Wandering Browns

We went to see Santa at the Woodfield Mall. They had a very neat, but expensive operation going, with a little castle that you could go in before seeing Santa that snowed rice paper. Landon liked throwing the fake snow, and of course, eating it. When it came time to actually see Santa, I plunked Lando down on his lap and he just chilled there for awhile, long enough for us to get him to smile for the camera. I think his favorite part was the sucker afterwards, which he promptly ate and ran back to get another. It was a fun outing. The boy himself!

The boy himself, post nose scrape We flew to Colorado for Thanksgiving... several days early. It snowed before we got there, but then it melted. Then it was 50 degrees. And then I rejoiced. Landon had a wonderful time wandering around my inlaws' backyard and picking up rocks and sticks and being a boy! Great-grandma Helen giving loves Landon thought it was hilarious that Great-Grandpa Lish was squirting him with water on the hand. We walked to a nearby park and Landon had fun playing on the play equipment, running up and down grassy hills, and sliding down big kid slides. Right before we left, though, he was running on the sidewalk, caught his toe, and went down. Flat on his little face. He had a big goose egg on his forehead and little scratches on his nose for the rest of the vacation. Which was perfect timing for taking pictures at Red Rocks above Denver! It was a beautiful day and a beautiful setting, and we got some great shots on our new camera. We got Chris...

Today, Landon has done a few little things that made me smile. This morning, he got some books and climbed up into the glider chair. I asked him if he wanted to read, and went to pick him up so I could sit down with him in my lap and read the books. He fussed and then waved "bye". He wanted to read his books all by himself... A little while later, I decided to exercise by doing stairs with exercises in between. I was doing pushups and had my water bottle nearby. Landon got the water bottle and tried to put it right up to my mouth in the middle of my exercises to "help me" get some water. It was adorable. We went outside to play in the snow. Landon hates wearing gloves. He wore them for approximately 2 minutes. That's how long he enjoyed the snow too. Why do they make snow suits so hard to get around in? Landon can't even walk around in his! He needs to hold my hand or he topples over. It reminds me of the Christmas Story. Well, from way across the road, ...

On Wednesday, I have physical therapy appointments in the mornings. I need to get Landon out the door pretty early. While I was getting things ready this past Wednesday, Landon found the canisters of flour in the pantry and decided to dump one out on the floor. With just enough time to wipe him off and run out the door, I decided to just clean it up once I got home. Once home from work, I placed Landon as far away from the flour pile as possible, raced into the kitchen, and swept up as much of it as I could. Then I remembered that it was trash day, that the trash can was outside because something had spilled in the bottom, and I didn't have a trash bag close. Ah hah! A grocery bag was on the counter. I grabbed it and dumped the dustpan full of flour into the bag, only to watch it all fall on the floor again. There was a huge hole in the bag! By this time, Landon was all over in the flour, sliding across the floor in it, picking it up and throwing it, everything! Ah! Once I found ...

All bundled up at 5:00am Now that Landon is over a year old, I guess I decided I didn't have to blog about him anymore :) So here is our family update for fall: At the beginning of September, I competed in an Olympic distance triathlon at Lake Geneva, WI. Lake Geneva is very beautiful and it was so much fun, albeit cold in the morning for the swim. The name of the triathlon was "TriRock" and it is a national tri series. On the website it advertised live music and bands on every mile of the run and at the finish. I did not see any live bands the entire time, so that was mildly disappointing. I was 1st out of the water for my age group on the swim, and 2 girls passed me- one on the bike, and one on the run in my age group. So, I got 3rd place in my age group, which ended up qualifying me for the 2014 USA triathlon age group national championships in Milwaukee, WI. It's really too bad that I have no idea what country I will be in next year, or I might just sign up!...

Sand baby with his shovel and pail For my birthday this year, I could not figure out what I wanted. So, I decided I wanted to go camping. CAMPING with an almost 1-year-old. Also, I wanted to go to the "beach". So we did. And it was grand. We started out right after lunch on a glorious Friday afternoon, prime Landon nap time. We drove around the bottom of Lake Michigan and made it up near Grand Mere State Park in Michigan. We could not quite find the beaches of this state park, but we randomly drove down some roads until we found parking for a public beach. Turns out that most of the beach is actually private and owned by people who have lakefront properties, but there was this little slice of public beach. Not very many people knew about it, so it was not at all crowded and we were able to play in the sand with Landon to his heart's content. He loved it! Entering Indiana on our way to... Pure Michigan! One of Landon's favorite things to do in the sand...