Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue.

Bet you didn't think that could apply to an (almost) 2 year old! But down in NC, Ollie could mostly be found with his trusty old blue pacifier in his mouth and his new favorite orange hat on his head that Great Grandpa Gil lent him for his walks during hunting season.

Cousins and a Little Bit of Poppy

On the last leg of our Christmas adventure we visited Nana and Poppy and Ollie's cousins Brookie and Aaron, who are both his age. They had a lot of fun together.

Eating chips with Aaron in the playhouse. 

Opening presents with Brookie.

Reading books with Brookie.

Shooting hoops.

Playing iPad games with Aaron.

Scooting!

hey, you've got a paci too! are you addicted to yours like i am?

Playing catch with Poppy.

Reading stories with Eva.

Being chased around the house by Uncle D.

And heading to Monkey Joe's, land of the bouncy funtimes!

Visiting Papa's Building

One of the other exciting things we did on our trip was visit one of Papa's buildings in D.C.—The U.S. Institute of Peace. Pretty cool, huh?

Yoga with Rachel and Wendy at the Creek House

Ollie really loved being at the Creek House over Christmas time. Mostly because his cousins Wendy and Rachel paid LOTS of attention to him. His favorite thing to do with them was to practice his yoga.

He was a little bossy about it with Wendy—"lay down." "right here."—but she was a really good sport.

Ollie is an early riser, and he was waiting each morning for Rachel to come upstairs. The first thing he would say to her was, "hiiiiiiiii! yoga?!" and before she even had her first cup of coffee, she would get down on the floor and do a little morning routine with him.

i still talk about them

remember when we went to louisville in december 2011?

well, since mama never did, i'm going to tell you about our trip.

it was before christmas time, so we made a trip to visit santa. anna and i got to ride on our papas' shoulders, which was way more fun than the actual ride with santa.

as you can see, i was a little skeptical of that strange man even though i got to sit next to grandma jane.

but i sure wasn't skeptical of lilly.

i followed her everywhere and made her play with me the whole time.

anna too. we did some nekkid painting.

it was a mess of fun!

oh right, the whole reason we came to louisville! to visit my new cousin jack leo. it's amazing that you could ever forget about such an adorable little boy, but it's funny, when there are three kids running around...

bedtime stories with uncle "go" were my favorite.

or maybe baths with lilly and anna.

or maybe it was just the whole weekend that was my favorite part.

i'm not a picky eater

mama keeps complaining that i'm turning into that kid who doesn't eat anything but mac and cheese and hot dogs. but she's wrong. look, i eat bacon too.

and corn dogs. i go to town on corn dogs.

Happy New Year!

Cool Dude

Such a good traveler! Well, when he has his video anyway. 14 days and over 2000 miles (sorry Uncle Sean and Tia Natalia) later we're almost back home. More pics of the Creek House and our visit with Nana, Poppy, and Ollie's cousins to come.

Great Hugs

For great grandma Thelma and great grandpa Gil

Merry Christmas!

Making gingerbread cookies with Grandma for Christmas day.

Yum!

Louisville Preview

We interrupt this regularly scheduled roadtrip to NC for a quick preview of our trip to Louisville (at the beginning of December, per our usual delay in reporting our adventures) to visit Ollie's new cousin, Jack Leo, aka Boots. Mama meant to copy all the pictures onto our laptop so she could finally blog about our trip, but of course she didn't. So to tide you over until we get back home and make a proper post, here is a cute picture from Mama's phone of Ollie and Anna, who he clearly adores.

Fun Depot!

It's been rainy since we've been at Grandma Ruthie and Grandpa David's. Luckily the local kid's playzone, Fun Depot, had a few entertaining things for a little boy.

Some mini bowling.

And a ride on a bulldozer.

But the REAL Fun Depot is at Grandma and Grandpa's house in the hallway with the insanely fun Scoot and Zoom they got for Ollie for Hanukkah.

Life on the Road

Life is a little different on the road than at home.

We eat at Waffle House instead of Papa's home cooking.

We make pit stops at Walmart and run around the clothing section tossing a football to get our yahoos out instead of at the local playground.

Or if we're lucky, we find a stretch of Applachian Trail to get some exercise on. 

And this is what it's like getting ready for bedtime on the road. Just like home, but in the parking lot of a Sheetz gas station.


Life on the road sure is fun!

He Likes Ethiopian Food

And why wouldn't he? You're supposed to eat it with your hands.

Will he be disappointed when he finds out dinosaurs don't exist anymore?

He preferred the museum of natural history and DINOSAUR!!s over the museum of air and space in DC, our second stop on our NC road trip.

Santa's Bringing Our Presents Down South This Year

Roadtrip to North Carolina for Christmas this year! (Courtesy of Uncle Sean and Tía Nati—thanks for letting us use your car!)
First stop: Baltimore National Aquarium






(more about the pig boobies another day...)

CUTIES!

Hiking

Can barely keep up with our little nature boy!

Thanksgiving

(As always, weeks behind...)

Thanksgiving might be Papa's favorite holiday. Not only because his birthday is always close to it, but also because he gets to cook all day long, uninterrupted. This year he grilled our turkey on the rooftop! We had a few folks over to share the delicious turkey and fixin's with, but only a few of those guests were cute enough to take pictures of—mainly Ollie and his friend Charlotte.

hey ollie, what's in here?

dude! it's beer!

yum, pass me one, would you?

Now it's time to work off some of those turkey calories.

Don't know about the kids, but Charlie's mama must've lost a few pounds from all the lifting!

charlie, come sit over here with me.

can i give you a kiss?

yeah, you don't look so sure about that.

But here's the real test of how much Ollie likes Charlie. See her eyeing his pacifier?

Yup he must like her... he doesn't give that paci up easily at all!