RAGBRAI

Usually this blog is blah blah about Benjamin and his adventures and ours along with his. I'm not sure what Ben's experience was like being left alone with Jared for a few days. I know at least one day he was picked up a tad late from daycare but... hey, the kid is alive at least!! But, especially for those of you not from Iowa... I would Love to share with you what is known as RAGBRAI which I did part of this year. RAGBRAI is the "Registrar's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa" and it is no small event. I mean it. It is no little local group ride. No... some 12,000 people grab their bicycles, helmets, 30-packs of beer and whatever else... start on the West side of Iowa and follow the route to the Mississippi on the east side. It is the biggest, longest thing of its kind - ANYWHERE. Your mind cannot comprehend the quantity of people. Photos can only show single moments in time. Single....snap shots.

You have to imagine that those photos are from... SIX IN THE MORNING. And the roads aren't busy like that from just 6-7am. No No. From ......6 until ....until people quit flowing out of the overnight town around noon! And they aren't even done then, that is just when they were Supposed to leave by! It is like the worst winter runny nose Ever. The mucous of bikes just keeps flowing and flowing and who knows where it came from or where it all fits but... it doesn't seem to end.

And within this crowd:

banana bikes

tall bikes

cornfield pee-ers (I was guilty of this at one point as well...)

bikes bikes bikes bikes:


And one of the coolest parts...
People, espeically in Clear Lake are RIDICULOUSLY nice! I mean... I couldn't even count the number of residents out along the route shooting hoses at us like this one!

People stand by the roadside as if you're a famous person and cheer you on... for no reason.

It is pretty neat.

This isn't even to mention things like slip and slides and the food food food food food that is consumed at such an event. When my fellow comrades who had the cameras put pictures up, I will be sure to share them here with you because there are some things that words simply cannot describe.

We are OHIO bound this evening. See you all soon!!!

Chicken and Reading.

First off... I'd like to brag about my innovation. I made a fancy/healthier version of some chicken strips the other night (mustard concoction marinated and pretzel coated) and to get them crispy all the way around, I needed a baking rack sheet thing. Well we don't have one. BUT!! If I can make shoe covers for my cycling shoes out of sandwich bags and duct tape, CERTAINLY I can make a tray that holds the chicken up away from the bottom of the pan.

Solution:

Result:

Win.

It was good.

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NOW FOR THE SERIOUS BUSINESS....

We read to Ben at least a few times a day. And we've been noticing something... PARTIES. These little cartoon characters end up in an awful lot of parties. Now I know that not every party has to be wild and crazy and filled with alcohol... but any party I've been to where multiple people end up in a bathtub together PROBABLY featured some alcohol...

I think Elmo might be the only one of these characters actually old enough to attend one of these parties and he is clearly the center of the party.

Hard to say where Bert is though... just Ernie hmmm suspicious I'd say.

But quite possibly the most honest of all the childerns books containing party images comes from "Go, Dog Go!" — one of Ben's favorites.

Following failed [random] attempts by the female dog to impress the male dog throughout the book... with different hat selections this is what unfolds:

I'm not even going to comment on that. I mean, really!? Did the author wake up one morning, try to write an autobiography that didn't work out and decide to disguise it as a book for Kids?? Maybe. At least parties are fun and relatively harmless. But when Ben has round up his daycare gang and they're out at the playground with Gin in sippy cups....... I'll know who/what to blame. Because it certainly wouldn't be my fault as a parent, ever.


Read to your kids. It is important.

Michigan and Fairy Tales

We lied to benjamin tonight. Yep... we did. He found a penny and we told him that he could/should put it away in his little piggy bank. Well we then got out OUR change jar and had him put it in there.......... Then explained all the coins were treasures we captured whilst on our pirating adventures. Someday if he collects enough of his own - he will have his own treasure... especially if he collects it in our jar.

It is like... telling him there is a Santa, or an Easter Bunny.

Besides.... for the messes this kid makes:

I think we deserve to have some fun with him right!!?!?

So in spirit of taking Ben along on fun adventures whether he is aware of how much fun it is or not... He came along on a last-minute trip up to Michigan with myself and my parents up to the Leno Cottage (my mom's aunt&uncle's house) in Arcadia. While there we embarked upon the National Cherry Festival. This is serious business to these people. Every MILE down the highways is another booth selling some sort assortment of berries, juice, vegetation, junk and pie. So when all of These berry picking/selling/eating come together for a week along with unusually warm weather and a fantastic amount of sunshine this festival was PACKED!

It is just too bad their website is ugly...

Traverse City has delightful signage though...

I think the Cherry Festival should Probably become a family holida... somewhat like Christmas only we're eating the berries of Dingle (as opposed to santa?) Thus... we can make Dingle Berry pie. It has a nice ring.

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Also... the latest, greatest invention I've seen since the Wii:

I would eat cereal ALL day, everyday with that bowl... ice cream too probably.

Mega Block Destruction

I grew up with two older sisters. This past Friday we cruised home for a quick visit to meet our newest nephew, Cristopher. I'm lacking on photos from the event since we used Erica's camera, but once I get them we'll update.

Speaking of siblings... somedays Ben makes me feel like I have older sisters again. Here I was, playing brilliantly with my Mega Blocks and building a giraffe. I had to use my taekwondo skills to keep Ben away while the building was happening and once it was completed... i took 3 steps toward my camera, turned it on... and caught the speed of destruction. Ben even knew to take it out right at the legs for the most efficient obliteration ...because of course he wouldn't want me to have time to possibly salvage it.

Thanks Ben. Just wait - I'm going to destroy Your giraffe ....

Adventure part 2...

Where did I leave off? I think it was somewhere close to Ben's first b-day and the photos that accompany it.

I will do my best to narrate the experience of Ben's first birthday cake, but... I really feel that the photos tell a story of their own.

At this point, Ben is still a bit unsure of this whole "frosting" thing:

Later on he realizes "hmmm alright, alright, this is Neat...am I going to get in trouble?"

Then it hits him "THIS STUFF IS AMAZING" and he begins smashing it into his face faster than really fast things. I had to squeeze his nostrils like a toothpaste tube to get the blue frosting out. We found blue boogers 3 days later...

At some point he missed his mouth and got some in the eyeball area...

I believe he felt at least slightly betrayed by the experience. It is a bit how professional cycling is these days. Any rider who wins gets to celebrate for about a day or two before being accused (probably rightfully so) of any imaginable method of cheating - crushing your career and childhood dreams. I'm pretty sure it is the only sport where you are better off in second or third than winning....... And then they look something like this:

Maybe it is a stretch...

What isn't a stretch though is how nice it is out in the PA world. I mean... I mean they have TREES! and HILLS! and and... we don't have that here in Iowa. Instead we have turrets ridden weather:

**sunny, sunny, normal and sunny, STORM, sunny, partly coudy, STORM AND WIND, sunny, overcast, TORNADO WARNING**

Even the schools out there look nicer.

They had wonderful little lawn chairs out too for students to sit in.

You get GRASS here you wimp... Not just any grass... grass where you will Probably get pegged in the head with at Least one frisbee, football or flying frat boy. Yeah! Welcome to IOWA.

Where was I? Thats right! Benjamin's birthday.

Disapproves of my digression...

Well his birthday wasn't until the 10th, but it was decided to celebrate it early because... why not? With this however, and with the pressures of leaving PA soon, Ben KNEW he needed to get his walk on.

For those of you who haven't seen it yet........

Now he wanders the house singing

Ben's birthday also brought about a few new toys in the mail... however the fantastic lego blocks (which myself and Jared end up fighting over to play with...) remain secondary to the goddamn Dora car.

Don't let me fool you though... even I have been spotted taking it for a pre-bike ride warm-up spin...

Traveling Adventure part 1

After a bit o' travel and a week to recover from said travels.... here we are.

Where are we? I don't know. Middle of Iowa is what I've heard!

Unvortunately, in me not updating, YOU'VE MISSED A LOT! So let me try to catch you up without boring you into insanity.

...Ben doesn't let us read TO him or decide when reading time is. He instead picks a time when deadlines are approaching. He says "hey! That deadline is going towards mom, that means I should too!" He grabs his drool-proof books and comes right over expecting me(us) to expand his vocabulary, imagination and understanding...

I'm busy kid, read them yourself.

...And because he is my son, he of course does Everything I request.

Really it is quite cute - and we rarely resist his reading requests.

This past month, Benjamin added AIRPLANE RIDE to his list of "things I've done." He of course won't remember the ride because of the sleeping agent I slipped him, but he Was awake for enough of it to flirt with the flight stewardess and get us an extra bag of cookies. ("Stewardess" by the way is the longest word in the dictionary that you can type with one hand when appropriately using the home-row keys on a qwerty keyboard...).

SO!

Here is a map for those of you who are directionally challenged (I understand...).

Now, with every airplane flight comes an airplane story... so I'll do my best to keep this one short - but at the time it felt a bit like a light-year. Myself and Benjamin flew into Baltimore about 2pm. Jared was flying in from a conference in Atlanta and his flight was to arrive at 8pm.

This time difference was not a problem as the Mikes had big Baltimore plans for myself and Benjamin. We took the train into the city (quite a nice city I might add!) and saw many things including cool bicycle signs.

Benjamin got to drive a boat

We almost got ourselves run over by a train.

Aaand the NCAA Lacrosse opening something was happening. That was pretty neat. Why they needed to bring their stick things with them into the city was baffling, but it was what it was...

So we get back to the airport (because we have to get Jared who is supposed to arrive at 8pm, remember...) BUT! Atlanta is being peed on as if it were a bathroom in a frat house where every single drunken individual has broken the seal. So we wait with Benjamin in the airport until midnight. Ben pushed his stroller around and around and around and around and around.... then ate some Teddy Grahams and pushed his stroller some more.

Good thing was that he made it :) But then we had to drive...

**and you were Wondering why I hadn't been blogging!!**

But once we made it - things were much much more relaxing. Except for for Rocket who was Not happy about our presence - mostly the presence of Benjamin. I can't say that I blame him. Ben has a hell of a grip and if you make him let go, he lets out his ear-piercing pterodactyl noise.

SO what do people do out east on a vacation? Word on the street is that Gettysburg is a pretty swell place to visit. In fact, it is! Even Abe is pleased.

Ben laughed for no apparent reason...

And cannons point to KFC. How can you go wrong when a cannon is pointing at KFC? Popcorn chicken anyone?

Approves:

While out there, a theme became apparent "Anything for Benjamin!"

So when it was hot out and tupperware containers were no longer working as splash pools, papaw came home with a blow up pool. Fortunately, there was only One slight mishap which wasn't even really related to the pool... Probably moreso related to me being to busy playing with a camera instead of paying attention to my child. bad parenting-moment #727 I think we counted it as... :D

There is more... but that is enough for now.

I mean....... I haven't even gotten to the birthday cake experience!!!