"Cinci"

Slowly, i'm checking off visiting the 50 states. This weekend we did 4 states in 4 days. Thursday we left Illinois, drove through Indiana (playing freeze tag at the state line pit stop) stayed in Ohio and visited Kentucky. We both just said to each other, "did you ever think you'd go to Kentucky in your lifetime?"

I admit I was very afraid to make this drive alone. It was 283 miles-thats 4.5 hours folks and I am no driver. I just get SO tired behind the wheel and I am constantly worrying about people texting or cellphone talking or getting dozy and then hitting us. Among a gazillion of things I love about that Brad of mine, I am SO glad he never makes me drive. But, we had to get there to see this cute face:

MY BRAD (standing in his somewhat bleak apartment, but thanks to that apartment we were all able to stay for 3 nights rather than the one we would've been able to afford had we had to get a hotel so yay for the apartment.

Crossing this impressive walking bridge from Cincinnati, Ohio to Newport, Kentucky
I could spend ALOT of time at this place if we end up here. It's this old train terminal turned into a museum center. The structure was magnificent.
He started crawling this weekend...just for dad! Poor kid has a constant bruise on his head now.
The city of Cincinnati behind us. We did it "all". We had the spaghetti with chili on top and a pound of cheese (really!) Skyline cafe was a pleasant surprise and way cheap. Next, we had to try a White Castle burger. Pretty low on my list but it was a 62 cent experience. No trip for the Chambers is complete without sampling the local fare of icecream. There's is known as Graeter's and we indulged. My it was good. It was homemade softish icecream on a cone. In Kentucky we decided we needed to check out what a real horserace was like. We missed the race by minutes but we did see the impressive track. I'm not a die-hard horse person by any stretch but it really was grand seeing that track. If we go back to Cincinnati for residency I will definitely have to see a race.
So thanks to my awesome museum pass my Brad bought for us we've been able to sample children's museums far and wide. Cincinnati's gets an A+ They had a full sized tree house jungle and a whole section of musical instruments from around the world plus more. Then we walked over to the Natural History museum and we got in free (with the pass of course) and that was a pretty awesome experience, too.
The city is set up on a hill and over looks the Ohio river.

p.s. the drive really wasn't that bad. On the way there I just stopped about ever 50 miles and on the way back it just seemed faster and the kids were napping so i just went for it and surprised myself by not even getting tired.

Merlin

I want to talk about customer service.

I don't know if any of you remember, but Chloe, Ezra and I missed our flight from Portland, home to Illinois. After a fun and long trip (almost 2 months) I couldn't imagine how crappy it would be to hear the words, "you won't be flying today." So, during this super frustrating hour of figuring out what to do next, I heard the worker mention to her customer that "people just think they deserve so much these days. They just think they should be treated like royalty". Umm...yeah, if that comment was directed at me, yes, I do deserve to be treated well when 1. it was the airlines fault, and 2. I paid ALOT of money to be on this flight. So, since then i've kind of been noticing my attitude toward what kind of service I DO expect as a customer. It kind of seems like customer service has sortof gotten this huge division. It's either amazing or really lame. Does anyone agree?

I got some really really bad service a little bit ago and I felt I deserved better. Long story short, I called the manager to mention how poorly we were treated (in light of the fact we paid for service that cost upward of 100 bucks so yes, I felt like we should've been treated pretty good) I have never called on bad service before. Have any of you? I did, because the service performed wasn't even satisfactory so I thought he should know about it. Anyway, he was super appreciative and a little sad at the fact that his employee was lame so he gave us a gift card. We went back to the store...awesome service this time. I went back just the other day...bad bad bad service, like mean mean service. So, I'm just not ever going back there and they won't miss my business. Have you ever been treated so poorly that you just almost wanted to burst?

So, the other day we were at McDonalds. I was waiting in the crowded line when Merlin appeared and asked my how many straws I would need. Would I like ketchup, napkins?? He quickly returned with all of my extras, a high chair, and cookies for the kids. He then followed me to my seat and then went to pick up my order for me AND got our drinks. Merlin, you are great. So, I went and told his manager how amazing the service was and that we were treated so great. I don't expect to be treated like royalty, but man he made me FEEL like royalty and it brought a smile to all of our faces (the kids, me, the lady he helped next to me, the lady he helped behind me..)

Once when I was a working lady, I used to go to Reams in Utah and there was this awesome worker there and I actually called a radio station to have them give a "shout out" to this worker. She probably never heard it, but she deserved the praise.

And that's what I want to say about customer service. Said it.

This guy.

This guy had a birthday, shout horray! He wasn't supposed to be home until late Friday night but he surprised us at Chloe's little track meet at 530. Oh, what a great great surprise.

Life got right back to normal for a couple of days but now he's gone again.

Aren't they cute? Ezra has had THE craziest sickness ever. Remember the fever? Yep, it lasted for 4 days and he is now covered in a bright rash. The only sickness we've experienced in our house has been proceeded by seizures so this LONG illness was way different and so so so sad in different ways. He was just so different and not himself. Goodbye illness we are all very happy to see you go.

Over the birthday weekend Brad introduced this one to water balloons and "flying" balloons. Isn't she so cute.

The community puts on these $1 track meets on Friday. Each age group starting from 2-8 or so gets to run one lap around. They get a ribbon each week and the last week they got a trophy. It was a fun 30 minutes activity to look forward to. Plus, since her parents love running we figured she better like it, too!

A fun Wednesday

In reverse order:

We went to the fair. You remember this fair from last year? It was free to get in. The face painting was free, done by models from an agency, no doubt. I know this "model" tidbit because of the time we (me and brad circa 2003) worked at a fair and they hired models to work the Cream of Weber booths with us to promote a "healthy, youthful, goodlooking, milkdrinking image i suppose. Back to this fair though. We spent money on fair food, including my 2 overthe top amazing cookie icecream cone thing. I don't know what it's called but its Uh-mazing. Then I begged a family, really I begged, to sell me one of their 20 tickets for a dollar. I had to result to this because they would only sell a book of 10 at the counter for 10 bucks and I just didn't need 10 tickets when all we wanted to do was the carousel. Finally after 2 tries I got a taker.

EZ was there. Shortly after we got home he spiked a fever of 103. Thankfully no fever seizures, yet, with this little guy.

Chloe, happy as a clam on the Carousel. She really wanted to do the Ferris Wheel thanks to a Barbie book, but she was little short. She assured me that "when I'm 4, mom, i'll be taller and ready to ride alone".
Self timer infront of the fair. The balloon was also free
Swimming lessons. She passed her level and gets to move up to the next level, whatever that means, but she was so good this time with swimming.
She loves the diving board.
And after this 8th lesson, we went to the kiddie pool and she actually put her head under and swam with her legs for a few seconds. The big triumph of these lessons was hearing her tell her teacher thank you without being prompted by me. Does my heart good.
So, Monday Chloe split her head open. No stitches, just lots of ice, love, movies, and a donut. Tuesday, the airconditioning went out long enough for me to get really frustrated and hot hot hot, called brad, called landlord, then it started working again. Wednesday, Ezra spikes this fever after 3 days of lots of tears. Remember good fortune from the last post? She's out of town just like our Rock, B-rad. Brad incidentally, is having adventures of his own. he showed up to the place he was going to stay and in his words, "it looked like there was a drug-deal about to go down... I could've maybe showered in flip flops....they said they may have some parties while I was there...! Poor guy, he aborted that plan and is now staying in the suh-wheet Days Inn. He gets to come home for his birthday though. Don't forget, it's on August 7th.

Skunks

Brad left for Cincinnati today. He's been gone a couple of hours and I am sad but I know I can do it. We are a family of 3 for a little while and our 4th will be missed ALOT. But he is going to do great things and share who he is with others and he is off to make us proud so it's a good thing. We'll be in for some adventures around here.

The other day Starsky got sprayed by a skunk. That's a true story. The whole house smelled for a couple of days. We washed him...alot, and now I think he smells better. After is happened we immediately showed Chloe a picture of a skunk on the computer and told her if she ever saw one to run as fast a she could.

The day before the skunk incident I was playing sponge dodge ball at the church and somehow while throwing a wet sponge across a grassy field I lost m wedding ring. I noticed that it was gone and walked right over to where I was and thought there was no way I was going to find it in this giant field where I had been throwing wet things long distances. I found it within seconds. I was totally blessed and I am totally blessed. I consider my life a series of good fortunes. Love to you all.

Cream Cheese

We had a great Fourth! We went to this America tribute concert in the park. B-rad bought the kids these cute fourth of July clothes. They were so so cute that day.

This was Chloe at the same show last year.
This year. She is full of sass and imagination. Tonight she told us what her eyes were for, what her mouth was for, what her ears were for and then she says, "this is my nose and it's for (and we were expecting "to smell")...and it's for...sneezing!" She is a pure delight.

Ezra is as EZ as his name says. Just hangs out, sleeps when he gets a chance and just smiles and loves affection.

On the 3rd, these two loves slept out in the tent. Brad told me they talked and talked (I did'nt ask what about because that's daddy-daughter secrets) They ended up falling asleep and were doing good until 1130 when Bluebird had to go potty and then her legs hurt (darn those growing pains) We all ended up sleeping in our bed and got about 5 hours total.
-I went to Sam's Club and bough a big case of cream cheese because I bought a bag of bagels. 6 cream cheeses. I checked that they expire in November and felt like I'd for sure use them by then so good deal-good purchase. Well, it's been 4 days and I've used 3 of them. Yep. Italian Chicken...check, bagels with cream cheese...check, and cream cheese brownies...check.

-We've been having "festival" around our house lately. Not tea-parties but "festivals" complete with custard cakes and posters to announce the party. Thanks Strawberry shortcake. It's very cute:)

-Starsky came in a couple of nights ago leaving a bloody footprint everywhere he walked. We finally laid him down to discover that he had a huge gash in his paw and it wouldn't stop bleeding. Eventually, Brad cleaned the wound and wrapped his foot. A doctor's a doctor anytime, right?

-B-rad has been dominating his rotations. He just finished ER and got rave reviews but it didn't change his mind. He's still pro radiation-oncology all the way. That means he will work with cancer patients. He's got 3 big tests coming up. I get to act out all sorts of ailments and he gets to diagnose me and come up with an accurate plan. it's pretty fun. Remember that Seinfeld episode? He's a 4th year med student. Way to go.

-I mysteriously got strep throat 5 days ago.

-We found a snake in our backyard the other day. I pretty much freaked out while Chloe told me to not be scared and "can I please touch it?" We put a box over it so it wouldn't slither away and I'm pretty sure we just baked the poor guy instead.

-Remember by garden? It produced some goods. Tomatoes, basil, one pepper, and lots of onions. I felt like I reduced my carbon-footprint just a little. I also like to save aluminum foil and reuse. Plus, can you imagine the difference if we all used reusable grocery sacks. I usually take atleast 2 to the store and feel good about that. They carry so much more but I get ticked when the bagger doesn't totally fill it to the brim. I'm trying to save bags, people.

And..the tour de France. Gotta love those guys and that race. My crush is Cancellara. I made these shirts a while back and Brad has been sporting his.
Bring on July!

some other vacations

So here is a little slide show of 3 amazing trips we took while we were on our big trip in Utah.

SunValley, Idaho. I love it there. Been going to Sun Valley since I was born, worked there for a summer after high school, now Brad and our little family are loving it, too.

We went for a "just girls" trip for the first part of the week.
Always have to take a picture in front of the SunValley lodge with the geese who are so protective and hiss at you. Sweet Chloe. She was such a trooper. She didn't feel well and we kept her going and going until Sunday night she had a seizure and we ended up in the ER because of a high high fever.
Mmmm...Lava Cakes. For extra detail, I threw up on this long trip to Utah so many times because I ate so much good, fat, food. But who cares, it's so worth it...so, so, worth it.
The day after Sunvalley, we put out time in at the ER and then headed to Yellowstone to meet the Chamber's family. It was so fun to drive in the park for the first time and see all the people stopping to see the wildlife on the side of the road. We got extra lucky and saw tons of elk, an eagles nest and tons of buffalo walking across the road and right up by our cars. These next two pictures totally capture the excitement (of all of us!)

Chloe is so loved by her aunts.
We had some unusual things happen while at Yellowstone.

1. Pictured below are some foreigners who decided to ignore the sign that said something like "these guyser grounds are as hot as battery acid do not step over the boardwalk" and they stepped right out on the hot ground to get some good pictures. Pretty sure you're not supposed to do that.

2. We were walking along the geyser path behind old faithful and it started to hail pretty hard so we were heading for cover but physically had quite a ways to run. The next events happened so fast: Chloe got hail in her eye so we all stopped walking, turned to start walking again and the group right in front of us (like 20 feet) got struck by lightning. We heard a sickening crack and people fell. Half of our group ran to help them while the others of us ran all the way back to the lodge. I am quite sure I shrieked more than one time along that run back. It was very scary! We met back up in the lodge with somber moods and contemplated alot that moment, and tons that day and frequently throughout the rest of the trip that we were so blessed to have been held up on the path and not the ones that were hit. It was all in the papers and we witnessed it first hand. It was neat to see B-rad run straight ahead, without even thinking, to assist.
The group. I had been to Yellowstone 3 times before but all on snowmobile in the winter time, but this was the one place that made me think of Yellowstone. I am glad the sun came out for us to take our time on the walk around the magnificent sites.
We even lucked out and saw a bear.
Cute boys.
After Yellowstone, B-rad had to go home to illinois and I continued my trip with the kids. My parents took the Nelson family to Seaside Oregon. It truly is one of the prettiest places ever. I love the coast.
Ezra just chillin. This kid loved the wind in his hair and watching the sky above.
The coastline was so pretty. You had to walk out pretty far to get to the water. People were clamming the first day we got there. We found some sand dollars, too.
The pool at the condo was warm and got lots of use.
Playing in the sand. Best of cousins getting a little tired.
The girls in front of Haystack rock. Can you see one-eyed willie's treasure ship behind us??
They had this fun aquarium with sealife that was found in the water right where we were at. I would freak out if I saw this guy in real life or the octopus they had.
Can't beat the ocean sunset.
Have I mentioned I love vacations?