Welcome to June

Wonder of wonders, my husband eats sushi. Not only that--he likes it. I'm very proud. He tried it a few weeks ago, and today he suggested we go get sushi for lunch. I am a happy girl. Evan eats Chicken Katsu--basically just the japanese equivalent of chicken nuggets--and he eats a lot of it. Today, he also ate Miso soup! Adventurous just like his daddy.

I think eating with the cool spoon was an extra bonus. I can't believe how big he's getting.

He's even driving already!

Ok, just kidding. Our friendly local firemen had all the trucks out on Memorial Day so we could check them out, and Evan was a big fan.

Speaking of Memorial Day, how many of you can say you have minutemen in your Memorial Day parades? Well, we do. Actually, they're everywhere.

With Lexington Battle Green, Concord, and Minuteman National Park, all within minutes of us, people around here seem really into getting all dressed up like patriots and participating in reenactments. Or parades, for that matter. It's kinda cool.

See? Here's some in April reenacting the march to Concord/Lexington for Patriot's Day. Never heard of Patriot's Day? Me either...it's a Massachusetts thing.

But I digress. Back to Evan.

Here he is yesterday looking nice and clean (if not slightly crazy) with his shirt tucked in and everything. We were on our way to our friend Scott's promotion. (congrats again Scotty!)

He looked nice for about five minutes, and then he started doing donuts in the yard. If you're not dirty, you're not happy, right?

Crazy boy.

I feel like we've done a good job so far teaching him about the world...all except for what sound a horse makes. Poor Evan, he knows all his animal sounds, but somehow "horse" isn't quite right. We try to show him what a horse sounds like, he's seen lots of real horses, and we show him on the TV. But he is determined to put his own spin on it. Check it out:

Now it's turned into some sort of party trick--out friends think it's hilarious, and I think now he knows it makes people laugh so he'll probably just keep doing it forever.

But that's okay.

March to your own drum Evan.

Happy Memorial Day (weekend)

It's memorial day weekend! Enjoy your picnics and bbq's, Nascar and popsicles.

mmmmmm, popsicles.

As we enjoy our extended weekend, please don't forget to take a moment to remember those who have served, and those who have given their lives so that we may eat our popsicles in our great country.

Thank you to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, to their families, and to those who continue to be willing to risk their lives everyday to ensure that America stays the land of the free.

Happy Memorial day!

Now go eat those popsicles!

Welcome to the family

As promised, pictures of Mike's new toy....

His new motorcycle!

It's a new Honda Shadow, and Mike is quite pleased with it. It's shiny.

In fact, he's off riding it right now. I think Cody wanted to go with him. He's a little confused about this whole motorcycle business.

Looks like Evan wanted to go too! I think he has motorcycles in his future... Bye Daddy!

Niagara Falls

I have to warn you--Evan has not been interested in having his picture taken lately, so they all will pretty much look like this one.

Bad pictures or not, we had a great time in Niagara Falls. First of all, the weather was beautiful, and there was NO ONE there. We were on the Canadian side, and I could tell by the size of the parking lots and general touristy-ness that they get some major crowds.

There's barely anybody in this picture! Not shown--waterpark, Hard Rock Cafe, Planet Hollywood, 20 other haunted houses, 4 more Ripley's--and then multiply that by 10. It was like being at Disneyworld. But empty. And not as cool.

Now, I've heard people say that the Canadian side is much better than the American side, but it seemed to me that there's just more stuff to do in the surrounding area. (see above picture, haha) The falls were beautiful on both sides, and I even liked visiting the Falls on the American side better--it was more like a state park, with lots of trails and trees and prettiness. I will admit that the surrounding area on the American side was a bit seedy. Kind of depressing, actually. I guess thats why people tell you to stay on the Canadian side. I will agree--but don't skip the trip if you don't have a passport--It is totally worth it to see the falls.

Really, Niagra Falls is so big, that I couldn't get a picture that captured all of it. This is as close as I got, from the "Sky Wheel" (Add that to the list of touristy things--the only one we took advantage of)

Awesome. We had a great time walking around and exploring the area. It's a little scary to stand right next to all that rushing water, and you really do get wet!

Evan had a wonderful time as well, as you can see.

We got to go swimming at our hotel, and we also went to a butterfly garden. It was awesome. This was my favorite butterfly--

--and Evan's favorite thing there was the turtle.

We had a wonderful time, and are really glad we went. Naturally I got almost no knitting done, but I did finish one sock to complete a pair--one more lonely sock left to go. Then I'll start another one. Ha! I started my scarf about 8 times and frogged it just as many--now that I'm home I think I can give it enough concentration to get it going. Hopefully!

Mike has a new toy, which hopefully I will have pictures of soon...stay tuned!

Spring Arrives!

We have been enjoying some warm and wonderful weather here, and the trees finally have leaves and blooms on them. And the bugs are out. I'd forgotten how many bugs there are here, and how hard it is for me to get used to them. God help me if/when we are stationed in the south! Evan has learned what bees are, and we spend a lot of time watching them buzz around from flower to flower. The boy can spot a bumblebee from a mile away! He also likes chocolate covered strawberries.

Naturally, it's supposed to be rainy and cool this week, as we are planning to go to Niagara Falls. We're Oregonians though, so we will enjoy ourselves nonetheless. We like roadtrips, so we figure we'll enjoy the drive, enjoy the sights for a few days, and head back. Stay tuned for updates!

I'm particularly looking forward to the drive up to Canada because hopefully I can get some knitting done. I have two (different) lonely socks that need mates, and silk/alpaca yarn that wants to be knit into a lacy scarf. yum.

By the way, this is Mrs. Stripey Chicken.

I loved making her, and Evan seems to have taken her on as his own, so I see many more hens in our future.
See you after our trip!

Minding his manners

I am in love with my son. Well, obviously, but he is just so darn cute. Today in the car he asked me for some water so I handed him his cup. He drank a bit and then started saying mama, mama, mama--which I'm good at ignoring--and when I finally turned around and said "what?", he said "thank you". Well, it comes out more like "nay nay", but I was proud nonetheless. What a big boy.

He knows he's awesome, and yes, thats a Peep he's so happy about.

...and I'm back.

Hello! Like I said, I'm still here, and now I have some catching up to do. Where did March go? It seems like such a long time since that last snow I wrote about (which wasn't our last snow, but it's much nicer now, so no biggie) and we've been busy!

First off, Mike's been busy growing an icky mustache. Acutally, I didn't hate it--as far as mustaches go he didn't do so bad--but I think he looks much nicer without it. Apparently, it was "mustache march" on base (which i'm hoping is strictly a Hanscom thing...) and people competed to see who could grow the best mustache--somehow they made it into a fundraiser, so that was a plus. Surprisingly, Mike didn't win. I think he should have.

Sweet mustache, eh? I think he was proud. Evan looks doubtful. Hey! What's with the hats on in the house? Come on guys...

Mimi Kate came to visit us early in March, and we all had a fantastic time. We knit (knitted?) a lot. And we might have visited a few yarn stores, but we don't need to talk about that...

Like the giant indian? We're in that picture as well, I swear. I love the name of the store too-- "Big Indian Shop"--how creative! We went out to western Mass to see maple syrup being made, which turned out to be an awesome day.

We went to Davenport Farm, and they taught us all about maple syrup.

Behind those two handsome men is the evaporator, where they boil the sap until it turns into syrup. Yummy.

Also while Mimi Kate was here we went to Boston to explore, and Evan got to see the Make Way for Ducklings statue.

We read the book all the time at home, and I don't think he made the connection--but he loved the ducks anyway. Literally--he had to give them all hugs. Cutie.

Last weekend, we went to the New England Aquarium, which was pretty cool. Evan had a great time, and now he's really into turtles and penguins. Well, he was for a few days--I think he's over it now. Still, he liked seeing all the fish, and running from tank to tank.

I liked Myrtle the Sea Turtle. Those things are huge! Pretty cool.

For an Evan update, his new favorite thing is "tash". Every time he finds some bit of something he deems trash, he needs to throw it away. Which is pretty cute, and also somewhat helpful because so far he's pretty good at discerning what is trash and what is not.
Also, he likes to tell everyone when he toots, and he points to his butt and says "toot". The other day, he burped, looked confused, pointed to his mouth and said "toot". Silly boy. He gets smarter every day!