Playing Catch-up

Ok, I know I have been pretty bad about keeping up with the blog lately, so consider this a catch-up posting. We have been pretty busy between our trips to London and Disney World and the holidays. Here are a few pictures from the last few months...

We'll start with a few shots from London...

Bryan in front of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.

Stonehenge

Leeds Castle

And now on to Disney World...

Nate getting his hair cut (and styled!) at the barber shop in the Magic Kingdom. Sam also got a haircut, but was in no mood for a picture!

This is at Disney's Wilderness Lodge where we had dinner one night.

We had breakfast at the Animal Kingdom Park and got a picture with Goofy while we were there. Mickey, Donald, and Daisy also stopped by.

Nate playing on Tom Sawyer island.

We had a really great time on our trips and got to see so many things. We were all very tired when we got home, but it was worth it. Now we can start planning our next trip...yippeee!

Color the Skies

We recently had the 2nd annual Color the Skies hot air balloon festival here in town. Lucky for us, they hold it at the park just a few blocks from our house. Last year we didn't wake up early enough to see it and only caught the last few balloons that went right over our house (although that was pretty cool too!). This year, we all got up bright and early and headed over to see the balloons lift off and to see... Bryan run in his first 5k race! The whole event was really great. They had several activities for the kids (train rides, petting zoo, bounce houses, mini balloon rides, etc.). Nate and Sam were extremely impressed with the huge balloons lifting into the sky. Nate is already asking when we can get up early and go see the balloons again.

Last weekend we drove down to Santa Cruz with Papa and Nana Lee and spent one night there to let the kids spend a little time at the beach. It turned out to be a really little time. Let's just say Sam wasn't really into the beach (too wet and sandy). Nate started strong. He played tug-of-war with a pile of kelp, chased sea gulls, and played chicken with the waves. Unfortunately, it didn't take long before the waves were victorious and Nate was done with the beach (see pictures below). We also went to the Mystery Spot or "sideways house" as Nate called it. All in all it was a fun little trip.

Bryan and I are gearing up for our English adventure in a few weeks. For those of you that didn't know, he and I will be going to London for a week in October. We will get to take a few small day trips to see places like Stonehenge and Canterbury. We are really excited. I'll post trip pictures when we return.

At Color the Skies.

Mystery Spot

Where the beach fun ended.

August Update

I just wanted to post a few new pictures of the kids. We got to go on a trip to Tahoe for a few days at the end of July, so there are a few pictures of that. We really enjoyed our time there, and the kids loved the being able to get as dirty as they wanted (and they took full advantage!).

Riding up the gondola at Heavenly ski resort. That's Lake Tahoe behind us.

Nate and Nana at the first stop the gondola makes on the mountain.

Family Picture Time!!

Nate, Sam, and their cousin Matthew in Tahoe.

Don't these kids have any clothes to wear?!?

Emergency!!!

We have officially survived our first visit to the ER with one of the kids. Thankfully, no one was injured or seriously ill. It was more of a precautionary visit for Sam, who decided he wanted to sample some of the fungal delights in our front lawn. Yes, he ate a mushroom that was growing in our yard. I noticed he had something in his mouth, so I directed him to spit it out. When he opened up, I saw something brown which I assumed was a piece of bark (one of his other favorites!). When I started pulling it out I realized what it was and started yelling for Bryan. We tried to look up the mushrooms online, but it's amazing how many varieties there are and how similar they all look. I saw one that resembled ours and it was labeled "poisonous, especially to small children." I immediately got on the phone with poison control, who recommended we take him to the ER, just in case.

Luckily, we only waited a relatively short time at the ER (45 min.) before they brought us in. They gave Sam, who was acting completely normal, a cup of what can best be described as a charcoal smoothie. It was this thick, black drink that they wanted him to get to work on. He actually took several good drinks of it before deciding he had had enough. We spent the next hour and a half trying everything we could think of to get him to drink more, with little success. Meanwhile, he still is acting like he feels completely fine other than being up way past his bedtime. I did wonder for a few moments whether he was hallucinating because for a while he kept licking the wall and laughing hysterically afterward. I'll just blame it on being up too late. Finally, the doctor let us go with instructions to return if there were any problems. (which there weren't). Needless to say, we were all very happy to get home and get to bed after that ordeal.

In Nate news, he finished his "starfish" swim lessons this week. Does he know how to swim? No, but he will put his face in the water if forced to now. He had a lot of fun, and he is much more comfortable in the water than he was before so we did accomplish something. He has also been going to preschool 2 mornings a week. Except for a few days when he didn't want to stay, he has done really well. He loves his teacher (Miss Elia) and he looks like such a big boy walking into school with his lunch bag. The only thing he doesn't like is walking to the library on Tuesday for story time. He thinks it's too far, and he says he cries at the library because he misses his Mommy when he sees the other Moms there with their kids. Ahhh! He's such a sweetheart. I don't know how we lucked out with these two wonderful boys.

As always, here are a few pictures...

Just home from the ER, notice the charcoal stains on the shirt.

Guess who else in our house is learning to climb?

Waiting for swim lessons to start.

Waiting my turn...

"At least they're not making me get in the water this time!"

What Happened to Our Baby?

Well, this post is coming a little late, but our Sammy is now ONE! The birthday celebration was pretty uneventful. Unfortunately, Nate and Sam weren't blessed with a Mom that is into party planning for the toddler set. We spent the actual day of Sam's birthday at Papa and Nana's house shearing alpacas. He did get a cake and attempted to blow out his candle, with some help from his big brother. It is hard to believe that it has been a year since we first met Sam. We have had so much fun with him during this first year, we can't wait to see what he has in store for us this year. He is just on the verge of walking right now, but he still prefers crawling. His favorite pasttime is following Nate around, and laughing at everything he does.

In the barn with Nate and Papa on shearing day

"You want me to do what to the candle?"

Sam showing off the new "wheels" he got for his birthday (so far Nate has logged the most miles!).

We were reminded of the fact that we no longer have a "baby" when we met the newest addition to our family. We were all very excited to meet Nate and Sam's first cousin when Ben and Tori's new baby, Matthew, was born on April 10. It was so wonderful to see his sweet little face, but it made us realize how big Sam's face looked in comparison! I have a feeling that both of our boys have great things in store for all of us, so we will just have to stay tuned!

Uncle Ben, Matthew, Nate, Papa, and Sam get together for a shot of the boys. How did Daddy avoid getting into this one?

A Happy Birthday at the Happiest Place on Earth!

I can't believe it, but Nate celebrated his 3rd birthday this week. It is amazing to see him turning into such a "big boy." What made this birthday extra special is that it was during our trip to Disneyland. We had a special birthday breakfast at Chip 'n Dale's Critter Breakfast at the Grand Californian Hotel. They brought Nate his own little cake and sang him a birthday song. At Disneyland, he was given a birthday button to wear on his shirt (which he wouldn't keep on) and got a happy birthday phone call from Goofy. Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Bob came to Disneyland with us to join in the fun. We had so much fun on our trip. I was worried about the drive down south, but it went fairly well. We had our fair share of complaints about being in the car for too long, but everyone survived. Nate had a ball staying in the hotel, particularly going up and down the elevator. He would talk to everyone in the elevator about what floor they were staying on, and then would inform them that we were staying on the 8th floor. Sam enjoyed exploring the hotel room, especially emptying out the garbage cans and unplugging the lamps and alarm clock. It is so special to be able to take your kids to Disneyland. It gives you a renewed appreciation for all the kid rides. Nate's favorites were the Astro Orbiter rockets (5 times), Autopia (3 times), the Teacups (2 times), and the Nemo submarine (just once, long lines). I don't know that Sam actually enjoyed any of the rides. He cried on many of them, and even when he didn't cry I think he was pretty relieved when they were finished. Neither of the kids are very excited yet about meeting the characters, with the exception of Nate seeing Pluto. For some reason, Pluto is the only one Nate seems to want to have much to do with. Anyhoo... our trip was great, but tiring. I think we were all ready to get back home. Here are some pictures of all the fun we had...

Happy Easter!

This was our first Easter as a family of four. This, of course, meant that it was much more difficult than last year to get a decent picture in Easter clothes (as you will see below). We had a pretty low-key holiday. We went to church in the morning, and then to Papa and Nana's house for lunch and egg hunting. After seeing his Easter basket, and hunting for Easter eggs (3 times), Nate has decided that he "loves Easter!"