:: Chris and Rhiannon . com :: » Travel

holiday visits

Chris — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 03:32:51 +0000

Over the past few weeks from Thanksgiving to Christmas, Brooklynn has visited 3 great-grandparents, 4 grandparents, three aunts, two uncles, four cousins, and a whole slew of additional extended family. And I think if it were up to her, she would do it all agin starting next week. That would be nice if it worked that way.

Of course, she’d also want us all to just play blocks and sleep in one big room, so we’re really not soliciting firm ideas from her at the moment.

no peeking

Chris — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 04:33:27 +0000

You don’t want to peek, just in case Santa might be lurking about.

Santa in this photo played oh so well by Brooklynn’s new cousin, Kolton.

wonders of the world

Chris — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 20:10:16 +0000

This past weekend, we visited some friends out in Oakland, California. It was our first time in that area and the first time we’ve vacationed with Brooklynn. Up to this point in her life, she has lived in a world of the midwestern plains with very infrequent trips to the nearby mountains sprinkled in. So, of course we added in tons of kid-centered activities, right?

Of course we did. Things such as

Wine tasting
Driving tours of the Bay Area
Sitting in adult type restaurants
Keeping her up late well past her bedtime

And to be honest, she did really well, considering the fact that she’s two.

While we were busy wine tasting and driving around Napa Valley, Brooklynn found activities like putting fallen leaves in a fountain and watching them float and “going to work” by carrying Rhiannon’s purse up and down some stairs¹

When we drove around San Francisco, Brooklynn got it in to her head that she wanted to go swimming in the water she saw. And when we stopped at the beach, it was cold, sandy, and dirty. She wanted nothing to do with the water.

When we stopped to look at the Golden Gate Bridge, she occupied herself searching for bugs in the grass and mud.

And when we walked more than a few blocks from our restaurant to Ghiradelli Square for some dessert, she marched right along with us. Her biggest concern was not that we were traveling on foot across a strange city after dark. Rather, it was the fact that at certain places, she had three shadows from the various street lights. Three! More than one! Which one of them should she choose to walk on and what direction should she go?!?!

She participated in the chocolate and ice cream at the end of walk. See, we did do something she would enjoy.

At the Denver airport, she rode on a bus and train and an airplane. She saw the ocean and stood on the beach. And she won’t remember any of it.

The joys of being little.

Rhiannon, who was our default designated driver, also got the job as de facto baby-sitter due to her not participating in the drinking of wine. Thanks, honey. ↩

go, sarah!

Chris — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 19:12:16 +0000

Last weekend, we drove up to South Dakota to watch Sarah run in a cross country race. For anyone who has not personally attended one of these, they are typically on a golf course with the finish near the start line. Spectators can cut across the middle of the loop (in this case, two loops) and watch the runners go by a couple times.

Start, cheer, watch the runners go. You run or walk quickly to the next place and wait for them to come by.

Wait, cheer, watch, walk. Rinse, repeat.

Brooklynn was very excited to see Sarah and a little confused as to why we weren’t going with her. Sarah was running away and we should go find her!

So, to pass the time until she came back around, we helped Brooklynn learn how to cheer. The best (or worst) part of this – right after stopped recording, she started yelling, “Go Sarah!” as loud as she could all by herself.