Lots of Snow

Earlier this month we got a lot of snow. It snowed about 14" on Thursday night, 9" on Friday night, and 6" on Saturday morning. I did a lot of shoveling.

A big snow storm every once and a while can be so much fun. I made Beckett a slide on the huge pile of snow by our walkway. (That huge pile has yet to completely melt.) Felix spent some time outside with us until he took his boots off and started walking around in the snow with just his socks on. It was cold. He cried. Then he got booted back indoors.

On Saturday morning the whole family went sledding together. We borrowed some sleds from our neighbors. We have a great sledding hill right behind our house. (Here's the hill in the spring.) It's hard to remember when the kids have been happier.

We have a couple of daredevils.  They took the inevitable crashes with good humor, for the most part. (Beckett: I never want to crash like that again.)

Beckett looks awesome in his snow gear.

Sledding is serious business.

California, the Finale

On our last night in Sacramento we went down to the river. 

A California Saturday

Saturday in California was The Big Day. We did a ton of stuff and completely wore out the kids.

First up was a trip to Funderland. All the cousins were going down to Funderland, and even though we already had Saturday plans, we wanted to go too. So we did. It's so much fun to put your kids on rides.

Felix and Leo loved this fish ride. It was just for the little guys. The ride is kind of long, and I thought that surely Felix and Leo would be ready to get out when it was over, but no. When it ended and it was time to get out, Felix started crying and pummeling me with his fists and Leo threw himself on the ground and wailed.

Both the boys loved the carousel. Unfortunately their parents don't love spinny rides and someone had to stand next to Felix, so they only got to ride it once.

The last time we went to Funderland Beckett thought this dragon coaster was really scary. This time he loved it.

Riding the coaster with all the cousins (and Uncle Aaron)

We took lots of pictures of the log ride.

We left the cousins to continue to the party at Funderland and went to Old Town to have lunch with Jill and Chris. Lunch didn't get off to a great start. We each went to a different place. Our fault. Very embarrassing. Once that was cleared up and everyone was in the same place, we had a great time. We were very free with the phones and iPads at lunch so that the adults could actually talk. 

Then we took them to the California State Railroad Museum. We've been to a lot of railroad museums, and this is out favorite. We thought it would be a fun place for everyone. This is my favorite train, so I made Jill and Chris pose in front of it.

I also really like the pictures of them on the phones.

That Beckett loves trains is a known fact, but I'm not sure why I keep being surprised by how much Felix loves trains. He was enchanted by the train museum.

We introduced Jill and Chris to the tradition of train museum followed by mini-donuts. They are really tasty. Then we went to see the State Capitol.  

We decided the interior of the dome looks like a carousel. (Kind of book-ended our day.)

Beckett was ready to call it quits.

I miss Jill. I'm so glad that we got to spend time with her. The day was over too quickly.

California, Part 1

Are you ready for a million pictures from our trip to California?

Originally we had planned to go to California for Christmas, but then the plane fares were so outrageous that we decided to wait until January. It was absolutely the right thing to do.

Jen and her kids came from Dallas to join the party, so Nate's whole family was in town.

One of the big outings together was a walk on the bottom of Folsom Lake. California is in the middle of a drought and a lot of the water has been let out of the reservoir to make up for the lack of rain. The receding waters have exposed Mormon Island, a mining settlement from the 1840s.

It was pretty surreal to be walking on the bottom of the lake. We saw remains of old structures as well as artifacts, like broken crockery.

With the weather unseasonably warm, (It was in the 60s and 70s every day. I never wore socks.), we were even able to get out onto Lake Natoma for a little paddling. This is something we like to do every time we come to Sacramento. Nate's been going there since he was young, and he took me out to the lake the first time I visited California with him when we were dating. Felix insisted on sitting on Nate's lap the whole time. He was nervous. Aaron had a boatload of kids in a yellow canoe.

One really fun thing about this trip is that we had all the 2012 babies together right near their birthdays. Dorothy put together a little party for them. Hazel loved her party hat. Felix loved the balloons. Leo is up for anything.

My only picture with all the cousins.

 On one of our last days in California we went to the Folsom Zoo. This outing was a huge hit. The Folsom Valley Railroad run right by the zoo, and it was open! Both the boys were ecstatic.

A family picture taken by the engineer who used to teach college level photography classes.

Felix, especially, also loved the zoo. He pointed at every animal. We knew he liked dogs, but apparently his enthusiasm extends to all creatures. 

Day kindly measured Beckett.

Brace yourself. There's much more California to come.

National Building Museum

New Year's Day is the best day to go to Washington. Everything is open, but the traffic is minimal. Seriously, it was like driving in Kansas, not Maryland and Virginia. I have never gotten to and from Washington so quickly. The crowds are low. We parked right in front of the museum we wished to visit.

This New Year's we visited the National Building Museum, and we were big fans. The museum had several interesting exhibitions about architecture and city planning. Plus it has two (TWO!) play areas for kids. It is always refreshing to go on an outing that has something for everyone.

The National Building Museum has an enormous, beautiful atrium. We ate our packed lunch (supplemented from the museum cafe) amidst the gigantic Corinthian columns.

Felix was quite enamored with the fountain. What he wanted most of all was to climb into the fountain, and he cried on the floor when I told him he couldn't.

One of the play areas at the National Building Museum is only for younger children. They have a set number of spots per hour. We reserved a spot and then ate our lunch and looked at the exhibition about Los Angeles as a family. Then Nate took the kids to the little kid play area, and I visited two other galleries. After playtime was up we went upstairs and saw the house exhibition all together. Then I took the kids to the other play area while Nate visited the rest of the galleries. Beckett really liked both of the exhibitions he visited. There were models of buildings and famous houses that he enjoyed. He also liked watching the video clips and listening to the accompanying headsets. He especially liked looking at the restaurants in the stereoscopes.

The little kids play area is okay, but the second play area that is open to all ages is really where it's at. Beckett spent a long time at the building table working away.

The kids also had a great time with these life-size building blocks. I think Felix had his tongue out in every picture. He was concentrating so hard.

After our trip to the National Building Museum we drove over to the Jefferson Monument. It's hard to get there without a car, so we thought we'd cruise on over there while we had wheels.

The earthquake proofing of the Washington Monument is nearly complete.

I think I spent most of my time at the Jefferson Monument freaking out about the kids and all the hard, marble stairs and the walkway that drops off into the tidal basin with no fence. (Felix loves water way too much.) Everyone survived.

Brothers holding hands with Mr. Jefferson in the background.

We are thinking about going back to the National Building Museum next New Year's and bring along some friends.