1st day of 1st grade

Ryan started first grade today! He's growing up way too fast in my opinion :) Whenever asked about school, he's standard response all summer has been : "a little bit excited." He will have the same teacher, Mrs. Sheffield, she looped up with his class. Almost all of his classmates elected to loop with her as well, so it really feels more like starting back after a long break than it does a new year. It's nice having the familiarity, and Ryan wasn't upset at all to leave this morning. The only thing he said he didn't like about school returning was getting up early [Mommy doesn't really care for that part either!]. Once again, he'll be a bus rider this year. We have the same awesome bus driver and the same route, but a shiny new bus! I still can't believe summer is over and he's gone, sad Mommy! 

ABBY!!!!!

Chloe has learned a new word :  "ABBY ABBY ABBY!!!!!"  She cracks herself up.  And of course this cracks Abby up too.  It's quite fun when the girls get going.  "ABBY ABBY ABBBY!!!!!"  [yes, she seems to be capable of saying Abby only at the top of her lungs.  wonder if that's any relation to the fact that Abby does everything at the top of hers....].  Occasionally, Abby still comes out BA-bby which also cracks Abby up.  These girls!    

Ahhh me, Ms. Shannon is certainly going to have her hands full with our littlest Chase!  Hopefully she can teach her to talk better than I've been able to :) 

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

on our last day of driving, we played the ABC game, except instead of being on our way to Great- Grandma's, we were headed home, and everything we named had to be something that was in the car!  silly, fun, good times  :) 

Amy, Abby, and Apples  ::  Bananas and Blueberries  ::  Coleson, Chloe, and Critter  ::  Dirty Drawers and Detergent  ::  Elbows, Ears, and Eyes  ::  Flip-Flops  ::  Gooey'ed Gummies  ::  Hairy Heads and Hearts  ::  an Iphone, an Ipad, and an Ipod  ::  Jewelry  ::  Kidneys and Keys  ::  a Lost Lego  ::  a Maid of the Mist Magnet  ::  [finger] Nails  ::  Odd Odors  ::  Pale People ::  Quarters  ::  Ryan, Rio, and a Radio  ::  Silly Soap  ::  Tasty Tacos in our Tummies  ::  Underwear  ::  Vital Vitamins  ::  Wet Water and Windows  ::  Xylophone  ::  Young Yahoos  ::  Zippers

Day nine

Home sweet home!!  We left Granddaddy's about 6:15am.  Thankfully, the girls both napped early on for about an hour.  We stopped for breakfast at McDonald's, lunch at Taco Bell [the slowest Taco Bell ever], and arrived home at 5:30ish.  The kids did really well in the car.  We played the ABC game [I'm going to Great-Grandma's house and I'm bringing...].  Throughout the week we did three different versions, they got a little silly, but what fun would they be if they didn't?! 

We came home to a HOT house, bummer.  The upstairs AC was out, but thankfully it looks like Coleson's got it fixed for us.  We were able to get quite a bit unpacked before heading to Nana and Pop-Pop's for a home cooked meal, yumm.  Thanks for the invite!!  It was great to put the kids in their own beds at a reasonable bedtime.  Should we take bets on if they'll sleep in tomorrow or not?!  I doubt it, but one can certainly hope :) 

Huge thanks go out to Nana and Pop-Pop for checking on the house a bunch and caring for Nellie and cleaning up large amounts of throw-up.  Thanks to Grandpa for mowing our yard and Grandma for cleaning out Cakey's tank.  Thanks to Aunt Betty for taking good care of us up North and to Granddaddy and Grandma Jo-Ann for taking good care of us in DC.  It was one of our best trips yet; summertime is absolutely the way to travel!!  So grateful to see Great- Grandma and to experience some new and exciting places along the way. 

PS, in case you were wondering, I just checked, we went 2,550 miles. 

Day eight

On the one hand, it feels like we've been on this adventure forever, and yet at the same time I can't believe we're wrapping up our road trip.  We've had a blast, it's been a great time.  Lots of fun family time and exciting new sights.  The kids are old enough that we didn't have to bring everything we own, for us we traveled fairly lightly.  It's been nice not having to worry about baby things and bottles and nursing or being pregnant.  We've been able to be a little more flexible and spontaneous which has been fun.

Today we hung out with Granddaddy and Grandma Jo-Ann at their house in Ashburn, VA.  We munched on cinnamon rolls and fruit for breakfast, and I got in a run.  Not my best run, but I've certainly enjoyed having more chances to get out.  We played here in the morning.  Ryan loves the ping-pong table downstairs, and Abby went straight for the babies.  They have some great dollhouses and baby accessories.  I think our trip has caught up with Ryan.  He became nauseous at breakfast and threw up a wee little bit.  He continued to play, but would occasionally say that his belly hurt.  I'm pretty sure it's just a combination of exhaustion and being out of routine and lots of excitement.  Hopefully it was nothing and he'll be all okay tomorrow.  We had a good lunch of sandwiches and chex mix before taking a walk.  Ryan didn't like the idea of staying behind and resting, so he got to ride in a stroller :). The kids loved playing at the neighborhood playground with Granddaddy.  He did the slides and pushed them in swings and all sorts of fun things.  Chloe finally got in a good afternoon nap, as did Mommy.  Dinner was fabulous; Jo-Ann made red beans and rice and pork and salad, complete with key lime pie for dessert.  More playing after dinner and coloring with Grandma Jo-Ann and ping-pong with Granddaddy (silly Abby and her "knife manners!") We also looked through more old pictures, although the kids had zero interest in that, oh well.

Tomorrow will be a long day of driving, so we plan to get an early start.  While its a little sad that our big vacation is coming to an end, we've got lots of great memories and I've got lots of great photos to sort through when we get home.

Day seven

Totally gonna cheat here.  For the first time, I missed my nightly blogpost update last night.  It's Saturday morning, but I'm going to change the posting date from automatic to Friday night.  Ha.

So this morning, Friday morning since its Friday night :), we woke up in Great- Grandma's apartment.  We had breakfast and loaded up the car before heading to the rehab center.  We had a nice visit, Betty joined us there too.  The plan is to have Great- Grandma back home at Loomis Village in time for her birthday, hopefully moving day will be next Friday.  The kids played with some small teddy bears that Great- Grandma had.  Abby would slide them down the hospital bed railing and, surprise surprise, Chloe had to try it too.  It was a nice time, sad to say goodbye.

We had a long drive down to Granddaddy Clay's house in Virginia.  Coleson, our awesome navigator, found us a Chick-fil-a so we could celebrate Cow Appreciation day.  This was harder task than I had realized it'd be, there are not many Chick-fil-a's up north.  We stopped for lunch in Union, NJ.  At home, in the deep south, in the heart of Chick-fil-a territory, everyone goes all out.  I rarely see anyone not fully costumed, and we are often way out-dressed.  Not so in Union, NJ.  They don't get Chick-fil-a up here.  They didn't even have a cow walking the restaurant, can you believe that?! :)  We ran into a family from Georgia, they went to Lassiter and UGA.  They said they were so excited when this Chick-fil-a opened a few months ago and they would drive out of the way to eat there.  So all that to say, we were very very overdressed!  And we didn't even do any face paint or anything.  I think Coleson was a wee bit embarrassed initially, but when the bill went from $30 to free, it was pretty awesome.  We were a sight in the crowded NJ parking lot that Chick-fi-a shared with an old gas station.  But it was fun!  I'll have to get Coleson to a cow day back home one year so he can better understand the excitement.

There's no good way to get out of New England, so as usual it wasn't one of our favorite driving days, and we hit some traffic, especially through Harrisburg, PA.  But we made it.  At one point, we were driving over a river and train tracks, and we happened to glance down, and you know who we saw?!  Thomas the Train.  How cool is that?!  Another highlight, in my opinion at least, was passing a couple of jetskis being towed.  Abby exclaimed : "there's some motorcycle boats!"  We arrived here in Ashburn about 7:30pm and had some yummy Subway subs for dinner.  The kids played for a few minutes before heading up to bed.  Unfortunately it took a long time to settle down and it was close to 10 before they were asleep, yikes!  Us adults stayed up looking through old Chase family photo albums.  It was really cool.  Most of the pictures were of Great- Grandma's side of the family, her parents, Elmer and Olive, and her sister Betty.  Sadly Betty passed away from leukemia at age 20.  I love all the history in the Chase family, so interesting, lots to ponder and think through.

Day six

Life's been good today.  I woke up early for a run, great way to start.  We enjoyed breakfast here at Great- Grandma's apartment, fresh fruit and muffins.  We then headed to Aunt Betty's new condo.  It's a nice little place and we took her dog, Belle, on a walk.  She's a little bichon, perfect size for the kids and they liked holding the leash.  We hung out at Aunt Betty's for a bit and the girls had fun playing with an old wooden dollhouse that Great- Grandma's grandfather had made.

Betty had to leave for work, and we went over to the rehab center to visit with Great- Grandma.  She was up and about already for some therapy, so we stayed in the hallway in a little sitting area.  The activities people brought the kids helium balloons again, and for the second day in a row, Abby managed to pop hers on the ceiling.  They made her another one and that has lasted, although they are about out of helium now, thankfully!  Great- Grandma seemed well, and it was nice to see her sitting up in her wheelchair.  She's an amazing woman, her mind and spirit are still all there, unfortunately her body just isn't quite keeping up, her lungs aren't doing too well.  We left about noon so she could get her lunch.  Betty had suggested we go to McCray's Farm and it didn't disappoint.  We had a great lunch there, soups and wraps and hot dogs.  The kids picked a special pink strawberry milk since its all made right there.  It didn't go over well though, it tasted sorta like a smoothie mixed with pepto bismal.  Coleson had a bottle of Coke, and we didn't even realize until we'd sat down and he had been drinking it for a bit, that it was personalized with Ryan's name, how awesome!  After lunch we strolled around the petting zoo for a few minutes.  The kids took turns sitting on an old tractor and had fun watching the goats jumping up into their food troughs.  It was a great place, I wish we had something like that at home! 

Early afternoon was spent at the apartment napping.  Well, for Daddy and then Mommy at least :). Chloe didn't sleep well for some reason.  The kids played house under the tables for a little while and Ryan played with the typewriter.  He was so cute : "I've heard about these, but I've never seen one!"  He really got a kick out of typing his and Abby's names.  We spent a little time outside running the kids in a grassy area and playing with our shadows.  Uncle Rick picked Great- Grandma up and brought her back here for the evening.  We had dinner and dessert at Phylly's again.  Betty joined up with us after dinner since today's her late day at work.  After stopping by to check on Great- Grandma and eat some dinner, she went and picked Cousin Ricky up and brought him over too.   It was nice having Great- Grandma here at her home and everyone together visiting.  Ricky and Ryan had a good time, playing with the squishy baseball and chatting.

We'll visit with Great- Grandma again in the morning before beginning our journey to Granddaddy's down in DC.

Day five

This morning began in Victor, NY with another hotel breakfast.  After checking out we began our long journey across 90east, the New York Thruway.  We bought a big thing of chicken strips at a service station, and supplemented with some of the food we still had remaining, for lunch. We arrived in Holyoke about 3pm and headed straight to the rehab center to see Great- Grandma.  Honestly, it wasn't that great of a visit.  Her oxygen levels were in the 70s, low low low.  Her hands were purple and I think they were bothering her.  She seemed very fatigued, almost like she was drifting in and out of sleep.  When she did talk, her voice was strong though and of course her mind still very sharp.  We didn't really know what to expect and what her new normal would be like.  We visited for about 30minutes before running to the Stop n Shop for groceries (yay for milk and fresh fruits!) and then to Great- Grandma's apartment.  We unpacked and washed some dishes and started some much needed laundry.

Aunt Betty called about 4:30 when she finished up work.  The rehab center had called her and after talking to them and us, she went straight over there.  This had me pretty worried.  Great- Grandma's oxygen was indeed way too low.  Betty tinkered around with the machine and was able to get her levels back up into the 90s fairly quickly (not sure why the nurses hadn't done this sooner?!).  She then came here to the apartment and we were joined by Uncle Rick for dinner at Phylly's.  The food was good, and as always, we enjoyed cookies and ice cream for dessert :).  The kids ate pretty well, especially Abby with Uncle Rick's help.  We enjoyed catching up on the family, especially in regards to Cousin Amy.  It sounds like there are some exciting new treatment options, and for the first time in a long time, Rick says she is hopeful and talking about the future. We also visited with a few other residents and people, everyone here always seems to know Dorothy Chase and wants to see the kids!

After regrouping and a quick Chloe bath (she spilt lemonade down herself at dinner), we all went back to the rehab center.  I am so glad we went again tonight.  Whatever Betty did to help Grandma and get the oxygen going again made all the difference in the world. It was wonderful to see Great- Grandma back to herself, certainly made me feel tons better.  She had her color and she was alert and life was so much better.  Abby does the best with her, I think Ryan is a little scared or nervous or something around her despite my pep talks.  He did well though, he got pretty close and blew her kisses and posed for a picture or two.  And I know that Great- Grandma enjoys watching them, even if she's not always interacting.  Abby, on the other hand, was right up there sitting with her in the hospital bed.  At some point Rick gave them his phone and the almost 97 and the 4 year old sat there hunched over the phone together for a really, really long time.  It was a neat sight, really special.  Chloe did well, she wandered up to her a few times and she actually wanted to get her nose, but what with the oxygen issues and all, we wouldn't let her.  But she did show off her tricks and she was able to convince Uncle Rick to let her do back flips off his knees.  She also blew kisses and waved.  She would wave to Great- Grandma's roommate too, which I thought was super sweet.  It was a good, good visit.  The Red Sox were on in the background and all was right with the world.

So grateful to be here and visiting with Great- Grandma.  Looking forward to another awesome day tomorrow!

Day four

Greetings from Victor, NY, a little south of Rochester.  We awoke this morning in West Seneca, right outside Buffalo, NY.  Without too much of an agenda for the day, we enjoyed the continental breakfast and indoor pool.  We researched some options for the day, and we were able to call ahead and reserve spots on an Erie Canal boat ride.  The drive was only about an hour, although not wanting to cut it too close, we ate lunch in the car.  Literally.  I climbed around and was able to make some peanut butter and honeys along with some dried apples.  We arrived at noonish and boarded shortly thereafter.  The tour was about two hours.  We went up two different locks.  Pretty cool!  The gate opens, the boat drives in, and it fills up slowly like a bathtub taking you up to the next lock.  We went through locks #34 and 35.  It rained on us shortly after the tour began.  But luckily we were planning for that, and we had saved and dried out the ponchos from the Maid of the Mist.  Life was good and most everyone else headed downstairs leaving us prime seats in the upper deck, first row.  We went back down the locks and also under two lift bridges.  Unlike draw bridges, the entire bridge goes straight up.  We also went past some old houses and churches made from "freestone."  As they were digging the canal, literally out of nothing, there was tons of rocks and debris and people could come and take as much as they wanted for building. There was nothing where the canal was, they had to dig the entire thing out, all by hand.  We thought it was hard planting Lelands and building a fence in rock, imagine an entire canal.  Despite the weather, I think the kids enjoyed it, although the whines did start to creep in at the end, two hours might have been just a few minutes too long for them.  However, tonight at dinner, Ryan did tell us he liked the locks better then Niagara and that the locks and COSI have been his favorite things so far.  He's got that science-y, engineer brain :).

After the locks and a stop at the gift store for a magnet (the locks were a success and deemed magnet-worthy; Coleson didn't want to buy the magnet beforehand in case we didn't like the tour!), we started off towards Rochester.  We came a little north to see the scenic route and avoid tolls, so it was a nice drive.  And we even found a McDonald's for my coffee fix and yet another bathroom break for the kids.  We arrived at our Rochester hotel about 4pm.  Unfortunately, this was the cheapest hotel and without a pool.  We had thought we'd be doing Niagara today and thus not arriving until after the illumination.  Without much to do at the hotel and with the rain, we headed to the local mall.  We parked and had to stay in the car and wait out the storm though.  There were crazy winds, I put the parking brake on because even in park the car felt like it moved.  Rain was blowing sideways.  It didn't last long though and we were able to dash inside.  We walked for a bit and let the kids throw pennies in a fountain (can we say distraction?!?  They had spotted the food court carousel).  Of course Chloe the copycat wanted to throw a penny, and you know what? She did it!  Sure it wasn't a straight shot and it bounced its way in, but we were all surprised to see it splash in the water, go Chlo-Chlo! Nothing in the mall appealed to us for dinner, so we went to UNO Grill just down the road.  It was quite tasty and we happened to stumble in on kids eat free night, score!  Ryan and Abby loved making their own pizzas.  After assembling them, we wrote their names on popsicle sticks and stuck them in the pizzas and they cooked them for us.  It was a fun meal.  The place was hopping.  Apparently they are celebrating their grand re-opening and they were the only restaurant around that hadn't lost power in the crazy storm.  This was when Ryan said his favorite parts of the trip were the locks and the COSI museum.  Abby liked Niagara Falls the best.  Chloe had no comment, although she did manage to get pizza sauce on her forehead and in her ponytail.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel for bed.  After two late nights in a row- the Clippers game and Niagara Falls- it was nice to get the kids to bed on time.  Hopefully some good sleep will cure the whines and fits that have been creeping in.  Although all things considered, it hasn't been that bad, we've got pretty good kids in my humble opinion.  Thanks to my awesome hubby for taking the stay-in-the-room-in-the-dark-without-making-noise-so-the-kids-can-sleep shift tonight.  I enjoyed an amazing run!  It we seriously one of the best runs I've ever done, it felt so good.  I am not sure what happened, but all of a sudden I actually enjoy running.  Weird.  So anyways, I think I got all of today's highlights.  Tomorrow we see Great- Grandma!!!

PS fun fact : auto correct tried turning "roadtripping" into "roast ripping."  Not sure that I am a big fan of auto correct.

My Little Man

Ryan seems to have inherited his Mommy's fearlessness of heights.  It's a little nerve-racking being on the parenting end of this, especially for Ryan's Daddy.  Ryan never attempted anything silly or dangerous, but he did walk right up to the edge of everything and loved looking straight down.  Poor Daddy.