Christmas card

I have a lot of fun designing my own card every year. So, even though this is beyond the time for such things, but I figured I should post it anyway. Especially considering that I was just working on sending some OUT. (There were a couple of people I didn't have an address for until they sent me one, and I didn't get the card until we got back from all of the trips.)

So, Merry . . . January . . . everyone!

Piles of snow and what to do with it

Our trip to Ohio was flanked by trips to the cabin. Getting up there in the winter is certainly a lot different than during the summer, since the roads aren't fully plowed. The 80 year old guy that lives beyond us a little bit plows the road with an ancient beast that breaks down a lot, but it is a gravel road after all, so a thin layer is the best you can hope for. Basically our cabin is only accesible by four wheeler or snowmobile right now, and I suspect that will change to snowmobile only soon.

Because, wow, there is a lot of snow up there! We might have a few inches kicking around down in the valley between melting periods, but it doesn't melt up there, and rain down here is often snow up there. So far it is up to about three compacted feet or so, but we are told it gets close to 6-8 feet. Assuming you could ever find the bottom.

So getting up there is a chore, shuttling people and supplies, etc. But once you are there, life is great.

Tyler LOVES sledding. That little white sled is just his size, and he has only been upset by one wipeout so far. We cleared a path for him to sled down our driveway, as well as this jump in the backyard. Meanwhile, Daddy has a fancy runner sled to take down the road up to the cabin. One time I took Tyler down there, and he got going so fast he dissapeared around the bend. I ran after him (which is an odd thing to do in snow-shoes), and finally found him lying down in the middle of the road, giggling madly.

My family is behind that powder kick-up somewhere, I swear.

There was a full moon on the last trip, so I made my first attempt at night photography. It was fun- and freakin cold. :)

Daddy lined up that shot. Classic. Kaitlyn does not like sledding as much as Tyler, that's for sure. She would cry that she wanted "outside" all morning while I got breakfast cleaned up and gathered snow gear, but after the first face full of snow she wanted nothing to do with the stuff.

And then there is this beast. We had friends and family coming up for New Year's weekend, so we looked into renting a snowmobile. For that amount of time, it would have been $300. Christopher found this beauty in an online classified for $500, but when he got there to see it, they couldnt' get it to start. Finally it started up once it got some starter fluid in it, and so we got it for $375. We figured if it lasted the weekend, we broke even. If it lasts longer, we win. And sure enough, starter fluid is all it wanted in life. We had a lot of fun with that thing!

Ohio trip

After Christmas Day, we went off in search of fun toddler things to do with Grandma and Grandpa. The first stop was a place we had previously entitled Tyler's Happy Place.

Great Lakes Science Center
The whole place is wonderful, but they have a special toddler section that is our favorite right now. There are tubes for balls to run down . . .

benches and mirrors to inspect . . .


gears to line up . . .

and awesome, fast slides to run down . . .

and even places to climb where you aren't supposed to climb.

Is it wrong that this next picture makes me laugh every time? This is the grunting face while she is trying to climb over something too big.

We had fun in the rest of the museum as well. Kaitlyn especially liked this "coloring" spot where you bumped the platform to make the cool shapes.

The headphones didn't work, but Kaitlyn didn't know that.

Hi Tyler!

Next up- Kirtland.

I've been to Kirtland a few times when I was growing up, but it is always a good stop, and especially at Christmas it turns out. They collected about 500 nativity sets to put on display, and it was wonderful! The international section was my favorite, because they were all so different. I could write all about them, but an article in the Plain Dealer was so much better than what I could write! If you have a minute, follow the link to read it.

Some were wooden, some were metal, and everything inbetween. I was worried that the kids would be trying to grab them all, but they did fairly well for toddlers.

This set was even made from Coke bottles!

I loved these pictures that were made from banana leaves by orphans in Ghana. They were so beautiful.

There were so many beautiful sets, it was hard to choose which pictures to put here.

This year they put up a kids room, with plush and plastic nativities to play with, as well as dress up clothes too. Fun!

We also went on at tour at the Kirtland Temple itself before we went home, and had a knowledgeable and good tour guide. It rained on Christmas Day, but finally snowed for us that Sunday.

The next day, we went to the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center.

It is a little, free, animal spot up in Bay Villiage, and it was great. There were animals to look at outside and inside. Kaitlyn sure does love to talk about ducks, even when they are actually geese.

They even had a bald eagle! I thought that was rather cool.

And deer, which the kids recognised from the cabin. I think.

They loved this little turtle habitat inside. I loved the feet all up off the floor to get a better look.

This hollowed out tree was the perfect toddler size to climb through.

My favorite was this guy in the hallway. He would bring out animals one at a time and tell you about them, letting the kids pet them if they were brave enough. It was neat to see a different one every time you turned around- he would bring out a snake, then come back with an owl, and then reappear with this skunk.

Well, those were our big fun adventures! The kids also had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa, and Kaitlyn especially has been asking for them ever since. I just wish they lived closer!

Christmas

Whew, life has been busy lately. Too busy, really. But that's what the holidays are all about, I guess!

I got a very nice present for Christmas this year- plane tickets! I knew it would be hectic, with our trip to Disneyland earlier this month, but I really wanted to go to Ohio for Christmas. We haven't gone there since the kids were born, but this was a good year to go. They were old enough to be manageable, Kaitlyn was young enough to not need a plane ticket, and they were both oblivious to presents and Santa, so we didn't have to take half the universe across the country with us each way.

The first thing we had to do when we got there was inspect "The Village". My parents collected a lot of Snow Village houses over the years, and I don't think they could fit one more house or person or tree onto their platform beneath the Christmas tree. It even has a train that goes around! My kids loved it.

Then Kaitlyn had to show off her coloring skills. Because that is currently her favorite pastime.

Next up was sugar cookies. Always a good toddler activity, even if the cookies never look very good afterward.

On Christmas Eve, my family does Gingerbread houses. I wasn't sure what my kids would think of this activity, but it was a lot of fun!

Tyler teamed up with Daddy, and they basically let Tyler push everything in once Daddy put the icing down. Very neat and orderly.

But Kaitlyn quickly discovered that she could use the icing bag herself, thank you. So I made the house, and gave her free reign of one corner with the icing and some candies.

Nice and orderly . . .

With some munching on the side (Kaitlyn decided she didn't care for peeps at all) . . .

And then the happy little mess on the other side of the table.

When she got bored of the corner I gave her (she very carefully put a mint on each marshmallow), she expanded to the bowls. And then she told us that it was time to give "quack quack hat".

Ta da! The finished works of art.

Christmas morning was still nice and relaxed. My mother thought it was very impressive that my kids wanted to play with each gift as they opened it, and had to be dragged away to open the next.

Kaitlyn knew just what to do with Tyler's steamroller.

When Tyler unwrapped this truck, he said "look! A tase-a-mur!" We still don't know what that means. But he liked it very much.

Well, that's all for part one- hopefully part two will come soon!