Those Chapmans – Page 221 – Out Of Their Minds Design

On the First Week of Christmas…

Because of the busy schedules of everybody involved, Grampa Dave and Grandma Marcia came over for an early Christmas on the 7th of December! They picked a great day, too… it was the one magic day of the week that had flurries instead of snow showers.

We all had a fantastic time… Ian’s personality really shined and he did us all proud.

I’ll tell the rest of the story through video and pictures.

I took the videos that Grampa Dave shot with his camera and stitched together the best moments that he captured into one large movie. It is 7mb in size. Click this link to watch the video if you have the bandwidth/connection to handle it.
Early Xmas Highlights

Just to get us all in a festive mood, here’s a great shot that Grampa Dave took of one of our favorite ornaments! See this image larger.

And for those of you Scrooges that need to get in their mood, here’s Ian’s “poison apple” face. See this image larger.

Grandma Marcia takes the time to read Ian a story while he waits patiently to begin opening presents. See this image larger.

First present, a sweater with a train on it? Cool! “Daynkoo!” (Thank you) See this image larger.

I love this shot because of how wide-eyed Ian is about his new robot. If you didn’t get a chance to check out the highlight video, we asked him what it was, and quite clearly he said “robot!” See this image larger.

He was as patient as an almost two-year-old can be, but this didn’t stop him from being very excited. Here he leans to get a look while Grandma and Grampa attempts to release the robot from its packaging. See this image larger.

As excited as he was, this still did not compare to his excitement when opening his big mystery gift! It was a tee-pee/tent! See this image larger.

“Guys you’ve got to see this, there’s like this whole other room in here!!!” Indeed, he grabbed Grampa, Grandma, Da and Ma and pulled us all into the tent. See this image larger.

A nice hug for Grampa Dave… it is neat to see such love in my father’s and son’s eyes. Moments like these add years to your life, I’m absolutely sure. See this image larger.

You still having fun in there? See this image larger.

“Let’s see, robot – check, Grampa Dave – check, doggie – check… I’ll be right back with more!” See this image larger.

Thank you Grandma Marcia and Grandpa Dave for your generosity, and making the trip out to see us for early Christmas! See this image larger.

I can’t really think of any other good stories, but as I may have mentioned, if I leave a hanging “One…” with a pregnant pause, he’s chimed in with “two” and “three.” He also has “readysetgo” down, particularly if you ask him the right way.

Weather or Not (outlook on Florida trip)

Welcome to the present… (I’ll go back in time and continue Ian’s adventures over the course of the coming days — yes I’m even planning on catching up on the road, if possible.)

Here’s the outlook on the Florida trip. The weather is supposed to be horrible tomorrow when our flight leaves. Locally here in GR we’re expecting 6-12 inches of snow, and nothing but blizzards for the coming many days. I’m dropping everybody a note here to explain what we’re doing just in case we don’t get a better chance to explain later. The weather is fine right now — we’re thinking we should drive out to Lansing and camp out there tonight. The total damage tomorrow is supposed to be 3-6 inches there, so we’re assuming that the biggest problem tomorrow would be getting to Lansing from Grand Rapids. Why put off stressing tomorrow when we can stress out tonight? 😉

A nice woman from Melissa’s work is supposed to come over and check up on the cat twice over the coming ten days. I wish her a whole lotta luck getting up our driveway — and wish there was more that I could do about it. Sorry Quinn! See this image larger.

EDIT – We have made it to the motel in Lansing… we thought we were being clever by hopping on the road early but it ended up being a perilous trip regardless… low visibility and slippery roads. Geh. Hopefully it’ll pay off in the long run, at least we can take the shuttle from the motel tomorrow to get to the airport. I’ll keep you updated! (Computers in the lobby with internet access, awesome! 🙂 )

EDIT – We are in Florida and doing just fine. I’ll give an update as to how the Florida trip went overall after we get back.

Wincing in a Winter Wonderland

You know that thing kids do on TV commercials where they go outside and play in the snow giggling and tromping around until they’re completely numb and have to have hot cocoa to even get close to feeling their fingers again? Didn’t happen. (These are from just before Grandma Marcia and Grampa Dave’s visit!)

The bad news is this took 15 minutes to get him to look like this… the good news is we can just keep him like this for the next 6 months. Right? What, no? See this image larger.

“This is why I usually just hand Da the remote control when he asks if we should go outside.” See this image larger.

They sent this one back from daycare… Not a happy little boy! There’s a tear trail frozen down one cheek and everything. They really shouldn’t send these to parents unless they want a stream of us to come storming in and rescue our kids. 😉 See this image larger.