Rumble with the Pups

One of the things we did in Seward was go on a ride with sled dogs. Of course, no snow this time of year, but they pulled us on a cool cart. Afterward we got to play with some of the puppies and possible future iditarod competitors. Elliot especially liked playing with the puppies, and I think they liked playing with him, too!

Elliot's Crazy ABC's

The Great Alaskan Adventure

Here's a slideshow of our pictures from Alaska. Be warned, there are a lot of pictures. So if you're up for it, grab a cold one and a comfy chair. (Or, just click on the slideshow and it will take you to the album and you can go through them at your own pace.)

Along with us on the trip were my parents, sister, brother and his girlfriend, Cathy. We flew into Anchorage and rented two cars. We went East and visited Kennicott and McCarthy where we were able to hike on a glacier and tour a copper mine. We circled around to Valdez and took the ferry over to Whittier. Then we spent several days in Seward followed by a few days at Denali National Park.

We got to do and see some pretty amazing things and had a blast. There is so much more to see up there, I can't wait to go back.

Chef Elliot

The videos keep on coming. This ones kinda long, but you grandparent types out there will love it.

One More Video....Dancing!

I'm catching up on all the pictures and video that we've taken from the past couple months. Here's a favorite. Elliot dancing...

Cheese!

Elliot's really starting to get into the smiling for the camera bit. It started off as "Hacer Ojitos," or literally making "little eyes." But it's grown into his face for saying, "cheese!" for the camera. It makes me laugh everytime...

Videos - A says Aah and Trucks

We've been watching a Leapfrog video lately and Elliot probably seen it a handful of times now, but he's really picking it up! The other day I started singing part of the song and sure enough, Elliot jumped in:



I think I need to watch it a few more times so that I don't mess up at the end like I did this time. :)

I mentioned in another post that Elliot is fascinated with trucks. Here's one of our favorite youtube videos to watch:

**Warning, if you watch them, you may find yourself with the song stuck in your head**

Excavator


and Bulldozer

Other Springtime happenings...

A couple weeks ago we braved the elements and took Elliot for an overnight camping trip. We didn't plan anything too serious. It was really just to try to see how sleeping in a tent would go. We went to a park in Kerrville, TX. It was still too cold to go swimming, but we played on the playground and walked by the river where we saw some ducks and geese. We actually forgot to take pictures of the tent, but I got some of Elliot and Violi by the river looking at the ducks. Of course, we weren't roughing it too much because we went into town and got a cone from Dairy Queen. Elliot had never had a cone, but he didn't need much explaining to figure out what to do.






A garden update: We've eaten several bunches of lettuce. They didn't get as big as the ones you see at the store, but not too much smaller than the organic bunches you see. Carrots took a lot longer and didn't get too big. Here's the first carrot we picked.



I'll have to get more pictures soon, but we've got strawberries that are green and might get ripe soon and our blueberry bushes actually did start sprouting leaves and flowers. We're not sure about whether or not we'll get fruit, but the plant looks like it's growing, which I think is a positive! We also got a couple transplants of a tomato plant called "Dwarf Cherry Surprise." They're supposed to be really good and put out a lot of fruit, so hopefully in a few months we'll have some nice looking tomatoes! I think we'll try bell pepper and cucumber later this spring, but we'll probably plant those from seeds.

Thanks to our Live Oak trees, we get to rake in the springtime, too. There aren't nearly as much as in the fall and they're pretty small, so I just mulched them up and dumped them in our flower bed areas. I had "help" of course:

Grandpa and Grandma Visit

Has it really been over a month since I last updated this? Time is surely passing by. Elliot is getting taller and taller every day and acting more and more toddler-ish in so many ways. His language is really exploding. He amazes me everyday it seems with some of the things he says. His fascination with trucks and diggers is full on and can identify all the different kinds, usually by screaming at the top of his lungs when he sees one while we're driving in the car.

Grandma and Grandpa came last weekend for a good visit. It rained the first couple days (which we needed here), but we got out and played a the park a few times after it cleared up. Elliot also got to go to his first play at a theater. The play was called, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" and was really cute. It actually held his attention for the 45 min. that it lasted, well, that and the popcorn that he was eating.






This is Elliot on his Strider bike. It doesn't have pedals or a chain and is supposed to let the child learn to balance before he learns to pedal. He's doing okay on it and can get around about as fast as walking. I think he is physically able to do it, but he's not quite ready to stay on for very long. He gets distracted by the rocks and the dirt and leaves that he's riding on and stops every 10 feet to play with them. We'll keep trying and I think soon enough he'll find the fun in being able to glide on it like a scooter.

Couple New Videos

Bye Bye Crib

We decided last night to make the big switch from a crib to bed for Elliot. We've been thinking about it for a little while, and new this day would come sooner or later. I noticed a couple months ago that Elliot could put his leg over his crib, but he hadn't ever tried to get out, that is until last week. He woke up from his nap and was laying in his crib quietly. He stays in there for a little bit after he wakes up just thinking or resting. I usually know he's ready to get out when he stands up and starts talking. That day, though he skipped a step. I have the video monitor usually right in front of me when he's awake and at one instance I looked at it he was laying down on his back and putting his feet on the rail. Not even 15 seconds later I hear a THUMP! and I look at the monitor and there is no Elliot in the Crib! So I run back and find him standing in the middle of the room with his hand on his head and crying, "falling, falling." He's definitely learned what falling means, now and is noticeably more careful crawling up on our bed or on the couch.

So, last night we gave it a go. And, quiet surprisingly, Elliot never got out of bed and slept in until after 7 am this morning. Of course still didn't sleep real well, waking up and checking the monitor and such. I think he'll do fairly well at night, but I'm not quite sure what will happen at nap time. We got him a "bunkie board" to go under the mattress rather than a box spring so that he could climb up easily and if he does fall off, it won't be from very high up, and a safety rail to put along side. So the only place for him to really fall off from is at the foot of the bed.

Elliot really enjoys having his big boy bed, I think. His comforter has planes, trains and trucks (three of his favorite things) and his pillow has a big dump truck on it. He's spent a lot of time this morning sitting in bed and playing/reading his books. Just another validation of him getting to be a big boy!

Camping!

We haven't actually gone camping, yet, with Elliot. Though we're thinking about it as soon as it's warm enough at night. Which, will actually be in a couple weeks here in San Antonio. We just put Elliot in a twin bed last night, so I think that after a he's used to sleeping in a bed, he'll do better in a sleeping bag or just blankets in a tent.

But since we haven't gone actual camping yet, we've enjoyed putting up "tents" in our house. Here's the first one we built. It was pretty extravagant with two levels and spacious enough for mommy, daddy and Elliot to play in..

History in the Making

It's been a whirlwind of a week for us. We just retuned from an historic and memorable trip to Washington DC where we were able to witness the inauguration of Barack Obama. Here's how it transpired. We got an email from our Representative last week informing us that they had two tickets for President Obama's Inauguration available for us if we were still interested. We put our names on the list after the election, but were originally told that we would not receive the tickets. After much deliberation, Violi and I decided to make the trip to DC with equal shares of anticipation and apprehension.

We flew out of San Antonio early Sunday morning and arrived in Harrisburg, PA via Houston and Cleveland. From there we rented a car and found our way to our friend Melanie's house. It was nice to stretch our legs and relax for a few hours with a good friend and her family. Elliot had so much fun playing with Owen that he woke up asking for him the next couple mornings.

On Monday, we left Chambersburg at 5:30 am, anticipating congested highways on the way to DC. It turned out to be relatively calm on our route and we arrived ahead of schedule at Kurt's house. We had to pick up the tickets to the inauguration from our congressman's office between 9-11 am. Really? Two hour window to pick up tickets? Do they know what the crowds are like and that everyone has to get through security to get into the building? Despite the small window of opportunity, Violi, with Tara as her guide, made it through and actually ran into Rep. Smith on the way to his office. Violi said he was pleasant enough, but she wouldn't pledge to vote for him in the next election despite his many pleas. Okay, he didn't actually ask for her vote. We spent the rest of the day in a restful state, playing with the kids and eating some good food.

I have to say that this trip really would not have happened had it not been for the kindness of Kurt and Tara who not only opened up their house and futon, but agreed (with some arm-twisting, no not really) to watch Elliot for us. So, a big Thank You to them! I know Elliot had a really good time playing with their girls.

The inauguration itself was equally thrilling and tiring. We arrived downtown via the Metro rail system. The problem, however, was that they shut down the stop we needed by the time we arrived. So our next available stop was on the other side of the mall. So, after a long hike/jog through throngs of people, we finally find our gate to our standing area which was supposed to be right behind the reflecting pool. At the gate, there is an orderly line of silver ticketed folks. Since we held the silver ticket, as well, we started walking to find the end of the line. We walked, turned the corner, walked some more, turned another corner...by the time we found the end of the line we had walked about 7 blocks! We hopped in line and made it about half a block when huge groups of people in front of us with silver tickets in their hands started walking the opposite way. Apparently, they stopped letting people into the gate. I'm not sure what the snafu was, but I've heard something about non-ticketed people somehow getting access to the area we had designated and so there wasn't enough room for all those with tickets.

At this point, we were pretty discouraged. Thoughts of coming all the way without even being able to see anything were creeping in and we discussed heading back to Kurt and Tara's house. We decided that we'd start walking that way along the mall, since we'd have to go that direction anyway. It was so crowded just walking in the streets, that we didn't think there'd be anyway we could even get to the mall in time for the ceremony to begin. Then, finally, we came to a point close to the Washington Monument. There was actually room to stand! We squeezed ever closer and higher on the hill and we were able to get a fairly decent view of a jumbotron and we could hear, too! So, there we stood and witnessed the historic event, amongst more than a million others. For a lot of people there, it was positively jubilant and though I admire our new president and hope that he can make a positive change as the leader of this country, I know it will not be easy and he won't be able to fulfill all of the lofty campaign promises he has made. He is human like the rest of us, far from perfect. Though we have not gotten there yet, I believe this day marks another step of progress we've made in seeing each other as God sees us. After all, we are all made in His image.