A couple of weeks ago, we went on a trip to Denver, Colorado to visit Emily's sister and her family. The last time we had visited was several years ago when Eliana was 3 and Karina was just a baby.
So on Thursday morning, with all of our bags packed, car seats and boosters loaded, we headed off to the airport. After dropping off our van in the lot, the kids got a kick out of riding in the shuttle with NO seat belts.
Flying Southwest is the way to go for us since they don't charge for checking in bags. We had 8 pieces to check in between the 6 of us. (four car seat pieces, a present for their cousin, Eliana's personal bag, and 2 large duffels)
The "flat escalator" as the kids called them, was fun to walk on.
Our two "honeys" sat together of course. Here they are brushing up on the security procedures for the plane. They reviewed this for a loooong time!
We flew over the Rockies on our way to Colorado.
Once we got there, we sent the kids outside and they found a plethora of new toys to play with. The big hit was the battery-powered John Deere riding car that they could drive themselves.
All the kids enjoyed driving this. Eliana, being the great big sister that she is, would team up with Xiao Yu and let him step on the gas pedal while Eliana steered. Xiao Yu is not so good at steering, to say the least.
Afterwards, it was dinner time and the kids got to sit at their own table.
At night, our whole family slept communally in the loft area. Our kids are such good travelers that they can adapt to new sleeping arrangements like this. It also helps that we kept them busy the entire time, so by the evening, they were TIRED!
They have a chocolate lab named Libby who is the nicest dog in the world. At first, they were apprehensive around the dog, and were especially wary of her licking. Eventually, the kids got used to Libby and the kids were no longer a novelty to Libby either so that by the end of the 5 days we spent there, they kids were loving on Libby constantly.
Gabriel would also put his head on Libby and even tried to ride her once or twice.
There were plenty of things to do in the backyard, such as riding their cousin's bikes.
They got creative and wrote their names out using little pebbles.
Xiao Yu enjoyed climbing a tree in the backyard. He's gotten a lot more adept at physical stuff like this.
Their cousin invented a game where he was shot putting rocks and eventually Gabriel joined in. Boys!
One of the first days there, we went to the park to let the kids run around.
It goes without saying that the girls were enamored with their newest and littlelest cousin, who is 11 months old.
The park is next to a river where the kids enjoyed throwing rocks into. (Elvin enjoyed throwing rocks too.)
Karina collected rocks by using her dress as a pouch.
And eventually, the activity turned into wading. Most of them stayed relatively dry except for Gabey who slipped on one of those smooth round rocks and got his pants all wet!
Later on in the day, we got ready to go to an indoor water park. The boys were very excited because they ended up wearing matching t-shirts.
The place was simply enormous. It had three different large pools, several slides, and lots to do.
There was a area where you could navigate from one floating platform to another, using a rope as a guide. It is harder to do than it looks and took Eliana several tries.
But her persistence payed off...
And she did it!
Karina was content to wade in the shallower area and hang out. She didn't have her life jacket so couldn't swim out into the deeper areas by herself.
The kids' Uncle Darin is an avid hunter and they got to see all the skulls that Darin has collected over the years. They've been learning about the pronghorn antelope from their little nature TV show that they watch and got to see one up close.
They also got to touch the skull of a wild boar, including the super sharp pair of tusks to the side.
Here are the girls paying more attention to their little cousin.
They loved playing with her and talking to her and saying to her, "You're so CUTE!"
They each got a turn holding her.
Getting passed around is the price you have to pay for being the baby of the entire extended family!
We had some down time, and Jen's house has a big TV, so our kids really enjoyed watching Paw Patrol on the big screen! The two "honeys" lay on the couch together.
Screen time is something we try to limit at home, but our rental car came with a DVD system, and the little TV screen that folded down from the ceiling. We had a Magic School Bus DVD with us, and the kids thought it was very cool to be able to watch a video while we were driving! One side benefit we discovered from this, is times when the boys would probably have fallen asleep in the car, they stayed awake because they were engrossed in the show, which was great!
Saturday was Jace's 4th birthday, so we went to an old fashioned amusement park, called Heritage Park. Turns out it is the oldest theme park in the US! There were lots of preschool friendly rides, and our kids spun and rode to their heart's content!
This airplane ride had a controller that you could use to make the plane go up and down, as the ride spun. It was a major favorite with the boys. Gabriel preferred to ride with a grown up, and Elvin was pretty sick of this ride by the end!
They had a tea cup style ride, which the kids loved. Emily chose to not tell Xiao Yu about the spinning feature in the middle...they just sat and rotated around. He later rode with Elvin and discovered the true potential of this ride!
Uncle Darin went for it!
On many rides, Karina was our one kid that wanted to ride on her own! Here she is! Go, Karina!
This was a "roller coaster" train. Very jostly and bouncy! Once again, Karina wanted to ride by herself.
This bus went up on a large rotating arm, first counter clockwise, and then clockwise. All four kids really liked this ride, and Elvin and Emily could tolerate it pretty well, too. It gave a nice view of the little park, as well.
The swings are always a hit...but this one was sad, as Eliana was too tall!
All this spinning and swinging was wonderful for Xiao Yu, his vestibular system got quite a workout!
From the rotating bus, you could look out over a pond, and the kids spotted these swam pedal boats. Elvin and Darin took the kids for a spin, and Elvin was reminded of the fact that we were up at 7000 feet elevation!
Elvin realized he should have had Eliana up front with him, helping him pedal, but...didn't think it was a good idea to put Xiao Yu in the back where no one could hold on to him!
More teacups...poor Elvin! He felt a little green afterwards.
This ride was some sort of sled, it went really fast around and around and around in a circle, with enough speed to press you really hard against the side of the seat. The girls really liked it, and Emily hated it.
This again shows Karina's adventurous side! This was the "big" roller coaster at the park. None of the other kids (or Elvin) were willing to ride it, but Karina went on it four times! (with Emily)
Driving home, we stopped at Chick-Fil-A. This is pretty standard in some places, but none of us had ever been to a Chick-Fil-A. It took us so long to place our order, as we tried to figure it all out, that the car behind us honked at us! I guess people really are in a hurry to eat their Chick-Fil-A! We apologized to the worker for taking so long to order and explained to her that it was our first time. We found a free cookie and a card from the manager welcoming us to Chick-Fil-A!
Saturday afternoon it was time to celebrate Jace's birthday, and open presents! His gifts proved to be pretty interesting to our kids (not surprisingly, since Jace and Gabriel are only about 8 weeks apart in age, and have many similar interests -- one of which is Paw Patrol, which is what you see them playing here.)
Then, Jace had a Marshall (Paw Patrol character) birthday cake!
Julia's birthday is just 5 days later, so we went ahead and celebrate for her, too. She was turning 1, and had a little smash cake. Our kids had never seen this smash cake concept, and were a little surprised she was allowed to stick her hands in the frosting!
A little help blowing out the candle!
Playing with Jace's new toy shotgun. It makes a shooting sound when you pull the trigger and you can also load three shotgun cartridges, which then pop out when you pump the lever.--just like the real thing. Karina was pretty interested in this gun...not sure what the future holds for that girl!?
As the weekend wore on, we noticed that Eliana spent a LOT of time outside driving around in the John Deere tractor toy. She was actually a pretty good driver...but we are not quite ready for the real thing! She did enjoy it, though.
The next day we went to a small invertebrate museum called the Butterfly Pavilion. Gabriel was very pleased with the sign as it has a GREEN butterfly on it.
There was a large aviary type area full of butterflies feeding, and flying and hanging out. There were lots of puddles on the ground, so the butterflies would land for a drink. Pretty fun to see them, although we were kind of scared our kids would tromp on one!
You could actually see the proboscis nose going into the flower, and then curling into a perfect circle when the butterfly was done drinking the nectar.
If you look closely, you can see the curled proboscis here.
Checking out the carnivorous pitcher plant.
A decent family photo!! Amazing!
They also have an exhibit where you can hold "Rosie" the tarantula. Eliana was the only kid who went for that. Elvin went with her...Emily passed on that!
Karina looked carefully but kept her hands to herself!
As we left, we checked out the gift shop, and Gabriel tried on a cool green hat...not sure what it is supposed to be? Some grasshopper or something?
The kids thought these butterfly cut outs were really cool....
Gabriel, of course, had to be in the orange one with Karina.
That afternoon, we went to a jumping place with inflatables and also some long trampolines. The kids really enjoyed trying to scale this "wall". They were exhausted when we left!
For Jace's birthday, Darin got him a duck blind. He had it set up when we got home from the jumping place. The kids thought it was a pretty cool tent! Darin has big plans for himself and Jace to spend lots of time in that out in the woods!
On our last day, we went to a candy factory! It is the largest handmade candy factory in the US. They specialize in hand pulled candy canes and lollipops in every flavor imaginable.
While we didn't purchase a giant lollipop, the kids enjoyed browsing the options -- Gabriel chooses by color, Eliana by cool sounding name. This was cream soda, which she thought sounded interesting, although she has never had a cream soda.
We did let them choose a few items. Gabriel picked an ENORMOUS marshmallow filled, chocolate covered egg, from the Easter table which was on sale. He took a few bites, and was done...it was crazy big!
We then went on the tour, and watched them boil the sugar solution, pour it to cool, pull it on this 100 year old taffy pulling machine. We learned that while the taffy starts out colored brown, the only way to make it white is to pull it so that air is incorporated into it--turning it white.
The life of a mom! Holding a baby in each arm--although in one case, not really a baby anymore.
So that was our weekend, full of fun and activities. The kids were exhausted and had lots of fun visiting their cousins in Colorado!
We've tried to institute chores that the kids do in our household. Eliana started at the age of 5 having to set the table every night before dinner.
When Karina turned 5 and when Eliana was 7, Karina took over setting the table, and Eliana's chore became taking dishes out of the dishwasher. Like any novel thing, at first this was very exciting but of course as the weeks wore on, it became ... well, a chore.
Being her creative self, Eliana has been able to conscript her little brother into helping her. What's better than doing a chore yourself? Get your little brother to do it instead!
Gabriel thinks that taking dishes out of the dishwasher is just another activity or game, like stacking blocks or building a tower out of Legos. One day, while both parents were upstairs, we came down to find that Gabriel has "put dishes away" in his own style. However, many of the bowls and such are in the high cabinets where he can't reach. So he neatly stacked them on the counter, sorted by size, neatly in a line. He can be such a funny boy!
Happy Easter everyone! Our Easter festivities began on Saturday morning when we went to church for the annual Easter Egg Hunt.
The kids were a little bit excited as we exited the van.
We arrived a bit earlier than the 10am start time because although they put out about 4,000 eggs every year, many many people from the surrounding community comes and the hunt is mostly over in literally 5 minutes.
It was a little bit chilly and so the kids decided to conserve warmth by doing a "penguin huddle"--they learned about this from one of the nature shows they watch.
There is a section dedicated just for 0 to 3 year olds. This is where the boys were. The girls went to the 4 to 7 year old section. This is nice as it evens out the playing field for the kids.
And it's time! Xiao Yu gets his first egg. The challenge is that he wants to open the egg, instead of getting more to put into his basket. (Yes, we are using Halloween baskets, but hey, it works!)
Gabriel got his egg too; orange, of course! Elvin put him in bright orange pants so that he'd be easier to spot in a crowd.
After a minute, the boys wanted to go find out what the girls were doing. We found Karina with a basket chock full of eggs! She had a successful hunt.
She wanted to see how Gabey had fared...
And being who she is, she started putting some of hers into Gabey's basket.
And then she did likewise for Xiao Yu.
We also caught up with Eliana. Although most of the eggs were accounted for, she was searching for the golden egg. Every year, they hide several golden eggs. If you find one of these, you can turn it in for a special prize.
After the hunt was over, it was time to dig in! Elvin let the kids eat as much candy as they wanted. The theory was that instead of having a battle with the kids over when they could eat candy, if they ate it all at once, then there would be no candy left. They ended up eating most of their candy instead of eating lunch!
Later on in the day, it was time to dye eggs!
The kids enjoyed dipping the eggs into the dye.
This was Xiao Yu's first time dyeing eggs. His was yellow, as he thinks this is his color. (His sippy cup that he always uses is yellow, as is his towel.)
The next morning, it was Easter basket time! The kids looked through all the goodies they got in their baskets, such as Peeps, electric toothbrushes, and some other small toys.
Eliana made individualized Easter cards for everyone and passed them out. She even sacrificed some of her own candy in doing so by giving them away to others.
Xiao Yu was very excited about this basket.
Then, for breakfast, we ate the eggs that the kids dyed the day before.
And as dessert after breakfast, Gabey had a Peep. His was an orange Peep, of course.
After going to church, and then coming back home, in the afternoon, Emily's parents and brother's family came over. We did another small Easter egg hunt at home... Xiao Yu knew exactly what to do.
Gabriel found a bunch too!
We got to watch Karina in action--she is QUICK!
Gabey needed help in reaching some of the high up eggs.
And here is the crowd, happy after their hunt. We let them eat all the candy out of all the eggs. We put one mini-marshmallow in each--so it's not that much candy and the kids think it's the best!
We then had some dinner with salmon (actually steelhead) and ham.
And finally, it was time to go. Grandpa always insists in taking pictures of each family unit as they leave. Xiao Yu, ever the ham, decided that he needed to take a picture with his cousins' family!
Spring is here and all our daffodils are blooming. The past several months have brought lots of transitions in our house...
One transition which our legs and hips have appreciated is that we are now completely baby gate free! There used to be a baby gate between our family room and the stairs. We put it there because we did not like Xiao Yu climbing up and down the stairs by himself, since he was still a little unsteady on his feet.
But then, in the fall, Xiao Yu started to want to be potty trained. And the downstairs bathroom was in our foyer just beyond the baby gate and it became very laborious to keep lifting him over the gate every time he needed to go to the bathroom.
So finally we took down the baby gate and all of us experienced freedom!
Another big transition was moving Xiao Yu into Gabriel's bedroom. For almost a year, Xiao Yu had been sleeping on a mattress at the foot of our bed. While this was necessary at first, but it got old quickly, as we could never have the lights on in our bedroom after Xiao Yu fell asleep, etc.
However, we wanted to wait until Gabriel had settled down with the new member of our family before we moved his little brother in with him. Although he was not totally pleased about this new development, he was not overly upset either.
The arrangement actually worked out fine...sometimes they wake each other up early in the morning, but we have trained both boys, that if they wake up before the other--to leave the room quietly and they stick to this usually. And we now have our bedroom back!
If you had visited our house in the past months, you would notice a cardboard box underneath Xiao Yu's high chair. Most people who came over did notice and asked about it... We filled this box with books, taped it shut, and put it underneath Xiao Yu as support for his feet. This is because when Xiao Yu's physical therapist came over, she remarked that it might help Xiao Yu concentrate on eating and learning how to chew and swallow better, if he was able to have more stability for his body by having somewhere to put his feet on. But we didn't really follow up on that piece of advice along with the dozens of other exercises and things were were supposed to do with him but didn't because we had a hard time fitting it into our schedule. And then his speech therapist mentioned the same thing, and then another did as well. We realized that if three professionals are all saying the same thing, then maybe we should follow it....
And the biggest transition we've had for Xiao Yu is that he has started pre-school! He qualifies for a special ed pre-school because of certain delays, such as his speech and so he now goes to pre-school 4 days a week from 8:30am to about 11am. At first we were a little reticent in sending our new little guy off to pre-school because there was very little parental involvement and because it seemed weird to ship him off to school. However, we knew that he is a very social kid and likes that type of a setting. Also, the thought that there would be a teacher and aides teaching him skills sounded great and would take a certain amount of burden from us. So after meeting the teacher (she was VERY nice) and the aides (they were very nice too), we signed him up. Here we are walking to his first day of school. He has his Paw Patrol backpack on, which is bigger than his entire torso. So it looks like a turtle shell.
Because it's a program run through the school district, they also offer busing. This for us also seemed quite drastic as we weren't sure how he would react to boarding a vehicle without us on it. However, he has had and continues to have a crazy fascination with buses and would throw tantrums when he saw other kids on the bus but we didn't let him go in. So we did sign up for the service where the bus takes him home every day. This helps Emily with the driving and Xiao Yu is a very happy camper for getting to ride the bus!
So now, in the evenings if Elvin asks Xiao Yu, "How was preschool?" Xiao Yu's answer is always "Two buh!" (Meaning, "school bus!") That seems to be the highlight of his day.
