Sibling Love

Today's exchange while playing Wipeout on the Wii:

Jack: Good one, Annie.
Annie: Thanks, Jack.
Jack: I didn't really mean it. I was just being pathetic.
Annie: Do you mean sarcastic?
Jack: Whatever. I mean you stink at this game.

Absence...and guilt...make the heart grow fonder

OK, so it's been a while since I've posted anything new. Or old. Or anything at all. Someone who used to read this little blog on occasion blames it on that internet Satan, Facebook. And she is, in part, probably right. I tend to share pictures there that I might otherwise put up here.

In any event, here are a few new pics of the kids from the last day of school, courtesy of my friend Dewey, that were taken at our second annual Buzz Party.*

Our new fifth grader!
Now in third grade!

A kindergarden graduate!**
The newest WRE kindergardner!

*There is actually some legitimate debate over whether this was the second or third party. The first year, 2008, was not actually called a Buzz Party, and it was not an organized party at all. It was the last day of school, and it turned into a pretty big and wild gathering at the house on the last day of school, but I don't recall there being any haircuts. Last year was the first "official" Buzz Party--there were buzzes, and an Evite, and "Come and Get Your Buzz On" cups...

**This is what I call Will's Wallace (as in http://www.wallaceandgromit.com/) face.

WRE's Got Talent

One of the highlights of the WRE school year is the kids' talent show. We had three participants this year. Luckily, the performances have been recorded for perpetuity on YouTube.

Fourth Grade Copacabana

Second Grade Boys jump rope routine

KG boys Kung Fu Fighting

Thanks

On Thanksgiving morning, I ran in my first Turkey Trot. Eight miles--farther than I'd ever run at one time before. I was lucky to start the very chilly run with a fun group: David, Allison and Angela.

I found myself alone by mile 5, which was a very tough mile. However, right after the turnaround point headed to the marker for mile 6, I saw a wonderful sight: my family, cheering me on. I was greeted with very loud cheers and awesome homemade signs.

This was the front of Will's sign: "You can Doo it Dad."

Luckily, at that point in the run, I just needed to pee.

This was the back of Will's sign.

Made me feel a little like Forrest Gump!

This was Jack's sign.

"Go Ames" -- I think he knew I couldn't chase him down at that point in the race!

All of the kids were very concerned before the race about whether or not I would win--they were sweetly convinced that I would win--at the end I think that we all were just glad that I finished in one piece!

And this was Annie's sign. Very creative!

Sam's sign contained secret messages that only he and I can decode.

All of this said, I was reminded on Thanksgiving, as I rounded the turn and saw my family waiting for me on the race route, cheering and waving their signs, how thankful I am to have such a wonderful family that supports me and loves me. I am truly blessed by my family and I appreciate all that they do to lift me up and love me! Happy Thanksgiving indeed!

Signs of Life

Well, we are more than halfway through Annie's first week at Pine Cove. It's amazing to think of how much fun she is having, and that is what is keeping all of us going because she is sorely missed at home! A very sweet letter (the first!) arrived this morning, and it sounds like she's having a great time.

Fortunately (thank you technology), we knew already that she was having a blast, because Pine Cove allows us to peek into the camp experience a little by posting pictures of the campers here. (Choose Towers, Week 9, and then a day to peruse.) Some of the Annie pics are...

Annie in the car heading into camp through the counselor gauntlet

Annie's counselor, Skrat Splat (her real name is Gracie!)

Annie's cabin

Annie and friends in camo

It doesn't look like the rain has slowed them down at all
What a great surprise it was to see that Mary Shannon and her Houston friend were also in Annie's cabin!

Two more days until we pick up the girl. Can't wait to see her!

Roughriders (Alt. hed.: Sarah G. is jealous)

Last Friday, I took Annie and Sam to the Frisco Roughriders game. We had a blast. There were hot dogs, cotton candy, Dippin Dots, and soft drinks galore. The park was very nice and they really try hard to make it a fun family atmosphere. Annie and Sam really liked the Diaper Derby, Sneaker Scramble, and the antics of the mascot. We also had the chance to meet a few folks from WFAA, Channel 8 at the game. We met Pete Delkus, Cynthia Izzaguirrrrrrre, and Chris Flanagan, and the kids had their picture taken with them! Link to the picture on the WFAA website is here.


Sarah G. was quite jealous that we got to meet her weatherman crush, Pete, at the game. Since she was sick, we got an autographed ticket stub to bring home to her! Pete was funny. When I explained that the autograph was for our neighbor who had a crush on him, he immediately asked "How big is he?"

Galveston remote blogging: night 1 and day 2

Oy vey. Looking back at what I posted yesterday evening, in light of last night's events, I feel bad for ever suggesting that my eldest child and most precious daughter may have been left by the road yesterday. Long story short, dear Annie was riding her scooter and fell, breaking her right arm. (A new one for us as she's broken her left arm twice, but not her right. Hi, Dr. Sackett!) So that entailed a LONG trip back into Galveston for Cathy and Annie last night to get a dubiously applied splint, which is covered by the plastic bag you see here:


In any event, it sounds like everyone is making the best of the day, and I've seen some evidence of that...

...like Jack prowling in the shallows...


...and Will building a sand castle empire...


...and Sam asking, "Where's da beach?"


It looks like Mary Shannon and Annie are having a good time at the beach!


And this alleviates my concerns from last night and confirms that Will Tompson is still being taken care of well!

Here are all six of the big kids out in the water:

I'm headed down tomorrow! Yippee!

You'd think we have a boring life...

...if all you knew about us is what we blog. Geez, we've fallen off the blogging wagon. There are so many things we've neglected to address here. For a blog that started out because of our recounting our summer trip last year, you'd think that we would have written about our super Spring Break driving trip...but alas, we havent'. We've ignored getting a new dog (hi Abita!) and the challenges and fun entailed with her, berry picking, the fantastic REACH projects that Annie and Jack did last month, Easter, the grownups' trip to Lexington, and many other fun things from our recent past. Cathy recently commented that May is just as crazy as December, with all of the end of school events, recitals, talent shows, projects, parties, as well as the swimming lessons and other activities that start with summer approaching. It's been kinda nuts--mostly in a good way--and I will do my part to get back on the blogging wagon and get this back and going again. With a vengeance. So sit tight, and we'll get something substantive up soon. Now if only we could get Sarah to start blogging regularly again...

Techno-Challenge (alt. title, "Being Dragged Kicking and Screaming into the 21st Century")

This morning I was sitting in front of ESPN Sports Center after my run, and Annie came in to join me for a little snuggle and quiet time. She was paying attention to what was on the TV--I was so proud when she identified Mike and Mike as the radio show I listen to in the mornings on the way to school--and eventually asked me, in response to something she saw, "What is Twitter?"

I struggled to explain it, because I don't really understand it myself, but finally came up with an explanation that satisfied Annie but not me: it's like a lot of little blogs that describe what people are doing throughout the day. Since I recognize that she and the boys will soon surpass my technological know-how*, I figured that I need to try to keep ahead of her, at least while she's in elementary school! So today I tried Twitter for the first time. Will be an experiment--I've not been so good recently with the blog, will see if Twitter is any easier or if it is more trouble than it's worth.

* I had to laugh earlier this week when a mom I know was trying to find her husband's e-mail address on her iPhone, and she ended up handing it to her 3rd grader for help! That day is coming for all of us!

Making Waves

Congratulations to Annie (and Anna and Brigitte) and the second place finish in the North Dallas Elementary Regional Science Fair! The project--which involved testing of beach erosion--was awarded second prize among all third grade submissions in the Earth Science category across seven school districts! What an amazing accomplishment! Pictures to follow...

Kid Bartending 101

The other night, Annie--the hostess with the mostest--offered my dad a drink when he was at our house. She offered him "a beer, or a margarita, or a martini." My dad was amused by the offering and asked why those drinks? Annie's response: "You know, that's what grown-ups drink."

So tonight I asked Annie if she knew how to make a margarita:

"Well, yes, kinda."

"OK, how do you make one?"

"You have this stuff in a can, and you pour it in a glass, and sometimes you decorate the glass with fancy salts and stuff...actually, I have no idea."

So be careful what you order and from whom the next time you come over to the Huttons!

Halloween!

We had a very fun Halloween. Each of the kids picked out their own costumes. The two Littles had a superhero theme going with Superman and Ironman:


As you can see, by the time the Bigs got into the act, Superman had a little too much kryptonite... Thanks to the Hungarian whip that Tita brought back from her semester abroad a long time ago, Jack had Indiana Jones down pat. He even put his candy in his satchel! And Annie was a very beautiful and popular Cleopatra. Even Cathy got into the act!


The kids told me that since I looked scary every day of the year, I didn't need a costume for Halloween. I tend to agree...

Punkins

We had a fun day on Sunday at the Farmers' Market. The kids enjoyed picking out their own pumpkins and naming them. Big Tex, Big America, Big Mike, Flat Face, Giggles, Tickles to name a few. We also had a lot of fun in the front yard carving the pumpkins. We got some good pics of the kids...

Convert

Wagner wants to be a Longhorn!
(Can you blame him?)

Introductions.

With the beginning of the blog, it probably makes sense to introduce the primary cast of characters as well as those making frequent appearances...

THE HUTTONS: Ames thinks he's the head of the house but everyone knows that Cathy's the boss. She's fond of telling everyone that she has 5 kids. Annie, the oldest, has been warped by her parents' love of 80s music and knows the soundtrack to Mamma Mia by heart. Jack, the oldest boy, wants to be either Jeff Corwin or Indiana Jones when he grows up. (Together, Annie and Jack are "the Bigs.") Will, our blond bomber, is the middle boy, and he's known for full contact hugs and preschool politics. Sam, the youngest (Hi Dr. Cochran!), is anything but the baby, and he loves the movie Cars. (Will and Sam make up "the Littles." But don't tell them they're little.)

THE GRANDPARENTS: Grammy, Mimi and Big Mike are a big part of our lives. Until they tell us otherwise, their true identities will be kept secret.

THE GRAHAMS: What could we do without the Grahams? Kyle and Sarah are our neighbors, our friends, our role models...and they have four great kids who we love to have as a part of our lives! You can follow their equally crazy life at http://grahamhalfdozen.blogspot.com/.

THE AUNTS AND UNCLES: Aunt Tita and Uncle Andy live too far away in Indiana, and Uncle Jason lives too far away near Denton. In addition to our biological kin, we have a host of other aunts and uncles who are near and dear to us all. Embarassing pictures of all to follow.

Asheville trip: night #2 in Crossville, TN (alternate title, "The Best Laid Plans...")

(Ed. note: As described below, this is posted out of order because it was originally "published" by e-mail installment on the date it was written. If you don't like it, well, you get what you pay for, and I don't remember you sponsoring this blog. But I'm open to offers...)

Hello, all, Clark Griswold here with installment #2 of the Hutton's July 2008 cross country trip. We're in lovely Crossville, TN tonight at the Hampton Inn. Very nice place, damp spongy carpets notwithstanding.

We didn't make it as far as we'd wanted today--one of our fellow travelers was not so lucky (see http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/jul/13/i-40-closed-sunday-afternoon-cleanup-continued/ for details) and that shut down I-40 for us. Short version: tanker spill in Crab Orchard TN that created a cloud of hydrochloric gas closed the interstate. Apparently that's not good for growing bodies. Not wanting to detour to Chattanooga tonight, we just decided to stay put here. But how did we get here, you ask? Excellent question...

Had a slow start this morning. We had three different shifts hit the breakfast bar at the La Quinta in Memphis (technically, Germantown TN but who's counting?) and we still didn't get filled up. Hardboiled eggs were on the menu for the Bigs and the Littles chowed on Froot Loops. FINALLY got out of the hotel and headed to Graceland. On the way, we stopped at Sun Records (cool but not as much for the kids as for us) and then on to Graceland. Got out, walked around the fence and took pics at the gate (awesome pic of Will hitting a mighty lick on his air guitar) and passed up on the $27 per head entry fee.

Instead, headed back to Beale St. for a little lunch with a plan to go over to Mud Island afterward. Big mistake. We chose poorly on lunch (Pig on Beale does not, in contrast to the advertising, have good bbq nor are they very service-oriented; also, Jack didn't believe us when we told him he wouldn't like the bologna sandwich, but I ate it up) and the kids hit the wall there. We trashed the original plan, headed back to the car and started heading east again. In the car the kids had a picnic lunch out of the cooler on I-40 while watching a movie.

We made pretty good time once we headed out of Memphis--at 1:30--and didn't stop in Nashville. On the east side of N'ville, we saw highway signs that alerted us to the highway troubles ahead. We checked it out best we could with the highway radio info station and calling our resident traffic guru in Asheville, and finally hit traffic just outside Crossville, where we'd planned to stop for dinner. We took the atlas inside Chili's and got lots of suggestions from the waitstaff and Sambo on the phone. Ultimately, we decided to head south out of town and cut east again in Sparta, TN. That was not to be, as the local Red Cross chapter was redirecting traffic and that's where we got the news that we would be heading to Chattanooga. Everything eastbound was shut down for about 60 miles. At that news, we made a 180 and headed back to Crossville, found a room at the Hampton Inn (thanks, desk clerk Gretchen!) about 6 blocks from the Chili's we'd left an hour before,managed to get our reservation cancelled in Knoxville with no penalty (thanks, LQ Rewards person!), and got into our spongy hotel. The kiddos got baths while I ran out and got a 6 pack of beer, and again at 10:30 with 5 sleepers, that's the rest of the story.

It looks like they're going to re-open some of the east bound roads by the morning, so we'll probably try to press on in the direction of Knoxville. If not, we'll head south toward C-nooga and then east and north through the Great Smoky Mountains Nat'l Park. Either way, it will be an adventure. Good thing we packed our gas masks.

Some funny things from today: Sam got his camera at Graceland. Took a picture or two of the gate and fence, but really enjoyed taking pics inside Barbara's car. At one point in the car, Will said "Daddy, smell!" We finally figured out that he'd tooted and was very proud of it. He's truly Cathy's boy. Annie didn't feel so great most of the day and had a rough day. She seemed to be bouncing back at the very end, however. Jack really enjoyed having his camera but there's no telling what he took pictures of today. He really wanted drumsticks from Sun Records but we decided that between drums and his current fascination with kung fu, not to mention the close confines of the car, we were not going to buy them at that time.

So far I've done all the driving, and my constant checking of the soft-sided luggage bag on the top of the car, I truly feel like Clark Griswold checking to see if Aunt Edna is still up there. I'm still waiting to see Christie Brinkley drive by, however...I do hear that she's single again.

Until Asheville...

Asheville trip: Night #1 in Memphis

(Ed. note: this series is what really started me thinking about writing a blog. I wrote a series of updates for friends and family about the Hutton family's driving trip to Asheville in July 2008. I'm posting them and back dating them to the original dates and times I sent the e-mails, so these posts will predate the actual beginning of the blog.)

Well, since Cat wouldn't let me live blog our drive to and from Asheville this summer, I thought I'd let y'all know a few highlights of the trip so far. By the way, it's 10 pm on Saturday night, 7/12/08, and we're safe and sound in Memphis at the La Quinta. There are 5 (I think) sleepers already in the room, so I'm trying to stay quiet.

Today was hot. Not going to lie about that. The car (thanks, Barbara!) is riding great and the AC is nice and cool, but with all of the potty stops, gas fillups, leg stretchings and other assorted stops we have to make, and with my need to tinker with the roof-top luggage carrier each time we stop, I've started and stopped sweating approximately 73 times today. So I've got that going for me.

The drive was relatively uneventful. Nice but hot weather all day. We started around 9 am (maybe a few minutes earlier) and didn't have to make our first stop until Greenville. Yep, we went an entire 40 minutes without making our first stop. And guess what? We've trained the kiddos so well to pee or at least try whenever we stop that everyone had to get out of the car that time...and the next time...and the next... At least there weren't any accidents. That I know of, that is. One thing we discovered in Greenville was that our absent minded professor kid Jack FORGOT HIS SHOES AT HOME! Grrr. He was only reminded about 6 times this morning, but went and got in the car without them anyway. So anytime that he wanted to get out of the car, I gave him a piggyback or he had to borrow Annie's shoes.

We had a rest stop picnic lunch just east of Texarkana, then a rest stop/sweet treat at ChikFilA in southeast Little Rock. I ran to the nearby Walmart while the kids played in the CFA playland to get Jack some shoes. He almost got a $1 pair of pink flip flops to help him learn his lesson, but then I found a $2 pair of sandals and had mercy on him. From Little Rock, we headed east to Memphis--only 3 stops along the way, but one was at my request, so I can't be too upset about that--and we headed straight to Beale Street.

Fun, mini Bourbon Street like atmosphere there--we got there about 7 pm, walked a few blocks and then got a table at a good but overpriced burger joint called Dyers. They use the same grease that they've used since 1912 when it opened! Yum. The kids were running on fumes when we finished, so we piled back in the car, drove to the hotel, threw everything in the room and piled in bed (everyone but me, that is).

On the way to the hotel I asked everyone what their favorite part about the day was. Unedited, here are the answers: Sam--the fire we just saw on top of the building (it was venting from a manufacturing plant of some kind that we had literally seen about 5 minutes before), Will--the brown horse I saw this morning (at about 11 am, still in Texas), Jack--the fun day of driving and being nice to my family (which Will then said was his second favorite thing, a little hero worship going on there), and Annie--the Elvis statue we saw on Beale Street.

Tomorrow, we're going to do a driveby at Graceland and then head to Knoxville. A relatively easy day--well, easier than today--and hopefully a long swim at the hotel pool. I'll try to let y'all know about tomorrow, tomorrow night!