Hopping Along the Bunny Trail...to Kansas

For Easter Travis went on a week long business trip with his UK counterparts to Dallas, Denver (he brought the group back here for a whirlwind tour), Las Vegas, and Los Angeles.
FFM and I went to Kansas.

My grandparents live in Ottawa, KS, less than an hour outside of Kansas City. My mom, F and I all piled into the new red car and drove all day on Thursday to spend a long Easter weekend with the Minnick clan.

Friday was nice and mellow, a walk on the Prairie path and lots of visiting and naps for those who needed them. We checked the local paper that day and discovered that in a nearby town there was going to be an Easter Train complete with appearance by the bunny himself, an egg hunt, and treats. When I called to get information I was informed that we needed to arrive no later than 7:45am to secure tickets for the 9:30 train. WOW! This sounded like a pretty good trip to all of us, so Saturday morning, bright and early, my mom stood in line for tickets for the train. There were already people camped out with folding chairs when we got there!

The wait wasn't bad, F and Great Ma (my grandma) went for a walk and checked out the waiting train. Then when 'All Aboard!' was called, we climbed on and wondered what we were in for.

These tracks used to run through all the college towns in that part of the state, so the students could get around. From KU to Emporia, picking up Ottawa University and Baldwin State along the way. Those schools are still all there, but the train tracks only go part of the way.

The train stopped at a small park where the 'hunt' was. Flocks of children chomped at the bit to run into the two fields where train volunteers had liberally tossed eggs. They were EVERYWHERE. Luckily kids were divided by ages, so we were part of the 'littlies.' Still, once the hunt started it was like a swarm of locusts attacking the field!
Here's a funny thing I learned about little kids. There would be a pile of 5-6 plastic eggs in a clump, I suspect someone dropped them handfuls at a time, but the little kids (not the parents illegally helping) would pick up one or two of the eggs and then leave the rest and move on to another pile.
Upon completing the hunt FFM ran right back to Great Ma and Great Pa and promptly shared all his eggs with them. Until Great Pa showed him there was candy inside, then he thought maybe he should have some back. Here he is giving me my egg :)

On the ride back it was our turn to see the Easter bunny. Just like at Christmas, kids were crying, terrified, parents were shoving them up there anyway. The two kids in front of us wouldn't go any further than the step in front of the bunny. F? He sauntered up and climbed right into the bunny's lap, gave him a big bear hug, and a massive smooch. I think it was the highlight of the trip for him (and that includes a train ride, candy, and an egg hunt!)

It was nice and warm in Kansas, spring is a bit earlier there than here in Colorado. We all got a bit drowsy on the way back, and Great Pa had a little nap/snuggle with his sweetie.

Easter morning church was late, so we had time to dye Easter eggs. Thank goodness for the whisk trick I learned about, it made dipping eggs a breeze for an excited 2.5 year old.

My mom has two siblings, Susie and John. Susie has three kids, Sarah, James, and Dan. John has a son Matt. We ALL went to church (three pews!) and lunch afterwards. It was a lot of fun to see aunts, uncles, and cousins again and to get to meet some of their significant others.

F's the only grandchild on this side, so he's by far the youngest in our group, but no fear, he was spoiled rotten with attention. With Great Pa and Dan.

With Sarah and Matt.

Now, Easter morning I'd hidden a few eggs around the house for F to 'hunt' along with his Easter basket, but after lunch the cousins hid some more eggs for him. F still handed out all the eggs he found, even though by this time he's well aware they are filled with treats!

Susie, Dan, James, and Matt helping out with egg hunt #3

It was a great trip, and while not very long we are still so pooped that it's been early bedtimes for all of us this week. Travis left again as soon as we got back, so we've seen him for just a couple of hours the whole last two weeks. He'll be home tonight, whoo hoo!

SKI

Guess what we finally did this weekend.

We haven't gone up to the mountains much this winter, without having a car of our own we were waiting until the new vehicle was delivered to make the trip up.

A few weeks ago we had a borrowed car suitable for mountain driving so went up to the house. As we drove through Vail FFM pointed out his window at the skiers and boarders shoosing down the slopes and said, "Mommy, I do that please." Vail had just gotten at least a foot of snow and while we'd thought about we had decided that for his first day ever perhaps a deep powder day wouldn't actually be the best idea.

This weekend, however, was prime. Good snow, nice and warm, everyone happy and cheerful (no molars coming in). Tiny one buckle boots and itty bitty skis here we come!

So Saturday was F's attack on Beaver Creek. At first he was distracted by all the hullaballoo at the base, but pretty quickly he figured out what the whole skiing thing was all about.

This is a face of Utter Glee.

Here he is at the end of his day trying to carry his skis like everyone else. It didn't last very long, but he did give it a good go.

Travis was having such a good time, the low point for him was probably this picture that a passerby kindly took. His comment: "They didn't get F's skis in the picture!" And here I am thinking it's nice to get all of us in one picture together :)

Here's a live shot, the light's terrible but the laughing, hollering, and giggling are great. As you'll see at the end, he clearly has not mastered stopping yet :)

Quotes of the Day

One of these quotes needs a little background.

We were waiting in line at the post office, and Another Mom with a little girl and a baby on her hip got in line behind us. Little girl was appx FFM's age (we learned she was three), about half his size, and they hit it off immediately. They goofed around, traded toys, and made up a game which included stepping all over Another Mom's feet. I apologized and she said not to worry about it, she had five kids and was used to them crawling all over her.

When we got in the car, after lots and lots of goodbyes, I said,
"Ouf, five kids is a lot of kids, F!"

F replied, "One kid is enough Mommy, just one."


And later today, while updating the iPod, a blip of some fast techno music started playing, I turn it off and F says,

"Turn that music on, Mommy. I want to listen to the babies!"

Greening Up

We're greening up around here. Not just because it's spring, I'm talking about our lifestyle. It's nothing new, but we're pushing our boundaries all the time looking for ways to impact our planet a little less. Sadly CFL's (compact fluorescent lightbulbs) still aggravate my headaches and while that's a great place to start for many we just use them in places like our garage and outdoor lighting where I don't spend enough time for them to trigger my symptoms. But we're always looking for other ways where it makes sense to make the change.

Travis' new job in sustainable water solutions is instigating further changes for us, too. He thinks carefully about planning travel, trying to limit his flying and making sure every trip counts. After living with one car for four years, we've had two for a whole week now. We don't really know what to do with that second car...it's been parked in the garage since the new one arrived.

I've been interested to learn a few surprising things. It was intuitive to me not to do crazy things like toss out working appliances or perfectly good kitchen cabinets to go with greener products. Manufacturing new products takes a lot of energy, too. We'll just wait until things wear out or break and then make the appropriate green choice. But did you know it's more energy efficient to use a (newish) dishwasher than to handwash dishes? It uses significantly less water and thus the energy to heat that water. I also learned it takes more energy to produce a hybrid than to maintain an older conventional vehicle that gets at least 25mpg. Makes me feel better about driving :)

We also had an energy audit done on our house. This is a service subsidized by our power company. This is crazy when you think about it, what other business helps pay for a service that will, in the long run, have you paying them smaller bills? We learned a lot about our house, mostly that it wasn't as bad as we thought it was (phew!). Travis did run out and buy a case of caulk and will be sealing up our leaks over the next few weeks. The coolest part of our audit, the giant vacuum seal around our house and then the tour with the infrared camera which literally showed us where the cold air was coming in.

Travis is going to try his hand at replacing some windows in the coming months. He's armed with a book, DVD, some new tools, and the knowledge that he's at least as smart as whoever put in the crummy windows that are in our house now. That ought to be good for a post or two.

If you want to know some things you can do in your home, check your power companies website for an energy audit checklist or try out this Environmental Impact Calculator at Low Impact Living. Even with more recycling than trash, our lack of CFLs and old furnace puts us at about average, but we have a list to work on!

Backyard Invasion

Spring is here, but not for long, we're forecast to get a decent snow tonight and tomorrow. With spring the kids are finally back outside. The last couple of days have been so nice they've taken over the greenbelt, cul-de-sac, and pretty much our entire street. When FFM wakes up from his nap he hears them (they're all older so have come home from school) and snarfs his snack so he can go out and play, too. The 'big' kids all have little siblings and so are very good about taking care of FFM, who is the youngest of the pack.

The last greenbelt game was kickball, sometimes it's hide and seek or tag. During the recent greenbelt kickball game under-5s were designated as judges. Being a judge it kind of boring and I noticed most of the judges ran around all over the field anyway.
F's the one on the left in the blue and yellow coat, wearing a green baseball hat.
When the kickball game broke up we invited them to check out the slide, thinking only the little ones would be interested. We had all 10 kids climbing all over the playhouse. Then they moved on to our pine tree and created a complicated game which involved most of them in the tree and one kid on the ground trying to catch all the pine cones being pelted at him.
We also did some more painting recently. Sometimes it's really really handy to have a very tall husband. This is the vaulted ceiling in our master bedroom. We painted over a pale grey color which was OK, a little gloomy, but we like our pale buttery yellow color better.

Note how high he's reaching even without the ladder. I can tell you that this really does make painting go much faster. Vaults are a good place to use a power-roller, too. No stopping to reload paint.