We had a lot of snow when the in-laws arrived on Monday. And luckily, Noah went out and played in it for quite a while that day. Luckily because it all melted that night! Matt said Noah woke up Tuesday morning and said "Where's all the snow??" Welcome to Anchorage, Noah!
And to add insult to injury, it's cold, rainy and just plain dreary outside! Thankfully, we have ways of entertaining the little ones when it is like this. (Apart from the bounce house - that obviously works wonders!)
I can't even claim this - the boys did this one all on their own! I came downstairs to see them playing choo-choo train with their rearranged chairs. Henry was super in to it, he was making train noises and pretending to blow a train whistle. Thomas was more interested in giving me the run down on how he was the conductor and this was his train and then a choo-choo or two.
After the snow melted, the boys rediscovered their sandbox on the back porch and wanted to play with it. Since it was raining, we moved it to the garage so they could play without getting wet. Noah was ready to play with them until he saw the sandbox - "That thing is tiny!"
Yes I know, Mr. Judgy McJudgerson - we'll get them a bigger one next year! He did still play with them, for the record, he was just a little less excited. ;)
We also learned this tip from several parents up here. When the weather sucks, back the cars out of the garage and let the kids play in there. The boys were more than happy to ride their bikes in circles. And even though I feel like our garage is pretty spacious, they still managed to collide with each other. I started to think it was intentional...
Henry got tired of waiting for me to help him back on his tricycle at one point and did it himself. So close and yet so far...!
We finally decided to get out of the house drive out to Whittier to show Noah the super cool train tunnel and get lunch (Newsflash: there is no lunch to be had in Whittier in winter! Consider yourself warned!)
The downside to going to Whittier is that you have to wait for tunnel openings. Luckily, Matt suggested we bring the iPad along in case the kids got bored. And that morphed into the whole family watching Monsters Inc. on the iPad while we waited. Turns out my dash has a perfect resting spot for an iPad!
As a side note, thanks to my Pilot's third row, we could all ride around in one car. Thomas and I hung out in the backseat quite a bit this week. He thought it was super fun! It's not as comfortable as the front two rows, but it's not too bad.
And I didn't notice he had smoothie on his face until hours after breakfast.
Ok, Matt noticed it, not me.
Whatever.
Back at the house, I decided to try and play with my flash. I found a awesome book Matt bought me last year about flash photography and wanted to play with some of the ideas in it. Unfortunately, my subject was not the least bit interested in me taking photos of him. He has apparently decided a good offensive is the best defense and was photographing me instead!
Instead, I turned to the one who is literally always by my side - my dear Eliza. She was more than happy to jump up in the chair and let me practice bouncing my flash.
Also, she kinda needs a haircut.
Also, I kinda like it when she looks like a wild dog and she won't be getting a haircut. :)
Henry wasn't that much more cooperative. He let me take photos of him, but he wouldn't leave the incredibly well lit living room. And a flash isn't that helpful in a well lit room anyhow. This natural light photo looked just as good - if not better than the ones with a bounced "fill" flash. The natural light one had much better contrast to the photo. There's something to be said for shadows.
And yes, there might be a trend of Henry wearing his pj's most of the day this weekend. I said it was rainy, didn't I?
Back to Eliza! I managed to get her to move to a darker corner of the room and played with my flash some more. Except I couldn't get her to look up! I had the fireplace going and the lighting "just so" but no dice on her looking up. Matt apparently noticed I was struggling and from across the room said "Eliza!" in his deep, booming "dad" voice. She perked right up and I snapped this cute photo. From the front she looks a little less like a stray that wandered in from the streets, right?
Also, what I wouldn't do to have the "dad voice" effect. Sigh...