Wandering Browns

Only kids with really tall dads get to actually sit in the tractor... We had it all planned out. We were going to go apple picking with FOS friends on Tuesday morning. Landon was excited! Tuesday morning came. Landon had a weird little cough, nothing bad. Then he choked on some phlegm and threw up his entire breakfast. So that squashed apple picking for the day. I was not sure if he had an intestinal illness on top of his snotty nose. ANYWAY... Saturday we decided to do a re-do. Landon was super excited to go "apple pickin'" as he said it. We did have tons of fun, and decided this year to do all the other activities as well that we skipped last year because Landon was too small to enjoy them. Good move on our part! We got to do a corn maze, cow train ride, petting zoo, bounce house, watch pig races, and big 4-wheeled bike things, along with picking Cortland and McIntosh apples, which are both fairly yummy right off the tree! Landon took care of the apples on the l

Sea Lion swimming by We are still awaiting our next assignment here in the Chicago area. For the first week of this, after our trip to CA, Landon and I hung out a lot and got organized. The 2nd week we ventured out a little more, this week, we wanted to play and explore! We took a trip to the Lincoln Park Zoo with our new on-the-road friends who are staying at our hotel. We checked out most of the zoo animals and Landon had a blast watching the animals, figuring out what they were eating, etc. It was a beautiful day so the animals were out as well! We watched the beaver swim One of Landon's favorite parts of the zoo was watching the different trucks work on a new zoo exhibit. One truck even lifted up a tree branch and slowly moved it through the zoo. We turned around to try to avoid it, but it followed us all the way around the bear exhibits! That was totally ok with Landon. Landon the termite licking the germs off of the termite den The giraffe was looking a

I have struggled with how to format this subject on our blog. Taking multiple LONG airplane rides in the past few months has left us with some solid knowledge of how to prepare for and handle a toddler on a long flight. I will post some key guidelines here, and then update our Toddler Traveling Tips  page  with links to individual blog posts on different topics. Here are some general guidelines: 1.  DON'T PANIC!  In the book  Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,  these words are on the front cover. This applies so well to traveling with a toddler. Kids pick up on the "vibe" that their parents are giving off. If parents are getting frustrated, angry, stressed, despondent, or any other emotion besides calm, kids are going to notice and begin to act that way as well. For example, we found out about a flight back to the US from Korea only two days prior. We were trying to book tickets and pick seats using three separate reservations, so Austin and I were both very busy/

Happy boy eating spaghetti Finally, it is time for a Landon update. Landon turned 2 a few weeks ago and man, has he changed in the past month or so! In Korea, he was starting to put some sentences together and say more words. To say that his vocabulary and ability to communicate has exploded since we got home from Korea is an understatement. I think the combination of being back in an English speaking country and seeing lots of familiar faces in our families that really made him grow his ability to communicate in leaps and bounds.   Landon can make lots of full sentences and is starting to conjugate verbs and boss us around! He likes to say, "Dad, wake up! Dad, get up!" in the morning. One of my favorite sentences so far is, "Fireman drives the firetruck." He is reforming how he pronounces some words so he is more understandable to more people. He loves to narrate what is going on around him, as well as point out all the vehicle names that he kno

San Simeon coast Whale! way out there! Throughout our 2nd week in California, I kept hearing about the whales that were visible from shore near San Simeon. My last day in CA, we were able to go investigate after my sister got home from school. Although we didn't see anything like  this , we were able to see some whales far out from shore through our camera lenses and binoculars. I just want to set up my tent right here and stay forever! Aunt Claire and Lando! Landon liked the idea that we were looking for whales because his favorite stuffed animal is a whale. However, I'm not sure that he saw any whales. The whales were feeding on an upwelling of sardines or some other type of school fish so it was easy to follow where they would be. There were tons of birds flying around and feeding on the school as well! Kisses from grandma! It's a little dry in CA right now! Grandma! After seeing the whales at a vista point along Highway 1, we d

We had to leave Greg behind... but he took a nap At the end of this day, I called Austin and let him know that if I could design a perfect day- this day would have been it. The only thing I would change would be to have Austin be there with me!  Aunt Net the Great found a reasonably priced harbor cruise through Morro Bay harbor and we jumped at the chance to take Landon on a boat. I bought tickets beforehand, but then Greg surprised us and came home in time to go with us. He had driven through the night to get to our house in time, though, so he took a nap on the dock because they did not have room on the boat. Parents on the cruise Morro Rock- we saw lots of boats too! Landon and the life jacket Getting ready to go! Lando the lookout On this boat you could go down below and watch fish through the glass. Landon listened to some other boys talking about a shark and though maybe a shark would come eat him... Sea otters with babies!