Can Being In A Rut Be Fun?

Ever feel like you are in a rut…digging and digging to get out, but getting no where fast?

Ever since Momma started staying at home with Ace instead of going to work, we have really had to watch where our money goes.  And now that we are living in a recession it almost like a noose around our necks!

We pay all of our bills on time, but what’s left over leaves little room for much entertainment or extra curricular activities.

The added stress and lack of doing things hasn’t really helped my blogging much. I mean, do you really want to hear about how we do the same thing every day?  I didn’t think so…  😀

I know that the recession has hurt many families much more than it has hurt ours and I am very grateful that we have done as well as we have throughout these tough times.

I have friends that have been laid off for over a year, depleted all of their savings, and ran up their credit cards.  Now they are living on a shoestring budget struggling to make ends meet.

So how has the recession put unwanted stress on your family?

What have you done to alleviate this stress?

What are some fun (and inexpensive) things that your family does for entertainment?

Freeing Up Some Space…

So many times I take pictures and forget I even took them.  I downloaded all of the pictures off of my digital camera and realized that I completely forgot to write about the awesome time we had on a mini vacation in September!

The whole goal of this mini vacation was to get out of Dodge for the weekend, and go down to see the leaves changing along the Ohio river.  There were a few other festivals that we were planing on attending as well.

So, we loaded up the truck, and we moved to Beverly….not really…but we did go to the hills.  Not the Hollywood Hills, but the hills of Kentucky!

We drove down on a Friday night after work and got into the hotel kinda late.  Ace was zonkerred out and Momma and I quickly followed his lead.

Saturday morning we got up early to go to a harvest festival/car show a few towns over.  We get to the little po-dunk town and there was nothing…not one car being showed.  We drove around the 5 whole blocks of this town to realize that their website was wrong.  We finally found a sign advertising the car show… THE NEXT WEEKEND.

So much for the car show.  We had all day and a full tank of gas.  We just started driving and saw a sign for a National Park.  We had not visited a National Park since we lived in Colorado.  Ohio just does not have many extreme wilderness areas…ya know?

We paid for our day pass and drove about 10 miles back into this forest until we found ourselves parked at the end of a hiking trail alongside the Ohio River.  Ace has never been hiking…let’s do it!

Off we go…hiking through the forest.  It was pretty muddy because it rained the night before, and Ace hit every mud puddle along the trail.  I rolled up the bottoms of Ace’s pants to keep them from getting too muddy…and I had to roll up mine as well.  😀  We were having fun!

The cliffs were amazingly high…and steep!

Tall Cliffs Near The Ohio River

Tall Cliffs Near The Ohio River

Ace got to see a lot of things he had never seen before…big cliffs, the Ohio River, people riding horses, and even a few barges hauling stuff down the river (one was hauling port-a-potties…a whole barge full of porta-potties!)  😀

We hiked and hiked…and hiked!  I’m surprised  that Ace’s little stubby legs still worked!  But he did stop a few times to take a rest…

Taking A Rest While Hiking

Taking A Rest While Hiking

We hiked all the way back to the truck where ace decided that there was something wrong with the front tire..

Dad, Here Is The Problem...

Dad, Here Is The Problem...

And after he fixed the problem…not real sure what he did…we headed back out on the road.

We came across a little park that marked a battle site from the Civil War…or something.  ( I never have been a history buff.)  There was a cannon that was used in the battle, and for some reason an old cabin.

Looking Down The Barrell Of A Cannon

Looking Down The Barrell Of A Cannon

Notice the jacket that Momma is wearing?  It’s the one I reviewed…  😀
Which by the way has been moved over to the new DadThing Reviews Blog!

Sitting On The Front Porch Of An 1800's Cabin

Sitting On The Front Porch Of An 1800's Cabin

We quickly bored ourselves with a history lesson and headed back out onto the road.  This time we ended up at the Louisville zoo!

Just so happens they were having a trick or treat night!!  So, we got Ace dressed up in his best Fire Fighter Uniform and went to keep all of the zoo animals safe from any blazing infernos.  😀

Firefighter Halloween Costume

Firefighter Halloween Costume

And wouldn’t you know it…Dorothy, The Tin Man, The Cowardly Lion, and the Scarecrow from Oz were there!

We just had to meet them…and get our pictures taken with them…

The Tin Man and Dorothy

The Tin Man and Dorothy

The Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion

The Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion

Dad and aat the Emerald Palace!

Dad and Ace at the Emerald Palace!

Notice the bottoms of my pants?

Yup, some ‘tard forgot to roll them back down after hiking… 😀

I guess Momma is right…I am special sometimes.  😀

How Do You Know You Spend Too Much Time Playing Bejeweled Blitz On Facebook?

Bejweled Blitz

Bejweled Blitz

So how do you know when you spend too much time playing Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook?

Maybe you check the leader board while on break at work to make sure that no one has beaten your score!

Could it be that you find yourself organizing the cans in your cabinets into groups of three?

Do you dream up ways to sabotage that person’s computer who will always get 200,000 points every single week and you’re lucky to get 100, 000?!

Or maybe…just maybe…a good sign would be your two year old, who only speaks the language of Nick Jr, running around the house saying, “One Minute…Go!”…”Bang Bang Crash”…”A New High Score!”

Maybe…just maybe…that would mean that you play just a little too much.  😀

Social Networking For Two Year Olds

We do not know any other parents with kids Ace’s age.  All of our friends either have 4-5 year olds or babies.  No toddlers.

So, Ace has really been deprived of interacting with other children his age.  Do they have a Facebook for toddlers?  He is an only child (although we have been working hard to change that, just no luck yet), but does get to interact frequently with older kids…which is good…but not what he needs.  We do not want him to grow up and be socially retarded.  😀

So, Momma found a “Mommy & Me” class for them to take, but there was only one other kid there besides Ace.  So, she dug a little deeper and found a Gymboree class for him to attend.  Tomorrow will be Ace’s third class.

It really is kinda fun…even I enjoy it!  Miss Alissa, the teacher/activity leader is very good with kids.  She sings and dances and is extremely animated which draws the toddlers’ attention away from their shoe-laces (or whatever may have caught their attention).

There are multiple group activities separated by “play time” where the kids can go down the slides, shoot some hoops on a two foot tall basketball rim, climb different obstacles, and interact with each other.

The first visit Ace was very shy (gets that from me) and the second visit he opened up a whole lot.  He actually participated in the group activities, but not so much with the other kids.

However…so far Ace has successfully knocked down a girl, head butted the same girl, and climbed on top of a girl…the same girl (whoa whoa buddy!).  Aren’t little boys mean to the girls they like?  I’m going to have to watch these two… 😀

Overall it is a good time had for all, and I hope that Ace gets something valuable out of it.  Momma has already made a friend with one of the other Moms there and they are planning a play date outside of Gymboree.   Maybe Ace has made his first friend his own age?  We’ll see…  😀

OBX – The Outer Banks

We spent the last week of our vacation in Duck, NC.  We (PaPa, Grandma, Uncle Charlie, Uncle Mike, Livi Shea, Ace, Momma, and I) rented a beach house about 500 ft from the beach…our little home away from home…

Ace and Livi

We were greeted in NC by Hurricane Bill with large bone crushing waves and high winds, but everything calmed down by the third day.

We did not do a whole lot there (isn’t that the point of going to the beach?). 

Ace, A.K.A. FishBoy, and Olivia had never seen the ocean before so they were in complete amazement when the waves would crash down and roll over their feet…

Ace and Livy Playing In The Ocean

We went on a Dolphin Cruise where we took a relaxing boat ride out into the sound and saw live dolphins in the wild… Did you know that wild dolphins have pink bellies?  Me neither…

Dolphins In The Wild

The Dolphin Cruise was a sunset cruise, so we got to see the sunset…it was breath taking to see the sun set over the water…

The Sunset Over The Water

And the skies after the sun set were equally as eye cathcing…notice the moon peeking it’s head out into the daylight…

Beautiful Skies

As fun as the dolphin cruise was, nothing beats playing on the beach.  Of course someone has to be buried…

Buried Alive

…and sand castles have to be constructed with precsion…

Sand Castle

We even got to experience the beach at early morning and at night.  At night the crabs run wild.  We went down with our flashlights and chased the crabs across the sand back into the water.  Those little buggers can scoot!

We got up early one morning to watch the sunrise.  I have never in my life took time to sit down and watch the sunrise.  I mean, I’ve seen it rise while driving to work, and I’ve been outside when it has risen, but to sit and watch it’s every move is something that I will have to try and do more often.  The view was overwhelming…

Sunrise On The Beach

All in all we had a fantasic time!  It had to be one of the most fun two weeks that we have ever had.  Momma is already busy planning next years vacation…

Jared and Momma On The Dolphin Cruise

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