Monticello

This week we thought it time for another adventure! Our escapades took us to the Thomas

Jefferson estate, Monticello. Isn't the house beautiful! It was enormous for the time period, as you could fit the average 1700's home in the front foyer. By today's standards, it was actually surprisingly small. The photos make it look larger than it is. It was still impressive though!

Here is the graveyard and memorial to Thomas Jefferson.

The gardens were extensive, as seen below. This picture captures only a fraction. Multiply it by about 20 to get the true scope.

Here is a sweet picture of Aaron and his daddy.

The house is surrounded by flowers which were in full bloom during our visit. How accommodating of them!

The flowers were breathtaking!

Aaron and his toothy smile! What a little trooper, and a ham!

Logan was not quite so happy. We knew our visit was over when the melt-downs started. Poor kid. Time to go home. But what a neat experience!

Air Show

Rebecca had school this last weekend, so the rest of us had a boys day out. Yea! What better thing to go do than go and see than an air show. The day didn't start out real great in as soon as we stepped off the bus at the show, a jet passed by really close and naturally made a lot of noise. Logan then started to cry and said "I want to go home." Off the bus less than two minutes and he is ready to go home. Aaron and I needed to convince him to stay, so we started to look around at all of the neat vehicles. Climbing aboard and learning about these airplanes, helicopters, and other military vehicles finally loosened Logan up. Aaron was pretty calm through the whole thing.

The boys now know that this is a tank and it makes big holes in things.

This is a stryker, or also known as a green ambulance to younger crowd.

"Airplane go real fast," and "airplane real loud," is Logans explaination of the F-16.

The Blue Angels were really amazing. There were many different flying groups and stunt planes that put on performances. They also had the Golden Knights, or the Army parchute team jump and put on a performance with smoke streaming behind them. A day of pure testosterone, nothing wrong with that; even after a little bit of a rocky start.

Logan's 3rd Birthday

On Monday we celebrated Logan's 3rd birthday. He has been looking forward to this day ALL YEAR. Every day he would tell me "my birthday is on May, May twelf." Especially after we celebrated Aaron's first birthday, Logan could hardly contain his excitement for his birthday. Well, after much anticipation, and a few temper tantrums, here are the pics from Logan's big day.

He got a case of Star Wars Mr. Potato heads...

His favorite is Darth Vader. He even imitates the creepy breathing!

Of course, we have to include birthday cake pictures. You'd hope by this birthday we could have taught him more gentleman-like manners, but no such luck. The fork was a wasted effort.
And Aaron likes to copy big brother...

He also got a lefty golf club, gummies (yum) and finger puppets from grandparents. (Thank you!) It was a fun day, if you discount all of the naughty little things boys do when they are overly excited (like snitching four birthday cupcakes when mommy was taking a shower. At least he shared with Aaron, right? Does that count for something? :-) ).

Happy Birthday Logan! We love you so much!

Happy Mother's Day!

This post is dedicated to our mothers out there whom we love very much. We want you to know how much more we have come to appreciate your efforts and patience now that we are parents too!

The top 10 things we've learned about motherhood...

1. A mother's work is never done.

2. A mother never stops worrying about her children, no matter how old they are.

3. ALL mothers are working mothers

4. Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs, since the payment is pure love.

5. It kills you to see your children grow up, but I guess it would kill you quicker if they didn't.

6. We never know the love of a mother until we become mothers ourselves

7. Every day of our lives we make deposits into the memory banks of our children.

8. When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.

9. Sweater, n.: garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly.

And..........drum roll.........

10. Mothers are:

Multi-tasking

Outstanding

Tender (tired)

Heaven on earth

Encouraging

Reliable

Grandma Wheeler

Thank you for listening to me through my ramblings and rough days!


I love the memories I have of our outings and activities together. I will keep them forever!


I am a better person because of the love you have shown me throughout my life.

I love you mom!

Grandma Rose

I love you Gran'ma Rose!

We love your squeezes, and your visits.


I love you mom, thank you for all that you have done for me. You are the greatest.

Today's blog: Smiles and Sleepers

Smiles...

This is what I have the pleasure of seeing every day!

Sleeping...
Unfortunately, the boys have been sick for the last two weeks. It was so sad to watch Aaron crawl to a pile of blankets and snuggle himself in. He just laid there for a while looking miserable until he finally fell asleep.

Logan did the same, crawling in my bed and dozing away. As a mother of two VERY active little boys, this was extremely unnatural behavior to witness. Needless to say, I got to spend the last two weeks snuggling my sick little boys. You couldn't hear me complaining, though. :-)

Now everyone is healthy at last, just in time for Aaron to get a bloody nose. *sigh*

What's a mother to do... poor kid.

Robins

When we first arrived at our apartment here, we discovered a birds nest on our back porch lamp. We have been delighted twice now to find it occupied by little robin families.

The other day I found these three eggs in it, although a 4th egg followed shortly.

Here are the brand new baby robins, fresh out of the egg! It is amazing to watch the parents swoop in to feed the babies. The tiny robins stretch their necks up as far as they will go and cheep furiously for the rights to the first worm.

Speaking of wildlife, we found this guy while washing our car. He was sleeping contentedly when our little Logan decided to investigate. Luckily I saw what was going on and grabbed hold of Logan, or I don't know who would have gotten the bigger surprise, Logan or the possum.

Colonial Williamsburg

Due to his hard work and efficiency, Paul earned a 4 day weekend pass. We were originally planning to use it to go to Cleveland to paint our house, but before we could go, some renters moved in!!! That meant we had a last minute 4 day vacation we could take, so we decided to go to Colonial Williamsburg, which is a few hours away. Paul has an aunt uncle and cousin in the area who were kind enought to take us in on such short notice. Colonial Williamsburg is an old fashioned town where history has been preserved.

Our first sight was a horse that Logan was thrilled about. Aaron could care less, since all he could see was the back of daddy's shirt

Here is Logan taking to the life of an old fashioned outlaw...

...and here he is after being tried and covicted for his crimes. His sentence: 1 minute in the stocks!

Paul thought he would keep the little guy company while serving his sentence.

Aaron didn't have nearly the fun we had. He cried the whole time.

The next day we went to some Revolutionary War battlefields. Aaron was much happier that day, and Logan was enthralled by the cannons! He kept peeking his head in the barrel. Good thing they're not loaded!

Then we went to the beach in Yorktown.

We saw jellyfish in the shallow water! A first time for me, outside the Monterrey Bay Aquarium that is.

Logan loved wading his feet with Aunt Marilyn...

...while Aaron was content to play in the sand.

What a wonderful day, and a fantastic vacation!

We used to say that Logan had lead in his pants. The kiddo never climbed on anything. It took him forever to even learn how to climb onto our couch. That carefree stage of our lives is now over as Logan is becoming quite the climber. He likes to shimmy his way up our pantry and get the cereal from the top. He is getting pretty good at it too.

Up he goes...

Coming down with the prize.

Here are some more pics of our adventures in DC. The capitol building is HUGE! And the inside is fantastic. We'll have to take a tour again while we are here.

Aaron loves shoulder rides. The problem is that I have to worry about it raining drool on my head. It will be nice when he is no longer teething, but I would never wish these moments away for anything.