MN car trip 2012 pt.. 3?

From Lessingers we went on to Clarks so that T had someone to socialize with.

Actually, we all had lots of fun at Clarks, but most of the pics I took inside can be summed up as "blurry three and five year old". So you'll get pics of our day out in Stillwater instead.

MN car trip 2012- Pics from Jen

As I said, Jen was kind enough to take some pics for us. I'm not linking the actual pics, but if you click you'll get Jen's site to get ahold of her if you'd like them!Email jen@jenlessingerphotography.com. We put Jen under some tight time/childcare/physical constraints, but I still love these. If you want to see previous sessions, click here.







That last shot is an ode to this, and I'm so happy to have one for each!:

MN car trip 2012 pt 1

Yes, we did it- one car, two kids, about 2000 miles (total). For my own recordkeeping, we left at 5 AM on Sept. 16, the day after our trip to Washington. I packed the car while everyone else was at our neighborhood block party. I reallly wasn't ready to hit an airport after two days of flying already that week. I'd stink at Ray's job, apparently.

Anyway...

An artistic view of driving into Nebraska. For some reason we had no 3G service until we left Nebraska, which is when our families saw this pic.


Fun at the rest stop. Not sure why we thought the poles were SO fun, but I think 200-odd miles had something to do with it.

Survival - just before the kid starts to whine, suggest a show.

Eamon learned to climb trees at a rest stop in Iowa.

Ok, not really, but that pair of pics cracks me up. We did have a good long stop to play frisbee and make E run in circles. Ray had the genius idea of bringing a cooler of food, and being able to grab food we wanted whenever really did make the stops more relaxed. E was a trooper in the car, and T did well - but had a 240 mile limit that was amazingly predictable. Case in point, on the way back Ray was putting T in the carseat and told him he had to wait until the west side of Lincoln for his next stop. I was driving and realized eastern Lincoln would be 240 miles, western lincoln would be more like 280. Guess where we should have stopped? Guess which town had a lot of construction and  closed exits...

Anyway, first actual stop: Lessingers.

These two get along so well. I also love how concerned T is about the situation.
However, T got in plenty of his own fun and relaxation.



Perhaps too much relaxation?


Ray and the twins played a lot of games of "melting", which was basically hide and seek for stuffed animals. I tried to get decent pics of the game, but three active 3yo= blurry. I did get these, though, and they don't show the game but I love them:
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Speaking of pics I love- Jen was kind enough to take a few pics while we were there. Next post!

Happy Thanksgiving 2012

Happy xylophone turkey day.


We have a lot to be thankful for around here.


We wish we could spend the day with all of you, and hope that you are enjoying your blessings as well.

Washington- First Plane Trip

Waiting for the plane.

First flight. Looked like this the whole time.

Entertaining himself waaaay too late at night in Spokane airport.

Enjoying his first hotel stay at Benny's Colville Inn, in Colville, WA..

Cousins and grandma.

Second and third plane flights on the way home.

Probably the only time E has ever been asleep coming off of the plane.

Our trip to Washington was for a sad reason - we lost Ray's grandmother, an amazing woman who really enjoyed life. I am glad, though, that we got all of Ray's family in one place and they got to see the boys, and the boys got to meet their new cousin a week earlier than planned - since the planned meeting was cancelled due to illness. It was a beautiful send off and a good honor to a life well lived. In a week to be thankful, I am thankful for the time we got.

Swinger

What is this? It's a little big.

Ohhh!

Fun?

Oh.. that was... wierd!

Yes, it's a little big, but he's having fun! For the record, E is the blur on the tire swing in the background. Ray's back there in the first shot as well. He was behind my left shoulder for the last shot, hence the drunken looking baby - he is smiling at Dad.

Four months

T was four months old yesterday.

Yup, buddy, four months!

He's pretty awesome. He's such a mellow kid still, and smiley. He has slept through the night a few nights since early September, although he has yet to get fully into that groove. He likes his peeps and is just a little bit more happy when Dad is home and he has everyone he is supposed to. He is doing well at daycare and he and I are in a production/consumption race, unlike his bottle-strike brother. No real interest in food yet, but he loves to sit with everyone at the dinner table.

Although sit is a loose term.



That outfit? E wore it when he was about 11 months old...we'll get the official info next week, but our back-room measurements put T at 16.4 pounds and 26 inches. Or... way ahead of his brother. He is his own man....

Click for more big blue chair.

Edited to add: apparently T started rolling from his back to belly last week at daycare. He has done it for me when he wasn't completely flat, so I didn't count it. Punk.
Further edited to add (11-30): Still regarding that as a fluke, since I still haven't seen it three weeks later.
Still further edited to add: At his doctor's appointment on 11-26, T weighed in at 15 lb 12.5 oz, and measured 27". Around 50th percentile for weight and off the scale for height. Well, he's 75th percentile for height - for a six month old. Looooong.

Iphoneography August

There was a lot more going on in August, but here are a few quick looks at what hadn't made the blog yet.

E's favorite new form of interval training:

It's a long slow walk around the lake this way, and a long fast walk if I push the stroller and E is free to run.


I thought this was the cutest gift from Ray's work. Already featured it on T here.

And: I finally managed to drag Ray to a baseball game so I could get a good hot dog (not so much on the beer, Coors field has become very disappointing in their selection). T's first baseball game:

E LOVED the game and was actually pretty focused on it, although his favorite part was probably Dinger. We celebrated the Rockies' win over the Marlins at Breckenridge Brewery. E went for his new favorite menu item (the kids' menu is for coloring!)

Denver Children's Museum

One of my missions while we were all on leave was to visit as many of the "sights" that we've been missing as we could. After all, we were free on weekdays, when everything is so much quieter -and it is, it was great! Anyway, one of the highlights for E was the Children's Museum in August.

Their big feature this summer was a water exhibit, which of course gained my attention. It was fun, and E would have liked to do more, actually...

E really liked this, which was just PVC that you could move around to make the water flow down different ramps. Obviously Ray was entertained as well. We should probably just build one...

E would also like to have this fishing game in his house.

He was impressively good at it, and VERY persistent. (E, that is, although I just realized that Ray has both rods in this pic).

Speaking of persistent, E would wait for FOREVER to catch one of these bubbles.

Success! Look at those determined little shoulders.

This was the highlight for the adults:


T and I had to stay out of the soap filled slippery room, so we have to go back for our turn. Soon.

I would never have thought the pretend grocery store would be such a hit, but here you go:

Cracker and dairy shopper extraordinaire. Carbs and dairy, just like his mama.

And then there was the woodland playground. I had to take E through the intimidating tunnels the first time, and then this rabbit came out and dragged Ray through.


There was even fun to be had outside after the museum closed.



(Hopscotch, the chalkboard cow. Ray's signature duck on her shoulder.)

Follow that up with dinner at the alehouse (probably my first whole beer in a LONG time) and it was a pretty awesome day for all of us!