Only One Day Left . . .

Yesterday we took the kids to SciWorks in Winston Salem.  It is a science museum geared for younger kids.  The kids had a blast and Mackenzie did not want to leave.  Mackenzie took a tumble outside and got pretty scratched up and we had to ask for some band aids, but other than that it was a great outing.

After quiet-time we pulled out the boys water toy (which we got them a few years ago) and the kids had a blast playing in the water and taking turns playing lifeguarg.  Thomas was super impressed when Brian told him that he used to be a life guard and wanted to know "all about it".

Today we hung out at the house and had some craft time and got ready to have a "party".  Friends of Brian's and Tina's, Dennis and Colleen came over and we grilled and hung out.  I unfortunately didn't think to take a picture of the deck decorated with the kids crafts.  Each one made a bug out of styrofoam balls and pipe cleaners and a wind sock made mainly out of craft foam.  Painting the styrofoam balls for the bugs did not go extremely well, although it did not go extremely poorly either.  I did end up with all of the kids in the bathtub getting cleaned up at the end of it though and a change of clothes for each.  As I was changing Mackenzie she told me that she is "probably going to marry Thomas, because he is so cute."  I informed her that, similar to how she is not allowed to marry her brother, she is also not allowed to marry her cousin.  She took the news pretty well.

Here is a shot of the kids working on the wind socks:

and here is a shot with some of the finished products drying (you have to look pretty hard for the bugs):

While we were getting dinner ready we put up the boys' bounce-house so the kids could blow off some energy and they worked up quite a sweat bouncing around.

We also failed to take any pictures at the dinner itself, but we all had a good time, the kids played together nicely, and the food tasted great, if I do say so myself.

Vacation Continues at Breakneck Speed

We spent Sunday night and Monday at Great Wolf Lodge with Thomas, Nicholas and Tina.  Everyone had a great time and the kids crashed in the car on the way back to Aunt Tina's house.

Today Tina had to work so Brian and I took the kids to Old Salem this morning. I have wanted to visit and have never had the chance. We knew it may not be the greatest locale for four pre-school children, but they did very well. We didn't get to see everything and we didn't get to hear all of the stories but we got to see a lot and learn a lot.  The kids were not doing the O-H-I-O thing below although it looks like Nicholas may have been trying to get something going:

Mackenzie, Thomas and Nicholas spent a long time (I am guessing at least 20 minutes) after dinner sitting around the table and telling jokes to one another and totally cracking up.  The punch lines for pretty much all of the jokes were "then they flushed them down the toilet".  Brian compared it to when you read your fortune cookie and add "in the bed" to the end.  It was hilarious.  Now the 3 of them are outside playing and Isaac is playing in the boys' room.  We are about to start bed time for the Phillips kids.  One more day of vacation down . . .

Vacation Continues in West Virginia

We had a very exciting time in West Virginia the last couple days.  Babcock State Park was beautiful.  It is park of the New River Gorge and we explored the Gorge area.  On Friday we drove down and checked into our cabin.  The cabin was mcuh nicer than expected.  Here is a shot of the outside.

It was too small to get a shot of the inside, but it had two very solidly constructed sets of bunk beds that were built right into the cabin and has a wall between them.  Each side had a dresser and in front of the beds was a table and four chairs.  There was a galley kitchen on the other wall and section that sticks out in the picture is the bathroom.  Everything was extremely clean including the vinyl floor (at least when we arrived).  The bedding was very nice as well.  The dishes, pots and utensils in the kitchen were also very clean.  The kids were very excited about the bunk beds and spent the time while we unpacked playing on the bunk beds. 

The park itself was also very neat and beautiful.  Here's a shot from the parking lot at the headquarters:

Here's a shot of the working mill at the park:

And here's a shot of the mountains from the park:

On Saturday we went to see the New River Bridge, the world's longest single-arch steel span bridge. 

We walked down 600 stairs to get a good view of it and then, of course, we had to walk back up, but the views were worth it:

We decided to take a scenic route out from the bridge and the plan was to find somewhere to get a snack and then to go to Sandstone Falls.  The road that took us down from the bridge to the river valley and across the river was nicely paved and other than a couple of very sharp turns was a nice ride.  However, we then ended up on a "road" made of mud and large rocks.  I don't know if everyone gets the commercial that talks about rebuilding compact SUVs and shows an SUV driving through a desert and falling apart.  All I could envision during out 50 minute drive through the middle of nowhere was that commercial, but our Torrent did great and finally got us out safely (along with Brian's driving).  The kids thought it was a lot of fun and that the bouncing was quite an adventure.

Finally, after a break back at the swimming pool at Babcock State Park, we went to Sandstone Falls because Mom still wanted to see the waterfalls.  They were also beautiful:

After we walked along the nice deck that is built along the falls for tourist we decided to take the easy hiking route back, where Mackenzie found a caterpillar to take a picture of:

Needless to say, I would definitely recommend a trip to West Virginia.  I would recommend to West Virginian's that they open some restaurants, at least in the New River Gorge.  Luckily we brought food with us and the cabin had a full kitchen so that we could cook our meals, because every time we thought that we would "find somewhere to eat" we could not find anywhere to eat.  We did find a few shops selling "Primitives".  We didn't go into any of the stores, but I am assuming they were selling art & crafts and not primitive people.

 

Sunday morning we headed to North Carolina to see Aunt Tina, Thomas and Nicholas and to go to the waterpark.  More coming on that later as it is time to start getting our swimsuits on . . .

Vacation Has Begun!

We are all very excited to be on vacation!  It started a little hesitantly.  We were supposed to head to Columbus, OH on Wednesday night originally, but things were just not working out for that plan.  Luckily, Wednesday morning we decided to wait until Thursday morning to head out to give ourselves one more night of preparing.  When I got to daycare on Wednesday night I was greeted with "I forgot to call you and tell you that Mackenzie got sick."  Fabulous.  So we went home and checked and Mackenzie had a fever.  So we gave her some Tylenol and finished getting ready in the hopes that she would be feeling better in the morning.  Fortunately she did not get sick again.  At about 1 in the morning she woke up and complained that her head hurt and the ear thermometer read 100.2 so I gave her some more tylenol but we decided we were going to make a go of it.  So we headed to Columbus.  I attended the Kronos Customer Experience for the day, and Brian took the kids to COSI.  We would recommend both.  Brian and the kids picked me up at the end of the conference and we are now in Marietta, OH, right on the border of West Virginia.

We got to go swimming this morning:

Now we are getting ready to go visit Fenton Art Glass, which has been on my list of to-dos.  And then we are heading to check out our cabin in Babcock State Park in West Virginia.

I hope everyone has a happy, healthy and safe Memorial Day!

So . . . Not Back to Normal

Evidently I jinxed myself with my last post.  Last Friday at 11 am I got a call from Isaac's teacher telling me that he had thrown up three times in ten minutes.  I went to pick him up and the puking (Isaac's word choice, not mine) continued.  He was a total trooper.  He would tell me, "I have to puke" and run to the restroom.  The first time I had to work hard not to giggle a little.  He put his little head really far into the toilet, all I could see over the rim was the very top of his head.  Unfortunately it continued through the weekend.  By yesterday we was having a hard time holding himself up over the toilet.  I tried to hold him, but his little legs were still buckling.  The doctor called in a prescription for an anti-vomitting drug, and it seemed to be starting to let up some, but he was just wiped out.

Friday night Mackenzie went to Grandma Linda and Grandpa Butch's to try and keep her from catching anything.  She got to go to opening day of baseball with her cousins, which included a bouncy house.  She also got to go to Toys 'R Us and get a present for me for Mother's Day (a small Cinderella doll with 3 dresses and a closet).  She was there until Sunday at noon when I picked her up.  I took Mackenzie to Manu's birthday party that afternoon and then we came home and did bath and bed time.  This morning she woke up crying.  She was truly hysterical telling me about how she missed out on all the fun this weekend because she wasn't home.  I told her that I was sorry that she was so sad but that she is the one who had all the fun this weekend and that we really weren't having fun while Isaac was throwing up all weekend.  She calmed down and then asked if she could take my Mother's Day present to school with her to show her friends.

Isaac spent another day home with Dad today.  I can home at lunch and put him to sleep and I think he finally turned a corner on the flu during his three hour nap.  This afternoon when I got home he was in a much better mood and prior to bedtime tonight he was eating quite well.

So far none of the rest of us are sick.  I am not sure how long we have to wait to find out if any of us are sick, but hopefully in 10 days, when we start our vacation, we will all be healthy and at full steam. 

Here's a picture of Isaac at full steam:

Back to Normal

The last couple of months were crazy in the Phillips household.  With a lot of help from our parents we got through Brian going to Europe, and then to California and having tech when he was in Ohio and through cutover and go-live for my ELM project.  The kids spent a lot of time with their grandparents and Isaac now thinks that he gets to go hang out with Grandpa Butch whenever I go to the grocery store.  Mackenzie also thinks she gets to spend the night at her grandparents' houses regularly.  The kids got to go to Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Mike's for a long weekend without Mom and Dad.  We told them that we are going to Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Mike's this weekend and Isaac assumed they were going without Brian and I.  After we told him that we were going as well he said "That's good, I missed you when we went without you."  Yay, he missed me.

Last weekend Brian had to go to work for a short meeting and he told the kids they could go to his work.  Grandma Linda told Mackenze that she and Lauren could have a sleepover at Grandma's house and, not surprisingly, Mackenzie thought that would be more fun.  So Isaac and I went to Ohio Northern with Brian and Isaac played on the PBS website with Mom while Brian was working.  We haven't let him play on the computer much so it took him a while to get used to the mouse, and the fact that the monitor isn't a touchscreen like the iPad, but by the end of the hour he was doing pretty well on his own.  He made two Super Dogs on the Super Why website and was very proud of Jake and Cubbie (yes, he is still obsessed with Jake and the Neverland Pirates).

I managed to get Thomas and Nicholas' bean bags done in time for their birthday as well.  They turned out very cute:

Issac is quite fond of the robots on the boys' beanbags.  I thought the sock monkeys were pretty cool.  Both the kids had fun "trying them out".

We are scheduling our vacation for the week after Memorial Day.  We are going to visit some West Virginia state parks and spend sometime in North Carolina.  We are all ready for some time off!