December Daily 30

Today David, Kelsey, and Grandma offered to take the boys on an outing so I could do something on my own. I want to turn our rarely-used guest bedroom into a "sewing" room, so I took off for Ikea while they went to Monkey Bizness. (Don't worry potential guests, my mom has room at her house for visitors. We still want to finish our basement which we hope will happen soon rather than later.)

I received these from David/Kelsey:

"Ready"

"Set"

"GO!"

They had a great time monkeying around and I had enough time to buy some good pieces.

Back at Grandma's for supper. The monkeying around continued to be at the highest levels.

A little tv watching calmed them down.

Grandma + 3!

Thanks for visiting, Brudder, Kelsey, and Eva!

December Daily 29

I didn't get much sleep last night, so it was a tiring day for me. Both boys came in at 5 a.m., because one had wet the bed. Both wanted to have their sheets changed (sigh), so it took a while before I was back in bed. I finally fell asleep

a couple of hours later. I did manage to give the boys a bath. Aiden enjoyed practicing his back floating after Reid got out.

Lately, the boys are into jumping out of their closet to surprise us.

David played a quick round of Mario Kart with Reid before he and Kelsey headed out to dinner and a movie.

Eva and Grandma had dinner with us and stayed until it was time for Eva to go to bed.

When it was time to leave, I asked the boys to give Eva a hug. They kept running past her and told them they needed to be kind and stop to give her a hug goodbye. Eva yelled "BE KIND!" It sort of stopped them in their tracks and she finally got her hugs.

December Daily 28

We had a great full day today. The boys entertained themselves with my iPad while I got ready this morning.

And we're off to the zoo!

All three kids were very much into the maps today. 

It wasn't too crowded and the warm sun felt great. It was in the 50's which was a nice treat for our Minnesota guests.

Waiting for the train.

All aboard!

Uncle David manned the wagon and stroller.

Next stop: the carousel. I can't remember if the boys have been on a carousel before or not, but they really enjoyed this one. Reid picked a monkey (mandrill) and luckily Aiden wanted to go on the zebra right next to him. You'll notice David and Eva in the background. They started on an animal, but Eva quickly wanted off so David could hold her instead.

Grandma picked the ostrich next to Reid.

I stood next to the boys.

Everything was so beautifully painted.

Can you find me?

There is a lot of beautiful art throughout the zoo, including this statue of an elephant and her calf.

It was warm enough by lunch time that the kids were even without their coats.

During the lunch the clouds rolled in and it got fairly chilly. 

Do you recognize the hat I knitted for Eva?

Eva brought along her new baby.

Reid's number one pick was to see the giraffes. Success!

He also liked the lanterns which he thought looked like basketballs.

We saw an elephant in the new elephant passage expansion. I don't think it was quite open yet when we last visited the zoo.

Aiden's number one pick was to see a hippo. We were getting close to being done but still hadn't seen one. On a whim I rolled the wagon into this building and we arrived just in time to see this guy come inside. Two for two. Yeah, mommy!

Time to head home.

Thanks for treating us to so much fun, Grandma!

Bonus points for keeping the kids awake during the ride home so they would still take good naps when we got home.

Downtown Denver with Coors Field (where the Rockies play) in the middle of the picture.

Tonight we had Cousin John, Jeani, Jacob, and Leah over for pizza. I'm not sure my boys ate much, but they sure had a lot of fun.

Eva showing Leah her new baby.

Aiden and Jacob raising a ruckus.

Hard to pick the best picture.

Leah had just licked Aiden in this one. He he he.

A couple of generations of cousins. Doesn't seem that long ago that we were the ones running around raising a ruckus.