More From Hilton Head

The day we left Hilton Head we had an early check out and a late flight so we spent some time at the Children's Museum, which was not a mistake.

But on our way there we stopped by a new construction project going on at the south end of the island that I'm overseeing and I put some work in there.

Yeah, I'm doing some work on the site without a hard hat. You can do that when you're the Forewoman.

Then we went rock climbing. I don't know if you can tell or not, but I'm actually 64 feet above the ground, with no harness on.

We finally got to the museum and they had a really nice arts and crafts area of which we took full advantage.

After the museum but before we hit the airport we snuck in some pizza at Pauly's, not to be confused with my Uncle Paul - he lives in Connecticut. So they brought us some dough so we could press it, knead it, roll it, the whole works.

 And you should've seen Mae get into it... oh wait, that's right, she didn't.

But what she WAS into was putting some parmesan cheese on top of her pizza, never too tired for that.

Oh, and did I mention we had a late flight. Well, Mom and Dad and Aunt Tasha slept in the economy seats, Mae was in first class watching Hunger Games and me? 

I landed that puppy soft as a baby's bottom on Runway 26 at O'Hare and we were at the gate in no time.

Overachiever, Example #42

Okay, so we all know by now Mae is a one-upper. I did something at 2 years 4 months, she goes and does it at 2 years and 2 months. We get it. But with the potty training thing she is taking it too far.

The other night she decided she wanted to sleep without a pull-up on and Mom and Dad obliged. Well, she made it through the entire night - 11.5 hours of sleep - with no pull up on.

Then immediately upon waking up, goes down onto her little potty and takes care of her business.

Hey Mabel, I'm getting a little bit tired of this, but I do have to say - job well done, girl.

And the Gold Medal Goes To...

So you may or may not have caught the women's gymnastics this past week. If you didn't, here's what you missed. Mae was in the Gold Medal finals for the floor routine.

Mae's floor routine is really intense, so I gave her the old rah-rah speech before she went out there...

And she was killing it halfway through even though she almost stepped off the mat...

And then about 3/4 of the way into it I seemed to have lost my wallet under the mat or something.

Either way, she took Gold and the Romanians, Russians and Croatians (yeah, who knew?!) went home unhappy yet again, to which we say, "who cares."

Hilton Head 2012, Part I

Well, my photo editor is still gathering up all the pictures but I'll give you a little taste of what went down on our vacation.

First off was the trip there. A flight to Charlotte, which Mae was really amped up for...

Then a 4-hour plain delay/layover in Charlotte that kind of killed our buzz, and about 1,500 other people's...

Then a 30-seater from Charlotte to Hilton Head...

And it was on that flight, with five minutes to go, after leaving our house in Chicago 11.5 hours earlier, after a looooong day of traveling that transformed Mabel and me into professional travelers that Mae lost the fight and drifted off to sleep.

When we got to Hilton Head there was a LOT of beach and pool time (more of those pics to come)

But there were other fun things to do on the complex, like ping-pong

Miniature golf

And one of our favorite past times - MAKE SMORES! They had a gas-lit campfire area and we definitely took advantage of that.

More to come from our Hilton Head trip, just thought I'd provide you with a little taste.

Hey batta batta batta batta

SA-WING BATTER!

Ahoy!

Well, I just got back from vacationing in Hilton Head, South Carolina, with lots of cousins, aunts, uncles, Nana and Papa, etc. (oh, and Mae and mom and Dad, too).

So there are plenty of pics and stories to come from that. But I thought I'd start off with something I worked on today at my house.

First, though, check this out. We went for a radical bike ride this morning along the Lakefront and headed out to the bike path on Northerly Island, and then stopped at the Dome Park by the Aquarium to climb some hills.

Got home and decided to head out on MY bike for a little ride. I know, sweet get-up, I dressed myself today.

Okay, so back to my art project. First, I cut up some paper, then I colored some things and got some jazz going in the tape department.

And this is the completed project.

Um, Finley, you're going to have to come a little closer to the camera, all I see is your beautiful smiling face. And wait, you have different pajamas on in the final photo...


Okay, Mr. Narrator, good point. Here it is. It's a boat out on the sea with a sea captain driving the boat and a storm just ended off in the distance and a rainbow came out. And one photo was pre-bath and the last one was post-bath.

The Horse Whisperer

So I don't know if you guys know this but I am a lover of horses, so much so that we set up a big horse farm in our living room.

There's a barn that we built...

And a stable of horses, which some have suggested has the horses packed a little too tightly together. I beg to differ, however, as lead horse whisperer I've spoken to them and they actually requested to be packed in there real close.

Hey Finley, what do you feed the horses?


Funny you should ask Mr. Voice/Narrator/Peanut Gallery Guy.  Since Dad is really no longer in need of his shot glasses, we have transformed them into the meal station, where the horses feed on oats and carrots and have plenty of water.

And here is the horse trailer, parked in its garage. This beauty of a truck helps me transport the horses.

And visitors to the horse barn can stop by Finley's Horse Store where they can purchase, say, a visor, for $24.99. Or if you're heading out to the links you can snag a 3-set of golf balls for 17.99.

So come on out to Finley's Barn where you can help me ride, pet and feed my horses.