Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great time on our annual trip to the cabin for Thanksgiving.  This year, Paul's sister Tamara and her husband Jim were there as well.  What a wonderful time we had!

We feasted on non-traditional Thanksgiving grub of paella and fresh crab. 

Charlie was an eager helper in the kitchen.

 

What!? Do I have something on my face?

A regular occurrence at the dinner table...

Trucks and Books

Is there anything else one needs?

It's Potty Time!!!

They way we introduce the use of the potty in the Jones household is a lot like the way we introduced foods as an infant.  First the goal is simply to introduce the concept and get them used to the the actual process (for the potty it's sitting still).  If anything makes it way into the opening as planned - bonus!!  We start early so we can avoid meeting resistance when they actually realize what we are up to, but we take our time and make it part of our daily routine.  We gradually add additional trips to the potty throughout the day as time goes on.

Much like Charlie, Lukas is content to sit on the potty for a while.  However, Charlie would sit and sit as long as he had a truck to spin the wheels or a book to flip the pages.  Lukas, although sits still, likes to finish his business and move on.  No lingering too long for this kiddo.  Maybe that is an age thing?  We are starting this process with Lukas two months earlier than we did with Charlie.

The morning routine is well established and Lukas is successful most days as long as we get him up right when we hear him wake.  He gets the funniest grin on his face when he's going (see pic below).

Well, this post has probably been TMI (too much information) so we'll cap it off by saying we have yet to have a #2 on the potty - but there will be a loud potty dance (and maybe another blog post - LOL!) for that success!!!

Tubing

A small hill, a tube and snow....what a blast!!!

Snow Day!

Well, here we go with the start of the winter weather...Charlie had a snow day with no school and I got to work from home!  I took a longer lunch break and we headed outside to burn some energy off.

The slide was extra fast...

 Today was Lukas' first real experience getting to play in the snow (on two legs anyways).

The cold didn't phase Charlie at all and he played outside to his heart's content.  Bonus - he had a great nap; he was plumb tuckered out!

Children's Museum

Surprisingly, Stockton had a great Children's museum!  If you've ever been to that city, you'll understand our astonishment.  This place had pretty much everything from puppet shows, a toddler area, art studio, reptiles, magnets, a water and energy preservation exhibit, and more.  Here are some of our favorite things we saw:

A water table to show how water currents move boats.

Putt Putt - no hole in one for Charlie....

Future farmers of America?  (Papa Moo would be so proud!!) 

And they had a life-sized motorcycle, helicopter, ambulance, an airplane simulation, and more...!!!

Shouldn't Charlie be in the back!?!

What stop would you like?

Lukas to the rescue!

Pumpkin Patch

We also visited a pretty cool Pumpkin Patch with plenty of activities for the young (and old).

We enjoyed a hay ride,

 a jumping pit (we could hardly tear Charlie away from this feature),

a tire obstacle course,

a hay bale maze (Charlie was on a mission), 

animals,

and of course Charlie climbed on anything and everything! 

Now, where were we...

Sorry for the few day delay as we got back into the swing of normal daily life at work and home....

After Los Angeles we headed north to see Grammy and Papa Moo. 

 Lots of fun times to look back on including:

a friendly game of croquet, 

a celebration for Grammy's birthday,

  a game of baseball, 

 football, 

 and just enjoying time together.

Beach Time

We couldn't go to L.A. without hitting the beach at my old stomping grounds in Malibu.  Was it really October!?!

L.A. Livin'

We had some amazing experiences while in L.A.  Here are some highlights:


We had a once-in-a-lifetime experience to eat at a Michelin 2 Star restaurant, Melisse, in Santa Monica.  Our friends hosted a private dinner and kids were invited.  There were more wait staff than us and they were very accommodating to the kids.  Lukas had a crush on the sommelier and he gave her plenty of smiles. 

We also got to tour around Marina Del Ray aboard our friend's boat, the Flying Wasp

Captain Charlie with Captain Dave

It doesn't get much fresher than this...Captain Dave dove for these that afternoon.

And to top it all off, we got a tour from our very dear friends who live on the Venice canals.

Matthew, our canal tour guide.

And if you couldn't tell, the weather was also amazing!!