What we have been up to in pictures.

So, allow me to back up a bit and add pictures to my dialogue.  Times really flies, doesn't it?  We celebrated Molly's 1st birthday nearly two months ago.  The boys made her some cards which turned out to be her favorite gifts.

She loved her birthday cake which was peanut butter chip brownies.  If you are having a bad day, I recommend you give Molly a piece of chocolate and just enjoy the show.  Her eyes get so big and she demolishes the chocolate.  A side story is that a couple of days ago we gave her a piece of fudge and for the first time with only a small prompt she signed: "Eat" "More" "Please".  Normally she will scream at us and then stick her thumb in her mouth and look bored as we try to get her to sign politely.  Ah chocolate, the worker of miracles.

My mother gave Molly this child friendly cake with candles.  This same mother is a willing accomplice to my father's placement and lighting of real candles on the family Christmas tree.  Irony?  Needless to say, however, this toy was a huge hit with my kids and many of our friends that come over to play.

The weekend after Molly's birthday we put away most of our Christmas decorations.  Including the Polar Express Train.  The boys comforted themselves by climbing into the box.

Molly climbs more than either of the boys.  Or maybe I just don't remember them climbing.  Here she is making herself at home at her Great-Grandparents' house in Omaha.

As are the boys.

At our stay at a hotel, the boys and Eric took a brief dip.  Dom is taking swimming lessons, but prefers to ride on Eric's back.  William was content to mainly walk up and down the stairs and then be told how brave he was...

The following are a few pictures from the house in Colorado.  The "Ski House" as the boys refer to it.

The boys loved spending time with Megan and Stephen and Brian, again.  There are some great pictures on someone's camera of the boys in their batman pajamas and Brian in a batman shirt.

The following are some examples of our family's great fashion sense:

We hold with the fashion idea that the socks make an outfit.

The boys got to go sledding on the day of snowfall.  At least Megan and I were hoping to sled with them when we got back, but the boys had already settled in to their Mario Kart game and, frankly, it was cold.

But, looking at these pictures makes me wish I had just gone ahead and done it.  We've only had a couple of inches here and I don't think there is much chance of snow in the near future.  Maybe next year...oh, wait, we'll probably be in Florida.

This brings us up to our trip through Kansas.  I don't have any pictures of our first night which we spent with a family I use to babysit for in Hays, Kansas.  We are Godparents to their 4th child, Annie, who was born two days before Dom and just a few minutes before their 5th child, Sophie.  We pray for Annie every night with the boys and they loved getting to meet both of the twins.  We enjoyed spending time with a family of 8.  And let me tell you, Eric and I thought we were doing pretty good with our three, but we have nothing on the parents of these six kids.  The 11 year-old fries eggs in the morning for everyone as they sit down for breakfast as a family.  We were so impressed, but took solace in the fact that we are still doing all right, and we shouldn't beat ourselves up too much for not wanting to get up before the sun...right?

After a late night in Hays (Oh and the 4 days of skiing AND being sick), we were exhausted as we pulled into the driveway on Barker Ave.  Thankfully, we had planned an extremely low key stay in Lawrence which included a 4+ hour nap the first day.  It was wonderful.  Dom spent some quality time one-on-one with Nana and made a cookie cake for dessert.

On Friday we hit the lanes for $1 bowling.   I thoroughly enjoyed using the bumper on nearly every roll.

Katie and Robert and their kids came over Friday night and spent all day Saturday with us.  This included a trip to Allen Fieldhouse and the shrine to KU sports.

And here is the obligatory shot of the cousins.  Molly wasn't too pleased, but the rest of them were happy to be together.  We are very blest.

Phew!  Thus ends the tale of our 3,000+ mile trip out west.  This post would have probably been a lot better if I'd written it 4 weeks ago shortly after we got back.  I do apologize and thanks for reading!

Update:  So, after I was thinking about this I realized I left out three key stops on our way home.  1st We stopped in and saw my Oma in Jefferson City, MO.  Then we stopped in to see our nephews, Jesse and Wiley in St. Louis.  The boys had a great time playing with their toys, but most especially competing with kids in their age group at Foosball.  Finally we stayed the night with my uncle and aunt in St. Louis.  OK, now I've got it all down for posterity.