Day 2 - A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum..

..probably. But not to us.

So it's day 2, still in Rome, and today was jam-packed full of sightseeing. Honestly, it feels like the day was about 35 hours long. Of course, we were up before 7am and it's now after 1am, so it has been pretty long.

We started with a visit to the Borghese Gallery, which contains a lot of art. It's one of the finest collections of sculpture and paintings anywhere in Italy, probably rivaled only by the National Museum. Wish we could show pictures, but cameras were vietato. Suffice to say that it's incredible what some of the sculptors could do with a block of marble. Our favorites were Gian Lorenzo Bernini's David and Apollo and Daphne. Look 'em up.

After the Borghese we had lunch at Gran Caffe Roma, then headed back to our B&B for a little R&R. Once a quick nap was out of the way we took the Metro down to the Colosseum for a guided tour. Once you get inside and think about what the Colosseum must have looked like back in the day, it's a pretty impressive sight. The monument has been almost completely stripped of its original marble facade, and most of the seating in the arena has been removed, so it's hard to get a visualization of exactly how everything worked. Apparently, the system of levels and stairways was such that all 70,000 spectators in attendance could exit the arena in 5 minutes. Modern stadiums are still using the Colosseum as inspiration.

After the Colosseum, we headed up Via Sacra, beneath the Arch of Titus and into the ruins of the Roman Forum. The forum area contains a lot of stuff, and it's really far too much to describe in a single blog post. Particularly at 1 in the morning. Take a look online at some of the descriptions, it's really fascinating. We walked the basalt paths that Caesar Augustus once strolled along, over 2,000 years ago. We climbed to the top of the Palatine Hill, where Rome's emperors lived in splendor. There are remnants of the temples of Castor and Pollux, the Basilica Constantine, the Temple of Vesta, Rome's most sacred spot, and the House of the Vestal Virgins, who tended the eternal flame within. Nearby we managed to squeak into the Mamertine Prison, where St. Peter was chained to a column in the basement dungeon (remember the Church of St. Peter in Chains from yesterday? Same guy.). The original cell and column are still there, and it's not a pleasant place.

After the Forum we headed to the Campo di Fiore, a popular square in the heart of Rome. We had a great dinner at Ristorante Bacchanus, then took a walk up through the city to the Spanish Steps. Along the way we hit the Piazza Navona where Jill sampled the tartufo or "death by chocolate", a chocolate truffle gelato, at Tre Scalini. I had the tiramisu gelato which was pretty good too. After that we stopped by the Pantheon, which is really impressive at night. Imagine a gigantic Greek temple dropped right in the middle of a modern city, and you've got the idea. We also made it to the Trevi fountain, which Jill has been wanting to see at night, and she tossed in a couple of coins to ensure a return trip to Rome someday.

After that we were tired and came home. The end.

We took approximately 125 photos today. Here are a few to give you a taste of our day:

Statues at the Borghese Gallery

Jason climbing the stairs to the Palatine Hill...

in the steps of Caesar, Augustus, and Caligula.

Ruins of the Temple of Castor and Pollux (left) and the Temple of Vesta (right)

Dinner at the Campo di Fiore

The Pantheon, in the heart of Rome. Once again a photo does not do this justice - it dominates the piazza I took this picture from.

The Trevi Fountain, lit up at night

The Parents of Cobapple in Italy - Day 1, Rome

So, we're hijacking the adventures of two small boys to bring you the adventures of their suddenly-not-so-boring parents. We're in Rome at the moment, at the start of a 12-day, ten-year anniversary vacation in Italy. So far so good, we made it to Rome mostly on time after some rather trying airport escapades.

Our flights were from Kansas City to Dallas, Dallas to New York, NY to Rome, with some cushy layover time. Should have been easy. What happened instead is that American Airlines decided we really didn't need any free time outside of their airplanes. We sat in the plane at KCI, then got off the plane and onto a different one. By the time we made it to Dallas, we had just enough time to walk to our next gate and get on THAT plane. Then we sat around for about an hour and a half, finally took off, and arrived at JFK ten minutes before our Rome flight was supposed to depart. We (quite literally) ran from one gate to another, got on the Rome flight, and then sat on THAT plane for 2 hours before they finally took off. All told, I believe we spent 16 1/2 hours sitting on our butts in planes yesterday. I'm actually looking forward to the 10-hour flight back, because it'll technically be shorter.

Anyway, made it to Rome, figured out the train, got to our B&B and got settled in...wow, sometime earlier today. Feels like more time than that. Our hostess here is quite friendly, speaks great English, and had lots of good suggestions around town. We managed to get out and have a pizza lunch, see the Church of St. Peter in Chains and Michelangelo's Moses scultpure, then take a stroll down to the Roman ruins for a view of the Colosseum (after some delectable chocolate profiteroles. We should have taken a picture, but nothing chocolate lasts very long around Jill). We braved the Metro to head north to the Spanish Steps, then strolled up to the Piazza del Popolo to see the obelisk that Augustus brought back from Rome after conquering Egypt in 30BC. After that we walked down the Via Del Corso, one of the swanky shopping avenues in Rome. We stopped in to take a peek at a mass in the Cathedral Santi Ambrosio (the Romans freaking KNOW how to do churches, let me tell you) then went behind it for a look at the Mausoleum of Augustus (Augustus was previously known as Octavian, was the first emperor of Rome and was grand-nephew of Julius Caesar).

Finally, we found the Trevi Fountain, had some gelato and called it a night. It was a long walk back to the B&B, but overall a very good day and good first start to the trip (the plane stuff doesn't count).

Enjoy a few pictures:

The interior of the Church of St. Peter in Chains

Michelangelo's Moses sculpture - front and center

Jill and a view down the Spanish Steps

The obelisk Augustus returned from Egypt in 30BC (it's old)

The sour face is from crema di limone - lemon gelato

I'm Not Bad - I'm Responsible

Logan had another classic quote for the memory books this weekend. On the way back from the zoo, he got into a long conversation with Matt about Star Wars and his video games (a conversation that ended up being one-sided when Matt fell asleep - hehe). At one point, we overheard this exchange which cracked everyone up:

Logan: "So Darth Maul fought Qui-Gonn and beat him, didn't he?"

Matt: "Yes, that's right."

Logan: "He beat him and he killed him, right?"

Matt: "Yes, he did. That wasn't a very nice thing for him to do."

Logan: "But he's a BAD GUY, he's supposed to do that. It's his RESPONSIBILITY."

Touche'.

Love, Exciting and New...Come Aboard, We're Expecting You...

Unfortunately nobody wins the prize. Grandma Sue was probably closest with the guess that there was a Star Wars guy in there somewhere. There isn't, but that's close to the mark.

Logan's picture below is a "love alien spaceship". At first apparently he wanted to draw his grandmas just a plain alien spaceship, but Jill explained that for Mother's Day you typically want to do something that expresses the love you feel for your Mom or Grandma, so he modified it slightly and went with the love alien spaceship. I think he did a pretty good job.

I should note that he picked up this lesson right quick. When he illustrated the card we got for Jill for Mother's Day, he went straightaway to drawing a "love shark", not just a regular shark.

Happy Mother's Day

Logan sends a special Mother's Day greeting out to his grandmas:

Fun side activity: 10 points to anyone who can tell me what this is actually a picture of.

On the Road to Chefitude

For dinner last night we really didn't have any ideas, and when that happens I often turn to the old staple of homemade pizza. Logan and Liam both really like it, Jill likes it, I like it, what's not to like? The boys wanted to help with the pizza last night, in Logan's words, "to make it go faster." Ah, irony. Anyway, Liam had a pretty good time helping roll out the dough, even if he really only rolled a 2-inch wide strip of the dough, and then tried to poke holes in it. I think he probably would have enjoyed playing with it more than actually eating it. He certainly seems to be having fun. Thankfully I didn't show them how to stretch the dough by tossing it in the air. That would have been...interesting.

Nope. Mm-mm.

That's how Liam tends to say no these days. It's not just "no", it's "no, mm-mm." Just to be very clear on the matter, I guess. Liam's also started telling knock-knock jokes. We're sure it's just to emulate Logan, but whereas Logan knows maybe one actual knock-knock joke and then just makes up nonsense for the rest, Liam's knock-knock jokes all follow a sort of theme. For example:

"Knock knock." "Who's there?" "Dinosaur - in the SPRINKLES! Ah hahahahahaa!"

or another favorite:

"Knock knock." "Who's there?" "Giraffe - in the SPRINKLES! Ah hahahahahaa!"

or the perennial:

"Knock knock." "Who's there?" "Alli-GAY-tor - in the SPRINKLES! Ah hahahahahaa!"

Yeah, we have no idea either.

-------------------

Logan was looking at some of his kindergarten question and answer cards this morning, and he was trying to figure out in which order you eat the soup, then the dinner, then the dessert. He guessed dinner, soup, dessert, but they wanted the soup first. He said "oh, man, I shoulda thinked harder in my mind about that."

Another one asked him to tell the time, looking at a regular analog clock. He thought about it for a minute, then told me it said it was five o'clock. "See, cause Mommy told me that if the big hand is on the twelve, and the little hand is on a number, that's how much clock you have. It's on the five, so you have five o'clock." He was right.

The Boys of ... Well, Not Quite Summer

It's a really nice spring day today, so the boys and I went outside for a little recreation. Logan is into making complicated games of tag and hide-and-seek that involve video game characters and cartoon characters and typically change every 15-20 seconds. Liam, on the other hand, is all about the sports. I think he'd probably sit out there for hours hitting a baseball over and over. This afternoon he spent a good 20 minutes hitting off the tee and yelling "Hey! Good hit!" to himself. He also likes place-kicking a little mini-football. He's very particular - half the time he'll stop me and say "No! Turn it awound! Like dis!"

Working on the Blog

Obviously the winter theme is no longer applicable, so we're working on finding a new, "springier" template for Cobapple. It's harder than it sounds, so there might be quite a few changes over the next couple of weeks. I'm guessing that most of you don't care much as long as the pictures and stories keep coming. We'll work on it.

We Now Return to our Regularly Scheduled...

Holy cow - over a month since the last update. Sorry about that. We've been tied up with other stuff - illness, vacation prep, triathlon training, you name it. We haven't even emptied the camera since January. Hopefully we'll have time in the next few weeks to get things back on track. We also need to get out of the winter theme, even if it does still feel like winter. In the meantime, here's an Easter pic and a couple of story bits.

Logan's been cooped up inside a lot, partly because of lingering illness and partly because we've had freak cold weather for the last week. Jill and I were playing a game of Monopoly Jr. with him this afternoon and when I took away one of his pieces, he started whining about losing the game. We told him that's just how it goes, and to be a good sport. A few minutes later he did the exact same thing to me, except he did a little happy dance with a bit of "nyah nyah". I asked him why it was not fair when I did it, but he was happy when he did it.

He was quiet for a bit and I thought maybe he was actually thinking it through, but then he came back with "because I'm winning".

Liam's been talking up a storm lately - one of his new phrases that we think is hilarious is "I like it." As in "I like it - cookies." Tonight as we were making dinner he pulled the kiddie potty around to the pantry (it doubles as a footstool somehow) and started rooting through the food. He came out with a box of macaroni and cheese and said "Mommy! Uh roni cheese!" We were having pizza instead, so he had to content himself with walking around with a box of Kraft macaroni going "I like it - roni cheese..."

The Tuna are Taking Over

The game Logan came up with today for the ride to preschool was the scintillating "Which is Bigger?", in which we both name animals and then decide which is bigger. After an argument - I mean discussion - about whether a shark is bigger than an octopus, and Logan's explanation of how" a giraffe is TALLER than a hippo, so it's like 20 pounds and a hippo is only 2 or 3 or 4", the animal he came up with was a tuna.

He wanted to know how big a tuna was, and I told him they get pretty big - about 4 feet long, which is bigger than he is.

"Dad?" he replied. "Do people eat tuna from the ocean? Does it go to a factory?"

"Yeah, they catch tuna, then send them to a factory to be cut up and turned into food that we eat," I said.

"Well Dad, I don't think I like tuna from the ocean, I just like tuna that comes from CANS," he declared.

"Logan, the tuna that you get out of a can came from tuna from the ocean. It's the same tuna," I explained.

His response: "WHAT!? Tuna are EVERYWHERE!"

J Nachtrab, Career Counselor

Logan asked me what he should be when he grows up. I told him he can do whatever he wants. He thought about it for a minute.

"I want to be a vegetarian," he finally announced.

"A vegetarian?" I'm pretty sure that's not what he meant. "Do you know what a vegetarian is?" I asked.

"What? It's someone that takes care of ANIMALS," he said. Obviously.

"No, that's a veterinarian. A vegetarian is something different," I explained.

"Dad? What's a vegetarian then?" he asks.

"A vegetarian is someone that doesn't eat meat. They only eat vegetables and bread and stuff like that," I said.

He thought about that for a minute, then asked "Well, can they eat other stuff, like waffles or toast?"

"Oh, sure," I replied. "Just not meat. Some think it's mean to eat meat, some think it's gross. They have different reasons."

So now it's enormously fascinating to find out all the things that vegetarians can and can't eat. Let's not even get started on vegans. I tried to explain that one to him and just about blew his mind.

"You mean they don't have MILK or BUTTER?" he exclaimed. Clearly this was completely beyond him. "Dad, how do you MAKE butter?"

"Well, you churn milk until it turns into butter," I said.

"Really? That's it?" he said. Excitement. "Well, that's what I want to do when I grow up. I want to churn butter. Butter, butter, butter, all day long."

Hey, somebody's got to do it. I likes me some butter.

A Frosty Friend

Thanks to the snow we got last weekend, Logan and Jason built a pretty cute snowman on Sunday. Liam...well, first he didn't want to put his coat on, and then he wouldn't keep his mittens on either. So he just posed for pictures for a few minutes before heading back indoors for a nap.

Frosty and Friends

Luv My Daddy

Logan and Frosty

Broken Limbs

But fortunately not ours! Just our trees. We had a pretty hefty ice storm a couple of weekends ago that took care of our pear tree in the front yard. Here's a look at the damage. Jason's parents came out last weekend with a chainsaw, and now you can actually see OUR HOUSE! I don't have any pictures of the front of the house since the tree was removed, but we'll post one soon.

Front Yard

Backyard

Holiday Greetings 2006

So what with all the holiday planning and baking and task-taking-on, Jill is left with nary a free moment to do the annual "holiday Christmas letter", and frankly we don't have time for yet another round of envelope stuffing, so that means you're left with me to give the holiday greeting.

Bwa ha ha ha...

Yeah, sorry. I have a hard time remembering what I did a few days ago, so remembering what we were doing all year is pretty much right out. What I can do is talk about what's been going on lately, so if we haven't talked to you in awhile (Matt and Shelly, I'm looking at you) you might have a bit better idea of what's going on.

First off, everybody's doing well. Logan just turned five a few days ago, and Liam is approaching two. They’re getting to be pretty good buds, and it’s kind of funny to hear Logan mimicking our “baby talk” to Liam. There are occasional fights over who gets to sit next to the faucet during bathtime, and one or two biting incidents (Logan actually made a sign for Liam to hang on the fridge that said “No Biting”). For the most part, they get along well and it’s nice that they can entertain each other. Liam has had some of the same respiratory issues this year that Logan has had, but lately he's been pretty good and his cough seems to have mostly gone away. Logan's doing great, although he's become incredibly picky about meals and often refuses to eat anything at all. We haven't yet resorted to forcing him to clean his plate, but he loses out on a lot of dessert and snacks. Liam, on the other hand, is like a little 30-inch Hoover. He eats pretty much everything we put in front of him. The rest he throws around the kitchen. They also like to play a game called "Let's Bang our Silverware on the Table and Make it Look Like an Antique from the 1860's". Seriously, here's a tip - don't buy a nice wood table and then have kids. You're just asking for it.

Logan's been doing preschool three days a week this year, and lately seems to be pretty blasé about the whole separation issue. He used to be a little basket case when it came time to drop him off, but lately he just gives a quick hug and goes off to join the class. He seems a little somber when you leave, but he's handling it pretty well. He'll be starting kindergarten next July, which still just blows me away. Especially since they go from like 9am-4pm. What kind of boot camp kindergarten is that? At least give them time for cartoons in the afternoon. Liam's been doing Mother's Day Out, which from Jill's perspective has apparently been more like Mother's Day to Work Hard, Run Errands and Clean House. I have no idea how Liam does these days, I don't ever drop him off. The best, BEST thing about being gone all day is coming home, driving into the garage, and seeing the boys fling open the garage door and yell "DADA!" while they do a little happy dance. Really, it's hilarious. It appears I am quite the rock star in our household. I'm not sure why.

Liam's getting a serious case of big brother hero worship, and anytime we go visit their cousins Jack and Alex Liam is always trying to get right into the thick of things. He's also getting to be pretty fearless, and he LOVES to climb around on stuff. He's old hat at climbing up onto the kitchen chairs, we've also found him on Logan's bed, the end table in the living room (he likes to reprogram the answering machine), the coffee table, and once I found him dancing on Logan's train table. So far he hasn't fallen and hurt himself, so he must be pretty good at it. He's starting to actually talk a bit, and the previous posts below detail some of his words. Jill reminds me that we left out quite a bit of stuff that he actually can say correctly, like "yes" and various parts of the body. (One bit of advice - be careful asking about eyes, because Liam likes to touch everything he's talking about, and yes he will jab you in the eye socket. "Eye?" -poke- "AUUGH!") Lately Liam's been big on reading, he loves the book "Moo, Baa, La La La", "Mr. Brown Can Moo", and pretty much anything with a duck. He also gets insanely excited about brushing his teeth, I think mostly because it's doing something Logan does. Somehow I doubt that'll last.

Logan is your typical five-year-old, although he watches too much TV and plays too many video games. In a misguided father-son bonding moment I introduced Logan to the Playstation 2, which he is now completely addicted to. What can I say? He is his father’s son. He still loves to read and color and play games, although as a typical boy his games are often well into the “let’s see how fantastically we can smash THIS!” realm of entertainment. I’ve been picking up a few of the more well-regarded kids’ board games and so far he’s really loving those. It helps that he usually beats us. Logan is beginning to remind me of myself at this age, although granted – I can barely remember being five. Let me put it this way – he seems to be growing into the type of kid that I was. We’ll see how things turn out.

Not as much to tell about Jill and me. We're still "training" for a triathlon, although with the onslaught of cold weather that training seems to involve far less exercise than it used to. Hopefully after the holidays we can get into swimming and figure out a way to keep the running and biking muscles in shape (I absolutely hate being out in cold weather, so this is a real challenge). I've been doing some more traveling for work, with trips this year to Australia, New Mexico, and Maryland. In another month or two I may get to go to Japan, which might be a work trip I actually look forward to. My Japanese is a little rusty, but I'm working on it. Ganbatte! Jill's been keeping up with the boys and all of her church activities, and at times I think she's probably on a busier schedule than I am. We're still planning on a trip to Italy next year, sometime around late May into early June, for our ten-year wedding anniversary (man, we're getting OLD). We have a few destinations in mind, and thanks to work trips I've picked up enough Italian to hopefully make things more interesting for us. It'll be our first big vacation since our trip to Canada a few years ago, and Jill's first big trip overseas.

So that's a quick wrap-up of our current situation. Here are a few more tidbits that I couldn't work into the narrative so far:

- We bought Logan his first real bike this fall, he rode it once for about 30 seconds. Maybe he's still a bit young?
- The board game collection, for those who keep asking, stands at 67 games.
- Liam learned how to say "Yes" awhile ago, but the form keeps changing. First it was "Yah", then Jill taught him "Yessh", now it's "Yup". I think I’ve also heard his “No” changing into a bit of a “Nope”. I hope we’re not raising a hillbilly.

For the Christmas holidays this year, we'll be back in Kansas City to see family and friends. Jill and the boys are already there, and I'll be heading back tomorrow. We should be in KC through the new year. If we haven't seen you in awhile and you'll be in the area, please get in touch. We'll get together, have some good food, maybe play a game or two. For those of you we won't see, have a happy and safe holiday we'll hope to talk to you soon.

Speak Liamese? Apparently Not.

Well, a week ago I posed several sayings from Son #2, and apparently they were all stumpers as nobody posted any guesses. Since I'm sure this has been tormenting all of you for the past seven days, here at last I can set your minds at ease.

Here's what Liams' been saying:

1. "Eh? Cah." - this is Liam's way of saying "car". He precedes nearly every word with "eh?" or "uh?", although Jill thinks this might be how he says "I want".
2. "Eh? Emmo." - suspiciously close to "Elmo", but he's actually asking for milk.
3. "Bah" - numbers three through five are all similar, and tough to differentiate in spelling. This is "ball"
4. "Baaa" - this is "sheep"
5. "BAAAAAAAHHH!!!" - this is "Bath?! Did you say bath!!? BAAATHH!!!"
6. "Huck." - this is "I'm stuck" or "some part of me is stuck". Not to be confused with "hock", which is sock.
7. "Pua pua." - this is apparently the sound Logan makes when he spits after brushing his teeth, so this is now the word for "brush teeth".
8. "Hapa." - Liam likes to pull the zipper of his pajamas way down and walk around like some 70's disco king. "Hapa" is zipper.
9. "Juuuu." - this is originally how he says "juice", but sometimes it's just a catchall word for "drink, please".
10. "nnn -click- " - this is (seriously) how Liam says "Logan". He says "nnn" and then sort of clucks his tongue.
11. "Buh." - one of Liam's first words, "banana".
12. "Cheryo." - Jill thinks "cherya" might be closer, but either way we know he's asking for cereal.
13. "Haht." - At some point Jill taught Liam that dinner was oftentimes "hot", and he started calling all meals "hot". As in, "hey, I'm hungry, how about some hot?"
14. "Hafwafa." or "Hafafa." - this is hard to spell, because Liam's pronuniciation of this is really growly and gutteral. Either way, he's asking for a "hot waffle".
15. "Pfoof." - one of Liam's favorite foods, "fish" (i.e. Goldfish crackers).
16. "Cooooo!" - for awhile Liam was walking around calling everything "cool".
17. "Uh? UP!" - this one was pretty obvious. Up in your arms, up in your lap, up on the couch, up on the chair, wherever he needs to get up to he knows how to do it.

So there you go. Next time you see Liam, try talking to him in his own tongue. Just don't be surprised if he corrects your grammar.

Logan Turns Five

So tonight was the big birthday bash for the birthday boy. Logan turned five today, and I managed to swing a day off so I could stay home and help him celebrate. He opened a few new presents this morning, some new pajamas, a new game and some more track for his Geotrax stuff. He mostly just took it easy today, the boys and I played outside in the freak 65 degree December weather, played with trains, played some games, and generally had a fun day.

This evening was Logan's birthday party for him and his friends that Jill's been preparing for like a fiend for the last few days. She always goes all out for the party stuff, and this year was no exception. She went with a "Go Diego Go" theme for the evening, replete with fancy-pants cupcakes, Diego toys, invitations, decorations, and even Diego on the TV at some points. It was a fun evening, although for anyone considering the idea of gathering a dozen 4-5 year olds and feeding them a meal of sugar in a confined space, you'll get the same effect if you just run a 10K during a heavy metal concert then go out and bang your head against the driveway repeatedly.

Heh, I kid.

Sort of.

Anyway, it all went pretty well, Logan had a great time, and everyone else seemed to enjoy themselves. The train set was a big hit, and Jill even got in a couple of party games that the kids seemed to enjoy.

Jill's fancy-pants Diego and Baby Jaguar cupcakes

See, Logan's an ostrich, trying to get his egg to the nest, but he has no hands...you kinda had to be there.

The party gets off the hook with House of Pain's "Jump Around".

Do you speak Liamese?

Liam's hit that age where he's talking - we're just not always sure what he's saying. It's beyond toddler babbling, he's definitely using words. They just tend to be words that only he knows. So here's a little pop quiz - see if you can deduce what he's saying. Answers to follow soon...

1. "Eh? Cah."

2. "Eh? Emmo."

3. "Bah"

4. "Baaa"

5. "BAAAAAAAHHH!!!"

6. "Huck."

7. "Pua pua."

8. "Hapa."

9. "Juuuu."

10. "nnn -click- "

11. "Buh."

12. "Cheryo."

13. "Haht."

14. "Hafwafa." or "Hafafa."

15. "Pfoof."

16. "Cooooo!"

17. "Uh? UP!"

In all fairness, some of his words are fairly clear - he can say Dada, Mama, Papa, choo-choo, hot dog, and his favorite word, "yup".

Sometimes I feel like we need a translator, though.

Blowing right past November...

...and into December! Cobapple's getting a new look for the winter and hopefully a resurgence of photos. Which might be tough, given that this is the time of year when we tend to just sit inside and loaf. But we'll see what we can do.

In the meantime, Logan and Liam have had a chance to get outside and enjoy the snow after the "big" storm we had last week (true to form, St. Louis forecasts were for 6"-10", so all we got was about 4". I'm surprised it was that much.). We got them outside in the cold and onto the sled for awhile - the slope behind our house is fantastic for sledding, and neither one of the boys could get enough. We were quite literally sledding until the sun went down.

Dude, we're totally hitting the slopes.

Bad photo? No, it's blurry because we're doing about 65mph down the hill.

Liam wanted ride after ride on "the car"

Jill drove slowly, but she looked good doing it

Jill's uncaptionable photo - the face speaks for itself

Logan raced me back up the hill each time, and he always won. Hey, I had the sled.

This is Liam yelling "Hey, get the car back up here! It's my turn!" Except it just sounded like "Caaahhhh!!!".

Octobers Gone By

Betcha thought I was going to let October slip by without another "memory lane" segment. Well, it may be the 31st, but it's still October! Enjoy!

October 2002

October 2003

October 2004


October 2005

Morning at Busch Conservation Area

The Parents as Teachers program in our school district arranged a nature hike and naturalist talk yesterday morning at the Busch Conservation Area just 20 minutes from our house. Logan and Liam enjoyed the nature walk and watching a box turtle race. During the naturalist talk, Logan got to touch a red milk snake, two different types of turtles, and a tiny lizard.