Our family missed the chance to enter a lottery for tickets to the annual White House Easter Egg Roll this year. Maybe next year I will keep it on our calendar to try and remember to enter. The historic Easter egg roll at the White House started in 1878 under the leadership of than President Rutherford B. Hayes after the practice was banned by law in 1876 (Turf Protection Law) on Capitol grounds.

This year, on April 9, 2012, the White House anticipates over 35,000 people to attend the day after Easter egg roll event on the South Lawn. The official White House event is broken up into 5 different time slots starting at 7:45 AM and going until 5:45 PM. Breaking the groups down into approximately 7,000 people each has to be a lot more manageable not only for the South Lawn, but also for the Secret Service. Thank goodness we have big landscaping budgets to repair the South Lawn afterwards.

To be invited under any President would be grand, and I would remember the experience forever provided I did not try to pull off anything funny. You do not want to be the guy to toss your egg into the air as Secret Service Agents on the roof will be keeping an eye on your activities.

For a less stressful time (i.e. no Men in Black security agents), one can always head over to Fremont, OH (close to Cedar Point for all of you non-Ohioians) at the The Hayes Presidential Center for their annual egg roll. No lottery is necessary, but each child 3-12 years of age needs to bring 3 hard-boiled eggs to participate.

The egg roll at the Hayes Center was recently listed as one of the top ten nicest Easter egg events in the Country according to Budget Travel. Children will receive a free ticket to the Museum or Home for participating in the egg roll activities, but fortunately, children under the age of 6 are free anyways.

I had hopes of our family getting out to the Hayes Center prior to the release of this article, but our weekends have been full, and we will not be able to attend the Easter egg roll. Just writing and researching about the Hayes Center got me excited to see the place, so I have made plans to not only attend this historic landmark of Ohio and Presidential history, but also document some of the other various sites across Ohio. Stay tuned.

My Easter Egg Hunt Lesson Learned

I do have one age-old lesson that I learned this year that never seems to change. Easter Egg hunts are unfair! The idea is for kids (and in our case, we are talking about toddlers here) to have fun, not how many eggs they get to take home. Our family managed to make it out to one local Easter egg hunt this year, and I manage to learn nothing has changed over the last 30+ years.

When my sister and I were kids, I remember my parents making comments about how unfair Easter egg hunts were because each kid did not manage to get a proportional share of the eggs, if any. So as our boys ran out into the field with other 0-3 year old toddlers, they did not fully grasp the concept of picking up eggs, and had to be assisted by parents. Afterwards, I heard the same story from other parents about how unfair egg hunts are and kids should be limited on how many eggs they receive by the organizers.

There is no way for the organizers to know how many kids are going to show up to a public Easter egg hunt, nor is there a way to make it fair for all of the kids. An Easter egg hunt lasts about less than a minute, and there is no way to tell each person you are only limited to x number of eggs. An egg hunt is about having some fun and the tradition, not how many eggs you get to take home. Maybe the White House will have some executive rules in place for us next year to ensure an equal experience for each kid. 🙂

Save Money, Travel More!

This past weekend was different. We did not spend the weekend away at a fancy hotel or even staying at home working around the house. We have been so gung-ho every weekend with unpacking and getting our new house to feel homey. A typical weekend lately involves not only spending lots of time during the day with the boys and my wife, but also getting things done around the house. Hanging more blinds, curtains, and artwork; putting stuff together, in its place, or organizing; spending countless miles going back and forth to Home Depot or Lowes. Then after everyone is in bed, I concentrate and work on the blog till the wee hours of the morning. It has been all consuming, while in addition, my full-time work and schedule have drastically changed for the worse. So how did we get away from it all?

My wife’s great grandparents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary this year. In today’s day in age, that is a huge accomplishment my wife and I will complete 57 years from now. Wow! That’s a long time. To celebrate, my wife’s grandparents decided to rent a large cabin in mid to southern Ohio and invite the entire family to spend time together. Organizing and scheduling a complete family event for 4 generations of families is next to impossible, but by planning well in advance, they were able to accommodate everyone’s schedule.

The location was called Indian Bear Lodge and we had the Little Rock Lodge building. They are located in Walhonding, OH, about half way between Cleveland and Columbus. It really was quite amazing to realize we were in the same State.

The rolling hills in the middle of Ohio were gorgeous. It is amazing what a little topography can do in your surroundings. Every person we passed waved as though they were welcoming us in an unknown land. It was clear everyone knows each other in these parts, and visitors were not the norm. The people were both friendly farmers and the Amish community.

Getting to the lodge was a bit of an obstacle. There was no address, and GPS coordinates took us to some random house on a dirt road. When we pulled into a random drive, and it was a scene right out of a horror movie as the barn had a hand print on the window that looked like someone asking for help. When we were lost, a couple was on a four-wheeler, and we stopped to ask them for directions. Again, I was kind of scared for my life when they drunkenly looked at us as City-folk and slurred their words with no idea of where we or they were headed.

When we finally arrived, the place was great! It slept 25 people, which was perfect for the 25 of us, had a large kitchen with huge dining room, and a rec room large enough to fit the largest farm equipment. Everything was modern and convenient. The building was surrounded by corn fields, horse fields, ponds, and woods. Was I really in the middle of Ohio? It really felt like a retreat.

I know I was able to completely relax and not think about my hectic “City” life back home. The house was disconnected from the internet grid, although we did have cell phone coverage complete with 3G. So I was unable to do my late night research as is typical for most weekends. The lodge did come with satellite television coverage though, so we were not completely off the grid or out of touch with our surroundings.

On Saturday we decided to take the boys up to the Velvet Ice Cream factory in Utica, OH. While we were not able to see a factory tour, the property was very nice and family friendly. We had an excellent meal and ice cream of course.

On both the way to and from Velvet, we stopped at several little farmer’s stands to sample and purchase some of the local goods. It brings us such satisfaction to buy directly from the local people as opposed to the big box stores we have back home.

For once we were able to get away for a weekend and not have to worry about reservations at hotels, where we were going to eat the next meal, or what activities we were going to do to entertain our children. It was peaceful and relaxing.

My only regret is how fast the time went by this past weekend. It was truly beautiful being kind of disconnected from our hectic life back home. I not only got to spend a complete weekend connecting with my family, but also my wife’s family. The weekend put us outside of our typical element, and it was a welcoming endeavor. I truly love my wife’s family as much as my own, and it completes me by knowing it is what I always wanted. In addition, I know my boys will have taken away a great experience with my wife’s large family, even though they are too young to likely ever remember.