Trinks and S Discover DE

Longwood

2009-05-06T10:34:00.001-07:00

No captions necessary.

Winterthur

2009-04-26T18:00:00.000-07:00

Here are the long awaited pictures from our fabulous weekend at Winterthur.

A beautiful staircase.

An nice, old desk.

The spraying mushrooms in the Enchanted Garden.

The troll bridge.

Trinks and S in the "nest".

Petting the fish was their favorite part of the whole day.

Delaware Theater Company

2009-04-10T04:41:00.000-07:00

Last night, hubs and I ditched the kids and headed over to Wilmington to check out All the Great Books (abridged). DTC is a small, intimate theater, which was perfect for this show. The cast went through 86 books, including Green Eggs and Ham. We were promised a wild, cross dressing, fish flying romp through great works, and we were not disappointed. Who knew Captain Kirk was in the Iliad and the Odyssey? And the characters in War and Peace could see Sarah Palin's house from Russia. It was a really fun night, and we ended up with a diploma.

Snow Day!!

2009-03-08T14:01:00.000-07:00

I took Trinks and S sledding on the hill at Christiana Meadows. It seems like a rare hill for DE and I've always wanted to try it. Trinks ran straight up the hill, plopped the sled down and started down without looking. About 2 seconds after I snapped this picture, she went over the storm drain and fell into the rocky, icy water. As she was screaming her head off, I was creating dramatic rescue possibilities in my head - shove her on the sled and pull her to the car or pick her up and run? And what to do about S? By the time she could talk, she mentioned she wasn't done sledding and just needed to move to the left a bit. She's pretty tough usually, but this impressed me. She was soaked from ankle to hip, but still did the hill about 7 more times, went home to eat, and made it through ballet class.

This is a posed picture of one of the few times S made it onto the sled. He liked the tiny hill. Anything bigger terrified him, especially after seeing his sister fall.

Bombay Hook

2009-02-16T06:33:00.000-08:00

We took advantage of the break in the weather and headed south to Slower, Lower DE. The last time we were in Bombay Hook, it was 17 degrees outside and we couldn't do much exploring. I think it was a balmy 60 this time. We got out of our car, after paying our $4 entrance fee, and heard the most amazing noise. It was a loud, raucous, almost deafening sound. We turned in the direction of the noise and saw thousands of white birds. Now being from Northern DE, we were fascinated by these Snow Geese. Apparently to the locals, these birds are as much of a pain as our Canada geese. But, aren't they pretty?

And here is our picnic. It was a bit windy, but a lot of fun.

Some more of the beautiful scenery.

A place we really didn't need to explore

2009-02-16T06:23:00.000-08:00

Trinks came down with strep at the end of January. It's not uncommon for her to get strep, but what was unusual is that she didn't respond to Motrin or antibiotics right away. Then she complained about neck and back pain. Of course it was after office hours at her doctor's office. When the on call dr called back, we were told to take Trinks to Christiana Hospital. I'm not a huge fan of hospitals in general, but my previous two experiences with Christiana ER were pretty bad.

But I was pleasantly surprised. I didn't have to walk through a cloud of smoke to get my child inside. Christiana is a smoke free campus. When S was in respiratory distress, I had to walk through a wall of smoke. This is a wonderful change. Trinks was taken directly to the back, thus bypassing the waiting room. I have no particular issue with the specific waiting room, but waiting always makes the experience bad. Of course by the time we were placed in the back, Trinks started to recover, thus negating any possibility of meningitis. I have never been so relieved in my life. It was nice to have a pleasant experience with the ER to somewhat washout our previous disasters.

So, cross ER trip off our list for this year.

Hairy Woodpecker, up close

2009-01-11T12:19:00.000-08:00

Bird Nerds

2009-01-11T11:55:00.000-08:00

We are pretty lame about this Delaware adventure this month. Between my work schedule and the Eagles playoff surprise, we haven't been able to go many places. But, today I bring you a picture from our very front yard in Bear, Delaware. We have a Hairy Woodpecker on our suet feeder. The amazing part is the kids stood absolutely still so we could take a picture of it.

More pictures from last week - White Clay State Park

2009-01-04T08:56:00.000-08:00

This was the split second before she landed head first in the dirt.

S was determined to master this ladder.

And here is a crappy picture of the black vulture. Click here for a more professional picture.

This week's adventure

2009-01-04T08:51:00.000-08:00

This week's adventure was derailed by the generous offer of my in laws to take the kids over night. I am enjoying free time in the house without its two messiest occupants. But, in the interest of DE trivia, let me express my gratitude to DELDOT.

DELDOT gets a lot of complaints because all the roads in DE seem to be under construction simultaneously. And the results are really hard to see. For about two years, 95 was under construction. Finally, this year, the extra lane (both north and south) from Rt 7 to 141 opened. Driving that stretch is no longer the nightmare it was. I love that Rt 1 no longer backs up and I am not late to work - darn - need another excuse!!! I can actually take Rt 1 on weekends without sitting in traffic. Let's hope the construction on 295 N before the Bridge works out just as well.

Pictures from Newark Reservior

2008-12-28T14:12:00.000-08:00

Adventure #1

2008-12-28T12:16:00.000-08:00

I am getting a jump on our new project. I want to experience more of DE this year. Today, we managed to go to the Newark Reservoir. I have wanted to go there since it opened, but never seemed to make it there. It was very windy, but since it was warm, it wasn't too bad. The kids took turns running, skipping and trying to fly in the wind gusts. The view from the top is amazing - you can see Motiva and the DE Memorial Bridge!

After the exciting walk around the reservoir, we took the kids to White Clay State Park. It's good to take advantage of the park when they aren't charging fees. While there, I saw an unusual bird and tracked it, attempting to get a clear picture. We got a clear enough picture so we could identify it when we got home. It was a black vulture. Pretty cool.

By this time, we were getting hungry and ended up at Timothy's. I had been there years ago for a work function, but never made it back. We enjoyed ourselves and plan to return.

So what next? If the weather holds, we will go birding at Bombay Hook next weekend. If the weather doesn't hold, we may look to PA to entertain us. Harrisburg/Hershey is always a good trip. The Bass Pro Shop is in Harrisburg, and we reward the kids with a trip to Hershey World if they are good. While I am trying to blog about exploring DE, side trips into neighboring states will have to be a part of the adventure.