Finally a Family Cabin Weekend

Because of our schedules, Trevor and I haven't been able to get to the cabin together in a couple of months. So this past weekend, we were very excited to get up there as a family, with Trevor's parents as well. Trev's dad finished his last round of chemo, and came out west to celebrate his 60th birthday. We spent time tooling around the cabin, and on Sunday we took our favorite hike with the kids -- my first real mountain hike since they've been born. This is a trailhead about 1/2 hour from the cabin which is very special to the Nydam family, as they spent a lot of time backpacking there as kids. It's also special to us as a couple, since this is where Trevor proposed 12 years ago. We were happy to see that the kids seemed to enjoy the mountains as much as we do.The Indian peaks in the background -- this is why you want to come visit.

The wildflowers were in bloom, and Elsie wanted to smell them all.

We found the tree that we carved our initials in 12 years ago -- if you look closely, you can see:
T + J '96

Our little hikers

Rocks, rocks, rocks -- the favorite activity and Jess's favorite word.

So happy to be running around outside.

Poppie passing on the tradition to the next generation.

The wheelbarrows that Nana bought at the local dimestore were the biggest hit of the weekend.

So independent already.

Nana and her groggy little girl.

They were convinced that this little house was built just for them. -- thanks Uncle Scottie.

Rocks everywhere! Can you read the t-shirts?

One and a Half

That's right. My little babies are one and a half already. Which means they're definitely toddlers and all over the place. Elsie is starting to run, and Jess is getting quicker by the day too. As an update, Elsie took her first steps back in March, but decided not to walk until the middle of May. Jess took his first steps the beginning of June, and was walking completely within a couple of weeks. Their personalities are coming out more and more every day, which is so fun to watch. Jess is turning into an absolute little parrot, adding words so fast that I can't keep track. And Elsie usually picks up those words too, though she's not quite as chatty. They also love to point to all of their various body parts, and we've got them all down for the most part, although they are perpetually confused by "elbows" and "knees". As most toddlers, they have their days in which eating is a battle, but I try to be patient and realize that they'll eat if they're hungry. I now understand, though, why parents used to come in and be so frustrated with the eating at this age. But then they both cuddle up in your neck, and you forget how annoyed you were that there is cottage cheese in the dining room blinds, thrown from high chairs...

Here's a few recent pictures:

Hanging out in the grass in front of the cabin

Being goofy with a swimming suit on her head.

And she doesn't actually use a pacifier, which is why it's upside down.

Jess, however, still loves his pacifier, even though we are trying to wean it.

This is a picture of Elsie using her toothbrush to brush Tonka's teeth. Yummy.

Helping Poppie get the corn ready for dinner tonight.

Notice a couple of things about this picture. First, in nearly all of the pictures, the kids have hats on. For some reason, they've become addicted to hats over the past few weeks and wear them almost all day long. Some days it's their baseball caps, some days it's their beach hats, and some days it's their winter hats that Auntie Leah knit for them. Even when it's 100 degrees out. Actually, one day last weekend they both ran around in their diapers, wool hats, and their black leather shoes from Aaron and Leah's wedding for the day.
Second, Jess has a watch on each wrist. These were given out to the doctors at my hospital, and I brought a couple home for the kids to play with. Jess just loved them, and has worn them every day for about a month and a half. Well, to be more precise, he wears them most days, and nights, and actually won't even let us take them off to take a bath unless we really distract him. At first I tried to make him take them off for bed, but then I thought, "Why am I fighting this?" There are worse things...

Laundry Helpers

Here's what I found in my laundry pile today:

--A week's worth of laundry
--About 10 stuffed animals
--7 hangers
--A belt
-- My hairbrush
--Two cases of dental floss
--Two and a half pairs of my and Trevor's shoes
--6 pairs of scrubs, suspiciously folded as if they just came out of a drawer
--3 unopened packs of diaper wipes
--8 ziploc baggies
--The box those baggies used to be in
--Ear plugs
--A few diapers
--A couple of baby books
--My pile of clothes set out to go to the dry cleaners
--some tupperware
--one of Trev's water bottles

Did I mention that the laundry pile sits under a laundry chute from our bedroom? These pictures may give you some ideas of what happened...

We built this laundry chute long before we had kids, and we would often laugh about how someday kids would love to find it. Well, they found it. If you leave the bedroom door open, you are pretty much guaranteed that at sometime during the day you will hear, "Bye bye. Bye bye" from that corner of the house, as they send off each item. I remember spending hours sending toys down our laundry chute growing up, so it does make me laugh. It did give me a quick jolt Wednesday morning though, when I was trying to get ready for my job interview and couldn't find the shoes that I was sure I had laid out the night before... I guess this will just teach me to keep things picked up if I don't want them sent downstairs. And then there's the question -- are those otherwise clean clothes now considered dirty because they've been mixed in with the dirty clothes for a few days? Do I need to rewash them?

No, this isn't our mode of punishment for the laundry chute -- it's actually Dave and Jill's dog cage for Maya, and Jess and Elsie thought it was hilarious to crawl in and pretend to go to sleep.

Pool Time

Here's a few pictures from our day at the pool today. We dragged Trevor out after his night on call so that we could spend some time together as a family. The kids love the water, and it felt great to get in since the weather has been pretty hot out here lately.

They both love the fountains

My family -- I don't know if you can tell from this picture that Trevor is actually asleep... He rallied though, which was necessary trying to take care of two toddlers at the pool.

Elsie has now gotten in the habit of trying to dress herself. Which means that she frequently walks around with shirts on her head, one leg in a pair of shorts, etc.