RV Road Tripping!

Matt and I have always talked about buying a RV. In Texas, we mostly looked at pop-up campers when we went to the RV shows or sales lots - Matt's family had one when he was growing up and he had such fond memories of it. But we never committed to buying because we also loved our current method of tent camping. Then we moved up here, where RV's are *the* thing, but thanks to it being bear territory, pop-ups are an extreme minority.

So we switched to looking at full sized RV's, with a bit or back and forth on sizes and whether or not slide-outs were important. We decided to try renting one for a trip and see how we liked it. Most of the rentals up here are Class C, so we spent a lot of time asking people and googling to see how safe the kids would be in them. We finally found a rental place that had appropriate places to put their car seats and set up a rental for after the busy season at work. Woo-woo!

We almost couldn't get Henry's seat in because the belts on the dinette wouldn't tighten up enough, but luckily I had given Heather a car seat for Thomas for her Jeep and she hadn't taken it home yet. It worked great! Even though it is technically a forward facing seat, we put him in the rear facing belts, so it was perfect! Henry seemed to like the extra leg room - he is usually a little scrunched up in our cars rear facing. 

Thomas was all about the novelty of the RV - for the first few hours... Then the excitement of talking to his brother, playing with his toys and looking out the window wore off. Luckily I was prepared with the iPad loaded with his favorite ABC games. Whew!

But eventually that wore off too... And then Henry started losing his cool. (It's a long drive to Denali with all of the road construction plus having to stop for food and potty breaks...!) Finally I remembered the TV on the wall - DVD's to the rescue! You can see they pretty much are zoned out. Whatever keeps everyone happy, right? :)

Also note the table - the owner's manual for the RV explicitly states that to use car seats, the dinette table must be in the lowered position. So my plan of riding back there with them if they started to get fussy was a little complicated. I did it for a little while, but having to sit with my legs on top of the table wasn't terribly comfortable...

We had so much room in the RV that we decided to go ahead and bring Henry's high chair. Unfortunately, the table was still a little too high, but he didn't seem to mind having to reach too much. He obviously still managed to get sloppy joe all over himself!

We also went a little over protective on what we would store in the actual RV. We didn't trust most of the cabinets to stay shut in an accident, so we stored almost everything in the external drawers (there was tons of room out there!). Of the stuff inside, we got creative - like putting his high chair in the bathroom and my backpack full of camera gear and computers was belted in the seat next to Henry. Better safe than sorry!

Of course we brought along the newest play toys! They were quite the useful distraction while I was cooking meals. Plus Thomas thought it was too cool how the table in the camper went up and down just like our table! 

It is a 28' RV with a slide-out for the dinette. Reasonably spacious, but the kitchen area was still a little tight and therefore pretty cluttered while cooking. You can also see that I managed to keep it down to just bringing the essentials, like my new pineapple corer - ha!

You can also see how cooperative all of my boys are when I say "Everyone look over here!" At least they seemed to appreciate the biscuits and gravy. ;)

We didn't really think about what all there is to do in Denali if you aren't really going hiking or taking a really long bus tour. And we didn't figure the boys would be up for the long bus tours and neither one of us was jumping at the chance to strap Henry on our back and hike around. So we decided to check out the visitor's center. Thomas was not really into the exhibits - unless they had a glowing button and a movie to watch. Even then, he only sat there for a minute before darting off to find the next button.

They did like the windows overlooking the park, but were again not in a super cooperative mood. I was really thinking a picture of them staring off into the trees, taken aback by the beauty of nature would be great. Ha - a girl can dream, but that particular fantasy was just not meant to be.  Henry seemed much more interested in people watching than looking outside. 

And Thomas? Well, he just wanted to attack me while I was trying to get a cute photo. I think he looks like a tiny, mad librarian in this one. I think it's the over the glasses stare I remember from childhood and my many, many overdue books... He's way more adorable though!

We finally went outside and found this bear sculpture in the back. I wasn't sure they were even allowed to be on it, but the people hanging around assured me it was fine when I started to stop them. So then all of my boys were piled on there!

Henry seemed particularly interested in the bear - it did look super friendly and coincidentally like an oversized version of Natalie. The sign nearby said it was a scale model, but the head on it looked so big. According to my husband, who is now an expert on all things bear, that means it is a younger (smaller) bear. 

The two of them played on the bear forever. They were way more interested in it than anything inside the visitor's center. Thomas was even happy to pose for a photo with the bear. Which, of course, meant that Henry was going to stalk through the picture like he was part bear.

He's been doing this weird bent over walk thing recently - I have no idea where he picked it up. I think he's trying to be some kind of animal...? Sometimes he holds his belly while he does it and looks even more hilarious. Toddlers are so funny without even trying!

After our picnic lunch in the RV, we took off on a drive to let the kids nap and recharge the batteries. We drove up North through Healy just to see the town (tiny!) and then saw a sign for Henry's coffee shop (closed), before Matt decided to head down to the Denali Highway south of the park. He's been across that road several times on his motorcycle and wanted me to see how pretty it was. Secretly he wanted to camp there as well, but was worried I wouldn't want to since we already paid for two nights at the park. But I was game - especially since it was indeed a pretty drive.

(I had to enhance the photo up above so you could see the rainbow, but it was crystal clear in real life. It was just a little bit rainy for most of the afternoon, which led to super pretty views in between the drizzles. Silver lining!)

We finally found a spot to park for the night - the first part of the highway from Cantwell is plastered with no trespassing signs. Plus the highway is a gravel road for all but a few miles at the beginning, so we were not making good time in the RV. But we found a spot we could get the RV down and didn't let the sudden downpour ruin our night - score one for the camper!

The kids were pretty excited about their beds being right next to each other. Luckily, the camper was pretty dark once we lowered all the shades. The boys still had a little trouble going to sleep because they kept playing with each other. At one point we heard Thomas telling Henry it was "dance time" and busted him trying to jump back into bed when he heard us coming to check on them. It was adorable!

The only light in the RV we couldn't cover? The vent right over our bed. It was the worst design ever! And nothing we tried to stuff in the area would stay up there. Whatever we buy is going to have a cover or we will velcro one up there!

After breakfast the next morning, we went around exploring. (The boys did this yesterday on their bikes while I was cleaning up the kitchen. They had plenty of fun, but I didn't get any photos.)

Our first stop was to check out the creek that was serenading us all night. The boys immediately went to throwing rocks in the water. 

Henry even got a few in there, though he doesn't have quite the distance as his older brother. He may have been hampered by the fact he kept trying to pick up giant rocks!

I thought the view was amazing, so I used the large rocks sticking out of the stream to balance in the middle of the water for a photo. Thomas was pretty nervous about what his momma was doing in the water and kept telling me to come back. Ha, I must not have looked very steady!

Then we hiked up the nearby hill that we had decided not to attempt with the RV. Matt had been up it a few weeks ago on his motorcycle and thought the giant mud puddle wasn't *that* bad, but there is quite a difference in a motorcycle and the giant RV. Thomas and Henry stopped to investigate a pile of poop - thanks to our "Who Pooped in the Park?" book Matt bought at Yellowstone, we are pretty confident that it was deer. :)

Doesn't our RV look so happy sitting in it's little flat spot in the middle of this gorgeous valley? Plus you couldn't have asked for a prettier day. It's hard to beat a nice summer day in Alaska!

Matt actually took that photo with his phone. It was a panorama, so the boys and I had to stay behind him to avoid being in the photo. Not super easy when they are so easily distracted! But, he got a few nice ones to add to the photo collection! :)

The whole family! We remembered the tripod *and* the piece to connect it to the camera (unlike when we took it to Hawaii...). And everyone is looking at the camera! Ok, not everyone is smiling, but I'll take it!

Thomas was done with exploring and ready to head back to his RV! When we got close enough, he took off running. I think he was by far the happiest about the trip. Hanging out with his favorite people, bunking down his his brother and being able to watch movies while driving - what's not to love??

All packed up and back at the main highway! Matt jumped out to check the tires after coming up the trail, so I hopped out to take a few last photos of the mountains and valleys. I somehow managed to not get any side shots of the RV, so you'll have to trust me that it wasn't ridiculously big. We'll have to see how the size compares once we switch to a vehicle and a pull behind camper. I think we have agreed that we'd rather have a towing trailer, so we can drop it off and drive around in a normal vehicle instead of worrying about the massive thing in every parking lot.

Oh and as we were both jumping out of the RV, Matt had to again mention some movie he saw when he was a kid with a plot line that a family was on an RV trip and the parents were both killed when the RV rolled off a cliff. I've never even heard of this movie, so we had to look it up - The Earthling? In the end, some old guy who is dying finds the young boy and raises him to live off the land or something like that. I don't know why he thought it was a good idea to keep bringing it up, but it was a running commentary. Cheery, honey! ;) 

All in all though, it was a great trip. It was a lot of driving, but the boys were champs and we know what to look for in any future RV's and about what size we want. I can't promise it's going to be purchased soon knowing us, but I'll let you know when it becomes a reality! 

The Weekend of Celebrations Continues!

We already got the solstice partying out of our system, but that was not the only thing to celebrate this weekend! First things first, it was Father's Day! Happy Father's Day to both my great dad and the awesome dad of my (our) kiddos! The boys and I let Matt sleep in while we made a fantastic breakfast of canned cinnamon rolls! I had great plans of making some from scratch, but had a little too much on the docket yesterday to actually get around to that. Luckily for me, Matt likes the canned ones just fine. Whew!

I told Thomas to hand Matt the card he made him for Father's Day. As you might be able to tell, it was more of a throw than a hand... You can also see all of the Father's Day presents already out on the table. Matt was so excited to finally get to open the Amazon box that has been tempting him for weeks that he didn't give me a chance to get photos. :(

I should probably explain the reason I bought Matt a bunch of toys though!

This is Gregor. Gregor was a present from Tom for Thomas' third birthday. He's part of a Playmobil set that has this guy all geared up on his adventure bike - he has a tent, sleeping bag and all kinds of fun gear that stores in the side cases. Matt loved it about as much as Thomas did and requested the same set for Father's Day for his desk at work. 

I thought it was a great idea, but then realized that this particular set represented time away from us - which is great on occasion, but not entirely what they boys might want to convey on Father's Day. So we added on two sets - a RV and SUV to pull it - to represent the family version of getting away from it all! Needless to say, the full package was quite the hit!

And not just with Matt... The boys were just as excited as their dad was. They were pretty impatient with how long it was taking us to put everything together, so I gave them the dad & daughter from the SUV set to play with - you can see their tiny luggage in the boy's hands. 

Why was it taking so long? Because these Playmobil sets have tons of associated pieces! They have tables, chairs, barbecue grills, a dog on a leash, the electric hookups with a campsite number and the electrical cable to hook up to it. The SUV has car seats and stickers to show the movies playing in the back seat. The camper has drawers, beds, a table that drops down to make a bed just like a real RV and even a bathroom with a sliding door, shower faucet that comes off the wall and a toilet with a lid that lifts up. Don't forget the trees, flowers, pots, pans, cups, silverware and tiny set of tools as well. It's pretty awesome, but a little time consuming to get everything put together right. 

Henry was mostly focused on trying to wreck the car, while Thomas set up the picnic table and added and removed the flip-flops for the youngest child in the set. The SUV apparently has a kit that can make it remote controlled - I can only imagine that is somewhere in our future... I wonder how well an RV can handle jumps?

Oh and the awesome cards! I can't take any credit for these, they made both of them at daycare. I think they are both adorable and I am super jealous of the one Henry made. I mean rocks??? That's kinda my thing! The fishing themed one is totally appropriate for summer in Alaska. I love that their teacher's are so creative. Way more exciting than the card I bought for them to sign / scribble on. Guess I'll have to save that one for another year...! (And you can barely see the tiny saw, hammer and screwdriver in the background - adorable!)

After breakfast, Matt had plans to go on a bike ride with Sam and Eric. I think it's a running joke that all moms really want for Mother's Day is to get away, so I can't tease him too much about taking a short ride with some friends. He had intended to leave as soon as the kids went down for a nap, but had a little bit more work to get his bike ready than he anticipated.

Which meant that Thomas woke up just in time to wave bye to his dad! He loves watching Matt ride his bike and his only concern is that his dad has his helmet on. Sam and Matt were still getting geared up when we first walked outside and Thomas was super concerned about where their helmets were - safety first!

This was the two of them all day! I had to keep reminding them to stop stealing pieces from each other, but once I said "If anyone else cries about anything, I'm taking them away" they were perfectly happy to share. Ha!

Also notice the giant present in the back. Heather's birthday is today!! Thomas picked out a brand new roll of wrapping paper and it ran out before I could even cover the box!  I was so irritated that I once again had to patch gift wrap, that I swore I am only buying people tiny presents from now on. (I'm 100% sure I am not going to be able to stick to that...)

I asked Heather earlier this week what cake she wanted and she gave me two choices - Blackout Cake or Black Forest Cake. I personally love chocolate & cherries, so I went with the second option. Big mistake! It was the most time and bowl consuming cake - I was washing dishes all day! By the end, I was so sick of the cake that I didn't even bother with making the shaved chocolate for a garnish.

But when I pulled it out to serve it, it looked so barren. So then I was all stressed out on how to make chocolate shavings in a hurry. Luckily, I always have a stash of chocolate and realized I could just use a leftover Easter Bunny to make them - perfect! (Although, maybe not for the bunny... "/)

I have a firm rule that if I make the cake, I don't sing. Unfortunately, the boys were absolutely no help, so I realized that if I didn't sing Heather wasn't getting anything besides sideways looks from her nephews. So I sang, while taking photos and apparently the combination of that and Heather blowing out her candle was hysterical to Thomas. Or my singing is just that bad...!

The cake turned out pretty awesome. And so nicely decorated with chocolate shavings! The bottom layer was a little dry, but I excluded the kirsch from the soaking syrup and therefore I had a little less than required. (I didn't think boozing up the kids was a good idea, so we winged it without.)

The boys went to town on the cake! Heather's expression in this photo was very much concern about how much cake Henry was trying to fit in his mouth at once. Luckily Thomas was taking bites off his fork and not trying to cram that whole triangle of cake in his mouth. It's so nice they try to take turns on who is stressing me out...!

This guy was covered in cake (and barbecue sauce) by the end of dinner. I was trying to get a photo of the mess, but got a bit too close to him. It's my fault for having the wide angle lens on the camera... Anyhow, you can see him starting to reach for the camera in this photo. And it's the last photo of the night that doesn't have a spot from where he smeared cake on the lens. Oh well - we were pretty much done anyhow! :)

So in conclusion...

Happy Solstice!

Happy Father's Day!

And Happy Birthday, Heather!

Summer Solstice

Summer solstice is a big deal around here. It makes sense that when you refer to yourself as "the land of the midnight sun", the longest day of the year is a big deal. And I know that technically the actual day is tomorrow, but it makes more sense to have a festival about it on Saturday. Coincidentally, my sister's birthday is also tomorrow and while she has backed off of having a "birthday month", she was pretty keen on having a fulfilling "birthday weekend". Since she seems to like hanging out with us so much, we decided to all go have some solstice fun!

I usually try to post the photos in chronological order, but I'm breaking tradition and posting the absolute last photo first. Only because it is my favorite! I rarely get any with me and my boys, but Heather was happy to take it and they even look happy to be hanging out with their momma. Henry is happy (trust me!). 

Back to the correct order! 

We were trying to get to the food first. We had a late breakfast, so we were running super late on lunch. Unfortunately, the path to the food went right past the skateboarding area. And Thomas loves watching skateboarders! I decided that we could chill there until Aunt Heather caught up with us. 

Henry as not as impressed with the skateboarders. I know his expressions can be confusing to the untrained eye. This one is pretty much how it appears. 

Thomas was super into it. Though he did ask me "Why do they keep falling?" after watching for a few minutes. They weren't very good - that was the truth of it. But they were having fun and being entertaining, so he didn't seem to mind too much. 

We finally got to the food! It wasn't state fair quality, but when you are starving everything tastes great. All Thomas wanted was a cupcake - mostly because we had to walk by three cupcake trucks on the way to the BBQ truck. Heather had already eaten, so I even had tons of help feeding two wiggly little man - perfect!

We finally made it to the kids area. They had a pretty cool obstacle course set up for the little kids to run / crawl through. Thomas did not need any convincing to get started. I followed along with him and gave him a high five when he got through it. 

I was a little surprised when he ran back to the start of the course without me. He's getting more and more independent these days. It makes me proud when he's such a big boy. :)

Look at this guy. He's growing up waaaaaay too fast, right??

Still absolutely adorable.

Not biased at all.

Henry was getting pretty tired of watching from the sidelines... So we decided to let him run free in the kid area. I figured he might like the bubble tower or just wandering around.

But shockingly, Henry was just as excited about the obstacle course as Thomas was. He was a champ!

Then he decided that destroying the obstacle course was just as much fun as trying to complete it. It hard to be stern about putting the cones back when he's giggling so much after stealing them. :)

Back to the crawling! He did not observe the line of kids and kinda cut in front of someone. Luckily that little girl was pretty understanding...!

The first few times, Thomas ran past these balance bumps, but after a few goes through the course, he was taking it pretty serious. Some of them were too far apart, but he did what he could! It was compounded in difficultly by all the babies and toddlers trying to destroy the course. Who would do such a thing?!? ;)

Look at this guy - so proud of himself!

Heather and I spent most of the time switching off who was watching which kid. She was pretty tolerant of me trying to get cute photos of the kids. Even though the kids were certainly not cooperating with trying to get cute photos of them with their Aunt Heather. 

Henry even took a go at the balance bumps. And by that I mean, Aunt Heather tried to get him to use them and he didn't fight her on it. Ha!

The last part of the obstacle course was a line of cones to zig zag through. Thomas was all about the maneuvering, but Henry just ran along the side. Whatever makes them happy!

The end of the kid area was filled with all kinds of things that required payment to play. Luckily the only one Thomas had eyes for was the run through inflatable at the end and it was only $1. Score!

Unfortunately, the line was super long. I told Thomas we could stand in the line or we could go get a cupcake. (Maybe I didn't want to stand in the line - so sue me!) Amazingly, he chose the line, not the cupcake! What??

Which doesn't mean he loved waiting the whole time, but he hung in there!

We finally got to the start and I got his shoes off. We opted to take the socks off too so he would have traction. (Which just happened to be Minion socks that matched his shirt...) But right before he jumped in they told me he had to take his glasses off. I wasn't sure how he would react to that and the fact I wasn't going in with him. 

He was a champ! He took off down the course and we followed along on the outside - thankfully mesh so I could get photos of him rocking it. :)

He got hung up on one section where he was supposed to push through, but he wasn't quite strong enough. Luckily, he could crawl under it and made it through. The only thing left was the big slide at the end. I'll admit I was a little worried - it wasn't that long ago that a big slide really freaked him out. 

I worried for no reason! He got up the slide and rocketed down like it was no big deal. I was lucky to even get a photo of him!

Of course, when I got home and saw the photo full size, I almost died laughing at the expression on his face. So maybe he was still a little scared of the big slide, but he went down it anyways. Yay for my brave Thomas!

We headed back toward the food area to get our cupcakes, but there was more fun stuff along the way. Henry was super excited running around the sidewalk chalk drawings. I tried to get both of them to draw, but Thomas made one scratch and ran off to the next fun zone. 

Which was the giant sandbox! Henry played from the sidelines, but Thomas was all in before I could catch up to him. As much fun as they were having, I think we need to get working on the backyard sandbox sooner rather than later!

Finally made it to the cupcakes! Thomas graciously decided that we could share a cupcake - which is a pretty rare occurrence these days. He picked his out by the cherry on top, so I let him have the cherry all to himself. Not a big sacrifice on my part, I'm not a huge fan of maraschino cherries. Or the cupcake at all to be honest - way too sweet for my liking! He gobbled his half up pretty darn quick though, so he obviously didn't mind. Don't worry - Henry wasn't left out, he got a cookie all to himself!

Minus the less than exciting food, it was a great time. Alaska, you do a pretty good job of celebrating the solstice. Glad we could celebrate with you! :)

Pineapple Paradise

I love fresh pineapple. I mean I like canned pineapple too, but cut up fresh pineapple is sooo tasty! But it occurred to me the other day, I really hate cutting up pineapple. I can't stand it when I don't get all of the eyes out of it, so it ends up taking forever to get it cut up perfectly. I bought one the other day for a fruit salad and decided I was not going to bother since I was *shockingly* running short of time. Luckily my sister was there and took on the dreaded task!

Then the other day at lunch, we went out on a fun shopping spree to buy an assortment of kitchen goodies for a friend's wedding shower. Well I happened to spy this little gem and remembered it had actually gotten good reviews from Cook's Illustrated and it was only $10. I figured it couldn't hurt to take a chance on it for that price! 

Thomas was super confused about this new gadget when he saw it in the car and I told him if he didn't mind a short stop at the grocery store, I would show him how it worked. He was game for it!

I took the top off the pineapple and got to it! It actually screws into the pineapple fairly easily - at first... But I just upped the effort a teensy bit and got it all the way to what I assumed was the bottom. 

I don't know why it didn't occur to me that the core would still be attached, but for some reason the sight of the pineapple donut was pretty funny. It doesn't take much to amuse me late in the day, apparently. ;)

It's a little hard to see, but if you look at the size of the rings closely, you can see that the rings get significantly smaller the further down I went. Ok, so I might need a little practice to make it perfect, but look how clean and pretty that pineapple is. No eyes!! I'm in love. 

Even better, it came with a wedge cutter that you can slide down and it makes perfect little pineapple chunks. It was so easy to cut, that I may have been a little too exuberant and ended up with some pineapple on the floor. And the corn is unrelated to the pineapple, I was trying to make dinner before playing with my new toy, but Thomas wasn't interested in waiting...!

He was about as excited about the pineapple as I was. I had to cut him off so he didn't ruin his dinner!

But since I was in the middle of making stir fry, I figured why not throw in some awesome fresh pineapple? I had every intention of making pineapple upside down cakes, but failed to notice I was out of eggs, so that didn't happen...

Lucky for me, it's now a breeze to cut up pineapple. :)

And don't think Henry missed out on all the fun. He got a pile of pineapple with his dinner and Matt had the brilliant idea of serving them their water out of the pineapple shell. I've never seen them so excited about drinking water. :)

Dino-mite Day!

I think it's safe to say that everyone in this house thinks dinosaurs are pretty rad. So when we found out that an exhibit called T-Rex Planet was coming to Anchorage, the odds were pretty high that we were going. Just to make sure though, I asked Thomas if he wanted to go see dinosaurs? Yeah!!!!

We had to wait until after nap time to go since the event didn't open until after 2pm today (it being a Friday), but as soon as everyone was up and had a snack, we were out the door. I tried to get them pumped up by saying "Let's go see the dinosaurs!!" and Thomas took off out the garage door. But instead of bee-lining for the car, he ended up by the bottom of the stairs. I had no clue what he was doing until I looked back and saw what he had grabbed - one of his dinosaurs from Christmas!

I thought it was pretty awesome he grabbed it without prompting, but then look what happened right after - Henry grabbed one too! They were both running around the driveway all kinds of excited. Kudos to me for setting the tone I guess! Though I will admit that buckling the boys in while they refused to let go of their dinosaurs was a little tricky...

We weren't really sure what to expect of the event - the information online was pretty limited. And it was pretty pricey, so I figured it was going to not quite live up to the "hype" the entry fee was promising. It featured a bunch of models of dinosaurs that are best described as what you would expect to find in the robotics section of a dinosaur exhibit at a museum. Potentially from a decade or so ago... ;)

Like the above dinosaur - nothing wrong with a stegosaurus, but I seriously doubt their eggs were the size of chicken eggs... And I *just* noticed the giant dragonfly!

Henry wasn't too sure what to think about the plethora of dinosaurs. But he had his new duck - Señor Ducky - so he was happy. (The duck was his reward from his first dentist visit where he was a champ. He has a mustache, so Señor Ducky seemed fitting!)

I was thinking it would be a pretty educational event, but they only had this little descriptions with the dinosaurs. It pretty much had the name, the size and one tidbit about the dinosaur. And I swear they have added a ton of dinosaurs since my undergraduate dinosaurs class I took. I didn't recognize half of the names! I'm a lame geologist...

It was super dark on this side of the exhibit, so it was incredibly difficult to get photos of the dinosaurs or the kids. Most of them were also lit by crazy lights, which Thomas found to be awesome, but made for awful photos. So I waited until we were relatively alone and used the flash to see what they looked like. I honestly thought they looked pretty cool lit up, I'm not sure why they decided to keep it so dark. Maybe because the backdrops and props were a little cheesy? I seriously doubt the kids would have noticed that, but they would have loved the dinosaurs being more visible...

But as you can clearly see, Thomas still thought the dinosaurs were pretty cool. He was laughing here about how the Triceratops looked blue because the lights on it were changing. He's so easy to amuse sometimes. :)

This was one of the central exhibit with the mighty T-Rex! Matt had to point out that the dinosaur in the front had a "fountain" of red blood coming out of it. Oh my! Luckily Thomas didn't ask too many questions because I started quoting his favorite dinosaur book to him to make him laugh:

"I stomp! And I chomp! There's no doubt - I'm a T-Rex!"

Thanks for that one, Aunt Theresa! :)

The other side of the exhibit hall was so incredibly random. There were bounce houses, face painting, dinosaur rides, dino themed games and a dinosaur dig (all for more $, of course!). But this dinosaur band with a Mickey and Snoopy was by far the most random.

It was Henry's favorite thing, by far! He sat in front of the dancing dinosaurs and clapped his hands with the beat. Of course, not while I tried to take a photo, but the rest of the time he was jamming out!

And Thomas thought the giant T-Rex head was awesome. And he didn't even notice the poor guy was missing four teeth. T-Rex needs some dentures! There were a few other dinosaurs missing hands - T-Rex Planet has seem some rough trips apparently...

They had a few small things for the little guys to play with - like these dinosaur eggs they could crawl in. Henry got super into the dinosaur spirit and was roaring at his dad through the hole in the egg. Scary Henry!

Thomas opted for a ride on the Thomas sized Triceratops. He seemed pretty excited about his dino ride - even if it wasn't moving. :)

The amount of stuff they had for sale was pretty phenomenal. Thomas was attacking me with this stick dinosaur while I was trying to get photos of the spread and the amount of bouncy houses in the background. He definitely did not get that to take home with us....!

As we were leaving, Thomas got into the dino spirit and started attacking the giant inflatable dinosaur head - so much for going after an appropriate sized foe... Lucky for him, this guy didn't put up much of a fight. ;)

Headed back to the car, we noticed that the giant kites were out at the park. We have seen them randomly driving home from daycare and Thomas gets super excited about them. So we decided to detour to the park to let them run around, watch the kites and just enjoy the beautiful day!

The big kites were mesmerizing to watch. They were all tied off on long lines and mostly stayed in place, but their tails would slowly undulate in the breeze. It was so calming! Then the little triangular kite went up in the air and started doing flips and diving all over the place. They were several guys with all of these kites and that guy was super intent on his kite manipulation. I don't know if they are all part of a kite club, but we're glad they were all there!

And I taught Thomas a critical life skill of blowing dandelion fuzz! I showed him how to pick out the nicely rounded ones and demonstrated how to blow all of the seeds off. I didn't show him this trick at home because we don't really want a lawn full of dandelions, but the park is pretty much already been overrun, so what harm could it do at this point??

He got it down quick! I was so excited to see if I could get a photo of the seeds flying off! And I did. But it also captured the amount of spit that comes with him trying to blow hard. So I officially apologize to anyone who has eaten one of his birthday cakes - you probably got a ton of toddler germs.

I am so sorry!

But you are all still invited back next year for more! ;)

All-in-all it was a great day. So the dinosaurs weren't like being at Jurassic Park, but the boys had fun and we spent the afternoon out having fun as a family. That counts as a win in my book! :)

Just maybe not worth doing again next year... ;)

New Classes!

Both of the boys have moved up classes at school. And it wasn't nearly as traumatizing as I was worried it was going to be. I think I had the hardest time with my kids suddenly being considered a Pre-Schooler and a Toddler. It's too soon! Those are my babies!

Henry was a little hesitant the first two days on drop-off, but he warmed up to the new class pretty fast. I think he loves being a "big boy"! He was pretty much destroying the baby room with his rambunctiousness, so the teachers are probably happy too. ;)

Now instead of being on the opposite side of a window, they are all the way down the hall from each other... Henry loves leading the way over to his brother, he doesn't even wait for me to catch up!

Thomas seems pretty pumped about his new class as well. He had been stressing over the move up and had told me several times he didn't want to move up to the new class. So of course I was stressing about it too! But he moved with 4 of his friends, is back with his bff and has a teacher he already knows - it was the easiest move ever!

Henry gets to work trying to destroy this room as well. Henry is pretty much a destroyer of everything he thinks he can. Good thing he is so darn cute about it...!

We had to revert back to using the sticker chart again. Turns out it is pretty typical for kids to regress - especially if they are stressed about something. So we picked out a super cool fire truck and stickers for him to have something to focus on. It has worked like a champ and he just finished it off today - as you can tell, he was pretty excited about it!

Here's hoping with the big move all wrapped up, we'll be back to normal. A mom can dream anyhow... ;)

May in iPhotos

I feel like I didn't take many photos this month with the Nikon. It just sat in the cabinet all month with a few minor exceptions. Poor camera! Luckily the best camera is the one you have with you and my trusty iPhone is *always* with me. So I thought it would be fun to do a recap of the month in random photos. :)

Henry is big enough to ride in the Car Cart at our grocery store! Thomas was super excited the first time they were both in there! That didn't last as Henry was trying to turn "his" steering wheel - chaos ensued... Well that was cute while it lasted. ;)

Went to pick Thomas up one afternoon and he managed to get a boo-boo from the time I pulled up and saw him through the fence to the time I got to him. I think he was running to give Henry a hug (they let him out to play when they saw me coming) and tripped on the stairs to the slide. He looked super bummed and adorable all at once. As a side note - when one toddler gets an ice pack, all of the other kids suddenly have boo-boos that need an ice pack!

Since the weather is nicer, we've been trying to hit the park after work. I thought I could carry Henry in the back pack and get a workout while going up the hill. Bad idea... He is sooo heavy and the hill is sooo steep! He doesn't look all too thrilled about it either.

But they both were happy to be hanging out at the park. Thomas introduced his little brother to the springy car! Henry is having fun, irregardless of the seriousness in his expression...

And he got to ride on the swing set! He didn't quite match the excitement of Thomas' first swing ride, but he seemed to enjoy it. :)

Thomas is getting much more proficient with taking photos - he's going to be quite the photographer! This was his birthday breakfast - we went to our favorite bagel shop before dropping Henry off at school. 

A fun afternoon at the museum! They mostly tried to stay as far away from each other as possible to ensure I was running around, but they did take mercy on me for a few minutes to play at the Lego table together. 

Henry was super pumped about the water table! I think more water ended up on the floor than back on the table, but that's why they have waterproof flooring underneath it, right??

Change of strategy on getting to the park! It's still a slog up the hill, but at least I don't feel like I need a chiropractor when I get up there. Henry and his expressions - you would think that boy is always unhappy. I swear he's not!

Oh and we finally got little man some shades. Thomas picked out the Thomas the Tank Engine ones for him (of course!).

Speaking of Thomas the Tank Engine - we got Thomas a super cool new train table! I figured we would put it up and it would immediately get torn apart, but we were wrong. Both boys love playing with it and really haven't done much damage to the set-up. Mom sent them both the awesome engineer hats with the Alaska Railroad Patches. Thomas will only wear it while playing with the trains because "It's a train hat" - can't argue with that I guess.

Apparently bath time is hilarious! Thomas shows this by giggling, Henry by screaming. For the record, their bathroom's acoustics are not ideal for a screaming Henry - my poor eardrums...!

Trip to the zoo! The wagon is perfect for the zoo - thankfully it is mostly small hills there. And I think this was the day before Mother's Day - the boys were super awesome and happy in honor of the upcoming day. ;)

I've been on a spree lately of trying to get the house spruced up. And the task of the week was hanging curtains. I got both of the kids curtains because their blackout shades were still letting in too much light on the sides. This inspired me to do curtains in our room as well. Unfortunately, I left the super heavy Stanley measuring tape on the ladder and when I went to move the ladder, it came crashing down on my toe. It turns out that amount of force *will* break your toe.

Luckily walking with a limp means no one will question the fact you are wearing sneakers to work for three weeks... "/

Good thing he's cute - I won't let just anyone steal my lime tortilla chips. He looks super guilty - I turned out for two seconds and he was already stuffing them in his mouth. This kid... 

There was a big sale at the Nordstrom's and one of my friends was showing me the awesome shoes she bought her daughter. Even the Stride-rites were reasonably priced! I have heard of how awesome they are, so I took Henry over to get a pair. Turns out, his feet are a little too pudgy for Stride-rites. Or most shoes...

Luckily the sales lady managed to find him a pair we could get his feet into. He seems pretty excited about them!

I didn't want Thomas to feel left out, so the next day we went and got him a new pair of sneakers as well! I sold him on them as "new shoes for soccer!" - he loves his Vans so much, he didn't even want to take them off to try on new pairs. Who doesn't want new shoes?? That's not my genetics, for sure!

Since it was lunch time, we decided to take the little man out for lunch before he had to go back to school for his nap time. We've taken him out a few times and he has done great! I was super worried about him throwing a fit when I took him back, so we talked about his first lunch outing for a week before doing it. That time he was super sad upon returning, but he managed to keep himself from crying. So we've kept up the tradition and he keeps getting better and better about it.

It's fun for us too - he's much more adorable than most of my coworkers (exception made for the one sitting next to him!). I can't wait for Henry to be old enough to take him as well, right now he is definitely in the "fit-throwing" category when we take him back... Soon though! :)

The Boys and Their Bikes

The days have been so beautiful recently - super sunny and warm enough for short sleeves. Yay for late Alaska spring! Thanks to the gorgeous weather, we've been spending more time outside when we get home. Since his birthday, Thomas has pretty much asked to ride his bike as soon as we get home every day!

Notice the safety gear is a little toned down in this photo. He held his feet up while going downhill the other day and started making some speed. He thought that was pretty cool and so the next time, he held up his feet and let go of the handles... Crash! He was wearing full gear then, so it wasn't a big deal, but since then he has clarified whether or not he intends on lifting his feet up or not. If he isn't planning on it, then he just wants to wear his helmet and not full safety gear. Seems reasonable to me!

Henry has graduated up to the tricycle that Aunt B and Uncle D bought for Thomas back while we were living with them. He can't pedal it, but he has done great at holding on and tries to climb on it every time we walk past it in the garage. Side note - Thomas picked out these super cool Thomas the Train shades for his little brother. 

Thomas leading the way around the yard! The yard is even turning green! The first few times we went around the yard, it wasn't freshly mowed and there were tiny pine cones all over the place. Thomas kept refusing to keep biking because "there's poop!" - I finally had to show him one up close to convince him that it wasn't poop. Now he points out the pinecones to me "It's not poop, momma!" 

These two! They both like their bikes and each other. Can't wait until we can hit the bike trails for real. :)

Thomas Turns Three!

You might have noticed we did the cupcakes at his school a day early - which was because we had fun plans for his actual birthday that didn't include school! 

I bought a handful of presents for Thomas because we always find ourselves muttering "Why are there so many toys in this house?!?" at least once a week. So I was a little surprised when Matt got in the present game and bought him this super awesome balance bike. I think someone at Tom's wedding was talking about how amazing they were and their kid went from balance bike to pedal bike in no time at all.

I can at least claim credit for the Thomas shirt and sweatshirt. :)

Henry did have to go to school for a little while after a late breakfast at the bagel shop. I gave Thomas a few options for his birthday and he went with seeing his first movie in a real theater. We didn't figure Henry was up to a movie, so he got to hang with his other buddies for a few hours. 

Thomas seemed pretty excited about the movie. We had a total of one option (Home) and it wasn't that exciting, but he sat through it like a champ. There may have been a slight incident with his jacket and the red Hi-C he was drinking, but it came out in the wash (whew!). 

Back home after a short nap, Thomas was ready to tackle the balance bike. I figure the learning period might have it's fair share of falls, so we went proactive on the safety gear. Also note his new shoes - that was unplanned. We just happened to walk by the shoe store after the movie and his dad couldn't pass up these super cute Vans. He's now referring to them as his "skateboard shoes".  

He's so proud of himself and his new balance bike. Lovely day for his birthday too! :)

And my best contribution to the day - his birthday cake! I sat down with him and looked at cake photos to let him pick out his favorite. He couldn't really choose between of two of them, so we ended up combining them for his awesome #3 racetrack cake. He was so concerned when I was putting the two cake rounds together - he was worried that I was giving him a 8 cake and not a 3. I promised him it would be a 3 once it was decorated!

The second cake Thomas liked was a combined "3" bundt cake covered in M&M's. So I figured I would just cover the sides of his Cars cake with M&M's. Waaaaaay more tedious than I planned... I didn't even get it finished before I had to go get Henry. Thankfully I had back-up and Brittney finished it off for me - so good to have friends with the same interests/talents! :)

Thomas loved his cake! He was still not convinced it wasn't an 8, but he was super excited about Mater and Lightning McQueen. (What are the odds the cake we copied had the exact same two cars?) And he did a great job of blowing the candles without spitting all over the cake - progress!

I'm so glad that Thomas loves chocolate cake. Because it's my favorite and I'm selfish like that. :)

Henry lost his shirt for cake time. It was a proactive move because he was wearing his super awesome shirt and he's not the neatest eater. He's learning to use a fork though, so that's exciting! 

See what a cool shirt he was rocking? We got both of the boys Hawaiian outfits while we were there and they both seem to like them. They haven't worn the shorts yet, but they are rocking the shirts. As a side note - he looks huge in this photo. It's not misleading, the little guy is not so little these days. He's been screaming through all of Thomas' old clothes. They are going to be wearing the same size pretty soon... "/

Full disclosure, I suck at wrapping presents. Like I'm really, really bad. I had 4 presents that weren't completely covered. But it was late last night and I pretty much didn't care. I don't think Thomas even noticed. So to anyone who think my cakes look awesome, just know that my presents look awful. We all have our talents and limits! 

Thomas was so cute opening his presents this year. He would open a present and then give the present giver a hug. Ok, there was a little bit of prompting, but he was super in to it. I'm not sure he wasn't too exuberant with Aunt B...! She did give him some pretty awesome presents, so that might be why. :)

I'm not actually sure who was more excited about the punch balloons that Aunt B brought. Henry was carrying this thing around for most of the evening. It was waaaaaaay too inflated though - it popped later when Abby was playing with it. And she wasn't even fazed my it - she's a tough kid!

I think that the highlight of the evening was the play food. I bought two sets of play food in the post-Christmas discounts and have had them hidden in the closet since them. All three of the kids were so excited with all of the fake foods. The ice creams were the most popular, but the tacos were a close second. They were holding them up and yelling about "Taco Tuesday" - a reference to the Lego Movie that Abby was the first to mention and was repeated over and over and over...

All-in-all I think it was a great birthday and Thomas seemed pretty worn out from all the fun. I'll take that as a success. I can't believe he is already three, he's growing up way too fast! Though to be fully honest, I love this stage. He is full of questions and random thoughts, but still wants his momma and dada more than anything else. I'll take that as long as it lasts! :)

2 Years, 364 Days...

For Thomas' birthday last year, the extent of involvement for his schoolmates was sending in cupcakes. I debated about having a party for him, but it ended up not working out to have a party (too many birthdays too close together in his class!). Instead, I decided that having a little party at his class would probably be equally as exciting for him.

But we didn't want to skimp on awesome party favors for the other kiddos! I was getting off cheap for the party anyhow, so why not? While we wandered around the party store, Thomas couldn't decide on a theme, so we pretty much got one of everything that he is currently into. 

He also picked out the cupcake wrappers and the dinosaur sprinkles - not what I would have thought he liked, but he was very insistent. And I tried my best to not overdo it on the icing so his teachers wouldn't hate me. I found it challenging to be so restrained... But on the bright side, it meant I had some extra icing for me - woo!

We told his teacher about our plan and she covered the tables in paper and let the kids play with stickers and markers until we got there. Easy clean up and entertainment all in one! Henry got to come to the party as well - he loves hanging out with the big kids!

Cupcake time! The kids are all so different with their eating habits - some of them just ate the frosting, some refused to eat the frosting, some nibbled, some almost ate the wrapper. Henry was in the "not eating at all" camp - he was more interested in the yogurt than the cupcake. Is he really my kid??

Look at him - covered in yogurt... Not icing.

Sigh...

I love his classroom with all of the tiny furniture and artwork on the walls. And look how bright it is - they have so many windows! I think it looks like a fun place to hang out all day (they mostly seem to agree)!

The only downside to their school is also an awesome thing. Thomas and Henry have classrooms right next to each other and there is a window between the two rooms. So I can't grab one of them for lunch or a doctor's appt without the other one noticing. I've resorted to doing Mission Impossible style walks down the hallway when I need to grab one of them. 

They love being next to each other though - Henry is always banging on the window to get his big brother's attention. So it's pretty obvious why why couldn't exclude Henry from the birthday festivities! Which went off really well, yay for easy parties! I have no doubt, they will get more complicated in the future, so I'll take what I can get for now. :)