Happy Halloween (A Little Late) (Okay, A LOT Late, Shut Up)

Here are some pictures of our trip to Hersheypark in the Dark. It was awesome, as you can see.

This costume turned out to be one of Shae's better ideas -- and, yes, it was hers. She wanted to be "Bad Sandy" from Grease. I drew the line at the leather pants because I am decidedly anti-yeast-infection. She really looks like a generic "Pink Lady" but with her particular hair and the faux-pleather jacket it's pretty easy to make the connection. (She's also on record more than once as being dressed as "Lela" from Teen Beach Movie, if you're into that sort of thing.)

Movin' up in the world! Last time I took a "you must be this tall" picture at Hersheypark, Shae was a Hershey's Kiss (36" to 42" tall). Now she'd be a Twizzler (54" to 60" tall) if she'd stand up straight. I am not complaining, because I got to avoid roller coasters for most of the day by claiming height restrictions. We'll see what happens when we go back later this year, around Christmastime.

It's much more funner to be at Hersheypark when you're with other kids -- Shae had a "ride buddy" for most of the day. By the time my niece is finally tall enough to go on the big kid rides and coasters with Shae (in approximately 2025), I'll be able to just hang out in the Food Court, as God intended parents to do.

Yes, we had a costume change in the middle of the day. My niece went to participate in the Hershey Half Marathon Kids' Fun Run and while we were already in the parking lot, we switched over to warmer clothes and more comfortable (read: not school) shoes.

We stayed out until dark, which we've never done at Hersheypark before. Granted, we normally go in the summertime, when it doesn't get dark until 10pm instead of 6pm, but still. Shae was even going to get a chance to go on a coaster with her Daddy, until it started to rain and all the "good" rides shut down. (Her word, not mine.)

A (mostly) good time was had by all. (And of course there was free candy, which never hurts.)

Forward

First things first: obviously, I'm not doing NaBloPoMo this year. Or NaNoWriMo, either, for that matter. Just in case you were wondering.

Second things second: I'm sorry it's been forever and a day since I last posted. Would it help if I told you that in the meantime I've been driving through a hurricane and somehow landing myself in an honor society? No?

Third things third: because I know my audience (hi, Mom!) here are some pictures. I'm putting up the Halloween ones first because there is less than a week left until Thanksgiving and the pictures of the kids rolling around in the leaves will still be appropriate then.

 

It is COMPLETELY IMPOSSIBLE to get a photo of these guys where they're all looking in the same direction at the same time. But they ARE totes adorbs (hi, babe!) so WHATEVER.

  

Joey and Jacob may not, technically, have been aware that I was taking their picture here, but they're sure cute. And also total clones of my sisters, so obviously we know who their mother is.

  

I hope I never get tired of how Makayla follows Shae around everywhere, and how Shae does her best to be a good big sister, even though these two are cousins.

  

Of course, it is hard not to love this face, or this kid, who lets me pretend to eat her face and loves to play along with my favorite game, "Don't Drop The Baby!" When I say, "Don't drop the baby!" now, she says it right along with me. I miss this age, kind of, sometimes. And then I remember how often you have to say "No" to a two-year-old and I get over it.

  

If you think about it too long and too hard (or if, for example, you are a future literature teacher who's actually read The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and not just seen the Disney version of the movie), there is probably something inappropriate about letting my kid dress up as Esmeralda for Halloween.

  

But you know what? I've been accused of far worse than indulging my kid and her desire to redefine what makes a "princess," you know?

OLYMPICS FEVER!

Yup, I have it - even though I haven't actually be able to WATCH any of it, since I spent opening weekend in class and almost getting disappeared from the face of the Earth due to some sort of derecho-type weather situation with hailstones the size of nickels and horizontal rain and lightning-struck trees. (These things may or may not be related - I honestly can't tell.)

ANYWAY.

Let's play my favoritest game in the world: What in the world is going on in rockle's mind? In this case, I have made a collage of my top ten favorite summer Olympic athletes ever as of about 20 minutes ago. Can you guess who they are, what sport they competed in, and how many Olympic medals (of any color) they won? Hints below the picture.

HINTS:
#1 = 1984.
#2 = 1976, 1984, 1988.
#3&4 = 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012.
#5 = 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012.
#6 = 1988, 1992.
#7 = 2004.
#8 = 1996, 2000, 2004.
#9 = 1968, 1972.
#10 = 1976, 1980. (Plus: 10.)

Zooropa

It's pretty much part and parcel that wherever we go on vacation, we go to see animals of some kind. It's how we roll. (PS: Proof that I actually saw the baby while we were out there.)

Usually it's the zoo, but we have been known to visit aquariums from time to time. Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago is one of my favorites because (1) it's free and (2) it has a big giant tractor.

Also: lots of places to pose the kids together, including but not limited to inside a "hollowed-out" log inside the gorilla exhibit, and in front of a male zebra. (Don't ask me how I know it's male or I'll be forced to tell you.)

It's a pretty zoo, too. Chicago is a pretty city. I am not one for "big cities," generally, what with the fact that I hate people and all, but at least the Lincoln-Park-Zoo-part of Chicago has lots of pretty things to look at (and excellent light).

Oh! And a carousel! Which was pretty much the hit of the visit. Anything that gets the kids to smile naturally is all right in my book.

Not to mention, the skyline makes a lovely backdrop for family pictures. (I still think Philly's is more spectacular, but Chicago's is quite photogenic.)

Long Time Gone

Man, this month has really gotten away from me -- sorry about that. January has been SO CRAZY, you guys. I feel like I've been at work for 100 days in a row, and we're just finally (maybe) getting to the end, but in the meantime I've had, like, half a dozen birthday parties and car issues (insignificant) and grad school starting and medical stuff (which could have been major but turned out to be not) and SWIMMING LESSONS.

Oh, yes, we're at it again.

Shae's first swimming lesson of the year was last Sunday. We couldn't get into a Saturday class because they were all full, and because of my crazy class schedule we didn't want to try for a weeknight class, but it turned out to be for the best because there are only like 5 kids in the class.

We've moved up a level, to "Eel." I don't know any kids that really want to be eels, but whatever, I didn't name the classes. Last year the instructor recommended that Shae repeat Pike B, but she worked really hard on improving her swimming over the summer, and she can do all of the basic requirements for the level, so we went ahead and moved her up.

I didn't bring the big camera with me this time, so these pictures are kind of meh (although, in all honesty, my new iPhone takes some pretty decent pictures that are at least as good as the old original crapcam, provided the light is good and your subject is standing still, which DOES NOT HAPPEN with this kid), but you can clearly see that someone is glad to be back in her natural element.

And it makes me furiously happy to see her being so furiously happy. (Although something MUST be done about THAT HAIR.)

I Feel The Earth Move

So, you might have heard we had an earthquake yesterday. Everyone's fine and nothing's broken, as far as I can tell, and I got to check an item off my bucket list. It is probably not normal to have "experience an earthquake first-hand" on one's bucket list, but when have I ever been known to do anything "normal?" It's been awhile, as far as I can tell.

This is the last week of "summer camp" at Shae's school -- their regular curriculum starts Monday, including Spanish lessons, which are new this school year and which I am way more excited about than Shae is -- and it was supposed to be a Water Play Day, but it was postponed until the afternoon because it was cool in the morning, and then it got cancelled after the earthquake, and she was majorly bummed about it because it was supposed to be the last water day of the summer. So I took pity on her poor soul -- seriously, a depressed 4-year-old is the saddest thing ever -- and we stopped at the water park on the way home.

Before Shae would go under the sprinklers, though, she said she wanted to show me "something cool," and she proceeded to drag me all over the world until we got down to the creek, which she kind of wanted to swim in, except she was afraid of getting eaten by alligators. And since God knows what kinds of gross things live in that creek, I let her think that alligators were the reason why we couldn't go swimming there.

We spent almost an hour at the water park, longer than I expected to, but there was nobody else around, and she was having such a good time that I just couldn't resist. Perhaps my brain got knocked around in my skull during the quake, or maybe I was just feeling indulgent. Who knows? She had fun, that's what matters, and I think we managed to make up for missing wacky water play with her friends at school.

Although there is something sort of sad about being the only kid at the playground in the late afternoon when the sun is still up and the summer is waning. Not that she minded much -- she had the whole place to herself. If I had known there was going to be an earthquake, I would have packed my own suit and played around with her.

I would never have looked as cute with the Hello Kitty hooded towel on, though.

All photos taken with my iPhone using Retro Camera (also available for Android).

Disneyland: The Everything Else

I know it's hard to tell what with all the yammering I've been doing, but we didn't spend our entire time in California on Disney-owned property. Just most of it. We did some other stuff, too. Unfortunately we did not get to spend as much time as we would have liked to doing the "other stuff" -- damn you, airline! -- but the little tastes we got were enough to convince me that, like Jack and the rest of the Oceanic 6, we HAVE to go BACK!

The boy in this picture is Adrian. He belongs to one of my husband's cousins and her husband. They live somewhere in SoCal, about half an hour away from Disneyland. Adrian's parents and his aunt (also G's cousin, go figure, since she's Adrian's mom's sister) came to meet us for dinner at the Rainforest Café in Downtown Disney on Saturday night while we were out there, and we had a spectacular time, and it makes me so sad that they're out there and we're out here, because I really think they'd like my family. Shae and Adrian got along famously, of course, and Shae still asks for "her new cousin" and it will never stop being adorable. I wish we had more time to spend with them, because they all made me laugh and made me feel so welcome and made me feel at home. Like Disney wasn't fun enough -- the only thing that could possibly have made it funner would have been spending it with more awesome people.

On Sunday, before the wedding, we met a high-school friend of mine and her husband and new baby for lunch. (Yowza, we ate A LOT on vacation. Like, a REALLY lot, and delicious amazing food, too. Not a cruddy meal in the bunch, not even when we ate at El Pollo Loco that first night, and apparently that particular chain can be sort of hit-or-miss. Thank heavens for all that walking we did or I'd never be able to get my pants buttoned.) It was super-great to be able to see her again, and meet him, and sit there and stare at their delicious baby, and just catch the short version of what's been going on for the last 10 years or so. For the first time in a very long time, I missed high school, although to be 100% honest, what I really miss are my high school friends, who I never see any more. Where are you guys? I MISS YOU! Call me!

They drove all the way down from Pasadena (an hour away, I guess? I have no idea about California geography -- I always thought Anaheim was, like, hours away from Los Angeles, and I always figured that calling them the "Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim" was like calling a team the "Philadelphia Phillies of Pittsburgh," but as it turns out, LA and Anaheim are pretty close -- about 30 miles, I think, but it's like LIGHTYEARS when you figure in the traffic -- OK, so I guess technically Anaheim IS hours away from LA). After lunch we wanted to hang out a little longer, so we asked if there were any parks nearby and we got directed to this mall.

A MALL WITH PALM TREES AND A FERRIS WHEEL RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF IT. I am not even kidding; you can't make this kind of shit up. And fountains that are deliberately designed for kids to play in them. Also: salted caramel Pinkberry. Believe the hype. I think California is my home planet, you guys, I really, really do.

Sunday night was the wedding, which was totally awesome and I cannot possibly overstate how beautiful it was, the setting and the food and those two crazy kids goin' and gettin' hitched, all of it, and how wonderful it was to be there. I am still in awe that we (1) got invited in the first place, and (2) actually got to attend. One of the best weddings ever in the history of weddings, and I swear to God that I am not just saying that because this was the last of our high school friends to get married. It really was just that special.

Oh and at the wedding Shae got dumped for the first time, by the rakish and charming ring bearer, the groom's nephew, who up and left poor Shaezie in the middle of the dance floor for the flower girl. Shae got revenge by boogie-ing with everyone else's date and pretty much being the first runner-up to the bride in the "Belle of the Ball" competition, though, so it all turned out okay. (And, BTW, this was the best her hair looked for the whole trip. You can't see her cute little bling-y barette, and you can't really tell that I let her wear lip gloss and eye shadow, but she partied like a rock star with nary a hair out of place. TRUST.)

Disneyland: The Parade

While we were at Disneyland, we saw the fireworks show -- Shae spent the entire time "ooh"ing and "aah"ing and yelling "Go Tinkerbell!" because Tink is the one who starts the whole thing, flying to the top of Sleeping Beauty's Castle on a zipline -- and World of Color, which was totally amazing, but I think that the afternoon parade down Main Street U.S.A. was one of my favorites. This being Disneyland, it was of course an awesome parade. Here are some pictures, which are completely out-of-camera and presented without comment because none is necessary, really.

You guys, we had SUCH a great time.