Road Trip Prep: PACK ALL THE YARN.

So!   Very soon we leave on an epic road trip.  The kind that Google Maps laughs at you when you type in and just gives you the time it would take to fly there.  Because noone in their right mind wants to drive 1300 miles one way with 3 kids in the car, right?

Shut up, google.

Yes.  We are taking the kids to South Dakota.  By way of Chicago (because our daughter begged us to stop there).  It's going to be epic.  I've never been to this part of the country before so I'm really excited. We've been planning/organizing/practice hiking/packing for what feels like months.  SO MUCH PACKING.  The big question is... how much yarn does one bring for 40 some hours in the car?

ALL THE YARN.  You bring ALL OF IT.

I suppose that isn't realistic (although I have been known to sneak yarn in the car under the seats in case of emergency).  So I'm focusing on projects.  Obviously I have to bring my #ALLINCLE socks:

Don't even talk about the fact that I will be in South Dakota when Cleveland brings home it's first championship in my lifetime.  I CAN'T EVEN.

But a pair of socks is not going to be enough.  So I dyed up a shiny new colorway that I"m hoping will match a good part of our trip.  Introducing, PRAIRIE:

greeeeeeeen!!!!

It's a kettle dyed / stipple dyed colorway.  So it is mainly a total green with a few tiny flicks of dark green throughout.  It is swatching up beautifully:

An epic trip deserves an epic project.  So I'm going to knit this:

Photo from the Ravelry pattern page linked below.

It's the Feather and Fan-tastic pattern that I found while stalking everything knit in fingering weight on Ravelry.  I think it's beautiful.  The lace is enough to keep it interesting without taking away from the yarn.  Plus the wavy-ness of the pattern will mimic the wavy prairie grass.  I like that.

Photo from the Ravelry pattern page linked above.

Also the pattern is based on something that Lady Edith wore on Downton Abbey and she's the bestest so.... yeah.  Had to knit it.

Yay for epic adventures and epic projects!

PS all of this yarn is available at Destination Yarn.

Endless Snow Days.

So Cleveland is a tundra.

Cleveland and the frozen Lake Erie from above - picture via my friend Jessica who flew in for Brite this weekend.

4We've had days of below zero temperatures, it's currently blizzarding out there, and we've only had one day of school in the last week and a half.  Yeah.

Elsa coronation hair.  Because it was too cold to go outside and we got BORED.

Luckily that one day happened to be the day that the dude presented his first ever homework assignment:

The Letter R.  Painted Red and decorated with Race cars, Reptiles, and Rubies.

He got to pick something to go in the mystery box, write three clues about it, and then present them to his class to guess.  See if you can figure it out*:

A video posted by Jeanne S (@lifeincle) on Feb 17, 2015 at 10:30am PST

I'm trying to have a good attitude about all of this Winter.  Because I'm pretty sure if I complain myself from last year will reach through time and smack me.  As bad as it gets it can never be as bad as last year - when I had 3 kids under 5 and we couldn't leave the house for something like 12 days.  I don't have to worry about a tiny baby getting frostbite!  One of the kids can get herself ready completely on her own!  Really things aren't that bad.

So we've taken every opportunity we can to get out.  Make the most of it.

Kids at the Great Lakes Science Center.

Matt chasing the boys through the art museum while our girl was at her class.

Looking for Ninja Turtle Weapons at the armory at the CMA.

We even braved the snow (seriously it took us SO LONG to get there) and drove to western Pennsylvania last weekend.  Where it may not have been warmer but at least it was different.  And we got to show off the very impressive trick of boiling water turning instantly into steam.

Also?  I own a basement sized bounce house:

It was our Christmas gift to the kids.  Purchased with weeks like this one in mind.  But I have to say... as well as we've done this week I'm not sure how much more we can cheerily handle.  Let's hope everything returns to normal for next week....


*The answer was:  Road Runner.  BEEP BEEP!

Florida 2015 Recap.

So!  Last weekend we took a quick trip to Florida to visit my grandparents and escape this miserable, horrible, awful, cold.  And gray.  Last year was the whole Disney Family Road Trip thing so this was my first time flying with THREE KIDS OMG:

Don't worry, mom.  We got this.

They did great but I will be forever thankful that Cleveland has a direct flight to Tampa.

My kids at the airport.  They walked to the gates themselves (as opposed to in strollers which is surprisingly common for surprisingly large children) and carried their own backpacks with their blankies, stuff to do on the plane, and sweatshirts.  I was super proud of them!

It was a pretty relaxed trip.  When it was too cold for the pool we went to the park:

There's a great park right down the street from my grandparents' place that has a lake and a boardwalk through the swamp.  Perfect for searching for alligators.  It's too cold for them this time of year - but don't tell my 3yo that.

When it was warm enough in the afternoons we went to the condo pool:

Love the puddle jumpers.

And as our big adventure we had lunch in Tarpon Springs.

But mainly?  The trip was about this:

Playing UNO with the champ.

And this:

Noone gives one on one attention like Nonni does.  She even listens to the Dude ramble on, and on, and on, and on, and on...

And most importantly .... this:

Learning to knit the same way I did.

It was a nice trip but we were happy to come home.

Superman display at the Cleveland Airport.  According to the dude "I like other cities but Cleveland is my favorite."

And our dog was happy to see us, too:

Maybe.  The kids were certainly happy to see her, though!

Yay Florida and warm adventures!

Throwback Thursday: Yosemite.

So!  Still with the not catching up on the blog.  Just when I thought things were back to rights after the holidays.... well... Snowdays!  and Colds!  and Friends on Netflix! (ahem) and STREP!  UGH.

I'll be there for you.... to binge watch while recovering from Strep Throat.

So I'll just punt and post a throwback Thursday.  See the other night we were reading a book about Volcanoes (boys at the library.  yeah).  And I told the kids that their dad and I hiked up a volcano once.  And they were SHOCKED.  So I got out the photo album from our trip to Lassen Volcanic.   They were SO SO into it!  To the point where the last couple of nights instead of books at bedtime they have requested "pictures from when you were in your 20's"  Sure.  Why not.

Us in Lassen in 2002.  SO YOUNG!

Also someone just summited Yosemite's Dawn Wall  and the park will celebrate it's 125th anniversary this year.  So this post is crazy relevant. 

And 22 is crazy young.

We went to Yosemite during the summer of 2002 when we were living in San Francisco.

Mmmmm mountains.  View of the Vernal and Nevada falls from Glacier point.

We were only there for a summer so we wanted to make the most out of our experience.  Meaning every weekend we went somewhere fantastic.  One weekend was Yosemite.  Lots of camping.  Lots of hiking.  Lots of this:

Seriously, 22 year old Matt, be careful.  We have awesome things ahead.

One of my favorite pictures of my husband to this day.

Most of these pictures are from the Mist trail hike.  It goes up past Vernal falls, past Nevada falls, to the base of Half Dome.

Then we hiked the panorama trail back down to the valley.

Nevada falls with half dome in the background.  Names I still remember 12 years later.

But what the kids were most interested in was the fact that we saw a bear:

"What did you do when you saw it?"  - our girl
"Fought it." - Matt
"REALLY????" - the kids who still don't quite get sarcasm.  Surprising being raised by us.

Hopefully some day we'll go back the rest of our party of 5 in tow.  Until then it's fun to be able to show the kids our past adventures.

"Mommy how come you didn't go anywhere cool like this in your '30's?"
*****HEAD EXPLODES*****

Girls' Weekend at Put-In-Bay.

So!  Last weekend some friends and I hopped on the Miller Boat Line and headed to Put-In-Bay for a much anticipated girls' weekend:

It was Halloween weekend at PIB so there were lots of shenanigans.  That .... we had no interest in, honestly.  Instead our weekend looked more like this:

Relaxing in front of a fire with good wine, good conversation, and noone needing anything from me?  PERFECT.

I wouldn't have thought of Put-in-Bay as the spot for a trip like this.  I know the island is fantastic with families (we took ours there last year and had a ball).  But for an adults only trip?  Mainly I picture bars and  well... shenanigans.  But my friend was certain it would be perfect and she was right.  We stayed at a "cottage" owned by her family.  Her descendants have been vacationing on PIB for 104 years.  Yes.  104.  Completely amazing and interesting.  I was fascinated.  So she took us on a little tour of the west side of the island:

The yellow house was her great-grandparents.  It's down the street from her grandparents' house, her cousin's house, and her parents' house.

It was the perfect day for a walk.  Fall on the lake is so beautiful!

We went out to dinner and ate the best fish fry on the island (it was good but nothing can compare to how my dad does a Lake Erie fish fry.  I'm spoiled on that one.):

We went to the Put-In-Bay Winery and tasted delicious wines with a fantastic view of the harbor and lake:

I liked the "Red Witch" wine in particular.  Interestingly it's a white wine.

It's one of these.

 We shopped the "junk store" aka the Antique Store where all of the proceeds benefit the Lake Erie Islands Historical Society:

And we enjoyed a fantastic Lake Erie Sunset:

 And caught the ferry home on Sunday in time to watch football with our families:

I missed them even if they are Steelers fans.

All in all it was a perfect, relaxing weekend.  We're talking about making it a bi-annual tradition.

Yay PUT-IN-BAY!

Disclosure:  The Miller Boat Line provided me with round-trip tickets to the island.  All opinions and photographs are my own.

Patterson's Fruit Farm.

So!  How about some more FALL?  Last weekend we took the kids to Patterson's Fruit Farm for their Family Fun Fest:

FALL.

It was a lovely, if a bit chilly, fall day:

We went with the Near West Family Network so the kids got to hang out with their friends:

 We did all of the fall things:

The dude in a treehouse, Matt on stilts, the dude on a tractor, walking through the woods to the slides.

Even Tiny got in on the action! And by action I mean mud.  SO MUCH MUD.

Toddler running downhill in the woods.  Happiness personified.

The pumpkin patch was pretty picked over but Tiny still had fun toddling through it:

The big kids wanted to do the corn maze but Matt took one look inside it, saw all the mud, and said "Sorry, kids!  We can't go in there because ALLIGATORS!" scooped up Tiny and ran.  I... yeah.  If you tell kids there are alligators somewhere?  THEY ARE GOING TO WANT TO LOOK FOR THE ALLIGATORS.  So I braved the mud and took the big kids on an alligator hunt. 

Surprisingly we didn't find any.

Sadly the apple picking was over for the season.  So unlike last year we didn't get to sample all of their varieties.  But I still bought a bunch to make some Apple Raspberry Sauce.

They were super helpful.

Yay FALL!