Monday, December 26, 2011

Sedona

Merry Christmas, everyone!  Catching up on pics.  Here are some shots from our vacation week in Sedona, Arizona.

We were worried how our squirmy worm would do on a 5-hour flight, but he did very well and even slept a bit

Rocks! Awesome!

Off for a hike in Sedona.  He loves our new hiking backpack ($2.50 at a yard sale!).
It's comfy, apparently

Water! Awesome!

Not good to sit in water when it's freezing! Too curious.


Always exploring - even in the cabinets in our condo (we love these new long johns)

We need to work on dinner etiquette

Because temperatures were unexpectedly ridiculously freezing, we spent a portion of our vacation trying to buy snow boots and warm mittens for Zain.  Over the course of the week, we ended up buying different 5 pairs of boots and 2 sets of mitts, and returning ones that didn't fit or didn't keep him warm.  We finally ended up with one pair of each that did the job.  Boots that fall off are a particular problem when your kid is in a hiking backpack.  On two hikes, we had to backtrack on search and rescue missions to find dropped boots.

Zain saw snow last year, but probably doesn't really remember it.  But he'll definitely remember it now.  Loved it!
At Oak Creek Canyon near Flagstaff


He likes eating snow, too

Some sort of hilarity in the rental car.  He's grown too tall to sit with the car seat rear-facing, so he can see us now when we're driving.  This has led to all sorts of new games.  His favorite is the "two mommy game".  He yells "Mama" and when one of us turns around to talk to him, he pretends that it was the other one he was calling.  This game never gets old (for him).

Winter is a great time to visit the Grand Canyon - no crowds.  We had hoped to hike down into the canyon a bit, but it was too icy.  So we took a nice hike along the rim.  

Three little mule deer crossed our path on the trail

Zain spies the deer

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Turkey Time

We had a fantastic turkey-filled visit with the Ohio family for Thanksgiving:


The farm cousins - big boy Zain got to sit by himself

We finally got to meet the newest cousin, Dustin!

'I am tired of cameras!'

We had lovely, atypical Thanksgiving weather 

Luke and Zain

'Did I not tell you I was tired of cameras???'

At the Pickering family lunch - trying to put his shoe back on

Bossypants

He had freedom to roam at the reunion and didn't get into too much trouble

Getting delicious bites of comfort food from Grammy
Maya's car seat provided hours of fun

Maya was a consultant on the project

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Thirsty

Getting lots of pics from the busy last couple of weeks together, so expect many posts in the next week or so.  In the meantime, I had to share this pic from today.  Zain has been giving his stuffed animals "drinks" and "food" a lot lately.  Today, it was his belly button that wanted a drink.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Vacation!

Crazy couple of weeks for us as we just returned from Ohio Thanksgiving and are headed off tomorrow for a vacation in Arizona.  Apparently, our blog has been on vacation, too.  Sorry about that.  We will get you all caught up on Zain's latest tricks when we return.  Here are a couple pics from the vault to tide you over.

Apple!

Exhausting hiking

Helping to unpack his running stroller



Way back in the phone-obsession days

Feeding Mummy