Midwestern Road Trip

I landed in Kansas City late Friday night with a cranky F+F in tow. I'm no dummy, and on a whim I planned to drive 5.5 hours with tired kids, so we made a critical stop at SkyZone, the local trampoline park. This has become our travel MO, and has at elast partially spared me from a lot of rough travel bedtimes. 

What I didn't know, though, was that it was "glow time," so we had to procure wildly expensive glowing accoutrements and jump in the dark. The kids were in heaven. I was a little nervous. It was, as most things with F+F are, a hysterical shitshow.

Our impromptu romp through the midwest was full of wild surprises. Including a nearly-unannounced brunch at April's Yukon spread, for Gunnar time and car theft.

And an on-a-whim appearance at the Army-OU game, which delighted all the kids with HMMWVs, killer tailgates,

Rabs!,

stadium shenanigans,

and a best friends reunion.

The adults were not sad about a close game and this view.

The next day, Natalie and I staged a kid-heavy minivan road trip back to Kansas, featuring ring pops

a sketchy dive bar outside Wichita that got inexplicable rave yelp reviews,

and a field trip to the Brown v. Board if Education historic site, fully appreciated by exactly zero kids.

Oh. And a chicken-soup-for-the-soul Leavenworth night featuring the Dunhams.

Next up was Missouri, with a stop in Rolla for music lessons

and early morning tractor rides,

not to mention motorcycle fun.

Followed by a triumphant return to Versailles, bocce lessons with Gran,

weenie roasts with Ana & Ata,

and- naturally- cupcakes.

While I drove back and forth to Leonard Wood for work, the kids hung out with Fancy Legs and Nanny,

 had sweet moments like this one,

threw rocks and generally terrorized the lake,

hung out with the Walters clan,

and (most likely) picked up lots of terrible. irreversible croquet habits.

Plus threw a fit or two, apropos for family croquet games.

It was a fabulous, exhausting, hilarious, special week in a place I visit less than I should with people I never fail to appreciate and enjoy seeing with F+F. The kids loved every second, even if we'll be recovering from the weeklong roadtrip for quite some time.

Some of my favorite photos include this "protest photo" of Mom, Nanny, and Gran, who did not want their pictures taken ,

 and this lovely shot with Gran, Ford, and Finley (who always does.)

We're sorry for all the people we missed and vowing to make it back when we can. Lots of love-

Hurrication.

Hurricane Flo is no joke. Although multiple category downgrades and the fact that our house was virtually untouched makes it kind of seem like a bust, the devastation is all around us. This was a sobering reminder on my way in to work

after I dropped the kids off with Michelle's Mom, since daycare is closed but the business of disaster response (rife with legal issues, it seems) must go on. 

Camp Mackall, where Seth commands a training company, has been without power since last week. Many of the people who work for me went without power for days and are still on a water boil advisory; the bridge outages make travel to and from work nearly impossible; and south and east of us it is much, much worse.

Seth had Soldiers in the field and had to work through the weekend, so the kids and I fled the storm as soon as they cancelled work. In light of the havoc it wreaked on so many, I kind of feel like a jerk: we took a real "hurrication." Seth and I had been looking at satellite weather maps for a week, and determined that just over the mountains was the way to go. F+F and I dispatched to Gatlinburg.

It's a 5.5 hour drive, so we didn't make it far before their first weather-induced hardship (it was raining, so we couldn't run around at a playground) was this fabulous bounce house place in Greensboro.

They are no kidding big enough to play air hockey, which was hilarious to watch.

We finally made it to the absurdly tacky place I had picked for our evacuation. I had to remind them constantly that this is not what real refugees look like.

I picked the resort because it had an indoor waterpark and I assumed the weather would be awful, but it was incredible for 2.5 days. 90 and sunny (I felt so guilty, getting reports of heavy wind and rain from home), and F+F were living the dream outside, which seemed slightly less germ-y to boot.

Because, whattheheckwe'reonvacation, they had donuts for breakfast,

lounged poolside with fancy drinks,

acted like real Niemans in the arcade,

conquered the water slides

(sort of)

and got to explore "The Island" in Pigeon Forge, where they walked around like mini-Kardashians in their sunglasses and galoshes that Finley informed me were for "fashion girls. But Ford can wear them too."

The Skywheel was a Mom highlight, with sweeping views of the Smokies

but Finster and Handsome Ford preferred the "horsies"

and conned me into a trip to the candy store.

The best part for me was getting to hang out with my favorite adventure buddies, and watch them act like a real sibling team. Finley, a water slide fiend, helped Ford (who prefers to wear allthefloaties and is kind of a chicken about slides) without being asked,

and even shared her awkwardly large corndog with him. I consider this a major, if disgusting, parenting win.

When it started to rain and I looked at 100 weather maps and decided we could drive east and punch through the weakening storm, we made the long haul back to a Dad who had very much missed his buddies. We celebrated with sword fights

and a Sunday Funday that included a Vikings win.

Plus a bonus day off for Seth and the kids Monday, with time for Jojo bow danceoffs (if you don't know about Jojo, a pop star both kids inexplicably adore thanks to Maggie, click here at your peril)

and a trip to the dentist. Which Dad allegedly compensated for with bowling and french fries, although there is no photographic evidence of the latter part.

And now it's day to day, as we wait to see how bad the flooding will be and whether the bridges will hold. We are wildly, incredibly fortunate, as our house is at no risk of flooding and we have power and water and Jojo on Youtube. Please keep those who are not so lucky in your thoughts. Many of them have still not recovered from Hurricane Matthew, two years ago. Relief efforts won't be in full force until the danger has subsided, but we'll share charity information, once we have it, withanybody so inclined.

One of the funniest photos of the week, I think, is this "first thing in the morning at the water park" photo- the best thing, hands down, about staying in a tacky waterpark hotel- which is the perfect depiction of both Nieman kids. Handsome Ford is checking his sunblock and analyzing the water depth while Finley dances in the fountains with reckless abandon and a giant wedgie.

This cannot be fall, and the Brave Old Army Team.

Blink and you missed, it seems that this summer is officially behind us. Not that you'd know it from the wildly oppressive heat that lingers (and makes us grateful that our pool doesn't close after Labor Day like the ones onpost!)

We're still getting used to Seth being on a training schedule, which means that when he has a class in session he works pretty much every day. So our last weekend of the summer was a little more local than the norm, but we still made the most of it.

After a whirlwind TDY (for me) to south-south Florida (which was, bafflingly, cooler and less humid than North Carolina!), I scooped up the kids and barely beat the beach traffic to the coast. We spent a hilarious and kid-packed two days at Bex's beach house, where Finley got to see Ashlynn and stay up giggling all night, Ford got to gorge on illicit ice cream and be carted about in a stroller by the girls,

 and the kids got to play in the waves, covered in 8000 gallons of SPF 100 sunscreen.

Then we raced up (not in advance of beach traffic this time) to meet Seth and some friends at the Army-Duke game. The game didn't end well for Army, which lost a lot of talent this graduation season, but Finley got to see her beloved Rabs.

Army games are one of the things we'll miss most about our idyllic two years at West Point, and it was heartwarming to see the kids back in the stands singing "On Brave Old Army Team" and cheering on their faves (which for reason featured this insane dance.)

It wore all of us out. This was before we even left the parking lot.

Seth had to work the next day, and I was a little bummed about ballet and chores on a long weekend,

but Ford cheered us both up with an ice cream date while Finley tap danced her little heart out,

and we hit our favorite newly-discovered park afterwards.

The rest of the weekend was filled with failed potty training,

the discovery of Hungry Hungry Hippos.

and a birthday party at the pool

at which Finley's "greams" came true when she got to try on a big girl mermaid tail/ death trap

 and kidnap the birthday girl for an impromptu sleepover

with alltheprincessdresses.

The short first week of September (?!) that followed was more than warm enough for pooltime

and when the temperature dropped below "Hades" we hit the park with friends.

Last night Seth and I stuffed ourselves into "we used to sleep more and drink less beer" mess dress uniforms, and took this terrible family photo

before heading to the USAJFKSWCS ball. Which was kind of a nice date night, even if the speeches went long and both of us would have preferred to be wearing sweats.

And today we're recovering. And hoping to hit the pool before this hurricane is upon us.

My favorite recent photos are from today's Sunday morning errands, which started at Duck Donuts

and included a belly-laughs trip to the car wash, where Finley "slimed" the car in her princess dress and left it dirtier than it was to begin with.

Here's to hurricanes bringing a break in this heat, and the (distant) eventuality of sweater weather and maple syrup season.