This whole weekend was an absolute pile of goodness. I love weekends like this and we’ve been pretty low key for a few weeks, so having a jam-packed weekend seemed to feel just right. On Friday Maggie and I met up with Cole and Caroline to see what the newly remodeled aquatics center was like. It did not disappoint. It was AWESOME and we’ll go back again for sure. Maggie has been in the water quite a bit, but this was the first time that I felt like she was really pumped up about it, it was if she’d turned into a fish.

Saturday we met up with Krista and Lance and had brunch at their house, which for some reason I’ve held onto the wrong address and it took us a while to get there. All in all, it was fun to let the kids play and the adults talk. At one point Krista and I were upstairs with the kids while Lance and Barry stayed downstairs talking. Krista and I are so similar in our loudness and the dudes are way more laid back. We were shrieking, laughing and being not quiet while we played with Will & Mags.

The men, on the other hand, had a quiet calm conversation that we couldn’t hear from the top of the stairs. It was a serious conversation and they both took turns talking, never interrupting one other. So unlike Krista and myself. Girls will be girls. Can that be the excuse.

After we left the Hoffman household, we headed over to Brian and Darcy’s for the evening. I may or may not have eaten too many pieces of shrimp and sipped a bit too much wine while at their house. Sometimes that happens when we’re all together…the shrimp and wine combo is killer.  So much fun though.

We didn’t watch the Super Bowl today, instead we went to the beach. (The above photos are from last week and our attempt at a self-timer portrait…photos from this weekend to come). We thought we were clever by going to the beach, but every other little family that didn’t want to watch the Super Bowl was there too. It was still fun.

And now.

We’re about to enjoy a delicious dessert to cap off our weekend. Pictures to come from the photo challenge, etc.

Ta to the Ta!

This past weekend after the snow started to melted away, we decided that we needed to get out of the house in a bad, bad way. So we made grand plans to hit the road and stop by and visit my grandparents and go on a walk without the dogs. (Since we have Sparky with us for a while, walking without them seems like a luxury!) When we arrived at my grandparent’s Maggie instantly checked the corner where all the noisy Christmas toys had been and discovered that they were gone. Not one to be disappointed, she headed to the back room, while dragging my grandma with her, and the two of them worked to carry some toys back out to the living room.

I love that she is familiar enough with their house to know exactly where they keep her toys. I also love that some of the toys that she plays with are the same toys that I played with as a child, I suppose that means they’re vintage. But the toys weren’t really the highlight of  the visit, it was the washcloth that came out with the toys that seemed to garner the most attention. At first she placed the washcloth on Sue’s head and they had a game together, where we discovered that Sue has the ability to talk exactly like Grover from Sesame Street.  But I digress….

Maggie proceeded to place the washcloth on everybody’s head and we all went along with it; however, when she put the washcloth on my grandpa’s head, he went wild in his typical Grandpa Elvrum fashion.  My grandma instantly tried to sush him, which I found hilarious because my grandfather doesn’t do quiet. It just isn’t in his nature and we love him all the same for it. But his reaction to this game was the same that I know he has had for all of his grandchildren, he just has such an unabashed adoration for us and now Maggie too, his first great grand child. He is a grandpa through and through.

Eventually the game ended and our conversation picked up, but a few minutes later I looked over and noticed that Grandpa and Maggie were quietly looking at the North Dakota picture book of our trip this last summer. You know what? Maybe he does do quiet after all.

I feel so lucky that some of my very best childhood friends also have children that are about the same age as Maggie. When we’re all in town at the same time (aside from Erin who now lives there!!) we try to make a point of it to get together with the kids. Most recently Erin and Lara came out to my parent’s house with Thomas and Maggie and we ended up going to see the cows next door and eating large amounts of popcorn.

Mara is old enough that she understands what it means to go on a walk, but when it comes to Thomas and Maggie, their still a little hopeless when it comes to directions or walking distances without getting distracted.

By the time we made it to the cows, and picked up some pussy willows on the way, it felt like we’d reminded both of them that we were going to see the cows many, many times. The cows weren’t really sure what to do about a bunch of kids staring at them, so they just stared back. Sydney, on the other hand, decided that the best thing to do was to charge at the fence, which made me nervous because there was one cow that looked like it wanted to eat Syd for lunch.

My parents have a collection of toys that stay at their house and it is always fun to see what other kids, besides Maggie, glom onto. Thomas was all over the fruit cutting station, the hammer,  a truck, and also my dad. He kept bringing my dad different things and made sure that my dad noticed it. It was all sorts of cute.

While the kids played with play-dough my mom started to pop some popcorn and by the time the first kernel had hit the bowl, nearly everyone was done playing with playdough. As the adults and kids both huddled around  bowls of popcorn, we started talking about all the different groups of people that have enjoyed popcorn at my parent’s kitchen table. It was a long, long list and it seemed fitting that Maggie would be shoving handfuls into her mouth with two of her buddies by her side.

I only wish I could have understood their conversation as they each reached for handfuls. Mara is pretty quiet, so much of the talk was between Thomas and Maggie. It wasn’t long after that both Erin and Lara had to leave, but lucky for Mags and me, we got to stay and keep eating and chatting around the popcorn bowl.

Traditionally the boys go fishing (really a booze cruise) and the ladies go to a local winery for a tasting. The rest of our time is spent playing board games, cooking, avoiding the mud during Sardines, walking to the nearby park, and lounging around. This might have been one of the first years that we’ve struggled to make it to midnight and some of us didn’t. This also marked the first year that we’ve had babies along for the ride. 

The same stories get told, but new ones get created as well, and we all can chime in on specific ones. On our last night we sat around the dinner table telling stories that pretty much NOBODY else would think to laugh at the right parts, but we were all busting our guts.  We’re definitely all adults, with adult jobs and lives, but it seems that our weekend at The Moosehead lets us all unwind and kick our feet up for a moment our two.  

]]> http://www.hbadventure.com/blog/index.php/2012/01/maggie-little-hannah-sleeping/feed/ 1 http://www.hbadventure.com/blog/index.php/2011/12/her-style/ http://www.hbadventure.com/blog/index.php/2011/12/her-style/#comments Thu, 22 Dec 2011 03:24:07 +0000 hannah http://www.hbadventure.com/blog/?p=7250

We’re all prepared for Christmas, with the exception of ONE very, very difficult person to shop for. We’re simply stuck and have ZERO ideas. Other than that, I think we’re pretty excited for the coming events. Linda sent Maggie some Reindeer Dust and we’re planning on sprinkling some on Christmas Eve. Maggie won’t really care or have an idea of what we’re doing, but I have no doubt that she’ll like throwing the stuff outside.

I’ve been feeling myself cranking the Christmas tunes (side note: have you heard the Lower Lights Christmas album? Cjane has heavily promoted it, and we got it. LOVE it. Find it here.) a bit louder and staring at our tree with a bit more feeling of excitement than in years past. I think it must be having a child in the house that is interested in the presents and Santa, or at least pictures of him. We wrapped a present for my dad that Maggie really, really liked and she keeps going and finding it under the tree, shaking it and saying ”Ampa, ________” (I had to put the blank there in case he reads it and then it won’t be a surprise, but I’m pretty sure that he’ll have to open that present FIRST this year.

We’ve been asking Maggie to get her vest on when we’re ready to leave and she totally does it, but it is almost always upside down. The first time she did it we zipped it up (or is it down) and went happily on our way. That night we ended up going out to sushi and Barry had to conceal our laughter when she crammed a bunch of sushi in without hesitating around the big collar of the upside down vest. Since then, I’ve just decided to go with it and every so often we’ll get some weird looks, but I’m secretly really proud that she’s getting her clothes on.  Because the alternative is this:

I’m thinking that it might not be socially acceptable for her to ride along in the ‘Beep Beep Car’ at the grocery store or pick out books at the library without any clothes on. You know? So we’re encouraging her in her fashion endeavors. She NEVER wants help and is very determined.

It isn’t clear who she gets her fashion sense from? Barry? Me? Clearly we had a little help, right? There is no way that I could have buckled my shoes with my chubby feet. And Barry getting his collar to perfectly fan out?

This past summer when I wanted to paint my toe nails and it just was not going to happen with Maggie crawling all over me. Instead of shoving the nail polish back in the cupboard where it tends to gather dust, I plopped Maggie into her Bumbo that we keep on the bathroom counter and painted her little piggies. She loved it and I have to admit that her toes looked really cute painted.

I never really thought that I’d be THAT mother, pampering and painting our nails together, but now it has become a ritual…and she’s gotten really good at blowing on her toes while we wait for them to dry. Last night I was at book group and my friend Betsy was talking about her grand-niece that is a little older than Maggie that paints her own nails. I’m not sure that I’m ready to go down that road with Maggie. But to be honest I’m pretty certain that Maggie would be able to do just as good of job or even better. Nobody has ever called me an artist.

That day of Maggie wanting to do everything herself is fast approaching. Just this morning while we got ready to take Sydney on a walk, she worked for at least 15 minutes to put on pants. She put them on and took them off no fewer than 4 times and by the time she did get them on, they were backwards. I was more interested in getting outside for our walk, so I kept that tidbit to myself. When I asked her if she’d like to put her boots on, she gave a  hearty ‘yes!’ and headed off to find her almost too small pink cowgirl boots. Thankfully it doesn’t take near as long for her to slide her piggies into those boots.

But really, I mostly notice how much of a sponge she really is. She likes to read books in the car and depending on the book, I can tell she’s really trying to emulate the words or, in Frosty’s case, the song. She really likes the part when Frosty runs away.

My, how we’ve evolved. I’ve been working on her one year photo book (I know, she’s getting closer to 2) and I am astounded at how little she really was.  She seems so grown up now, nails painted, backwards pants and all. Remember when she was just a nugget in our arms?

A few weeks before we left for Carmel, Barry signed up for  a swimming race in San Francisco that was called The Shark Swim or something scary like that. Barry loves water and loves training for races and we were going to be so close to SF at the time, so it seemed like a perfect fit.  Plus, who doesn’t want to swim with the sharks that live in San Francisco Bay? The weeks leading up to our departure we’d have different people joke with us about Barry REALLY swimming with the sharks and we’d laugh it off because of course he wasn’t REALLY going to be doing crawl stroke next to a shark….or at least we both nervously hoped he wouldn’t.

But like I said, the man loves to train and he equally loves the water and so he happily went along with swimming a few days a week and talking about his times and worrying about the water temperatures in San Franscisco compared to his swims in the pool and Martha Lake at home. It was all a perfect plan, until we actually got to Carmel. Our car ride down was a bit traumatic (with all the puke and screaming) and the idea of trying to manuever around the city, which was actually a couple hours away, just didn’t seem like such a perfect plan. Ultimately, we decided to abandon the Shark Swim for more low-key activities and fewer hours in the car.

One of those activities included Barry renting a SUP board and paddling around Monterey Bay. We had a bit of confusion about where exactly he was paddling to and I had a a few freak-out moments when I couldn’t find him ANYWHERE on the horizon. Apparently he found out where the boundary was and paddled to the edge of it, a couple miles away from our quaint little beach. I should have guessed that he’d paddle to the boundary…..why not, right?

But it turned out that Barry did indeed swim with the sharks because not two days after we got home did we hear in the news (well actually first from my dad) that a surfer’s arm and board had been bitten by a shark EXACTLY WHERE BARRY HAD BEEN PADDLING.  Click HERE for the scary details.

Training for a race and a love for water aside, I am just glad that Barry had some safe water time that didn’t involve a shark.

We went to Santa Cruz for the day and wandered around the downtown area, weaving in and out of the shops. Towards the end of the day (a.k.a Maggie is tired and we need to drive home so she can nap) we  went down to the beach and walked along the pier. The sand volleyball courts were filled with teens from a nearby school, apparently PE happens at the beach in Santa Cruz. The rides were closed and the boardwalk all but empty. We let Maggie run wild along the boardwalk and out to the pier, checking out surfers in the distance.

I stepped away for all but two minutes to take some pictures and came back to find that Maggie somehow had convinced Barry to buy the biggest ball of cotton candy in the world. They sat together enjoying the sticky mess all while fending of the pesky pigeons. Maggie, as we’ve learned, really enjoys sweet tasting things and cotton candy was no exception. Girlfriend got right up in there letting chucks dissolve on her fingers and tongue.

For all the other exciting parts of Santa Cruz, the highlight was letting Maggie eat a pile of sugar. When we finally threw the ball of cotton candy away, we all had bits of it floating in our hair and crusted in our fingers. By the time we got back to the car, Maggie was really ready for her nap and we were happy to see our supply of wipes….