Red Radio Flyer

One of the really great things we did while we were in Wisconsin was to go outside and play every single night in Grandma and Grandpa D's giant yard. James really loved it, and this has inspired us to try to do the same thing here--that is, get outside and play in the "yard" for a few minutes every day.

However....there were lots of fun things at the grandparents' house that we do not have. For example? A basketball hoop for daddy and Jamesy to put the ball into....a bat to drag around on the ground....a garden to explore...and a Red Radio Flyer.


As you can see, on this particular night, Grandpa D was hanging out with us, and Jamesy, already dressed in his PJs, was having a blast!

At times, J-man had a little bit of trouble with the wagon getting stuck....


Why...won't...this...MOVE???

But luckily, he had the daddy to help him out.

Also? He loves to throw a basketball, especially when he can count on the mommy to pick it up for him.

Birthday Boy

Yes, yes, yes, James is already almost 14 months old, so the title of this post doesn't fit the day....but it does fit the picture.

This is the only picture we actually got of James on his first birthday. We took him to the Milwaukee Zoo, and there he not only had LOTS of fun, especially looking at the aquarium, but he also had his first experience with becoming rain-drenched. We had to run through the pouring rain to leave in time for Grandpa D to be at his piano lesson, and James was more than a little confused about how the outdoors became a shower! We have a couple of pictures of the zoo that the grandparents took, but none on the computer, so you'll have to use your imagination for now.

Throughout that day, as we petted a turtle and watched the lions prowl and ate birthday cake and ran around the yard, one thought kept going through my mind. It is a phrase that our friend Megan uses for her monthly letters to her daughter, our friend Ana. And I think it is perfect. It is what every mother feels whenever she looks at her child, and even more so on the days when we have cause to reflect on the many twists and turns on the path of life that brought that child to us.

Thank you, James, for being mine.

Oklahoma chillin'

Okay, so it's been over a week, and no more catch-up posts like I promised. Hey, I have a 13-month-old! But here, finally, are some more pictures. These are just pictures of us hanging out at Grandma's house.

When we were in OK, one of James' favorite activities was helping Grandma do dishes. Unfortunately, he liked this so much that he was constantly in motion, so I didn't get any un-blurry pictures. Here's the best we got:


Hanging out at Grandma's house was also when we discovered that James really loves the radio. Before our trip, he didn't really know what a radio was, but once he got the chance, he was all about figuring out the mysterious inner workings of this machine (typical guy) :


What's in there? he says. I don't know....it's a mystery!


And thus, we have reached the end of our OK trip. It is sad because we miss everyone and we didn't have nearly enough time there to spend with everyone and doing everything we'd have liked to do....and we also didn't get nearly enough pictures!

But coming soon...Wisconsin trip pictures!

Until next time~

The Oklahoma Experience

As you may know, we got to go to Oklahoma for a too-short visit in June. While there, we went with James' Grandpa Lin and Grandpa Clint to the OKC zoo. I have a long-standing tradition of taking a picture with a certain gorilla statue there, so this time I got to do a multi-generational one:


There are several things I love about that picture. First and foremost, I love J-man's expression, like, oh, you guys, you are SO SILLY! =) But also, I love the random kid peeking out from behind the ape's massive shoulders. Also, the fact that you can't tell that we're all sweating profusely is a nice perk. Finally, I would like to say that the first time I took a picture with this ape was during our 7th grade zoo field trip, and at that time, the plants in the background were recently planted and only about 18" tall. And the ape was by himself. Since that time, he's gotten a family just like me! I know, I'm a nerd, but it's still cool.

Jamesy decided he would like his own special zoo sculpture, and chose this little elefante:



Okay, so maybe he thought it was actually a ride, but who am I to complain? We had a good time.

And an Oklahoma trip, without a little time spent on the ol' John Deere, is simply not a real Oklahoma trip. So we made it happen, with help from some aunts and uncles who just *happened* to have one sitting in their yard. =)



All right, that's it for today. James wants his nap and he wants me to stop typing or else let him type. Whew, this post was exhausting!

We are drowning in pictures.

So, I finally got the pictures off of the camera and on to the computer...only to discover that there are ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY of them!

Of course, many of those are repeats of the same pose, as Ben strives for picture perfection. But still, that's a lot of pictures for the last two months. At last, I feel we are getting some wonderful use out of the camera. And of course we want to share those pictures with you! But, I have a feeling our computer couldn't handle posting all the pictures at once, and that would leave little room for storytelling, so I'm going to have to mete them out in a daily dose over the next few days.

I'll start with travel pictures. Here's James on the airplane, thinking, hm...this is sort of...different. Not sure what to think of it yet....



But I know I still don't like the car!


Okay, maybe the car isn't quite as bad as I thought....


It helps when the daddy is around to keep me giggling. =)

Until next time~

I know, I know, it's been forever

So. It's been crazy this summer. We spent a couple of weeks in Oklahoma in June, a couple of weeks in Wisconsin in July, and Ben just got back from a one-week conference trip to New Hampshire in August.

We are a little tired.

But we also have tons of great pictures to share with you!

However, most of them are on the other camera, and I am having trouble downloading them, and we are short on time to figure out this problem. So I'll share with you what we've got on the computer and then maybe after we get through this weekend we can begin to work our way through all our pics.

James, by the way, LOVES flying and has done great on all our trips, even though his sleeping (and, by extension, our sleeping) really suffers when we're away from home....So we're glad we don't have to travel much for a long time now, even though we had a great time getting to see everyone.....

But James seems to want to travel a little sooner than the rest of us:



We have had to leave the suitcase out ever since we got back from our last trip, because he really enjoys climbing in it and then playing in there with some of his toys. A couple of his friends have been over to visit and they seemed to like it to, so moms, take note! Suitcases are apparently even better than playards. =)

Lately, James has begun to snuggle lots of things besides Mama and Dada, which is very cute, but hard to get on camera. Here is our best effort so far:



He's got that Teddy Bear!

Hope that helps those of you who check this blog frequently, and sorry for the lack of recent posts. Ah, summer craziness!

Love to all. Until next time~