Last weekend we had way too much togetherness and lounging around the house when we had 5 days stuck at home.  Thursday was a professional development day for teachers, Friday and Saturday we had a blizzard and a driving ban that would result in a $500 fine and up to a year in jail if we defied it, Sunday we dug out from 30+ inches of snow, and Monday was another snow day because the sidewalks weren’t clear.  I think I cried a little when I got that call.  This is the only photo I took during the blizzard, so I’ll have to describe our other activities so you can picture them.

Thursday:  I tried to work while everyone fended for themselves and occasionally complained that they were bored or wanted to work on some craft project that would involve drop cloths covering the entire first floor of the house and possibly a visit from Servicemaster.  Instead we went out to stock up on food and necessities, like wine, for the storm.   Thursday night I took Adlani and Norah to swim team practice while Aliya went to the charter school lottery with Ben, Chloe, Hannah, and their Grampy.  All of the girls’ names were picked!  There was too much excitement to do anything but have an impromptu sleepover and stay up into the wee hours making plans for the middle school takeover.

Friday:  More working while trying to block out the whining.  The snow started about 10 a.m., Ben was home by 11 so he could take over with the whiners.  The crew in the one-and-only blizzard photo suited up and made their way the quarter of a mile on foot to our house for a chili-fest.  For some reason I was reminded of Little House on the Prairie…a rope running from our house to theirs sounded like a reasonable idea.  Around 11 p.m.-ish they decided to attempt a return trip back home.  I was a little surprised that Aliya was willing to brave the wind and driving snow in order to escape from her family for another night, but apparently the swim goggles made all the difference and off they went.

Saturday:  Snow, snow, more snow…and I was happy as a clam.  I could have cleaned the basement, paid bills, or put away the multiple baskets of laundry that had piled up, but instead I laid in bed ALL DAY and watched the first season of Downton Abbey.  We had suddenly gone from a jam-packed weekend to a weekend with absolutely nothing to do.  I don’t get that opportunity very often (ok – never), so I wasn’t about to waste it.  Ben shoveled, Adlani lost a boot in the front yard which still hasn’t been found, Aliya eventually came home, and that’s about it.

Sunday & Monday:  Back to WWK (working with kids).  Tuesday morning I got an automated call from the school district…as soon as I saw the number I think I had one of those mini-strokes, but it was a call to say that there WAS school but to be careful getting the kids on the bus.  WOOHOOO!!!

Unrelated to last week’s unplanned mini vacation and this week’s scheduled school break, yesterday was Cultural Heritage Day at school, and here is yet another terrible photo.  Why is it so f-ing hard to get 3 kids to smile REAL smiles, all at the same time.  Is their life so difficult that they can’t crack a smile?  What do I have to do to get just one good photo?  The girls are wearing their Moroccan dresses, Adlani is wearing a Moroccan hat which can’t be seen because of his ‘fro.  His class was apparently having “fancy day” and this was his idea of fancy.  I think he was a farm hand in a past life.  I’m way beyond fighting with them over this stuff, and anyway, I think Spirit Days are torture for the parents who have to track down the necessary items that the  kids probably stuff into their backpacks as soon as they get on the bus, but I did my parental duty and off they went.  Maybe Spirit Days are designed to make the regular days feel manageable.

So like I said, we spent way too much time sitting around the house and WWK, so now that February school vacation is here, we’re hoping it will be more tolerable, maybe even enjoyable, if we get out of the house and do some things.  Ben and I both have to work, but we should still be able to squeeze in a few hours of kid-friendly activities each day.  We woke up this morning with absolutely no plans for what those activities might be, but thanks to Facebook, we found half-price tickets to Oliver at the Wheelock Family Theatre.  We went to Faneuil Hall first for dinner, then had a great time at the show.

Here’s an aerial photo of Boston after Blizzard Nemo:

After the zoo, we took a drive down Broadway, and then went to the Gaylord Opryland Hotel.  Everyone thought I was crazy for dragging them to a hotel, but the place is HUGE (9 acres of indoor gardens, 2,881 guest rooms) and it was all decorated for Christmas with over 2 million lights – amazing!  In return for humoring me by going to the hotel, the family made me eat at Dave & Busters, where Norah dumped a giant Shirley Temple on herself and Ben (karma?).  It’s hard to imagine that the hotel and the mall next door were under water after a flood in 2010.

I didn’t take enough photos to give any sense of how gigantic the atria are, but here are a few:

To give this “tree” some scale, the trees at the bottom right are full-sized trees.

How do they get lights on every branch?

We stopped at the Grand Ole Opry for a photo op:

The morning after we arrived at our destination, we loaded the kids into the car again and headed for Nashville.  Why?  Because we’re crazy like that.  It was a 2-hour drive so it seemed like a walk in the park compared to the previous 3 days of driving.

Our first stop was the Nashville Zoo, another freebie thanks to our MOS membership.  It’s a really nice zoo – very clean with roomy enclosures.  The kids loved the playground and feeding the Lorikeets.

The meerkats were so cool.  When a plane flew over they all watched it.

Ew.

After spending the night in Dublin, Virginia, we started the next day with a swim and by finally pulling out Norah’s loose tooth.  She had been developing a big gap between two of her baby teeth while the new tooth pushed everything out of the way, and the tooth finally got loose enough for me to pull out.  This is the before picture:

On the way to one of my favorite places – Grassy Cove, Tennessee, we stopped at the Museum of Appalachia in Clinton, Tennessee.  Again, it was almost deserted, which is sad but which I take a guilty pleasure in…no lines, no waiting.  The museum has a house and barn with a very eclectic collection of items with good explanations of the story behind each piece.  For example, one exhibit was a glass eye and a small pocket knife.  As the story goes, a 6-year-old boy was bent over tying his shoe while holding the open pocket knife.  His shoelace broke and he stabbed himself in the eye (“JOHNNIE!  HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU NOT TO TIE YOUR SHOE WITH AN OPEN POCKET KNIFE IN YOUR HAND?!?!”).  How someone procured this and found someone who knew the story is beyond me.

There are 30+ other small buildings to explore – most of them a bit dusty but still a great stop.  One of the buildings had three musicians playing what is apparently Appalachian music although I’m not sure what defines it as such.  When the musicians found out that Aliya plays the violin, they played a fiddle tune just for her.  The weather was beautiful and we had lunch in the restaurant attached to the gift shop which was very good.  I found out that a pimento cheese sandwich has shredded cheese, mayo, and pimentos.  I went with the turkey pot pie instead.

I think I’m destined to live in a tiny cabin like this at some point in my life.  It really appeals to me because it would force me to get rid of all but the most important stuff.  The proximity of the bed to the woodstove scares me though.  A guy really lived here.

I found these concrete signs really interesting.  Harrison Mayes had a plan to erect them on the moon and all of the planets, as well as a lot of countries.  I have a lot of respect for someone who has a passion and aims high, even if they’re considered something of a kook. 

We finally made it to Grassy Cove just before dinner on Sunday.  We were all extremely happy to get out of the car and away from each other.

We’re currently on a family road trip to Tennessee for Thanksgiving.  We left Friday afternoon and got as far as Parsippany, New Jersey before a 5-mile traffic tie-up convinced us to stop for the night a little early and give the kids some extra time in the pool.  Judging from the number of dead deer we saw along the road the next morning, it was probably a good idea to travel that stretch during the day.

Saturday, Ben and Aliya were pushing to try to make it all the way to Tennessee, but 12 hours in the car didn’t fly with me.  I’ve had a tough time convincing the rest of the family that it’s all about the journey, and they really didn’t want to stop.  I forced the issue and we decided to stop at the Whitaker Center in Harrisburg.  We almost detoured instead to the Thanksgiving parade that we happened to arrive just in time for, but I got outvoted on that one.

The Whitaker Center turned out to be great!  Even better, we got in for free because of our Museum of Science membership.  It had a ton of interesting exhibits and it was almost deserted.  We spent a couple of hours there and then Ben, Adlani, and Norah had lunch while Aliya and I went to the capitol complex to check out some doors for my other blog.

Here are some photos from the Whitaker Center:

This was my favorite exhibit – a graffiti wall that you paint on with an electronic spray can.

The hurricane chamber:

After we were finished at the museum, we got on the road and headed for Roanoke, to have dinner at Blues Barbecue.  We had eaten there on another road trip and it was worth a return visit.  Norah passed out, but not before she finished her chicken nuggets.