More Snow

Here are a few pictures to brighten your day! In this picture Ryan and Helen are relaxing before church. Well, at least Ryan is relaxing, Helen appears to be working on her flexibility. This weekend we got some more snow, but luckily it has been around 30*F - perfect for making snowmen. In fact Helen can stay outside for a long time when it is this warm. It's practically tropical if we are being totally honest. We decided to make a couple of snowpeople since we had the time and the snow. In case you can't tell, Helen is holding the snowman's hand. That is the only way that we could get her to stand still for the picture. FYI Since we made these snowpeople yesterday they have melted to 1/4 of their size, lost all their features and are leaning precariously to one side. Just a reminder that snow never lasts, even though it feels like it around this time of year.

Once there was a snowman tall, tall, tall

Actually the snowman that Ryan and Helen made never actually got to be that tall. Ryan blames it on poor quality snow. I don't think that mattered much to Helen. She was just happy to get outside now that enough snow has melted that I no longer worry about loosing her in a snow drift.

Here is Helen with Hannah's friend Captain Special (yellow) and her own bunny, Commodore Cuddly. Helen would sneak Captain Special out of Hannah's bed when she was showering and snuggle with him until Hannah swooped down to snatch him away.

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Happy Thanksgiving

We hope that all of you had a happy Thanksgiving holiday. It was great for Ryan to have time off so that we could play hard. We went to the Durham Train Museum and let Helen run wild climbing all over the trains, but drew the line when she tried to jump out the window. Here is Helen working on her stacking skills. Who knew that food storage could also double as a toy? It's a beautiful thing.

My visiting "teachee" and I made this gingerbread house. The best feature of this house was obviously the window treatment. :)

This week I went down to the 15th Annual Latin American Nutrition Society Congress, in Santiago, Chile, while Ryan took care of Helen. I figure that if you have to get continuing education hours, it might as well be about something you are interested in. It is even better if those hours can be procured outside of the country. I had a great time learning cutting-edge nutrition and made lots of friends from all over the world.

Here is one of the typical fast foods that I tested out while I was down there. This 6" hamburger bun is filled with shaved beef, tomato, mayonnaise (of the bright yellow variety) and avocado. It is very similar to a "completo," which is a hot dog slathered in avocado, mayonnaise and tomato. I have never eaten so much meat as I did this last week in Santiago. Vegetables and fruit were in scarce to say the least.

Now we come to the most exciting part of my trip. On Wednewday, I went to the metro station as usual when I saw a bunch of people milling around and all sorts of police officers. I asked someone what was going on and they said that there was a bomb threat in the metro. Luckily for me, the police were just taking the bomb-finder robot down and I got this great picture. Ryan seems to think that I add instability to the countries I visit . . . The last time I was in Colombia, Venezuela almost attacked. I am sure that it has nothing to do with me. Perhaps some butterfly had beat its' wings somewhere. Click on any of the pictures to see more in Picasa.

Leaves & Gingerbread

Yesterday, our friend took our family picture for our Christmas card. She also caught Helen doing what she really wanted to do the whole time we were trying to keep her sitting still - play with the leaves. Here she is in action - -

Every Christmas the church congregation makes hundreds of gingerbread creations to display at the Kanesville Tabernacle and Mormon Trail Center at Historic Winter Quarters. The theme this year is "A Christmas to Remember". Ryan and I had different interpretations of this theme. His brilliant idea was to make a gingerbread brain. As he put it, "That is where memories are made." He never actually told me 'how' were could create such a concept in gingerbread, but he still acts like I didn't take his idea seriously. My favorite idea was to make a "blizzard", because what is more memorable than spending your Christmas frozen at home under 8 feet of snow? It would have been really easy to make, too: nothing but royal frosting on a flat board and a rooftop peaking through. In the end, we compromised and created an old-fashioned gingerbread sleigh full of presents. Simple, yet elegant, is what the reviews are going to say. Ryan's favorite part of the project was buying (and sampling) many different candies and chocolates as we tried to find appropriate 'presents'. And if you look closely, you'll see that actually, none of the 3lbs of chocolate we bought made it into the sleigh. Very sneaky, Ryan.

Happy Veteran's Day Parade

Yesterday we enjoyed ~70* weather and a lovely parade down town. They threw a ton of candy out for us. I took it upon myself to teach the kids around me that to get candy you have to wave and then how to dodge out into the street to scoop it all up. Some things are best learned by example. Helen liked the dogs, horses and people dressed up as animals best.Here are some obvious differences to the parades I used to enjoy in Iowa. 1. Although there were John Deere tractors, they weren't the main event. 2. There were a whole slew of soldiers in uniform who got to march the route. (They even had the JROTC kids out, their formations weren't the tightest, but they sure took their part seriously.) 3. We got to see the St. Bernard Rescue society with their rescuees - one of which practically adopted me, or at least slobbered all over me. 4. The most exciting group was the Remote Control Car Club which also brought a remote control jump ramp for said cars and trucks to do tricks off of for the crowds viewing pleasure. 5. There was not a semi truck included at all!

Happy Halloween!

This year Helen was a princess. Her favorite part was the crown, which she tried to talk me into letting her wear to church today. During trick or treating, she caught on really fast to the concept of taking shiny hand-size objects from strangers and putting them into her own bag. I am not sure if I should be worried or not.Here we are at the church Halloween party. She had a great time!

Let's go fly a kite!

This week we put the kite that Ryan got from my parents on their trip to the Great Wall of China. It is a superior kite by all measures. #1 It flies without the user and his or her friend running all over the park. #2 It stays in the air without any emergency nosedives. #3 It is a lovely orange and red color with a fish on it.

Hancock Visit

Emily and her kids came to play this week and we maximized our fun time. We had picnic lunches and went to the zoo twice. Here is one of the wild rodents trying to nibble on Emily and Chloe's feet when we ate lunch at the zoo. We had to eat with our feet up.

Helen and Chloe had a lot of fun playing beauty parlor and wandering the house in a state of bliss to have so many friends around.Emily and I made 17 pints of applesauce and 16 pints of pearsauce from the fruit that I got for free. Ryan played a critical role using the Victorio strainer for which we are most grateful. Click on the pictures to see more great pictures.

As a side note, yesterday Quinn was missing us so badly that he decided to call us up six times while his mom was in the shower. We actually didn't know it was Quinn, we only knew that he had gone to Walmart and that his mother was in the shower until we dialed *69. Lucky for us we have two messages on our answering machine that he left as well.

Wilson Island State Park

This weekend we went for a short camping trip in Iowa along the Missouri river. There were enough rocks, sticks, trees and dog to keep Helen very happy. Sadly she was so excited that she was unable to sleep for more than 30 minutes at a time all night long. Here is how our hike the next day went. We also stopped by the DeSoto National Refuge Visitor Center and learned all about the Steamboat Bertrand that sank in the Missouri in 1865 and various wild animals that roam the bluffs nearby. Ryan and I read "Life of the Mississippi" by Mark Twain a few years ago and consider ourselves quasi-experts on steamboats and rivers in general and loved the steamboat display. Helen loved the antlers and fur.

Here is Ryan training Helen on how to throw rocks into the river. I'm glad she didn't fall into the drink.

War of the Voles

Our poor tomato plants have been hanging on for dear life after a bad case of early blight this year. Then, to add insult to injury, our terraced gardens have been discovered by Voles! To those who aren't pros at the Common Rodent Jeopardy category, a vole is fatter than a mouse, has small ears, is a vegetarian (that loves red ripe tomatoes), makes 2 inch holes opening into their burrows, creates tracks between openings, and the Nebraska extension office calls their reproduction "Explosive: 5-10 litters/yr; 3-5 yg/litter." We have declared open war on the voles. They appear to have the home front advantage and yards upon yards of underground hideouts. But we won the first two battles, catching 2 voles within 24 hours of setting our trap.
For some reason, I can still here my Dad's voice telling me not to stick my fingers in the cage even though the vole looks so soft and cuddly.