Snorting Ice Cream

Well. At least we know he's not lactose intolerant?

The other day we were coming back from riding bikes and stopped at Arctic Circle for two .69 cent cones and two courtesy (very small one mouthful) cones. I thought it would be nice to include Isaac on the ice cream run since he gets extremely offended when you eat in front of him. Well, upon his first little taste of the ice cream he turned ravenous! He insisted on holding the cone and ate the entire small cone (aside from that which was smeared on the car seat) before we got home. Upon realizing that his ice cream was gone he then started attacking me (reminded me of a rabid park squirrel) for Ari's left over ice cream cone.

When we got home I gave it to him. And he ate it. And we wanted more. He's apparently got the Wilson ice cream gene.

That second photo shows the precise moment when he realized he snorted a bunch though his nose.

Ari in His Element

For the last few years we've been hearing trains come through Logan, we could just hear the faint "whoot whoot" in the distance, but Ari get's excited every time. We've never actually seen the train...well, until a few weeks ago.

See, my kids were crabby one day and both needed a nap really really bad. Ari is so above napping that I knew I would need to "take him for a little drive." I loaded the kids up in the van and headed for the west side where I knew I could drive out to Benson Marina, park the van, watch birds, read and let the kids sleep. Worked like a charm. Isaac was out in under 3 minutes and Ari's eyes were starting to droop. I watched them in the rear view mirror. Going, going, going, gone. He was asleep. I triumphantly set my gayze back on the road only to notice something off in the distance. No way! It was THE train! I hesitated. Do I wake Ari up to see the train, or do I make a sharp left and drive as far from it as possible to avoid the "whoot whoot." I knew what I had to do. "Ari" I whispered loudly. "Ari, look, the train." His first glimpse of the train was priceless. He immedietly jolted awake and the chase was on! I took a right onto the dirt where we sat about 20 feet from the train track and watched is pass. As soon as it went buy we flipped around and began following right along side it. I let Ari get out of his car seat and he would give orders while kneeling on the back seat "slow down," "speed up," "stop," "pull over," "heeereee it commmeesss!" His goal was to keep the train in our sight. We had a blast following the train, driving up ahead, finding the perfect place to pull over and watch it go by, getting to a spot where we could see the "ding ding" lights stop traffic to let the train cross. Ari was yelling out all his train verbiage like "where's the switch man shack," "is someone going to change the points," "can you see the pistons pumping," "is that what they use to shunt freight cars?" It was awesome. Of course Isaac sleeping didn't last long. Pretty sure he woke up when we rolled down all the windows so that we could hear the "whoot whoots" and the "ding dings" at full volume.

He was pretty upset when the train came to a stop. The "conductor" got out with his "lunch box" and went into the "station." We waited and waited but we had to face the fact that it had stopped for the night? Needless to say the kids didn't get the naps they needed, but it was worth it.

I love this photo of Ari. He likes to walk the train tracks; and while he does I can just see that imagination of his start to turn and he asks all sorts of questions I don't know the answers too.

Love that kid.

I Taught Zikky to Crawl!

One morning last week I left Ari and Isaac in the living room to play with toys while Joe was in the shower and I was in the kitchen. All the sudden I hear Ari yelling "Mom! Mom! Dad! Mom! Dad! Come look! Zikky is crawling!" I came running in to see Ari putting things out in front of Isaac and him limping on over to grab them. Ari was so excited and started yelling "I taught Zikky to crawl!" He then informed me that I owed him a marble (for teaching Isaac to crawl); something I promised him just after Isaac was born and he somehow managed not to forget (Ari earns marbles and turns them in to get additional pieces for his train set).

I did the math and figured Isaac learned to crawl about one week before Ari did; so if he follows the same pattern as Ari he could be walking in a few weeks. He's already started pulling up on furniture a lot more and even stands unassisted for a second or two. Life around here has changed a bit more for Ari, no train track is safe...

Here is the first known footage of Isaac crawling. This was a few days ago, he's busting out the turbo crawl now.

Train to Old Town

We took one day and rode the "train" to Old Town San Diego. Ari and his cousin Adan were SO excited to be on a real moving train, it was definitely a highlight for them. They could have stayed on that train all day; but we did get off for food, sightseeing and shopping.

Photo 1: My Dad with "Brother Bones" he played us some awesome Grateful Dead covers on the train. Photo 2: How do you entertain two boys while you sightsee, you buy them spaceships. Photos 3-6, Old Town San Diego.

Friends.

Ok. Back to posting about our vacation...

We continued along the eastern side of the Sierras, past Lake Isabella and out Kern River Canyon. It was BEAUTIFUL! That canyon is amazing. I would have taken a photo but all the pullouts were full of search and rescue vehicles waiting for a body to float down the river. Still, I would love to do that river someday. But I'll stay in my boat.

After we came out the canyon the plan was to drive up to Sequoia National Park and hang out there for a day or two then visit friends. That WAS the plan, before the kids announced (via crabbiness) that they were done driving. We still had 2 hours driving to get to Sequoia, which we didn't even know how many trails were open, and we wanted to make sure we had enough friend time yadadydyad... So we made an executive decision and head to the nearest Trader Joe's to eat some lunch and come up with a new plan.

The new plan started with us heading to Ventura via the Maricopa Highway through the Los Padres National Forest. We stopped and caught tadpoles along the way, the kids took naps, it was pretty... We made it to Ventura in time to get a hotel, make dinner, walk to a gas station for treats and get the kids in bed early.

Saturday we hung out with the Kristen, Jonny, Noah and Milo. We met at Serra Cross Park (photo 1), headed to the farmers market for strawberries and carrots and spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach. It was great. And windy. Note how in the second photo Jonny is holding up the umbrella. We had a great time and a delicious lunch despite it being peppered with sand from those pesky Santa Ana winds.

Next we headed to Fontana to hang out with Suz, Tyler, Josh, Dallin and Spencer. They live in a great spot; big backyard of dirt (perfect for little boys), lots of boy toys (photo 1) close to a mountain and a really nice house (which Dallin informed me was actually a mansion, just a small one). Joe took Tyler and the boys up to the mountain to look for bugs and tarantulas one night, then helped them build a squirrel trap the next day (photo 2). Not sure who had more fun, Joe or the boys. K-So also enjoyed all the attention from three dog deprived little boys. We ended up staying their two nights; it was fun to hang with Suz and family.

While we were staying in Fontana we drove down to Riverside to see Olivia one evening (she was at UC Riverside torturing bees as part of her research). We ate delightful Thai food and hung out at a park in the campground she was staying in. We chatted with her and her professor while we watched the sunset and Ari ran wild. Love this photo:


Three friends I don't see enough of all in the same weekend. It was fabulous. WAY better than Sequoia National Park any day! I think I might maybe possibly be able to live in Southern CA if I had friends such as these nearby. Which is good since Joe found one to apply for right in between Fontana and Ventura...
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Beach Camping

A few photos of life on Carlsbad State Beach. That first photo immediately puts me back in relaxation mode.

These first two were taken at La Jolla, great snorkeling and sea life watching. The last two are at Del Mar (reflection in glasses is the only shot I got of the playground on the beach). When I get rich and buy a few beach houses, one of them is going to be in Del Mar.

7th North Just Got Lonely

I still have photos to post from our vacation, but I got a little distracted this week trying to fit in as much neighbor time as possible...

Today Ari had to say goodbye to his best friend Cora. She moves next week but we leave town today and will not be back until after they start their trek across the country. These two have been more like siblings since the day they were born, and there is not much Ari would rather do than play with Cora. I'm not sure what Ari's going to pray for now. His prayers usually go something like this:

Dear Heavenly Father. Thank you for this day. Thank you I could play with Cora. Thank you I could play with her toys. And her trains. Bless that tomorrow I can play with Cora. And be nice to her. Amen.

I took a few photos of Ari and Cora this week. These photos of them watching a movie together say a lot.


And this is how the two of them can be found most days. If they're not playing trains at someones house, they're either cruising the block or riding up and down and up and down and up and down the street on their bikes.


I lost sleep last night over how much Ari is going to miss Cora. Ok ok, AND over how much I will miss Kristal. I just can't imagine how it will be to hang out in the yard and spy on the neighbors all by myself! Who am I going to talk to all day? Who's garden tools and food dehydrator will we borrow? Who's going to make us cinnamon rolls? And feed our chickens, and get our mail when it's blowing down the street? Who's Ari going to tease? The reality of the situation is just hitting me, and it's not pretty. We are going to miss them all so much. Blasted postdoc.

PS I didn't mean that about the postdoc...

Who Needs a Motorhome?

We planned to camp about 60 or so miles south of Bishop, near that big lake they drained to sustain LA. It was SUPER windy, much too windy for setting up a tent. So, we devised a plan to sleep in the van. We threw the cooler and the car seats out of the van and did some re-arranging. Ari slept in the back seat, Isaac and I slept on the boldering pad on the floor where the front seats would have been (had we brought them on the trip), K-So was on the front passenger side seat and Joe was in his hammock above our heads. It actually worked great, we all slept really good, in fact Ari asked to sleep in the van just about every night after that. The only modification we would make for next time is for Joe to bring a quieter hammock...

It was awesome. The second photo of Ari in his sleeping quarters is my favorite.

Rest Stops Near Bishop, CA

While traveling towards Bishop CA we saw a sign for Laws Railroad Museum. One thing Ari wanted to do on this trip was to see a train, so we decided to stop there and stretch our legs. It was perfect. Ari got to go in the train engine AND ring the bell and look at all the gadgets. He got to go inside a caboose, see freight cars, train track switcher things, a turntable, old train station and sheds, and he got to play in all sorts of old weird railroad car things. He's still talking about it. We could have ended the trip right there and Ari would have been happy.

And after a not very impressive burger at some random diner we found a nice little park to let the kids play a little more. Overall a great day in the shadows of Mt.Whitney.

Nevada

Random photos of our trek across Nevada.

Photo 1: Gearing up for a night of camping in the rain. Ari in the van playing train conductor.
Photo 2: Catching Horny Toads.
Photo 3: Chasing Wild Horses.
Photo 4: Ari looking like a red neck at our potentially radioactive lunch stop.

What are You, 14?

This is the first trip we have employed headphones for Ari. We wanted to be able to listen to past episodes of This American Life, AM talk radio, NPR, music...pretty much anything other than Toy Story 2. So, when Issac was asleep Ari put on his headphones to watch a movie and Joe and I got to listen to whatever we wanted.

Well, Ari was watching Toy Story 2 when we pulled up to the salt flats just east of Wendover. I've never gotten out and actually walked on the flats so I wanted to stop and check it out. I excidedly got out of the van and said "ok Ari, push pause while we go run around on some salt!" He looked up and me and said "no, I'll just stay in here and watch my movie." What? I looked at Joe and said "wow, he's 14 all the sudden." Joe and I started laughing and after a few minutes convinced him to come out and play, which he did. Then he went right back to his movie and we continued on to Ely.