Our Beach-y Adventure

On Friday, we went on our last day trip of stay-cation. I really wanted to go to the beach so we decided on Maumee Bay State Park. I overheard a bunch of my local mom friends talk about it so I thought it might be a good place to go and it's relatively close to where we live. The day started off on a bit of a rocky foot because for whatever reason, it took us forever to get out the door. I think I may have mentioned to everyone in my house that it felt like each of them was working against me to go to the beach that day. When we finally got our act together, the drive there continued to foreshadow the experience we were to have.

It wasn't exactly a scenic route.

But at least the new I-280 bridge looked cool...

And we got a small taste of cultural diversity.

Despite GPS telling us us to turn down a grass covered, no access, dirt path we finally made it to the beach. Now, before we went, we knew there would be two beaches to choose from, Lake Erie and a man-made lake. I had considered calling one of my friends to ask if they would recommend one over the other, but we decided that we would figure it out for ourselves. It would be part of the adventure. And it was. When we finally found the park, I was shocked to see how empty it was. We seemed to be one of only 3 or 4 other cars there. My initial reaction was, what does everybody else know that we don't.... We decided to drive past all the parking lots that led to the man-made lake and went straight to Lake Erie. When we parked, there was only one other car near us (near being a relative term since it looked about 1/4 mile away). Once we walked up to the beach, we saw two people taking photos and 3 people walking (completely clothed) along the shore. Again I wondered, what do these people know that we don't. Since the only sign we saw was "no lifeguard on duty" we decided that this beach couldn't be that bad and proceeded to unpack all our stuff. We walked down to the water to discover the sand was covered in seashells and wasn't exactly comfortable to walk on or to play in but we still kicked off our shoes, steadied ourselves down the steep decline to the water, and waded into the water to discover yet another steep decline into the depths of Lake Erie. Still, we didn't leave. Chris and Colin started digging trenches in the sand and Eli started running off down the shoreline.

I was chasing after the little nut taking pictures when I suddenly heard "Um, excuse me". I looked up and there was a woman talking to me with a very concerned look on her face. That's never a good sign. "Eh, I'm not sure how true this is, but earlier this morning there was someone out here testing the water and they said it came up positive for blue-green algae. They said the beach is fine but people shouldn't swim. I just thought you should know since you have small children." Thank you for letting me know. How exactly does blue-green algae affect us? "Basically, it can destroy your liver." (Among other things). Thank you! That's when I snatched Eli out of the infested water to which his response was ear-piercing screams, and started sprinting down the beach toward Chris and Colin waving my one free hand in the air and yelling "Get out of the water! Get Colin away from the water right now! The water is infested!" Looking back, I think I would have been a fantastic extra in Jaws. After cleaning everyone off as best we could, we noticed it was already time for lunch so we decided to picnic at the park since we were already there.

We found some tables near the man-made lake and finally discovered where people actually go to swim. This beach here also wasn't busy, but at least there were other humans and more importantly, no blue-green algae. After we ate, we went back in the water. Unfortunately it was already after noon so we only stayed for maybe 20-30 minutes before we had to leave for Eli's nap. The trip felt a bit short-lived, but Colin did say he had fun and since then has created a new game where he goes to the beach and has to leave one lake to go to another lake because the first lake is giving off "bad energy". And no, he did not learn that term from either of my sisters, he pick it up watching Fireman Sam. LOL!

Our day at the beach was definitely an adventure but those always make for better stories than trips with no mishaps. And although Lake Erie was nasty, the man-made lake was pretty nice. I doubt we'll make it, but I'd love to go back before the end of the season. If not, there's always next summer.

Imagination Station

On Thursday, we decided to stay very local and check out Imagination Station in Toledo. I had been there once before when it was under the name COSI and when Colin was 9 or 10 months old. I remember thinking it was really fun and I considered getting a membership (until I found out it would be closing in a few months) because even as an infant, there was so much for Colin to do. Well, 2 1/2 years later we're back and it was even better than I remembered. Not only was the toddler room highly entertaining for the kids, but the big kid areas were super fun too! The kids had a blast watching a show about dinosaurs and digging for fossils, playing around with optical illusions, standing in hurricane-force winds, and playing with water. Oh, and they could have probably spent the entire day just in the toddler room dressing up as fire fighters or doctors, climbing in the tree house, and shopping in the grocery store. Maybe I'll still consider getting that membership.

African Safari Wildlife Park

Let me preface this post with saying that I actually found this place to be disturbing. It's a cute little zoo with pony and camel rides, but the main attraction is the wacky safari drive-through where you get to feed the animals. Complete with a Jurrasic Park-like entrance and a safari-attired trainer whipping the air to direct the animals.
When we first drove in, this is what we saw.

There were deer dashing in between and in front of cars.

There were buffalo and lama coming up to our windows trying to squish their noses through the cracks to get to whatever food we may have brought.

Then we saw this.

Yes, that's blood dripping from its antlers. No, I don't know what happened.
I realize that not everybody would feel this way, but I was more than a little creeped out.
So were the kids.

But then one of those buffalo wiped its snotty nose all over my window and Colin perked right up and was ready to start feeding.

If I were an animal rights' activist, I may have demanded that my husband turn the car around, that we get a full refund and then threaten to close the establishment or create some such ruckus. As it is, I don't get enough sleep these days to be that political so instead I joined in the revelry, busted out some carrots (thanks for the tip, Tiffany!), and made some entertaining, if somewhat disturbing, memories with my family.  

The "regular" zoo was small but pretty cute. They had fun pony and camel rides but Colin was not interested in either, to say the least, and Eli was terrified of the camel. But I think that's just because he snuck up on him.

They also had a little animal show that we watched while eating lunch. The had about 3 or 4 animals that they brought around to the tables for everyone to look at and pet. Eli was kind of interested. Colin hid under the table.

Would I recommend this place to someone who has never been. Sure, it was an interesting experience. Will we ever go again...I want to say no, but after looking back at some of these pictures, I probably will.

Stay-cation and The Henry Ford Museum

This past week we decided to try a stay-cation. When making our summer plans, Chris and I had originally thought about going to Mackinac Island. We love it there and we felt the boys would have fun running around, riding bikes, eating fudge, taking boat rides, etc. We wanted to take them to the Fort and have them see some historic sites. Then we remembered that there are frequent rifle demonstartions and if flushing public toilets sends Colin into a panic-attack, we weren't so keen on finding out how he would react to a gun. We also thought about the fact that two of our vacation days would be spent solely in the car. Then we considered sleeping arrangements and realized we wouldn't get any. That bascially sealed the deal for us so we promised each other that if we stayed home, we would stay off the computers, ignore our phones, and only watch TV if we were going to watch a movie together. Chris officially requested the time off from work and besides having to handle pay-roll for Metro Coatings, he also told those guys he was off for the week. We then put together a list of ideas of things to do including both indoor and outdoor activities so we had options depending on weather. The night before our stay-cation started, we were deciding what we wanted to do on Day 1. Instead of consulting our previously made list, I came up with The Henry Ford Museum. Both the boys love cars, trains, planes and all kinds of machinery. I thought Colin would get a kick out of the diner and if the Museum was a bust, we could always let them run around Greenfield Village. Tuesday morning we arrived just after they opened and despite my gung-ho attitude the evening before, I had more than a little trepidation about how my 3 and 1 year olds would do in a museum. Well, I didn't need to worry because they both *loved* it. In fact, if Eli didn't completely melt down from pure exhaustion in need of his nap, we could have probably spent an entire day just at the museum. It was perfect for us because there was hardly anybody there so we could let Eli run around in the big open space while Colin got to leisurely check out all the displays. The workers were very professional and didn't bat an eye when our little man would come howling past them with Chris or I hot on his heels. Colin loved just about everything except for the trains and the planes because they were "too loud". However, those were two of the areas he was most interested in seeing before we got there. Eli's favorite part may have been the green screen where you pretend to be in a music video. That kids loves to dance. Before we left, we told Colin he could get a plastic mold made of his favorite display. He chose the Weiner-mobile, which I guess shouldn't be that surprising since hotdogs are one of his favorite foods (unfortunately). Both kids actually took naps that afternoon and after they were up we went to the library to pick out new books for the rest of our stay-cation. In honor of the Weiner-mobile we grilled hotdogs and bratwurst that night for dinner and everybody got a good night sleep in our own beds. All in all, I would say that Day 1 of the Ring Family stay-cation was a success.

Sibling Reunion

I have so much to blog about including the stay-cation we're just finishing, but I'm going to start with last weekend and my sibling reunion. It's always a highlight for me since we only all get together maybe twice a year. My sisters both flew into Detroit last week and came down to our house to spend the day with us on Friday. Kasey got to regale us with tales of Guatemala and Angie caught us up on life in Cali. That night the sisters went to our brother's house and my family and I joined them on Saturday morning. The four cousins had a blast running around and Colin learned from his girl cousins how to play "house". Surprisingly, I don't think he was ever the Daddy. One of the highlights for him that weekend was getting to sleep in his cousin Sabina's room on a big air mattress. Once we convinced the kids that they would ruin the mattress if they kept jumping on it and that Aunt Mimi wasn't going to sneak into the room in the middle of the night to scare him, Colin slept really well in that bed...for about half the night. At 3:30 we found Colin and Sabina both sitting up in Sabina's bed chatting about breakfast and what they wanted to do that morning. Colin was convinced it was going to be morning in "two minutes" and went so far as to jump out of bed and open the curtains for me. When he saw it was still pitch black outside, he reluctantly got back into bed and eventually fell asleep around 5:30 after he found his way to the guest room Chris and I were sleeping in and after Sabina ended up in Don and Mimi's room. We might have to rethink sleeping arrangements next time. Ha! Despite the lack of sleep, we had an awesome time. The adults got to jam out to rock band and we taught each other some pretty sweet dance moves. The kids had fun playing and Eli taught us that no matter where you situate a pack 'n play, if the baby is determined he will still open up the dryer, knock the clock off the table, and body slam himself hard enough to knock just about everything off the wall.

My sibs!

The air mattress

Cousins!