Tubing - A photo essay

The next generation of Lentz tubers (Sorry Lincoln but when she's in Decorah she's a Lentz....not a Snow):

Hannah in her tube:

Hannah and Auntie Rachie:

Stylin' on the river:

Hannah, Grandpa Dan, and Daddy on the river - three generations of tubers:

Hannah and Daddy....passing down tradition:

My little river girl:

Cleaning up lunch....a true tuber always has an (empty) beer bottle or two in hand:

Decorah, IA - a photo essay

Hannah playing in the Co-Op (formerly Fairway) parking lot:

Eating ice cream with Water Street of Decorah in the background:

What a mess!:

Jake at the Chick Hatchery:

Hannah at the Chick Hatchery:

Riding the train at Nordic Fest:

Hannah and Lincoln at the Whippy Dip:

And in conclusion...

Our trip is finally over. Well, over except for the two long days of driving ahead of us. The vacation part is over.

Last night we had a wonderful dinner with Lin. Lincoln and the kids went out to play Frisbee in the yard while Lin and I sat with a bottle of wine in front of the fireplace in the library and talked for a few hours. We had so much fun up at the lake and I really wish we had more time to spend up there but we'll just have to schedule another trip back there sometime soon.

This morning we got up and got on the road about 8 a.m. We were headed back to Decorah to experience a little bit of Nordic Fest which we haven't been back for in a couple of years. Three years to be exact. The whole second part of our trip down from Mille Lacs to Decorah was spent following behind a massive summer storm. Cresco, IA was hit with some of the worst weather and there were lots of trees down, a boat that blew into the street, and a number of silos taken down. According to my parents who drove through Cresco later in the afternoon on their way to Ridgeway the corn was pretty much flattened as well. Not pretty.

Luckily we managed to avoid the storm altogether although we could see if off in the distance while we were driving. The clouds were very black and lightening was constantly going off in the distance. Right before we got to Decorah the skies opened up and it was pouring rain but luckily we didn't get any of the high winds or hail that had been predicted. When we finally reached Decorah it had stopped raining and cleared up slightly which was good because otherwise we would have skipped stopping in Decorah this afternoon and would have headed right out to Ridgeway.

Once in Decorah we stopped at the Chick Hatchery for the kids to play with the baby chicks. I love going in and playing with the little chicks....they are so dang cute and soft. Afterwards we walked down the street a ways and the kids rode on Pokey Pete, a little train that runs during Nordic Fest that I rode on when I was a kid. I did some shopping and decided to fill up the hole left behind by Hannah with all sorts of stuff we probably don't need but that I really liked. Every time I came out of a store Lincoln would have to go back to put the stuff in the car because it was either too bulky, too heavy, or too awkward to carry. When I came out of one store with empty hands his chin literally dropped to the curb. After a quick, and very messy, stop at the Whippy Dip we headed out to Bob and Lorraine's for dinner. Bob and Lorraine are actually my Dad's aunt and uncle and are my godparents. They live about 15 minutes out of town and I love going to visit them.

Aunt Lorraine is what I call a "typical old-school Iowa farm wife". They don't actually live on a farm but I'm pretty sure she was probably raised on one. If you stop by her house unannounced she'll have a full spread of ham, potato salad, corn, and God knows what else on the table within minutes. When she's given notice you should really see what she can do. Tonight we had a lovely dinner with them that included us, my parents, Uncle John and Aunt Sandy, their son Greg, and their son Rod and his wife Lori and their daughter Leigh. It wasn't the entire family on their side but it was great seeing those that were able to make it. While dinner was being prepped the skies opened up again and it poured rain but it didn't last too long. After dinner the sun came out and I finished up getting all of Hannah's stuff together and transferred over to Mom and Dad. Hannah is now in their care for the next three weeks. She'll spend another week with them in Iowa before heading back to Seattle for two weeks and then back to Boston on August 15th. I'm holding up pretty well but Jake has already expressed how much he misses her. It should be an interesting three weeks.

Right now we're headed over to Madison to crash at Rachel's for the night before beginning the long journey home to Massachusetts. It has been a crazy drive through a very eerie twilight. Off to our right, and occasionally in front of us, we see dark skies and bursts of lightening flashes. Behind us and over our left shoulders you can see a beautiful sunset. The combination of the two make for a very interesting sky over us right now. Luckily we're still avoiding the major storms moving through the area and it should stay south of Madison for the night so I think we'll be okay.

As I wrap up this posting on the latest part of our journey I'll leave you with this little tidbit from Jakey:

Jake: How come Hannah gets to stay?

Me: Because she's eight.

Jake: She's not eight. She's seven.

He got me there. She technically won't be eight until August 18th. Damn this kid is getting too smart for his own good.

Tubing and other fun stuff

Yesterday Hannah went on her first tubing trip down the Upper Iowa River. Every year Lincoln, Rachel and I always go tubing. Sometimes other people join us and sometimes we go by ourselves. This year Dad and Hannah joined us. Hannah was very excited as this was the first year that she was old enough. Unfortunately it was a less then optimal year. The river was very low and we ended up scraping our butts a lot and actually had to walk certain parts of the river. Then once we got past the College Ave. bridge the water came to a virtual stand still. We ended up having to paddle most of the way through the stretch from College Ave. to just past the high school. Unfortunately that is also when the sun went behind the clouds and it started to get very chilly. I think Hannah enjoyed the first part of the trip - and I have great pictures to prove it - but she lost her love of the river towards the end. I asked her if she wanted to go next year and her answer was "I'll have to think about it".

After our four and a half hour tubing trip (which usually takes us about three hours) we headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up. Mom had been babysitting Jake all day and they had a great day touring all the local parks and even went to the public swimming pool. After we all showered Mom and Dad took the kids back to the park and out to dinner while Lincoln and I went out for a "grown-up" dinner at La Rana with Rachel. After that Lincoln and I went to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince at the local theater. I swear, the smell of that place hasn't changed one bit since I moved away in 1988 (in a good way).

This morning Lincoln and the kids went down to the hotel pool while I took a nice long hot bath. I took Jake for a hair cut at 11 a.m. but it wasn't at the usual place that we go to while in Decorah. I couldn't get him into the usual place so I randomly chose another place that I remember having existed here in Decorah since my childhood but was a little panicked for Jake when we walked in and the place was full of old ladies getting their hair set for the week. Luckily the lady who cut his hair - the youngest one working there - did a great job with his hair and he looks wicked cute.

After Jake's haircut Lincoln and the kids and I met up with Grandma and Grandpa at Mabe's for lunch. I believe that is the fourth meal we've had there since Sunday. Right after that we headed out to pick up some flowers and do the "graveyard tour". Whenever we're in Decorah I always buy flowers for Gretchen's grave. Gretchen was the old lady that lived next door to us in Decorah and she was totally like a grandmother to me and Rachel. We loved visiting her and she always had crackers for us. Graham crackers for Rachel and Saltines for me. This year, unfortunately, I've had to add Grandma Lentz and Uncle Linus to the graveyard circuit. We drove out to Elma and I put flowers on both of their graves before driving out to Linus's accident site to show Lincoln. Whenever I visit Gretchen I'm sad but I don't cry. She has been dead for 12 years and we moved away 21 years ago. With Linus and Grandma, however, I was bawling like a baby. It was so sad. After driving out to the accident site we went over to my Uncle John's and Aunt Sandy's for a quick visit before heading back to Decorah.

Once back in Decorah I headed over to the spa for some steam therapy and a hot stone massage. It was pure heaven. I got a 15 minute steam treatment, an 85 minute hot stone massage and purchased three things of bath salts for less than I would pay out in Boston for just the massage. It was a nice break for me and it felt great after the tubing trip yesterday not to mention all the time we've spent in the car the past few days.

Once I was done at the spa we headed over to the Urgent Care Center at the hospital. No one was seriously ill or hurt but it was the only way to get Jake in to see the doctor. He started out with some scaly skin on his elbows last week which has turned into a itchy, nasty rash all the way up and down both arms. We got a prescription ointment for him before heading out to dinner and then back to the hotel room to pack up. Mom and Dad are coming up to play cards tonight so that the grown-ups can have some time to visit without the kids. We're staying in a suite at the hotel which has a separate room for the kids so once we put them down to bed we can stay up in the main room and hang out.

I promise to have pictures of our trip up eventually but unfortunately I've had trouble loading them on the blog using Lincoln's computer. Tomorrow morning we head up to Lin and Jim's at Lake Mille Lacs in Minnesota which will be another 5 hours in the car. Hannah told me the other day that if she has to get in the car again she's going "to blow up" but they did okay on the 45-minutes to and from Elma today so hopefully she's past the explosion stage.

Home Again

We are finally in Decorah. After a couple great days in Madison with Rachel and Kevin we headed over to Decorah to meet up with my parents in Decorah. No matter how long I've been away from Decorah it always feels like coming home.

Last night we had a blast with Rachel and Kevin playing cards and hanging out. Rachel is headed over to Decorah today as well and tomorrow we're all going to go tubing. This will be Hannah's first year on the river and I'm not quite sure how she's going to do but I think she'll do fine. It could be interesting. Jake will be hanging out with Grandma Dena while we're on the river.

That's about it for now. This afternoon we got moved into our hotel room. This is the longest stretch that we'll be in one location - three nights - so I unpacked everything and got us reorganized. It's nice to have everything unpacked for a few days.

I'm not sure what our plans are for the afternoon and evening but I'm sure we'll figure something out. Sometimes it's just nice to relax. Maybe we'll take a few beers down to the pool and sit in the hot tub. That sounds great right about now.

On the road

This morning we left for our drive to Iowa. Yes, we're driving to Iowa. It's going to be a long few days but I think we're up to the challenge. And to be honest, we're only going to Madison, WI before we stop for a few nights. Today we're driving as far as Youngstown, OH and then tomorrow night we'll be at Rachel's house in Madison. We're staying with Rachel and Kevin in Madison until Sunday when we head over to Decorah to meet up with Mom and Dad. After a few days in Decorah we'll pack up on Wednesday morning and head up to my aunt and uncle's house on Lake Mille Lacs in Minnesota. We're spending two nights there before we head back down to Decorah on Friday morning to hand off Hannah for her three week trip with Grandma and Grandpa. Friday evening we'll head back over to Madison for the night before starting the long trip home again next weekend. The four longest days (two out and two back) will be about 12 hours each.

Last night we got the car packed up (more on that in another post) and cleaned the house. My friend Tracy will be housesitting for us while we're gone so not only did we have to get packed last night but we had to clean the bathrooms, vacuum the house, and change the sheets. When we were packing up the car last night we let Jake play in the front seat and he entertained himself rolling the windows up and down and opening the sunroof. Of course that meant the key had to be in the ignition and of course we forgot to turn it off last night so when we came out at 5:15 a.m. this morning we discovered the passenger side window down, the sunroof open, the keys in the ignition, and, of course, a dead battery. That threw a little bit of a kink in our schedule for this morning but we ended up leaving at 6:22 a.m. instead of our scheduled 6:00 a.m. and I can certainly live with that.

The car is fully loaded with toys, games, a DS Nintendo, two DVD players and plenty of books. Hopefully that should keep all of us entertained as we drive halfway across the country over the next two days. Hannah is happily watching a movie right now and Jake started out with the DS but said "I'm bored with this" before we even got to the end of our street. I also asked him if he wanted to take a pillow in the car and he thought about it very seriously for a few seconds and then said "Nahhh.....I don't think I'm going to sleep." He truly has no concept of how long we're going to be in the car. The other nice thing we have with us is Lincoln's laptop. Right now we're cruising down I-84 through Connecticut and I have the laptop booted up in my lap with a Verizon Wireless card plugged into the side. Of course what this means for everyone who reads this blog is that you'll be getting LOTS of updates over the next few days as we head westward. After breakfast today I'll try to load some pictures and video that I took earlier this morning.

Jake had better learn to snuggle (Subtitled: And so it begins)

Hannah is leaving me. I knew it had to happen someday but I never suspected it would be so soon. Hannah is packing up and moving to Seattle. Okay, so not really. She's just going to visit Grandma and Grandpa but it still sucks for everyone but her. Let's not even discuss how this will affect Jake. After all, he wasn't happy about her going to her friend's house for a sleepover last week. Let's focus on me. I am so excited that Hannah will get this opportunity this summer but she's going to be gone for three weeks. THREE WEEKS people!!!! When she leaves us two weeks from Friday she won't be back until August 15th. Holy Long Time Batman!

Let's back up....

Lincoln and I are packing up the kids and driving to Iowa in a few weeks. Mom and Dad will be there at the same time because they're coming back to visit for a week before they have to go down to Des Moines where Dad will be teaching a class the following week. They are then coming out here in August when Dad will be teaching a class up at Ft. Devens here in Massachusetts. So the plan is that we will hand Hannah over to Grandma and Grandpa in Decorah at the end of our vacation and she will continue on with them down to Des Moines for a week. They'll also be visiting my cousin Bob in Cedar Rapids and I think they have a few other plans as well. At the end of that week they'll fly back to Seattle with Hannah where she'll stay with them until they come out to Boston on August 15th (missing my birthday, I might add!). The bitch of it is that I can't really complain too much because it was originally my idea. I suggested it when we were all together out in California at the beginning of March but I never really thought Mom and Dad would go for it. Mom called me last week and said they'd been thinking more about it and that it sounded like a great idea. Obviously I need to learn to keep my mouth shut.

In all seriousness though I think this is a fantastic opportunity for Hannah. She is absolutely going to love being with Grandma and Grandpa for 3 weeks and she'll also get to spend time with her cousins out in Seattle. I think in the long run it will also be a good thing for Jake once he gets over the fact that Hannah isn't going to be around for almost a month. The real problem is going to be the fact that she's going with Grandma and Grandpa, not just that she's going away. He is going to be SO pissed that he doesn't get to go too. It should make driving home with just him in the car that much more delightful. (I really hope you could note the sarcasm in that last sentence.) I think we may need to do a secret hand off in a dark alley so that Jake doesn't see who she is going off with. Does Decorah have any dark alleys? I might need to research that.

While I'm excited for Hannah I'm going to miss her terribly. I guess this is a good start for learning how to deal with her absence for longer and longer periods of time. Eventually she'll be off to college so maybe I should take the next 10 years and slowly building up to that day.

That being said, don't think I haven't been trying to talk her out of it. Unfortunately she has an answer for everything.

ATTEMPT ONE:

Me: But who is going to snuggle with me when you're gone? If I try to snuggle with Jake I'll be black and blue by the time you get back.

Hannah: You can snuggle with Boog (her favorite teddy bear). I'll leave him behind for you.

ATTEMPT TWO:

Me: What about the pool? That's a long time that you could be home here swimming in the pool.

Hannah: Yeah but Grandma and Grandpa have a hot tub.

Giving credit where credit is due

Tonight Lincoln and I took the kids down to the Upton fireworks. We got down there about 20 minutes before the fireworks started, spent 15 minutes watching the fireworks, and then 1 hour getting out of the parking lot and back home a few miles away. I did enjoy trying out the "fireworks" setting on my camera though. That was pretty interesting. Here are a few of the pictures that I took.

We sat in our car for quite awhile waiting to even move from our parking spot. It looked like we would be there for a long time and Lincoln said that next year we'd be smart to bring a cooler, sit outside the car and have a cold one while we waited for the parking lot to clear. It would have been a lot more entertaining than just sitting in the car while the kids fell asleep (and yes, Jake even talked in his sleep.)

We were right next to a big Ford Bronco and in my head I was thinking that it would be a battle of who got to go first since we were side by side heading into a single file exit lane. Instead, when I rolled down my window to get some fresh air they struck up a conversation with us and we sat there and joked around with them for awhile until we started to move. When the line did start to finally move the guy told us to go first.

Me: You know, sometimes I don't give Upton the small town credit it deserves. I was really thinking in my head that it would be a "who can edge out who" battle with that big truck just like when you're commuting in Boston but he was really nice. That's exactly something that would have happened in Decorah.

Link: Yeah but if we were in Decorah he would have had a cooler full of beer in his truck. And had I stuck my hand out the sun roof he would have tossed me one.

Me: Very true. Good point.

My Mom's Life

A couple of weeks ago Hannah "interviewed" me for school. I wasn't sure what it was for until she brought home the final product today. Below is her work....spelling, grammar and punctuation are all hers.

My Mom's Life

My mom was born in Decorah Iowa It was a small town with a lot of relitives nearby. Her parents names are Dena and Dan. She has 2 sisters named Rachel and Debra. It was a nice little town

When my mom, Diane, was a kid her best friend was Rachel. They loved the monkey bars and playing kick the can. She was bossy and friendly when she was a kid. She had a lot of fun.

When my mom grew up she met her husband at a 2 year old's B-day party. He liked her right away. They both liked The Blue Man Group That is what I learned about my mom.

The darn press....they're always getting their stories wrong. Isn't that what all the celebrities say?

Yes, I was born in Decorah.

Yes, my parents are Dan and Dena.

Yes, I have two sisters.

No, they aren't named Debra and Rachel. Their names are actually Debra and Denise. Denise, however, re-married a few years ago and no longer participates in our family. Since Hannah hasn't seen Denise in a few years, but always sees "Auntie Rachie", I can see where she got confused.

Yes, Rachel and I loved playing on the monkey bars.

No, I have never played Kick the Can.

Yes, I was bossy (and friendly!). I still am.

As for meeting my husband (as opposed to her father....LOL) we did meet at a 2 year old's b-day party although Lincoln thinks he was 3 years old. And we did both like Blue Man Group. In fact it was our first date.

I guess she got enough of it right that I won't demand a retraction but we'll have to work on her attention to detail.

It's amazing what they remember

Me: Look at all the flags in the graveyard.

Hannah: Why are there flags?

Me: Because it's Memorial Day.  Those people were probably all in the military.

Jake: Remember when you tripped in the graveyard?

Me: Um....no.  I've never been in that graveyard.

Jake: Yeah, it was when I was 2.

Me (looking at Lincoln): I did trip in the graveyard that one time in Decorah when I took flowers to Gretchen's grave.  Remember?  How old would he have been then?

Lincoln: Two.

Me: That's sort of freaky.

A Presidential place to rest my head

This morning I've been emailing back and forth with the hotel where we're staying when we're back in Decorah this summer.  I had called them about my confirmation and realized that they had us down for a different room then I had originally requested.  After getting everything straightened out we're now in the room I thought I had reserved back in February.  When the GM wrote me back she told me they now call that the "Obama Suite" since that is the room he stayed at when he was in Decorah.  

I wonder if he ate at Mabe's too?  Georgie would probably know the answer to that one.  Rachel, you'll have to look into that and let me know.

Monkey See, Monkey REALLY, REALLY Want to Do

Tonight at dinner we were talking about our annual trip to Iowa. Every summer we go back and Lincoln and I go tubing down the Upper Iowa River with Rachel. We didn't go back to Iowa this past summer because of our trip to Greece/Turkey this past spring and Hannah was a little disappointed because she is finally old enough to go tubing with us. At dinner we were talking about how she'll get to go with us this coming summer.

Hannah: Will I get my feet wet?

Mommy: Yes, you'll get your butt and everything from the waist down wet.

Jake: (whining) I don't wanna go!

Mommy: That's good because you're not allowed to go.

Jake: Why not?

Mommy: Because you're not old enough. You won't be able to go until you're older like Hannah.

Jake: (very matter of factly) Okay, I wanna go.