Merry Christmas To you

October 2011

October has been so much fun. Not only is it great to be home but the weather has been awesome and I love the fall. We got home from our trip early in the month and started potty training the day we got back. Reed has done amazingly well. Ihave been dreading the whole process but he was so ready that it's been a non issue. After a week of having no accidents he earned a couple of knights that we'd gotten in Germany. For his birthday he received a package in the mail from our dear friends in Germany with a fun knight set with a horse and canon and accessories and he has played with these knights for HOURS. It's fun to hear him playing with them when I'm in another room. They usually have fights and then decide to be friends and have a campfire with marshmallows while their weapons dry. Fun boy.

Speaking of his birthday, Reed turned 3 and wanted to celebrate with pizza at the park...

...and fireworks.

We also had Brent's family over for dinner and cake and the weather was still nice enought to do it outside (when Reed was born it had been snowing!). I asked Reed what sort of party he'd like thinking I'd get something like "trains" or "kinghts" but he wanted a "spooky" party, so we pulled out some candles and pumpkins and cut out some paper bats and "voila" SPOOKY! I didn't take and pictures that show the decor though - whoops. Here's a picture after we'd moved it all inside (please excuse the mess I was still party stuff away).

The one and only picture I took during the party - Reed with his ice cream sandwhich cake (a new favorite)

Reed got a costume box and a marble tower/track set, but anything associated with knights has been the favorite.

They had cars that looked like the "Cars" movie characters come through Salt Lake. You could just look at the cars but they also had free games and prizes and a bouncy house and it was practically across the street from Brent's office so we met up after work and Reed had a great time. We love free fun!
This month Reed's new thing is to pile of his stuff onto his bed or the sofa and go on a trip. The sofa is usually a bed and he's a pirate. His bed is usually a horse and he's a knight. He makes up the silliest names for the places he's going and loves to try to jam as many possessions and poeple along for the journey as he can. In this picture he got loaded up and snuggled right in and fell asleep. Does anyone else have as many pictures of their children asleep as they do when they're awake?


To get ready for the family birthday party we cleaned up the back porch. We had tons of scrap wood back there from different projects and Brent made these cute benches. Saved the wood and we had plenty of seating for the party!

Then there's always the yard work. We've gotten so much done this year, mostly because we have Nate who has been a huge help but also because the weather has stayed nice for so long that we just keep the projects going! There's still a long way to go, but it's finally starting to take shape and go in the right direction. It still feels like it's a mess, but when I look back at pictures I took in the spring I feel like we've done a ton. Another post about that when we've wrapped up for the season...

Here's some random favorites from the rest of the month.
Reed loves his "B" cape. It is part of pretty much every costume he assembles and he chose it as one of his special things to pack on our Europe trip. :o)
A car parade. YOu really have to watch the stairs at our house - you never know what you'll find!

Halloween 2011

Reed is catching on to the holiday's this year and it's so fun! We made the house "spooky" for Halloween and then anticipated it for weeks. We gave Reed a trunk full of costumes for his birthday so he had lots of choices this year and when he was asked what he was going to be for Halloween his answer was always different. Brent's work had a trick-or-treat on Friday and Reed wore his knight costume (no surprise there). On Halloween he felt like being a lion. This year the weather was perfect and we had lots of fun trick-or-treating up and down Main Street near our home. The businesses hand out candy and it's super easy to go up and down the street and go home with a pretty good stash (for a 3-year-old anyway).

More Switzerland - in no particular order

I'll give you one guess what's happening here!

Boat ride across Lake Geneva

A cute old barn near Susan and Paul's home

Alpine slides in the Alps! Reed loved it.


Reed calls these fountains that are everywhere "boats" and wants to stop and splash every one.

Gruyere, my favorite place so far. The castle, the views, the main walking street, shops, flowers and, of course, the CHEESE!

Lots of pictures

Organizing posts is taking too long and all Brent really cares about are the pictures (we're able to talk on the phone and Skype so he knows what we've been up to). Hopefully he can match the stories to the pictures...

Reed hiking like a true European with "poles"

Views at the top of the gorgeous hike we went on.

We stopped for a picnic with an amazing view

Reed made a little "house for rabbits". No idea why.

At the end of the hike there were pastures for cows and they all had bells around their necks. It was a perfect Swiss day. I could have listened to that sound all day.


Reed thought it was "too noisy".



and "too spicy". He said this at the zoo too when the animal smell was a little over-powering. I think it's funny because he certainly knows the word "stinky" but the aroma of animals is "spicy" to him.

Ice cream cones at Ikea. We had to pay for a token and a cone and then go over to the ice cream machine where you put in your cone and it moves the cone up and down and dispenses it just right. It was an amazing process for Reed. He was in awe.


Chateau de Chillon. The coolest castle I've ever been to! It sits on (and takes up the entirety of) a little island just of the shore in Lake Geneva

More gorgeous views

There are these little fountains all over and it's all potable water coming out of those spigets. We had to wait for a few minutes to take this picture because people were filling up their water bottles. Picturesque and functional!


Little knight


Reed had a great time dressing up (again) and ran around with Susan looking for knights while me mom and I did the ipod tour.

It was nice to have a relaxing day and not worry about a 2-year-old wreaking havoc on cnturies old relics while I try to enjoy the castle. Thanks, Susan! They toured the castle too, but at his pace and they kept an eye out for knights. She had him knock on random doors saying "Bonjour monsieur Knight!". Sadly, the knghts seemd to have been "on a trip" or "too busy" when we were there.

We ate a picnic lunch on a bench outside the castle. There were very aggressive birds in this little courtyard and Susan has some priceless (as in, they should be wiped off the face of the earth) pictures of the birds trying to get my sandwhich. You know how much I love birds. My face was less than pleasant. ;)

Too be continued...

On to Switzerland!

Saying good-bye at the train station.

I was so ready for a nap (did you know traveling with a 2-year-old is exhausting!?) but the train trip down the Rhine to go to Switzerland was so gorgeous (all pics on Mom's camera) that I didn't want to miss anything!

Reed getting a little dose of Daddy. We miss him SOOO much.

Schlossberg

We went with Birgit to a castle near their home and Reed wore his little costume. There was a little shop at the castle and Birgit bought him a wooden shield and sword to finish it off.

He LOVES that sword.

You can see Reed in his little knight costume in the reflection. He keep looking for knights and was not impressed with the pictures and costumes around the castle - he wanted the real deal!

A castle and ice cream. The BEST DAY EVER!!!

Wuppertal Zoo

We went to the Wuppertal Zoo and had so much fun. Lots

of hills + stroller = tired mom. lots of animals + 2 year old = happy Reed

" Grrr. I'm a tiger!"

At the end of the day We asked Reed what his favorite animal was and he said the penguins. Birgit bought him a little penguin keychain at the zoo store to put on his backpack. He loves it.

The penguin tunnel was really neat.

Two new elephants were recently born and they were so cute.

"SO BIG"

They had a fun playground in the zoo with HUGE slides. I went down one with Reed and then he was brave enough to go down by himself.

Random picture for Brent: snuggling after bathtime the night before our flight. So cute.

Our epic trip to Europe

*I'll be putting pictures up whenever I get the chance mostly so Brent can see what we're up to. Also, as I've gone to do these posts I've realized that only about half the pictures are on my camera and some days I didn't even take pictures with my camera. The rest are on my moms camera so I'll update them later when I get all the pictures together.

Here's some pictures of our trip so far. Reed has always been an amazing traveler, but I was a little wary going into this trip because it was over 24 hours of travel to get from California to Germany. He did an amazing job and we didn't even have to resort to the DVD player or apps that we'd brought along.

Some snacks

foam stickers (decorating a car)

looking out the window


and some serious sleeping (thank goodness!) and we'd made it to Paris.

THen came the waiting...waiting for our luggage.

...and waiting.

Waiting for our train to Koln, Germany. We went for a walk and made a croissant stop while we waited for the train. We'll be back at the end of our trip for the real site-seeing.

And we made it! I was so happy to be able to see Rolf and Birigit and have a nice visit with them. It was a short visit, but Reed loved them. When we got off the plane and the various trains to get there, he kept asking "Where's Rolf and Birgit?". He was so excited when we got off a train and suddenly there they were!