ship. A regular ocean-going ship. M was the captain and I was both the crew and the passengers. My responsibilities were few and consisted mostly of saying "Ay Ay, Captain!". The captain, on the other hand, stayed very busy making snacks and coffee in the galley, appearing on the deck only to fight sharks.

Back indoors we did a couple of projects. I came up with one after seeing this idea on a couple of blogs. This is an art-science project since it combines painting with pendulum action. The set up is very simple - a funnel suspended from a broomstick and filled with paint. It got pretty messy, but M was really into it (and he still doesn't like messing with paint). In fact, he chose the colors and operated the pendulum. He then got into mixing colors with a stirring stick.

The second project was M's own invention. He actually got so into it that he was at it for almost 2 hours straight and then continued on and off for the next couple of days. The setup was much more elaborate and included a printer paper box, some leftover cardboard (from building our hexbug habitat), a large pot, an old broken tripod, lots of sticks, pinecones, and pieces of wood and a space heater (set on low for safety). So what do you think this whole thing is? Ok, I'm going to tell you right away 'cause you won't guess in a million years. Ready? It's a machine for making rainbow-colored hay from ground lunar stones (which explains the moon on the floor in the backgroud). At least it was that on Day 1. On Day 2 the setup was simplified a bit and became a bonfire so we could all warm ourselves up.

In between all this fun we also managed to make it to Brighton Beach. I promised myself not to get M more Russian books this time (I bought him a ton in the last few weeks). But you know me - I can't resist good books. And the ones I saw at the Kids' World store were fantastic. Plus Grandpa insisted on footing the bill. So M got about 6-7 more books, including an awesome Encyclopedia of Space Exploration, this time - in Russian. Then I went to the bookstore for grownups and bought a few more books, this time - for myself, mostly about Russian history and language.

And then it was time to pack and leave. We had to get a mini-van to fit all the stuff we were taking with us even though I left quite a few books and toys and most our winter clothes in the attic. But in all fairness, we had 3 adults, a child, a cat and a pair of crutches to fit into the car. Why 3 adults? My brother volunteered to help us with the move back (I told ya last year - he is (mostly) an angel). And now we're finally back home! Well, we've actually been back for almost a week already, but that's another story.