Road Trip

This weekend, we drove a long way to some mountains somewhere in the US to look for snow. (My readers know I never like to refer to our exact location). On our journey, we came upon a petrified forest that we did not know existed. Apparently, there are 5 of them in the United States. Wikipedia lists them this way:

Petrified Forest may refer to:

• Ginkgo/Wanapum State Park, Washington, United States
• Lake Macquarie Petrified Forest, Lake Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia
• Mississippi Petrified Forest, Mississippi, United States
• Petrified Forest (California), California, United States
• Petrified Forest of Donechina, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine
• Petrified forest of Lesbos, Lesbos, Greece
• Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona, United States
• Petrified Forest near Twyfelfontein, Namibia
• Pike Petrified Forest, Florissant, Colorado, United States
• the petrified forest of Chemnitz, Germany

It was a nice trip. We had a big snowball engagement. Daddy and Mama made all the snow balls. Tristan and Dorian threw them at each other and at us. We got them a few times. :) By the end of the trip Tristan could say "petrified" and understood what it meant.

He did have a hat and scarf and gloves on most of the time.

Such a happy outdoorsman.

Close up of a petrified stump.

Accesories and Construction

First of all, some cute pictures... I was having an issue getting the pictures from my phone to my computer, so I haven't been posting much. That has been corrected now.

Pirate Dorian. Dorian loves to dress up with different hats.

Tristan loves glasses. He often borrows Daddy's old ones, but we didn't want him to mess up his eyes, so we got him some fake glasses at the dollar store. He wore them all the time until he lost one of the screws.

Tristan is an excellent reader, and an excellent big brother. He reads a portion of the family Bible reading every night. He even read a scripture while sitting in on one of my Bible Studies last week.

As Dorian says it, this is "Daddy Angwy Biwd" and "Dowian Angwy Biwd"

I took several pictures of Eric cuddling the bunny when Dorian decided he wanted to be in the picture.

Eric and I built a roof over our back porch over the last two weekends. Tristan and Dorian helped a little, by holding the end of the tape measure and handing us nails and screws. I guess I haven't taken a picture of the final product yet.

Dorian loves the tape measure.

He's pretty good at it.

Let's go to Hawaii

Dorian may not know what or where Hawaii is, but he repeated this many time per day the last 4 or 5 days of Daddy's trip. He was tired of missing Daddy!

Weaned!

Dorian has gone over 24 hours without "milky"! We kept putting it off because there was so much crying to deal with when we weaned big brother several years ago. "After he's potty trained", then "after Pioneer School" and "after Daddy gets back from Hawaii" were reasons we kept putting it off. Then all those things were done and so we banded together (the 3 of us) on our stance that there is no more milky. Dorian didn't cry at all. He hit, kicked, pushed and yelled for about 5 minutes, then went to sleep. This morning he asked again and I said no. He said, "OK". And we're done.

If I'd known he would handle it so well, I would've done it earlier... at the same time as potty training. :) Oh well. Now we're done with both! Done with babies. Only big boys at our house now.

These last four pictures are from the Fair! Dorian was tall enough for most of the rides in the kid area. They had so much fun on the rides and at the Pirate show. And of course, Tristan loves cotton candy, but even he wasn't prepared for a Fair-size portion!

Faces and Rabbit

Dorian is at the age when every time he sees the camera he stops whatever cute thing he's doing and smiles at the camera. Tristan is at the age when every time he sees a camera he makes a weird face. (I remember when my older brother went through that phase. That was back when you had to buy film and then pay to develop it. My dad would get upset about Alex "ruining" all our pictures with the weird faces he would make).

Alphabet Song

News Around Here

Tristan's sleeping in his own bed and has Mario Kart sheets.

Dorian hasn't worn a single diaper in over a week. He puts his "P" in the potty now.

Tristan's Vito.

Siblings' Sweet Stories

I happened upon two sweet boys in a chair. The older boy was reading to the younger one and asking him questions about the story. The younger answered enthusiastically and snuggled lovingly in between.

Here's a video, if it works:

First Hike of the Season

Marching madly, moving most methodically, motion motion...
Marvelous, miraculous, melodious Mountain!
Mud, mud, mud...
Met misplaced mutt, munched a morsel, moved on

Art pad under one arm, hiking stick, peanut butter crackers and a pen for the 6 year old.
Twigs, rocks, bark, bugs, mud, puddles - glee for the 2 year old.
Sweatshirt, sneakers, sweet tea, silent cell phone for Mom.
Four fun hours hiking up to the top of a magnificent mountain and running back down before dark.

We made two new friends on our hike today. One disappeared on his four feet into the trees. The other traded stories, smiles, and phone numbers with us.

Sinking in slumber, sacked out, sapped...
Sweet siblings snuggling side-by-side.
Small silhouettes sleeping soundly, snoring softly.
Seamless satisfaction.

Friendly Faces of Darling Dorian

He kept telling me to take his picture.

I think he liked the flash.

Bracing himself for the flash.

8 Months of Growing

Well it's been 8 months since anyone in my family has seen Dorian in person, and a year since you've seen Tristan. Tristan looks pretty much the same, but is taller. He probably still weighs the same amount, and Dorian is gaining on him. A lot of changes happen while you're 2, both physical and mental. Dorian has gotten a lot bigger, his face is more mature and he's started asking questions. :) Some recent photos show his love for being IN things is still going strong. And Tristan is teaching him the ways of being a big boy.

He and all these pillows are in the laundry basket.

Daddy wasn't too far away; you can see his reflection.

And More Snow!

Dorian was having too much fun to stop for pictures!

This snowman is lonely, he needs a friend.

Now he's happy!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

We woke up to our first snow of the season. The boys got their snow suits, coats, hats and galoshes on and went out to play. When I joined them, I brought out 3 hot chocolates with whipped cream. After drinking them, we took a snowball and rolled it all over the yard. Then I picked it up and carried it to the front yard and rolled it all over the front yard. So, all the snow in front and back is now in a giant ball in our backyard. And it is snowing again. Maybe by tomorrow, we can make another one and turn the "shiny snowball" into a snowman. (Dorian said, "Look! Tissan, Mommy shiny snowball!")

They almost match!

Orange juice and rice cake before the hot chocolate came out.

It comes up to Tristan's waist, Dorian's chest.