let's go fly a kite!

Today was a beautiful day outside, and Jonas was a happy little boy. After he woke up from his nap, I took him to Adams Farm park for a change of pace. Aunt Jenna met us there, so the three of us had a grand time romping around. Naturally, Jonas enjoyed playing in the playground, going up the stairs, turning the wheel, and going down the slide for quite a while.

After Jonas played on the playground a while, Jenna and I whipped out the Kites. I LOVE kites... I don't really know why, though, but still, they're super. So anyway, Jonas had a big time flying and watching the kites I think. There were some kids that came over and wanted to fly the kites as well, so Jenna and I helped them fly the kites too, and I guess that was cool, whatever! I used a new kite today for the first time, it was probably a 5 ft high kite, HUGE-- we decided we would let that one go as high as it could... and it was pretty sweet! Anyway...

After we flew kites, we all sat down in the volleyball court that looked like it had long since been used just as a giant sandbox for the kids. Jonas enjoyed the sand some, but he didn't really seem to care about it as much as I would have thought. It didn't matter though, he still had fun! We swung him for probably 15 minutes during which he showed Aunt Jenna how he could brush his hair, point out body parts and etc. After a while, he charmed Aunt Jenna into going on the "big kid" playset and crawling through some tunnels, going down slides, etc. Hehe, it was fun to watch, at the least!

There was a lake next to the park with a really nice walking path, so we decided to go on a nice lakeside stroll after a bit. This turned into Jenna and I walking the length of the lake about 3 times I think... even going into the forest at one end. That was about 2 hours of walking I think, and we are not athletic, so it was like a month's worth for us! We had a good time though, it's nice to be able to catch up with sissy some. She actually got a phone call as we were walking letting her know that she got a big promotion at work, so that's cool, yay sissy!

While we were walking, we saw some ducks at one part of the lake and I thought we could stop and let Jonas look at the ducks (It seemed like a good idea since he was saying "du! Du!!" and pointing at them... he hearts ducks). No sooner had we stopped than the ducks started beelining to us. They kept a 3-5 ft radius, but they were certainly expecting some food. Anyway, apparently ALL the ducks in the entire lake thought these 2 ducks were getting fed, and all of them started coming towards us... like, all 20 or 30 of them or whatever. We sensed we should probably leave before one got bold and left Jojo without a finger. As we left, there was this one huge duck that I guess wasn't scared of anything and it kinda started following us in an "i'm gonna get you!" sort of way... it scared Jenna and I so we made a run for it! Yes. We ran from a sauntering duck. we're cool.

...So all in all, it was a good day!

temper tantrums

This past week has been one of many changes for little Jonas. I would have to say the biggest and lamest change is that he has discovered his ability to throw temper tantrums. Apparently, he inherited the "Barnhardt Stubbornness" which makes him continue to pitch a fit for very, very, long times. little stinker! The only thing that seems to really upset him, though, is not getting to go outside. It has been raining for days here, and I admit, I did take Jonas out in the pouring rain to calm him down. It was like, 55 degrees and he was a very happy boy playing in the water. Sigh... we're gonna need to nip this in the bud.

Besides throwing tantrums, Jonas is showing some clear signs of understanding us much more. For example, he can now correctly identify noses, ears, feet, hair and mouth. I haven't been trying to teach these to him (well, maybe feet... we play "stinky feet" a lot...) but yesterday morning I asked him where all of these body parts were and he pointed to them all without hesitation. Maybe grandma is working on it? I dunno...hmm...

He is also figuring out what things are for more. He has known how to brush his hair and use a phone for a while, but this week he has started wiping his mouth off (thanks Grandma!) and using the eraser (I have a big dry erase board. I guess he has seen me erasing things on it because he grabbed the eraser off my desk, walked over and started erasing.. he clearly knew what to do). I think it's pretty cool to see this happening. I guess talking is next, instead of a couple of sylables. He sometimes says "wa da?" (like "what's that?") and "dah" for dog, but that's about it outside of his regular "ma" "pah" "bah" and "fah" sylables.

This past wednesday at the library reading group, Jonas did something that made me laugh. The group sings a few songs that use shakers, so all the kids get to pick out a shaker from this huge variety. They have shakers shaped like eggs, maracas, fruit and vegetables, dinosaurs, and even tambourines. Jonas stood over the box surveying his choices until the guy leading asked him to pick. He then put a finger to his lip, bent over and picked up a mallet for a tamborine... not even a shaker! It was about 6 inches long and had a little hard plastic head. He was so proud of himself, and he walked around with his mallet shaking it like he was something special. Finally one of the other parents showed him what it was for (hitting the tamborines) and he walked around the room to all the kids with tamborines and hit their tamborines. Ahh, I giggled at him, he's silly!

So in a little while we are going to Brooklyn's 5th birthday party. Brooklyn is one of the children of the people in our cell, so we thought it would be fun to go. It's at Chuck E Cheese's, so I am hoping Jonas will have a big time in the ball pit, at the least. Yeah, this should be fun, I haven't been to chuck e cheese's since I was about 10. It will be interesting to see how it has changed.

Ok, I guess that's all for now!

new tires!

Our cars are now the proud owners of shiny, new tires. yaaaaaay coolest way ever to spend most of your savings... seriously though, it was pretty exciting to 1)actually have savings from which to pay for tires and 2) get tires so now my car isn't loud when we drive it.

otherwise today, we went to see a house in the Cardinal; actually, two houses. House number 1 was great, and we liked it a lot. Of course, now we still don't know what to do with our current house, so poop. The second house was a definite "no" but was nonetheless a lot of fun to look at. I will attempt to paint a word picture: Cabana bar in the living room. hopefully that was all you needed. seriously, it was a totally normal house, and then BAM! there was a bar in the living room with a definite tiki hut feeling roof to it... like you need a roof for it anyway... weird. it also had a wall of mirrors... like, 1'x1' mirrors on the whole wall in an upstairs bathroom. awesome!

in conclusion, we thought house #1 would be a better fit =)

Sigh, we are still in the air about our housing situation. We just don't know what is going to happen. I suppose this is half the fun, in a way, still trusting God is sooo much easier said than done. I guess he's just messing with us or something, though, we'll see what happens. In conclusion #2, if you know anybody looking for a house in this area, all 2 of my readers, send them this way!

Anti-Theft is the devil

Today was a pretty nice Sunday, the weather was good, and like most nice days now, Brandon and I decided to go geocahcing. Of course, we went to church in the morning, then to my parents for lunch, and then mom watched Jonas some in the afternoon. We asked if she would mind watching him for another 1-2 hours so we could get some park & grabs, and she was happy to, so off we went to the big office park area over between wendover and eastchester.

We found a few caches, so that was nice, and around 6:15 we decided to head back to get Jonas. As we drove, I noticed a large rock sticking out of a hole in the road, and from my perspective it appeared that Brandon swerved to hit it (he later said he thought he was going to miss it, though). Anyway, we hit the rock. The car seemed to be driving fine, but we stopped to check it anyway, and its good we did because the back tire was 100% flat. Like, I easily spotted the massive hole in the tire and I am not good at seeing those... not good. But, we had a spare, and it was nice out so no biggie. Brandon started working on removing the tire, again, not a big deal, our spare was in new condition, everything else looked ok, so we would be on our way in no time. WRONG!

There was a freaking ROUND lug nut on the tire. Yay, we had what we could only assume (and later confirmed) was an "Anti-Theft" lug nut on our tire, idea being that you can't just unscrew the thing because it was round. you could see there was like a star shape on the inside, but we didn't have ANYTHING to get this off with. Awesome. Dad came out with some tools he thought might work, but none of them did. Then he thought about one of his friends from Volvo that has worked on our car before, Jamie Adams. So Jamie came out and he had a "key" (i guess that's what they're called) but it didn't really fit our car that well. However, the guys managed to get it on anyway and with enough force, hammering, banging and pulling, the devil lug nut came off... at this point it was like... 8:00. Anyway, let this be a lesson to you, make sure you have not got anti-theft lug nuts, or at least have the key for them!!

At least Jonas seemed thrilled to be awake, and I'm sure mom had fun watching him. Oh well, it wasn't raining or anything either, so I guess all in all it wasn't the worst thing ever, just really, really annoying.

Dirty Boy

Today Brandon had a lot to do so I watched Jonas most of the day... ok with me! I actually only ended up watching him alone for a couple of hours, but we'll get to that.

I took Jonas outside to let him play around as usual. Today he wandered over to a neighbor's house (she doesn't live there anymore though) and decided it was time to play in her planter. Her planter had nothing but dry potting soil in it, and Jonas couldn't have been happier with this. He spent probably 30 minutes grabbing handfulls of dirt out of the planter and spreading it everywhere! She had a bench on her porch that he put some of his "favorite" clumps of dirt on (even though I couldn't tell the difference). He was a very happy, and extremely dirty boy by the end of it. I brushed him off best I could, but I was still finding dirt in his diaper, hair, ears, neck fat, etc. even hours later... ah, I like having a little boy =).

One of my neighbors had their great-grandson over and he was playing with a tennis ball and bat in the drive waiting for his g-gma. I guess Jonas was watching him pretty close because he decided it would be a good idea to go play with the boy. Now, this kid was like, 10 or something, and he was very patient with Joans; he would hand Jonas the ball over and over when Jojo threw it, so sweet! Jonas felt like such a big kid.

Brandon and I had such a good geocaching day yesterday with our 12 chaches in under 1.5 hours, that we wanted to go again today. Dayna wanted to go with us, so we met her at 3:45 and all went. Today was not as good. We couldn't find a few, and the management at Panera was not 100% thrilled to find out that there was a cache on the premesis. We still got 4 though, so that's good I guess. Anyway, we were looking in a wall near the Paladium with Jonas (he likes to put dirt in the bushes.. he doesn't realize we're just looking in them) when he fell from over the curb to the street landing on his face. Nice. Poor kid has a shiner and he's only 13 months old! It got scraped a little and is swolen, but otherwise he seemed fine, just sad at first =( Anyway...

Super-caching

Lisa got Jonas this morning and took him to the train museum in Spencer for the day. This opened up the day for Brandon and me, at least in theory. We were already planning on going to a meeting at 1:30 with Ken and Anne, and I planned on meeting another client at 4 in Winston, so really I only had a couple hours.

My 4:00 rescheduled, though, so after Brandon and I met with Ken and Anne (it took us 3 tries to get a restaurant that wasn't full of college basketball fans) we decided to go to my parents house that we were now close to and get some park and grab geocaches. We printed off about 13 that were in the walmart-ish shopping area, and headed out around 4 to get them. At 5:30 we had 12 of the 13- not bad for a day's work! I think our favorite was a cache called "in plain sight" that was magneticaly attached to a handicapped parking sign right on top of a screw... just hanging out there in plain sight like it said. nice.

Anyway, we went and picked up a very happy Jonas and then came back home. All in all, a good day!

Driving Home

Brandon and I got a reasonably early start from the Mann's at about 9:30 ish... of course, we downloaded a bunch of geocaches in the La Grange town to do before we officially left. It turns out, geocaching is a great way to see a city. We did one cache that took us everywhere downtown that we would ever want to see, and naturally we had another "graveyard cache" to find, very cool!

We made sure Jonas was well fed, and were happy we had gone geocaching to give him a chance to run and play instead of putting him in the car first thing. This turned out to be a very good idea. Jonas was wonderful for the first few hours... he quietly played in the back seat while we drove. I don't even know what he was doing to keep busy, maybe putting things in and out of a box or something. Anyway, he fell asleep pretty quickly once we got moving, so most of the trip back was uneventful, just reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire aloud and trying not to concentrate too hard on the fact that we were driving in an unfamiliar area in the mountains in the rain. Around 5 or 6 Jonas started getting tired of being in the car, and then became a little more to deal with. He was still pretty good, but instead of playing by himself, we had to keep him entertained (which was entertaining in itself). We played wiht puppets most of the time, and some of the time we just fed the kid. Anyway, by about 7:30 Jonas had had enough and was tired of the car. Luckily, we were only about 30 miles from home at this point, so we could grit our teeth and bear the fussing until then. Ah, overall not a bad way to end a trip!

Back from Ohio

Well, we made it to and from Ohio in one piece.. what a great trip! I will write more later when there is time, I may even post some pictures!

Ohio Geocaching

After sleeping wonderfully on an empty bed with a baby that was back on schedule, we got up around 8ish and started "planning" our day. Since most of the group had gotten home around 11:30 or so, they were pretty tired and dragging in. Eventually, everybody got up and we decided to hit some of the more interesting geocaches Sharonville had to offer. Among them were:


This cache was hidden inside of a sprinkler head... or it was the sprinkler head, whichever. Very hard to find because you just don't think about it! You can just see it in the ground by Lisa...


While we searched for the phantom cache, Jonas and Kyndahl got to swing back to back... so cute!



The next cache was a 2 person job at least. There was a tall pole with 4 holes at the bottom that you had to put your fingers over to plug the holes... Then someone else had to pour a few gallons of water down the pole to make the cache float to the top... yay, What a cool idea!





Anyway, Brandon's parents and brother had to leave today, so Brandon and I got to spend a little more time with the rest of the Kennedys. Kim made the revelation that both she and Brandon love Olive Garden, so we must have to go to eat there! Mmm! After Olive Garden we finally went and got my coveted "picture with the Travel Bug in front of a supermarket headquarters cross dressing optional" picture. I was very sad that none of our boys would cross dress, so I had to settle for Jonas. Oh well, what could possibly be bad about that??


Brandon and I eventually had to leave too, and we headed down to Erin and Brandon's house to stay the night and visit with them since we hadn't seen them at the play. We got there around 6:30 (actually we beat them there, haha!) and after visiting a while we finally decided that we needed food... what food was a different story. I think we spent a good 30 min. thinking about food, and finally the Brandons went to KFC and got dinner, too funny! We spent the rest of the night chatting, catching up, and introducing the Manns to Dutch Blitz. They picked it up very fast, maybe in a couple years when we see them again, we will be beaten so badly we won't ever want to play again =). I think we decided that Tiko needed the baby ball popper toy, and Jonas needed the dog snack ball dispenser toy. I am actually thinking about getting one for him... hmm.... Anyway, it was a good day, once again!

PS: SOOOOOOOTH!

Chillin with Amanda and Kyndahl

Today was another pretty lazy day. Most of the family went to Erin's play in La Grange, leaving Brandon, Jonas and I with Amanda and Kyndahl for the day. We decided in the morning that it would be a good idea to take Jonas and Kyndahl to the park, so Amanda, Kyndahl, Jonas and I bundled up and headed over to this HUGE park near their house. After a solid 30 minutes of playing from the boys, we decided it was pretty chilly and maybe we would come back later when it wasn't as cold.

We never made it back to the park. After taking a nice long nap, we all decided to go geocaching. This lasted almost as long as the park, because it was now not only cold and gloomy, but also drizzling. Not to mention Brandon was the only one really caching. Amanda and I had our hands full chasing Jonas and Kyndahl around and preventing them from going in the street or down the concrete stairs (they were not happy about that). As such, we ended up back at home again, to chill for the rest of the evening. Brandon and I decided we needed to try some of the local cuisine that was not avaliable in NC, so we went to Big Boy's. Yes, I know, of all the places. Anyway, it was pretty good.

The night ended pretty early comparatively for me, I was beat! The good thing was that Jonas went to sleep pretty fast tonight, at the least =)

Being Lazy in OH

(this is a backdate post...)

So last night I hardly slept. Brandon twitches when he is falling asleep, and being in a new place, he spend 3/4 of the night falling asleep, and 1/4 of it sleeping VERY loudly. This all equaled about 30 min. of good sleep for me. Brandon will be sleeping on the couch tomorrow night. Luckily he concurs with this.

Jojo is all messed up with sleeping too, but at least he is a baby and can sleep some during the day. Anyway, I was up at like, 6:45 or something with Tim and Jonas, pancakes for breakfast, mmmm! Amanda came over with Kyndahl at about 8:30 or so-- he's sooo much bigger than the last time I saw him... of course, it wasn't like I was really surprised, but still! It was fun to see the two boys playing "together" and trying to drink from eachothers sippy cups. Also fun was watching the adults and kids alike enjoy this big collapseable tube that Kyndahl had. Everyone was having fun crawling through it, and Max even used it to get things out of the car in!

We all wasted about half of the day lounging around and chatting, since Jennifer had called in from Japan for a web call (so cool!). Then the guys decided to go to this "awesome disc golf course in kentucky" and left Lisa, Kim, Amanda, the babies, and me at the house to chat and chill for the afternoon. We all kind of took a half-nap for a while while the babies slept, then decided we should probably go to Ikea and enjoy ourselves. Ikea was very cool. I had never been there, and according to Amanda and Kim it was not very crowded. The kids had a lot of fun playing with the kid toys there, and I was very tempted to purchase a "tube" from there, as we had so much fun with Kyndahl's tube already that trip, but I passed and instead bought a rug and training potty for Jonas.

Later that evening, Tim rented a plane and took everyone up for a ride. Amanda, Brandon and I went last right at dusk, and he flew us all over the place. We got to see "touchdown Jesus" (An enormous Jesus statue coming out of the water that looked like it was saying "TOUCHDOWWWWWN!"), and he even flew us around the Cincinnati skyline... it was soooo cool. As usual, I was a little picture happy... what a nice day!

To Ohio we go!

(I am backdating this so that it will make more sense...)

After packing all the gear we could last night (basically our stuff, AKA the fast, simple stuff), Brandon and I went to bed, assuming that Jonas would be up at about 7-8 so that we would have time to get all of his stuff packed before departing for the Kennedys house at 9:30. WRONG! Jonas decided THIS was the morning he wanted to sleep in... awesome. Actually, it was pretty nice because we had time to get the car loaded and pack things we couldn't the night before like toiletries and cooler stuff. Anyway, Jonas got up at 9 and we got his stuff packed as well as could be hoped for the fastest baby-packing job ever. We still managed to be late by a respectable 15 min, pretty lame since we were determined not to be the "late ones," but alas, we failed.

Anyway, we managed to set off from the Kennedys only 15 min behind schedule, a figure virtually unheard of in this family (usually they are reliably at LEAST an hour behind). Grandma and Grandpa took Jonas for the first leg (and all legs thereafter, consequently), so Brandon and I had a good stretch of time for me to read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire aloud. Usually when there is a long car trip, or really any car trip, Brandon and I will picka book to read aloud. Since Brandon hasn't read all the Harry Potter books (sigh...) we thought we would go to my favorite in the series (well... its a close tie with the Half-Blood Prince). Anyway...

We made a couple of stops along the way to get geocaches and eat, and got to our first destination at Papaw Kenny's nursing home more or less on schedule. This was Papaw Kenny's first time meeting Jonas, and I am really glad he lived to meet him. He looked markedly better on than I heard he had a few weeks ago when he nearly passed away, I think Lisa said he was up to 80 lbs and I could understand him, so that's good! Anyway, he was very excited to see his great-grandson for the first time, and Jonas greatly enjoyed playing with the cord next to Papaw Kenny's bed.

So, the next leg of the journey was kind of a blur to me since I was reading most of the trip. Max joined our car since he had a headache, and for some reason a screaming baby was not helping him... weird... Brandon was livid at the end of this leg of the journey, because apparently we went the wrong way, over and over again, and we kept chaning routes, and went some really stupid way to get to Ohio. Anyway, in a that's-more-like-it Kennedy arrival time, we got to Tim & Kim's in Sharonville at 11:00 pm, about 4 hours behind schedule. Laaaaame. To top it all off, Jonas didn't want to go to sleep, so he was up at awkward hours as well... laaaamerrrr. Oh well, what a way to spend his 13 month birthday!

My brush is found!

Jonas is a big fan of regular household objects. I don't know about other babies, but I definitely think Jonas is at least a little unique in that he can amuse himself for well over an hour with our swiffer duster, or as we like to call it his "magic wand". He gets a lot of enjoyment from walking around to things and making efforts to dust them, and sometimes he does a pretty decent job!

A couple of days ago he was wandering the house with the duster being a happy boy, and I heard the familiar sound of a toilet lid clinking. Now, I thought the door to the bathroom was closed, but apparently not, still, not to worry, because the toilet lid was surely closed, and it was, he had just slipped his finger up under the lid in an attempt to open it-- something I didn't know he was aware was possible. Anyway, I ran in and grabbed him, thinking little of the incident until later that evening when I hear a... "...Jess?"

"what?"
"was Jonas trying to dust the toilet?"

I walked in to the bathroom to see Brandon holding the magic wand, soaked through that Jonas had deposited in the toilet unbeknown to me earlier that day. Hahaha! We had a good laugh.

Less funny, was Jonas's obsession with hair brushing devices-- combs, brushes, toothbrushes, the lint roller (which he believes to be a hair brush), you name it, he likes it. Why? My guess is because he understands how to use a brush, so it makes him happy to be using something for the correct purpose.... just a guess. Anyway, My only hairbursh had been MIA for the past week, and it was frustrating me because, well, you know, I need it daily. I had finally decided that he must have stashed the brush in one of the old soda boxes that was destined for the dumpster and we didn't check it before we went out (this happens sometimes). I was pretty sad, it was a good brush that did not deserve this fate. Anyway, Brandon called me in to the living room today to retrieve his guage from under the couch while he lifted it, and there was my hairbrush!! Glorious! The only real downside is that I no longer have a real reason to sing the "oh where is my hairbrush" song, and let's face it, I don't really need a reason (but it was a good reminder).

Today was spent like the past few days, going outside to play, enjoying the outdoors some while it's nice. We went to my parents for dinner because mom needed her "Jonas Fix" for the next week. It was good, definitely nice not to worry about dinner for once! Jonas and I went to visit the Hensleys (and Eva stopped by too) so I guess that was cool. After dinner, Jonas enjoyed swinging and playing outside, then dad put him on the deck table that is right under the kitchen window. He had a grand time reaching through the window and playing with the kitchen sink, it was soooo adorable! Hopefully mom and dad can get me a couple pictures, but I'm not crossing my fingers...

I needed to get some pants since I have sized down once again, so we went shopping at the big target shopping center near my parents. After much searching (I can't bring myself to by pants over $10, I know I'll just size out of them in a month or so), I finally found a pair of jeans that will be suitable, I think. Ironically, I had just tried the exact pair on at old navy and thought "good, but not worth $20...". Luckily old navy is crazy and comes out with "redesigned" clothes every few months that are identical to the old clothes, but with a slightly different label that nobody reads. As such, I found the exact same pair of pants at Ross's for $7 that old navy deemed "outdated"... and I am happy to profit off of old navy's stupidity.

I am beginning to understand why kids take so much energy. Up until this point, I would never have argued the matter, but I don't think I fully understood just how much they take. That kid is fast! Plus, he never wants to stop... he can move freely, he even climbed all of my parents stairs tonight (which I didn't know he could do). He still can't go down them yet... safely anyway! I do think he has figured out some about gravity. He no longer seems to want to dive off the bed. Now he waits for us to lower him... not that I trust him on the bed yet, but still... progress!

Kites

So today seemed to fly by. I guess the daylight savings is catching up to us, or something. I somehow managed to get Jonas to sleep till 9:45, which is practically unheard of, even before the spring forward. It was 12:15 and past his nap time before we knew what hit us!

After Jonas's nap, we spent some time playing at the house, then went to a nearby park to try out one of my kites I got for Christmas. I wasn't sure how Jonas would react to the kite, but he was pretty captivated by it for probably 10 or so minutes, an eternity for a 1 year old. He even "flew" it a while. He was thrilled to hold the handle, screaming and screaming again with delight... I actually really did let him fly it some, but he kept trying to give me the handle, which doesn't work when I'm 10 feet away and the kite has a lot of pull... still, fun times!

We got home and did a few things, then went back outside to the backyard and played in the fountain for a while. Jojo loved splashing in the fountain and especially loved taking the rocks out and throwing them... and tasting them... ewww. I am hoping he doesn't wake up with malaria or something... that would be a cool conversation to have with the doctor...

"Have you been to any third world countries recently?"
"...No"
"...So where did your son contract malaria??"
"...Um... our water fountain?"

Yeah, that would be so awesome. Don't worry, I don't really think Jojo is gonna get malaria from licking a rock that sat in stagnant water for 2 years. But still, its pretty gross.

Busy, beautiful day

Yesterday and today have been just as nice as in the previous entry. Jonas got to go outside again yesterday and play with his rock and chase the cat, so nothing new there. We went to visit the carters yesterday while brandon played disc golf. Jonas decided it was a bad day for a nap, so he was pretty fussy for a while. Eventually he calmed down, though and we had fun! I think we are finally set on Ohio plans for the coming week. I'm pretty excited about getting to see the Kennedys, they are a fun bunch of people that we don't get to see enough.

I am worried about the car trip up, though... I don't know how Jonas is going to do with a car trip that long... he is past sleeping in cars the whole way, but maybe we can keep him entertained for at least some of the trip with toys and food... sigh, this will be an adventure!

We have to figure out what to do with Ru-Dogg while we're gone. usually Brandon's parents keep him, but since they are going too, obviously they can't watch Rudy. Quite the connundrum.

A very nice day

Earlier this week it snowed about 6-8", nothing terribly uncommon for NC. Also not uncommon, today, 5 days later it was 78 degrees outside and beautiful. I am a big fan of this kind of weather mood swing since I don't always like it just hot or just cold (well, I rarely like it cold...). Anyway...

Jonas was very excited about the snow from the window, so we got bundled up (quite a task with a 1 year old) and headed out to enjoy the snow.

He was thrilled to see Rudy running around in the snow, and wanted down, so I let him stand. At this point he was unsure about the snow, or at the least indifferent. After about 30 seconds of standing, though, he decided to walk around. He seemed to be pretty happy with the snow crunching, but then he fell forward and caught himself. This was the turning point. Jonas decided he was not a hands-on fan of snow after he touched it. I guess it was too cold, because he started screaming and didn't stop until we were inside a few minutes. He still wanted to go out and look at the snow, but he definitely did not want to be too close to it!

The past 3 days, the weather has been absolutely perfect, and we've all thoroughly enjoyed it. Brandon has gone disc golfing the past couple of days, and Jonas and I have done various outdoor activities. We went with uncle Max and Grandpa all over downtown high point geocaching one day, and got 10 caches. We have also just spent a lot of time walking around our townhouse area chasing Rudy. Yesterday, Jonas found a rock on the ground and picked it up and carried it around with him for an hour. He was so proud of finding his rock! He dropped it a couple of times and frantically searched for it until he found it again and then went merrily on his way. Jonas is also pretty excited about our "neighborhood cat". It's this poor sweet cat that is not really anybody's, but it's such a sweet cat that everybody here feeds it and plays with it, so it just belongs to us all. Anyway, Jonas loves trying to pet the cat, and even tbough she is pretty scared of him, he still loves chasing her, and sometimes she will let him pet her, even though he tends to be pretty rough.