First day of school

Sawyer's first day at his new school was yesterday. He was pretty proud to walk in the door with his backpack. Everything went great!

Halloween

Sawyer was Batman for Halloween.

Grandma and Grandpa took him trick-or-treating and he got a huge haul.

Fall chores with Nana & Papa redux

Just like last year, Papa put Sawyer to work doing some of the fall chores.

And, again like last year, he got to play in the leaves when he was done.

Three

Sawyer had his third birthday at the end of August.

We had some friends and family over to my parents' house. Becky made a great robot cake.

It was a good time :-)

Backyard camping

I was going to take Sawyer camping at a nearby lake, but it was pouring rain. So we changed our plans -- Sawyer watched me get soaked while I set up tents in my parents' backyard instead.

Becky says this story is too gooshie, but it was cute when it happened: I said "I love you, Sawyer." as I was zipping him into his tent for the night, and he said something he rarely does: "I love you too, Daddy." That made getting all wet worth it.

We took these photos the next day, which was beautiful and totally dry (of course).

Things Monsters Do

When something goes wrong, Sawyer will sometimes say 'Oh no, the monster did it.' I have no idea where he got this idea.

Here are some of the things monsters do around here. I'll add to this list as more things get attributed to monster-activity.

• The monster hid Sawyer's pajama pants
• The monster broke the train at Wegmens
• The monster made the living room messy
  

Collaborative Coloring

Sawyer and I color together in the evenings. Sometimes he gives me instructions on what to draw, and then adds his own elements. Two examples are below -- I'll let you figure out which parts each of us drew.

This is mommy (holding crayons) with pickles (in his bowl), covered by a cat ball, next to a blanket.


This is a baby with caterpillars and worms on him, with a vacuum, under a trampoline, in the moonlight.

AAAAAHHHHHHHH

100

For one of her grad-school classes this semester, Becky had several large projects, including a 15 page research paper that took several weeks to write. The professor sent an email this morning saying that she learned a few things from Becky's paper, and that Becky got a 100 on it.

A warm spring day

It was a warm spring day today. We spent most of the day outside.

Happy Easter :)

We did a family circuit tour for Easter. Here are some pictures of Sawyer searching for m&m eggs at my parents' house.

Welcome, Pickles.

Meet our latest family member, Pickles the fish.

Sawyer named him after The Fire Cat.

Blueberries

We've been eating fresh fruits and vegetables in the mornings for the last several months.

This morning I gave Sawyer some orange slices, carrots and a romaine leaf.

He was walking around eating them while I was making our lunches and he said, "I'm eating blueberries!"

It took me a second to remember that we didn't have any blueberries, but we do have a rabbit cage in the dining room.

Happy Birthday, Papa!

The inauguration

The plan was to meet friends at ten 'around the carousel,' which in hindsight, was insanity.

I took the metro in, followed the river of people (I really didn't have a choice where I was moving), and was deposited near the Washington Memorial.

There was camaraderie among the people I was mashed up against. We cheered at the sliver of jumbotron we could see, and laughed loudly when the announcer told us we could be seated.

After the oath, the poet laureate was the end credits, and the river shifted. I couldn't get within a half-mile of the L'Enfant Plaza station (I heard later on NPR it was a 2+ hour wait), so I walked around the elipse and saw the floats and the bands setting up.

I thought it might be best to walk home... got across the bridge (my favorite part of the day), and Becky emailed me saying it would take 5 hours the way I was headed (I was taking the road we drive to church)... My sister saved the day and told me how to get to another metro station in Virginia. Found it; no wait for a train at all. Got home before the family and curled up on the couch under a blanket!

Roommates

This may be a surprise to anyone who knows our bunny situation: Grant and Bamboo have been sharing a cage for the past few days.

When Becky was in college, she bought a bunny, Tommy, and later she bought him a friend, Grant. They were best buds for a long time until Tommy died a few years ago. Grant was lonely, so we bought him another bunny (Bamboo). Bamboo and Grant didn't get along at all. So for years we've had an upstairs and downstairs bunny (which has been problematic for many reasons).

Well, they're older (Grant is 10, Bamboo's about 5) and each has been lonely on their own, so we thought we'd try again. Neither bunny looks at ease in the cage, but there's no blood. Good sign!

New Year's in Colorado

We traveled to Colorado for the week of New Year's with my parents, my sister's family, and my brother-in-law's brother's family. Snowy weather activities ensued.

Teresa, Alan and Sawyer ready for the slopes:
Jim and I at 10k feet in Winter Park. This isn't even the top of the mountain.

Sawyer and Nana making snowmen.

Becky and Sawyer taking a break outside our cabin:

Papa trying out his new snowshoes:

One very exciting thing we did as a group was go tubing at Fraser Tubing Hill.

Here's one run where we went down in a big group. It may not seem like it, but we're going very, very fast.:


To give it some perspective:


All these pictures are from the three family cameras. I don't even remember who took them, but most weren't me.