family news – Page 31 – Out Of Their Minds Design

2011

Ah, 2010… we bid you farewell, I think you did about as good as you could.

You’re probably wondering what happened once we hit 2011? Well, the actual event happened on the way back to Michigan… we stayed at a hotel where there were countless parties going on, and didn’t necessarily sleep in peace, so we said good-bye to 2010 and drove the rest of the way home. Then what happened?

Well, here’s one way to catch up in a hurry… I pretty much didn’t take any pictures for about NINE DAYS. So from January 1st to the 10th, literally nothing other than a brief couple of videos. In one of those videos you can hear me say why I didn’t take any additional pictures. I was running out of room on my computer. More on that and other fiascos of a like nature shortly.

Video
Click here to see the other brief video I took, on January 4th, 2011. Really awesome to see these kids being able to play together.

January 10th, there was a fine layer of frosty snow on every needle of our trees in the back. See this image larger.

January 12th, we were inspired by the ice cream ball Ben and Mel got for Christmas, and bought an ice cream maker. As of today’s date, we’ve made three batches. Two of them were successful, and one involved real mint leaves but tasted like spinach. It was horrible. See this image larger.

So yep, the first half of January in one small entry. Don’t worry, however, more very soon!

Goodbye to Florida and the Trip Home

This is the second post today, be sure to scroll down if you haven’t been on in awhile!

The last couple times we went to the Villages we got everybody together for a good-bye dinner and it has been great to leave on a high note the next day. It was even better this year because we didn’t have to get anybody up at 5am to hop on a plane!

So here we are on the 30th, getting together for a fantastic meal! See this image larger.

~~Two-for-one margaritas had Nina feeling pretty happy! Oh wait, that was me.~~ Nina was happy to see her Daddy kick back and drink some margaritas! Here she smiles with Mommy! See this image larger.

Ian gives Nina a little peck on the forehead, and everybody swooned! See this image larger.

Big smiles from Grampa Ray and Cousin Connor! See this image larger.

And then it was off to the square for dancing in the relatively cold Florida night! See this image larger.

Nina danced the night away! See this image larger.

A Village artist draws a cousin caricature! See this image larger.

Johnson/Kunze/Chapmans in the house! See this image larger.

Same idea! See this image larger.

Happy Kunzes! You should have seen little Kaylee boogyin’! See this image larger.

Happy Chapmans! And then it was time to go back to Grandma Sue’s and sleep — for 2 full days of travel was still ahead of our brave adventurers! See this image larger.

On the way back North to Michigan we stopped in a backwater town and ate at Waffle House. As this was Nina’s first Waffle House experience, I took a picture or two. See this image larger.

*I think Elvis just walked in!* See this image larger.

Local papers would report that one of the signs of the apocalypse occurred that night — Ian ordered pancakes at a Waffle House. See this image larger.

At one point Ian thought he was going to be sick. We gave him this butter dish to get sick into… instead he fell asleep on it. The miles slowly drifted by, as did the hours. Eventually we made it home. See this image larger.

And that was an interesting feeling, coming home. I don’t think the house we’ve lived in for the last few months felt as much like home as when we left it and came back.

For those of you wondering, would we drive it again? Absolutely. The kids were fantastic, and the stress and cost were significantly less than flying.

One more time, to make sure I covered everybody – thank you all for your hospitality and generosity!

We’ll leave you some of Ian’s hilarious zingers from the trip below, as noted in our phones, etc.

Dialogue
Ian, the night we left Nina to grab some dessert… just as we went through the doors of the ice cream shop – “I bet Nina’s crying right now.”

Ian, on the way to Great Grandma Betty’s – “Grandma Sue, your car is AMAZING!”

As I said in the captions earlier – He asked Great Grandma Betty to say “thank you” regarding a present… he did this before the wrapping paper even left the present.

During an ASPCA commercial on TV – “We have to save the puppy and the kitty!”

Ian’s ongoing nickname for Nina – “Nini.” I call her “Nina Nina jelly beana.”

Ian – “We have an enormous drive to Michigan.”

Ian on the way home – “Jingle go, jingle go, jingle all the way… (other lyrics) and open presents that you hid in the car!” (We had a couple presents in the car to make the trip more exciting… he imagined Santa thinking ahead.)

Ian – “Sometimes some puppies poop in the snow.”

Also on the way home, to Daddy – “You’re just not cool.”

We stopped at a Walmart so that Ian could go potty, and he refused to go. The potties were “bad” potties, the kind that auto-flush and scare him. When we finally got hom he pointed at our toilet and proclaimed “good potty.”

Ian, when we got home – “We gave our old house away to good people who didn’t have a house. Then we drove over to this one.”

Christma– wait a minute… Ok, Yeah I Think Christmas is Over. Florida 2010 Continues!

December 29th, meanwhile, back at home in Rockford, a new roof was being put on parts of the Chapman household. Here’s a pic I got from Mr. Brandon, who was watching our kitty! See this image larger.

Uncle Joe and Aunt Vicki came over to Grandma Sue’s to meet Nina and see how Ian’s been getting along. I think the last time Ian got to see all the Mitchell sisters in one visit was at Chris’s wedding. Three years ago! See this image larger.

Ian wasn’t getting into the whole smile thing last picture… Nina’s doing great though! See this image larger.

December 30th, and our last real day in Florida… we hang out on Grandma Sue’s lanai! See this image larger.

Nina loves her appropriately pink chair! See this image larger.

Bath! See this image larger.

Ian needed to run around someplace and play — for the next day he’d be stuck back in a car… turns out the Villages has a nice little park with a pirate ship. See this image larger.

Ian was in heaven. *Arrrr! Land ho!* See this image larger.

Captain Ian at the helm! See this image larger.

Run, run, run! See this image larger.

Jump, jump jump! See this image larger.

*Call for a rescue ship!* See this image larger.

*Where’s Mama?* See this image larger.

*There’s Mama!* Such a big boy! See this image larger.

Such a pretty mommy! See this image larger.

Nina, Grandma Sue and I sat on the bench and watched. And took pictures of beautiful little girls! See this image larger.

I flipped a nickel to Melissa and then asked Ian to come over and talk to me. I whispered that there might be a treasure if he dug at the “x.” Sure enough, when he spun around, there was an “x.” See this image larger.

He was very excited! See this image larger.

More from the 30th and the trip home, next entry!

Christmas South, Part VII: Even MORE South

Double-Post day… in order to catch up on the blog, here’s an additional post for the day… that means if you’re just getting here, make sure and scroll down to see if you’ve caught everything. K? Good. Let’s go!

It was time to don our sunglasses and hop back in the car… heading south to see Great Grandma Betty in Naples! I can’t underline enough how fantastic the kids were for this whole journey, not just to Naples but also back and forth to Florida from Michigan. Part of this is just being good kids, but also a very awesome and attentive mommy. See this image larger.

We picked up some food from Applebee’s (it wasn’t horrible, but I think Applebee’s and I are officially breaking up.) and ate it over pleasant conversation and big smiles from cute little girls! See this image larger.

And then we opened presents! In the brief silence that followed as Grandma smiled at a framed picture of her great grandchildren and inhaled to speak, Ian managed to throw in “Say ‘thank you!'” See this image larger.

Great Grandma Betty got some chocolate and was immediately willing to share! It was Ian’s turn to say thank you! See this image larger.

Ian got a nice truck that had a special “return” mode… it was pretty awesome! See this image larger.

Time to gather for pictures! This one turned out great, but I could tell Nina was given Grandma a hard time. She bucks like a bronco when she’s ready to be put down! See this image larger.

LOL… not every shot is a winner, folks. Grandma and Mommy are looking good, though! See this image larger.

That’s a winner! Love it! A special thank you to Grandma Sue for sharing her part of our visit so that we could make the trip to Naples! See this image larger.

Ian jammed on the keyboard for a few moments before it was time to go. Play us off, keyboard Ian! Thanks for getting the kids toys, Great Grandma Betty, it was great seeing you again! See this image larger.

We dropped in on Uncle Chris, and said hello so that he could see Nina again, See this image larger.

I sold my old camera to Uncle Chris, I hope he takes some awesome shots with it! It was great seeing Chris again too, albeit briefly — he’s feeling much better these days, and we’re glad to have him back in the land of recovered. Thank you to Chris for Christmas gifts as well! See this image larger.

Christmas South, Part VII

And so our family of four made the 10 minute journey to Grandma Sue’s, and lo Santa had visited there as well. He is wise, swift, and an excellent project manager. Huzzah to you Santa!

So here we are at Grandma Sue’s! Ian and I had gone over a couple of thing since the Johnson Christmas and also the opening of presents when Uncle Gordon and Aunt Leslie had been over. He had done really well, but I wanted him to learn not to ask for another present, and another. He’s three at this point, I know, but I don’t think it is too early to be a little grateful. See this image larger.

Hilariously, Ian interpreted this advice by saying “LOOK, THIS IS WHAT I ALWAYS WANTED!” for many of his presents. Here you can see that such a reaction is what Grandma Sue always wanted as well! (Of note, he really does love all the toys he got, but sometimes he followed up the above exclamation with “WHUDIZZIT?” and then it felt decidedly less genuine. 😉 The important part of all of this is, he’s a sweet kid for trying.) See this image larger.

Sometimes Ian says the most hilarious things, and the funniest of them also involve a facial expression like this one, and usually a little hand gesture he picked up from Melissa or I like the palm up in the air as he explains something. This shot is worth every penny of my camera, as I wasn’t sure I’d ever capture that moment. See this image larger.

Nina plays with a sweet light-up drawing pad, and enjoys! See this image larger.

Ian plays Santa and gives Grandma her present. Nina reads the bottom of the package *This side up, fragile, handle with care* See this image larger.

Ian loved Grandma Sue’s adjustable bed… he played with it every night. He’s wearing the baseball hat light that Grampa Ray got for all the boys… kind of a funny story, on our first day at the Johnson’s we went to a market where I almost bought one of those, but Grampa Ray talked me out of it, knowing there was one snuggled inside a stocking with my name on it. See this image larger.

Video
Click here to watch a video of Ian hypnotizing KC with his hat-light!

Thank you Grandma Sue, for your generosity! It was a great Christmas!

That was it for the 27th! More soon! (We may need to start doing a couple entries a day pretty soon, we’ve got a lot of catching up to do…)

Christmas South, Part VI, Geocaching

Just what is geocaching, anyway? Well, imagine somebody hid cool clues all over your neighborhood and you had a magical way to find them. What you’re picturing is geocaching. Only take the “magical” part out and replace it with a GPS and a set of online instructions.

It was the 27th of December, and Melissa and I left Ian and Nina in capable hands while we went off on a geocaching adventure! A golf cart is not required hardware for geocaching, but it helps in the Villages. See this image larger.

At first it was strange being able to hear each other without having to shout over screaming baby or babbling boy, but we figured it out pretty quick. See this image larger.

This was our first find. Only it had two parts, one involving a padlock combination. Ben found the first number, Melissa found the second, and I realized that if we had the first two numbers it wouldn’t be hard to keep trying the lock until it opened. That worked. See this image larger.

Connor and Aunt Mel found this one under a shed! See this image larger.

Alternate shot of above… See this image larger.

The view from the shed was pretty spectacular… See this image larger.

This cache involved a hidden container that had fake poop glued to the top. Connor and I got that one! See this image larger.

Nina gets a lift from hanging out with Connor! See this image larger.

Ian flies his space shuttle around the house… in my heart of hearts I’d love for him to be an astronaut, or do something space related; it is too bad the most likely of those scenarios involves special effects thanks to the direction NASA is heading in. See this image larger.

Awww! See this image larger.

C-Dawg pile! See this image larger.

They actually behave very nicely together as a group… See this image larger.

Group pic! See this image larger.

*Hi, I’m Ian. Have you met my sister, cousins and Grampa Ray and Grandma Barb?* See this image larger.

Proud grandparents! See this image larger.

Ian giggles! We sure had fun, thank you Kunzes and Johnsons! See this image larger.

That marked the end of our time at Grampa Ray and Grandma Barb’s… after that we went to Grandma Sue’s, that night. I’ll start next entry off with that. Thanks again for your hospitality!

Christmas South, Part V: The Saga Continues…

So that wrapped up Christmas as the calendar knows it… we celebrate Christmas across many days, however! Santa is pretty amazing. I want to thank Santa and the the Johnsons and Kunzes for their generosity regarding both Christmas and Nina’s birthday. Thanks!

On the 26th we spent some time with Grandma Sue, and special guests my Aunt Leslie, Uncle Gordon and Cousin Tara! Pictured here was an excellent game of catch. I really gotta teach Ian how to catch. See this image larger.

Grandma Sue loves those grandkids! Nina attempt to cast a spell with her magic crayola marker, and Ian attempts to break the world cheese record with one smile. See this image larger.

The four Michiganders! See this image larger.

Yup, everybody line up for pics! There’s Tara! See this image larger.

Melissa kindly snapped this one for us and we were out the door to eat! Awesome to see you all again, thank you for making the trip, and also for your generosity! See this image larger.

At the restaurant, Ian pilfered napkin rings from around the table to become… napkin ring… man. Huh? Oh, sorry. NAPKIN RING MAN… DUN-dun-dun-DUUUUUUUN. See this image larger.

The 27th, back at Grampa Ray and Grandma Barb’s! See this image larger.

Ian and his cousins were all occupied with an excellent activity… cookie-tree building! Many decorations were eaten—er hung, that day. See this image larger.

Many decorations were eaten—er hung, that day. So what were the parents of these fine children up to during this time? We’ll talk about it next entry! See this image larger.

Happy First Birthday, Little Girl!

Christmas dinner was the one last event before Christmas celebration turned into Nina’s Birthday party! See this image larger.

Grampa Ray holds Nina while we try on the appropriate hat! See this image larger.

Ok, little one, this is just like what happened this morning, except that it’s all about you instead of all the kids… and Jesus… and Santa. Oh, just open some presents. See this image larger.

Cuuute! See this image larger.

*I ordered a half-caf double chai tea… this is a plastic toy. Aw to heck with it, I’ll suck on this for awhile.* See this image larger.

*A star is born.* See this image larger.

The smoosh cake was almost as big as the “real” cake. See this image larger.

And heck the cake is almost as big as Nina! Another angle thanks to somebody else’s camera… I KNEW that was Mommy’s arm! See this image larger.

Nom, nom, nom… Wish you could see this in action? See video below! See this image larger.

When cake is involved, we all win, right Ian? See this image larger.

Video
Click here to watch a video of Nina daintily consuming her first birthday cake.

Christmas South, Part IV

Nina and Daddy wave at the camera! Hi everybody! See this image larger.

*I love my Daddy!* (At least that’s part of what I remember feeling during this picture… I also remember her filling her diaper. Oh well, either way I’m there to support her, right?) See this image larger.

Grandma Sue arrived to share in the Christmas fun! See this image larger.

Pleasedon’tgethurt.Pleasedon’tgethurt.Pleasedon’tgethurt.Pleasedon’tgethurt. See this image larger.

*SQWEEEEE!* See this image larger.

*What? I’m cute, I can’t apologize for that, can I?* See this image larger.

The ice cream ball. Ben and Mel got it for Christmas – you add the stuff and roll it around. It was pretty awesome, so we got one just like it. Except ours isn’t a ball. And it is electric. Makes ice cream, though! See this image larger.

Look she barely had time to make a cute face, and she’s STILL cute! See this image larger.

Just like me. Not. See this image larger.

*Hi, is it my birthday yet?* See this image larger.

Nope, not yet Nina! Next entry it is all about Nina turning one! Update happening soon!

Christmas South, Part III

I’m guessing it isn’t too hard to imagine that Christmas for four kids is a little complicated. And just look at the pile this year! See this image larger.

Big enough it didn’t fit in one pic! See this image larger.

Don’t ever ask a girl born on Christmas to show you a little Christmas cheer, it turns out that there is one! *Gooooooooo Christmas!!!* See this image larger.

I love this moment on Christmas morning… it is the sudden realization that this surprise is something you get to play with for as long as you like. See this image larger.

That moment sometimes lasts awhile! See this image larger.

I got some awesome candy mix in a snow-man container, this is what the container looked like with stuff in it. It didn’t stay like that for long. See this image larger.

Nina attempts to open this package with her mind. As this is impossible, most kids hand their packages to Daddy (or Uncle D.) See this image larger.

This is a great picture too, but I can’t tell if it is cute, or if this is the last tweet that little red bird ever made… See this image larger.

Kaylee clapped her hands so lightly as she waited patiently for these shoes to be fully unpackaged. She was like a delighted princess! See this image larger.