Here is a blog to keep family and friends up to date on our various comings and goings. Check back weekly for updates, and feel free to leave comments!

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Olivia Turns 12

One one more year until we are officially the parents of a teenager.  Wow.  

Olivia turned 12 this year with three different birthday celebrations.  That does not even include her actual birthday, which happened while we were on vacation and she was allowed to plan our activities that day and pick the restaurant for dinner.  The first party was with extended family, and she requested for Joe to grill out burgers and for a chocolate raspberry cake.  The theme this year was "teal", which is much different than the character themes we had not that long ago!


Present opening.


Olivia received an Ouija board for a gift this year, and we had to give it a try.  She and Ethan were very careful to not insult the spirits!


Celebration number two happened the night before we left for vacation.  Olivia opened presents from Joe, Ethan, and I, and picked the restaurant for dinner.


Olivia has gotten into Anime lately, and was excited to get books from her now favorite show Hunter Hunter.



Sushi at Osaka!  A beautiful presentation for a beautiful girl (and no, this was not all for her!)


Even though we were leaving for vacation early the next day, we had to have cake!


Olivia's friend birthday slumber party included a trip to the State Fair (where they were allowed to walk around by themselves!  I was not ready for that!) and the Meghan Trainor concert.


The girls stayed up until about 4 a.m., and woke up with marker all over their face after turning themselves into cats (I didn't even ask why).  But, they all woke up in time to sing one final Happy Birthday with candles in her donut.


We Love Summer

Summers fly by in our family.  Between camps, vacations, downtime, parties, and more, we always have something going on!  

Both kids love to participate in the Springfield Art Association summer art camps.  This year Ethan did Animals in Clay and Stop Motion Animation camps, and Olivia did a metals camp (she especially loved using a blow torch!).




This is the summer Joe about blew himself up!  We used a kitchen torch to brulee marshmallows on top of a s'mores pie, and we then needed to refill the butane in the torch.  The butane leaked on Joe's hand/arm, and when he tested the flame a fireball went up in his face!  Thank goodness he was wearing glasses!  He lost the hair on his left hand/arm and even some hair on his head!


Cousin fun outside of Pizza Man!  


More cousin fun building the arch with Grandpa Brett at the St. Louis Science Center.


Teasing mom on the St. Louis Science Center's walkway glass windows over the interstate.


Our first time at the St. Louis Shakespeare in the Park to see A Midsummer Night Dream.  It was a HOT night, but we stayed in the shade and really enjoyed the play.



Ethan played summer baseball until the early part of July.  The later games were HOT!


Grandpa holding Olivia and Ethan on his 67th birthday.  Just because he still can!



Ethan and friend Andrew (in the foreground) and Olivia with friends Anna Grace and Ashley (in the background) at the Illini Country Club 4th of July party watching the belly flop contest.


Our first time participating in the Springfield Art Association Paint the Street.  We agreed on the Avengers logo with the Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, Iron Man, and Hawkeye symbols.  We had a lot of fun doing this - it was like a giant block painting party!  In all, about 295 squares (all 6'x6') were painted.



Our backyard patio and entertaining area was completed in May, and Joe had an XL Big Green Egg grill installed.  He has been experimenting with it all summer, with pork shoulder, ribs, burgers, steaks, and more. We love to taste test his trials!


We spent many days at the IL State Fair this year.  This is the day that we went for the afternoon (we didn't plan to be stripe triplets!), and we left as a storm was approaching.  Good thing we left when we did - Springfield received a record breaking amount of rain (about 6 inches in two hours) and the State Fair flooded - farmers had to sandbag the animal barns, Happy Hollow was under 3 feet of water, the concert was canceled as the dressing rooms flooded, and many cars were stuck in their parking spaces due to water.


I always need to get this picture.


Ethan loves to ride the crazy rides with grandpa.  


Olivia and Ethan on their yearly Big Slide ride.  Poor Olivia skidded off of her mat at the bottom and got a rug burn.


They can get along when they need to!  


Who doesn't get donuts on their way out of the fair??


We went to a late August Cardinals game that was HOT!  But, we made it through the entire game so that the kids could run the bases.



While we did so much more this summer than what has been listed here, it is impossible to report it all.  I will end this post with our official end of summer - this kids going back to school.  Olivia is now a 7th grader, and Ethan is a 4th grader.



Friday, August 26, 2016

Vacation Part One - Hershey PA

The annual Baima summer vacation!  This year was an east coast adventure - Fly into Philadelphia, drive to Hershey for two days, drive back to Philadelphia for three days, Atlantic City and Ocean City for two days. It was a very eclectic vacation - roller coasters, beach, and the Liberty Bell.

HERSHEY PA DAY ONE
Leave Springfield at 5:40 a.m. = Arrive in Philadelphia at 10:38 a.m. = Drive to Hershey PA in the pouring rain through the iconic Pennsylvania countryside = Check into Hershey Lodge and receive 4 Hershey Bars = Lunch at The Bear's Den = Hershey Story Museum = Hot chocolate taste test = Chocolate World = Create Your Own Candy Bar = Hershey Lodge Water Works water park = Dinner at Cocoa Cabana

We have arrived in Hershey!  The very intense rain on our way from the airport to Hershey Lodge made us wonder if we would make it!


Each person receives one free Hershey Bar upon check in to the Hershey Lodge.  We stayed in Hershey Cocoa; the other places include Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, York Peppermint Pattie, Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bar, or Kisses Tower.


Yes, the room had chocolate scented shampoo, conditioner, and soap.  As well as chocolate kisses wallpaper, and all of the wall hangings had hidden pictures of chocolate bars in them.


We started our trip at the Hershey Story Museum.  This explained how Milton Hershey created the Hershey empire, his philanthropy, how the Hershey Bars were originally made (believe it or not, the early production involved using bathtubs!), and various chocolate samples.


Original Hershey Bar molds.


The first Hershey Bar machine.


Six different hot chocolate samples - from dark and bitter to sweet and caramely.  The Mexican hot chocolate was the worst - it had hints of black licorice.


We each had to force down a sip of the Mexican chocolate.


Even though it continued to rain, we had to pose next to one of the iconic Hershey Kiss lamp posts throughout the town.  And, yes, the town smelled like chocolate.


Up next was Hershey's Chocolate World.  This place was basically a giant store and restaurant, with various activities you could pay to do (like a 4D chocolate mystery movie, chocolate tasting experience, create your own chocolate bar, and a free chocolate factory tour).



No, we did not buy these oversized candy bars.


Olivia in York heaven!


So we tried to do the free chocolate factory tour, but it seems that all of Pennsylvania was at Chocolate World on this day (since it was raining harder, people came over from HersheyPark).  See the crowd behind Ethan - most of those people are in line for the tour.  We had to leave the line in order to make our Create Your Own Chocolate Bar tour time.


The mandatory clothing to enter into the Create Your Own Chocolate Bar factory - aprons and hair nets.  


For the Create Your Own Chocolate Bar, you get to pick 3 mix ins (out of 6), decide on dark, milk, or white chocolate, and sprinkles on top or no.  No matter what type of chocolate "vessel" you choose, everyone gets their bar topped with milk chocolate.  So, if I had to do it again, I would not pick a milk chocolate vessel so that I could have two types of chocolate on the bar.  And everything is better with sprinkles.  All of our bars were delicious, but Joe was not as thrilled with his bar.  His was the last bar assembled, and after watching the rest of our bars get so many toppings on it that the vessel could barely contain them, his barely got any!  Luck of the draw, I guess!


We even created our own candy bar wrapper, and received a metal tin for the bar.  Joe's bar was "Kruncherz Delight", Kate's was "YNOT Sprinkles", Olivia's was "Chocolate Break", and Ethan named his "Rocket Bar".


We ended the first day at the Hershey Lodge free water park.  This just opened about 2 months ago, and was wonderful for the kids!  Only available to Hershey Lodge residents, it is a water park, restaurant, and game room.  The kids loved burning off some energy, and Joe and I loved that there were adult friendly drinks in the restaurant to enjoy by the pool!  Below is a picture of the Twizzlers' slide that extended outside of the building.


This seemed to be the most popular water attraction with all of the kids - the Reese's Water Walk.  You are supposed to walk across the "cups" while holding onto the ropes above, but we never saw anyone do that.  The kids would either crawl carefully across the cups, or (the more popular method), attempt to run across to the other side (we saw maybe 3 succeed with this method).  And we are completely shocked that we did not witness anyone breaking their neck on this attraction!


The next picture taken after this one was Olivia completely wiping out.



HERSHEY PA DAY TWO
Breakfast at Lebbie Lebkicher's = Hershey Park = Drive to Philadelphia = Dinner at Red Owl Tavern

Olivia had to sample the Hershey Hot Chocolate at breakfast, and Joe had the chocolate raspberry pancakes.  And each of our breakfast entrees came with a chocolate chip muffin.  


Since we stayed at a Hershey lodging, we were lucky enough to skip the line into Hershey Park and take advantage of the "Sweet Start" when lodge residents can enter one hour early.  We started the Park with The Kissing Tower so we could get a birds' eye view of the park and town.


A view of Hershey Factory from The Kissing Tower.


We loved the Coal Cracker (like a log flume) ride so much we rode it twice.  We were lucky all day on the lines - while it did not rain on us at the Park, the forecast was calling for about a 60% chance all day, so that probably kept many people away.


Kate and Olivia on the Sky View.


A good introduction for the kids to roller coasters.  This was not too bad at all, and got them brave enough to try a "real" coaster after this.


The kids' first "real" roller coaster.  Ethan LOVED it, but Olivia was happy that it was over.  I just closed my eyes tight and waited for it to finish.


The BEST picture ever!  Taken while on the Lightning Racer roller coaster.


Hershey Chocolate vending machines were located everywhere in the Park.



I didn't get any photos of us in The Boardwalk - the water park area.  Our favorite water ride was The Tidal Force, although it was definitely taller than we had expected!  On our way out we were able to get a picture with the Hershey Bar mascot.


Ethan posing with the Milton Hershey statue.  Olivia was done with pictures by this point.


We drove to Philadelphia and checked into the Hotel Monaco.  After a delicious dinner at the Red Owl Tavern, we called it a night and prepared for the  next stage of our vacation.  Luckily the Hotel provides a yoga mat in every room, so Ethan could meditate.