Tille Family

“You need to have a talk with your son when you get home.”

Here’s a quick, funny story from last week.

I was traveling for work in Sioux Falls, SD. I got a call from Angela mid afternoon. I was a little surprised to hear from her at this time of the day. We had just talked the night before and again earlier that morning about my return home and my eta for later that day. When I answered, I asked how things were going. I was hoping for a shopping list upon my way home or something trivial like that, but these were the words that came from my wife’s mouth: “When you get home, you need to have a talk with your son.”

The first thought that came to my mind was, “He’s not even two, what and the hell could he have done.” I expected to get this call when he’s 12 because “he stole his mother’s keys and accidentally drove the van through the garage door” or “I got a call from the school today…your son has been kissing girls and this is his last warning before they suspend him”…or just something to that nature.

What in the hell could he have done at such an early age to justify this phone call? So I took the hook my bride was dangling in front of me…”OK Honey, what did he do now?”

“Your son had a temper tantrum at nap time. He clearly didn’t think he was ready to lie down. He started beating on the wall next to his crib with his hands or fists so much that he knocked the “A” off the wall and in to his bed. (All of the kids have painted wooden letters spelling their names on the wall above their beds.) “He took the letter and started beating the wall like he was beating a red headed step child and now there are holes and dents in the sheetrock next to his bed. He is SOOO your son. I just want to prepare you now so that you don’t lose your mind when you get home.”

I was hoping that Angela just blew things a little out of proportion and was just overreacting a little. I was busy with work the rest of the day and really didn’t think anymore about it and I forgot all about it during my return drive home of four and a half hours.

Sure enough, I got home and Meredith told me all about it. That little S— really did beat the hell out of the wall. I couldn’t get mad, but I’m sure I’ll be grumpy when I get around to fixing it. I’m sure it won’t be the last time a hole shows up in the wall.

My next story will be about Alex in (and out of) his crib at nap time later that week.

Until then…

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!!!

It’s been a long while since I’ve written. I have some catching up to do. My first (very long) story takes us back to the first week of April. Angela and I got our first vacation away from the kids. We traveled to Las Vegas to meet up with the rest of my family for a very important event; the wedding of my brother Eric to his bride Jessica.

Eric and Jessica planned their wedding more than a year in advance so we’ve been looking forward to this trip for a very long time: just me and Ang with no kids. It still feels good thinking back to it and writing about it. I love my kids so much, but as all of you parent out there know, mommies and daddies need mommy and daddy time once in a while.

On March 31st after the kids finished their dinner, Angela and I packed up the BAV with all of the kids, the dog, the kids’ bags and toys, and our bags. We hopped on the highway and headed south to Tama, Iowa to Angela parents’ home. We arrived late in the night and took the kids straight to their pack and plays the spare room (the scene where of our infamous holiday lasagna vomit story). Over the course of the next day and a half, we helped get the kids acclimated to grandma and grandpa’s house. Grandma is the real hero of this story. Without her commitment to take on the kids, we wouldn’t have been able to make the trip. Thank you again so much Becky!!!

On Sunday, April 3 we drove to Des Moines to hop on our flight Vegas. Ironically, we had a layover in Minneapolis. We arrived late in the evening in Vegas. The travel to Las Vegas was pretty uneventful, which is just the way it should be. Angela and I stayed at Aria, at City Center. Aria may not sound familiar to you if you haven’t been to Vegas recently. It’s a new hotel/casino on The Strip about half way between the Bellagio and New York, New York. Our first experience at the hotel was kind of rough in that the signage to help us find the front desk/registration area was non-existent. So after a long day of traveling and a long walk through the bowels of the hotel, we finally made it to our room. Everything else at Aria was fantastic. When we finally arrived to our room, the second the door opened the lights and TV turned on and the curtains automatically opened for us to see the scenery. You could control everything in the room from the temperature, to the light, wake up call, curtains, check out, dinner and theater reservations, etc. We couldn’t see The Strip from our room, but we had a fabulous view of the mountains to the west of the city. It was very nice.

Monday, April 4th was my birthday. We did a lot of the traditional sightseeing and walking around The Strip. We didn’t do a ton of playing; just lots of photos. It was a quiet day, all things considered. We eventually met up with some of my family who had arrived in the afternoon. Monday night was the NCAA Championship Basketball Game so I spent the night in the sports book losing ALL of my birthday money on that damn game. I am NOT a sports gambler, but I like to think that I know a little bit about what’s going on. Clearly I don’t. I saw some guy in the sports book wearing nothing but his robe and he swore that they were printing and giving money away. Maybe I should have listened to him because I lost every damn bet I placed that night. Oh well. I knew we were gonna be in town for a few more days and had prepared myself that I might lose some money while we were there so I got over it pretty quickly.

Tuesday was a big day for us. We were very excited and had done a lot of planning for this day. Angela really wanted to relive her childhood and do some horseback riding in Red Rock Canyon. She went to camp as a child and took care of horses there and often comments about how she would love to go riding again. She did a bunch of research leading up to the trip. She bought books and spent countless hours on-line looking stuff up. Red Rock Canyon is a beautiful state park area just a few minutes west of Vegas. We rented a car and it only took us 15-20 minutes to get out there. Angela had picked out some place where you could pay a fee and have a guided tour by horseback of the area. Let me be clear, I was never excited about this portion of the day’s plans, but Angela wanted to do it. We paid our money and went to the barn area, where they had us sign a thousand documents promising that we wouldn’t sue them for all of the things that could go wrong on a horse, including death. They brought out the horses in a line and we used a step ladder to mount the horse…yeah, a step ladder. I’ve only been on a horse once in my life and I thought the ladder seemed hokey, but I went along with it and kept my mouth shut. They had this nice guy names Juan help us get oriented and go over the rules. He was (or at least appeared to be) a real cowboy. They he told us that Britney (I can’t remember what her name was, but it doesn’t matter) would be taking us on our tour today. Jill was a good looking 20 something, blonde hair, blue eyed gal from Blaine, Minnesota. Are you fricking kidding me? I came all this way to have a traditional tour of the canyon by horse back and I got a pretty girl from the city (not to mention the Minneapolis area) giving us the tour…typical. Our ride was nice and pleasant. Angela describes the tour with a disgusted tone as a “mosey.” It was what I expected and clearly less than what Angela was looking for. I’m still not sure why she thought she’d get to gallop and run through the desert on a rented horse when they had a petting zoo out in front of the place. They had a fake shoot out at the “saloon” three times a week. I wasn’t surprised and it was basically what I expected. In traditional Angela style, the end of our mosey couldn’t have happened any other way. Instead of the ladder that we used to mount our steeds, they asked us to dismount the horse. No big deal, right? Angela was the first in our line so she went first. In typical fashion, she fell. She swung her right roof over the horse and as she tried to plant it on the ground, her left foot got stuck in the stirrup. She lost her balance and landed on her ass under the horse. It could have been serious if the horse moved and stepped on her, but it didn’t. Everything was fine except for Angela’s broken pride and all four of her finely manicured finger nails on her right hand. After a few tears, we decided to make our way to Red Rock Canyon where I wanted to do some hiking. We spent several hours in the canyon. It was absolutely beautiful.

You’ve gotta see a show in Vegas when you’re there and we saw two. Both were Cirque du Soleil shows. The first one we saw was Zumanity. We went with my brother Robert and his wife Gwen. Zumanity is a mommy and daddy show. What I mean by that is: anything and everything naughty was in this show. There was nudity, music, dancing, jokes, singing, more nudity, swimming, and two nearly naked fat chicks. I thought it was a great show and Robert agreed. However, the other that we saw was the main attraction: “O” at the Bellagio. “O” is a typical Cirq show in that there’s tons of music and dancing, but “O” is water based. The stage completely submerges in to a tank of water so that the characters can appear to walk on water. There was a ton of trapeze and diving. There is no way possible for me to describe it in words. It was just fantastic! I could write an entire post just on that show. Angela LOVES the theater and has a minor in theater from college. She was blown away by this show. If you go to Vegas and you want to see a show, pay the extra few bucks and go see “O.” Awesome.

On Wednesday, we got in a couple rental cars with Robert, Gwen, my mom, dad, grandma, and grandpa and headed east to the Hoover Dam. It was really good to see it and I’m glad we went. I think it’s good to see a little history once in a while and get some perspective. All of the sudden, my “hard” days at work aren’t so tough. Again, I think this is a must see if you’ve never been to Vegas.

Thursday was the big day. The Wedding. Jess looked great and everything went smooth. We hopped in the cars again and drove to the chapel. They had a very short and sweet service. We were there for about 45 minutes. The service itself was was short and to the point, but all the important stuff was said. We’re so happy for them. After the service, we went back to our hotels, changed clothes and got together again for lunch. We spent the rest of the day and night touring The Strip on foot with beverages in hand. A spent a little shopping, playing the tables, eating and drinking. Brad and I did well at roulette, but he did much better after Angela and I left town. He learned the hard way how to play and get a free drink. We sat down at a roulette table the first time and ordered a beer. While we waited for the waitress to return, he lost about $100. Later that night, we did the same thing, but we sat down at a blackjack table and I think he lost another hundred waiting for that beer. We had a great time and it was a great day. You can see more photos by clicking here.

Friday was end of our trip. We went to the airport after sleeping in and getting a nice breakfast. Our return flight wasn’t quite as uneventful as our trip out to Vegas. We had a layover in Denver on our return and there was some turbulence on the way to Denver. I don’t fly a ton, but I take 3-4 flights a year for work so I feel confident saying that I’m a relatively experienced traveler. However, I’ll remember this flight for a very long time. It was turbulent. Angela was clearly scared, but at some point she started to lose it. At one point, the pilot came on the intercom and announced that the flight attendants would no longer be about the cabin. It was unsafe. He recommended that we take care of one another. Angela started to panic and then the plane jumped. She about tore my arm off. Many people in the cabin gasped and that continued for the remainder of the trip in to Denver. It felt like forever. I wasn’t scared, but they definitely had my attention. I decided that I would worry if the masks fell out of the ceiling. A lady one row in front of me on the opposite isle threw up in a puke bag. Angela was so “out of her mind” scared, she didn’t even notice. It was the first time ever that I’ve seen her truly scared for her life. Really. I was a little fearful that once we arrived in Denver, I was going to have a tough time getting her back on a plane for the rest of the trip home. Needless to say, we grabbed a bite to eat, I had a drink, and we regrouped and boarded our flight to Des Moines. A few hours later we pulled in the driveway back at Angela’s parents’ home.

The kids were very excited to see us and drove back home on Saturday night. Overall, I won enough at roulette and slots to pay for Angela’s losses and most of our meals so I’m pretty happy. Again, thank you Becky for watching the kids! Congrats to Eric and Jessica! Welcome to the family, Jess! You can see more photos from our trip by clicking here.

Until next time.