Samuel's Carousel Seat

There's not much competition, but this is where you can find us. I think the bench makes it more like riding on a train. He won't sit anywhere else.

Who's been in the kitchen?

When I finished baking, Samuel still wasn't done yet, so I gave him a cup of flour and a sifter with 2 bowls. Samuel's so covered in flour, he just blends right into the wall, as you can (or can't) see below.

Allow me to introduce you to...

Scott Westerfeld. Move over Shannon Hale - he's my new favorite author. I've read three of his books in the past three days. (I read three last year and loved them too.) And yeah! There's still more...

Tally-wa! (Read his books, you'll understand.)

See this movie

Playdough

Samuel played for hours on 3 consecutive days. I tried to avoid mixing colors, but my attention span wasn't as good as his.

Fun Day with Jen & Mason

While Joseph was in El Paso all last week, we went up to Spring and spent the a day and night and a 1/2 day with the Hoyts. Jen took us to the Children's Museum at The Woodlands Mall (and got us in for free - Thanks Jen!). Samuel loved the trains, sand, and the rubber pit where you can use construction equipment to dig for what else but dinosaur bones. Mason buried his giraffe in the sand.















See the scarf blower that entertained Samuel for these 49 seconds.
















The boys had fruit and chocolate ice cream for dinner (as seen on Samuel's shirt).

Memorial Day

Samuel playing with Scott's disassembled fish mobile while Joseph got the bikes down.

Ready to go! (Though Samuel's about grown out of that helmet. )We biked on the Braes Bayou trail and discovered that it comes out at Hermann Park. There were huge fish in the bayou and Samuel went fish crazy. Since we were near the zoo we considered dropping in just to see some more fish, but the line for the zoo wrapped around the parking lot (one of the 5 free admission days of the year), so we just looked at the fish, ducks, and turtles in the park pond. We stopped at Kroger (and bought a bunch of close out stuff) and then another park visit on the way home.

Looking at fish and turtles in the pond.

Almost home, but Samuel wanted to stop at the park.

A few weeks ago I had a spill on the bike with Samuel in the bike seat. We were both uninjured, but it was very scary. Amazingly he didn't even cry. I thought he'd be scared and not want to ride the bike again, but he's been fine.

Houston Aquarium

Samuel is obsessed with trains and fish and the Houston Aquarium combines the two nicely. We spent a lovely day downtown and we almost had the aquarium to ourselves. We rode the shark tunnel train three times, toured the aquarium twice, carouseled twice, and saw a white tiger leap against the glass many times - it seemed a bit put out with another guest. We had dinner at the restaurant. Samuel had corn dogs. But we spent most of the time playing in the splash fountain.

Camping

There are two times a year that it's actually nice to go camping in Houston. Early spring and late fall. We took advantage of the cooler weather in April and set out for Huntsville State Park just north of Houston. Stacia did all kinds of prep work such as shopping, packing the cooler, getting all the gear and food ready - so we could send out right after I got off work. It was a quick drive to the site, and what a beautiful place.

After we got the tent set up we started on dinner. Stacia is the camp director for our ward so she is an expert on alternative cooking methods. We used the box oven to cook some enchiladas Stacia had made during the day. After getting some charcoal nice and hot we simply put the enchiladas on a raised rack under this box with tin foil stapled to the sides. 30 minutes later we were eating hot and spicy enchiladas. Way to go Stacia and girl's camp cooking!

We started a small fire after dark and did the required roasting of marshmallows - the real reason Stacia wanted to go camping.

After a nice night sleep (air mattress) in the tent ("castle"to Samuel) we had an exciting day ahead of us. We made pancakes and eggs for breakfast, but all Samuel wanted to eat was a donut.

We set out for the nature center after we had cleaned up camp to take in a demonstration on alligators - which included an overview on how they act in the wild, how many are in the park, and a touch and feel event at the end where Samuel got to touch a live baby alligator's tail. How cool!

Before leaving we spent time in the hammock, went for a walk to the lake to see the fishermen, and saw an alligator hanging out in the lake. It was a great trip - and we can't wait until late fall to go again!

3 boys in a closet

We rode the train to visit cousins at the hospital yesterday. Ethan, Nate and Samuel were a riot. At least it sounded like a riot. A magic wand turned them into various animals, but they hid in the closet to avoid being turned into a bowl of oatmeal or a fairy princess. They rode in cars up and down the hall, giggling and squealing all the time. As we left (through a different door than we'd entered) I looked back and saw a sign on the door that read "Quiet, entering research area." Oops. Too late.

Samuel's Dyed Eggs

Four used to be the jilted number when Samuel counted, but now it's five that gets the shaft.

Easter Egg Hunt

While Joseph and I played soccer, Grandma Mumsie took Samuel with his cousins to meet the Easter Bunny. Results below.





Here's a close up of the bunnicula-induced terror.






The egg hunt was much better. He's at the age where greed plays no part, and it's just a delightfully strange sight to have colored eggs all over the grass. Only later did we discover there were lollypops with sawed off sticks in the eggs. Later he lined up the eggs into a train.

Zoo with Mumsie and cousins

I tried to back out of the zoo excursion at the last minute because I am so far behind with G&A work, but then G&A had a power outage and I couldn't access the network. I regret that such a drastic sign was needed to get me to go to the zoo.

It was idyllic. The children all got along without any tantrums or tears and Samuel actually ate a PB&J sandwich. Bill's brother Jared and family and his sister Melissa drove out from VA for spring break so there were 6 children and 7 adults. We all rode the carousel twice and generally had a lovely time.

Samuel looking at the okapi (Ethan's favorite animal) and Samuel attending Charlotte's meal.

Mumsie, Samuel and Nate

Me, Samuel, Nate, and Sarah Brown holding hands.

Activities this week

1) Houston Children's Museum: We got a membership from my parents for Christmas. We went for the big ball drop on New Year's Eve at high noon. Too bad there's not a larger-than-life dancing turtle there all the time. Samuel loves mascot-style costumes. His other favorite hang-out is the VW Van in Little Mexico section.

2) Eating salt or having a major breakdown when prevented from eating salt.

3) Monster Trucks! Samuel's cousins are into Blue Thunder, so we made a night of it as a family. What's so appealing about trucks smashing cars? Shockingly, a man in our row collapsed during the show. His legs were under our feet as CPR was performed. He appeared totally lifeless and was turning blue after several minutes or so. It looked like they knew what they were doing, but I heard someone say he had regained the pulse which I thought was impossible without a defibrillator, so he either didn't lose it, or they were mistaken and didn't find it the second time either. When the police arrived he was moved him to the concourse so I'm not sure what happened after that. Stopping the CPR would have endangered him further. The few who went with him returned shaking heads and looking grim, so I'm sure he was dead, though the police couldn't say. My CPR certification expires in a few months and I need to review it. Joseph and I could have been the ones doing the deed-we just didn't notice the initial commotion because it was next to us, not in front of us. At least he was on the aisle so they could lay him on the stairstep, but otherwise it was a very bad place to accommodate life rescue with the crowd and the noise.

December in Houston

The Museum of Natural Science brought in some man-made snow, but by the time we got there it was already melted into icy slush - it was over 70 degrees. But Samuel did catch on. He likes to throw everything, so why not snow?

There aren't a lot of trees that lose leaves in the fall here, but we were lucky enough to have one right outside our apartment. We played in them two days before the groundskeepers and the wind took them all away. I didn't have a rake to gather them into a pile, but it reminded me of the "houses" I would outline that were the size of the backyard ar 1910 South in Orem, the same type of "home design" I did with legos. That was a deeply buried memory that came back very vividly. I had 6 videos of Samuel playing in them and it was hard to narrow it down. The one where he disappears at the end is because he sat in my lap. He wanted to see replays of each video after I filmed. He also says cheese alot whenever I get out the camera.

Peeling an Orange

December - hanging out at home. Kathryn Richards inspired me to buy some clementines in hopes that Samuel would branch out with his fruit inclinations. Sure enough, he likes them, especially peeling them. Sometimes he won't eat it and just wants to peel one after another. Enjoy his interchange with Joseph here.