boys chillaxin'

And eating cake on a sunny day.

Family Photos

We don't often get all four of us into a photo at the same time. But Kari has been wanting one of all of us for a while. So much that she started threatening me with a Sears studio session, which is an affront to me on so many levels. So when Shawn asked to borrow some of my backdrop gear, I set it up to show her how it worked and then swindled her into taking a few shots of our whole crew while she was there.

Pedal pushers

The boys went on a bike ride together yesterday at "Tom's Park" (the little park near the house we rented last year from Tom). Adler still needs help getting started, is a little wobbly, and LT lapped him about twenty times but he's still learning and seems to have crossed the threshold of moving on to his pedal bike.

Alder met a little girl at the park who proudly told him that she had a pink bike. To which he replied that he his blue was blue. As I was listening to them I was noting to myself how it was interesting that they seemed to be confirming gender stereotypes all on their own. But then they threw a curve ball on that as Adler announced to the little girl that pink was his favorite color. She smiled at that and promptly told him that blue was her favorite color. A few minutes later they tried to ride together and Alder crashed into her. But she didn't seem too bothered by it. Kids...

Two wheels and two pedals for #2

Adler and I went to the park today. LT, for reasons I don't really understand, decided that he wanted to go to the grocery store with his mom rather than go to the park with us. Maybe LT knew his little brother needed a little time out of the shadow of his big brother.

As we were getting ready to leave, Adler asked if he could ride his pedal bike to the park. The bike he's never successfully ridden before. I try to be supportive so I didn't sigh out loud or otherwise show my disappointment and annoyance at what I was sure would end up being me carrying his pedal bike to and from the park. And I did carry the bike a little bit. But not the whole way - only up the big hill on the way there. He rode the rest of the way himself. He still needs some help getting started and he really needs to learn how to use the breaks. But today was a big step.

Baby #3

Our family is expanding, baby #3 will be arriving around November 8, 2014! The boys are very excited, each in their own unique way.  Adler asks almost daily how big the baby is (first a pea, then a kumquat, I think its now about the size of a lemon or bigger?)  Landon doesn't say much, but occasionally will ask a very practical question such as, "mom, where's that thing gonna sleep?" Recently one of the parents in Landon's class congratulated us, apparently Landon has told a few friends at school.  Honestly we were quite surprised by this, but very happy that he's processing the big change and excited to tell his friends.  We have decided for this one to be a gender surprise, though we could have found out last week after the big blood draw that tested for chromosomal abnormalities due to my "advanced maternal age" (down syndrome, T-12 ? and T-18?, I honestly can't remember the correct numbers they tested for).  All of the tests came back normal.

A Real Skyscraper

Both of the boys are intrigued by construction and buildings, especially big buildings, and a few weeks ago Adler got onto the topic of skyscrapers. He's been talking about them a lot recently. A lot. A whole lot. We pointed downtown out to him one day while driving on the highway and he was genuinely exited and impressed that little old Denver had its very own skyscrapers (even when I told him that some cities have much much bigger ones). He was even more impressed when I told him I work in one of those big buildings (though far from the biggest among them). So I told the boys I'd take them to see it sometime.  

We were on our way to on our way to the Children's Museum yesterday, a Sunday with free downtown street parking, and decided it would be a good day to go visit daddy's office.  The whole way there Adler talked about wanting to go all the way to the top of the building. I told him that we'd try but that we could probably only go to the 11th floor where I work. He said he understood but really hoped we could go to the top. Miraculously we got onto the elevator with a women, on a Sunday when hardly anyone is ever in the building, who overheard me explaining the situation to Adler for the umpteenth time. It turned out that she worked on the top floor and offered to take us up there. Alder was so happy to go to the "very top of the skyscraper" and, even though I think I'd prepared him, I was very happy not to have to disappoint him. We spent a few minutes looking out the window up there and commenting about how small the cars looked. Then we thanked the nice woman and headed down to my floor. 

LT was happy to see the view from the top too but was much more interested in seeing where I worked. He said that the cars looked pretty small from my window too. I'm not sure if he really thought that or was just trying to make me feel okay about not having the premier office space in the building. He's a thoughtful kid like that. 

Thanks to my mom they both know I have a birthday coming up relatively soon and they each drew me a little birthday wish on my whiteboard. On the left is Adler's picture, which he said was a drawing of me smiling. And on the right is LT's drawing, which maybe doesn't need as much explaining. 

The Real Paddington Station

I was in London last month (taking photos as I usually do when I travel) and happened to be staying and working just a few blocks from Paddington Station. I emailed a photo to Kari to show the boys, especially Adler, because I thought it was kind of cool to connect the school with the real transit station in London for which it was named. Kari wrote back and told me that they just commented, "oh, the real one" and moved on. So apparently they didn't think it was as cool as I did. But a few days later Alder was overheard proudly telling one of his friend's parents that his daddy had been to the real Paddington Station. So maybe it made a bit of an impression after all.

Brothers

Goofing around before a dinner with friends at Oblio's.

Return to Mexico

Our last visit to Mexico was years ago, before we had Adler and when LT wasn't even a year old. We came home early and spent more time in the hospital than we did in the beautiful beach villa we'd rented for the week. It wasn't the best vacation we've ever had and, largely as a result, we've kept our family vacations domestic in the years since. That changed with spring break this year when we decided to head back to Mexico and Baba even went with us this time.

We went to an all inclusive hotel in Puerto Vallarta. It wasn't exactly a cultural experience and, really, we could have been just about anywhere in the world with a beach and a pool and warm weather. But it worked out great for a family vacation (the buffet meals were especially nice to have for the kids).

The boys swam in the pool a lot and spent a lot of time on the beach. Just to keep things interesting though, they never wanted to go to the beach but, of course once we got there, they wouldn't want to leave.

Exploring the hotel was fun for the boys.

And one day we took a boat tour, with a stop to snorkel, to a more remote beach for a BBQ lunch.

The Broadmoor

Earlier this year my employer held a meeting at the historic Broadmoor hotel in Colorado Springs. I was there for most of the week but Kari and the boys came came down to enjoy the famous old hotel for a night. The boys seemed quite at home with the luxurious lifestyle.

Throwback Thursday

While skiing with the boys this year, Kari and I would often recount to them how we were in ski school/club together when were kids. They weren't particularly impressed but we dug up this old photo from Roadrunners' ski club to prove it to them anyway. Kari is on the left in the blue jacket and I'm just right of the middle in the green.

Jewel system day

 The boys have what they call a "jewel system".  Every few months we choose a few things for the kids to work on (bringing home your coat from school each day, getting ready in the morning without problems, cleaning up after themselves without being asked etc).  They get jewels for the tasks and try to fill up a cup.  When the cup is filled they get a reward.  The first time they each got to choose a new toy and this time they got to choose a place they wanted to go.  As the cups were getting closer to being filled, the boys decided they would like to go to Chucky Cheese.  We actually ended up going to the Children's museum also because we were in the area and had a few extra minutes.  It was a fun day!

 Adler loves building at the Children's museum and yesterday was no exception.  I'm not sure what he built, but it consisted of several plastic tops with nails sticking through.

 The fire truck and make believe play is always a hit for these two also.

 Landon has mastered ski ball.  He realized he's pretty good at it and its the best way to get the most tickets to buy the most junk.  As you can see, he took his cup of coins and played until they were gone, tickets piling up to the side of him.

Adler insisted we go to the Chucky Cheese that's further away, but has Scoop.  He rode it once and then realized it didn't give tickets and "used to be much bigger".  

Watching Wesley

Adler and I got to watch my newest nephew and Adler's newest cousin a few days ago.  Adler was so excited, he had piles of books chosen weeks in advance to read to him :)

Breck Weekend!

 Last week, Adler didn't have school and Brian was in London for the week.  Shawn and I decided to take the big boys out of school and head to Breckenridge for a ski/boarding mom/boy weekend.  Adler has come really far with his skiing and was able to ski with Landon and I, which make things much easier.

 As usual, minecraft was a big hit during our short times in the condo.  Shawn and I gave them limits with screen time though.  When they weren't playing mine craft on the screen, they were acting it out running around the condo.

 We took them to the ice castles one night after dinner.  It was snowing pretty hard, but these three had a blast running around and crawling through the tunnels and slides.

 Landon fit through this really small tunnel/slide to get Zacks glove he had dropped.

 Landon and I had a few hours one day to ski (we had Adler's ski teacher give him a private lesson).  Landon and I did his first bump run.  I couldn't take a picture until we were finished, but the run was narrow and really bumpy, he did great!