“You’ll shoot your eye out!” Happily that hasn’t happened yet, and both bandito Hen & Nintendo-lover Finn are happily ensconced in a pile of Legos, wonderful books from Grandma & Grandpa Nack, a Lego-style drone (!) from the Lingle cousins, and more. Here’s a little gallery of the chaps celebrating with Grandpa Liggett. We feel, and are, blessed indeed. 🙂
All the way back in 2011, we enjoyed taking the lads on a Christmasy train ride through town (see little gallery & vid). Given that Hen’s passion for trains has only increased, this year we brought along Grandpa Liggett for an evening ride that featured letter-writing to the big guy, visits from Mrs. Claus & then Santa, and finally some requisite “cooling off” at Marianne’s Ice Cream. Check out the gallery and the short video below.
[Retro bonus trains: See also Christmas Lights Train 2013 (the tiny one in the park), the Chicago CTA Lights Train in 2012, and Oakland Zoo Lights all the way back in 2010.]
This fall the dudes made their first real foray into playing music, with Finn picking up drum sticks & Henry grabbing a trumpet. On Wednesday they treated us to their first-ever concert. Check out this little handful of pics & the video below.
Having explored the surrounding region (Jackson Hole, the Grand Tetons) on previous days, on the Wednesday of our trip we finally made it into Yellowstone proper—and to Old Faithful! The weather was pretty touch-and-go, but at least the boys heeded our warnings (and those of some friendly rangers) and didn’t fall into any hot springs & get liquified. 😬 In this gallery you can see some of our travels and the critters (both living & stuffed) we saw along the way.
“Waste not, want not”—true, but you might gain an unwanted reputation!
Around our house I (“The Goat”) am infamous for finishing off others’ chow a little too quickly—something I’ve largely stopped doing, though Finn will never let me off the hook for decapitating his gingerbread man years ago. In any case, this week I discovered that each boy had surrounded his cookie “Masterpiece” with cautionary text aimed my way. As you can see from Henry’s, it was “The opposite of Bon Appetite for Dad today!”
These days, by the time we get around to T.A.L.B. at 8:30pm, chances are that Ol’ Dad has been blowing & going since before dawn. Consequently, recent story quality has been… well, let’s say uneven. I was kinda proud of the new characters I invented recently—Mr. Robert Cat, a bobcat, and Moe Hunculus, a homunculus—although Finn just shook his head and said “I often wonder whether you’re having a stroke.” 😝
By contrast, when our friend Maria is in town, she really pulls out the stops. Whereas I just try to invent stuff on the fly, she starts mapping out characters & events ahead of time using a pen & notebook. I’m pretty sure that somewhere she has a wall that looks like this:
Anyway, Finn noted the other day that “T” quality has varied widely lately—largely depending on who’s doing the telling:
Happily, I’ve been working to up my game recently, and we’ve been having a lot of fun incorporating Finn’s Yellowstone buddy Bert the (stuffed) Buffalo—who, it turns out, is quite the dancer. A few collaborative sketches of Bert in action are below. 🐃😊
