Good Timing (Day 3)

Phew. Another day down -- we did it again! The twins slept slightly better last night. Went 4 hrs for the first stretch which makes a difference. Unfortunately, then I couldn't get back to sleep after I fed them -- a rare occurance, but it does occasionally happen. Anyway, we just hung around the hotel room this morning. Luckily for all of us, between PBS and Nick jr, there were several things on the tv that the girls enjoyed. We're not usually big fans of just sitting around letting them watch tv show upon tv show, but this morning was a good time for it.

We had an early lunch here in the room and then headed out. We ended up at Incredible Dave's. For those of you non-Louisville people, it's similar to a Dave & Buster's but much more oriented towards kids. Lots of aracade "redemption" games (you win tickets for different scores and can turn them in for ... well ... junk). They also had a very cool bowling alley. Two lanes that were kinda sectioned off and were just for kids. The lanes were a bit shorter and the kids didn't have to wear special shoes. The bowling balls were very small -- completely appropriately sized for Faith and Mari. And of course, there were bumpers in the gutters. Oh and it was all glow in the dark so the girls were excited about their clothing looking all glowy. Faith really started catching on by the end of her second game and was actually starting to concentrate and improve. Mari only made it through one game. Matt and I kept saying how surprised we were that crazy silly run-around Mari wasn't able to throw the ball with enough strength to really do much. The pins were even smaller sized but more than once, Matt had to go up alongside the lane to get Mari's stopped ball back.

After bowling the girls found this toddler area with inflated stuff to run and slide and jump on. Good for 15 mins or so of fun. Once we spent all the money we had put on the cards, Matt went to the redemption area and traded in the tickets for two plastic magic wands, a glow stick and two fans (like those Spanish kind that fold out) with Jesus on them. Pretty chintzy (no offense to Jesus) but fun. Both magic wands are already broken. Oh well.

Came home, rested (including a successful transfer of a sleeping Mari from the van to her sleeping bag in the room), found my wallet (after having cancelled my 2 credit cards and my bank card, by the way) and went to downtown Jeffersonville to Schmipff's candy shop. A truly old-time candy shop with a HUGE selection. They're known for their hard candy, especially red hots. We each chose out a few things with the promise that if the girls ate a good dinner, they could sample some candy afterwards. You know the expression "kid in a candy store?" Yeah.

We then headed out to Hometown Buffet for dinner. We found some time ago that those buffet restaurants are worth every penny when you have young children. It's so nice to a. be able to get them pretty much anything they want and b. not have to wait very long at all to get them pretty much anything they want. That went pretty well. They each got a piece of candy after dinner.

Next stop was a great park alongside the river. We managed to stay and play there for a while and even FINALLY got Matt's long coveted shot of us (minus him) in front of the river. Came back to the hotel, talked to Matt's parents (and Sandy) via Skype (that thing ROCKS) and my mom via cell. They're all having a wonderful time at the beach. Sigh. I truly wish we were there but this vacation is a definite close second.

Anyway, the whole day, the twins continued to be very compatible to our vacation wants and needs. Really. We're SO SO lucky. They have really only been fussy when they're hungry or maybe too hot or too cold. Hannah has a pretty significant cold today, but even that doesn't seem to do TOO much to her spirits! They're so good about letting me nurse them pretty much wherever I have to which is obviously pretty important so that we can all be out and about. They have good awake time during the day off and on and are SO cute when we get back to the room after having been out for a while. We take them out of their infant carriers, change them and let them stretch out on our bed. They stretch and grunt and groan and are genuninely happy to be out of their seats. There are two fairly ugly pictures on the wall above our head board that both babies are FASCINATED with! They will turn their heads completely around just to look at these pictures! So funny.

So a few funny things. Last evening, Matt was having a "conversation" with one of the girls here in the hotel room (I forget which one). I was getting the babies situated on our bed and I hear Matt say to whichever girl it was, "and you need to stop 'fripping' out so much..." and I just lost it. Of course, an accidental combo of "flipping" and "freaking". Not helpful to Matt as he's trying to be stern with her and I am losing it on the bed. I seriously couldn't stop laughing for like 10 minutes and now it's a commonly used term in our family. So funny.

The other very cute but a bit annoying thing is that Mari is now in the habit of asking EVERY single time we're getting ready to go out if we're bringing the babies with us. Really. Every time. As if we'd forget them. Faith is always asking, as SOON as we begin a new activity, what we're going to do next. Trying to explain "living in the moment" is very difficult to do with a 4 year old!

Other than all that, we're truly having a great time and are so glad we were able to get away! Sadly, I found out today that my great aunt B. is on 24 hour Hospice watch now (she's been in "regular" Hospice for some time now) which means there is a Hospice person there with her in the nursing home room at all times. I just continue to pray that she goes peacefully and that she's able to let go when the time comes.

So, not to end on a total downer, but it is 10:22 and I'm sure that I only have about 2-3 hrs to go until I am up again to feed one baby or the other, so I'm going to sign off. As we've said before, this is a TOTALLY long post and I apologize. It's how I am. If you've stayed with me up until now, God bless you and thank you! :-) Steph

Pics below:

Bowling:


Inflatables:


A mixed blessing:


More simple pleasures:


Along the Ohio:

More pics

Can only post 5 pics at a time - here are some more good ones. The BIG post about Day 2 is below, if you haven't read it yet.

Robby smiled!


Took and the twins


They're actually sweet to each other in between screaming matches.


Soon it'll be time to retire the little Pack n Play.


Okay, so we did get ONE good picture.

Day 2 - WHAT a day!

Phew. We made it. There were several points during today that I wasn't sure we'd make it to 10:16pm and that it would also be quiet and dark! But, we did and it is!

We started out the day with a success -- it was Matt's idea to tell Faith & Mari that they couldn't get out of "bed" until Daddy got up and opened the curtains. It worked and the girls didn't get up until after 7am -- pretty good for us. The babies didn't have the best night ever. They had been going 5-6 hours at night at home for the past week or week and a half which has been glorious. However, last night here in the hotel room, they went more like 3 to 3 1/2 hours at a stretch. Oh well. The good news was that the girls didn't wake up for it. Robby had the hardest time and finally at about 5am, I had Matt put Robby in bed with us, which is usually a HUGE no-no for us, but I just couldn't do it.

Anyway, everyone ate and got dressed and we managed to get out the door at a decent time. We made our way WAY out in the country to Joe Huber's Family Farm. It was a good 15 miles or so from the highway in to a BEAUTIFUL countryside. It's a humongous farm with goats (I think they're the little pygmy kind) and some sheep and tons of ducks and some donkeys and ponys and a few chickens. They had pony rides (Faith rode 3 times!) and a tractor pulling some wagons that we rode on and a "cow train" for the kids. They also had apple shooting out over the pond and you could go catfishing in the pond, too. A very beautiful and well-run place. Also pretty busy. They definitely do well for themselves. The girls just loved it and I admit, I was sad to go and know that there wasn't a great chance that we'd ever be able to go back!

There is also a wonderful restaurant on the premises with amazing home cooking. You get a huge basket of fried biscuits with homemade strawberry jelly and apple butter. We ordered great fried green tomatoes for an appetizer. I am not a fried chicken girl, but I ordered the 1/4 fried chicken plate with corn on the cob and a baked sweet potato. Again, not a corn on the cob girl but it was so so good that it tasted like candy to me! The chicken was awesome, too! Really good! Matt had fried chicken and I can't remember what else, but he loved it. We also got some dessert -- I had a mini hot fudge sundae. Mmmmmmm. OH and by the way, Robby and Hannah slept in their stroller most of the time which made things easy!

We headed back to the hotel and the girls fell asleep (and I did for a few minutes, too) luckily. All that activity and strong sun made us pretty tired! We just chilled out in the hotel room for a while. Mari went #2 on the potty which is big for us. Yes, I'm blogging about that -- that's our family!!!

We just had dinner here in the hotel room and then went out to a park along the Ohio River. After the girls had had enough, we walked a very short distance down the road to the Widow's Walk Ice Creamery. Very good ice cream and sundaes! Matt tried his darndest after that to get a good pic of us in front of the river with downtown Louisville in the background, but Mari would not cooperate for the life of her. She is THE poster child for the terrible two's sometimes!!!

Got back to the room and bathed the babies and tried to get the girls to settle down. It was a lot more smooth than last night, though!!!

Really, that's about it. The girls had their moments today but so did Matt and I, really. Having the twins is AWEsome but it doesn't always make us have the most patience with the girls or with each other. Oh and I have managed to lose my wallet. Yes, the wallet with all my credit cards and debit card and license and a very small amount of cash. Ugh. I have looked and looked. Matt is convinced it was stolen. I don't know. If I still can't find it in the morning, I'll call all the credit card companies and the bank, etc. What a pain.

Oh yeah, and if you're the prayin' type, please pray for my great aunt B. and for my mom and her family. Aunt B. has been in a nursing home for about a year now with dementia/Alzheimer's. She's taken a turn for the worse in the past week and is now pretty much unresponsive. We don't expect her to make it much longer. Ironically, we were supposed to visit my uncle J. and his family, who live just south of Louisville, but now they are going up to Cincy tomorrow to see aunt B. Such is life, right?

Ok, this is already way too long and Matt wants to post pics. So, I'll sign off. Steph

We are limited to 5 pics per post, so we'll post some more in the morning - here are some pics of the farm.

Wagon ride:


Huber Farm:


Cow train:


Pony ride:


40-ft barn slide:

Day 1

Man, this is a wild trip. As I type, Mari and Faith are completely failing to lie still in the dark in their sleeping bags. Mari has so far thrown her books and her Clifford pet at Faith in the dark, she has rolled out of her sleeping bag towards us, made farting noises, clicking noises, and now is making some unidentifiable sound.

Got off to a good start, got out the door only about a half hour behind schedule, which is not too bad all things considered. Uneventful trip down 71 to Louisville, straight to Atlantis Water Park. Again, a minimal location but well suited to our needs. Faith and Mari played happily in the kids area, going down the same slide about 200 times and never tiring of it. The other slides were scary for various reasons, but it didn't seem to bother them. Had a picnic lunch and came back to play some more. Finally got them to have a good time sitting in the shallow end of the wave pool and letting the waves splash them. Faith was totally disinterested until I convinced her to start jumping over the waves. Then it was fun.

Went to check into the hotel, get the room settled, then out to Ditto's for dinner. Steph would try to put a happy face on it but take it from me...the girls were flat out AWFUL. If it hadn't been vacation and a special place for the two of us, both girls would have made an early exit. But we survived and both got to have the BBQ Chicken Pizza that they serve in heaven. Mmmmmmm.

Drove around a bit on the Indiana side, and the girls both fell asleep in the car. No biggie. Got back to the hotel, hung out, read a lot of books, and here we are. Busy day, but lots of fun. Anyway, please enjoy the many pics below:

Tooks at Atlantis:


Faith on the slide:


Time to go:


Ahhh...observe the rich thick sauce, the gouda cheese, the juicy chicken, and of course, the fried onions...absolute perfection.


Vacation photo as modern art:


More fun tomorrow, keep checking in.

Matt

Tomorrow we ride

Well, driving a couple hours down I-71 aint exactly 'the call of the open road' and the 4 children in tow puts a bit of a damper on the whole 'road trip as escape' thing (not to mention the $4+ gas)...but it's a trip, and journeys like this are one of my favorite things in life, so let's hit the highway.

Clothes are packed. Food is purchased. Tank is full. Still more to do, but we're thankfully not in a huge hurry in the morning. Plan is to leave around 9, drop the dogs off at Camp Paula, and book it out of town. I made a CD with some of everyone's music on it, even Steph and I got to choose some. I know, how primitive, but until we can get the iPod directly wired into the van, CDs it is. We'll be hopefully heading first to Atlantis Water Park in Clarksville, IN...very simple affair, but very good price. Girls can splash around and do kiddie water slides to their hearts' content. Picnic lunch there, then check into the hotel in Jeffersonville, IN, and chill out. Dinner is at Ditto's Grill...which used to be here in Cincy, and was where Steph and I had our first date. Awww.... Wow. A lot can happen in...14 years? Wow. Anyway, this place has the BEST barbecue chicken pizza on the PLANET.

Okay, gotta run. More packing to do.

Matt

Specter Family Hostel

Yeah, we tried our first "slumber party" with Faith and Mari last night to prepare them for the sleeping arrangements in Louisville. Mari got a brand new sleeping bag, which she was excited about. Well, all in all, it could have been a lot worse. The good news is, once they're asleep, they stay asleep. The bad news is, well...you can imagine. Anyway, I wasn't the one who was up and taking care of the issues, and it's all kind of a blur to me now. Steph will probably post later with more details. Anyway, one more day to get ready for this trip. Still a lot to do, but I think we're in good shape to get it all done somehow. Wish us luck!

Matt

Bwahahaha!

Well, I am going to go ahead and say it - planning a 3-week cross country RV excursion with 2 kids is easier than planning a 4-day trip to Louisville with 4 kids.

We're going on our little jaunt in a couple days, and it totally doesn't feel like we have a trip coming up. And it has nothing to do with the location. We're totally excited about this trip, because we're on a mission to make it the cheapest vacation ever. It's just that we haven't been able to do hardly any prep work because we have no time.

It doesn't help that the whole family has high-tailed it to Hilton Head, so there's not even any help we can call in. But, complain as we might, we know there was no way we could go. Hopefully when everyone comes back they'll be nice and rested and offer to take various children for an hour/day/week... =)

So anyway, this blog will again take on the form of a travelogue briefly starting Monday.

This could get interesting...

Entering the blogosphere

Okay, so my understanding is that one of the things you're supposed to do with blogs is link to other blogs of interest. Well, Steph has been in contact with a family from the babycenter boards, they have a blog, they've been reading ours, so let's follow standard operating procedure. Please visit the Lee Family Chronicles.

The link is now over on the right as well.

More later today. By the way, I've been adding videos to YouTube, even though I haven't posted them all here. Hopefully I'll catch up, but feel free to visit and enjoy. Here's Day 2 of the 2003 Road Trip.



I will say this - I apologize to the good people of Fond-du-Lac and Oshkosh for making broad generalizations about you. I really know nothing about your towns. And I apologize especially to Oshkosh for saying that Lakeside Park was nicer than Menomonee Park. It was, though.

Matt

:-)

I hate coming up with titles (and subject lines for emails).

So, I took Hannah and Robby for their 1 month well-child pediatrician visit last Wed. They are both very healthy and look great. They also, apparently, are growing like weeds! Hannah is now 9lbs, 11oz and Robby is 10 lbs, 8oz! Now, I checked and Mari was like 11 lbs, some odd oz at 1 month but still. Oh and the most exciting part for the VERY vertically challenged Durkee-Specters -- Robby's height is in the 80th percentile with his weight in the same! Two good things -- to be in the 80th percentile for height for us is purely a miracle (the pedi once told me that Matt and I are each in like the 35th percentile for adults for height...) and to have it match up with the weight? Even better!

Now, Grandpa D is enormously tall for our families -- a good 6 ft. Average for most, gigantic for us. We have all reason to believe so far that Robby might break through the curse and be taller than 5'9"! I know, I know! He's only 6 wks old and ANYthing can happen. But, we take what we can get!

That's it for now. Off to feed the twins! Steph

Back in the saddle

Okay, I think we're going to make a real effort to get back to regular posting now.

A lot has gone on of course. The twins will be 6 weeks old tomorrow. They continue to improve their nighttime sleep patterns. They have had as many as 6 hours sleeping at a time, and are pretty consistently able to give us 4-5 at a shot. They still have an occasional 3 hours only stretch, but that is becoming more and more rare. They also go right down to bed about 90% of the time, which is already better than we got from Mari. AND, they almost always go right back to bed after a feeding. All in all, the nightmare that could have been has not happened.

The big girls continue to have the summer of amusement parks. More trips to King's Island, a trip to Coney Island (the Cincinnati one for you non-locals), and a growing obsession with all rides.

Steph and I continue to plow along. A little bummed that everyone is going to Hilton Head without us next week, BUT...we've put together a little budget trip for ourselves. We'll be heading out to Louisville for a few days and have found a good selection of inexpensive activities for everyone. We'll talk more about that later.

At any rate, since a total stranger (to me anyway) left a comment that she had been missing the blog, we'll be making a better effort to keep things updated.

Matt