Spring Break 2007: Richmond, VA here we come

B's sister's family lives in Richmond, Virginia so we decided to make the trek this Spring Break. Now that his parents live in St. Louis that cuts four hours off the eighteen or so hour drive (not counting extra hours for county hunting).

We started Friday, March 16th arriving in St. Louis that night and leaving early St. Paddy's Day morning. We then proceeded to drive through Illinois at what I believe to be a Southeasterly direction into Kentucky. We spent the night in a hotel in Corbin, KY, near London, KY. According to B, our county totals for this first leg of the trip are as follows:

B - 30
N - 32
Princess Sparkley - 32
Boy - 32

The kids giggled some (see Boy in picture), slept some, (see future posted pictures), and puked some (again, see future posted pictures).

Lick Lick

Is it all kids who look hilarious licking an ice cream cone, or just mine? I must have taken ten pictures trying to capture perfectly how silly they looked while they licked and this is the best I got. These pictures don't nearly give their licking justice.

Queen of Massage

Princess Sparkley decorated herself with the rolling massagers she was rolling on Daddy's back and named herself the Queen of Massage.

Lincoln, NE trip

The Capitol in Lincoln.

Boy in Wilber.

Princess Sparkley and Boy in Wilbur.

Famous Marysville Black Squirrel.

B had to go to New Mexico for work about a month ago on a Sunday night to Monday night quick little trip. That being so, he had too many work hours for his week and had to take Friday off. So he decided we should go to Lincoln, NE for the weekend, mainly so he could get counties. It had to be quick trip since I had to chaperone a stake dance Saturday night in Topeka. So we left Friday morning and came home Saturday around dinner spending the night in Lincoln and getting to explore just a little bit more of the midwest we now call home.

We visited the Homestead National Monument in Beatrice, NE, the Czech capital of Nebraska in Wilber, the State Capitol in Lincoln, (where I was also able to hunt down the fabric I wanted for a baby blanket at Hancock Fabric in Lincoln when all of the KC area Hancock Fabrics were out), and the famous black squirrels of Marysville, KS.

Clouds

I became obsessed with Kansas clouds a few weeks ago when I saw the fluffiest cumulus clouds filling the entire sky. Boy told me they looked like ice cream. I didn't have my camera with me then and regretted it. So since they I've carried my camera with me trying to capture how truly amazing the clouds here look. And everything is flat so they take up the entire expanse of sky. It's beautiful.

Excavator out our window

Have I mentioned that Boy loves tractors?? This was his dream come true. For about a week we had a giant excavator digging a hole right across our parking space, in front of our door, and next to the side of our townhome. Something to do with a sewer line, I think. Boy loved it. Was even offered a ride on a bulldozer but was too scared. And to top it all off, a green John Deere tractor came and sprinkled new grass seed and hay once the hole was all filled in and a roller came and paved our parking spot.

Bunk Beds

Since Princess Sparkley was 2 or 3 she's been bugging us for bunk beds... apparently she got the idea from Brother Bear and Sister Bear in the Berenstein Bears books. Now they are finally old enough. So way back in January while I was still in California with the kids, Daddy built bunk beds for them and they moved into one room. It's had it's ups and downs and there is still a lot of late nights and giggling, but for the most part it's worked out okay.

Skiing

Okay, so it only took about a billion years to finally get the rest of these snow pictures loaded. And now I have about a billion more pictures from Spring Break to post... so stay tuned.

This is B "skiing" at his parents' house. Having just recently moved in, they knew exactly where his old skis were, so he took them for a test run.

Snowball fights

Boy throwing a snowball at me.

This pictures cracks the kids up because you can see the snowball that Princess Sparkley threw at me, midair, in front of Boy.

Sledding in St. Louis

The grandparents were nice enough to actually have real sleds for our kids to try out. And even nicer to have bought a house with a small hill in the backyard.

Princess Sparkley and Boy sledding together.

Princess Sparkley dragging Boy up the hill on the sled. (She didn't make it without help.)

Daddy and Boy sledding together.

Mommy and Boy sledding together.

Boy having a blast in the snow.

These are not our kids' real names.

Okay, so I worry and am super paranoid. And thus, when I talk about my kids on the internet, I will refer to them as: Princess Sparkley (currently age 4 1/2) and Boy (almost 3).

Princess Sparkley because that is the name of our future girl puppy and many of her stuffed animals have been named this at some point.

Boy because for a long time, we could only call him by his name, or Boy. He was very adamant that we had to call him Boy.

Basketing

Sledding in a laundry basket down the little hill in front of our place.

Snow

OUR first real snow this winter in Kansas. We were in California for the first real Kansas snow.

Welcome to Life's Mileposts. I had some ... issues and have had to recreate the photo blog. So sorry. I'll get some new pictures posted just as soon as I figure out how to without Hello/Picasa's Bloggerbot uploading mechanism.