Trip to Indianapolis and Pittsburgh!

Earlier this month, right after Sophia's birthday, we drove out to Indianapolis to visit David's parents for about a week and a half.  We love visiting Indy -- the kids love hanging out with their grandparents, the grandparents love taking care of us, and David and I get to relax and be refreshed!

We've made the long drive out to Indy often enough now that Joshua knows he gets to go through a bunch of tunnels on the way to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  :)  So even though the drive is long and the kids do get antsy at several points along the way, it's becoming slightly easier to make the trip, with Sophia being weaned and old enough to make it longer between stops, and Joshua waiting eagerly for the super fun dark tunnels!  I tried to get some of Joshua's eager anticipation on video -- he's a bit self-conscious here since he knows I have the phone out, so just multiply this glee by about a thousand to imagine what he was like for all the other tunnels we drove through.  :)


And when we got to Grandma and Grandpa's, even though we arrived after 11pm, Joshua made a beeline for the toys (he remembered the "big airplanes" and "different trucks" and had been requesting them for days before the trip), and Sophia was actually okay with being held by her grandparents.  The kids really do know and love their grandparents, and we all had such fun being taken care of by them!






Halfway through our time in Indy, David and I actually got away for a couple days, leaving the kids with their grandparents.  We were only about half an hour away, in downtown Indianapolis, but it was our first overnight trip away together since Joshua was born, so we figured we'd start small.  We stayed in a lovely hotel in the heart of the downtown area, ate out at nice restaurants, and generally relived our yuppy DINK youth.  ;)  Though we kept saying the whole time that we have no idea how we spent our time before the kids arrived...


It really was a win-win-win -- Joshua and Sophia had a blast with their grandparents (who took them to the zoo!  And gave them focused attention!), the grandparents really loved having the opportunity to spend so much time with the kids, and we had a lovely couple days away.  We hope to do this every year!


One of the other reasons why we made this trip when we did is because there was a family reunion in mid-August -- David's grandmother turned 90, so everyone was gathering in Pittsburgh to celebrate.  It was so wonderful to see everyone, especially now that there are more babies!  :)

Sophia really got a kick out of our hotel room bed...  I got her ready first and then gave her Cheerios to keep her occupied while the rest of us got ready.  And then promptly got distracted by how cute she looked in her pretty little dress, and took a ton of pictures!



And just a few of the photos from the birthday gathering, which was held in the community room at the Reformed Presbyterian home, where Great-Grandma relocated earlier this year.  I'm afraid the pictures I took are very kid-centric -- but what can I say, the four youngest family members are undoubtedly the cutest, so there you have it.  :)





And this one just because I love the suspicious side-eye Sophia's giving her second cousin, Adrienne.  :)


And a big family group photo!


(With just one outtake: I got Joshua to look at the camera and smile by telling him to look for the blinking yellow light, but it backfired when he decided to run straight for it!)


We're so thankful we had the chance to spend time with so many loved ones on this trip.  Our kids can't wait for the next family vacation!

Paupac Vacation!

So David and I aren't exactly the adventurous type.  Left to our own devices, our family would just stay home, relaxing with our books and toys and electronic devices, and maaaaaybe go outside for a walk every once in a while.  Maybe.  ;)  It's not that we dislike the great outdoors or going on excursions -- it's just so much easier, especially with little kids, to stay in our normal routines...

So it's a really good thing we have friends to shake things up for us every once in a while!  Lucy and John, whose daughters Anna and Elly are almost exactly the same age as Joshua and Sophia, proposed that we take a joint vacation up in the Poconos, renting a mountain home together for a week.  We invited our friend Anna M. to come along as well, and we all had such a blast!

The house we rented was perched right on Lake Paupac, with a great series of walking trails that wound around the lake.  And much to the kids' delight, there were great patches of blueberries in easy (toddler) walking distance.  Joshua and Anna loved helping to pick berries -- we could generally get them to stay on task for a few handfuls before they set in to eat as many berries as they picked.  :)

It was really lovely going on vacation with such good friends.  And it actually worked out really well to have slightly different interests and goals for the week -- David and I relaxed in the cozy house reading and just hanging out during the kids' naps, while Lucy, John, and Anna went for canoe rides and hikes.  And after the kids went to bed, the grownups got to relive our college days, staying up late having great conversations (plus gourmet s'mores!).

We're so very thankful for friends and vacation time!

Day Out with Thomas!

Anyone who spends even just a few minutes with Joshua will discover that the kid is obsessed with trains.  And cars, and trucks, and tractors, and planes...  But mostly trains, and mostly Thomas trains.  He has a steadily growing collection of Thomas engines, and he *has* to bring four of them with him to nap and bedtime -- always Thomas and Percy in his right hand and Skarloey and the bus in his left hand.  And while he's getting better about sharing toys with his little sister, he's still very possessive about his precious trains, so we often hear "No, Sophia, no!  That's Joshua's Thomas!!"

All of that to say -- we were pretty sure he would really enjoy himself at a Thomas-themed excursion.  :)  Apparently, there's a traveling exhibit that goes around to various railroads around the country every year with a full-sized engine built to look like Thomas.  And they came up to Phillipsburg, NJ over the July 4th weekend!  We bought our tickets a month ago, and started talking it all up to Joshua a couple days before we went.  It was about an hour's drive up, and the whole way there, Joshua would exclaim, "We're going to see Thomas, and Sir Topham Hatt, and maybe Percy and maybe Gordon!!"





It was an incredibly hot day -- mid to high 90s with high humidity.  And unfortunately, nothing was air-conditioned.  So our kiddos were sweaty and a little out of sorts by the time we made it from the parking lot over to the train... But once we sat down in the passenger car and I broke out the water and snacks, they were both in a much more receptive mood.  And once the train started moving, Joshua was transfixed!



The one blurry photo I have as evidence that Sophia and I were there, too:


And the best shot I have of Joshua with Thomas:


After the train ride, we were on a mission to find juice for the wee emperor.  I thought nothing would be able to distract him from this purpose, but I underestimated the siren call of the model train displays...




And then we wandered around a bit and finally found him some juice.  :)




All in all, it was such a fun day!  Joshua enjoyed himself, though we think he's still maybe just a touch too young to fully appreciate it all... I think David may have had the most fun of all of us.  :)  It was so sweet to see father and son sharing in their excitement over trains.  Both David and Joshua want to go back again next year, so we'll have to make this an annual family trip!

Christmas in Indy!

[Backdating this post since it's now been a month since Christmas...  This one's a long one, with tons of photos, so I hope that helps make up for the long radio silence!]

We had such a wonderful time with family out in Indianapolis this Christmas!  We've seen enough of Grandma and Grandpa (and Uncle Iain and Aunt Erin!) that the kids are now completely comfortable with them, which makes for an even nicer and more relaxing vacation.  Joshua in particular absolutely loves hanging out with his grandparents -- they shower him with more focused attention than he generally gets from his poor, tired parents on a daily basis.  ;)  And they have different toys!  And books!  And an old helium birthday balloon!!







Christmas day was so much fun this year.  Joshua really got into the opening of presents (so much so that he woke up on the 26th and asked hopefully to open more presents...), and he loved all the very thoughtful and fun gifts he received!  Iain and Erin found these brightly colored silicone coasters, designed to wrap around the bottom of the glass and distinguish it from others' glasses.  Technically, I think they were a gift to me and David, but Joshua saw them and immediately claimed the colorful circles as his own.  :)  As Iain predicted he would!  They also got him a set of building squares (again, symmetrical and brightly colored), and he was fascinated by how they fit together into different configurations.




(You can see he also received a set of stickers from Grandma, one of which was promptly affixed to the front of his sweater!)

But I'm afraid everything else immediately paled into insignificance when he opened his big! red!! FIRE TRUCK!!! from Grandma and Grandpa.  :)  A button on top makes the lights flash and the siren play (thankfully, not too loudly or long), and there's a crane ladder and a rubber hose and two little firefighters to drive the truck.  Joshua was utterly transfixed, and played with nothing else for the rest of the morning.







Where was Sophia during all this?  Fast asleep upstairs, I'm afraid...  But she made out like a bandit with cute and fun presents from everyone, all of which Joshua delighted in helping me open.  :)  And once Sophia woke up, we had a fun little Christmas photo shoot with the kids!  Where I managed to get a photo with both kids looking at me and looking happy!



Most of the other shots I got looked more like this:





Though that last one really melts my heart!

OK, gotta pick up speed and get through the rest of this photo dump recap...

Joshua got his first real playing in the snow experience while we were out in Indy!  There was a massive snowstorm just after Christmas, so David and Iain went out to shovel out the driveway before the snow got piled up too high.  And Joshua went to help!  :)









And to wrap things up, a series of Sophia on various relatives!  :)












All four of us had such a wonderful time over Christmas.  And we can't wait until the next time we get to hang out with family!