And One More Museum!

It feels like the time has flown by and I have tried to squeeze in as many visits as I possibly can while we are in Texas. I devoted the last few days to spending more time with family - I figured they come up to visit us, so I shouldn't ignore them when I'm staying with them. :)

But as I mentioned, I met up with several friends and never thought to pull out the camera. One of these was my best friend from High School, Katie. She's actually getting married this weekend and thanks to my flights, I am going to miss it. I was pretty bummed, but luckily it worked out that we got to meet up for dinner last week and had a great time catching up with the (way too many) years that had gone by. And in another coincidence, she is getting married to another High School friend, Dub, who runs the company that puts out the fabulous Serendipity salt that comes with Chicken Express meals. Who am I to pass up a perfect excuse to celebrate a friend's upcoming wedding by buying fried chicken?!? 

Speaking of friends - Anna was super happy to have all of her friends back! Dad said she was moping around the house since Mom and I took off for San Antonio. She and Henry were playing peek-a-boo with the window in the box. I didn't manage to get a photo of Henry sticking his head out, but I did get Anna patiently waited for him to do it again. (He didn't - boo!)

I asked the boys last night if they wanted to go to the zoo or the museum today and Thomas responded that he wanted to go to the "Zooseum". I wasn't quite sure how to interpret that one, but when it started raining this morning, it made the museum the easy choice.

The Fort Worth Science Museum has changed quite a bit since I was a kid. I was happy to see they still had a dinosaur exhibit, but instead of being wowed by all the fossils, Thomas plopped himself down in front of a computer and refused to leave it. I got him away from it a few times to check out something neat, but then he would go "I need to go back to my pu-puter!" Sigh...

I may or may not have drug him away from the computer kicking and screaming, but once he saw the grocery store in the children's section, he forgot all about the computer!

It was a pretty cool set-up that looked like a miniature grocery store. He was running around like a mad man throwing groceries in his cart and then checking out before starting all over. The older kids had a "system" and were complaining to each other that the little kids were "ruining" it. I steered Thomas towards this nice young lady who hadn't made any such complaints. The other older kids need to cool their jets!

Once the older kids cleared out though, Thomas was just as excited to ring up his own groceries! The food goes on the belt and there is a wheel on the side to make the conveyor belt move to the scanner. 

Then you scan the food, drop it in the bucket and "ring" up the price. It would have been cool if the items actually had a barcode that worked, but Thomas didn't seem to care at all. 

Henry finally came over to check out the grocery store and immediately filled up his cart with bread. What a surprise for my carb lover! I think he actually put a few more loaves of bread in there after I took the photo. 

He still had room for a few more groceries though! He is a little too short to reach the tall items on the top shelf, but his older brother was more than happy to help him get a jug of milk. Yay team-work!

Henry got tired of the grocery store eventually and wandered around to check out the rest of the play space. Thomas was more than happy to keep playing grocery store until he heard the distinctive sound of an ambulance wail. Henry had found a play ambulance and it made noises! Thomas bee-lined over to the ambulance to convince Henry to let him drive.

Ha - fat chance on that!

Instead, Thomas found a lab coat and played doctor for awhile. It was actually pretty adorable - they had a bunch of baby dolls and you could weigh them, dress them or "bathe" them. Thomas was taking his baby care duties quite seriously. 

I figured Henry wouldn't be too interested in the babies, but I was completely wrong on that. He was so gentle carrying this little baby around and was insistent that Nonni help his dress his baby.  I have never seen Henry be so careful - it was also quite adorable! :)

But unsurprisingly, they ended up back at the grocery store. Nonni and I got to sit at a bench off to the side and just chill while the did the shop, check-out and re-stock routine over and over again. I texted Matt and told him we have got to figure out how to make a pretend grocery store in our house. They would play for hours with no parental intervention - which sounds heavenly! :)

Finally we made it back to Grannie and Pawpaw's house! Plus Aunt Jo made it over to hang out. She was trying to un-teach them the Connect 4 "rules" that Grannie had taught them the other day. I appreciate the effort, Aunt Jo, but teaching rules to a 3 and 1 year old is a pretty thankless task. ;)

Hanging at the Thurmonds

I had these great friends, John & Allie, when I was an undergrad that were basically my older siblings in the geology department. I even inherited their office as a grad student when they moved to Norway. Matt and I went to go visit them in Norway twice and I always hoped they would move back to Texas. Of course as soon as I moved to Alaska, they did! Sigh... 

We visited them last time I was in Houston and Allie threatened me with some sort of harm if I came back to Houston and didn't stay with them. So this trip, I took her up on that offer / threat. 

John and Allie are both super techie - I have always wondered who would buy Amazon Echo or Dash buttons. John and Allie did! A 3D printer? Of course! A Hovertrax? Duh.

So imagine my surprise when I went to grind some coffee this morning and all they had was a hand grinder! What?!? It took me forever to grind enough coffee - you can see how bored Thomas is waiting for me to finish. Ha!

Thomas was more than happy to play with all of the forgotten gadgets from their kids though! The boys and I are sleeping in the play room and it was like a treasure trove of toys for the two of them. I think this morning he was obsessed with this "spy" listening set.

Also, I discovered this coffee cup in the cabinet and Ken's was one of my favorite restaurants from our Hawaii trip this year. Small world! Or great minds think alike...?

We had stayed out too late last night for the boys to get a bath and I had already psyched the boys up on the jacuzzi tub... So we did a bath after breakfast! Thomas is always super curious about jets in any jacuzzi tubs, but the jets are always so high that it isn't really possible to turn them on with the amount of water they boys bathe in. But this tub had tiny jets at the very bottom, so we could turn them on.

Thomas was super excited about them - at first. 

Thomas decided a short jacuzzi session was all he really needed, but Henry really seemed to like them. So we pulled Thomas out of the tub first and turned them back on for Henry. He loved the jets and the bubbles. That's my boy! :)

The second bath they got, they were both demanding jacuzzi and bubbles. I didn't get any photos, but the bubbles got a little out of hand. I think they were over Henry's head at one point. Which was thankfully hilarious to him instead of freaking him out. Whew! Yay bubbles!

Allie became the true hero though, when she pulled out Jack's old hot wheels tracks. The boys were in heaven. And there were cars flying everywhere!

There was a lot of interest in the hot wheels from everyone - even their cat Onyx! She would swat at the cars as they flew down the track. Thomas was not too happy about this and kept telling "Kitty" he didn't want to play with her. Poor Onyx just wanted in on all the fun!

Also I'm pretty sure Mia was procrastinating on doing her homework by helping with the hot wheels. I can't really blame her - they were way more exciting than math problems!

Jack was ironically the only one not interested in his old cars. And I apparently confused both Jack & Mia when I was using the flash for the camera. Mia kept looking around for the source of the (super obvious) flash and then Jack was complaining it was too bright when he figured out what it was. This photo may or may not have been me trying to drive him crazy with it. 

I can't wait until my boys are old enough to really drive crazy. :)

Of course, Allie was not content with the amazing amount of cool points she had already racked up in one day, so she decided the boys needed some trampoline time. They were soooooo excited to jump on it. Thomas started bouncing right away, but Henry was mostly focused on staying upright. 

(And it's hard to see, but there was a net around the trampoline, Matt. Safety first!)

Henry managed a few bounces before he toppled over again. 

I actually had to leave for my dinner plans pretty soon after they started bouncing, but I could see that they were well on their way to having a fun-filled evening. If our yard wasn't covered in snow half of the year, I would consider buying one of these!

The next morning, Thomas decided to sleep in a little since he had a stressful night of trying to hit or kick me every few minutes. (That's karma - I was apparently a pretty restless little kid when in my parent's bed). Henry was ready to face the day though, so we went downstairs and hung out with the big kids until they had to catch their school bus.

Also Henry is now obsessed with these "special yogurts". Allie may have bought the jumbo pack, but it is not going to last the few days we are here. Sorry Allie!

Nonni and Thomas finally joined us and we had a surprise for them! John had shown me the new Star Wars trailer before he left for work and it was awesome! The boys haven't seen any of the movies, but I bought the boys (ok, for myself...) a small Millennium Falcon and Tie Fighter to play with. When Thomas kept asking what they were, I showed them a few clips of the movies on YouTube. 

He was super excited about the preview! Until the Tie Fighters started shooting at the Millennium Falcon... He was yelling "Stop! Leave the Millennium Falcon alone!" at the TV. It was pretty darn adorable. Nonni, who introduced her daughters to Star Wars, also loved it! :)

Back to the hot wheels! This was really the best arrangement we came up with yesterday. Allie was trying to remember all of the different track configurations and I was absolutely no help - I was more interested in playing with them than building them. After running interference on the Onyx / hot wheels situation, I thought I might try to make a few different tracks to give Thomas options if she decided to sprawl across one... 

Success! I had to steal a dining room chair and move over to the rug so the tracks would stop slipping on the hardwood floor, but I got several different layouts accomplished. I was so proud of my handiness that I texted a photo to Allie. She responded by asking if John had done it.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Allie...

Also in the background you can see *one* of the monster trucks she bought for the boys. I told you she was racking up major cool points with them!

John may not have been track building, but he did make us a super cool souvenir! Remember that 3D printer I mentioned earlier? He had this clever idea to make a vase using the silhouette of a face. He had done it twice before and said if I could take him a good profile picture of the boys, he would try to make me one for each. The one above is Thomas' face - a few people I showed it to didn't see it at first. The best way to describe it is that the outside edge of the vase is a face staring in. I would post the profile photo to make it easier but while it was a good profile, it was not a great photo...

Henry's face was a little bit impossible to make a vase from though. The first vases John made were for older kids and apparently babies have much deeper profile curves that the machine just couldn't make work. He tried about 6 different variations and they all kept collapsing in on themselves while printing. Oh well!

But I love the Thomas one! And watching the printer in action really made me want one. Unfortunately the only thing I could think of printing was cookie cutters and icing tips. Well and maybe a face vase once Henry gets a little older. (Unless John copyrights the process before then...!)

It was so much fun staying with our friends and super hard to leave Houston behind (again!). But as much fun as the boys had, I doubt there will be any disagreements when I plan the next trip back. And for the record, Allie, Thomas asked where we were going about 15 minutes after we left - and several times on the way home. Every time was met with "I want to go back to the house. Allie's house!" You certainly know how to make a great impression! :)

Thanks again for having us and we miss all of you already!

Sunday, Busy Sunday!

I have to confess that I am not doing a great job about getting photos of everything. I managed to get a ton of photos of my friend's kids this weekend, but not so much my actual friends!

Then my dear friend Sonja, hosted a super fun get together last night with several of my Houston friends and I got zero photos. Please don't think that means anything - I had a blast seeing all of you! I was just more interested in talking to you than taking photos. :)

Anyhow, guilt aside - on to the Houston part of this trip:

Shipley's donuts were pretty high on the list of must-haves. The donut stores in Anchorage aren't awful, but they aren't that great either. Of course, it doesn't look like Shipley's was really on their A-game this morning. Look at the lame sprinkle distribution. Pfffft...

It still tasted delicious!

We managed to get up and moving in enough time to make it to the Vineyard for the early service. I was really excited about going to our old church and seeing all of our friends. Not everyone is there - our small group has definitely scattered across the country, but it was still great to be back. 

We even had lunch with Tracy, Jared and their kiddos after service. So much like old times!

Well except that Henry was never part of our lunches. And their kids have gotten so much bigger! Again - I did horrible on taking photos. I only pulled it out to take photos to show Matt how excited the boys were about good chips & salsa (hard to come by up here!). 

The final destination for the day was to go hang out with one of my favorite former coworkers, Ian and his wife, Jamie. The boys were super happy to go outside and run around in their yard for most of the evening. Henry and Ian had spent a fair amount of time throwing the ball for Rocky. Once Rocky was inside though, Thomas commandeered the ball thrower all for himself. 

Henry was pretty excited just to run across this small bridge and attack his momma. He would make a good troll! :)

Of course as soon as the plates hit the table, Henry climbed up and tried to grab one. I swear, I am not starving the poor guy!

The best part though, was when Thomas was not eating the delicious food Jamie had prepared. Jamie, having raised two boys herself, had this under control! She still had a few utensils left over from when her two were little (now both in college!) and one of them was this super cool airplane spoon. I missed the start of it, but by the time I caught on, Thomas was all over opening his hangar (mouth) when Jamie was swooping a plane-full of food his direction. It was awesome! :)

Another great day seeing so many friends. I have missed you all and so glad you made time for me!! :)

Hanging at the Larsons

I read an article earlier this year about living far away from your good friends - it basically boiled down to the fact that of course it was hard to miss birthdays and children being born and all the big stuff, but you would underestimate how hard it is to miss the everyday things. And how when you got to visit them, you just want to hang out and see how their life is on a daily basis. It really rang true for me and how I miss taking the random road trip to spend the weekend with my bestie. So I made sure that apart from the awesome girl's weekend, I would get time to just hang out with her and the family. 

The only thorn in this plan was that Josh and Anna were headed off to Gilmer before I was getting back. I was super bummed about missing my super awesome god-daughter who has gotten so entertaining to text with. Luckily, it worked out that Theresa and I got to go have lunch at school with her on Monday. She didn't know that we were coming and was so excited that both her mom and Aunt Jen were there. It was awesome!

I didn't take my fancy schmancy camera in the school, so an iPhone selfie will have to do! :)

Back to the present! I may or may not have planned my route down I-35 just to stop and get kolaches in West, Texas. I think Rachael thought I was a little crazy to risk the awful traffic to go there, but the gamble paid off and there was no crazy traffic. And the Czech Stop gives free cookies to kids! Except for the chocolate smeared all over Henry's car seat, it was win-win!

The only fail? My kids wouldn't eat the kolaches this morning! Thomas wouldn't even try them!

I am unclear on whether or not Henry tried them, but I doubt it. How could he not wolf them down if he had tried a bite of that delicious strawberry filling?

I worry about my kids sometimes... 

Wallace made me feel a little better in the fact that he wouldn't eat it either. At least it was a trifecta failure... "/

Whatever - more for the rest of us! :)

We debated what to do on our day of hanging out and the most ambitious thing we decided on was going to the . (Also a last minute HEB run sans kids just to make me super sad about the grocery stores in Alaska.)

Meredith was much happier and not stuck to her mom's side today. As a matter of fact, this girl is a runner! It took all of us to keep her close by. She would just bolt off at a moment's notice. Luckily, the playground was pretty big and not at all close to the road. So it was more of an exercise issue than a safety one. ;)

I was so worried about my boys being outside in the Texas sun with their super pale Alaskan "tans". I made sure they had hats and sunscreen while totally forgetting both for myself. Sounds about right, huh?

They had the same freeform green blob merry-go-round like the park near our house. I think it's supposed to be safer - maybe? Anyhow, Meredith was all about it!

Henry wasn't quite as sure about it...

And Wallace *hated* it!

Haha - there's no pleasing everyone!

Justin was actually the one who mentioned the park as a possibility, so he met us up there with James and Lauren. (Poor Rachael had to work and missed playground time!) You can see that James is not super excited about the fact Henry had his ball. I can neither confirm nor deny said ball was stolen from James, but I did make Henry return it. 

You can also tell from James' outfit that we were expecting some water time. The park has a splash pad, which sounded just perfect for the heat. But either it was broken or none of the adults were smarter than the splash pad - we couldn't get it to turn on. I think we were more upset about that than the kids were. 

Lauren was the easiest one to keep tabs on, she was more than happy to just hang out in the shade. She only complained once when she got hungry. And Justin was Super Dad - he was prepared for every possibility with the kids and even had extra snacks and water bottles for sharing. Which was great considering I had not packed anything for mom or myself.

Sigh... I'll learn one of these days.

Wallace was much happier playing on the slides than the merry-go-round. :)

But the happiest person by far was Meredith when she plopped herself down and started throwing dirt everywhere. Maybe this girl has a future in geology - dirt is really just eroded rocks! ;)

Thomas was again showing off his super awesome climbing skills! I'm not sure I could manage a climb with the equivalent span... So I think he's a brave and agile little guy! :)

James was not so into sliding down the slides, but he loved playing catch with any willing adult. He would bounce that ball down the slide and laugh hysterically as we had to chase after it. 

What a cutie patootie! I feel like Meredith is the one kiddo I just don't know all that well, so I tried to hang out with her as much as my boys would allow. Luckily I still had help, since my mom is nicely tagging along this whole week! :)

Back at the house and eating leftovers for lunch. It was a new recipe that we had tried out the night before and all of us were super excited for the leftovers. I need to get that recipe from her!

The rest of the day was spent with my boys fighting naps followed by the chaos of kids happily running, chasing and playing all day. I tried to get as many photos as I could, but this one was by far my favorite. I totally messed up the camera settings and this photo came out completely black. When I pulled it in to Lightroom to see if it was salvageable, I realized I caught the moment Henry had totally crashed and burned - ha!

For the record, he was fine and it did not deter his enthusiasm at all. 

Also for the record, I am amazed at how much detail was in a totally black photo! Go D750!

Theresa had tried a few Blue Box meal / food deliveries and I was pretty intrigued by the whole concept and how good the recipes actually were. Of course, no meal delivery services are available in Alaska, so we decided to make one of the meals while I was there. And I have to say, it was pretty delicious.

Sigh - the never-ending hardships of living in Alaska. 

And of course, Henry never all that far away when food is involved so he helped me make dinner. And by that I mean he happily gnawed on all the corn cobs after I cut most of the kernels off. That boy...

After dinner, the bike gang got a little crazy. And more adorable in their pj's. :)

That is until Meredith commandeered the iPad and suddenly all of the kids were clustered around trying to play the same game. Well at least it's not just my kids that are a little *too* interested in electronics. ;)

Play-doh time this morning! Henry found it in the cabinet and suddenly everyone wanted to play with it. I have to admit that my boys don't get much / any play-doh time at home. It just seems like such a mess and I have enough OCD that the colors being mixed makes me want to throw them away. 

But the boys had such fun playing with it. Thomas was telling me all about this snake he made. Maybe I will change my mind on the play-doh.

Maybe...

The Perot and a Road Trip

First things first, I don't make a trip to Dallas without stopping by Cafe Brazil. That was the case when we were visiting from Houston and it is certainly the case with a 4000 mile trek. Although this time, I did branch out a little...!

Haha - not with my order! Don't be silly - their crepes make my tummy deliriously happy!

No, we tried out a different location. They have somehow exploded to 11 locations and the Deep Ellum one was right down the street from our destination of the morning. It was still as awesome as our original. Man, I have missed their food & coffee! (And they have the best kids menu I have seen at a restaurant!)

Grannie was even prepared to entertain the boys at the first sign of unhappiness. She made them these super cool lanyards with a big button so that they could thread on felt squares. Henry didn't quite have the dexterity for it, but Thomas had a blast with his. Henry liked his as well, but there was more swinging than threading on his end of the table...

After breakfast, we headed over to the Perot museum. My parents had taken Thomas there when I first moved up to Alaska and they had to entertain a 15 month old him for a week. It sounded like it had an awesome kid's area, so I thought we could wear the boys out before hitting the road for a few hours. Before you even get to the museum, there were already things to play with. The musical "forest" had all kinds of ways to make music, including dropping pebbles through the radiator looking thing in the background and lots of things to beat on.

Almost to the museum and we got distracted again by the frog sculptures. There were several rows of these frogs with varying amounts of the frog sticking out of the ground. The boys were climbing and jumping all over the amphibians! Which is where my parents found us when they arrived - 20 minutes and we still hadn't made it in the front door. :)

But once we made it inside, the fun just continued! Thomas beelined for this truck and pretended to steer and honk the horn for a long time. He allowed his brother to join him, but not to actually drive. Henry amazingly outlasted him and finally got a chance to drive when Thomas went off to explore the farmer's market. 

This little market was so cool! It had grocery "lists" with several items and how many you were supposed to buy. He was so precise with each of the cards and was running around counting and throwing things in his basket. I think I need to put him in charge of grocery shopping back home! 

Henry was less interested in the shopping and more interested in throwing the produce he collected into the chutes. It would land in the produce bins and be put back on the shelf by other children or parents. It was amazing how fast the food found it's way back to where it belonged! 

While Thomas was content to hang out at the Farmer's Market for at least an hour, Henry wanted to check out the rest of this awesome place. The water play was intriguing and he liked moving the boats around, but he wasn't too sure about this wild sprayer.

I finally convinced Henry to go outside (Thomas was really not leaving the market!) and he happily plopped down into the sand. Until his Pawpaw swept some sand back into the pit for him and that got him more interested in sweeping than playing. Then he realized I was off to the side instead of next to him and he ran over for a quick hug before returning to sweeping. What a cutie!

I finally went to see what Thomas was up to - one of the grandparents had reported back that he was using a plate and a fake dollar to pay for his groceries. He was swiping it on the side of the plate like it was a credit card. Well that actually makes perfect sense since I never have cash. 

True to their word, he was happy to show me how he was paying for all of his groceries! Swipe, swipe, swipe!

How many grandparents does it take to put a toddler's shoes back on?

Four, apparently! :)

I finally convinced Thomas to leave the market and we found this system of conveyors that you could crank to move blocks up to the top level to make buildings. He was super into that!

Henry thought it was cool as well, but didn't understand that he had to keep turning the wheel in the same direction. He was whipping it back and forth like he was steering a pirate ship. Luckily, the belt only moved one direction, so it still made some progress!

I was way more entertained by this wall of bubble mirrors than the kids were. Mirror selfie! 

Thomas finally made his way to the outside, but was more entertained by hiding in the little tool shed and jumping out than playing in the sand box. 

Even the staircase in the Perot is exciting - it plays different music notes on each step. When I finally convinced the two of them to go, they were super happy to get to play on the musical steps one last time. It was obviously designed by someone who knew how hard it is to convince kids to leave. :)

On the road again! I always forget what a long drive it is from Dallas to San Antonio... The boys fell asleep as soon as we got on the highway, so we held off on stopping for lunch until they had gotten a decent nap in. And there just happened to be a Chick-fil-A shortly after they woke up. I think Henry was as excited about it as I was!

When we finally made it to Theresa's house, the boys were pretty tired of being in the car. There is a big room upstairs that is the playroom for her three kiddos and when I lost Henry for a few minutes, I found him up there surrounded by every possible he could pull out.

He was in heaven!

Wallace was super excited about all of the friends he had to play with! Rachael and Theresa live really close to each other, so she brought her two littles over to be part of the greeting party.

There was so much excitement and playing going on that it was hard to keep track of where everyone was. Thankfully Theresa has a very kid friendly house, so they could run around and have a blast without me having to worry about what they might be getting into. But it also made for some cute moments where they needed to take a quick break from all the playing. 

And I got to meet Lauren! I've seen many cute pictures of her since she was born, but hadn't have a chance to meet her yet. She seemed totally chill with all of the craziness going on around her - that will serve her well in life, I'm sure. :)

The only little I didn't get any photos of was Meredith - she was a little obsessed with her mom and refused to leave Theresa's side. Don't worry, I'll get her tomorrow!

Dinosaur Eggs

After a long and exciting day at the fair, hanging out with Matt's parents for a day seemed like a relaxing choice before taking off on the remainder of the Texas trip. We actually got in last night, but the boys were pretty worn out for the rest of the evening, so play time didn't really get going until today!

Grannie had set up all kinds of fun toys in the living room for them to play with. But yet - with all these toys - they still wanted to play with the same exact one. Shocking...!

Some of the toys were even the same ones that Matt had grown up with. I have no idea which ones, but this telephone *looked* pretty old. :)

Thomas had a full conversation with another "Thomas" even asking him if he was having fun with his mommy. I assumed the answer was affirmative because he responded with "That's good!" Henry mostly just put it up to his ear, pretended to dial and said "Hello??"

I was in the front room for a while trying to get caught up on the blog (a never-ending task), so I missed the chaos that was happening in the kitchen. Until I walked in and saw this! Oh no! Grannie assured me that she had okay-ed the emptying of the tupperware drawer. Though I am quite certain she hadn't anticipated the kitchen rug going airborne... 

I redirected them toward a calmer activity of puzzles with Grannie while I tried to somewhat clean up the mess. Henry was pretty excited about holding the puzzle pieces, but refused to relinquish them so anyone could complete said puzzle- ha!

This bird was off in the corner and would start tweeting if it was bumped or there was a loud noise. Henry was fascinated by this thing - I think he thought it was a real bird. Grannie then gave it to him to have in the car.

That bird tweeted at me for the next 8 days every time I accelerated, braked, turned a corner or hit a bump.

That bird also met an untimely demise at the end of 8 days.

Sorry Grannie. It "accidentally" got crushed.

By my boot.

Whoopsie! :)

But the favorite part of the day was when Grannie told the boys about the dinosaur eggs she had for them. I had no idea what she was talking about, but when she requested a hammer from Pawpaw, I got interested pretty quick!

Look at how excited Thomas got when he got handed a hammer. That worries me a little...!

Unfortunately for him, he wasn't very coordinated with the hammer and the dinosaur "eggs" were frozen blocks of ice that kept sliding away from him. Pawpaw had to step in to help with the "hatching" of the eggs. 

The dinosaur! 

The eggs were actually made by filling a balloon with water and a tiny dinosaur, then freezing it. Once you took the balloon off, it looked like a big egg. Grannie and their cousin Noah had made them a few weeks earlier and the boys loved them! Who am I kidding, I thought they were awesome too!

Henry isn't too sure about the dinosaurs. I bet he's trying to decide if he can eat it... ;)

Henry gets his chance to play with the hammer. Once we hatched all of the dinosaurs, we let the boys play at hitting the small pieces of leftover ice. Note the location of the hammer - Henry is definitely leaning towards being a lefty (just like our dear friend, Justin, that we met for lunch!).

This kind of destruction was really up Thomas' alley apparently, he attacked all of the ice chunks until there wasn't anything left to hammer. Just look at the dedication on that guy's face - no ice is safe around him!

All-in-all it was a fun day for the boys and a relaxing day for me. Back on the road again in the morning! No rest for those that have scattered friends and family scattered across Texas... :)

Texas State Fair!!!!!

I absolutely did not plan my trip to Texas around the State Fair. But I was waffling on the dates until I saw that the fair would still be happening. It was the straw that broke the camel's back if you will. Fitting, since the fair usually breaks the scale! Ha! :)

I was so excited about taking the boys, but also a little bit worried about their ability to remain excited about the fair while walking around. There is just so much to do and see (and eat!). I had great plans of Thomas being a super champ and walking, while I could push Henry around in the stroller. 

You can all see how well I learned from being too confident on the plane ride, huh? Even better was the fact I forgot the stroller...

Luckily, I had two things going for me - my mom came along for the fair and my dad said "Don't they rent strollers?" when I panicked at breakfast (Waffle House!) about the fact I had forgotten to pack it. Not only do they have rentals - they have double wide rentals with a sun shade! Perfect for my two pale Alaskan boys! 

Henry does not look so sure about this whole "fair" thing. Or maybe he was mad because we had snagged a pudding sample at a booth and I hadn't let him eat it yet. Who knows?

I'm kidding.

Of course it's the pudding. 

I thought it we did something for the boys right away, they would get more excited! Luckily we wandered right by story time just before it was starting. They got their pudding and then they got to sing songs and listen to a story. *And* it was Pete the Cat - one of their favorites! 

Then I got a treat - Fletcher's corn dog! Not our usual first stop for food, but it was closer and I figured we would make up for it later. It's not like I would come to the fair and skip all my favorites! 

Unimpressed with the minuscule amount of corn dog their momma was sharing with them, the boys opted to enjoy their apple sauce pouches instead. 

Henry is primed up with tasty treats and ready to check out the rest of this fun-filled fair!

Mommy (as in me) is already worn out and asks Nonni if she would be so kind as to go get me the crazy sounding S'mores beer. I had to relinquish my license to rent the stroller and was worried they wouldn't give it to me.

Verdict on the beer? While the beer part is tasty, a marshmallow fluff / graham cracker crumb rim is just as gross as it sounds. As is a marshmallow soaked in milk stout. 

I know it's hard to see him, but Big Tex is right behind us! You can barely see his boots... It's not Nonni's fault - there were so many people trying to get photos that if you could see Big Tex, there were people all over the place. I like this one better anyhow. You can see how delightfully red all three of us are in the 95° heat.

I swear Henry was having fun. Frowning seems to be his default face today. Maybe it's the 95°...?

When the boys started to get a little fussy and wanting to run around in the crowds, I thought we should divert to the kid's area. I had no idea there was a kid's area, but Heather (who was also randomly in Texas) had discovered it the day before. The boys happily ran straight to the craft tent (and I was sooooo happy for the shade!). 

After making cards, they also needed to make kites and then color some before they were ready to move on. I was happy to sit for a second. What else could this magical kid's area have to entertain the littlest Texans?

Sand boxes?!?

Again - he is having a blast. I swear!

A giant Spin Art?!? I was bummed Thomas didn't actually get to squeeze the paint, but he seemed just as excited to tell the guy which colors to use for his spin art. The sign said for 3 and older, but once I saw how "difficult" it was, I took Henry over there. He knows his colors well enough to get the job done! :)

They even had a little booth for temporary tattoos! Thomas was so excited to pick one out even though the line was sooooo long.

There was one person in front of him. 3 year olds are dramatic, y'all!

As for picking one out? They really only had one - but it was a super cool Big Tex that matched their spin art. They gave us a few extras since we came all the way from Alaska. You can see that Henry is trying to give himself another tattoo with it. When that didn't work, he tried using his spin art.

The boy is persistent.

We had every intention of going on the Texas Star next, but the line was so long and they were way past nap time. So we decided to amble back to where we started. Since we had to walk through the Midway, I decided to let the boys have a try at one of the carnival games. The duck grab seemed like the easiest one and Thomas was super excited about it! He didn't quite get the point though and threw his duck back in. I grabbed it before the attendant would think we were cheating!

And since it was two ducks per "pay", I let Henry grab the other one. He was equally excited and managed to hold on to his duck a little better than his brother. 

For some reason, the attendant was all confused by the fact the two of them had each grabbed one and said we couldn't add them together for a prize. Whatever, Thomas found something he wanted out of the smallest prize bucket, so I really didn't care. 

With more tickets to burn, we headed off to the small rides. Unsurprisingly, Thomas wanted to ride the motorcycle! It was the only ride that was broken at the fair in Alaska and he doesn't forget anything. It was a pretty big ride with a "jump", so I was a little concerned he would decide he didn't like it...

Wrong - he was a champ! He loved the ride and going up in the air. Although I think his favorite part was the button that made ridiculously loud motorcycle sounds!

Ok, Henry is not having fun in this one. He was super bummed Thomas got to ride something and he was too small for all of the fun rides. Sorry little man. Maybe next year!

On to the train display! I usually think of Thomas as the train loving kiddo, but Henry was equally as excited! Apparently it's genetic.

Also note the stuffed donut on his wrist - that's the prize he picked out. I tried to get him to pick something else out, but he was adamant. When the attendant saw my confused shrug - she said that for some reason all of the kids love the stuffed donuts. Weird, but whatever makes him happy!

Finally more food! Funnel cakes and caramel apple wedges. I got the apples thinking the boys would like them. I even cut the peel off of a few pieces for them. Nope. Turns out I just got less funnel cake. Shocking...

Nonni thought it was pretty funny. 

Nonni took them on the Skyway (featured in the first photo) while I returned the stroller. It was a bit of a haul to carry them over in the morning and I didn't really want to repeat the process with two hot / tired kiddos. So we bought just enough tickets to get the three of them a round trip on the "train" while I returned the stroller. 

Well they didn't charge us for Henry, so we still had tickets! That's ok, it was just enough tickets for Nonni and Thomas to take a spin on the carousel! I tried to get a photo of him having fun, but this blank look was all I got. I honestly don't think he ever made eye contact with me. This kid takes holding on pretty seriously...

When they get done, Nonni informs me we still have tickets because they only charged for Thomas. So Henry and I got to go for a whirl too! Henry was much better about waving - though he would always wave at the random people right after Nonnni instead of at Nonni. These boys... 

All-in-all it was a great time, even with the heat! Plus the boys were asleep in their carseats before we even left the parking lot. Win-win!

---

Ok, those of you that know me well or even just kinda a little bit might be seriously confused about where all the food pictures are...? Did I just not post them because there was so much kid cuteness?

Nope. 

That is literally all the food we got. I left the fair hungry for the first time ever. Turns out that the crazy thing you hear about kids changing everything is kinda true. Before today, I never even knew there was a kid's section in the fair and I never would imagine going to a fair and not getting nachos, cinnamon rolls, tamales, exciting new fried things, etc. 

But it just wasn't feasible to push them from food stand to food stand and expect them to be happy. Even Henry needs more than food. So we compromised on the fact that I got my two favorite foods and they got to have a ton of fun. Overall I still think it's a win.

It also means that next time Matt has to come and we will just send the kids home with Nonni after a few hours so we can go stuff our faces. :)

Spoiled Boys

I got back from my girl's weekend to find that my boys had not missed me much at all. In fact, it appears that they may have been a little bit spoiled by the relatives! I loaned my camera to Nonni (since I had the rental) to get photos of all the fun - here's what I can piece together from the photographic evidence. And testimonials from a somewhat reliable 3 year old... ;)

They got to go on a train ride! This one is partially my fault, I thought of suggesting the Grapevine railroad when I was reading Thomas his "Goodnight Texas" book that features Puffy - the steam locomotive! Well the tickets were super cheap compared to all the Alaskan trains, so it was obviously a no brainer. :)

But the fact that they are decked out in railroad gear was all on my dad. He has always been all about trains and the fact that his grandsons love trains makes for a lot of train excitement when they get together. It's pretty adorable all around!

Happiest little engineer ever! Not pictured are the train whistles that I have hidden from them until we get back home... Ha!

Uncle Ralph and Aunt Barbie even made the long trek down from Oklahoma to hang out with the boys. I ended up not getting to see them, but Nonni dutifully reported back that they had a great time and they loved the boys. That's something every mom loves to hear! :)

When I got home, there were all these new toys - where did these come from?? Turns out the boys got their Christmas presents early and they were sooo excited about them. Thomas met me at the door talking about his castle and the knight and the catapult, etc. 

They also got Henry the rocking horse in the background of this photo. Henry was apparently not too sure about the horse - his feet don't quite touch the ground when you sit him on it. Thomas showed his little brother how to use it, but Henry was not quite convinced. So he mostly tried to steal parts of the awesome castle from his brother. 

After the initial excitement of me getting back wore off, the boys wanted to go play on the front porch and show me the fun set-up Nonni and Grandpa had for them. Grandpa definitely didn't skimp on the sand like we did with the tiny sandbox they have at home - ha!

Look at this happy little guy! Who knew a spoon and sand was all it took??

Actually, this guy seems pretty happy too!

Ok, ok...

We'll make them a better sandbox next year!

Mo was curious about all the excitement in the sandbox and wandered over to check it out. Henry was super excited and started yelling "Mo! Mo!" - he's gotten very good at picking up names recently!

Luckily, he already knows how to say "Anna" from daycare, so he was already a pro with my parent's new puppy. She was super excited about all the attention from the boys and wanted so badly to jump in the sandbox with her "nephews". Unfortunately she's still a pretty boisterous puppy and puppy claws are pretty sharp, so dad had to keep her on a pretty short lease. Poor Anna!

Not content to only have a sandbox for their grandsons, my parents also had a pool for them! See what I mean about spoiling them?? 

What's that? Oh, that super awesome wooden boat in his hand? Well... Theresa and I may have been on a girl's weekend, but we did mostly buy toys for the kiddos while we were perusing the plethora of shops in Fredericksburg. You apparently can't take the mom out of us when it comes to shopping. ;)

Thomas loved the boat! It's a little wooden boat that has a balloon attached to the smokestack. You blow into a tube at the back of the boat to inflate the balloon and it putters the boat across the water. It was having a little bit of trouble with forward progress with the gentle breeze on the porch, but they didn't care one bit. The boat was a hit! :)

I may have also bought them these super fun tubes... I blame this on Theresa - she swore up and down they were one of her kids favorite toys and convinced me to buy them each one. They make a super fun (and loud!) noise when you pull them apart, then you just compress them back down and do it again. The boys loved them so much - a well spent $2!

So it seems the boys had as much fun this weekend as I did. And they got super spoiled with attention, affection and some new toys. No wonder they were so excited to visit Texas! ;)

Girl's Weekend!

The next two weeks in Texas are going to be a bit of a whirlwind of trying to see everyone, but the trip had a very intentional slow start - a girl's weekend in Fredericksburg with Theresa! We have been planning it for months and I was so excited to see her and get some girl time away from the kids. (Nonni and Grandpa were more than happy to watch the boys for me!)

We booked a winery tour for Sunday and the best part was we didn't have to do anything but walk downstairs at our hotel, the limo picked us up right at the front door. The driver, Paul, was a retired cop from Portland and we all left it up to him as to which places we visited. 

There was only two other people on the tour with us - a couple named Aaron and Laura who were super friendly. I warned them that part of the girl's weekend was to play with our cameras and we had even rented a Nikon D750 to play with. It's the step up from our camera, a full frame that has great reviews. We figured we should try it out before we add it to our wish list!

Aaron and Laura were totally cool with the camera time. I even thought to ask them before using my flash to take photos indoors. I had no intentions of pointing it at anyone, but it always startles the kids, so I thought it would be nice to warn them. I flipped it up and backwards like I always do, then titled the camera up to take a photo of these wine bottles. 

Which is you are paying attention, would put the flash right in their eyes. Whoops! I pretty much blinded all of them. I felt so bad, but they just laughed it off and said maybe I should point it up instead. I decided I could just make it work without using the flash for the rest of the day... 

We went to four different wineries throughout the day. Grape Creek was the one everyone who had been to Fredericksburg recommended. I can see why - the wines were good and the whole winery was so pretty. There was even a nicely shaded patio that our new friends hung out on while we wandered over to the vineyard to take photos. Win-win!

The second winery, Santamaria Cellars, was literally in a garage. But it was awesome and by far our favorite! The guy was from Argentina and he knew how to make great wine! But if you are 6' or taller, you are going to have to stoop to do your wine tasting... 

The third winery, Becker Vineyards,  was not so hot. Which is why there is a photo of bath salts. Their aromatherapy selections off to the side were better than their wine. Though they won for the most scenic, so we still got a lot of photos from there. 

Last but not least, Paul took us to Kuhlman Cellars which had a food pairing with their tasting. I may have fallen in love with their seasoned almonds... Which, of course, were also available for purchase! Plus they had a wine named after alluvium, that speaks to my heart as a geologist! :) 

But enough about the wine, how about the camera play time? It was a totally sunny day, which isn't always the best for picture taking, but we had fun with it anyway. Plus I got some awesome sun flare with this windmill!

I may have left Texas, but I still love a good Texas flag shot. I can neither confirm nor deny I started humming "the stars at night are big and bright.." while I was framing out this shot. ;)

The flowers from Becker - I told you they had nice scenery! These fields of zinnias went on forever! We've already lost of all of our flowers in Alaska, so it was so nice to see such a colorful display. :)

This sign was especially funny because we were on a selfie mission! I was packing up all of my bags and gear for the trip and Matt noticed that I hadn't set the tripod out. He started giving me a hard time about how he spent all this effort picking out this super nice tripod and how I didn't seem to be using it much. When I relayed this to Theresa, she responded with "Well lets take a ton of selfies then!!!"

As a side note, I do love my tripod! I just don't need it all that often. And of course there was the whole incident when I drug it along to Hawaii and forgot to pack the piece it needed to connect to the camera. Matt made sure I had that piece this time! :)

Unfortunately, the fancy schmancy rental camera was so not cooperating! On the D7000, you just swivel a ring at the base of the shooting dial to put it in remote mode and you click away. It's a little more difficult on the D750 and we couldn't figure it out. It's probably a little obvious I was getting irritated with the fact it was only partially listening to the remote. 

I thought maybe it was me, so Theresa gave it a shot. I know it looks like the remote is working here, but it was listening to about one out of every ten "clicks".

The last shot I got before we ended up giving up on the rental camera and putting Theresa' camera on the tripod. At least we knew that one would work! And this is quite possibly my favorite photo out of the 200 or so "selfies" we took. :)

Success! And although we are obviously posing, we are genuinely this happy to be hanging out together. We had a few photos standing side by side, but the one where she hug attacked me was by far my favorite. Miss this girl so much!

Scenic Becker again! Why was it so pretty when their wine was so "meh"? And Theresa guilted me into taking my sunglasses off for the rest of the "selfies". I never take my sunglasses off, but I figured I could make it since she had hers off. Shockingly, I did not go blind! ;)

Every time we switched locations, I had to redo the camera settings before we could use the remote. This meant I was taking a bunch of test photos while Theresa patiently waited for me to get it right. This time we were joking around with each other and I caught her mid-laugh on a test shot. I think she looks way better than the selfies we took at this particular spot, so that's what I'm sharing.

Plus I apparently gave up and put my sunglasses back on... In my defense it is sooo bright outside!!

Last stop for the day! The lighting was starting to work against us on our selfie quest, but I think we managed to pull out one final cute one. I'm sure we looked silly to all the cows and goats that were hanging out nearby, but I'm actually glad we took so many photos of the two of us. Given that we are usually the ones holding the cameras, we rarely make it into the photos. So many photos with each other in one day? Awesome!

Thanks for the motivation, Matt! And thanks to everyone who helped watch our kiddos so we could get away for a weekend. :)

Flying to Texas

Our daycare is closed for both Columbus Day and an inservice day next week. Two days closed in one week was apparently enough to push me over the edge to just pack up the kids and go back to Texas to visit everyone. Then Matt planned a hunting trip to Kodiak for the following week and I decided traveling to Texas was the hard part, so why not just stay for two weeks??

I was more than a little worried about the plane ride alone with both boys. I did a test run in July to Seattle with just Thomas and it went great, but Henry was really the wild card. Getting ticketed and through security was way easier than I thought it would be. The Anchorage airport has a room set aside for people with little kids, so even killing time before take-off was super easy. And to top it all off, Alaskan Airlines lets you board early with kids. We were on the plane, ready to go and I was feeling so confident. 

For the most part, it was well deserved confidence. Look at this happy guy! Safely buckled up in his CARES harness because I decided lugging a car seat was more than I could confidently manage with the two of them. He was all smiles and giggles. 

For the first hour... I had to wake them up at 4:30 to get to the airport in enough time to catch a 7am flight. That severely cut in to his usual amount of sleep and it started to show. All the fun toys I packed became projectile objects and I really owe everyone in the radius around us a big thank you for patiently handing back books, crayons and his pillow. 

He wouldn't play with electronics longer than a few minutes before those were no longer entertaining and I had already stuffed him full of snacks. We were mostly hanging in there until he started pulling at his harness and saying "All done!" complete with hand signals. With an hour left until we really were all done, I decided the only thing left to do was to try and get him to nap. 

The only song I could think of to sing to him was Wheels on the Bus, so I leaned over to cuddle him as best I could without unbuckling him and sang him verses over and over until he fell asleep. Crisis mostly averted...? :(

But this guy? No problem! He ate his snacks, played with some new toys and then played games or watched movies on the iPad. Easy peasy!

My grand plan was to wear the two of them out during our layover by running them all over SeaTac. Unfortunately, our plane was late getting in and we had almost no time between trips. I ran them around as much as I could, then we got ready for round 2.

As soon as we stepped on the plane, the flight attendant at the front was gushing about how cute they were. She gave Henry a hug and a high five. He assumed that this was what everyone wanted and proceeded to walk down the aisle high-fiving everyone (adorable!). The rest of the flight attendants were just as awesome - coming by to talk to the boys, bringing them coloring books and even offering to watch them if I need to use the restroom.

Thomas pretty much had the same flight as the first time, though he did get tired at the end. I got him to finally nap by putting on Frozen but having him lean on me - I think he was out before it really got going. Henry required more attention, but he was much happier. I'm sure it was mostly because of the short nap he got, but I'm also giving some credit to the awesome flight crew. They made me less stressed and I swear the kids react to my stress levels.

To top it all off, when we landed the flight attendant came over the intercom like usual to thank the flight crew. They followed this by mentioning how many young children were on board and how well behaved they all were. They said the moms and dads should be commended for doing such a great job and the whole plane followed with applause! I can honestly say that has never happened in all my years of flying. Way to make a super stressed out mom have a great flight - I will forever love Alaskan Airlines and all of their employees! :)