Hoverboard #2

 

As soon as Nadia rode Oliver's hoverboard on August 7, I knew Nadia also wanted to have a hoverboard. Ian has used Oliver's hoverboard a little bit, but Nadia has wanted to ride his hoverboard almost as much as Oliver. She had enough money to buy one in August because she received $50 when I sold her 24" bike and also had received money for her birthday and for babysitting, but she said she'd just put a hoverboard on her wish list. About a month ago she spent some of her money to buy a smart watch because the plastic watch band was giving her a rash. She selected a watch with a metal band. I didn't do much shopping this week for "Prime Day," but I did notice that Walmart had a hoverboard really, really marked down. Nadia had been planning to use her money to buy another pet - probably a turtle. We have three guinea pigs and two zebra danios, but evidently that's not enough. I told her how much cheaper the hoverboard was, and she decided to buy it and ask for another pet for Christmas. UPS delivered the hoverboard yesterday, and the weather was warmer than usual for this time of year. She and Oliver had fun on their hoverboards. Ian wants a 24" bike like Oliver has, but I don't think he'll ever request a hoverboard. I almost got him a bike over Facebook right before we left for our vacation. Since his birthday is in December, I feel confident that he'll get a bigger bike either for a birthday or Christmas gift in December. I need to do more research about turtles before giving approval. 

I am not minimizing the number of people who have died from COVID-19 in the US this year; it's certainly more than a typical flu. I don't know if we'll ever know the exact number because if someone dies in a car accident but previously tested positive for COVID, their death is included in the number of COVID fatalities. The percentage of people who died of COVID in the US without any co-morbidities is less than 10%. But even if EVERY COVID death was truly from COVID, it still won't be the leading cause of death in the US in 2020. Heart disease and cancer are the top two killers in our country. I don't personally know anyone who has died from COVID, but every year people I know die from cancer. My brother's cause of death was heart disease, and my mother's was cancer. In the last two months two friends have died of cancer. In August Jill died at the age of 50. She was married to Reid, who was one of my closest friends in college. Earlier this month Kim died at the age of 63. We taught at the same school in Annapolis and attended the same Bible study when I lived there. She had been Wendy's French teacher. Her positive attitude during her battle with cancer was very inspirational. My friend Carol's husband is battling pancreatic cancer right now. The number of fatalities is going down for some forms of cancer, but pancreatic cancer is on the rise unfortunately. I am thankful that sometimes, such as in Margie's case, cancer is caught early. Even though I don't have the BRCA mutation, ever since my mom died of ovarian cancer in 2016 I've been very faithful with having my annual mammogram. So right now even though COVID is what it seems most people are thinking about, cancer is on my mind in light of some recent deaths. My dad has had prostate and skin cancer, which thankfully generally have a good prognosis. It would be wonderful if they could come up with a cure for cancer. There seems to have been TONS of money dumped into cancer research - especially breast cancer. Hopefully they will come up with better ways to treat cancer as chemotherapy is far, far, far from ideal! If you would say a prayer for my friend Carol and her husband Denis as he battles pancreatic cancer, for my friend Reid and his two children as they grieve the loss of wife and mom, and for Kim's family and friends that would be appreciated! Kim was never married, but she leaves behind two brothers and other family and friends who will greatly miss her presence in their lives. 

The kids are VERY excited about a play date at our house today. Tab asked me if her boys could hang out with us while she takes their two dogs to the vet. My kids love to play with her boys. Yesterday they did extra schoolwork so they could have a short day today as the boys are supposed to come over at 10:30 this morning. It also is the first time since we've lived here that dogs will be visiting us as Tab will come here with the dogs after their appointment is over. We can actually put our fence to good use for a short while, ha ha! A dog is what Nadia really wants, but I don't know who would walk the dog when we went on field trips, went skiing, went on vacation, went to an amusement park, etc. She wants a pet that likes to be handled. I think if I agree we can get another pet it's going to be on the stipulation that SHE is totally responsible for feeding and cleaning it's habitat as I already clean the guinea pig cage and the fish tank. I already said if she chooses a pet that has a longer life span, the pet must go with her whenever she leaves our home. She agreed to that stipulation. So we shall see what mammal or reptile I can find that likes to be held that could be the next pet....

Thankful Thursday

 1. Although I don't invest a lot of time into couponing these days, I still enjoy the thrill of a good bargain. Children's Place sent me a $5 coupon earlier this month. I used it yesterday to buy a long sleeve t-shirt for Ian that was on sale for $5.25, which meant after the coupon I paid 25 cents for the shirt. That store always offers free shipping. That's better than a yard sale price for a brand new shirt! Earlier this week I went to CVS and bought 3 boxes of cereal and 4 two liters of soda for a grand total of $0.77.

2. We attended the third gym class on September 25. We missed the fourth one because it took place while we were on vacation. I'm very grateful Desmond taught the class and hoping they offer more sessions sometime during the school year.

3. We enjoyed shopping at yard sales in our community on September 24-25 and managed to find most of the things on my list. The weather was perfect, and it was very nice to do something that came close to resembling "normal."

4. Nadia had two friends over for a sleepover on Sept 26-27. I'm grateful for the friends she has made at church.

5. I enjoyed being in the nursery on September 27. I have volunteered to teach other ages (mostly grades 1-5) at church, but have purposefully avoided the nursery because I was afraid holding a baby might stir up the longing within me to have another baby. The nursery I was in is for ages 9-23 months, and I found that I didn't have any adverse emotional reactions to being with those little ones. PTL! Still I prefer actually teaching a Bible lesson. I taught the 1st/2nd grade boys' class this past Sunday.

6. The kids had a blast at Refreshing Mountain on September 28. They love that place, but it was even better than usual because six of their cousins were also there! The weather was ideal, which wasn't the case the last time we were there. And it was the first time that Ian really enjoyed the rock wall. Way to go, Ian!!

7. We got the first estimate for phase one of Ian's orthodontic treatment plan on September 29. I'm hoping we do NOT pick that particular orthodontist, but I'm thankful I was able to set up appointments with two others who also will give the estimate for free.

8. We spent eight days together and had safety on the trip. Although we haven't been home for 14 days yet, I feel confident we didn't contract COVID on the trip even if Kentucky is on the "bad list," and we had safety on the road aside from one unpleasant encounter with a fawn. We were thankful that the gas was cheaper in OH and WV and that we spent less than $40 on meals during the whole trip thanks to free breakfasts at some of the hotels, bringing groceries with us for our lunches, and using gift cards for our dinners. The kids earned Junior Ranger badges at 3 National Parks in Ohio and 4 in Pennsylvania while we were on the trip. We also visited two science museums, had 4 industrial tours, and enjoyed a variety of playgrounds and other museums. I had wanted to visit the Ark for four years. I'm happy we checked that off the bucket list.  All of the pictures in this post are from the playgrounds along the river in Cincinnati.

9. Margie got the great news that the cancer was caught before it spread! PTL!! She also recently had successful cataract surgeries.

10. Since we've been back home the kids have enjoyed playing with other kids in the neighborhood. One girl has even been allowed to play in our home! That used to be normal, but we went 7 months without any neighborhood kids in our house due to COVID-19. It was a rainy day on Monday, but overall the weather has been very nice.

11. I'm very happy we are making progress with speaking Spanish. Yesterday it hit me that I left one word off the list that I wrote earlier this week - "Salud". That is probably the Spanish word I use the MOST because Nadia sneezes a lot all year long. Yesterday I gave the kids commands in Spanish that involved a verb (ex. "brinquen" which means hop or skip) and a location in the house in Spanish. The kids would then hop to that location. This Spanish curriculum is definitely enjoyable. I took Spanish in middle school and also in 9th grade. I studied German in 10th-11th grade. I never thought that in my late 40's I might actually become fluent in Spanish. I'll turn 50 in 18 months. We shall see if I can speak Spanish fairly fluently before I turn 50. I've always wanted to take the kids on a short term mission trip before they graduate from high school. It will be very helpful if we go to Guatemala already knowing a decent amount of Spanish. 

12. Paul's mom was discharged from the hospital after having two heart catheterizations.

13. Our pastor started a new sermon series on I, II, and III John. This past Sunday the sermon was on I John chapter 1. We had been working through Core 52 for more than a year (a topical study based on a book). I prefer a more exegetical approach so I'm thankful we'll continue to study these three letters over the next 6 weeks. I also have to say our memorization of Matthew 5 is going well. Oliver has only learned some of the verses, but Nadia, Ian, and I have learned Matthew 5:1-9 so far. 

Hablamos Español

Over the years I have attempted to include Spanish instruction through a variety of methods including Rosetta Stone that we installed on the laptop computer and the Duolingo app on the iPad. At the beginning of 2020 I purchased a video based curriculum called Excelerate Spanish. I had been very hands-off when the kids had used the computer or iPad to learn Spanish, but I was very involved with the video lessons. We only made it about half-way through the first level of Excelerate Spanish, but I decided to try something else this fall. Jen, a friend from a local homeschool group, spoke positively about Talkbox.mom. I hadn't tried it previously because of how much it cost, but since many things were cancelled in 2020, I decided we could afford to buy the first four boxes. To be honest, I still think the price tag is a steep for what is included in the boxes, but we are actually speaking in Spanish at various times throughout the day. Success! My goal is that we will eventually be truly bilingual. Yvonne's kids are also learning Spanish so my kids could even use their Spanish with their cousins and Tia Yvonne and Tio Joe! They are planning to move to Ecuador sometime in 2021. Some of their kids might be fluent in four languages - Turkish, English, Spanish, and Farsi. Wow. I'll just be happy if my kids can speak English and Spanish before they graduate from high school. This past Sunday I taught the 1st/2nd grade boys class during the second service at church, and it was the first time I caught myself about to say something in Spanish and had to remind myself to only use English. I was thrilled about that. I hadn't told Nadia that story, and she told me that she had the same experience at youth group on Sunday night. Yahoo! Ian has prayed entire prayers in Spanish. Ian uses Spanish at home more than his siblings. 

The first box focused on foods and other words related to eating. We didn't learn all of the foods on the chart they gave us because we don't eat a lot of the foods on the chart, but we've been learning the words and phrases that are useful for our family. This week we've started on the second box which focuses on a variety of verbs and also rooms around the house. One person closes their eyes and waits for the other three people to go somewhere in the house. The person whose eyes were closed then asks each person, "Donde estas?," and each of us answers in Spanish (ex. "Estoy en el cuorto familiar.") and the person who asked the question is supposed to identify where that is. Today we did a version of "Simon says" where one person would give commands in Spanish (ex. "Levanten las manos"), and everyone else is supposed to do that action. We might play a game for a few minutes, but primarily the way we are learning Spanish is by attempting to use Spanish instead of English as much as possible all day long. There are nine boxes in the program, and after you purchase all of them you gain access to their "academy" online which covers more vocabulary and grammar. If you visit our house, you will see lots of little laminated cards taped all over the place to help us learn more words in Spanish. So far my kids have no idea what is meant by the expression "conjugating verbs", but they are learning they use a different verb if they are speaking to one person versus more than one person, and they know "tengo" means "I have" whereas "tienes" means "do you have". The program is meant to mimic how we learned to speak our native language. Here are some of the phrases we have been using the most often:

1. Te amo, Te amo tambien (I love you, I love you too)
2. Gracias (thank you)
3. De nada (you're welcome)
4. Por favor (please)
5. Sientate en la silla, por favor.  - I think this is the one I say the most often each day because my boys have a hard time staying SEATED during meals.
6. Tienes hambre? (and the kids answer by saying things like "tengo mucha hambre")
7. Quieres cereal? (or queires bagel or sandwich or manzana or uvas, etc.)
8. Quieres mas? (do you want more?)
9. Tender tu cama. (make your bed)
10. Es hora de cenar (or del lonche or de desayunar) - it's time for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
11. Ponte la ropa (get dressed)
12. Buenos dias or noches
13. Es hora de ir a la cama. (time to go to bed)
14. Lavate las manos con jabon. (wash your hands with soap)
15. Cepillate el pelo (brush your hair)
16. Cepillate lose dientes (brush your teeth)
17. Conejillos de indias necesitas agua. (the guinea pigs need water)

William Howard Taft's house

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is Thanksgiving Day in Canada, and since we are celebrating a wide variety of holidays from around the world this year, we are having a turkey dinner this evening. We were supposed to celebrate Sukkoth last week, but when I realized that a thanksgiving type menu is also what is typically served for that holiday, I decided we'd just wait until Canadian Thanksgiving. I did serve cranberry sauce last week on the day we learned about Sukkoth which greatly pleased Nadia and Oliver. Paul would probably have been fine with three Thanksgiving dinners (the third being when we celebrate the US holiday next month) as turkey is one of his favorite foods to eat. I have a turkey breast in the oven, made ricotta mashed potatoes (bought yellow potatoes for the first time as that's what the recipe called for), made a pumpkin two layer cheesecake, will be making stuffing in a little bit, and I'll serve more cranberry sauce. Oliver and I would have liked it if the menu also included sweet potatoes. I didn't use that much pumpkin for the cheesecake so I'm going to make pumpkin cookies later this week. Speaking of international recipes, yesterday I made Tortilla Espanola and two days ago I made

a flourless chocolate cake. Paul ate leftover split pea and ham soup as he wouldn't touch the Tortilla Espanola since it contained a little bit of onion and red pepper. The kids would have liked it better if I had omitted those two ingredients. I wasn't sure if they had ever eaten red pepper before so I wanted them to at least try it once.

This morning I took Ian to the orthodontist we've visited several times over the last few years. This was to be the first appointment that cost money and the one that would lead to the treatment plan (and price) being given to me later this month. As is the norm at medical offices these days, I had to fill out a COVID questionnaire, and they took Ian's temp. I was able to check no for everything except for one item. That one asked if we had traveled out of the state within the past 14 days. I told the receptionist that we had been in Ohio and Kentucky from October 1-7. At the moment I forgot to include West Virginia, but we were in that state for less than 24 hours. She looked up the latest guidelines from the state of Pennsylvania. The list of "bad" states was updated three days ago. Ohio and West Virginia are not on

that list, but Kentucky is. She asked if we flew or drove there. She told the doctor what I shared, and he said we had to reschedule the appointment. Paul had already suggested I cancel the appointment since we would have to pay $250 to receive an estimate for the treatment plan, but I hadn't done so. Driving there and then being told we had to reschedule was the final straw. In reality Ian spends far more time "quarantined" that kids who go to school. There are some weeks he interacts with people outside our home only once in the week - at church on Sunday morning and everyone is required to wear a face mask in his Sunday School class, have their temperatures taken, etc. 

I didn't reschedule the appointment on the spot because I decided to make more phone calls first. I called four more orthodontists this afternoon. The first two charge even more for the first appointment that results in the treatment plan and estimate. Thankfully the third and fourth offices I called also do the first appointment for free. I received one (free) estimate on September 29. I also asked three of the four offices I called today whether they

include headgears in their treatment plans. I wasn't happy that the first treatment plan included Ian wearing a headgear for at least 22 hours a day. Two of the three said they don't use headgears at all. The third said that they sometimes use headgears but never require a patient to wear a headgear outside of the home. The next two appointments are scheduled for October 19 and November 2. I'm hoping that we end up choosing one of those two orthodontists. Nadia is very happy that it's against the COVID rules to bring other children to an appointment. She likes getting paid to babysit Oliver when I take Ian to an appointment. (In the picture above she is holding one of Babe Ruth's bats)

Home sweet home

 

Flight 93 Memorial

All of the kids favorite activities during our "field trip" took place during the first five days. In hindsight we could have just come straight home from Louisville. We encountered plenty of COVID bumps during the last few days of our trip - 3 of the last 4 mornings we weren't offered a breakfast at the hotel and many of the places we had planned to visit weren't open. We almost went miniature golfing in Morgantown, West Virginia on Wednesday afternoon. If we had done that, we would have had more time at Fort Necessity and some of the other National Parks we visited on Thursday, which would have been greatly appreciated. We opted not to go miniature golfing because we thought we'd have time to visit Fort Roberdeau on Thursday, but we ended up feeling we wouldn't have quite enough time to spend there. I'm thinking we'll attempt to visit there again probably during the 2023-24 school year. We weren't rushed at the Flight 93 site, but had we known we were going to skip Fort Roberdeau, we could have spent more time at Johnstown Flood and/or Alleghany Portage as those sites were open until 5pm. We had planned to have dinner at Cracker Barrel, but because we ended our sight seeing earlier than expected, we had dinner at home on Thursday. In the original plans, we were going to have dinner twice at Cracker Barrel during our trip, but both times the plans were changed. The first time it was because the wait was too long. I'm sure we'll use the gift cards eventually. Nadia ended up only missing one theatre rehearsal as she was able to participate on Thursday night after we had dinner. I was busy that night with unpacking, cleaning the fish tank, and putting new Junior Ranger badges on the banners in the kids' bedrooms. The kids earned seven badges during the trip. They have each earned around 70 badges so far even though many visits I had planned to national parks were cancelled this year.

Alleghany Portage Railroad NHS

Paul went back to work yesterday morning. Usually he doesn't go to work on Sundays, but due to our trip he did go to work the Sunday before we left and is going to work again tomorrow. The kids had two days of school last week and just one this week. The past couple of years Nadia and Ian did many writing assignments from the IEW curriculum. We will use that curriculum again in the future, but this year I've decided to not use such an intense approach for that subject. Yesterday was actually the first time I gave Nadia and Ian a writing assignment during this school year. They did research on planning a vacation somewhere in North America. I will have them do that for most of the continents throughout the year. I said they could write it as an informative essay, persuasive essay, or as a story. I got books from the library about Hawaii (Ian's choice) and St. Lucia (Nadia's choice), and they took notes yesterday. Being back at home also means playing with friends in the neighborhood again. In the past kids from the neighborhood used to play both inside and outside our house. Yesterday was the first time in 7 months that any of the kids in the neighborhood played inside our house. Oliver spends far more time playing outside with kids in the neighborhood than his siblings, but all three of them played outside yesterday and today.

Johnstown Flood National Memorial

The main reason I am glad we are back at home is because I can sleep in my own bed. I slept very well on Thursday night. Sadly my allergies kept be awake starting at 3:30am this morning. I think mowing the lawn yesterday is what did me in. There are several factors that need to be in place for me to have a good night's sleep including the temperature of the room (which is a challenge when you're depending on an air conditioner in the room), how dark it is, how quiet it is, and if my back likes the mattress or not. The first two hotels we stayed the mattress was fine for my back, but one of those hotels was in downtown Cincinnati, and the noises from the vehicles driving by kept me awake. The mattresses were a problem in all of the other hotels - particularly the three nights in Kentucky. I took my first vacation apart from my family in 2000 when I went to Florida with my friend Charlene, and from 2001 to the present I've been taking vacations with Paul (and the kids since 2008). Over the past 20 years my top four vacations were to St. Lucia (2001), England/France (2002), Mexico (also 2002), and Aruba (2006). If I chose my four least favorite vacations over the past twenty years I'd pick: Grand Cayman because it rained almost the whole time (2012), a Western Caribbean cruise (2011) partially because the weather wasn't great and primarily because I got almost no sleep due to Ian, Sandusky, Ohio (2016) because I was physically ill and also emotionally grieving the loss of my mom = I was in zero mood for a vacation of any kind, and this trip we just took. The weather was lovely, and I was healthy. However, we had to wear masks a lot (I'm NOT a fan of wearing a mask), many things were closed or only partially open due to COVID, I didn't get enough sleep, I did a lot of driving (which is exhausting) because Paul can read in the car and I can't so he was reading novels on the Kindle while I did most of the driving, and also it was traumatic when the fawn ran into our van. I wish I could delete that image from my brain. I think it would be hard for a vacation to be considered one of the top vacations during a pandemic. It's just not an ideal time to travel, but it did mean that Paul got some time off for leisure for the first time this year, and we were able to see and do some of the things we hoped to on this trip.

Margie got very good news yesterday from her MRI and pathology report. First, the cancer is the best type to have in terms of being slow growing, and secondly the MRI showed that it hasn't spread anywhere else. PTL!!! I think this means that Margie will only need a surgery and not chemo or radiation (aside from possibly one radiation treatment during the surgery). This is a big answer to prayer!!! My mom's sister had uterine cancer quite a few years ago, and she just had a hysterectomy - no radiation or chemo. She was several years older than my mom, and she's still alive. Detecting cancer early is definitely a huge factor. My mom's wasn't detected until it was already stage four. Her quality of life was not good during her entire 6 1/2 month battle with cancer. I'm very thankful to hear that it seems Margie's battle with cancer will likely be very different than my mom's was. Speaking of health concerns, Paul's mom had two heart catheterizations last week. They discovered the problems during the first one, and then they took time to decide how to proceed. As she is not a candidate for open heart surgery, they opted to do another heart catheterization to place a stent the next day. Thankfully she was discharged from the hospital last week. Although they couldn't address all of the problems they found, we are hoping this procedure will help her feel stronger. 

Tower of Voices - Flight 93 (huge windchime!)

Kentucky, Indiana, and West Virginia

We spent Monday primarily in Louisville. We could see evidence of the riots and protests, but thankfully we didn't witness any of it first hand. We started our day at the Kentucky Derby Museum which included a tour of Churchill Downs. I had contemplated a tour that started at 7:30 that morning which would have enabled us to watch the horses practicing for about an hour. I hadn't bought tickets for it because #1 it would have cost $95 for all of us to attend and #2 I didn't think they would want to get up that early. If I could go back in time, I would have splurged. Paul didn't think he'd enjoy the Kentucky Derby Museum, but he did. Our second stop was to walk across the Big Four Bridge to Indiana. We watched a free presentation on making coconut fish candy (a hard candy that is very popular in that region) at Schimpff's Confectionery. The family owned candy business was opened in 1891, and the first owner's great grandson and his wife are the current owners. We bought the kids some candy before we walked back over the bridge. The kids played at a playground on the Kentucky side of the bridge before we toured the Louisville Slugger Factory. In the museum they let you hold the bat of famous baseball players. They had one bat from each team. Since we're not really baseball fans, we were indecisive as to which bats to hold. All three kids had their picture taken holding Babe Ruth's bat, and Ian also had his picture taken holding Dick Allen's bat. We picked him since he played for the Phillies. Since I was wearing a Steelers t-shirt I think the man expected us to pick the Pirates player's bat. 

The Kentucky Science Center was across the street from the Slugger Factory. It amazes me that some science museums are still closed due to COVID-19, some that we have visited have only about 1/2 of their exhibits open due to COVID-19, and then the Kentucky Science Center had almost every exhibit open. Some of the museums we have visited have given us each a stylus to use so that we wouldn't be touching any screens. The Underground Freedom Railroad Museum had installed foot pedals throughout the museum to use instead of touching a screen. However at the Kentucky Science Center, the kids were allowed to touch with their hands just as they did prior to COVID-19. It was a nice science museum, and thanks to our ASTC membership, we got in for free. We spent almost 3 hours there before driving to Red Robin for dinner. We used a reward we had earned - one free adult meal. Because we hadn't been able to try some ice cream at Graeter's as planned the previous day, we stopped at one after Red Robin. It was an expensive dessert that is to be certain. Paul didn't try anything new. He had his usual vanilla milkshake, but the kids and I each tried a flavor we hadn't had before. Graeter's has been in business since 1870. It was expensive ice cream, but it was only the second restaurant we've bought anything at this vacation that we didn't pay for with a gift card. We also bought some cookies and drinks at McD's earlier in the trip without a gift card.

Tuesday was the day that I had to completely reconfigure because the original plans had been to tour the Toyota factory and spend most of the day at the Kentucky Horse Park. Toyota isn't giving tours right now due to COVID, and the horse park isn't open on Mondays or Tuesdays right now due to COVID. We thought that we'd get breakfast at Dunkin on the way to the Shaker Village since the hotel we stayed at near Louisville didn't offer any breakfast due to COVID, but we didn't actually pass any Dunkin Donuts restaurants. I ate two blueberry muffins from a previous hotel, and Paul and the kids each ate a breakfast sandwich from Wendy's. None of them were fond of what they ate. I knew the Shaker Village experience wouldn't be the same as usual due to COVID, but still I was rather disappointed. Yesterday was definitely not the highlight of our vacation. We weren't able to tour the bison ranch as planned and the Shaker Village was disappointing. We did enjoy our 30 minute tour of the Boone Creek Creamery. Because of COVID we weren't allowed in the Hobbit Cave (where the cheese is aged) or taste any free samples, but because the tour was free, we did buy three different artisan cheeses as a way of saying thank you for the tour. Paul is looking forward to trying the one that has beef jerky in it. 

We drove more yesterday than we had for a few days. I had picked two movies for them to watch during the vacation through Disney+. They watched Secretariat on Sunday in preparation for our trip to Churchill Downs, and yesterday they watched Ruby Bridges. We listened to the newest Vanderbeekers book, will finish a biography of Thomas Edison tomorrow morning, and we're also part way through another Andrew Clements book. 

Last night we had dinner at a Texas Roadhouse in West Virginia. We ate at an outside table to avoid waiting for a table inside. Nadia wasn't happy about that because she got some bug bites on her ankles. One of her ankles is pretty swollen today from the bites. When we checked into our hotel Nadia was thrilled because the room I had paid for had THREE queen size beds in it. It was a very large room. Nadia had slept on an air mattress every other night of the trip so she got one of the queen beds to herself. Unfortunately the air mattress has a leak so it hasn't been the most comfortable thing to sleep on. She chose to be the one on the floor though. I had volunteered to share a bed with her, and Paul could have shared a bed with one of the boys. It feels odd to be walking into a hotel room with an air mattress, sheet, and sleeping bag, but when you have five people in your family, it seems the way to go as finding a room with three queen size beds is like finding a needle in a haystack. Nadia had picked which bed she wanted, but Paul thought we should have that one. I wish we had let Nadia have it because the mattress on it was the same quality as a sofa bed mattress even though it wasn't a sofa bed. The other two beds had much nicer mattresses. Sleeping at night is hard for me in hotels because my back is particular. The first two hotels we stayed in this vacation had the best mattresses so far. The last three nights were painful for me. Every time I am in a hotel and struggle to sleep there are moments when I think I never want to go on vacation again, but enough time passes that I forget how uncomfortable it can be for me to sleep elsewhere. The hotel in West Virginia did give us a free "to go" breakfast. Paul didn't like much of what they offered. I think his breakfast was primarily peanuts we brought from Texas Roadhouse last night. Several of us ate a leftover roll from last night with our breakfast this morning. 

I had chosen to stay at that hotel because I thought we'd spend time at the Clay Center in Charleston before heading back to Pennsylvania. Like the Cincinnati Museum Center, it houses a few museums, and we could get into all of them for free with our ASTC membership. However a few days ago they decreased how many days they are open each week. I only discovered this yesterday. Thankfully after booking the hotel I had added one more thing to do in the area before going to the Clay Center - touring a family owned salt works company. I also discovered last night that the national park we planned to visit today also had reduced what days they are open each week. So last night I had to reconfigure what we were going to do today and tomorrow because all that was left on the schedule for today was a 30 minute tour at JQ Dickinson. Let me tell you one must be VERY, VERY flexible if you dare to go on vacation during COVID-19. The salt works tour was very interesting. Since the tour was free, we felt obligated to buy something. They had let us try some samples of different salts and also different caramels that they make. The caramel was out of this world so we bought a jar. It cost far more than I'd ever normally pay for a jar of caramel, but it is very delicious and in my mind was a way of saying thank you for the free tour.

Every other day on this trip our lunch has consisted of food I brought from home - crackers, PB&J sandwiches, fruit, and granola bars. I had received an email from Panera saying if we spent $50 paying with a certain type of payment that we'd get the $50 back. So I decided we'd have lunch at Panera today. It was delicious! We also stopped at Dorsey's Knob Park in Morgantown, WV so the kids could play on the playground, and we could also take in the pretty views. I was hoping the leaves would be turning, but our trip was a little too early for that. Since we were unable to visit Friendship Hill NHS as planned, we visited Fort Necessity instead. Unfortunately we got off schedule through the course of the day for a variety of reasons, and we had a little less than one hour at the park rather than the two I had planned. Two would have been much better. It was VERY challenging to complete the junior ranger badges in 55 minutes, but they did it. Paul would like to go back there sometime since our visit was so rushed. This battlefield was at the very start of the French and Indian War. 

We had dinner at Subway and then checked in at our hotel. The kids were thrilled when I told them that this hotel has an OPEN pool!!! The jacuzzi was closed, they aren't offering any food in place of the breakfast buffet they usually offer, but the indoor pool was open. I'm confident we won't have trouble going to a Dunkin Donut tomorrow on our way to the Flight 93 memorial. This is our last night at a hotel as we are driving home tomorrow evening. We thought we'd be able to swim four of the seven nights, but we were actually able to swim one night. The water temperature was about 65 degrees according to Paul. I had put on my bathing suit, but when he told me that I turned around and went back to our room. I expected the kids would swim for an hour, but they only lasted 40 minutes given the water temperature. We thought we'd be eating a free breakfast at the hotel all seven mornings, but three of the mornings the hotel didn't provide any food. Of all the places we visited, only two took issue with the kids wearing face shields. Presuming all goes as planned tomorrow (which is certainly not a guarantee), the kids will have earned 7 Junior Ranger badges on this trip. So far the kids and Paul say that their most favorite parts of the trip have included: Air Force Museum (Paul's #1 and the boys have it in their top three), Ark, Creation Museum, IMAX movie, Kentucky Science Center, and Schrimpff's Confectionery. The first day of our trip was the day that involved the most driving. I'm glad we're already in western Pennsylvania, which means we won't be driving nearly as much tomorrow as we did on October 1. I'm thankful we've had safety on the road thus far. A fawn did collide with our vehicle a few days ago, but thankfully I don't think our van was damaged. If anything was damaged, it was the mirror on the driver's side of the vehicle. Paul and I both try our best to dodge all animals when driving, but we weren't able to this time. We appreciated the cheaper gas prices in Ohio and Kentucky. We had to pay a lot more for a tank of gas this evening since we reentered Pennsylvania. Our van has almost 150,000 miles on it, and I'm thankful that it hasn't given us any mechanical problems thus far. Here's to hoping that I get more sleep tonight and that we'll have a good day together tomorrow - the last day of our family vacation for 2020. I took a LOT of pictures over the past 10 days. I'm planning to work on a photo book once we're back home as Shutterfly is having another unlimited pages special this weekend.