We got back from Destin to find an order form for the Community Fall Festival… 4 days later. It seems EVERYTHING is moving quicker than it used to. Aren’t these things supposed to be closer to Halloween?

The Organizers of the festival included a parade, complete with a fire truck from the local station to lead. That was a great hit.

Mary decided on (or was forced into) her old standby… The Pumpkin. Complete with integrated treat pouch, this crowd pleaser is filled with cuteness.

That treat pouch caused Jeff significant gray hairs. It seems that Mary had taken one of our fridge magnets and placed it in the pouch.

It was conveniently shaped as a wine bottle.

She spent the majority of the parade in the following pose:

Personally, I found it funny enough to take the picture. Jeff was less than amused with her doing it, and exclaiming to any one that would listen:

I’m just having a few sips of some PRETEND wine.

Followed by her twisting a pretend cap on, and putting it back in the pouch. Repeat every 10 feet.

My only complaint is the screw top. I mean, come on. There aren’t many bottles in our house that aren’t cork.

The Festival itself was pretty standard fare, Bouncies, games, and catered by Famous Dave’s BBQ. Oh, and the firetruck stayed.

Ignore pretty much everything else, the kids enjoyed this more than anything.

The remainder of the pictures, are at the gallery page below:

Bury them of course!

Time to go for more.

Decent on the Photographs, however, so I’ll probably take a different tact for a little while.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words:

Of course, while the recipe and technique may not have been passed through on this session, the joy certainly was.

Grandma makes a pretty killer Country fried steak, and Mary Vic was EXTREMELY interested in helping. When I came in to the kitchen, I was afraid that Mary’s face was going to split in two from the smile! They even tried to cook a cake for everyone, although that didn’t turn out so well, since there wasn’t actually anything ingredient-wise that was capable. The attempt was made anyways, and thankfully, everyone was smart enough NOT to try to eat it.

From Mary’s standpoint, the Lesson learned this day was simple: Cooking is fun, it’s hard work, and best finished with Ice Cream!

And unfortunately, much like Star Wars and the Matrix, the third episode isn’t as good as anyone would have wished.

(Or at least the post isn’t… The kids unveiling was just fine)

We loaded the Kids into the vehicle at the Space center, and proceeded up 565 towards Nashville. Since we were leaving ~4:15pm, and the Airshow was ending about the same time, there was definitely some apprehension from me about how much traffic we were going to get into. Turns out, aside from a 5 minute slow period of about 35mph on the interstate, there wasn’t any major issue. That wasn’t bad at all. And both kids were out before we hit 65 North.

Mary slept the whole way, dreaming of the surprise to come. (We had to tell her something to detach her from her grandmother!) William slept most of the way, and then, in a fashion unique to himself, woke and screamed through half of Tennessee. Mary was oblivious.

Mary woke 2 minutes away from the house, perfect timing intact.

Jeff began to get the kids out while I grabbed the Camera bag and ran to the back. The Video camera went on the fort itself, the SLR in my hand, and the rest of the bag everywhere else. You can see the chaos spread since I was trying to make sure I caught their face when they saw it.

Pictures are here.

And the video (technical issues NOT resolved) is here:

Mary And William discover the Playfort from Greg Nicholson on Vimeo.

I’m a bit peeved. It took multiple multi hour sessions to get the video encoded from 1080i to 720p H264 AND under the limit for Vimeo. And then, it turns out that it failed on their end, and (based on the result) it looks like they down-sampled pretty heavily just to get it up. My guess is that the original file exceeded their encode parameters. If you are in the adventurous mode, and you’ve got tons of bandwidth, you can download the original .MOV file, at 485M. It’s probably not worth it though.

I’ll probably re-encode just the initial reactions and upload them on Wed when the counter resets.

The kids loved the fort, and they have played on it every day. William freaked again today when he saw it. It will be interesting to see how long it’s ‘new’ to him.

It is absolutely worth it. Not saying that I want to do it again anytime soon, but it was/is definitely worth it.

The Original plan was to come down Friday night, stay in Arab, and then go to the airshow in Huntsville on Saturday. Jeff had to work Sunday on a Literacy program for the Library, so we’d come back Saturday Night. Shades were drawn, and the kids wouldn’t see the fort until Sunday Morning. Perfect planning, deserves perfect execution, right?

Ok, so, it wasn’t the perfect plan, and it didn’t have flawless execution. Friday night, we find a 70% chance of rain during the airshow hours. Immediately, and especially after the previous week, we start contingency planning. Mary has always loved the Rocket coming into Alabama (Saturn 1b at the rest stop). So, let’s go to the Space center.

Even on Saturday, Mary didn’t want to go. I think one Airshow a year is probably going to be pushing it. A Friend SMSed me later that due to the traffic, we made the right decision. He drove further than we did, and never made it onto the grounds.

Ok, she’s 4. It’s a reach. She did enjoy the beginning of it. They have done a pretty decent job restoring the Saturn 5 that was laying on it’s side in the original space park. It’s now suspended in an environmentally controlled building, and it’s been cleaned up. They have all sorts of exhibits in the building, and Mary loved the science (kid friendly) demonstrations.

Then, the second treat. Kung Fu Panda on the Imax screen!

First off : None of the following apply to Kids.

Second: Rectangular projection movies should NEVER be played on a spherical screen. I think it’s Mercator’s revenge.

Third: Grandma would violently agree with the above.

I enjoyed most of the center. It needs money. It needs massive amounts of restoration done, but unfortunately, I don’t think it’s getting much of that, even with the money it’s getting. It seems like much of the facility is now devoted to Space Camp (and hey, *I* went to Space Camp). It’s a shame that Space Camp is taking the priority away from the history, as much of Space Camp itself IS history now. Look to the future, but always remember the past.

The fact that we can’t DO some of our very recent past anymore is very troublesome to me. We haven’t been out of low earth orbit in practically my entire lifetime. And that isn’t progress.

Kennedy’s quote about space being the next ocean, and America needing to be able to sail it seems quite right to be on the wall of the US Space center. Why does it feel like we stuck our toe in, said “WOW, that’s cold” and walked away?

We finished up, and took some tired kids home. They slept a large part of the trip. They needed their strength for the last phase.

The Pictures are up now, the post will follow when the Video is done.

And every single blog in existence and that will come of existence has this post.

We were too busy. I forgot. Something came up. Be thankful for what you do get to read, you non-paying person, you. It’s not a job!

We’ll try harder. Or at least I will. Even if it is just a quick picture here or there.

Truth be told, it is a job. Pay sucks tho. And because of that, sometimes, real life intervenes.

There has been a lot going on in the last few weeks.

We went to Eufaula, Alabama for a cousin’s Wedding. Jason ‘Bob’ Dorgan and Catherine Garrison finally got married (like I’m one to talk about that!!!). They had a much more involved wedding than we did, however.

It seemed like the entire town of Eufaula was involved, and almost for certain, the entire hotel that we stayed at was booked out for the Wedding. We went down on Thursday evening, to maximize the amount of time that the kids weren’t in the car between trips. It’s a good 7 hours from Franklin.

We had a good time. The Kids enjoyed (in moderation) the pool at the hotel. They had an unusual configuration. Indoor pool, minus heater. Spa with VERY good heater. Combination to provide a chilly pool (supposed to be refreshing – Succeeding really only in causing heart failure when jumping in). The kids would get in, and swim and play, and chatter their teeth. They would then proceed to convince us that we needed to get in the ‘little’ pool. Nothing will kill you quicker than sitting in a hot spa, and then having to jump into the chilly main pool to follow the kids.

The wedding was fabulous, on the side of a lake in Eufaula. Bus service (on the BIG tour buses) was provided, and golf cart service was provided from the buses to the site. The first worked quite well, the second … Well, it would have helped if they had charged all of the carts first.

Rain stayed off until immediately AFTER the wedding, but not before everyone made it back to the buses to go to the reception. That was fun, herding the kids between raindrops (to great effect).
Reception was at the Eufaula Country club, and both kids enjoyed the dance floor quite well, up until the meltdown that followed quite shortly. This resulted in us returning to the hotel early, although Mary was amused by the party seating on the bus.
Brunch and review of pictures followed, and then it was time for us to head back… But not without a surprise for the kids…

We went to the Wednesday storytime for preschoolers as we missed the Monday Toddler Time. MaryVic had a great time but William was a bit distracted. He wanted to push the stroller all over the place. They both enjoyed the craft and visiting everyone.

It was a nice day and we went to the playground outside the library.

Last year, Mary couldn’t do this without help. This year she has mastered it and insisted on having several pictures taken.

Very proud!

Lunch with Daddy afterwards. She was being goofy and refused to smile.

I found a toy that they hadn’t seen in a while and she’s begging William to share it. He would look at her and go “NO!

Dance class on Saturday. Another one spent walking the stroller.

Little did I know it was in preparation for this! We went to the Family Fun Zone at Thoroughbred Theater. We took the shopping cart with us. He pushed the cart around, chased the Chik-Fil-a cow and was able to flee the other mascots in this manner. I sat down with him in the chalk drawing area and asked him if he wanted to draw. I pointed him towards the chalk and pushed his cart on over. This was the second or third piece of chalk because I was so surprised to see him start walking independently. I was busy cheering and yelling at Greg who was being superdad and standing with MaryVic in the facepaint line.

After that I was brave enough to put him in a bouncy with some other tots. It was 4 years old and younger only and not crowded.

He liked being in but this is all he did. He went in it again but immediately wanted out.

The next morning I heard MaryVic coaxing William down the stairs. It is the first time since the accident that William got out of bed himself (the guest bed) and came downstairs. “Come on little fella, it’s not far now…” They were very cute. They haven’t made another trip down the stairs together.

One of only two pictures I have of William walking at the zoo on Sunday. I think there was the ‘help, my feet won’t stop’ red shoes deal going on. He would stop and squat frequently to rest. He occasionally laid down in the path to rest. He did not want us to pick him up and if we persisted in asking, he’d get up and go for a little bit more.

Sunday was probably the most he has walked with it getting less frequent as the week goes on. He does a mix of moving via crawling and walking. I picked up papers from daycare and we’ll see how he does on Tuesday for half day.

We’ve kept busy and went to Toddler Time this past Monday. He did walk around the library. He fell down the bonus room stairs Monday night but was okay. He calmed down fairly quickly compared to the playground fall in Arab.

On Tuesday MaryVic went to school. William and I did the grocery shopping and visited Home Depot for lock for the front door. MaryVic can unlock it so Greg has put a flip lock at the top. Not high security but it should keep her in. She stepped out one day and I thought she was with Greg, he thought she was with me… I found her wandering on the sidewalk in front of the house. I think she was looking for aliens. I don’t know why the child security doorknob thing works on the other doors. Yes, we do have one on the front door. I guess I should take it off now.

Yesterday we went to the pool and stayed around the house in the afternoon. It was interesting as the air conditioning guys were here until in the evening. A little more interesting when we found the hole in the ceiling but they were genuinely apologetic. As MaryVic, likes to say ‘accident’s happen’.

I twittered yesterday about the doctor and it doesn’t seem to be anything major. I woke up Tuesday morning and checked on William who was fussing at 3 a.m. I noticed my right eye hurt and went to get it checked. The doctor said it was probably just sinuses and gave me some prescription eyedrop samples. She told me to take some sudafed.

Today is a quiet, rainy day. We may go to the pool again after naps. We’ll just take it easy and let the air conditioning guys finish up. The patching guys have already been here and will be back next week. Air conditioning guys are back to finish up. Greg is home talking to them so we should be all done with that soon!

In a rare state of wakefulness, Daddy got up this morning and we went to the Zoo. It was a bit cool outside, but would warm on up to the mid 70′s by afternoon. We got there before most of the crowd, and was immediately in for a shock, and a treat.

William decided that he did not want to ride in the stroller, nor push it, nor be carried. William decided that he enjoyed walking yesterday, and would continue the tradition. From the car to the gates of the zoo. And then to the Macaws. AND THEN MOST OF THE REST of the Zoo. Kid did NOT want to be carried, would cry and scream if you picked him up. He’d stop, crouch down, occasionally LAY down on walkway, but then would get up and go. He walked almost non-stop from the Car to the far end of the zoo near the Cougars. At the end, Mary gave up her seat in the stroller so he could sit and eat some dinosaur chickens, but it was his stomach that got him in the end. I think that had he not been hungry (2 hours after starting this adventure), he would have kept going. Certainly after he ate, he was back up and walking again.

Mary Vic was quite happy to show Daddy the new Porcupines, and we got to watch a bird show with a hawk. Mary watched quite attentively, while William decided the most fun to be had was walking between where Mommy had sat to Mary and then up to Daddy, and repeat.

We stopped and had lunch at the Cafe there @ the zoo. Mary was introduced to Dipping Dots. I didn’t want to get her on those, but there weren’t any icee’s, and frankly, I was still in a bit of a cloud of bliss from all of the bipedal action William was demonstrating. I gave in.

After Lunch, it was on the play park, where guess what? William kept right on going.

You would think after as much as they did this morning and early afternoon, they’d be asleep immediately upon hitting the car seats. Both of them are still up as I write this.

Jeff’s try to get William to go to sleep, MV’s watching a movie as part of her quiet time, and Daddy is on cloud 9.

Now unfortunately, he does stumble quite a bit, and the speed simply isn’t there yet, but I don’t think it’s going to be long before he’s back. There were plenty of signs of it today. Anyone recognize this pose?

He’s bouncing back, and it’s one of the best feelings I can imagine.

What? Prom on this page? No, we will have none of that for the next decade+.

But Mary saw all of the girls in their dresses ready to go to the Dance. This was probably one of the few things that didn’t need to happen, as the moment we got home, HER princess dress came out. And Daddy was required to get the Camera out. However, her moment in the lime light was interrupted due to Mommy putting William in his prince outfit.

Retaliation came quickly and pointedly from the 4 year old, however…. She pulled the secret weapon out.

Color matching CowGIRL boots.

You don’t see Princesses in those often.

Pictures here