Wedding & Sleepover

Jack & I celebrated our good friends' wedding, Jacob & Christina. Congratulations!  They met while at CWRU, so a group of us were all reunited for their day!

All dressed up.

 Me with soon-to-be mama, Rachel! Rachel is the happiest pregnant woman I've ever met. Love her.

And you know it's going to be a good party when Christina is there. Too much fun. Lots more pictures, but they are all of me with friends, and I don't want you to go into Jamie overload.

Where were the kids, you ask?

They had a sleepover at Evan & Drew's house. I am told that they were well-behaved and good sleepers. =) Scot & Sarah, thank you for hosting the first sleepover!

All 4 boys: Colin (3.5ish), Evan (3ish), Justin (18mo), Drew (17 mo). What's better than eating popcorn while watching some TV?!

Justin @ 18 Months Update

Justin stats @ 18 months

• 33.5 inches tall
• 26.5 lbs round

What he's up to?

• Imitating, imitating, imitating! From asking "why?" (just like Colin) to trying to do my workout videos (just like me). He loves to imitate!
• He is still a great sleeper and usually goes down without a fuss. He just needs a quiet, dark room and he's all set for bed/nap time!
• He loves to roar like a lion, and has a hard time with his quiet voice.
• Pointing and learning new words.
• We're starting time outs with him. He doesn't bang his head on the floor anymore, so he's doing time outs in the corner just like his brother.
• If you make fish lip noises, he may come over to give you kisses. =) And if not, give him a high-five, he's hasn't denied too many people the high-five yet!
• He is the calmest when sitting on Jack's lap. 
• He loves to try to walk (not crawl) up and down stairs. 
• He loves to brush his teeth, over and over and over again.
• He is a toughie. He bumps his head and falls a fair amount, but can "brush it off" and continue playing without much of a fuss.
• Has a unique calmness and comfort with my dad. My dad loves it!

Justin funnies:

• We talk to family on Skype, and Justin likes to come over to the laptop and say "heyyo." Well, I was doing a workout video on the laptop and he kept running to it and screaming, "heyyo!!!" He just couldn't understand why they weren't talking back at him! 
• When I get his diaper and wipes for a diaper change, he will just lie on the ground. No fuss!
• He loves to hide things so we often find toys and snacks in obscure places. 
• Loves to scream "ma" and "da." And if you don't acknowledge him with a "Yes, Justin," he'll keep screaming your name.

Justin eats:

• For the most part, a good eater.
• Favorite dishes are mac & cheese, tofu lasagna, indian stew + millet, spinach quiche, grilled cheese, fish sticks, green monster smoothies. And if he's in the mood, he'll eat bowls and bowls of fresh fruit.
• Favorite snacks: dried mango, graham crackers, fortune cookies, gummy snacks, peanut butter spoonfuls

On Monday, Justin will start at ECEC in the Turtle toddler room. (Colin is at ECEC is the Apple preschool room.) I'm still in shock. Looking back on all of those long days and nights - it now feels like it all flew by. We absolutely love ECEC and know that Justin will continue to thrive!

SF & Lake Tahoe Vacation

We enjoyed a beautiful 13 days in wonderful SF and Lake Tahoe with both sides of the family. Long story short, my camera was dropped in a lake the second to last day, so I don't have many pictures. (sad, right?) We had the best time and even though we won't have pictures to look back on, we will have lots of good memories!

Airplane highlights:

• On the descent into SFO, Colin looked at me and said, "Mom, why did the pilots make our voices quieter?" (it took me a bit to figure this one out - his ears needed to be popped!)
• We were that family. Justin screamed for 20 minutes into SFO. Once we landed, we bought him a binkie. Since we're binkie-free at home, we called it his "vacation binkie."
• On the way back to CLE, both boys were exhausted: Colin slept 3 hours and Justin was calm for most of the flight. Yay!

Our itinerary:
First  4 nights: we all stayed in SF.
Next 2 nights: we all stayed in Tahoe with the Elwells.
Next 4 nights: Jack stayed in Tahoe while the boys and I drove back to SF to see my sister.
Last 2 nights: we all stayed in SF.

Crazy, but totally worth it. Every minute.


Highlights include:

• San Francisco: ferry ride to Larkspur + picnic, SF zoo, San Jose Children's Museum, Muir Woods, Stow Lake, Japantown bazaar, GG Park Children's Playground + carousel, daily runs in GG Park, playdates with friends, gardening time with Bachan, running the race track that Jichan set out in the backyard, wonderful food - homemade and restaurants, our favorite Moroccan food and dancing. Best times with family!
• Lake Tahoe: hiking, kayaking, fishing, hiking, running, relaxing, and beach/playground time. Best food by Evelyn, Grandma and Aunt Dorothy. Best times with family! Lake Tahoe Elwells were Grandma, Aunt Dorothy, Chris/Evelyn/Ben/Rylee/Mitch, Jack/Jamie/Colin/Justin, Matt/Elena/Elena's parents/Alex/Ana, Billy/Monica/Anthony/Chloe, Natalie. Are you keeping count? Yep, that's 22!
• The lost pictures capture the moments that are too big for words: all of the Elwell cousins playing together, 4 generations with the boys' great grandmas, moments with relatives and friends we don't get to see that often, beautiful Lake Tahoe scenery, amazing dinners in Tahoe and in SF, candid photos of us just having fun.

A few photos from our days in San Francisco:
Gardening time with Bachan. Who knew you could grow veggies in San Francisco foggy weather?!

 Moroccan food and belly dancing

 Colin & Justin time

Auntie Lori working her magic with the boys.

 And with me... she took me on a hilly SF run - I barely survived.

Colin moments:

• In Tahoe, he asked "Do you think Rylee will sit next to me?" Rylee is absolutely fabulous with all of the younger cousins, and Colin is no exception.
• Aunt Dorothy is amazing with the kids and took the boys down the road from our Tahoe vacation house to watch a digger truck build a rock wall. Highlight of the trip!
• After Lori ruined my memory card, I was visibly upset, so Colin marched over to Lori and said, "Auntie Lori, do not play with other people's things. You can break it and that's how you make people upset."
• When I was upset about my camera being in the lake, Colin told me to take a deep breath and think about what I could do. When I told him that I couldn't do anything, he said, "Well, think about it. Maybe you could ask Bachan and Bachan will buy you a new camera."
• On our ferry ride, "This is a beautiful day for a boat ride."
• While walking through Muir Woods, we kept stopping to look at how tall the trees were and pointed at all of the ones that had fallen. After about 15 minutes, Colin shouted, "I want to get out of here!" Surprised, we asked why. With great concern, he said, "The trees might fall on us!!!!"

Justin moments:

• On the airplane on the way home, Justin pointed to his diaper and said, "poop!" Jack & I looked at each other, "ugh!" Then moments later, when the plane happened to be a bit quieter, Colin blurted out, "Ewww, Justin, YOU POOPED!" All of our airplane neighbors let out a giggle and waited patiently for us to get off the plane.
• Justin definitely knows how to communicate what he wants and people can tell when he is upset. He may not speak in sentences yet, but his favorite things to ask for are: more milk, where's colin?, open this, close this, turn the tv on, and put my shoes on. 
• Justin knows exactly what he wants, and when he doesn't get it, you'll know it!
• Justin was pretty attached to Jack & me, but as each day went on, he went to everyone. 

Jamie highlights:

• Seeing the boys with family and friends we don't get to see that often, including their great-grandmas.
• Having Auntie Lori in town to have sister-time and for her to take full control of parenting responsibilities. I didn't change 1 diaper when she was in town! 
• Not worrying about cooking for 2 weeks! Thank you to Evelyn, Mom Elwell and my parents!

Jack highlights:

• I'm not sure, but I imagine he would say "4 nights of good sleep without children!"
• Spending time with family

And now that we are back to reality, we are all adjusting: cooking, house cleaning, tidying up, laundry. The boys are both getting used to time outs, eating their full dinners and sitting on their own again. It's tough to transition back, but it wouldn't be a vacation if we all didn't loosen up a bit, right?!

A Birthday Weekend Adventure

It was Jack's birthday weekend - and we did a little bit of everything...

Jack banned me from cutting Colin's hair and has been taking him to his hair cutting place ever since. He told me that Colin doesn't cry at all - and this weekend, I found out why when Justin & I joined them for their haircuts.

First, you get to sit in these leather recliner chairs and watch TV while you wait.

 

 And when it's your turn, these young ladies in clubbing outfits cut your hair while you watch TV.

 I'm not completely sure how I feel about this yet. Oh, and the place is called Lady Jane's.

You must be wondering, what else could they do that tops Jack taking Colin to that place?

Well, I milked a cow.

haha. You think I'm joking, but I'm not.

We checked out the Lake Metroparks Farmpark.  It was a fabulous time - see for yourself...

We saw all of your expected farm animals - goats, sheep, horses, llamas, alpacas & pigs. But they had a few surprises that just made our day.

A rainbow dyed sheep!

 A Clydesdale - a.k.a. HUGE HORSE.

 And when we weren't paying full attention, Mr. Clydesdale horse tried to eat my child. Justin freaked out - as anyone would have. Holy crap, right?!

 Oh, and we saw pigs!! Have you ever seen a pig this big? Colin learned that his breakfast favorite, bacon, comes from pigs. He was a bit confused and concerned about this new information.

 And, have you ever seen a rabbit this big?

 Can you find Justin? They had a fun, air-conditioned playroom to help us escape the heat for a bit.

I wish I had more pictures of our adventure - a wagon pulled tractor ride, a machinery building that we didn't even get to visit, a playground/picnic area, and I think there's more there that we can't wait to check out the next time. We're members now.

We ended our weekend with more chainsaw and water time at Grandma's. Jack = chainsaw; Boys = water; Me = lounging!

 And in honor of Jack's birthday, he requested no pictures. But we all know that I'm running this show. So Happy Birthday, love! (my handsome husband in a non-orange shirt!) hahahaha.

Don't judge us -- we didn't give Jack a half eaten cake for this birthday. We just sung happy birthday to him twice.

4th of July Stay-cation!

An Elwell Stay-cation! Even though we didn't travel this 4th of July, we had a fabulous weekend.

First, a hot pot dinner with friends (old neighbors that moved away.) Before dinner, though, we had lots of fun playing in their backyard with this blow up slide/pool. C even did a flip down the slide. So cool!

Colin loved the hot pot. They had a pot with two sections - one spicy and one regular. It was so good that Jack & I are now motivated to finally host a shabu shabu night at our house!

Then we were off to Grandma's. In addition to the usual fun, this trip's highlights was the neighbor's tractor and chainsaw. A tree fell across her driveway (luckily it missed the garage and house), so the neighbors came over to help clean it up. The boys LOVED every minute of them working. Justin pretty much stayed in this position for 30 minutes watching them work.

We also finally made a trip to the Memphis Kiddie Park - a pint-sized park with $1 kiddie rides. Colin made us all crowns for the special occasion. And after J warmed up a bit, both boys loved going on the rides together.

 Jack took Colin on his first roller coaster ride and according to Colin, "I wasn't scared, but dad was."

Nothing better than ending the weekend with a bbq, water table/sprinkler time and singing/dancing. Here's a sampling of Colin & Justin entertaining us after our water-time. (And no, we don't always understand what he is singing about...)

Happy 4th everyone!

 

PS. Jack doesn't care that he is in the same orange shirt for all of these pictures. (And if he had his way, he wouldn't be in any pictures.) But he promises that he washes his shirts every week, so it's clean in case you were wondering. 

Week of Friends

Monday, we celebrated Evan's birthday earlier this week. As Sarah calls them, here are some pics of the E-boys (Elwells & Eskestrands). Justin & Drew talking on phones. What do you think Justin is thinking here?

Evan (birthday boy turns 3!)& Colin waiting patiently for cake. When I told Colin that we were going to Evan's house for his birthday, he took his tree seeds and said, "I think I am going to share these with Evan. We can plant them together and they will grow." I asked, "like a friendship tree?" and Colin screamed, "yes!"

Justin & yours truly devouring cake. Sarah made an awesome vegan cake!!

Thanks for a great night!

Thursday, we had dinner with SAN FRANCISCO friends. Yes, I said San Francisco. Russell and Azarah were in town on their (Russ') mission to visit all of the baseball parks. So on this trip, they're knocking out Cleveland, Detroit and Pittsburgh. We had a fun night at Tommy's, and it was balloon clown night. An airplane and squirrel were this week's requests and mr. balloon clown did not disappoint. Isn't that the best airplane, ever?

 Thanks for including us in your Baseball Stadiums Tour! (clown = photo crasher)

 When we got home, the boys played with their balloons for a bit. Every time I said, "Justin let me see your squirrel," he would stop playing and look around for squirrels.

I am now advocating that all of my friends go on a tour of all baseball stadiums. Then you can come visit us when it's time to visit Cleveland's! I'll be waiting patiently for all of your vacation schedules....

Friday, work let me out at 3pm! Woohoo. I picked up the kids and had an impromptu water party with Uma & Carlo. (Uma & I work together and Carlo is the biggest charmer ever at 4.5 yrs old!)

 Dinner outside for quick replenishing and back to water table and sprinkler time.

 I make monster green smoothies with tons of spinach and fruits...and Justin loves them.

Happy Weekending!