A Little Appalachia

Autumn: "Hello today. My name is Autumn. Sitting on hay... see players to play. I like the one with a red and black shirt."

Evan: "We listened to the song. Loud. And we jumped on the jumping thing." (see below).
This weekend Mark has been at a haz-mat training, and the kids and I have been bopping around town. Yesterday I took them down to the Capitol Market- where local farmers sell produce and plants - for Springfest. The kids enjoyed the Bluegrass band and I could've sat there much longer listening to the great music, but they spotted the "jumping thing," which I considered offering our savings to purchase for our backyard. A parent's dream - a contained, soft environment that requires extreme energy expenditure on the part of the active youth, hence deeper sleep. The kids also got their faces painted and were very proud of their "tattoos."

Needless to say, we are thrilled to have Mark home and off of work for a few days... we're even trying to get it together to go camping nearby tommorrow. It would be the kids first camping trip - out of the womb, that is!

!!!!!!WOW!!!Crazy Craptacular Circus!!!!!!

After talking about it for several weeks, the day finally came. The kids were so excited they insisted on wearing their clown outfits (Marisa wore these when she was their age!).

Last Saturday, the eagerly anticipated Greatest Show on Earth whisped through town. The I'm sure that the kids would tell you how much they enjoyed it; if we could bring them back into this dimension.

Seriously, I think they had a good time. But it was all very larger-than-life... perhaps a bit too much for them to handle. The two main ingredients were loud over-the-top noise and high fructose corn syrup. Imagine being told by a woman who barely speaks English, that the cotton candy she just shoved into the grateful arms of Autumn and Evan... is $10 a bag. Now try removing said cotton candy (in the end we could only declare a moral victory since we all shared only one bag).

The actual performances were rather underwhelming, from not-quite-together choreography, to the World's Strongest Man having to "catch" a cannonball that had been intended for "hitting" his stomach to prove his might, to sassy tigers that would not quite listen to their master (who, by reluctantly uttering "good job" hoped the audience didn't notice the tigers' blatant disregard for the commands). But all of it was effectively covered up by constant short-attention-span distractions to all of the senses.

We left before the end, because the kids were zoned and exhausted by the unending lights/noise/sugar/etc. Looks like P.T. Barnum will have to wait many more years to see the return of the pellfam! (pictured at right: the unbelievable amazing incredible world famous unforgettable... $8 snow cone. What can we say? The kids were both hot an thirsty during intermission.)

Tulip Time

Spring has sprung in WV! The kids explore the result of dozens of tulip bulbs that were planted last Fall. We just got back from our Michigan trip a few days ago - Go to our Flickr Photos Page to see our "Easter in Michigan" collection of 24 photos.

Flooded Country Roads

The kids and I had a long drive back from Michigan yesterday, but we are so blessed that they are good travelers! Luckily we didn't have to pass through any of the many flooded areas of our hilly state. When Mark got home from work this morning, we took a drive out to a town called Tornado to take a look at the river.

Our trip to Michigan was wonderful! We got lots of quality time with Grandma Laurie in her lovely new condo, plus visits with Grandma Linda, Uncle Joel, and many other dear relatives and friends. A highlight for me was attending a surprise birthday party for my high school friend, Deania, whom I hadn't seen in several years. It was held at the same place, the Rochester Brewery, where Mark and I had our rehearsal dinner, and I got to catch up with some other fabulous classmates that I hadn't seen since high school! Thanks to all who made time to see us during our trip. Enjoy the pics... more from our trip will be coming soon on flickr, so check back soon!

Nostalgic video trip back to '06 Egg Hunt in MT

Happy Easter! Marisa and the kids are in Michigan enjoying some time with the Grandmas. Though I'd like to say I'm savoring my temporary bachelorhood, the truth is I have a bad cold, the refrigerator and cupboards are down to less-appealing items... and, well, I'm reviewing video from LAST Easter. You might even say that I miss them dearly. :)

Thought I'd like to share that video with you. A chorus of eager voices rises, as parents verbally nudge their toddlers to chaotically scramble for Easter eggs. In mere moments, hundreds of candy-bearing plastic shells are scooped up, mostly by the slightly older kids who actually understand what is going on. After Autumn and Evan each finished with only three eggs of melting chocolate, it became obvious to us that they didn't quite "get it" (can you imagine this spectacle for the first time?). So, we conducted a second egg-hunting mission in our house, free from the pressures of competition. They probably could have used this training ahead of time. Enjoy with me, this nostalgic trip back to Glasgow, Montana... Easter 2006. -Mark

Big-time April Showers!!! (with new video)

Last night at 10pm, I was wearing Autumn's puke, trying to calm her through an awful barking croup cough. We later even called Blue Cross for help determining when/if we should go to the Emergency Room. But you know what? According to what we heard from Blue Cross and WebMD, for croup cough, we are advised to take Autumn outside to breathe cool, moist air. The weather today was just too awesome to ignore that kind of advice. I'm guessing that this is not quite what they had in mind... though the air couldn't have been any more moist!

So out we all went around 5pm, to play in the neighborhood during what was the FOURTH batch of rain today. Heavy downpours, thunder, puddles, eddies, street-rivers, a rainbow, and even sunshine rounded out a truly wonderful episode of Mother Nature. Check out the NEW VIDEO posted on the right if you'd like to see for yourself, or click HERE for a larger version. And by the way, since we went out in that rain, Autumn's cough has pretty much stopped!
-Mark