Road Trip

Over spring break we drove to Denver to visit Bryon's brother, Brad, and his family. Brad and Robin just had a baby boy in February and we were so excited to meet little Anderson! Rylan loves his new cousin and Bryon and I are so happy to have a new nephew!

Rylan and Anderson
Do you see any resemblance?

Brothers with their boys

Fifteen hours to Denver (one-way) made for a long trip! Rylan has always been a good traveler but had never been in the car for more than five hours. This was quite the test! We had fully anticipated stopping to buy a portable DVD player for Rylan on our way, but believe it or not, we didn't need one!!! Rylan hardly fussed the entire trip. I am so proud of him! He kept himself entertained by looking at books, coloring, looking for cows, trucks and buses, and enjoying an occasional Junior Frosty from Wendy's. Rylan loves trucks and buses and pointed out every single one he saw...I think we heard him say "truck" and "bus" at least a couple hundred times along the way.

While Bryon and Brad were skiing, Robin and I took the boys to a kids play area called Monkey Business. They have all kinds of fun toys, equipment and bouncy things for kids. Rylan loved it! He was all over the place. He accidentally got bumped by some bigger kids a couple of times, but that didn't stop him. He's a very adventurous little boy!

"Look Mama! I climbed up here all by myself!"

While in Denver, we also spent a day at the zoo. It was so fun to show Rylan all the animals we've read about. Here's Rylan and Daddy by the giraffe exhibit.

Rylan enjoyed visiting the monkeys the best, probably because he's quite the little monkey himself. He kept making monkey noises like he was talking to them.

Another highlight was the seal exhibit. They must have liked Rylan because they kept swimming back and forth in front of him.


We encountered some treacherous weather on our trip. The worst part was in Wyoming, especially since 99% of the traffic was semi-trucks and those truck drivers drive like maniacs. We saw many slide offs. I kept visualizing us getting t-boned by a semi-truck...not a pleasant thought. The mommy in me has caused me to be a little more paranoid than usual.

Rylan was very thankful when we stopped at rest areas to stretch our legs. He really likes rocks and thought these giant ones were pretty cool.

Thanks for your hospitality, Brad and Robin. We had such a fun time with you and Anderson!

Go Mariners!!!

As a follow up to my last blog, I felt it was only fitting for Rylan to model his new Mariner's gear. We dressed Rylan in his new outfit for the first home game of the season. Bryon went to the game and Mommy and Rylan watched it on TV. So, I introduce to you the future switch hitter for the Mariner's.
*Bryon claims Rylan will be a switch hitter because, so far, he's ambidextrous.

"Check out my awesome outfit! Better yet, take a look at my Lou Piniella belly."

"Watch out Griffey...here I come!"

We're Back!!!

For those of you who were wondering if we quit the blogging world...we haven't. We just had to take a break for a while due to a couple of extremely busy months. I was working on my National Boards teaching certificate and about the only thing I had time to do other than work on that was eat and sleep (even that was hard to come by). Well now that my portfolio is finished, I promise to be better about keeping you updated as to what our family is doing. I'll start by filling you in on our Easter celebrations.

We spent Easter with Bryon's family. One of Rylan's favorite foods is eggs. He eats them like there's no tomorrow, but he didn't seem too excited about dyed eggs. He had this look on his face as if to say "I love eggs, but eating blue eggs is going a little too far." I guess I'll have to start reading him the Dr. Seuss book "Green Eggs and Ham" to get geared up for next year.

Here's Rylan digging into his Easter basket full of Mariners gear. I'm not sure who was more excited; Rylan or Bryon.

Rylan got as excited about finding chocolate inside plastic eggs as I would about winning the lottery. He LOVES chocolate and ate quite a lot of it on Easter. I was beginning to worry that he'd never eat his veggies again.

Rylan's new best friend; the Mariner Moose. Boy, that Easter bunny sure knows what he likes!

Here's Rylan finding his second Easter basket. Apparently a couple of Easter bunnies left treats for him this year.

Bryon's aunt rented out a park with an indoor eating area. All the cousins, second cousins, aunts, grandmas, etc. got together and enjoyed a big Easter brunch together followed by Easter egg hunts for the kids. It rained most of the day but that didn't stop the kids from playing outside. We had a blast watching the kids race around in search of eggs, getting soaked to the bone in the meantime. Good thing there was an indoor fireplace to warm ourselves up afterward.

I was so proud of my little Ry guy...he was the youngest child participating in the Easter egg hunt, but by no means did this stop him. You should have seem him running around in search of eggs. The look on his face when he found one was priceless. What a joy it is to watch my son enjoy such simple things in life! He teaches me more than I'll ever teach him.

A dozen eggs: $1.99
A little boy in search of those eggs: priceless
"I see an egg! Oh boy, I'm almost there! I'm having the time of my life!"