Beautiful

You may or may not know that I highly admire people with artistic ability, especially those who can draw. This is a skill that I wish I had, and I am always the fist to admit that my ability to render something in a 2 dimensional plane is less than mediocre. I consider my art "good" if it is recognizable by others. So today I was very pleased with myself when my 2 year old son saw some drawings I did on a chalkboard and proclaimed, "It's so...beautiful!" I proceeded to ask him what the drawings were, and he correctly identified an elephant, a sheep, and a whale in a lake. I was beaming with pride. Later this same day, I had toasted some bread to go with our dinner and placed it on the counter. My son came in the kitchen, picked up the bread plate, stared at the toast for a few seconds and repeated, "It's so...beautiful" while staring at the toast. I now question his definition of the term beautiful.

Halloween 2010

Seth is serious when apple picking.


















This is our first time GeoCaching. It is lots of fun. We tramped through a good 2-3 acres of brush and trees, when we could have walked along a nice cut grassy lawn to find this hollow log. We loved it.















Ethan as Batman Beyond.



















Seth is Lion-O from Thundercats (without the cool red-orange mane).































This Megatron is over 20 feet tall! This was definitely worth the drive out to Parma to check it out. See our blog from last year for more picks of Bumblebee and Optimus Prime.

End of Summer 2010

This is the Tall Ships Festival on Lake Erie in Cleveland. There are about 20 ships that sail in, and you can walk around them and explore. A lot of these ships have been in famous movies involving pirates. I have to give all credit to Cathy for finding awesome activities for us to do.











































These drunk pirates snuck up on us while we were taking the picture.










The boys in their church clothes on a hot Sunday in July.



























































This is our first attempt at the Bike Aboard train ride along the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. Little did we know that the trains weren't running that hot (hottest) summer day. Ethan was a good sport and biked a full 2 miles before riding in the carrier.









Hydrating from dad's Camelbak.













My broken foot did not cancel our camping trip.














Cathy swam for about 45 minutes with the boys in this little lake. It's comforting to know that if we're ever stuck in water over our heads, that Cathy will be the one to survive.
























































































Happy 2nd Birthday Seth!

Summer Fun 2010

Ethan took one week to start balancing on this bike (no pedals/no training wheels). I now have to keep up with him by riding my own bike.
































Eating smores at the annual Father & Sons camping trip.






























This is Hopper, a red back salamander (Plethodon cinereus) that we found under a log in our back-yard. He'd "hop" really fast from our hands to our clothes.








































































































This is how you play t-ball.













Chill-laxin' in the back of the car with a juice-box. No, it doesn't get any better.













The master at work.










This is at an art festival in Cleveland. Ethan made this spider hat.









Both boys are seasoned travelers.















































Ethan's fish that he caught on his first trip fishing. He considered it a pet, and did not like the idea of eating it.




























Seth sharing a popcicle with Sam.