::frigid outing pt 2::

......after we got done freezing at the crazy graffiti for park we hopped back in the car and headed over to check out another area. It was still cold over there.
We parked by one of the oldest lighthouses in the US. Now I can't remember of course--maybe it was the 3rd oldest? Anyway it was cool. And I got a picture of it just as the light flashed at us. Can you see it?

Max spent some time jumping off rocks. That was fine with me because it kept him away from the edge of the land, at least momentarily.

He is such a boy.

And then of course he went over to the edge. Think it was just to bug me? Take a look at the expression on his face.

Stinker.
So as you can see there's the edge of the land and then there's the ocean. In between there were a whole bunch of rocks on a slope. And it was cold and icy. So of course we went down there. Well, the boys went down there first.



It was really pretty.



Some of the rocks were pretty icy. Max did a pretty good job, but he definitely needed some assistance.

Wow, in that picture the ocean almost looks like ice itself. It was so grey.

I wasn't really planning on going down there, but once they got down to the bottom they started calling me. And although neither Grant nor I wanted to go, we did.


I watched my feet very carefully so I wouldn't end up in the ocean.

It was already cold enough. Falling in the ocean really would've bummed me out.

There were some pretty amazing icicles down there. It looked like there were all these little streams flowing down to the water and then suddenly it got super cold and they all just froze.

Kris says that's not what happened though. But it looks like it to me. It was really beautiful.
Melissa took a picture of Kris and I. While we were posing, Max did his best to break through some ice and fall in the water. Chad somehow kept him upright with the hand that wasn't holding Grant. Impressive daddy skills there.

But right after that Max finally succeeded in cracking some ice. (Melissa captured this moment)

See the ice cracking under his feet? Kris's arms are reaching out to grab him....but he did end up dunking both hands in the freezing water. And he got the bottoms of his jeans pretty wet Brrr. And somehow he still cried when we said it was time to go up and leave. I think kids must be made of teflon.
And so then we went home. It was a fun freezing adventure. I think we're going to go back when it's not quite so cold.

::a tribute::

We need to get rid of Max's old boots. They're just worn out and yucky. But he loved them so much that Kris and I couldn't get rid of them without taking a picture of them. You know how some people bronze their baby's shoes? Well this is the way we do it.

I think we got these boots in late 2007. They were supposed to be church shoes.

But they came at a time when Max was able to actually put on his own shoes, as long as they were easy. And these were about as easy as they could possibly be.
He wore them all the time.

Whenever he could. He would've worn them with his shorts if we had allowed it. But we don't allow nerdyness like that around here of course.

I thought while I was tributing that I should check and see if I had any photos of Max wearing the boots. Boy did I ever! There were a ton. I picked a few to show you.
Last Jan with awesome hair:

November 2007 (wow that seems like forever ago!) on the way to church:

October 2007:

Also last Jan--back when we had two Land Rovers and I had a chubby face:

Last March--I like this one a lot:

and most recently at my parents house in May of 2008 while Kris and I were moving all our stuff from MO to RI:

See I told you there were a lot of pictures, and that wasn't even all of them. He loved to wear them!
The poor boots are looking pretty wasted in that last picture. We couldn't get him to stop wearing them.
So BabyGap boots, we love you! Thanks for a good run. See you in another life or something.

::cheery::

I got this in the mail and it cheered me right up. And I need a little cheering up from time to time because of the cold greyness, you know?
Thank goodness for cupcakes in the shape of a rainbow valentine (seriously three of my favorite things), and thank goodness for valentines day that comes in the middle of cold dark Feb and gives us something to look forward to.
I can't wait to read this issue, it just looks fun. Thanks mom!

::frigid outing pt 1::

On Saturday we went out to have some fun with Chad Melissa and cute little Grant. We grabbed some lunch and then headed out to Jamestown, RI.
There was a park out there with a little hike we wanted to check out. It was freezing freezing.

There were all these little ponds or puddles or something in the grass that were all frozen solid. Well, not as solid as Kris thought. He got out into the middle of the big one (you can see him behind Max in the above photo) and suddenly we all heard this big CRACK. He got off there pretty fast.

Max thought the ice was pretty fun, of course. It was tricky to keep him from going out too far. Somehow he didn't fall on his bum. I'm not sure how we kept that from happening!



It was fun to walk around the edges of the icey spots and crack all the ice.
Sultan was just glad to get out and eat some yummy snow.

And Grant was cool with keeping an eye on everybody from his throne.




There was this old fort in the park. It was really big and really kind of gross and creepy. We looked it up after we got home. Turns out it was a fort used in world wars one and two for monitoring sea traffic in and out of the bay. It's been turned over to the parks and rec dept of the city now, and basically it looks like it's just a big hang out for teenage weirdos. There was nobody in it when we were there though. It was way too cold for just hanging out.
It was cool looking.

Lots of interesting graffiti--luckily most of it was illegible. You know, there comes a point when there's so much graffiti somewhere that it seems organic, like it grew there or something. Like some of the buildings in NYC that you see from up on the subway. Anyway, this place was like that.







After messing around there for a while we went along the path.

The path took us up on top of the thing. I was nervous about Max the entire time of course. I could just see him falling off the cliff you can see behind Melissa and I.

But of course "I WON'T! I'm just following Sultan!" Yeah, good old Sultan won't lead him wrong! (hah!)

But he didn't fall off anything. Luckily. Thanks to lots of yelling from me. At least I like to think the yelling does some good.

Yes, you can see it in his face. He just likes me to yell so he can pretend he doesn't hear it. Little stinker thinks somebody will always be there to catch him if he falls. I guess that's good, right?

And after we got too cold up there and headed back down towards the car he did fall. I guess. He was running ahead and I think he ate it.

And somehow ended up with a handful of big burrs. He's amazing. I don't know how he does it.
After that we tried to take some pictures of our breath, but though it was FREEZING we couldn't see our breath. Explain that one to me...

and then we--oh wait--you're going to have to just stick around for part 2.

::twisty::

Kris had a brilliant idea tonight. He thought we should go and buy Twister for Family Home Evening. We did and it was a blast.

Max was so excited about the game. He could hardly wait to start playing.

He kept saying "Wow, this is a hard game!" as he was doing splits and sliding around the game board.









It WAS a hard game! We all had fun, and we all got tired.
At the end Max was the spinner guy so Kris and I could play. He did a great job. It's definitely fun that he can read--it makes him more functional somehow.

(I beat Kris, by the way. He tried to cheat and knock me over, but it didn't work)

::interminable::

The other day Max's room was messy. Really messy. And for about the last 6 months I've been trying to teach and encourage him to clean his own room. Sometimes it works out great, and sometimes it's a failure. I usually have to help him by coming in and giving instructions no matter what. I try to avoid coming in and cleaning though, because then he sits down and watches and I clean everything up before I realize what happened.

Anyway, after breakfast I sent him in to clean up. And truthfully it wasn't really that messy. There were toys and clothes all over the floor, but we have a very nice organization system for things like that. Lots of drawers where all and toys may go, places for stuffed animals and then a dirty laundry basket for clothes.

By lunchtime he was still in his room. He'd come out to bring me a laundry basket full of clothes. I let him take a break for lunch and then sent him back in.

Look at him! Working hard, right? What's he doing here, maybe making his bed? Or folding something?

OK, maybe not. Looks like he got out toys that haven't seen the light of day for quite a while.
He never plays like this by himself. Never. Unless I tell him to go get dressed or clean his room.

He was so focused he didn't even notice me taking pictures.

Until then.
See how messy his room is? But see all the drawers? They're just calling to have toys dumped in.
The funny thing is that most of the toys out there on the floor actually weren't there when I sent him in to clean. He spent way way more time getting stuff out than putting it away.

He had his dance class in the afternoon at 3, so I gave him a little break for that. Then when he was back I sent him back into his room. He didn't even complain. It probably didn't hurt he was listening to Scripture Scouts. They kept him very entertained.

Anyway, Kris came home from work and Max was still "cleaning." He went in and gave him some nice verbal instructions and got it all taken care of by dinner time somehow.

It was just amazing how long it took. And actually it was a very nice peaceful day for me. I got some work done, I got to read a little in peace and basically it was just nice and low key, and he wasn't trouble for me all day. Weird, huh? I'm thinking I should do this more often. Maybe I'll start messing up his room myself.
Naw, he does a good enough job on his own, the little stinker.