Ducks

Ok, so I guess I'm just going to have to accept the fact that I just don't have the time and energy to post blog entries lately. Ironically, when I do finally get around to it, the posts are quite long with lots of pictures and actually probably take longer to post than they would if I would keep up.

We've done a lot in the last few weeks and had several visitors starting right before Memorial Day. Eleanor stopped by for a sleep over and some breakfast with King Anders on her way to see Grandpa Bill and Grandma Kathie in Wisconsin. She also brought her parents along, but they managed to stay out of the picture.

That Friday, we headed up to Grand Marais where Will and I were taking a timber framing class, in which we starting building a larger cabin for ourselves, at North House Folk School. I highly recommend North House for a variety of classes and activities from bird festivals to knitting to baking to jewelry to building. Another person who somehow did not get in any pictures was Will's mom Jean, who was generous enough to take care of Anders for us for the 9 days we were the class. Grammie took Anders to his first Memorial Day celebration.

Here I am using the mortising machine.

Anders enjoyed this little table of Cindy's quite a bit. I bet you didn't know it was so nice to sit on for a good read, did you Cindy!?

Trying on some boots.

This is one of the largest pieces we will need for our cabin. It is called the top plate and will be the top of a wall. We had to join two very large timbers with this scarf joint that had to be cut and measured very precisely.

This is how Will fit them together once all the measuring, cutting, and chiseling were done.

Will and I were able to walk to class every morning. It was super nice.

Anders had his eye on the forklift the whole time we were in the class, asking to sit on it, on the last day one of our instructors, Peter, took him for a ride.

Here is our pile of timbers that we completed after 9 days of class.

We got home Sunday night and headed to work and school on Monday, while Jean stuck around and caught up on laundry, making cookies and some general cleaning for us - thanks!

Then Anders stayed home with Grammie on Tuesday for some fun in the rain.

On Friday, my parents and my sister and 3 of my 4 nephews (from my side of the family) arrived for the weekend. Sadie started out the visit rolling in a dead fish that Will had put outside for later disposal...good times.

We had pizza for dinner that night (peepa as Anders calls it) - everyone enjoyed it. This picture was taken not long before Anders started pestering his cousin Drew with a glass of milk in the face, which then became a glass of milk poured all over Drew (we think by accident). This reminds me of the highlight of the weekend, in which Anders chased Drew across the living room and to the front door, which wasn't latched and which Drew proceeded to fall through onto the front steps, all while his mom, his aunt and his grandpa were cracking up over the scene unfolding before them. It was very funny - the deal was that Drew had one of Anders toys and I don't think Anders wanted to take it from Drew, but more wanted to play with Drew who just freaked out and ran. I guess Anders' animal instinct to chase a fleeing thing must of kicked in. Unfortunately, we have no recording of the incident.

The weekend was kind of rainy the whole time, so we packed all the boys in Sarah's car to go to Edinborough Park to burn off some energy. Cam is back there beside Anders.

The indoor park has real trees and plants growing in it, a gym for the kids to play in and this huge climbing thing. I think this is something like 3 storeys tall and full of slides and various ways to get to places. It was kind of crazy, but the boys loved it. Here is Cam on his way up and probably asking us if we knew where Zach was.

After spending about an hour dodging some of the crazy-acting big kids while accompanying Drew and Anders in the big climbing area, we discovered the empty toddler area.

I think we spent about 2 hours running around and going down slides - I haven't gone down a slide in a long time - and then it was time for lunch and a quick drive home that consisted of lots of songs to keep Anders awake. I've never seen him so tired!

That night Zach opened his birthday presents and Cam got to Skype with his Mom and Dad, who he was away from for almost 2 weeks! Zach is showing Aunt Becky and Uncle Tom his headlamp here.

The next day we headed over to the parkway to check out the heavy machinery and the big holes they are digging. Surprisingly, none of the boys crawled through this pipe!

I'm told this is called a track hoe, all I know is that it is huge and there are three of them working over there.

This next series of pictures is kind of long, but I had to put them on the blog. When we got home from the heavy machinery excursion, we discovered these two ducks in our neighbor's yard. Anders loves ducks and he and Drew were pretty excited about them.

It was a fun couple of weeks and now we are enjoying some down time before the next round of visits starts next weekend.

Hats

Some of you may remember the post back in November 2008 of Anders in his collection of hats. If you don't, here is your chance to walk down memory lane: http://megaweapon.blogspot.com/2008/11/various-hats-of-anders-inscrutable.html

Well, in the last month or so, he has been into hats again. In the last week, he has been especially into them, grabbing one right away in the morning and some times going to bed with one on.

Buckets are also fun to put on your head if a hat isn't around.

This is actually the last weekend in April. We went to his school program Saturday morning and then had to make a very quick (1 night only) trip up to the lake to meet with the guy that is designing our cabin for us. I'm making a public commitment to get the video from his program posted. Hopefully tomorrow night.

Breakfast - some yummy yogurt (don't tell him I'm sneaking vegies into it, yep, I'm still flavoring his yogurt now with things like sweet potatoes, peas and fruit - the fruit actually seems to out flavor the vegies).

Oh, I had to stick this picture in - we bought this sweet table and chairs set at the flea market last weekend. They need to be stripped and repainted, but there is a hole in the table for an umbrella. And yes, he is eating yogurt again.

Here he is this morning. he likes to wear his hats backwards.

Ok, this next series of pictures is also from this morning. I got him dressed and thought he looked so cute in Cam's shirt and shorts and I think Henry's shoes (thanks guys!) that I just had to take a picture. He wouldn't hold still though. These pictures crack me up.

Big News

Anders and I went to Colorado last week - I was a little unsure about the flight, but Anders was super good even though the flight was during his nap. Luckily he napped a little earlier in the day and the flight is only about an hour and half long.

My parents picked us up and we headed over to Becky and Tom's house for the remainder of the afternoon and dinner. Apparently the flight wiped Anders out.

On Friday we headed to the Denver Zoo. Myles was ready for a day in the sun. The weather was perfect - mid to upper 60s and sunny.

Anders was all about holding cousin Cam's hand at the zoo. (He calls Cam "Na").

True to form, he was climbing fences.

And he was WAY into Myles (who he calls "My-mo").

Back at Grandma and Grandpa's house he enjoyed climbing into this cheap stroller I bought last year and then strapping himself in. This stroller was a total pain until my dad fixed the front wheels - they kept getting stuck sideways, but even when it was a pain, it was nice to have in the airport.

Anders also made lovely music for us. This is his very own set of bongos that Grandpa found for him at an antique store.

And he really enjoyed riding in the jeep in the big backyard Grandma and Grandpa have. I swear, their backyard is twice the size of ours - I cannot imagine what we would do with a yard that size. We would love it for sure.

Grandma, Anders and I took Sadie for a walk down to the play ground at the elementary school my sisters and I attended. As usual, Anders was all about the slides.

One day we went to the Denver Botanic Gardens. I worked there writing interpretive information for the exhibits when I was in college and hadn't been there since. Unfortunately I didn't have my MN Landscape Arboretum member card along, so I didn't get in free. I need to find that card...

Cam was a very good older cousin and hung out with Anders, keeping an eye him and playing with him. When we first sat down to eat there were tons of elementary and junior high school kids playing in this amphitheater and I told Cam that I really didn't want Anders to go down there. After lunch the kids had cleared out and as I suspected Anders got up from lunch and just started heading down hill. Cam was quick to try to stop him, but Anders is pretty fast. I tried to get a picture of him running down the hill, but I had our old camera as I wanted to take a smaller camera on the plane and it is just too slow.

After lunch we walking through the gardens. Anders was very interested in these tools.

He also decided to go down a different path than the rest of us. I love this picture with the flowers in the back ground. The other bummer about the old camera is that it doesn't take as nice pictures as the other one. I am very spoiled by that other camera - it is just too big to carry on the plane when I was loaded down with snacks and toys for Anders.

We saw some koi in the pond in the Japanese garden. Anders climbed right up to the top of the fence overlooking the pond. After this, I had to put him back in the stroller - he was just all over the place and there was a fair amount of running water and cacti around and I didn't feel like dealing with him after getting into either one of those.

This is our last night in Colorado having dinner at my parents house. He was very silly.

And now to some pictures from today. Anders rode on a tricycle with Cam in my parents house and seems to be even more interested in this old trike I bought at the flea market a few years ago. He can almost pedal it around and when he has shoes on, he can push himself around on his tip toes.

His hippie-hair, fly away and fine like mine.

And no more hippie-hair. Anders got his first hair cut today.

He was very, very good. No tears, no sudden moves. He didn't want to sit in the chair by himself, so he sat on my lap.

Checking out the new do.

And another first - an ice-cream cone. Or whatever you call the stuff you get from Dairy Queen. We rode our bikes over for the haircut and treats.

He got silly and decided to give his dad a kiss. It was very funny.

And then we stopped at a park on the way home. This is his first time swinging like this (instead of alone in a baby swing). It must have been tickling his tummy because he kept cracking up at random times.

And of course, he went down the slides. He had a big day - started it at 6:15, went to his new music class, and then crashed at 7 pm.

Oh and in case you didn't figure it out, the big news is that we finally cut his hair.