Charles’ Great Adventure

The day after we returned from our trip to Arizona, the unthinkable happened. Charles went missing. Even though I assured Lincoln that Charles must have just gone on an adventure, he was heartbroken and it was terrible. We tried to imagine what Charles might be doing on his adventure. Maybe he was riding in a semi-truck! Maybe he’d gone back to Arizona! Thankfully, after a few days, Charles started checking in.

First, we got an email with this picture:

Lincoln had a lot of questions like: What is Charles doing? Why is he wearing sunglasses? Who is that other guy?

After a few more days we got some postcards from that adventurous elephant. He got to ride in a hot air balloon, and on a lion!

He had a few more adventures before he made his way home. (He particularly enjoyed India).

But in the end Charles belongs with Lincoln, so once he was rested and revitalized he showed up on our doorstep ready for all the love Lincoln can dole out. And that’s a lot.

Arizona

We went to Arizona for a mini family reunion for Jonathan’s family a few weeks ago. It was only Conan’s second time on an airplane and he was so excited about it. He loved watching the planes out the window at the airport and yelling, “Airba! Airba!” every time he spotted one.

We got to spend some quality time with Jonathan’s grandparents while in Arizona. It’s wonderful to be able to see so much family on one trip.  I completely air balled getting a picture of my kids with their great-grandparents, though, so we’ll have to make up for that the next time we visit.

Here Lincoln is holding the brand his great-granddad used to use on his cows. And Conan was just running around like crazy, trying to eat lemons .

 

Someone noticed a bat sleeping in this tree, so we all gathered around for a look.

This is the only picture I got of one of my kids with one of their great-grandparents.

Jonathan’s parents had a little kiddie pool set up in their backyard, and most of the kids thought that was awesome.

Conan, however, preferred to hang out outside of the pool.

Lincoln has been waiting and waiting for a squirt gun. He’s even been working to earn one at home, so he was in seventh heaven when he got to play with this blue one (that’s his favorite color, and he won’t let you forget it).

Here are a few more random pictures from my camera. I kept trying to get candid cousin shots… and kept failing.

These are some pictures Kariah took on Saturday when a lot of us participated in the “Run to Death”. A 5K mud race with obstacles and zombies. I was pretty worried about the zombies going into it, but luckily there were only about five and I didn’t have any nightmares that night, although I was finding mud for days afterward.

Easter Weekend

We just enjoyed a fun filled weekend of Easter festivities. Here’s a recap:

We started off the weekend with a trip to the National Kite Festival on the Mall. We had never been before, so we didn’t really know what to expect. Getting on and off the metro was something of a trial, but otherwise it was wonderful. The weather was perfect and we loved seeing thousands of kites in the air at once.

Conan could not contain his excitement and had to be chased constantly.

A picture to prove I was there too.

Lincoln was also a little ball of energy, begging Jonathan to chase him/be chased by him.

Finally, here’s a photo of my favorite kite of the day: a pirate ship. I had no idea there were so many varieties of kites available.

That evening we had dinner and an egg hunt with some friends. This is the first time Conan really participated, but he seemed to enjoy it. He couldn’t be persuaded to pick up more then two eggs, but he really liked those two eggs.

Lincoln is an old pro, though, of course.

Isn’t this always the way with little brothers? Why should Conan find more then two eggs when he can just get his brother to do the work for him?

On Easter morning Conan got up first, as usual. I expected to be able to just get him and walk past the Easter baskets back to our room, but that was not the case. As soon as Conan spotted the Easter baskets he started lunging for them. When I let him down, he went straight to his to check it out. Lincoln wasn’t far behind.

We finally ended up decorating our eggs on Easter afternoon; somehow it just never got done before then. But it was a very nice was to spend some of our Easter Sunday.