Heading West

Get excited. Only a few days left until we load this crazy bunch up into the van and head west! Wish us luck...

Christmas 2009

Here's a little Christmas recap for those of you dying to know what went on out here. Of course you are dying to know Maddie, or else you wouldn't be reading my blog.

We told the kids they could either have presents or a Christmas tree this year. Then we told them the good news that they could have presents AND a Christmas tree. Trees are super cheap out here - nearly free and super soft. I didn't have to wear gloves to wrap it with lights or anything. Our tree felt like it was made out of feathers. I LOVED it.

Elise loved decorating, and undecorating our tree. By Christmas Eve there were no ornaments left on the lower half of the tree and most of the popcorn garland had been consumed. She is a character.

We had a fun time going to see the live nativity at the church down the street.

Grandma and Grandpa came and surprised us for their birthdays! We were all so happy to see them. Thanks for making the drive.

We had Christmas Eve fondue via skype with the family back home. Elise didn't want to be bothered dipping the fruit. She grabbed herself a knife and began scooping chocolate as fast as she could.

Here are the kids getting ready to go to bed Christmas Eve.

We woke up to SNOW. Enough to go sledding on. The kids were so excited they didn't even open up any presents. By 1:00 p.m. we were forcing them to get back to the tree and unwrap their gifts.

Our hill is a little tricky to sled. You have to aim for the gate, and then dodge the trees. Henry crashed into the tree and got a pretty good bump. Lots of fun video from this adventure.

This picture is for Maddie. Jacob tried to take some pictures of Chloe in the snow. She looks like she is flying in most of them.

It was said by some and I quote "This was the best Christmas yet!" I would agree. We had a great time being together (all of us) and spending a L-O-N-G weekend doing absolutely whatever we wanted to do, which included not getting out of our PJ's at all on Christmas day, and not even realizing it until we went to get ready for bed and realized we were all good to go.

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas too!

Happy Thanksgiving

We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving full of beautiful weather and great friends. We hope you all had a great celebration wherever you were. We missed you all! Here are some pictures from the weekend.

A Proper Introduction

This is Princess Chloe Coco-bean. She joined our family back in June and we couldn't be happier. She is such a sweet, spunky puppy. She loves baths, swimming, playing fetch and 

l-o-n-g- walks. For a puppy she is pretty well behaved and even went on a 11 hr ride with us to Georgia without making a peep or stopping for potty breaks. She's pretty cute, if you want come and see her in person we wouldn't blame you at all.

Spooky

Happy Halloween!

To The Man Who Makes It All Possible...

Jacob was so kind to take a week of vacation - drive with me all night long with 3 kids and a dog - and then watch said kids and dog for 3 days - all so I could hang out with Maddie and 2500 random ladies at a big estrogen filled camp out.

Who's the man? He's the man! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

While I was off partying they didn't sit around waiting for my return, oh no. Jacob took them to the jump house, the candy store, to Martin Luther King Jr. birthplace, and burial site, as well as to his church, and best of all to the science center where they witnessed a chemistry magic show that included homemade fireworks. {Grace let us know that she'll wait until a grown up is around before she does any of the experiments that involve fire. Comforted?}

He was so good at totting around 3 kids, who he claims never once whined while in his presence, that I'm considering having him write a book with pointers for the rest of us. Seriously, aside from Grace's hair, he had the show under control.

Three cheers for an amazing husband, and a super fun dad!

What a beautiful flower? I don't think so, that is an ATOM. And if you don't remember exactly what that is all about, don't ask your kids. Of course, EVERYONE knows about atoms. You will lose all credibility.

Oh yes, every little boy wants a beaker on his cheek!

Launching a baby down super big slide. Check. It's cool, her dad's a doctor.

The 3-Day Again...

{I know most of you were hoping that I was kidding when I said we were doing the 3-day again this year, but seriously, I wasn't. Maddie and I had the best time. Who wants to do it again next year?}

This year we crewed on the camp services team. That means we got to hang out at camp all weekend and take care of the walkers. We set up tents, passed out buttons, signed people up for next year, and assembled a few lunches every now and again. We mostly hung out in the dining tent and ate nonstop. It was like magic how the food just kept reappearing, and how I didn't have to do anything to make it so. It was a true mom's vacation.

This is a picture of me in a sleep deprived stupor. Maddie and I are on the bus headed to Lake Lanier at 3 a.m. How Maddie ever convinced Eric to wake up at 2:30 to schlep us up there I'll never know, but I'd like to send a shout out to Eric. Thanks for your help all weekend. By this point I hadn't slept more than 4 hours total in a 48 hr period - and the walk hadn't even started yet!

This is Maddie hard at work passing out buttons to all the people who earned them. There are a billion buttons on the table even though we were only supposed to pass out something like 15 total, I'm pretty sure.

These are all the tents set up in the trade center. Usually we camp outside, but because of the floods in Georgia, our campsite was underwater. Fine by me. It kept us nice and dry! The week before the walk in Atlanta was the walk in Philadelphia, because the weather was so terrible in PA they canceled two days of the walk so we had a lot of extra walkers who came down from there. It was fun to be closer together so we could see everyone's tent decorations. There are a lot of crazy ladies out there with mad tent decorating skills. We've stocked piled many ideas incase anyone we love is ever called to be camp director.
These are the walkers lined up to be released on to the streets on day 2. Maddie and I were working the info tent this morning, and people were in line raring to go at 6:00 am even though they couldn't leave until 7:15. We had 2200 walkers and 338 crew members so it was a big group. Once they let people go it took about and hour to get everyone on the trail.
This was my favorite part of camp. They had a remembrance room set up with pictures of former walkers who lost their battle with breast cancer. In the middle of the room they had a white tent that people could sign or write their story on. It was very touching. Displayed on the outside of the room are the tents from all of the different cities. It was really beautiful, and made the event more personal for everyone.

Next time we participate in the 3- day we've decided we're going to go some place warm like Tampa, or San Diego. It may be just a rumor but we hear you get to camp on the beach. :) So if you want to join us, I'm just saying we aren't going to be sitting in the rain next time...

Chocolate

I pulled this shirt out of the dryer today and could not figure out why it was brown all around the collar. Now I remember! She's a girl after my own heart.

Guess What!

Today was Henry's first day of school! Lucky duck.

The Big Race

We had a lot of fun checking out the Tour of Missouri. We were in St. Louis to see the first leg of the week long race. Lucky for us, the racers were going around in a big circle so we got to see them ride by again and again. I can't imagine all those people camping out to watch the Tour de France only to see the bikes fly by at 40 miles and hour and then be done. It is unbelievable how fast and how close they ride. Grace thought the best part was that the winners got flowers. Jacob liked seeing some of his favorite riders. Henry liked seeing the Budwiser horses and playing in the fountains. I liked being in the "big city" so I could hit Anthro and H&M. A successful afternoon for everyone.

Missouri Minute

Don't you all wish you lived in Missouri? This is Elise and me on the Katy trail. It is a bike path that goes all the way from St. Louis to almost Kansas City. We are lucky that it goes right through Columbia, although these pictures were taken in Rochport (vineyard and antique country). The best part about this path is that it follows the old train tracks so the whole thing is beautiful and flat just like this, with lots of chances to ride right along the water. It may not be as death defying as Gooseberry Mesa, but I think I'm going to like riding my bike with Jacob here. It is also a fun place to stroll and picnic. Speaking of bike riding, next time I post I'll tell you all about the great time we had in St. Louis watching the Tour of Missouri bike race. Most of "our" favorite riders from the Tour de France were there, and the whole race was one by David Zabriskie, our fellow Titan!

Celebrate!

Happy belated 4th of July! One of my favorite holidays ever. I love being an American, what can I say. When the kids woke up I told them to get dressed in something red, white, and blue because we were in for good times. Grace came down in her Montreal Expos t-shirt, followed by Henry a few minutes later in his Montreal Canadiens t-shirt. Close enough. Grace noticed the irony of them both choosing to where Canadian t-shirts on the fourth of July and went and changed into the next best thing (PINK and blue shirt with white shorts). We had fun lighting fireworks, and seeing our neighbors fireworks from our driveway. These Missourians don't mess around when it comes to explosives, pretty much anything goes. We'll be better prepared for next year!!