Thursday, September 2, 2010
Star Wars Holy Grail
Colin discovered Darth Vader and Storm Troopers at a recent parade where several of the characters marched in the procession. He was delighted to hear of Daddy's stash of related toys and begged PaPa to get them out of the garage. I had heard of this stash for over a dozen years, and now I got to meet his childhood love!
This later turned into the need for a Skype call with Daddy to identify all of the spaceships and characters, and Colin was then hard pressed to the leave the house because he had located the Star Wars Holy Grail of toys. Ebay folks would pay big bucks for these originals in great condition, but our 4 year old just played gleefully with them and began asking lots of questions about when his Daddy was growing up (thinking, "hey, my Dad really WAS cool!")
This later turned into the need for a Skype call with Daddy to identify all of the spaceships and characters, and Colin was then hard pressed to the leave the house because he had located the Star Wars Holy Grail of toys. Ebay folks would pay big bucks for these originals in great condition, but our 4 year old just played gleefully with them and began asking lots of questions about when his Daddy was growing up (thinking, "hey, my Dad really WAS cool!")
Colin is showing off Dad's speeder bike, which is just like the one he bought a friend for a birthday party. That manufacturer in China has gotten a lot of mileage out of that mold!
Following in Dad's Tippy Toes
Luke was not sure about the grass when we were in Colorado. When I sat him in the yard he got up in a push up position and kept his knees off of that spikey green-stuff (though he was happy to sample it with his mouth!) Apparently this is exactly how Matt acted in the yard at this age. I don't recall Colin being this way, but he was never a crawler when the weather would have been warm enough to have sat him down in the yard. And I think our grass is less spikey here in the PNW (much softer, probably from being drenched by the rain much of the year! )
Feeding PaPa's Blue Gills
The pond in PaPa's yard is home to 5 larger blue gills who are so domesticated that they come begging for food each evening during the nightly ritual of "the night crawler, hand-fed, all-you-can-eat buffet!" They're PaPa's pets! Colin enjoyed this evening ritual, though he wasn't too sure about the slimy nature of the worms and eventually just sat with PaPa each evening and watched. Such sweet photos of the two of them together at the water!
Since our return home he has talked a lot about those blue gills!
Colin isn't too sure about grabbing on to the slimy night crawler. In the water below, the fish patiently wait!
I just love the gleam of the sun off of the water and through the sky. It was a gorgeous evening!
Butterfly Pavillion
We enjoyed a visit to the Butterfly Pavillion. Colin was so excited to see the large praying mantis (termantis, as he called it) in front of the building, as he remembered it from last year. It had moved locations, which he quickly noted. It may become a tradition to have a photo with this "guy" over the coming years.
2010
2009
2010The butterflies were a delight, as usual, and several landed on Luke's stroller, which he was unaware of. He was more interested in grabbing the ferns.
Travel Visit to Colorado
The weather this summer has killed me. Really. We dubbed this summer the summer that wasn't. And for 2 of the great weeks in July, first I was sick for a week with a fever (virus, sore throat, etc) and then the boys both got sick for a week. How do we get sick during 2 of the best 4-6 weeks of the year? Just Murphy's Law, I suppose!
I took matters into my own hands and was a willing party to a measure of insanity: I travelled alone with both boys to warmer weather! We made a 5 day trek to Colorado on a direct flight to see the grandparents and to let my bones thaw before fall hits. You know the weather is bad when you are a willing party to this kind of travel!
We allowed a sufficient time to depart, but a 45 minute wait to check the bag made me plead for mercy with a customer service rep to check my bag (the kiosk denied me because I was within an hour of the departure time.) Tears, tears. This man was standing between me and some heat, for crying out loud! The man took my bag and put it through, but told me I would not make it to the gate in time. Those who have known me my whole life know this: You wanna make a bet? I'll take that challenge. Just take my bag and I'll worry about the rest. Game on!
We took off running (literally) through the terminal and I went to the Gold member/pilot check-in and begged for mercy. The kind agent let me through and then I begged at two other security check points to cut in line. Gracious others held Luke while I got situated after going through security and then I took off on a mad dash with an 11 month old and a 4 year old to catch an elevator, a train, and an escalator all before my stinkin' United flight closed the doors. Whew! We made it on board with 3 minutes to spare and about 8-10 people in line behind me. take that, Mr. Customer Service Guy!
OK, so that kind of stress was not my idea of fun, so anything that happened on the flight was a breeze. And it was.
Ahhhh, heat, sweet heat! I had arrived to the paradise of my in-laws house (the backyard really is paradise, as you will see later in the pictures).
The rain somehow followed us our first day, but it was a warmer rain and only lasted a day. We then enjoyed a visit to the Butterflies and a Carnivore Animal Preserve called Wild Animal Sanctuary. I was shocked to learn that there are more tigers in captivity in the state of Texas (people with them in garages, basements, etc.) than there are in the wild in the whole world. Sad, so sad. The tigers were all so hot the day we were there that they were a bit lethargic, but it was good to see them.
We enjoyed lots of Grandma and PaPa time and also helped Uncle Dave celebrate a belated happy birthday. Lots of fun!
On the return flight, I flew Alaska (Amen!) and sailed through check-in, security, etc. Thank goodness, because the flight back was....well, it was bad. Screaming child # 2 was such a hard one to contain, and the lady next to me was none to happy about drawing the short straw and was certain to let me know it! And to top things off, I was so frazzled at the end of the flight that I left Colin's beloved Pooh bear in the overhead bin. I submitted the obligatory online claim the next day but we will never see dear ole' pooh again.
Travel aside, the actual visit was so fun, ESPECIALLY for Colin, so I will share a more upbeat post next with lots of pictures.
I took matters into my own hands and was a willing party to a measure of insanity: I travelled alone with both boys to warmer weather! We made a 5 day trek to Colorado on a direct flight to see the grandparents and to let my bones thaw before fall hits. You know the weather is bad when you are a willing party to this kind of travel!
We allowed a sufficient time to depart, but a 45 minute wait to check the bag made me plead for mercy with a customer service rep to check my bag (the kiosk denied me because I was within an hour of the departure time.) Tears, tears. This man was standing between me and some heat, for crying out loud! The man took my bag and put it through, but told me I would not make it to the gate in time. Those who have known me my whole life know this: You wanna make a bet? I'll take that challenge. Just take my bag and I'll worry about the rest. Game on!
We took off running (literally) through the terminal and I went to the Gold member/pilot check-in and begged for mercy. The kind agent let me through and then I begged at two other security check points to cut in line. Gracious others held Luke while I got situated after going through security and then I took off on a mad dash with an 11 month old and a 4 year old to catch an elevator, a train, and an escalator all before my stinkin' United flight closed the doors. Whew! We made it on board with 3 minutes to spare and about 8-10 people in line behind me. take that, Mr. Customer Service Guy!
OK, so that kind of stress was not my idea of fun, so anything that happened on the flight was a breeze. And it was.
Ahhhh, heat, sweet heat! I had arrived to the paradise of my in-laws house (the backyard really is paradise, as you will see later in the pictures).
The rain somehow followed us our first day, but it was a warmer rain and only lasted a day. We then enjoyed a visit to the Butterflies and a Carnivore Animal Preserve called Wild Animal Sanctuary. I was shocked to learn that there are more tigers in captivity in the state of Texas (people with them in garages, basements, etc.) than there are in the wild in the whole world. Sad, so sad. The tigers were all so hot the day we were there that they were a bit lethargic, but it was good to see them.
We enjoyed lots of Grandma and PaPa time and also helped Uncle Dave celebrate a belated happy birthday. Lots of fun!
On the return flight, I flew Alaska (Amen!) and sailed through check-in, security, etc. Thank goodness, because the flight back was....well, it was bad. Screaming child # 2 was such a hard one to contain, and the lady next to me was none to happy about drawing the short straw and was certain to let me know it! And to top things off, I was so frazzled at the end of the flight that I left Colin's beloved Pooh bear in the overhead bin. I submitted the obligatory online claim the next day but we will never see dear ole' pooh again.
Travel aside, the actual visit was so fun, ESPECIALLY for Colin, so I will share a more upbeat post next with lots of pictures.
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