Vicki's!

The Open Road

This weekend Aaron went on his yearly guys camping trip in Milsap Bar (outside of Orville). So I arranged to spend the weekend with Vicki!  We had an easy drive up; left first thing Saturday morning, which was a good idea, as we missed a brush fire that shut down the freeway, by 15 minutes and it gave us a lot of time on Saturday - basically a full day.

We Saw BALLOONS!

We arrive at Vicki's at 10:00 am - right on target!  Chatted for a bit and then got going to the water park not too far from her house.  Our little Elijah, augh, our little Elijah.  Of course at first he was really excited to see all the fountains and kids playing in them and then, when it was time to go in them he wanted nothing to do with it (sound familiar - Choo Choo SCARY!).  It took about a half hour for him to warm up to the idea of playing in the fountains, and then we were almost there, almost over the fear, he fell. On his face. So another 15 minutes (and you are probably thinking "I would have left a half hour a go") and finally he found a teeny tiny fountain that was right at his comfort level, and then he got in to it.  He probably played for a good 45 minutes.  By the end of it, we were all soaked, including Vicki and the baby's car seat (thanks to a naughty little boy that came over and splashed Vicki twice - not Elijah). But we all, finally, had fun :)

OWIE!

Watching the action

finally loving the water

The rest of the trip was just as great (at least for me and Vicki), we got the kiddos down for a nap, got them up, fed them, and got them down for the night. AND THEN WE SHARED A BOTTLE OF CRISTAL CHAMPAGNE! Definitely the highlight for me! YUM YUM. We couldn't let the opportunity pass without a picutre, so eat your hearts out! muhahaha! muhahaha! (See "Dr. Evil" via google).

At last, we enjoyed a quite Sunday morning, lunch and then we were on our way home. This time we drove through a brush fire- a little scary, but not out of control.
Can't wait until our next visit....but how are we going to top Cristal?!

Five Months Old!

 

 Wow! Where has the time gone? Lucas is 5 whole months today, that's crazy! It's probably a good time to reflect on his milestones. Though few there are some, along with some interesting facts. So snuggle up cuz here is what you want to know about our five month old.

Lucas Ryan

Born February 25th 2013

7 pounds 14 oz and 20.75 inches long.

Today we call him "mr. Kicky pants". Ok so that's just me, but he has earned that name. He has found his legs and thinks he wants to ride a Bicycle. When he starts to wake up in the morning, he throughs both his legs up in the air together, and lets them fall forcefully witha resounding "THUD!"

Lucas loves to laugh. He especially ticklish just below his right rib cage, and on his upper thighs. Daddy can always get a good laugh out of him. He loves it when you say "BOO!"

He has a flat spot on the right side of his head, but we are working on getting that rounded out. He can now see from across the room and is always intent on tracking where daddy is. He also loves his big brother, especially when Elijah (who will correct you and say "NO! Eli!") is playing and laughing. He is the drooliest kid ever! I feel like Elijah hardly ever drooled, but this kid I literally keep a bib on him half the day.

We all love story time at night. Lucas is usually pretty good at listening, as long as it is not too close to his last feeding. He is becoming a good sleeper. It took a while as he was a little colicky in the beginning. Once I cut the dairy out of my diet we had a whole new baby. No more crying fits and a better sleeper. Daddy has had a lot to do with our good mapper. He really got Lucas on a schedule since I have been back to work and now our boy goes down for naps as good as his big brother. 

We are about one moth away from starting solid foods...namely baby oatmeal cereal. Our boy is a good eater, but not quite ready to add more to his diet.

We are having so much fun with him and really enjoying this little guy. I 

Today's stats are

July 25th 2013- 5 months

17.2 pounds 

Approx. 29 inches

Below, is our brand new Lucas, only a few weeks old. How he has changed!

Hanging out with Lucas!

Here are just a few pictures from yesterday afternoon that I took of Lucas while Elijah was down for a nap. He is getting so big, chatty and just a joy to be with.

Train Town

On Our Way to Train Town!

Yesterday we got a bit of a late start, but headed out to Sonoma to Train Town.  If there wasn't a race going on it would have taken us about 20 minutes to get there, but of course there race going on (or something of the sort) at the race track so it took us about 40 minutes to get there.  I will say, that living so close to napa/sonoma is one of the upsides of living where we do (I'm trying to look at the positives these days, as we are officially the last of our friends and family to live outside Benicia :(  ).
Anyway, we got there and Elijah was SO excited! We just missed the first train ride, but that wasn't a big deal. We walked around a bit to check out the area, rode a couple of "grocery store" train rides and then attempted once again to ride the approximately 20 minute train ride.  Elijah saw the train coming in to the station and was pumping is arm up and down yelling CHOO CHOO! CHOO CHOO! He seemed so excited. Then came time for us to get on the train, and kicking and screaming we got in to the train car, which didn't last more than one minute as Elijah desperately tried to escape.  We knew this just wasn't going to happen! Our boy is timid. We know this, we just didn't think that riding a train would scare him. Everything is in his time though and we figured we would try it again in a couple months.  I am not sure what scared him about the ride, or if it was a combination of tiredness and fear of the unknown.  So onward, he said he wanted to go on this spinny ride which I knew wouldn't happen, but Aaron took him up there any way, and about 1 minute after these pictures were taken, they proceeded to exit the ride - ride untaken.
We finally succeeded with riding the carousel. See the pictures below.  So the day was not a total bust. :)

Excited for a ride...

...and about to get off- no ride taken

Success at last on the "Horsey"

Depot Captain

Brother along for the ride

Mom and E looking at the trains

Bonus Day!

You get two posts in one day because I couldn't resist! We had a great BBQ at this quaint little park in town. Lots of people came including Aaron's cousin nicole and her family. Logan is just four months older than Elijah and they had a grand ol time together. Here are some pictures!

Happy Fourth!

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Happy Fourth of July

Last night we went to the annual "Torch Light Parade" in town.  Kaitlin (Aaron's Brother's Wife) was able to sat out blankets at 730 in the morning so that we would have a spot to sit when we all arrive around 6.  We had such a good time.  Elijah loved all the dancers, the motorcycles and the police cars.  We saw clowns, and floats and much much more.  The parade was probably the longest one on record.  It was a good two hours, we left around 9 at night and the kids....well the kids did AMAZING!  We had no tantrums (except an occasional fight over cookies), no breakdowns, and LOTS of fun!  Here are some pictures from the evening.  We hope you have a great 4th!

Eddie (Kaitlin's Brother's Son)

Me and Lizzy

Lizzy

Lucas and Daddy