Take This, SoCal!!!

Grandad's Boat

We took a trip to Lake Grapevine to see Grandad's sailboat. The kids got to feed ducks and walk around looking at the water. Once at the boat, Jacob was fascinated watching the boat come out of dry dock. We all climbed in and sat for a while before heading back to the car. We went by a playground for a bit before hitting the Sonic for dinner. The sunset on the way home was amazing, but my camera didn't do it justice...

Night Night

Grandad set up a ladybug tent so Jacob got to sleep in a tent for the last few nights we were there. He really liked it. He would say that he was turning into a ladybug if he was in it.

Zoo Time

Sunday afternoon we all went to the zoo. We headed straight for the monkeys. The kids really enjoyed seeing all the apes, though Ella was afraid to get too close to the glass. Ella learned the words rhino (whino), giraffe (raff), and hippo (heepo). (I will soon write a post outlining Ella's mindblowing vocabulary...!)

After a bit, Jacob was getting tired walking and stupid me only brought the single stroller... he got a little cranky. Ella was hungry so she was cranky, so the second half of our zoo trip was trying to get two cranky kids back to the entrance. On the way back we did stop to watch tiger cubs and lion cubs. So cute! Even Jacob was won over by their cuteness!

Playing Outside

The kids really liked playing outside on Grandad's tricycles. In fact, Ella became obsessed with her "bike" and it was really hard to get her to come inside. It rained and got colder after a couple of days, so Ella just stood at the back door yelling, "Biiiiiiike! Biiiiike!"

The night of the big thunderstorm, Jacob and Ella had been put to bed about 30 minutes before all the heavy rain and thunder started. Jacob started calling for me and I was worried that he was scared, so I went in to check on him. The first words out of his mouth were, "Mommy, what is that noise?" He'd never heard rain so loud in his life. Growing up with such storms as typical, I often forget that Jake and Ella haven't shared the same experiences as me. Jacob has barely seen rain at all in his life and Ella's first time to be rained on was in Ireland. I got Jake out of bed and showed him the downpour outside. He said, "The ground is like a lake!" Curiosity satisfied, Jacob went back to bed.

On the Playground

We went to visit Grandad for a week. Here are pictures from our trip to the playground near his house:

Before I Forget...

I will soon outline our week with Grandad, but I'm exhausted... still not a lot of sleeping for me lately : / I'll try to get to it tomorrow while Ella naps... if she naps! (Please let her nap...!)

Okay, so before I forget, Jacob said the funniest thing I've heard in a long time:

(Song on Radio Disney: "I Like to Move It Move It")
Jacob: Why does that song say, "I like to move it move it?"
Jessica: It means that he likes to dance.
Jacob: Well... I like to keep it right there.
Jessica: That's okay, honey. So does Daddy.

In case I you didn't catch it, "keep it right there" is the opposite of "move it move it." More of Jacob's opposites include: upside down/downside down; juice with no water/juice with yes water; last night/last day (instead of yesterday)

You Tube

I just posted several new videos. None particularly good, but I'll see if I can get the kids to perform their current tricks for the camera soon.

http://www.youtube.com/user/krisandjessica

Halloween #2

** I forgot to explain Jacob's cowboy costume. He's been ready to be a robot for about the last eight months. It took an afternoon of gluing macaroni to a box, another afternoon to spray paint said box and a pair of sweatpants, and multiple test runs to get this just right. And then at 4:30 in the afternoon on the very day of Halloween, Jacob says, "I want to be a cowboy for Halloween." Not a robot. Just a cowboy. Oh well... It was cuter having a cowboy and an Indian together anyway : )

Jacob made bat and pumpkin cookies with Grandma today.

***

Here are the pictures from Holliday's Halloween trick-or-treating:

Mmmm.... candy!!!

Halloween #1

While Ella napped, Jacob and I carved pumpkins.