Oh, Give Me a Home

Where the buffalo roam...

We actually did see buffalo.

But they weren't roaming. They were penned up at a farm.

Well, you guessed it. We were in Kansas last week.

They have some pretty big crickets and grasshoppers out there.

That's way bigger than we grow them out west!

You might be wondering why we picked the Mid West as our vacation destination. Were we drawn by the amber waves of grain? The skies that are not cloudy all day? Or maybe we are storm hunters just hoping to be lifted off to Oz? Well, if you thought any of those things you would be wrong.

The real story is that Bill's mom's family is from Kansas and we went out so they could meet Judah.

Specifically, so his Great-grandma could meet him. This lucky little dude has 2 great-grandmas. When I was born I only had two grandmas. Period. He has a whole gaggle of family to ooh and aah over him.

That's four generations right there. Crazy, no?

Even the smaller cousins were all about Judah. Piper (pictured) was completely enamored with him. She kept wanting to hold him and hug him and touch him and just watch him. The holding was pretty funny, since she had maybe 2lbs on him. Maybe.

During our vacation we mostly just hung out with family and carted Judah around to various activities.

Like a little cousin's soccer game.

And a little cousin's football game.

He got a bit sleepy with all the games so we snuggled up for the duration.

We visited the town Bill's mom grew up in (and where her mom has lived her entire life). This is their town church (which happens to be where Bill's parents got married. In December. In a blizzard.)

It was a really good looking church. It is crazy how large and nice it is being that it is in a tiny ass town in the middle of Kansas.

Judah gabbed quite a bit while we were there. I think he enjoyed the echo.

Who doesn't enjoy a blue ceiling? No one. That's who.

Judah is barely tolerating us at this point.

We also spent a couple of days in Kansas City.

Which I had no clue that it was in both Missouri and Kansas. It is partially separated by the Missouri River, but mostly by State Line Road. I was pleasantly surprised with Kansas City. It was much nicer than I was anticipating  There are actually a lot of (deciduous) trees and tons of fountains. We spent one day at the zoo and another one walking around the Plaza (a shopping area).

It was a nice trip and I am now able to put faces to all the names I hear. Judah did better than expected. We were able to keep his bed time the same (6pm Pacific Time, 8pm Kansas Time), but his naps were totally haphazard if they even happened at all. He was a champ though. He did well on the flight there, but was a bit cranky on the flight back. I'm not sure if his ears were bugging him (mine were killing me and I wasn't congested or anything). It might have just been because he was tired (from the lack of naps and we had to wake his ass up early to catch out flight). Still, he was a rock-star.

Sadly, now he is awake and I have no idea why. He shouldn't be up for another 3 hours at least. Bill is up in the nursery rocking him and singing Bob Marley, but that doesn't seem to be doing the trick. So, peace out. I need to go get that kid back to sleep.

Things I have been doing while not writing on this blog…

So I realize I promised to return to the blogosphere in August. I didn’t.

It is now October (How the hell did that happen?). And, guess what? I’m back!

While I was away I was doing things, like:

1. Finishing up my second summer of Montessori training.

2. Going to Hawaii for a friend’s wedding.

4. Going to Wisconsin for another friend’s wedding. 5. Getting an exchange student from the Netherlands that will be with us through January.

6. Getting a puppy. Gertrude Ehrenroe.7. Going back to school. Sigh. 

Things I have been doing that I will create blog posts about:

1. Bill rebuilt our back stairs! Yay! Safety for all.

2. Revamping out guest room to make into our exchange student’s room.

3. Making a new guest room.

Ummm, that might be it for now. I feel like I am missing some things, but whatever. Good enough.

Our Vancouver Getaway

We have been back from Vancouver, BC for well over a week now, so I guess the time to blog about it is now or never.

It was a really nice little vacation. We had a lot of fun and were able to relax (even though we were perpetually on the go… It is funny how vacation works, eh?).

We stayed a the Nelson House B&B in West End Vancouver, just a few blocks from wonderful Stanley Park. We had the attic suite, which was surprisingly large. It had a little writing desk and twin bed in one dormer, a kitchen nook in another, and the queen bed in the what would have been the third (however, the dormer window had been converted into a little balcony). Plus, there was the living room area in the middle.Right outside the writing desk dormer was a Magnolia in full bloom.

We arrived on a Tuesday and lucky for us the Vancouver Art Gallery is free Tuesday evenings! Now, can someone please explain to me why it is called a ‘gallery’ and not a ‘museum’? It is most definitely the city’s art museum with permanent and rotating exhibits, not some gallery where you can buy works.  

Anyway, the classical facade of the Gallery was covered in a hand painted mural by Michael Lin, which I loved. I was really hoping that they would have some prints of his in the museum, ahem, gallery store, alas, they did not. They did, however, have a framed Dutch still life print in their clearance section (a remnant from a previous exhibit from the Rijks, which I wish I could have seen). I think it will end up in our bedroom, but as of yet it is sitting on our kitchen table amidst a pile of mail.

The only other real souvenir we bought on our trip was this adorable mercury glass owl from Parliament, a furniture store in Gastown (which, sadly, does not have a website).  This little guy is living in our dining room on the plate railing that lines two walls.

I, of course, took a ton of photos while we walked or (tandem) biked around the city. Maybe some of the photos will actually be printed and framed. Particularly ones of the jellyfish at the aquarium or the birds at the conservatory. But, where would the jellyfish go? Hmmm….This little guy is adorable and would work well in our bedroom or in my imaginary art wall installation. I wish I knew how to use Photoshop better so I could play around with a bunch of fun effects. Right now I just use Picasa which is super duper basic. I love swans. I think this was only the second time I had seen them in real life (the other time being in Rome at Villa Borghese). I don’t think I will probably do anything with the swan photos, but who knows…

Now here are some to definitely print and frame:Just kidding! How disgusting are those seagulls choking down starfish? Blech.

Here is the pretty boy we came home to. He was super cuddly when we returned (even more than usual). We saw two saints while in Vancouver. Bill and I both stopped and just watched them go by. While (in our humble opinion) they were no where as cute as Ralph, they were far better behaved (being that they were able to be walked in a dense urban setting and did not jump or bark at anybody. Amazing, I know).

Well, that is it for our trip. This weekend we are not up to anything terribly exciting. While I am doing house stuff, it is just the boring things like laundry (which I am good about regularly doing) and dishes (which I am horrible at regularly doing). We recently bought some power tools (a jigsaw and miter saw) so expect some fun projects in the near future. Right now we are just making a pair of saw horses to get used to the tools and gear up for repairing the back steps. But, oh, my idea list of things to make with those tools grows daily as I find new plans and projects out there in blogland.