Thanksgiving Wrap Up

We spent the week of Thanksgiving in Denver visiting my family.  We didn’t take a lot of pictures, but did manage to capture some highlights.

We broke up the long drive by spending the night on the Lobmeyer farm.  It was great to see everyone again and the kids all had a great time once they warmed back up to each other.  Matt and Betsy had an event to attend so Anna stayed home with us.  Anna and Ari made a bridge that Keira enjoyed crawling under.

Then it was back on the road to Colorado with a stop at the welcome center.

We spent most of our first day in Denver lounging around the house and letting the kids play.  We also exchanged Hannukah gifts.  The kids really got into it this year.  Keira was very excited about the Buzz Lightyear action figure she received from Auntie.

Ari received the Trios Batcave along with The Penguin to fight Batman.

Wednesday we ventured out to the mall and rode the train.

Thursday morning Keenan and my dad took the kids to Bass Pro Shop while my mom, sister and I prepped for the big dinner with our extended family.  Keenan said it was great – not too crowded, but lots of dads and kids!  They had lots of free games/activities/crafts and a free picture with Santa.  This may become a new Thanksgiving Day tradition for us!

We had a great time with all the family at dinner and, of course, ate too much.  Early Friday morning we were back on the road to spend a night with Keenan’s family.  We enjoyed a second turkey dinner on Saturday before heading back home.  It was a short visit, but lovely just the same.

This was probably one of the most relaxed trips we’ve taken.  The kids were great in the car (all 4 days!) and at all the various houses.  No one was sick and I was able to rest quite a bit.  Only one more big trip back up to Keenan’s family for Christmas then we’ll be waiting for baby #3 to arrive!

Pre-schooler Perspective

Ari has really been coming around to the idea of another sibling - especially now that he knows it's a boy!

Just yesterday he drew me this picture:

He said "It's a snowman with a baby in her tummy with legs." (Ignore the scribbles. He still likes to do that. He's come a long way with his name, though!) Melted my heart.

When I picked him up at church Sunday his teacher told me that he prayed for his baby brother. Melted my heart and brought tears to my eyes. She also mentioned that they prayed for Ari's future family, which I will now explain.

Know that I'm mainly posting this for posterity. I find it borderline embarassing. Anyway... Ari is somewhat confused about relationship labels and how exactly they work. We talk a lot about him eating well to get bigger and stronger so he can grow up like Daddy. Whenever he talks about growing up it's always to be a Daddy "Some day when I'm a Daddy...." To him it doesn't mean that he'll have kids. Just that he'll be bigger and able to do a lot of the things only Daddy can do right now.

Once he found out this baby is a boy he started saying "When the baby comes there will be 3 Daddies!" We tried to explain to him that he and his brother will be Daddies someday when they each have their own kids. Keenan went on to explain that when that happens he (Keenan) will be a grandpa. He also tried to explain that Ari and the baby will be our sons and that will be the same forever.

So I'm pretty sure Ari told his Sunday school teacher something along these lines prompting the prayer for his future family. Today when I picked him up from school his teachers there told me that Ari said "When my baby brother comes I will be a Daddy and my Daddy will be a Grandpa!" Aie yie yie! Hopefully we get him straightened out before somebody makes a phonecall....

Biker Boy

For Ari's birthday this year we bought him a balance bike. I won't list out the reasons here, but we've been very happy with this choice of bike as a training tool for learning to ride a "real" bike. In just over a month, he's been cruising around our driveway as well as our neighbors', lifting up his feet when he gets some good momentum going. The other day I went outside to find him at another neighbor's driveway (with Keenan's supervision) with a much steeper incline, zooming down the hill and zipping around the street!



We've already put a pedal bike at the top of his Christmas list for us and are keeping our fingers crossed that it will be a smooth transition.