Ski Train!

We heard about the ski train shortly after we first moved up here. It is an all day event run by the Nordic Skiing Association up here that charters a trip up to Curry, AK via the Alaskan Railways once a year. We had been through Curry once before when we did the Hurricane Train trip - it's a ghost town a little bit north of Talkeetna. There's not much there, but that also means it has a ton of undisturbed snow. And luckily for us, there was even new snow on the ground - woo!

Last year was the first year in a long time that a group of people from work didn't go on the train. Luckily for us, it picked back up again this year! And it was spearheaded by the most enthusiastic person I know. She (and others I'm sure, but the emails were from her) picked a theme, organized food sign-up and bought a huge vat of cheesy puffs for the train ride. 

There was a ton of orange in our section. We even had orange tablecloths! Heather (the planner) is the one standing to the left. But pretty much anyone in orange was with us. Unfortunately the train started boarding at 6 am (too early!), so the morning photos are all a bit dark, because it was still dark outside!

Luckily that meant I got to sign up to make breakfast food (my favorite!). I watched a video from a previous year's ski train and saw someone with a waffle on a plate. Well, if there is the option to make waffles on a train, I am going to take it! Haha - the smell of waffles cooking drew so much attention and we quickly became known as the Waffle car! Yay! Also note the whipped cream, maple syrup and sliced strawberries in the background - I didn't leave anything out. :)

A plate of waffle goodness! Funny story - there was a film crew on the train and one of the camera women thought it was amazing that we had waffles and wanted to film us making them. Sure - no big deal, we figured it would be a good promotion for the ski train next year.

Except it turns out the film crew wasn't from the skiing association. No, the film crew was from the Discovery Channel and they are doing a series on Life Across America (or something) and this segment was all about the Alaska Railroad. She said it was mostly for freight hauling, but the ski train was way more exciting! So my waffles might be on the Discovery Channel. That would be pretty awesome...!

The sun finally came up in time for us to see some gorgeous sunrises over the mountains around Wasilla. But honestly, my favorite part about this photo is Brittney's bobbly headband. Too cute!

But then, there was a flurry of excitement and people standing up to stare out the train windows! What could be getting everyone so aflutter??

Haha - it was moose! Several moose, actually. You would think we would get used to seeing them all the time, but it's still exciting to see them out and about. I had to turn this image B&W because several of us were wearing bright orange leis and the reflection from the train windows was pretty bad. But it makes it easier to see the moose!

Speaking of getting photos from the train. PJ told me that Denali would be just around the corner and he thought there might be places between the cars where I could get a better view. Well there weren't any open spots - which was probably a good thing since it was currently -16F. I did find a window without much glare, but it was covered in frost. So I used my hand to wipe away a big enough section of frost to get a photo through and saw.... trees. Lots and lots of trees. After repeating this for a few minutes I gave up and went back to our car.

Where I had apparently missed the Polka band's arrival. The party was going without me! Everyone was clapping and dancing along!

Matt was even getting into the groove with his improvised cheesy puff drum. (Also notice the nice glare on the window...)

Heather was jamming along in her nicely color coordinated maraca! 

PJ apologized for sending me for photos of Denali too early and made up for it by managing to alert me the next time it was visible. Denali always looks so impressive in person and less so in photos. It's just hard to capture the sheer awesomeness of first seeing it when you get a break in the trees. Trust me, it's breath-taking!

We finally arrive in Curry after the slight scary safety briefing (Watch out for frostbite on each other's noses! Don't be left behind!) and geared up for a short trek away from the train. We supposedly had to leave the train for long enough for it to turn around, so at minimum we would be out and about for 45 minutes. In the end, the train didn't leave and we were gone for much longer because we had so much fun!

A few people in our group were cross country skiing, but the seven of us that headed out together were all snowshoeing. Matt, Brittney and I were novices and rented snowshoes at REI the day before. So after getting some help putting them on, we headed up the hill!

We made much faster progress than I was expecting and it wasn't nearly as challenging as I was worried it was going to be. Wearing the snowshoes affects your stride a little bit because they are so big, but you catch on pretty quick to not step on the other snow shoe (I fell quite a few times doing just that) and they really do a great job of keeping you from sinking in too much. 

Matt and I both had this idea that you would be floating on the snow as you walked, but that wasn't quite the case. If you were blazing the trail, you were definitely sinking in. If you were the fourth or so person in line, you had pretty easy going. But blazing the trail was actually pretty fun, you feel like a pioneer!

We paused to stop and enjoy the scenery and stay hydrated. Plus Heather and I* both kept pulling out our cameras for photos. Something about it didn't happen if there aren't photos for proof? Luckily everyone was a good sport about all of the photos. Tiffany and Alex don't look like they mind smiling, do they?? Plus they are pretty much adorable!

*Brittney brought her camera as well, but we got worried about how fast the batteries would die, so she put her battery inside her coat to keep it warm. We luckily can share batteries, so we figured that way we would have pictures throughout the day!

PJ was by far the most excited to be outside! Whenever we would stop, he would run up or down the nearest hill just because. It was pretty funny trying to keep tabs on him. Plus he was all in black, so he looked like a snowshoeing ninja - ha!

Brittney, Tiffany and Heather walking up the hill. I power walked up the hill to get far enough ahead of them to get photos. Don't they all look so colorful?? There were several tracks up the hill - the widest and flattest was the one that the cross country skiers were using. It was much easier to walk up, but we were super aware of when a skier was coming and would let them pass us. They definitely got up the hill much faster than we did!

I am so not colorful... I look like one of the guys - all of the other females I saw were in some sort of bright color. Pffft! Ironically, I have to thank my parents for keeping me warm. My gloves got lost a week or so ago and my back-up pair was missing a glove! I was in a panic last night of what to wear. Then I happened to go in our guest room closet and find the stash of cold weather gear that my mom keeps here. Which includes a really good pair of gloves! I figured she wasn't using them, so I borrowed them and my dad's ear flap hat I bought him last year. It didn't end up being cold enough to need his hat, but I figured he would appreciate the photo - and I definitely needed the gloves. Thanks mom and dad!

When we all started getting hungry, we deviated off the beaten path and found a nice spot to eat lunch. The train looked so far away - what a sense of accomplishment! It was an amazingly nice day and it didn't feel anywhere near as cold as it was. Until we stopped moving to eat lunch... Our drinks froze into slush as soon as we opened them and we all got pretty chilly after sitting for a few minutes. So we got back to trailblazing pretty quick!

The best part of being out in untouched snow? The chance to make snow angels! It was a little challenging with snowshoes on, but Heather and I gave it our best attempt!

I kinda destroyed the base of my angel trying to get up... It's really hard to stand back up when your feet are an extra foot or so longer. But look at how awesome the wings look! I was so proud of them! And you can kinda tell how deep my back went in when I fell backwards. I went a little bit further than I expected, but the snow was so soft and cozy!

Brittney was the first one back to train level and she was pretty proud of herself! She didn't fall once, so she deserved to be proud of herself. I think I fell more than enough for the two of us. I kept looking around instead of where I was going. But can you blame me, it was a beautiful day in the Alaskan woods!

See? There's the train! It's pretty hard to miss. Going off trail meant a little more negotiating of hills and such, but it was actually pretty easy to navigate down with all the fluffy snow. :)

The clearing we came down had some pretty large piles of snow on the side that opened up perfectly to a view of the engine. We, of course, all had to take photos in front of it (because otherwise it didn't happen - ha!).

Brittney in her "I did it!" pose. Duncan was originally supposed to be on the ski train with us, but thanks to well schedules, he had to be in town for the drilling activities. There was definitely no cell service in Curry and that's not really a good thing when you are on call. Luckily that same well hasn't hit the section that needs a geologist or I would have missed it too. Sorry Duncan - next year! And Heather and I would like to reassure you that we kept our promise to make sure Brittney had a blast (and didn't get hurt)!

See? PJ, the Snowshoeing Ninja! But what is he crafting out of snow with his ninja-abilities??

He made a snow heart! Awwww!!!! Aren't these two are the cutest couple ever? (They are!)

The train patiently waiting for everyone to be done having fun for the day. I just love the bright colors the railroad uses. It stands out so well against the snow. Although honestly, it looks good in the autumn colors as well. It's just a good color combination!

I should have gotten a photo on arrival when all of the gear was lined up on the ground - it was impressive how many skis and snowshoes there were. Even more impressive is that this whole thing is all run by volunteers - a huge thanks to all of them! 

Everyone was playing around on the hill next to the train to kill time. And this guy in a dinosaur head made out of duct tape walked by right when we were getting photos of Heather and PJ up on the hill. He was my favorite of the crazy outfits. :)

Although buffalo/hot dog guy was a close second...

Look how graceful PJ looks sliding down the hill - like a swan! Haha - looks are super deceiving in this case, he has the right form, but kept getting stuck every few feet on the snow pile building up in front of him. The people on sleds were much more successful...

Heather tried going down on her butt to see if that was any better. You can see how far she made it... ;)

Back on the train to Anchorage. Part of the safety briefing was a worst case scenario - if you get left out here, do not try to ski out. They left two large duffels full of emergency gear to help you survive the night and someone would come get you the next day. Yikes! But awesome that they left the gear. As far as I know, everyone made it...!

Best part of the ride home was all of the delicious food people had made. There were crock pots cooking all day and all kinds of sides and desserts that people brought along. Don't these three look super colorful? We all gorged ourselves on food after working up big appetites all day. 

Of course I signed up to bring dessert as well. It was actually the birthday of someone in the Cheesy Puffs group, so I made him the most chocolatey cupcakes I could. He loved them - and everyone was pretty impressed with the adorable dinosaurs on top. I have gotten more use out of that chocolate dinosaur mold than I thought I would. (They were a little wet because they were cold - no one seemed to mind.)

Everyone was super stuffed by the time I brought the cupcakes out, but I managed to convince Ted to try one since it as his birthday. Most people were trying to get rid of food at this point in the train ride. I, on the other hand, told people I didn't care if they took them because I would happily take the rest home and eat them. Yet somehow, I only came home with two... Guess they looked too good to resist. ;)

All-in-all it was a great trip and I am so glad we were able to go (a huge thanks to both of the babysitters for the boys, a teacher from school and their Aunt Heather - it wouldn't have been possible without you two!). It was the first time this winter that I've really been able to go out and do something that felt Alaskan, so it was extra awesome in my case. Glad I didn't have to go all winter without so snow play time. (Goodness knows there is no snow in Anchorage for the foreseeable future!) Looking forward to doing it again next year!

Bouncing Birthday

The daycare was closed today for teacher inservice, which meant that most of the parents had to take a vacation day or work out some other arrangement with work. It also meant that all of the kiddos were free for a birthday party and one set of parents took advantage of this. When else can you throw a party on a weekday and get most of your son's friends?

The birthday boy was actually one of Thomas' good friends at school. With the recent classroom moves, they haven't been in the same class which was a huge bummer to the boys and to the parents. They see each other at outdoor playtime, but it's not the same as all day play time. 

And since the daycare is closed, Henry also got to come along to the party. Luckily he had a friend there as well - one of his classmates is the sister of one of Thomas' class mates. So many friendships and siblings to keep track of! I have most of the kids figured out, but I have no clue on most of the parent's names... 

But back to the party! They had the party at Bouncing Bears which is chock full of inflatable pieces they kids can bounce, climb and slide on. Unfortunately, it was also spring break, so the place was packed! My kids were super overwhelmed when we first got there. I found a little slide in the midst of the chaos that I thought Henry would like to hold on to and let them chill there to warm up to the excitement. 

As you can tell from the photos, they both were a bit in shock. After 10 minutes or so, Thomas finally slid down the slides. Then he finally started seeing his friends running by and having fun, so he got on a few of the slides and such. He was really getting into the swing of things, but Henry was stuck with his momma. There weren't really any small things for him to play with that weren't swamped with kids, so I made him chill out with me. Poor guy gets no fun!

Then it was cake time! Thomas was super jealous of the cake - he loves Cars! Obviously the birthday boy does as well, as soon as he finally got all three candles out, he grabbed Lightning McQueen off of the cake. Personally, I'm a Mater fan, but to each their own!

Henry was super worried he wasn't going to get any cake because he was cruising around the table instead of sitting at it. Don't worry, I shared some of mine with him. His brother certainly wasn't going to be sharing! ;)

After cake time, most of the classmates headed home, but we ended up staying to hang out with Thomas' best friend (one of two I think...). He was so wired on cake and frosting that he was all over the place. He did have a small incident in the first half when he got brave and tried to go down the biggest slide in the place, but apparently got scared. I finally noticed the pile-up of kids trying to climb the slide and saw a toddler near the top trying to work his way down. After retrieving him, he steered clear of the big slide and even got all panicked when he thought his buddy was trying to climb up it. But other than that, he had a blast! 

Henry had a ton of fun after the party as well because he found a plastic bottle to play with. He had so much fun with that thing - remind me why we buy them toys...? All in all a great time was had by both boys and I am sure we'll be frequenting Bouncing Bears once Henry is a little bit older and steadier.

Pinkalicious!!

Way before I had kids, I had friends who had kids and I loved all of these kids. My friend Sonja, had three kids who I adored and I think adored me back because they bought me the book Pinkalicious because they all thought I would love it. And I did, because it's a book about a girl who makes pink cupcakes with her mom and then eats so many she turns pink! "I cried because I was so beautiful" is quite possibly my favorite line.

Thomas has read the book several times before, but has recently been on a Pinkalicious kick. He's even got big chunks of it memorized so that he can read along. What color do you want your cupcakes? "Pink! Pink, pink, pink!"

So I promised him we would make some pink cupcakes this weekend and he was pretty excited!

I'll admit that we used a box mix because I thought it would be easier and I wanted him to be able to help more than he usually does. So I measured out all of the ingredients and he poured them in for me. He was so happy to have such big tasks to do! And he was so careful not to spill.

He got excited when I pulled out the blender, but then got all worried when I told him he could turn it on. He usually covers his ears, so he wasn't sure how to turn it on *and* protect his hearing...!

Obviously it wasn't on that high. We just needed to puree the strawberries for the frosting. After he realized it wouldn't deafen him, he was pretty excited about the whirling red mess inside of it!

He even scraped out the strawberries that were sticking to the side. And a side note - I shot all of these photos with the new 20mm lens. This sort of shot were I am holding the camera and shooting close enough in to see my hand and still get all of Thomas would have been impossible with my 35mm. Also note that my new Fitbit is huge on my tiny wrist! Good thing it's totally a thing that everyone is wearing them these days...

Pink cupcakes are done in the oven and waiting for their frosting. My sister gave me the Frosting cookbook and I thought we would try the strawberry one since it was already pink and we had put enough food dye in the cupcakes... "/

Thomas was on powdered sugar duty and did such a good job. I think he made less of a mess than I usually do... (Sorry I make such a mess, Matt!)

Henry got tired of watching from his high chair, so I let him roam free. Which of course means he wanted to be right in the action. Such a cute little guy, huh?? 

And since he helped with so much of the work, Thomas got his first introduction to the best part of baking...

Licking the beater!!! We used to fight over this one as kids - my dad usually won though. I obviously don't let him lick the batter (raw eggs are for adults only - ha!), but I figured the frosting was safe. Thomas did not mind this part of the day!

Then he helped me decorate them. I did get him to help me squeeze the icing on a few cupcakes, but obviously didn't get any photos. He was more interested in the sprinkles anyhow.

Though he only put them on two cupcakes... He was more excited to talk about the sprinkles, I think. But look at our awesome assortment of cupcake wrappers. I had so many patterns with just two or three left, so we used them all. We even have a skull and crossbones hiding in the back. 

After we were finished I tried to get a photo of him with the book and he decided he just wanted to read the book to me instead. I finally got him to pose with a cupcake and he sat there and told me over and over again that he wasn't going to put the cupcake on the book. He was really concerned I wanted him to ruin it I guess. It's my book kiddo, I won't let you destroy it. 

(I say that, but it does need a page repaired at the moment. Someone was too vigorous with their page turning the other night..."/)

After dinner we dug in to the cupcakes. Henry ate all of the frosting off his half-cupcake and threw the cupcake on the floor. I honestly don't blame him. The frosting was the most amazing frosting I have had in a while and the cupcake was just kinda "ok" in comparison. I just want to be alone with a spoon and the rest of that frosting. Alone because otherwise two boys would be trying to steal it. I know this because Thomas was leaning over and scraping the leftover frosting from Henry's tray with his spoon and eating it. Gross!

No wonder they *both* have a cold. 

It's not like we didn't give him a full cupcake. He devoured it and wanted more. And like in the book "You get what you get and you don't get upset" wasn't quite good enough for him. Haha - Natalie is in the background staring him down, apparently she didn't mind the box-mix cupcake and was hoping for another one to hit the ground.

Sonja, Joey, Eleanor & Ben - Thanks again for the lovely book you gave me years ago. I still love it and now my boys love it too. Natalie mostly just likes the cupcakes though... ;)

Fur Rondy!

After not doing anything exciting last weekend, I was determined to get out and do something fun with the kids this weekend. As soon as everyone was done eating breakfast, I was packing up coats, boots and snacks - then I finally got around to telling Matt we were going to Fur Rondy downtown. I was still waffling as of last night because if it was cold, the kids might get tired of it fast. But my neighbor randomly brought me a pass to another company's hospitality suite where we could warm up if they got cold. Perfect! 

Fur Rondy is a 10 day event, but part of it is the ceremonial start of the Iditarod Race. Which meant there were dogs everywhere! Thomas was pretty excited about all of the dog teams. There was a slatted fence up around where most of them were getting ready, but it didn't really hamper the contagiousness of their excitement. :)

We ended up at the far back when we first got there. It was where the sleds were lining up and still pretty far back from the start line, but the dogs didn't care - they were just ready to get running! And given all the hoopla about measles cases this year, I think it was awesome that almost every lead dog was wearing an Immunize Alaska's Kids jacket. Please do, Alaska!

Thomas was excited too, though it's hard to tell from his expression... He mostly just wanted to watch the dogs and didn't really care if mommy wanted a photo of him and Dada. 

Henry was *not* excited. It was a few blocks from the parking lot to 4th Avenue, so we put Thomas in the stroller for speed's sake. Which meant I had to carry Henry. We haven't done that in a while and not in all of his winter clothing... He was not impressed. Matt had to clip the hood on the carrier up because Henry just kept dropping his head back in protest and Matt thought he looked super uncomfortable. 

Let's be honest, carrying a 27 pound irritated infant isn't exactly a picnic, but I'm smiling about it. Just enjoy it, Henry! ;)

We finally made it to the starting line! It's not the "real" start, it's just the ceremonial one, so they line up a team, introduce the team and then the team takes off. A minute or so later they repeat it with the next team - it really is more for show. The real start (restart as they call it) is usually in Willow, but due to the awful snow conditions this year, it was moved all the way to Fairbanks!

This is a pretty good demonstration of the "trail" conditions. The city piles up a 10' wide swath of snow along the city streets for the sleds to run on. Note the bare pavement to each side of the trail. I think this year they had to put snow down for the whole run to Campbell Creek Airstrip. I think most years, the snow is required for the streets (obviously the city keeps the streets plowed!), but not for the off-road parts. 

This is one of the teams running by. I don't know all that much about the Iditarod, but I read online that people "win" the chance to ride in one of the sleds for this part of it. And there is some requirements for who all has to be present for the start, so most teams had to have two sleds at the start. The dogs really didn't seem to care about number of people or trail conditions, they were just happy to run!

We finally found a place to watch without the fence. Thomas enjoyed the view much more without it!

The trail down 4th Avenue. It's really cool to see the Iditarod going down the city streets. It's got to be more fun than waiting for the finish in Nome. Apparently it can stretch for days when people arrive, I would get cold waiting that long! ;)

A bunch of people were using the parking garages for a better vantage point. Smart!

I brought all their cold weather clothing along and then felt silly when the thermometer in the car was telling us it was 45 degrees outside. But then we got out of the car and it was so windy! The wind chill was much colder than we expected. So I was pretty glad we had so many layers. Thomas is missing his glove here because kids apparently can't keep mittens on and he dropped it in a puddle. I was all trying to go under the rope and fetch it with Henry on my back - some good samaritan beat me to it! We told Thomas to pull his hand in his sleeve until we could dry it off a little. 

There were so many people that would get up next to the trail to take photos. I was all, are they going to get in trouble? Are they supposed to do that? Matt kept looking at me like I was crazy - who is going to stop them, honey?

So I did it too! I had the zoom lens, but I couldn't get any good shots without people walking in from of me. But next to the snow pack, it was a great vantage point! And the dogs have the most awesome expressions. Half the time they were acting so weird you couldn't even guess they were running!

The ones that you could tell were running had some serious tongue action. They have the longest tongues! 

And look at the "Iditarider" on this one - she looks so excited. Man, I would be so excited if I got to ride along. Where do I sign up??

After watching several teams run by, we decided to walk down to the carnival and let Thomas run around and ride some rides. He hasn't ridden many, so we decided to go on the easy truck ride first. There were several parents riding along, so Matt went with him.

He did so well that we went to the Helicopter ride next! He had to ride this one alone and we were a bit nervous he might freak out. He did great the first two revolutions, then the ride started moving the helicopters and planes up and down. We held our breath and waited to see what he would do...

He loved it! He was steering his little wheel so carefully and had this super serious look on his face - he was concentrating on keeping that bird in the air - ha!

When the ride finally stopped and he was back on the ground he looked over at me with this look of accomplishment on his face. I love this little serious guy. For the record, he talked about the helicopter all evening! That and the train one we didn't let him ride because it was "too fast" - maybe next year!

Then Matt took him on the Super Slide because we had a few tickets left. They climbed all the way up to the top, got situated on their mat and down they went!

Haha - I knew Matt was having fun the second they started sliding, but I wasn't sure about Thomas...

But when they finally came to a stop, he started smiling too! Yay for Super Slides!

Also in the carnival area was the inspiration for Fur Rondy - it was originally started as a place to sell furs. We were pretty intrigued by all of the furs and some of them were way cheaper than we would have guessed. We didn't buy any, Matt's been talking about getting into hunting up here, so it feels like cheating to buy one. Kinda like me and rocks. ;)

Headed back to the main drag and got to see a few more teams. This trio looked like they were asking each other if they were ready. 

Haha - this guy! He was soon ready and tired of waiting. I feel like if I was a sled dog, I would probably be this ridiculous. Sigh... We can't all be models like the one next to him. :)

Can you tell someone was tired? He was riding on Matt's shoulders so we could move at a decent pace with Henry in the stroller. We were going to the Hard Rock to eat, but it was packed. I ran upstairs to the party we were invited to, but didn't see anyone I knew (and more importantly no empty tables!). So we decided to pack it up and hit the road. 

We figured the two of them would crash, so we decided to drive to our favorite mexican food restaurant in Palmer - La Fiesta. Not a chance, these two were so wired that they messed with each other the whole drive up there and passed out 5 minutes before we arrived. Thomas powered through lunch by leaning on his dada and Henry slept on the bench beside me the whole time.

They obviously had a great day, even if we did wear them out! :)

The Severely Detoured Lens

About a month ago, I got a unexpected "merit reward" at work for covering a well for a coworker over Christmas & New Years that turned out to be the most sneakily problematic well I've worked. It was amazing how many things I managed to catch along the way that were getting messed up  - mostly thanks to some interesting software bugs. Super fun...! 

Instead of just throwing it in the bank account like everything else, I decided to actually use it to buy something I wanted. That way it would actually be memorable instead of just spent at Target or the grocery store. It didn't quite cover the 20mm lens for my camera I have been lusting after, but I had enough credit card points that it covered the difference without it technically costing me anything. Woo for a new lens!!

Except the fact that I used the credit card points caused a major issue I didn't realize until too late. About a week later (on a Sunday) I get a notification from MyUPS that my camera will be delivered on Monday. Unfortunately the notification also shows the address as my old Houston address! What?!!?

The best I can figure is that when I switched to credit card points on my Amazon account (instead of Matt's account, which I usually use - you can now family share Prime!), it defaulted back to the last address I used to order with them. And I didn't notice it when I hit "Purchase" because I was so excited about the lens as I had still been hemming and hawing about it all week.

I call UPS and they tell me they can't change do anything about the shipment because it's a Sunday, but if I call back super early Monday morning, I can get the delivery held. Once it is held, if no one comes to get it in 5 days, they will return it to the shipper. So I email the shipper and tell them what is going on and ask them if they can switch the address to Anchorage once the package is held and I will pay the difference. (Apparently as the receiver of packages, your options are pretty limited.)

I call back super early like they asked and ask the shipment to be held. No problem! The shipper emails me back and says that they cannot change the shipment. They say they saw the notification it was being held and that when it was returned to them, they would refund my money and I could order it again. I really wanted the camera lens for Henry's birthday, so I debate just ordering another one now. In the end, I decide against it - it might still make it back in time. 

A week or so later, I email the shipper again to see what the status is. They email back (why can't they just give me a phone number??) that their records show the package was signed for and never returned. What the what?!? I go back to UPS and sure enough, the package was signed for. Even better, it was delivered right to my old house 9 hours after the confirmation it would be held. 

A few angry phone calls to UPS later and I have absolutely no recourse to get my package back. UPS is all sorry, we screwed up, but there's nothing we can do.  I get the feeling the shipper thinks I am trying to scam them and won't do anything. So the only recourse left is to ask one of the old neighbors to help us get in contact with the new tenants. Luckily, we have great "old" neighbors and I get a phone number!

The guy is super friendly and I am so apologetic about the mix-up. It was actually a two part order, the amazon part they had already sent back (cut-outs to make letters out of icing, you've seen them in use already!), but they hadn't gotten around to shipping the lens back yet. They even offered to take it to the UPS store for me. So I paid for the shipping, emailed them a label and patiently waited...

For some reason I sent it to myself 'signature required' even though I am never home during the day. I missed one delivery attempt and decided to reroute it to work the next day. And it came! I walked downstairs to our receiving department and picked it up - no big deal!

The longest ordeal ever to get a lens and I haven't gotten to play with it much, I just took a few test shots with it at dinner tonight. Obviously it's a totally normal dinner - drumsticks are involved and Natalie is patiently waiting for Henry to drop her food... Hopefully I get to play with it more and will fall in love with it just like my other lenses. And for the record, I have since deleted all of the old addresses out of my Amazon account, I do not need that stress again!

Forgotten Game Night!

I was trying to clean up my photos in Lightroom and realized I missed a series of photos I had fully intended to post. Whoops! Oh well, what's chronological order really matter in the grand scheme of things...? ;)

We have been having a weird winter up here. Weird as in awful - we can't seem to keep snow on the ground. The day after Nonni went back to Texas, she was sending me videos of it snowing in her back yard. We accused her of stealing our snow and demanding she return it. She told us we were more than welcome to come get it. Humph!

But Henry is the optimist! He pushed his elephant over to the window to check out the current conditions. Would it be snow?? Would it be cold, but sunny? He is ever hopeful for good news!

Nope - it's raining! Henry is not happy about this turn of events. I feel you, buddy... I can deal with many things, but rain in March when it should be snowing? Uncool!

With outside activities postponed for the day thanks to the awful weather, we decide to play in the house. We already had quite the collection go these blocks, but then Grandpa (my dad) sent us a bunch more in the mail the other day. He saw this cute video where a dad made his kids a double mountain train track using these blocks as the support. We've not made the train mountain yet, but the kids were pretty excited about the mountain of blocks. Haha - and believe it or not, Henry managed to catch himself in this fall and right himself. The little guy is pretty darn coordinated! (He does not get that from his mother's genetics...)

He's crawling and pulling himself up all over the place. Nothing is safe from Henry's reach...! His new favorite is to beeline for the stairs and power up them before I can catch him. I've let him climb up several times (staying right behind him) and he has no problem hauling himself up to the top. We tried installing the baby gate we used for Thomas, but we're concerned it's just not sturdy enough for a large baby to be jerking on it. Thomas was old enough to not pull on it, so we have got to find another solution for the Hulk baby. For now, it's baby watch at all times!

We finally managed to get out of our pajamas that afternoon because we had invited people over for game night. Thomas was super excited because his friend Abby was coming! I was excited because game night is the perfect solution to a rainy day. And with 6 adults in the house, I had plenty of help with stair watching for Henry - ha!

These two are so cute! They were sitting on Thomas' Elmo couch being so well behaved while the guys were playing Mario Cart. (We needed a quick game while I finished the desserts.) Aren't you impressed by how nicely they are sitting there??

Ha - it's because they thought they were playing the game! We gave them the Xbox controllers while everyone else played with the (correct) Wii controllers. They were happy, we were happy - winning all around! I'm sure I'll hear about it when they are older. :)

And the game night dessert! I like to come up with random reasons to have game night and I resorted to using a food holiday this time. Turns out February 21st is Chocolate Soufflé Day, so it was "CS Game Night". Of course, I set this up weeks in advance and almost forgot why I named it CS night. Luckily I opened the digital invite before I went to the grocery store! I can only imagine the ribbing I would have gotten if I had forgotten the title dish. Talk about never living something down...! ;)

Thirty-Four (12.5) Months!

I have done such a good job with the monthly photos! Which means, of course that I missed the arguably most important one of Henry's first year. So you'll notice the title change - since it was already the first, it was technically on Thomas' month anniversary. So to those who are keeping close track, the 33rd sticker got skipped. Even so, I still think I have done a pretty good job. :)

Look at them scoping out each other's stickers. It's like they know...!

Don't they look super ecstatic to be taking photos again? Ha!

Well Henry got excited about something! I have no idea what and Thomas obviously does't care, but look at how ecstatic Henry really is all of a sudden!

Still happy! Thomas has this expression on his face a lot - this is him in the middle of asking if he can see the photos. As soon as I start taking them, he wants to see them. I can usually persuade him to let me take a few in between having to show him. 

Then it was apparently time to play musical "chair" and walk around while ignoring momma. 

Then Henry tackled his brother's leg and I may have had to separate them for just a few minutes...

Henry looks so grumpy that I spoiled his fun!

For some reason, Thomas looks grumpy too! I rescued you - just a little bit of appreciation here, son!

The neighbors were having a party and it just happened to be wrapping up right when I was taking photos. Which meant that the boys were incredibly interested in all the people walking in the cul-de-sac and not so interested in taking photos any more.

On a related note, look at the ginormous arms on my little man. He had his yearly check-up the other day and is as healthy as a horse. And topping the charts in all the measurements. So he's a big boy, but according to the pediatrician, he's not fat - he's perfectly proportionally huge. Or something like that. :) 

He was done taking photos and I kept putting him back on the chair for "just one more photo". Apparently when a toddler is done, a toddler is *done*. Sorry little man! Thanks for the cooperation for most of the photos. ;)

My mom brought us all valentine's day presents and I was pretty excited about mine It's a light reflector that has four different covers - white, black, silver and gold. I wanted to try it out and since I was down to one cooperative kiddo, I figured it was worth a shot to get a shot (see what I did there?ha!).

Henry seemed pretty impressed by the reflector. He mostly tried to attack it, but I did manage to get it lined up long enough to reflect the light from the window back at him. I really love this guy's pretty blue eyes and the reflected light just made them pop. Thanks for the fun gift, momma!

Happy Birthday Henry!!

It's finally here! My little guy is a year old! I say finally, but honestly I'm having the opposite reaction - how is he already a year old??

Thomas helped me make a super special birthday breakfast for his little brother. What a sweetie, huh? I didn't let him touch the bacon though - he's not quite up to the hygiene standards to be touching raw meat... 

Henry looks a little skeptical, huh? He was happy enough because he had his milk, but he is really giving us the side eye!

I made grandmom's waffles (of course!), but I wanted to make them super duper special since it was a birthday breakfast! So I added whipped cream and sprinkles! Thomas was so excited about the waffle tower!

Thomas does not waste any time digging into the waffles. 

Henry was still a little skeptical. I put the stack of three waffles on his tray and looked away to get the camera. And somehow he got the bottom waffle out without disrupting the tower. Well that's impressive. 

Then he did it again! I guess he wasn't interested in the fluffy pile of white stuff on top of his waffles. He eventually dug in to the good stuff, but I was also digging in so you'll just have to trust me. :)

While the boys were napping, I finished up Henry's cake. We affectionately call him the Hulk because he's such a happy, calm baby - until he goes into a baby rage! Haha, it's usually food related, but man can he get angry! Then he's all sunshine and roses again. So - the Hulk!

I found a cake example online and did a pretty good job of mimicking it. I was more than happy with the final result, especially since it's been a while since I made a tiered cake. Well any super involved cake at all really...

Hulk was not cooperating at all! He kept falling over and knocking the "bricks" over. So I made him a fondant boot to keep him upright. 

After nap time, I lost sight of Henry for a second and realized my mistake when he was too quiet. This kid! Normally I would whisk him away and not take the time to get photos, but the damage was already done and it was his birthday... He looks pretty proud of himself, huh?

I tried to die a birthday shirt Hulk purple for Henry. It was the perfect dark purple shade when I pulled it out of the dye bath. But then it got considerably lighter after washin it... Oh well, it was still a purple and green combination. Matt teased me so much about the shade of purple that Thomas refused to wear the matching shirt I dyed him. At least that's my version of events - I'm blaming hubby!

Whatever - Henry looks happy enough with his birthday shirt!

We started singing Happy Birthday to Henry and he was so enthralled about it. He kept looking from person to person and grinning so big. (I totally forgot the birthday hats, but given Thomas' bad reaction to them at his first birthday, that might not have been the worst thing.)

He looks pretty excited about his cake as well! (Who wouldn't be??)

But the best part was the biggest fiasco! Unbeknownst to me, my mom packed up a box to bring with her with dry ice and Blue Bell ice cream for Henry's first birthday. Those of you that know us, know that Blue Bell is a big deal! So guess which bag the airline lost? More correctly, the bag the airline never even put on the plane in Dallas??

Mom was irate! She was much more polite on the phone than I would have been, but she was still pretty upset with American Airlines. The ticket was Alaskan Airlines, but the first leg was on American. In the end, it worked out amazingly - the ice cream got there late that same night and when the staff at Alaskan Airlines saw "Ice Cream" written on the side of the box, they put it in the freezer right away. When we opened it, it was pretty obvious the ice cream had never melted at all. Awesome save, Alaskan!

Henry wasn't too sure about the cake at first. He took a few small nibbles of it...

Thomas is an old pro at cakes and dug right in!

Henry quickly followed along! The fondant held the piece of cake together well enough he could pick up the whole thing at once. 

Then the ice cream got involved! Messiness ensues...!

Hahahaha - look at this kid! If he could have taken a bath in the ice cream, I think he would have. Well worth the headache to get it up here. :)

Happy Birthday little man!! It's been a great year and I can't believe it's gone by so fast! 

The only sad part of the day was while I was trying to get some good messy cake photos of Henry. I was snapping away and then I hear this sad voice off to my left.

"Mommy? I'm over here, mommy!"

Apparently Thomas was feeling left out. I felt so bad! He usually gets tired of me taking his photo all the time, but I guess I don't usually favor Henry with the camera quite as much. So I took several of him and that seemed to pacify him - though he didn't have any big smiles for me. Break a mother's heart...

And the best part of a tiered cake? Even though we had the four of us, plus Nonni, Heather and Brittney - we couldn't even finish the top tier. But after I pulled off the remnants of the top - it was like a whole new cake! The three candle upgrade was to cover the holes from the supports I used for the second tier. Yay for cake - part two tomorrow!

Nonni Comes to Town!

We love it when Nonni comes to visit! We hadn't seen her since Thanksgiving, so we were super excited to be seeing her again! The night before she headed up here, Thomas stole my phone while I was making dinner (and texting her!). He loves sending emoticons when he can, so he started sending her a stream of them.

She, of course, had no idea it was Thomas and couldn't figure out what "her daughter" was trying to tell her. 

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I can also send text messages from my laptop, so I let my mom know who was actually texting her. After that, it was hard to tell who was most excited!

See what I mean? ;)

And then she was finally here! Thomas was more than happy to show his Nonni the ropes in playing with play-doh. They use cookie cutters at school to play with the play-doh, which is super convenient since we have a ton of easy to clean plastic ones!

Haha - he looks so concerned! I wonder if Nonni was doing it correctly??

It looks like she did a pretty good job, huh? Notice the combination lock on the table. This kid finds the most random things and holds on to them like they are pure treasures. His other current favorite is a keychain with a safety light on it - though according to him, it's his keys!

Oh and not random, but one of his favorite things - his camera! I think it's the first camera Matt and I ever bought after we got married. We researched and got the best one in our price range with a highly recommended Schneider lens. And now it's our two year old's toy. Crazy.

I've been trying to teach him to look through the viewfinder, but he hasn't quite gotten the concept. He's holding it up to his face, but as you can probably tell that he's not got his eye anywhere near the viewfinder. Ha!

But he's certainly got the looking after shooting down ("chimping" is the slang term for that). His favorite part of the photos is seeing what he took a photo of. His aim is improving, which just makes him more excited to shoot more photos! 

His subject of the night was his Nonni. She looks pretty excited about the photo! I haven't even looked at them yet. That's not very supportive of his photography hobby, huh? I'll grab his best ones soon and post them, I promise!

What a happy little photographer! Man, I love this little guy. Not hard to see why, is it? :)

And since we booked Mom's ticket up on Valentine's day, we had a nice steak dinner in celebration. I sent Matt out for some last minute ingredient and he came back with roses for me and a set of roses for Thomas to give to Nonni and Aunt Heather. They were both pretty ecstatic. I didn't get any photos of it, but if it was 1/10th as cute as when he ran up to me with roses at the airport, then it had to have made their day!

Pinterest Playing Update!

I know you are all dying to know how to frozen balloons turned out! Unfortunately, I am in the same boat. I forgot to go check them the next day and by the time the next weekend (and chance for good lighting) rolled around, the snow had melted and all of the balloons popped. I don't know if it was the dry grass that got them, but they were all goners! Of course, when I thought to take a photo to show their sad state, they had gotten snowed on. Such uncooperative weather...! 

Thomas was super bummed and kept telling me "Balloons popped." I know son - I'm sad too. We'll just have to try again when it gets cold again. I'm sure there is plenty of winter left...

Cupcake liner fish! I saw this one and thought it was easy enough for Thomas to do and thanks to Grannie, we have a ton of cupcake liners. I found the most colorful ones and let Thomas go to town with the scissors. He was supposed to cut triangles for the tails, I ended up just finding the most triangular shaped fragments and made it work. I think he was most excited about the "goo-goo" eyes. Love toddler mispronunciations! (And another appearance by Olwin and his buddy James!) 

This one was in the quiet activity suggestions. Basically you give a toddler a bowl full of pom-poms and scoops or such to play with. I figured he would just throw them on the floor and be done... Wrong - he played with them the whole time I was making dinner. And that is why I rely on others to give me good ideas!

This one falls in the fail category. It was supposed to be slime that you make from glue. Well it did not make slime, it made a chunk of... I'm not sure how to describe it. But anyhow I think I added the Borax incorrectly and it just seized up into a glue mass. I'll try it again, but for now it was a fail.

This one looked fun - painting without the mess! And without Henry getting paint in his mouth... You put blobs of paint in a plastic bag and tape it down so they can play with it - preferably on a white surface so they can clearly see the colors and the mixing. Henry seemed interested at first...

But quickly decided ripping it off was more fun. He was so proud of himself when he got it off his tray. Then he made eye contact with me, held it for a second and dropped it on the floor. Ha - this little guy has some attitude!

Snow painting with colored water! It was a bit of a fail. The snow kept clumping up on the brush, but Thomas seemed to be enjoying it - so we improvised. 

Snow spraying! This he loved. It took him a few tries to get the hang of spraying, but then he had a blast coloring the snow. I did give him yellow, but then decided I didn't really want him to associate yellow snow with "pick up and play with it!" - gross! So we switched it to orange. 

Then we got out cups to stack the snow and make geometrical snow men. Well that's a stretch... We made stacks of snow. 

I gave Henry some snow to play with. He was not sure what to think about the cold, white stuff. Amazingly, he didn't try to eat it - that's a first. ;)

Cotton ball painting! It's not like we don't have about 20 paintbrushes, but I figured it was something new to try. Plus the cotton ball / clothespin combos fit so nicely in the silicone mold I was using for a paint tray. Even better plus, I could just throw the cotton balls away, so clean-up was super easy!

This one was not from Pinterest, but a new paint set I saw at Target. It's a little foam roller with shapes. It looked so fun! There were stars, flowers and stripes.

He really liked it, but he kept pressing so hard that all he got were rectangular smears of paint. I tried to show him how to make the shapes show up better, but he really likes utilizing some force while painting. As long as he is having fun, who cares?

And the winner by far was the snow spraying! He keeps asking me to so it again, so we did. Henry even got in on the action. Sorta - he just held the bottles and smashed them into the snow. But he was having fun. :)

Plus I made the switch down to the art table. To reach over the side of the container last time, I had to boost Thomas up on a book. Which kept falling and scaring all of us (especially the dogs), so I thought this might work better. I generally prefer to keep him at the table when he is doing art do he can't run away and paint the walls or whatever, so I had to stand guard with both of them. One of these days I might trust them with art supplies, but until them they will remain under lock and key. ;)