Well, I honestly thought that it would take a little longer than two days of Jenn being gone before Jonah and I started to devolve; but despite our best efforts last night found us at a monster truck rally eating junk food, drinking pure sugar, and making public spectacles of ourselves. Jonah was super-psyched up until the first truck started his engine and he realized what loud was. Even with the earplugs it looked like it might be an early end to the evening. Luckily they were quickly interspersed with dirt bikes and go-carts which he definitely loved. By the end of the night he was actually able to watch the trucks without covered ears (not sure if this was a sign of fear being conquered or simple hearing loss). Even though he didn’t get in bed until 11:15 it was worth it; we had a great time betting who was going to win waving our flag. I’m jealous that Jonah still has the mindset that it’s all about what’s being done, not who’s doing it. During one bathroom break he saw one of the bikers still in uniform (14 yrs old at most) and asked if he could talk to him. He went over and told him that he was a really good racer and wanted to get a picture with him. Then Jonah said he had a secret and told him that next time he raced when he waved his flag it meant that he wanted him to do a big jump. The biker said he’d do his best. Thanks again to our friend Jason for the invite, more pictures here.

Ok, I still promise on bringing you all up to date on all the baby and Christmas goings-ons that we missed during the IHJ outage, but we had too good a time today and had to share before it fell out of my head.  It’s been pretty cold around here lately (yes, that happens in Albuquerque), but at most we get intermittent slushing around our neighborhood so I thought it was time to scale the closest mountain in search of some quality white stuff.  After having each of the kids put on socks, then footie pajamas, then a long-sleeve shirt and pants, then shoes, then a jacket, gloves and hat, we were ready to start up the East side of the Sandia Mountains (right after we overshot the turnoff by about 15 miles the first time).  Roads were a little more icy than we had guessed, so we didn’t go all the way up and instead took the first rest area turnoff we found which was just fine with the kids.  After some serious snow digging, snow throwing, and snow climbing/scooting Jonah and Calvin spent the rest of the time sledding.  The fact that we didn’t actually bring sleds didn’t seem to slow them down;  they just used a combination of a discarded three ring binder, a complete stranger’s inner tube, and their pants.  After everyone was sufficiently frozen, we slowly slid the car back down the mountain for some much earned (and much reminded about on the ride there)  hot chocolates.  Next time:  Actual sleds (w/ fewer faceplants), chains for the car, and an arrival time that doesn’t compete with the sunset!

Here’s a riddle for the day, consider it an early trivia if you will:  What do you get when you combine a cranky two-year old, a four-year old with a full bladder, a pregnant woman, a wake-up time of 4:20 AM, 600 balloons taking off in the early morning, and the entire state of New Mexico crammed into one lane of traffic trying to all take the same exit?  Answer: An awesome morning with with perma-smiles all around! (more…)

Last time our epic tale left off as Papa and Jonah were climbing back up the mountain (9,800 feet to be exact) to leave all that pesky air and indoor heating behind them to enjoy a well earned meal.  With some new found energy (I’m not quite sure from where, we just spent the past two hours or so running around), Jonah was happy to help me (and Ellie) search for fire wood on the hill next to our site.  Although if you bring it up to Jonah, you’ll need to make sure you use the term ‘mountain’ since that is how he referred to it from that point on.  “We’re climbing the mountain!”, “We made it all the way to the top of the mountain!”, “That was close, I almost fell down the mountain!”  Not only was I wrong about the hill actually being a mountain, but apparently I was also misinformed about our mission, which according to Jonah was actually to finding walking sticks, not firewood.  In addition to finding several more treasure box adds, we also found an impromptu campsite someone had set up in a clearing at the top.  Again though, if you bring this up to Jonah, you’ll have to make sure to use his terminology ‘secret camp fort at the top of the mountain’.  While rich in adventure, the ‘mountainside’ was still lacking sizable firewood. (more…)

When we last left our intrepid heroes they were about to venture back out into the unknown from the safety of their small domed domicile.  The excitement was augmented by the fact that the power of nature’s call on Jonah led to an unannounced door opening and Ellie freeing.  This combined with my relative laziness, her surprising good behavior, and the fact that I’ve rarely seen a dog and free led to a general leash free policy for the rest of the day.  This excitement was immediately eclipsed by a shivering little boy who informed me that he needed food and a fire immediately.  My explanation of no firewood and suggestion of a blanket was not met with overwhelming approval and it quickly became clear that if I were to maintain the office of Papa I needed to create fire.  Making fire is easy, there were plenty of small twigs, the problem was that it took a while to find any substantial logs to keep it going.  Luckily, I’ve never let logic or common sense stand in the way of making my children happy, and that is the reason that our particular site is now currently short one sitting log from around the fire (the thing actually lit up quite easily and quickly). (more…)

Move into new house: Check

Beat my internet connection back out of Comcast: Check

Survive deadly never ending viruses with family: Check

Bring site up to date with past awesomeness: …Preparing to Check… (more…)

Alright, I realize I’ve been getting a little behind on posts and trivia, but in my defense in addition to my normal foes of fighting little children I’ve also been fighting a virus that has taken out a few people in my office.  However, after several daily naps and bedtimes before 9:00 I finally think I’m reapproaching good health at a decent velocity.  Of course this is no reason to let down the IHJ Faithful, so I will do my best to bring everything back up on track before I overexert myself and lapse back into a feverish stupor. (more…)

Despite what the picture might suggest, Jonah is 100% pure champ.  Friday the base had their annual “Summer Bash” which is basically a giant party on the parade grounds on base.  They had vendors, food, aircraft, a kids’ area, live music… basically everything you might need to ‘get down tonight’.  It went from Noon to Five and was authorized as a duty location; which basically means you’re allowed to skip work to attend (thank you again American Tax Dollars!).  The only downside is that it was clear skies and approximately 1,000,000 degrees (give or take 999,905).  This might have stopped or at least slowed down any normal children, but not mine.  Since Calvin was still sleeping around lunch Jonah and I decided to set off just before One on our bikes and meet up with the others later.  This means that Jonah biked about a mile on his own, played and ran around for four full hours (much of that in bouncy castles), then biked all the way back, crashed his bike off the sidewalk, got back up and got home all while still maintaining an impressively good attitude.  That’s over FIVE hours of high impact fun AND good spirits.  I had to check several times I brought back the right kid from the park.  Click onward for the full rundown of the day. (more…)

It’s may not be perfect but it’s definitely a step up from where we were.  The longer I put off cleaning the garage it seems the worse it got.  Last week was the tipping point when I was wading though my belongings and suddenly had an erie flashback to that scene in Star Wars where they’re in the trash compactor.  To be honest I was quite surprised that today’s exploits didn’t unearth any multi-tentacled leviathan which had been living off old pizza boxes we threw in there.  Suffice it to say that’s the best it’s going to get based on the space we have and the amount of crap that we have.  I will say that I think a garage sale is definitely in our near future; in fact today we had four different cars stop because they thought we were having one.  I finally had to put up a big sign that read “NO SALE, JUST CLEANING”. We still had a few people slow down before smiling and taking off again.  Not exactly how I envisioned spending my Saturdays as an adult if you’d asked me twenty years ago, yet still strangely satisfying.

I must say that after spending the majority of my formative years in a state with enough rain to negate any major fire hazard and a virtual cornucopia of Indian reservations eager to take my money in exchange for a wide variety of methods for exploding myself and those around me, the past few years have been somewhat of a bummer when it comes to the Fourth of July.  Who would have guessed that I would have to move to the dryest state yet in order to recapture a fully solid and enjoyable Fourth again? (more…)