Vacation - The NH Biliks have been gone since August 27th. Actually Claire and Abby flew out on the 20th as unaccompanied minors and the rest of us caught up with them a week later. The vacation started out in River Grove, the suburb of Chicago where I was raised. In the middle of the break Michelle and the girls flew to California to spend a week with her family there. I wish I could have gone and brought the boys, but they are barely tolerable on the short flight from Manchester, NH to Midway, Chicago. Actually the twins are quite good when you're walking the airport or on the airplane. It's the "hurry up and wait" of baggage checkin, security, and baggage claim that drives them to irritability, not that I can blame them. They were fascinated during takeoff and landing and kept busy during the flight with the snacks and of course Gameboys. Thank you Nintendo.
Highlights - The trip had many good aspects. Of course, seeing family and catching up always ranks near the top. If I do nothing but visit relatives, the trip is still worthwhile. There's the food that I missed: Italian beef sandwiches, gyro sandwiches, thin Chicago Pizza, barbecue beef and pork, etc. Then there are the opportunities to take family pictures. I have 3 CD-ROMs with 800-900 pictures I need to go through. 90% of the shots will be thrown away, but there are several keepers that should make for some great upcoming albums in the next few days. I'm thinking of organizing the shots into three albums. One will be Biliks and Tarpeys, one will be Gerrits and Crowleys, and the last one will be funny/blooper pictures, hopefully not too embarrassing.
As I said, Michelle, Claire, and Abby flew from Chicago to California to spend a week in southern California. The Gerrits and Crowleys had several timeshare rooms available at the Lawrence Welk Resort just outside of San Diego in the town of Escondido. While out there Michelle and her sisters bypassed seeing "the Mouse" and instead took their kids to Legoland. They also got to visit family on the Tesoriero side in nearby Lake Forest. Michelle's parents gave the girls a bunch of artifacts from their years growing up in Covina. I especially liked all the musical knick knacks. I had no idea how many we 'inherited' until we got back today and Michelle put them up around the house. There were plenty of Hummel and Lenox keepsakes and collectibles that all had a musical theme. I need to take some close-ups of them soon. Michelle also had the benefit of tooling around southern California in a Chrysler Sebring convertible. Wow! A gorgeous brunette and two cute blondes driving around topless! *ahem*
While the girls were in California having a great time, in Chicago I was assisted watching the three boys by my immediate family. We had trips to the Tarpey pool, visits with their cousins, and the highlight: taking the train downtown to Union Station. Little boys and trains — entertainment doesn't come much cheaper.
Lowlights - Alas, no vacation is complete without a few Clark Griswold style hiccups thrown in for balance. First, while I was managing our sons without Michelle's assistance, it was hot in Chicago. While River Grove is usually fairly quiet for a Chicago suburb, this vacation had a lot of background noise as a 24 unit condominium is being constructed adjacent to my parents' house. On Michelle's return from California, the connection was delayed and their luggage was misplaced. Luckily the luggage was shipped the next day and delivered to the house. A couple of days into my "Mr. Mom" experience, Timothy got sick and vomited twice one morning while my folks were out running errands. I tried to call them to get input on how to clean the recliner he had messed, but alas they didn't have their cell phone turned on. Timothy was again sick (thankfully not vomiting) on another day after Michelle's return, which cancelled our plans for that day. Lastly, Michelle was a bit sick the day before we left, making me nervous last night about whether we'd be able to make it home today. I was most concerned when she brought up going to urgent care. Luckily her symptoms seemed to pass. When we got to Manchester we thought that another piece of luggage was misplaced, but thankfully we later found that it had been segregated due to its large size for a suitcase. The house is all in one piece, but the lawn did a complete 180° while we were gone. It looks horrible! Major brown, burnt out sections, huge infestations of crab grass... Argh! All in just 2 1/2 weeks! You wonder how it could go so far, so fast. Then you remember the oxymoron of "New Hampshire topsoil" and know we must have had similar hot conditions to Chicago. Hopefully it'll come back in September/October once things cool down and the rain returns. We certainly had some nice downpours this afternoon.
That's about all for now. Look for a few photo albums in the next couple of weeks. Finally I have a lot of good material to work from!