Thanksgiving in Rhode Island

These pictures are a little late in coming. I have to admit that I was a little overwhelmed at the task of cutting down the number of pictures to include here. We had a great time visiting the McClures and Rambos in Providence. The trip was filled with fun, adventure, and most of all Helen and Katahdin running from one piece of mischief to the another.

Ryan's brother Nate, and his Mom and Grandmother came out for Thanksgiving which added to the fun exponentially.

Here is a picture of the big boys.Celeste took us out to the Audubon Society of Rhode Island's Environmental Education Center, and we got to see all sorts of fun animals, including the creatures that hang out in the tide pools.You may not be able to recognise what Helen and I are showcasing for you here below . . . it happens to be the inside of a whale. Whales hold a special place in my heart after reading Moby Dick. As a side note, they say that great literature changes you. I guess Herman Melville was able to do that with his great white whale. I don't think I will ever look at leviathans the same.

We also got to take a great walk/run over the wetlands down to the bay.

One morning walked over to the Roger Williams Park Zoo, only a few blocks from Celeste's house. They had the most beautiful flamingos I've ever seen, but sadly, I didn't take a picture of them. Here we are looking warm on a brisk New England morning, and if you look closely, you can see Helen demonstrating a proper flamingo stance.

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National Bundt Pan Day

This Monday we celebrated Bundt Pan Day, which may be among Ryan's favorite holidays. This "Too Much Chocolate Cake" was a real success.
Jane and I have been doing some serious bonding while she fought a cold then worked on growing her second tooth. Luckily she is a connoisseur of fine literature.

Nebraska's "Official" Veterans Day Parade

This Saturday we bundled up to watch our last Veterans Day parade in Bellevue, and we're going to miss them. If Iowa parades are known for their John Deere tractors, I would say that Bellevue has a lot of marching servicemen and women. I think that nearly everyone from the base turned out for the occasion. I tried to get Helen to march in place along with them to help her stay warm.

 

Is there anything as cute as a little kid waving a flag on her dad's shoulder?

Gingerbread Wonder

We finished our Polar Express Train this week, just in time for the 2010 Gingerbread Parade at the Kanesville Tablernacle. Ryan's adjective of choice is "awesome." We thought that we would post all of our creations so that you could vote for your favorite one and determine whether or not we have improved.

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Helen's Gingerbread House

Making a gingerbread house with a two-year old is a really good time. It also gets rid of all the less desirable Halloween candy. Ryan wouldn't let me put out any of the chocolate. But in retrospect, the chocolate would have melted in Helen's hot little hands.

Swedish fist make a great Japanese garden pond. Those fine pine trees were made out of ice cream cones with royal frosting.

Gingerbread Continued

Ryan has been working long hours this month and we haven't been able to work on the train as much as we would like. We made great progress this weekend. As a warning, if you use black food coloring in any appreciable amount it will turn everything (fingers, countertops, kitchenaid mixer attachments, towels) all sorts of lovely colors.

Gingerbread Season

One of the benefits of living in the Greater Omaha Region is that we get to make gingerbread every year to display at the Kanesville Tabernacle. This year's theme is stories and movies of Christmas. We decided to do the train from the Polar Express. I checked the book and all the children's books on trains out of the library. Then Ryan and I watched it on youtube (in Portuguese - that was the only language available that we understood).

Ryan is always in charge of making the templates and purchasing the candy. One might ask why the Oreos are open. Ryan seems to need chocolate nourishment while he works.

Here is Ryan assembling the brick bridge and the train tracks. Luckily I have spent years perfectly the art of nibbling off layers of Kit Kats one by one because we discovered that the whole Kit Kats were too big for our tracks. Here I am working on the garland around the bridge. Last year I got some sweet holly garland sprinkles on sale. And yes, those are tweezers.This year I splurged and got some cool edible silver spray paint. Ryan made those great spokes for our train and those raspberry filled chocolate things are going to become very important components of the engine.

We will put more pictures up as we continue.

Pumpkin Patch

The girls and I went to a pumpkin patch yesterday. The highlight of the event was the train ride. The conductor even let Helen get close to the engine. That really makes a two year old day, but I don't think she was keen on being held by said conductor.
We also loved the giant corn "sandbox" that was perfect for jumping into and swimming in.

Here are a couple of the farm animals that they had for us to pet. Now I have to admit that I was not raised on a farm, but I don't think that these particular animals are indigenous to Nebraska.

Happy October

Here is Helen's new quilt in all it's beauty. Thank goodness that Emily, Heidi and my mom helped out so I was able to complete it before summer next year. I don't know why it was so difficult for me, but joy in the journey I suppose should be the theme of this particular project.

 There are many secrets that experienced mothers keep from rookies like me. One of the things I learned this week was that the odds of getting a cute picture decreases dramatically as you try and add more kids to the picture. I decided not to post the pictures of Jane rolling onto Helen, much to the later's disgust. Or the pictures of Helen and Jane with their toys covering their faces. Or the pictures where Helen is ripping the toy out of Jane's hand. Or where Helen is showing me how she can roll over. Or where Jane starts crying because she remembered that she was starving to death. So really, one out of 36 isn't that bad.

I couldn't help adding this picture for your enjoyment. It sure is a lot of fun to have more than one kid, as you can see.

Flying Kites in Chadron

Dance Party Video

Home Again

Here are Ryan and the girls enjoying a good book.

Jane is the one on the far right. Helen likes to put her baby and teddy bear in tummy time too. They don't complain nearly as much about it as Jane does. Probably because Helen is nice enough to put blankets on her friends. This is Jane living it up, she sure is fun these days.
Helen has come a long way in her kite flying ability as you can see below.

Our big challenge right now is teaching her not to walk towards the kite while holding on to the string. I have a sinking suspicion that one day we'll have to get the kite out of the tree she casually stolled up to. The weather changed this week and Jane got to try out one of her new pants/jacket outfits.

The Traveling Party

The end of August passed in a whirlwind of long drives and family fun. We've got a ton of pictures to share, so here are two slideshows to enjoy.

The first is from our trip to Waterloo, Iowa for Brice and Breann's wedding reception and dance party. We have some good video footage too, but that will have to wait.

The second slideshow here is from Grandma and Grandpa Hackett's trip to visit us in Chadron. It was a great time to have family come and see us, and we'll get the video up soon too.

Vote for your favorite pictures (in the comments).

South Dakota

This weekend we decided to rest from our camping while Ryan puts in a 48 hour shift. I do have some pictures from last week that I can post here for your enjoyment. Here is a picture of Jane being unusually happy during tummy-time. I guess that she doesn’t really look happy per se, but along the tummy-time continuum, this is definitely towards the happy end.
Helen and I loved eating watermelon at the free BBQ on the last day of the Dawes County Fair. We probably could have eaten our weight in watermelon.
From this tranquil picture of our campsite in Wind Cave National Park, you would never guess how challenging it was to put up the tent. Ominous clouds were rolling in when we arrived the night before. Helen and I ran to the bathroom while Ryan started putting up the tent – he wasn’t going to let a couple raindrops slow him down. All of a sudden the heavens opened. Helen and I were impressed by the sheeting rain and hail from the safety of the bathroom. Ryan quickly converted the ground cloth into a giant poncho and was able to get the tent up after the worst of the storm had worked itself out. We were nice and snug in our tent once all the puddles were mopped up.
We went on a hike above Wind Cave and were able to successful identify the plentiful poison ivy along the trail.
After lunch we went to Storybook Island in Rapid City. We were all a little overwhelmed by all the fun things to climb on. The best part was that it was free. Ryan couldn’t resist letting Helen ride in the little on the train ride. Helen’s become an ace train spotter with the hundreds of trains we’ve seen during our drives out here.