Eliot's Travels

It's nice to have a backyard

Miles has to be potty trained for his preschool in the fall. The good news is that he's interested and working on it. He has his moments but we did give away our diapers 3 weeks after this picture was taken. He's been going great and likes being a "bigga boy".

posted by Whitney @ 6:18 PM 0 comments

Water Battle

Miles thought that it would be fun to splash everyone with the hose as they were filling up the pool to play. Then everyone got cups and a full-on water battle began. Everyone was trying to splash Grandpa and then Uncle David. David had the upper hand and got all the kids soaking wet!

Jim's cousins and their 3 kids were visiting too along with Aunt Becky and Uncle Bill. Everyone had a great time.

Uncle David was king of dunking and water play

posted by Whitney @ 12:16 PM 0 comments

Saturday Farmer's Market

For most of our trips to Madison the last several years we've missed the farmer's market. This year, we were actually around on a Saturday morning, so Dave, Wendy, Mary, the kids and I headed to the farmer's market around the capitol. The produce and potted plants were wonderful, as was the selection of baked goods.


Of course, there were lots of cheese stands with wonderful cheese from small cheesemakers. David and I loved the very pricey 12-year cheddar. It was fun to just taste all the different ones. Who would have known cheese curds were so yummy and in so many flavors!

Afterwards, Dave Wendy and I made a quick trip to Monona Terrace to look at the views on top of the convention center.

posted by Whitney @ 11:00 AM 0 comments

Water Sports on Lake Monona

posted by Whitney @ 5:56 PM 0 comments

The second cousins have a grand time playing together

Someone (probably Eliot) came up with a great idea to make chalk soup. Yummy!

posted by Whitney @ 2:38 PM 0 comments

Lots of Projects

A trip to Hobby Lobby resulted in our Lightning McQueen cake pan and a different craft project for nearly each day in Madison.

Who would have known Grandma was such an artist? Miles and Eliot went for Cars cars with their face painting, while Katherine chose flowers. One day we all made foam and sticker pictures. Jim works intently on his Jaguar J. Another day was for beading. The final project was finger painting - fun stuff!

posted by Whitney @ 4:37 PM 0 comments

Madison Zoo

Today Grandma and Grandpa took us all to the zoo (sans Jim who was working). The kids enjoyed eating snacks and lunch at this great free zoo. Eliot rode on a seal. Miles preferred the stationary giraffe. They are building a new children's area, but the really neat playground wasn't ready yet. It reminded me a lot of the cool playgrounds at the Dutch zoos we visited.
I love walking around zoos.

The rain downpour started just about when we were ready to eat lunch. Elizabeth thought that it was great fun to hang her head in the rain drip. We enjoyed all the animals, but especially the bears (spectacled, grizzly, and polar). My favorite were the beautiful flamingos who were trying to dry off after the rain.

posted by Whitney @ 3:41 PM 0 comments

Out for a Sail

The boys minus Eliot plus Katherine went sailing with Grandpa.

posted by Whitney @ 4:23 PM 0 comments

Non-motorized boating fun

Grandpa bought another boat - a dingy for his sailboat. We had a naming contest and Jim won with "Dingbat." Grandpa and Uncle David gave the kids rides in the bay and over to the beach two houses down. When Eliot got back from one of the rides, he was collecting "seaweed" (Milfoil weed) and fell right into the lake. Luckily he was wearing his life vest like he's supposed to and Grandpa was right there to pull him out. He was covered in lake weeds and soaked to the bone.

We all took kayak trips. Grandma's fat-bottomed kayak fit an adult plus Eliot or Miles. Aunt Becky's and mine (with Miles) was the most exciting in that we took a wrong turn and had a 2-hour paddle rather than a short 30-min trip!

posted by Whitney @ 8:42 PM 0 comments

The land of beer, brats and cheese

After Reunion, we drove to Madison to visit with Jim's parents and his brother and family for a week vacation on the lake.

Grandma and Grandpa had not yet celebrated Eliot's birthday, so our first night we had yet another party (the fourth if you are counting). Grandma offered a Lightning McQueen shaped cake, so that's what Eliot went for with momma decorating it in an aquamarine color scheme. They gave Eliot a cool Lego racing set for his 5th birthday.

posted by Whitney @ 8:31 PM 0 comments

Jim's 15-year college reunion was this weekend at Carleton College in Northfield Minnesota. We met all of his good friends back at school. Jim claimed dibs to the remaining spot at Rex and Jenny's house, so we didn't have to stay in a dorm room like the other folks. We even got the cool basement!

Reunion included lots of fun activities aimed at encouraging you to give lots of money to the College! The boys had a blast with putt-putt and in the bouncy castles and slides. The dinners were organized by class so we had lots of time to catch up with classmates. The boys spent much of the time playing and then crashing in the stroller. It was a nice time to catchup with old friends, especially since we missed our get together last year when we were in Holland.
http://picasaweb.google.com/skinnybarnchick/CarletonReunion

One of the reunion staffers lets Eliot "drive" the golf cart (push the gas)

posted by Whitney @ 7:49 PM 0 comments

Dinosaur Ridge in Golden

Climbing up to the iguanodon track, Miles, Ruthie, Eliot and Chase are having a grand time. These ornithomimus and iguanodon tracks are so cool. We saw ancient ocean ripples, worm or shrimp holes, and brontosaur bulges (back side of a footprint).

Ruthie and Eliot are scary dinosaur statues. We had a great view of the famous Red Rocks amphitheater from dinosaur ridge.

http://picasaweb.google.com/skinnybarnchick/DinosaurRidge
We joined the others back at Scott and Paula's house for dinner. Tracie brought cake to celebrate Maggie's 2nd birthday. Miles gives her a big birthday hug.

posted by Whitney @ 4:14 PM 0 comments