Our man Finno is a born wheelman–at least when it comes to holiday carnival rides. Little Henry has to put on some inches before joining in the action, but boy will he be ready when the time comes. The video below combines two rides–one at the Zoo Lights in Oakland, the other at the SJ winter festival. Enjoy!
Category: Photos
Okay, I have to admit two things up front:
- One, this video could easily appear in a collection called “Portraits in Unwatchability” or “Experiments in Motion Sickness.”
- Two, despite all the spinning, not all that much really happens.
So, you can’t say you weren’t warned. 😉 The other night we took advantage of some (rare) clear weather & took the lads to San Jose’s Christmas in the Park, a little set of carnival rides & holiday displays. The guys remain too little for ferris wheel rides, giving Finn a chance to practice his “glower” face, but we had a good time on some carousels, “bumpy cars,” and the spinning ballon-car ride you see here. Hen was a cool customer as usual, and Finn did well until then end when, Margot reports, he remarked “I hope it’ll be stopping soon!”
“Neither rain nor cold nor gloom of night will stay these cherubic buddies from the swift enjoyment of their date with the zoo…”
After our first attempt got rained out a week earlier, on Sunday evening the Nack Pack rallied & met up with pals Bettie, Quade, and their folks Tara and Andy at the Oakland Zoo. Here you can see us enjoying the groovy nighttime zoo train, sighting a wallaby & a Macy’s-float-sized Henry face. 🙂
Our picture-taking time has been a bit limited lately, but we’ve gathered together some good odds & ends into a little gallery (HTML). And check out Finn making a literal “holy cow”!
Like a good zombie, our Halloween pix just won’t stay buried. 🙂
We’ve uploaded just a handful of photos (HTML) plus a little video showing our trip to the huge pumpkin patch at nearby Uesugi Farms. Note Finnbeard trying to master how to “glower,” later turning Henry’s felt candy bucket into a makeshift fez.
Categories
Turkeys with a side of Nuts
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! We Nacks big and small had a fine turkey day. Dad-O started off the festivities by trying to stuff one of our little turkeys into our actual turkey (see pic in the gallery), which was met with lots of laughs.
Then we all headed out to the park for some sunshine and fresh air, since we were granted a rain-free, warmish day. The guys had a blast collecting acorns and playing in the sand. Henry was busy investigating the acorn “hats” while wearing his own acorn hat, and Finny was busy being the “pizza boss”, patting wet sand into a little tray-like container, and then “serving” us sticky clumps of sand pizza. G-man (dubbed “pizza boss baby”) got in on the action, and needless to say, both guys got totally wet and covered with sand in no time!
On the way home we passed by a pile of gigantic maple leaves, which were quickly put to use as wings by Finny in an effort to fly home rather than ride in the wagon. After nap time, it was time for the big dinner, and everyone found something to enjoy. Henry went nuts for the cranberry sauce, Finny for the gravy, and John and I for all of it! Enjoy the gallery (HTML) of today’s events!
[In the park we searched for in vain for a water-transferring container until Finn announced, “I have a great idea!” Without elaborating he took off running towards the fountain, produced an empty Doritos bag from the sand (it’s a classy park), and began filling it with agua. He also enjoyed chasing off some packs of pigeons, saying, “I don’t think they expected a pirate to attack them today!” –J.]
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Paging Tiny Dr. Vandi
Finn-O & Mrs. Vandi from our dentist’s office have a long-distance mutual admiration thing going on. She gets a kick out of the blog, and for a long time he’s enjoyed pretending to go to Dr. Vandi’s office, bringing them sandwiches (bits of blue electrical tape), etc.
Recently we kicked things up a big notch, as Dr. & Mrs. V sent home a treasure trove of floss, toothbrushes, and–oh yeah–little surgical masks! Check out our aspiring dentist-in-training as he gives me a cleaning (“You’ve got some dirty teeth, Dad-O!”; thanks for noticing, bud ;-P) in this little gallery (HTML).
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Random goings-on, Facebook edition
It’s sort of belatedly occurred to me that our parents, not being Facebook users, haven’t gotten to see the random “Mobile Ephemera” that we’ve been uploading on the go over the last year & change. So, Mom(s) and Dad(s), if you’re up for seeing some fun bits (everything from Finn modeling Mom-O’s boots to chubby-legged Henry meeting dinos at the doc’s), check this out. (You don’t need a password or anything.)
For our Facebook-enabled friends, as Gilda Radner would say, “Never mind.” 🙂
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Area Tot Achieves Nirvana
Detecting “the Fruit of the Tollhouse” on my breath this AM, a bear-laden Henry started saying, “Cookie, cookie!!” As Margot says, “Double-fisting with bears, eating a cookie, and being held by Dad-O: it’s like a little guy delight sandwich!”
Here’s our happy fella moments ago:
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One Last Halloween Photo
Courtesy of our neighbors Scott and Karen, who set up a Halloween photobooth on their front porch for all the trick-or-treaters. The guys were already coming down from their treat-induced sugar high!
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Micronaxx Geographic
Apropos of nothing, our boys decided to experiment with a little techno-body modification on Saturday morning. (This is why Mom-O shouldn’t leave us alone together. :-))
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Fireman Henry to the Rescue!
Here’s a fun shot of our G-man dressed up in his Halloween costume. He makes a handsome little fireman, doesn’t he?
Finny is trying really hard to be a “bad pirate” but darn it, he’s too cute to be a believable scallywag! Especially when “Arrrr!” is pronounced “Owww!” (click each photo for a larger version)
[Update from playgroup: Mom Ariel Kurtze reports, “”We had a very cute pirate at playgroup this morning! And a very sharing one too, he let Sabrina play with his scimitar :)” –J.]
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Marley Gras
Want to get a team of toddlers eating out of the palm of your hand? (Figuratively, I mean; they’re all too willing to do it literally.) Get ’em some Mardi Gras beads!
Finn, and Henry in particular, were so enamored of little Harper Hogarty’s bead collection that I started calling him “Jacob Marley” after the chain-dragging ghost in A Christmas Carol. Check it out:
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to capture shots of the three tots running a racetrack pattern, with Finn popping out to startle the little ones (“Surprise!”) and Henry trying to keep up (“Prise!”). It was high-speed hilarity. [Photo courtesy of Harper’s dad, “Papa Hog” Tom]
Yesterday morning, the boys were enjoying some sliced banana when Finn grabbed a little toy construction cone, flipped it over, and inserted a banana wedge. “Now it’s an ice cream cone!” he proudly declared. He even made one for his little bro. 🙂
It was great to reintroduce Finn to his big Uncle Ted (given that I doubt he remembers their first meeting), and Ted had good fun playing the role of “Uncle Troll.” Check out a few pics (HTML) and a video:
Breaker breaker, 1-9… we got us a CONVOY…
Okay, not quite, but we did get a fun ride with Uncle Ted in his bobtail rig, heading from “Big G” through Scales Mound, on our way up to the truck lot in Shullsburg. We all had a great time, and maybe in the future we can get Ted a bumper sticker that says, “LEO is My Co-Pilot.”
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Visiting Uncle Lyman & Aunt Brenda
While we were in Illinois for Ted’s wedding, we were able to pay a visit to my Uncle Lyman and Aunt Brenda. It was a lot of fun for them to see the guys and how big they’ve both become!
Finn and Henry were thrilled about the Harley parked in the garage, and were excited to climb aboard and play motorcycle. Henry, in fact, was having so much fun he did not want to get down, as evidenced in his scowling face. Either that, or he’s practicing his Harley-rider intimidation skills!The boys also had a blast roaming around the big backyard and playing with the itsy-bitsy dog.
My cousin Kristan also made it out to the house so we could see her, too. We all had a great time and hopefully brought a little extra sunshine to my aunt and uncle’s day! Here’s the gallery (HTML) of their adventures.
It’s really cool to see the Finnster start interacting more with other kids, and during our time in Galena, he had a ball racing cars with little neighbor girl Isabella. Packing his lion-buddy into the back of a truck, he proudly (and sort of inexplicably) declared, “This is called, ‘Leo the M&M’!” From there they were off to the races:
(Click any of the images for a larger version.)
In one of my favorite early memories, I’m alternately astride a huge grown-up, trying to pummel him into submission, and then running like mad as he chased me around the house. Said grown-up is my cousin John “The Doctor of Doom and Destruction” Huber, and at our family brunch on Sunday, he introduce young Finn to the power of “The Claw”! Check it out (HTML). 🙂