Happy New Year!!

Trying to expose our children to new, exotic experiences, we drug the family up to Illinois for an extended family Christmas and the children's first sighting of some strange white powder that the natives call "snow".

Our little Florida Corolla Before the Christmas Eve Blizzard:

And After:

The Rationalist desperately worked to make a snowman, but the snow wasn't quite wet enough and Frosty was only about 12 inches high

A good first attempt.

The Intuitive tried catching snowflakes on his tongue.

We all prepared for the snowball battle...except for DH who was being the camera man.

We had great fun and the boys spent hours freezing their fingers off playing in the snow. However, The Intuitive suddenly changed his tune about wanting to move to Canada when he's older. After a week of temperatures in the teens and twenties, he's decided that he might stick around Florida after all.

Besides the first sighting of snow, the boys were able to meet many of their cousins and great-aunts and uncles for the very first time and take part in the giant family gathering that happens every year at Christmas. They pack about 75 people into my aunt's house and fill it with food and general revelry...and serious board and card game competitions.

I spent almost every Christmas in the same way when I was growing up.

Later in the week we traveled up to Chicago and took the boys to the Field Museum of Natural History, where they house Sue, the most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton ever excavated.

They weren't as impressed with the Egyptian mummies as I thought they would be. Those always fascinated me when I was their age. They enjoyed the meteorite exhibit and the gold and gem exhibits, but the 3D movie about Sue was probably their favorite part.

After the museum closed, we met my youngest brother near his tiny apartment in Chinatown and took him out for dinner. He's 22 now and noticeably more mature than the last time we saw him a few years ago. He's got a good job, some career goals and surprised us with gift cards for Christmas.

Even former selfish, surly teenagers grow up to be decent people!!

I told him that I was proud of him, and I think it meant a lot to him.

We had a really good visit with my mother, and as we left The Rationalist said that he felt sad that we were leaving Grandma Jan's.

Other than the colds that we were all fighting during our visit, there were nothing but positive experiences. No family drama. No grumpy children. No car problems.

A Norman Rockwell tableau if ever there was one.

It's funny how you never know when those will occur. You can never summon them at will. They just magically emerge for a few moments to be enjoyed and make fond memories to return to again and again.

Mammoth Cave

During the second day of our trip to Illinois, we stopped in Kentucky at Mammoth Cave. We took a 2-hour/2-mile tour through the cave, and we had a great time. Our tour guide was a colorful former Vietnam Vet, former drill sergeant, native Kentuckian, who was related to one of the original owners of the cave when it was still privately owned. He possessed a great talent for spinning tales and engaging the crowd of 100 tourists. I didn't get a great picture, but here he is at the beginning of our tour.

As we approached the mouth of the cave, cool air rushed over us, banishing the humid stickiness that enveloped the rest of the park.

We descended 200 stairs into the cave and began the tour. Overall, it was relatively easy. There are some tight spaces, and several places where the trail narrows the crowd into a single file line. The trail was rough and dark, but doable with common sense.

The cave itself is enormous in certain parts. The Rotunda Room, one of the larger parts of the cave, could easily hold a baseball stadium. Several sections open up into cathedral-worthy heights. Other sections, such as Fat Man's Misery and Tall Man's Agony, are not for the claustrophobic. They are true to their names, but fun to traverse through.

The biggest disappointment lay in the fact that Mammoth Cave is, in general, not a growing cave. There are no stalactites, stalagmites, or bizarre mineral growths to see. Intuitive Monkey was discouraged because he had looked forward to finally seeing them, only to discover that there weren't any there. He got over it and still had fun careening through the rocky darkness, as did we all.

If we had had more time, it would have been fun to camp in the rest of the park. It was a luscious, wooded, green forest filled with hiking and bike trails. Maybe we'll make it back some day.

More pics, just because.

Monkey says he's not mad in this picture, just trying to look tough.

Road Trip Recap and Words of Advice

1. It is possible to travel 2300 miles round trip with a six-year-old and eight-year-old without killing either one of them, or yourself.

However, not screaming at them, or issuing idle threats, while they wrestle and throw pillows at each other as you're trying to drive through a pouring thunderstorm, pinned between two semi-trucks going 70 mph, is impossible.

"Don't make me pull over this car!"

"You will lose your Wii and TV privileges for a month if you don't cut it out!!"

"You will lose your Wii, TV privileges, and outside time for 2 months if you don't stop NOW!!!!"

You won't leave your room or see the light of day until school starts if this behavior doesn't STOP IMMEDIATELY!!!!!

"I will suck the oxygen out of the car, and not let you breathe another lungful of air if you don't CEASE AND DESIST THIS VERY MINUTE!!!!!!!!

These incidents were brief, but always seemed to come at the worst time.

2. OK. If you live in, or near Atlanta, we need to have a little talk.

Now, I know it probably isn't you personally, but I'm willing to bet your family and friends are terrible drivers. Not the don't-know-how-to-operate-a-vehicle kind of bad drivers, but the tail-gating-the-car-ahead-of-them-at-80-mph-while-swerving-through-three-lanes-of-traffic-without-signaling-and-talking-on-the-cell-phone, or smoking a joint like one mullet-headed SUV driver next to me, kind of bad drivers.

You know it's true, just admit it.

I have driven through many major metro areas, but Atlanta is the only one that make me white-knuckle my through it with visions of multiple-vehicle, fiery, car crashes.

3. Rest areas are your friend. Use them every chance you get and don't believe any child who says they don't need to--they're wrong.

4. Even kids get tired of McDonald's after a couple of days.

5. When staying in motel rooms, try not to let the 20/20 special you saw about bed bugs, and germy sheets play over and over in your head. You'll never sleep.

6. Add an hour and a half to any estimated time Mapquest gives you. Their travel times are only accurate for robotic machines that can fly over traffic jams, never need to refuel, eat, or use the bathroom. If you are a robotic machine, disregard this advice.

7. Drive defensively. Assume everyone else on the road is drunk, having a heart attack, off their meds, or driving with a six-year-old and eight-year-old throwing pillows at each other in the back seat. It's the only thing that explains the craziness you'll encounter on the road.