Christmas(es) 2012

Christmas #1: Our Family Christmas

Simple, but so good just to be the three of us...

probably in part because we've had so much time apart lately.

Helping Daddy unwrap gifts

Jack's been into airplanes since flying to and from WA,
so he got an airplane and...

an airplane book...

...which can only be read while holding his plane!

Christmas #2: Brinkman Christmas

A few days on the farm...enough time to celebrate Christmas, play some ball, see most of the extended family, and get some tractor rides.  Almost none of which I got pictures of...imagine that!

Painting with Grandma Nan

Opening gifts with a couple of his Aunts

Christmas #3: Helmkamp Christmas

And finally south for a few days with the Helmkamps.  It was fun to have the cousins together--Ryan and I decided we're pretty spoiled to have two older nieces who are so good with littler cousins!

Reading with Papa

Lazy River with Dad at the little water park

where we spent a morning. 

Little snowman warming up with Grammi

Our little goof-wad entertaining himself on the 6-hr ride home!

Snow Day

We got an awesome snow right before Christmas...wooo-hoo!

First we brought some inside to play with...

...then we headed outside as soon as dad was done in the office.
We didn't last long outside though...it was COLD!

Marcie's Graduation

Marcie graduated from Iowa State University this last Saturday...CONGRATS MARCE!  And Congrats to Jack, who lasted through the 3+ hour ceremony...okay, lets be honest, over half of the time was spent out in the concourse running around!  Welcome to the long list of family alum Marcie!

Aunt Marce on the screen? 

I'm pretty sure Marcie is one of the gals in this picture...
My zoom and our seats were not compatible for a good photo!

The best part of graduation (no offense Marce!) was watching the faculty member just over the shoulder of Lieutenant Governor Reynolds as she gave her commencement speech.  Here are some photos that Alisa managed to capture...they'll give you an idea of why we were so entertained.

Just a quick cat nap won't hurt anything

Absolutely no interest in trying to hide his boredom...
I wonder if his students ever give him this look!

Supporting the head to avoid the embarrassing head bob upon waking
...though I'm not convinced he was too concern about the head bob.

thrilled

"You've got to be kidding me...how long is this going to last?"

To be fair, the photos where he appears to be sleeping may have just been prolonged blinks.  And I can't say I didn't feel his pain...he just happened to be seated in an unfortunate position which broadcast his expressions for all to see and he had no option of stepping out to go run around the concourse for awhile.

Jack's had a busy couple of days.  Yesterday we hosted a mom & kids Christmas party, (Cookie Exchange for the moms, play date for the kiddos).  And today, Jack went to his first day of school!  (Child Development day w/ one of the youth group girls.)  He was super excited to go this morning because he thought he was going to the "school bus"--I was a little afraid he'd be disappointed.  Apparently he did well and lasted the whole day (8:15-3:30)...seemed like a long day to me.  Not that I'm complaining about a free day to myself...especially with Ryan gone!

I didn't take an photos at the party, so you'll have to be
content with a picture of some of our snacks! :)

Ready for his "First Day of School"

Jack's artwork and name tag...his name tag couldn't have fit
him better!  I'm not sure if it was made before or after they
saw what toys I packed for him, (his construction equip)!

Jack & Ella

A couple late entries from Ryan's camera from Thanksgiving...but they're too cute to pass up!

Ella can read now, so she and Jack enjoyed a little quite time reading together. :)

Christmas Fun

We've been trying to get in the Christmas spirit the best we can in this spring-time weather.  First, Alisa and I took Jack down to a kids' Christmas breakfast in Grimes last weekend where Jack sat on Santa's lap, had a candy cane, sausage, and maybe a bite of pancake for breakfast (yep)...and listened to some Christmas stories.  Then tonight we hit up Polk City's annual "Lighting of the Square" with Alisa and our friends Amanda and Eli.  It was great to see them again--Eli is such a fun little guy with great energy!  Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of the boys together. :/

Thrilled with his candy cane...it's Christmas...everyone
needs a little sugar, right?!

Not old enough yet to realize this should probably be a bit scary!

Jack was quite impressed with sitting in the fire truck

Carriage ride around the square...too busy looking at every
light except the one on the camera! :) "More yights, more yights!"

Headed Home...

Planes are a fairly close second to
construction and farm equipment, so
Jack enjoyed the airports and flights home

Thanksgiving in St. Louis...

(and my lack of documentation of the holiday!)

Weeeeeee!

These two were a bit of a pair!

Getting in the Christmas spirit...

Decorating w/ dad before he leaves

There were no real options in the yard this year, so we
found this ditch tree just up the road a ways :)

Jack's new nativity that he CAN touch

Cozy and ready for Christmas...just need Ryan to come home!

One last picture from Moses Lake...

...saw this the day before we left.

A little late, but thanks for the thought guys! :)

Good-bye Moses Lake

I'm thankful for the opportunity to spend this time out west.  It's been good, but now I'm anxious for home and some Iowa sunshine!  We're not buying this 300 days of sunshine thing...I think we saw the sun one, maybe two days.  Maybe it's the time of year, but I have this sneaking feeling they're fudging their numbers for the sake of attracting new-comers.  I thought the Cascades kept most of this sort of weather to their west...guess not.  Signing off from Washington...we'll be seeing a lot of you before long! :)

Making some cookies to leave for Dad

We got one snow while we were here...all this needs
is a little sun glistening off it! :)

The tractor never got old!

Bucket List

Well, I'm officially two thirds of the way done w/ my bucket list.  Ryan and I went to a Goo Goo Dolls concert a few years ago and we went to Montana on Saturday...(though only for a handful of miles, so I think we'll be back eventually!)  Now I just need to see a KU game at Allen Field House and my list is completed.  Ryan suggested maybe I could add a few things to my list!

Our Saturday drive took us to Coeur d'Alene--a beautiful mountain lake in Idaho that Ryan passed on his drive out that he wanted us to see.  I was more than happy to get back into the mountains one last time...this time, the Rockies. We stopped at a ski resort to ride the gondola, which wasn't running yet...bummer but not surprising.  This is not peak tourist season or the best weather of the year for exploring this area.  But I'm not complaining--driving in the mountains and Coeur d'Alene were well worth it!  We made a quick pit stop on the way back so Jack could see the animals at Cabela's.  He liked the animals, but was especially impressed with the huge plane hanging from the ceiling.

And thus concludes our weekend travels in the state of Washington.  We're looking forward to our next weekend trip...back to IOWA!

a small portion of Coeur d'Alene...it's a huge lake

The snow adds so much...sorry for those who hate it, but
I'm hoping for some very soon back in Iowa!

Three things I think I could look at forever: Lake Superior,
Jack while he sleeps, and snow on mountain evergreens
...maybe I'll work on adding to that list as well!

Hot Lunch Thursday

Lucky Jack, the guys were pouring when we took hot lunch down for the crew today.  There was a lot going on on sight today.  It was like a little boy's dream come true...a back hoe, bulldozers, dump trucks, a train, ready mix trucks, and a pump truck...WOW!  (He even got to see the guy come to clean out the port-a-pot...that's when we left! :P)

This thing looks even bigger w/ a "roof" on...it's about two stories
tall (you can only see part of it here, as we're outside the hole).

Jack's giant "mit-mits" (mittens)...
waiting for the action to start 

Immmmmpressed...

...and rightly so!

Little did Ryan know, he had a cheering section as he worked!

It's fun that Ryan does a job that Jack can somewhat "get" at this age.  He's very much into big equipment so it seems to be a pretty big deal to Jack to see his daddy driving these things around and having them on the his job.

Sunday Afternoon

Okay, this is more of a journal for us of our time out in WA...so I'm sorry for so many posts!  Just scroll through quickly...or take a little break from checking this!

Yesterday afternoon we went up to see the Grand Coulee Dam.  It has the most concrete in the northwest or maybe the country, or something like that.  I think more than one of us was impressed...it was HUGE!  It was a cool drive up (similar to up the Columbia River last weekend) and there was a pretty good over look on the way, which would have been even cooler had it not been DRY Falls!  :) Apparently we would have had to be there during the Ice Age to see it before it was dry...a little late.

Dry Falls

This was a mandatory hand-holding place!

"Jack, can you smile for a picture?"

The water on most the lakes/rivers through the gorges
is really calm so you get some pretty cool reflections. 

The Grand Coulee Dam