The boys' big cross-country road adventure has come to its conclusion, with two successful 4+ hour flights interspersed with excellent fun times with grandma, John, their dog Winston, their boat, four playgrounds, and much more! On Wednesday, the whole family piled into the car and drove to the airport, where mommy and L said goodbye to us with hugs and kisses, before the boys each took our own backpacks and bravely walked into the airport and through security. I left in plenty of time for a snack (O had to grab some French fries from the classic Seattle fish and chips
outlet) in the airport's excellent windowed promenade, where the boys watched and commented on various airplanes and ground support vehicles.
Then after some playtime at the indoor playground and two loops in the subway car around the terminal, it was time to board the flight. The three seats they got us together were in the very last row, which while originally seeming like a nuisance, was actually a blessing when O needed multiple trips to the restroom and I could trust that Z was going to be literally on the other side of the wall from us). The boys did great entertaining themselves with their various toys and snacks, and the
aforementioned car cases were a particularly huge hit. (And bonus: the felt road had enough traction that even through some turbulence, the cars didn't roll off the tray tables and onto the ground.)
My favorite was the notes that Meredith had packed in their bags; Z liked his so much that it found an honored place on his armrest, where he re-read it several times during the flight and talked about the airplane she'd drawn on it.
We had an excellent time with grandma and John! There was of course a trip out in the boat; the boys brought snacks (and insisted on wearing their slick new sunglasses, also courtesy of mommy's backpack packing skillz) and talked about everything they saw from the boat (especially, shock of shocks, cars driving by on the roads).
O insisted on paddling, while talking a mile a minute about which direction he wanted to go, what was an island, why that bird was swimming away, and so on. Z joined in on the paddling as well -- it was all fun and games until O accidentally dropped his paddle in the lake, and Z thought that was so funny that he let his go as well. Thankfully they floated and I was able to fetch them (over a slight O tantrum when I wouldn't let him climb halfway out of the boat to scoop them out with me).
In addition to many excellent hours of reading and playing games with grandma and John, we also made multiple visits to what O and Z described as "four parks!" -- the local elementary, middle, and high schools are co-located, and all of their playgrounds are adjacent; so when the boys got tired of the elementary school one (or O got too concerned about a spider he'd seen up in the play structure), they kicked it up a notch and went to the middle school edition, which had this strange seesaw-like contraption to play on.
I think we can emphatically say that a highlight of the trip for the boys was a visit to
Greenfield Village. Despite the on-again/off-again rain, they had an amazing time there, and it was so fun to see kids responding to it, well, probably about the same way as I did when I was their age. We even were able to coordinate roughly 5 minutes of conversation with my good high school friend J, his fiancé J, and his parents J and J, who were all visiting the grounds at the same time. (That's a lot of J's.)
hobo-style.
J's dad even had some kind of season ticket that got us discounted rates - thanks J! After riding the train halfway around the perimeter, we exited, declined lunch at the fun period restaurant Meh and I had enjoyed last time, and instead had lunch at a cafeteria-style restaurant that served perhaps the cutest preparation of a kids meal -- a sandwich, cookie, and fruit all wrapped up in a handkerchief attached to the end of a wooden stick, Once I explained what it was, the boys almost immediately associated it with their favorite
current book, and O had to turn his handkerchief into a bandana before the tour of the park grounds could continue.
But the big win of the day was the park's spacious new playground, with a class Ford model T (that made noises when you pumped the pedals or adjusted the gears), toys to climb on, a metal tube tunnel, slides, swings, a tilt-a-whirl thing, a large water toward to climb, and giant sandpit with pivoting canisters to fill and dump -- all with horse drawn carriages and Model T's cruising by outside the white fence. The boys easily spent more than an hour here; while I was able to get O to come with me and ride the excellent carousel, Z stayed in with grandma and John and just played and played and played on the playground.
Speaking of the carousel, there were a number of animals to choose between riding; O opted for the dog "because it looks like Winston"; while initially shy, he and Z really got to be good friends with their doggy step-uncle (?!) over the week.
The class reunion was a lot of fun as well; it was wonderful to catch up even briefly with friends from high school (a surprising number of folks had actually become teachers -- some even within our own high school's school district) -- and at one of our culinary classmate's excellent and tasty
new restaurants to boot. The class video (I forgot we even had one) was rolling in the corner, there was a photo booth for grabbing pictures, photo albums, toasts, class memorabilia, and all in all a fabulous evening.
More pictures of the trip can be found
here. A huge thanks again to grandma and John for being such wonderful (and patient!) hosts!
One of the many items that came home with my from my conference was a small kitschy magic eight ball. O loved it, but couldn't be bothered to try to read it himself, instead insisting that I ask it variants of whether monsters were going to come to our house, whether Lightning McQueen was faster than a monster, whether the monsters were good guys, etc. Z has been enjoying it as well, and I've been noticing him incorporating its cryptic responses into his own vocabulary; earlier today I asked him a yes/no question and he responded "outlook unclear".
Yesterday was friend K's second birthday party, and they went all out with a Richard Scarry Cars & Trucks & Things That Go themed celebration of cuteness -- so clever and original, and the boys had a blast hunting for goldbugs (drawn on paper and artfully hidden throughout a full model cardboard city outdoors), painting trains, eating individual-sized chocolate cakes shaped like vehicles, and much more. K opened his presents at the end of the party, and I was amused to see there's already a printed book of the viral hit "What Does the Fox Say?", complete with spelled out noises. In the meantime, the boys sat front and center at rapt attention, like it was some kind of close-range live action version of the toy unboxing videos they used to obsess over, while K opened an impressive number of increasingly large construction vehicle toys. 
Z and O both got their own new cars as part of their goody bags -- win all around!
out on the street, and J's mom told the kids to come around to the parking lot. Voila, an ice cream truck awaited, serving up perfectly cool desserts on a very hot day. O first picked one option, then changed his mind (thankfully before opening it) when he saw what the birthday boy had; both he and Z (and O's shirt) ended up sharing a rocket pop. The after party (yes, there was one) was at the adjacent school playground, where both boys played and played some more while L enjoyed her second nap of the event. A thoroughly enjoyable and exhausting day for the boys and littlest girl!
