Passing the Torch

When Brian was little, he apparently lived in the land of GI Joe. I have heard many stories of their adventures together. He has carefully saved a few of his treasures (he says it is maybe a third of what he used to have) and on January 5th passed them on to our dude. I was so excited to witness this precious moment. He is learning their names and will very proudly point out who helps build bridges and whatever else. He is soaking it all in!

His imaginative play skills are in full force and it is so much fun to watch and be a part of! He loves his action figures and pretending to be a fireman, saving the day! Imaginext makes this amazing line of toys called Rescue Heroes (which Caleb loves!) and they are fantastic. Caleb has seamlessly merged them with his new GI friends and come up with all sorts of interesting scenarios already!  I can't wait to watch my dudes get lost in their own land of GI Joe...and firemen.

p.s. Cute note: Caleb watches his Rescue Heros DVDs so that he can "learn how to be a fireman when I grow up." SO CUTE!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy New Year

We had fun ringing in 2012! Mom, Dad, Uncle Matt and Aunt Lyndie came over for some fun in the afternoon and helped Brian and Caleb fire up the new ice cream maker. Our first batch was vanilla frozen yogurt...good, but in need of some tweaking.

Later in the afternoon, Caleb's friend Jillian came over for a very little New Year's Party. Since they can't exactly stay up to celebrate at midnight, we decided to celebrate with Moscow (at 4pm) instead. We had a balloon drop and gingerbread cookies. Caleb and Jillian weren't too sure why I was standing on the counter, but loved it when the balloons showed up. Caleb will now proudly tell you that it is 2012!

OOOH! AHHH!

 Our cookies. Dad was quick to good-naturedly point out my not-so-steady hand on the number 1. Oh well. I'll improve eventually.

....4-3-2-1, Happy New Year! 

 Caleb went right for the yellow one!

We still have these balloons floating around... 

Yummers. 

We all had fun. Nothing beats ringing in the new year with family and great friends!

Reunion

They're home! Gone for a month and missed so very, very much. The reunion at my Mom and Dad's front door was priceless. Caleb ran up to the door and was actually speechless. Seriously...our dude was speechless! He just clung onto them! It still gives me the warm fuzzies just remembering the reunion...we are all glad that you are home Grammy, Pop and Chai. And so excited that you brought Aunt Lyndie with you!

December 30, 2011

Fossill Rim

Wahoo! Fossill Rim is amazing!

After our lunch in town, we made the quick drive to Fossill Rim, grabbed some animal feed and went on our safari adventure.

Caleb was thrilled that he got to unbuckle and come sit in my lap for the duration of the experience. He loved to hang out the window, talk to the animals and give them their special treats. We had so much fun!!!!

Our favourite part of the day (we still talk about it!) was when the three of us were feeding a zebra out of the passenger window. We were starting to get a little nervous because it was trying to get it's whole head in the car, when I happened to look over in Brian's direction...the biggest deer we saw all day had his entire head in Brian's window and none of us knew it! Brian heard me gasp, turned and got the start of his life! Caleb had us reenact the whole thing for the rest of the "safari!" We got to see cheetahs, deer of every variety, emus, ostriches, giraffes, rhinos....we even got front row seats to two deer fighting!

 All in all, it took just about 3 1/2 hours and Caleb got his favourite souvenir at the lookout spot, a pressed coin! We left with the setting sun and had a very quiet drive home. Bliss. Pure Bliss.

We took this picture for Pop (he really loves his buffallo!).

We are so very ready for our safari!

At the lookout point halfway through the park. We were amazed at how high we were!

Chillaxing! He loved the freedom and I got a 3 1/2 hour cuddle. We were both in heaven.

They fought, then they abruptly broke away and ran...right at our car! They just came right up to our window at top speed, stopped and then looked at us...as if to say "Hey, we gave you a show. Where's the grub?"

They weren't shy....

THE JOY!

Re-enacting the deer fight...he loved this one too!

Love this picture.

On our way out. What a way to go!

Dinosaur World

We fell in love with Glen Rose, Texas!

On December 29th we packed up our car for a daytrip to Glen Rose. We have been talking about it for a year and finally had a chance to make it happen. We wanted to take Caleb to Fossill Rim and decided to see what else was in the vicinity. There is a lot! We chose Dinosaur World as our other destination and loaded into the car! We left the house at 8:30am (got home at 8pm), drove two hours and spent the entire day exploring a beautiful part of our home-state!

Our first stop was Dinosaur World and you could just feel Caleb's excitement as we got closer and closer. There was a lot more of "are we there yet" than on any previous trip...it was so much fun!

Dinosaur World is awesome! They have a walking trail with over 100 life-sized dinosaurs along the path. It was really neat to see how big and small they really were! Some of them left Caleb speechless with joy and others left him somewhat cuddly and unsure. It was a really beautiful day and the walk took about 30 minutes, so it was a great way to stretch our legs. At the end of the walk he got to play in dino-themed park and then dig for fossills (he got to keep three treasures). They also have a small museum with dinosaur eggs and claws and whatnot. Caleb didn't like that building since it was dark and had a strange noise from somesort of unseen vent. It was short.

Caleb's favourite part of Dinosaur World? Probably the pressed coin he got on the way out. Yup. He loves his coins.

After a nice lunch at a local barbeque joint, we headed off to Fossill Rim....more on that later...

Caleb might have stayed here the whole day...he just didn't know what was literally around the corner.

(Caleb took this one all by himself! He is quite an accomplished photographer!)

This is part of a whole series of photos that Caleb and Brian cooked up. We laughed, alot!

Do you see the deer?

We were checking out the giant dino when we heard leaves and twigs breaking. It really made us all jump! Then two deer wondered over for lunch. We spent a lot of time watching them and giggling at the whole scene!

Fancy photography by Daddy. He was laid out flat on the path!

CALEB'S FAVOURITE DINOSAUR WAS THERE!

MAIASAURA!

The dude was thrilled. Really thrilled!

Um. Boys. Don't look now...

He looks happy because he was happy. You have to go to Dinosaur World!

His treasures!

Not too sure about this part. But that marked the end of Dinosaurs. Now onto zebras....

Alrighty!

Wow! It worked! My pictures loaded and it looks like I have some catching up to do!

I thought I would start with the first week of our stay-cation. We tackled the job of taking down our Christmas decorations early in the week and were very proud with how well Caleb handled it...since this is far from his favourite part of the season. He seemed fine with it until he realized that taking the lights off the trees meant that they would be put away. Apparently he thought that taking them off the trees meant that they could be added to his toy stash... Perhaps someday we will be able to read his mind and see these things coming. We let him play with them for awhile, put them away that night and he hasn't talked about it since. Of course, we have yet to take the lights off the house so he may just think he has another chance...

We also played. A lot. You'll see...

About to dismantle his tree and handling it like a pro!

Such a goofball! I love this picture because it is says so much about our fabulous dude! He is so much fun!!!!

The dudes. Love it!

Caleb has been putting the star on our tree since he was one, but this may be the first time he has taken it off...

Cuddle time with Trey. Caleb LOVES to hold babies. Little Emily (13mths) still tolerates it for longer than she will even cuddle with me!

I Know...

I know, I know...promised posts have yet to show. Still figuring out the glitches making my picture posting an unhappy business. But they are coming! And piling up too! Did y'all know we just finished a two week stay-cation? I highly recommend it. Brian thinks he will take two weeks off every month....