Seattle Half Marathon

Michael ran the Seattle half marathon this past weekend. Although most of his training involved running after Braedyn or sitting in front of a computer at work he managed to run the whole thing and finish under 2 hours! After a couple days of limping around on sore legs he was back to riding his bike to work!

More Iowa

A few additional pictures from our Thanksgiving trip to Iowa. Taken by MiMa!

Stomping leaves with Uncle Isaac


Practicing music for Church with Papa.


Back out at the farm...



Making a mini snowman in the Thanksgiving snow.



Hanging out with Elisabeth and Joshua


Making music

Music

This electronic piano was a big hit with Braedyn. It made lots of fun music to dance to and had tons of buttons all over it.

On Sunday, we just had to get out for a walk since the weather was so perfect. Braedyn was having a blast checking out the horses, picking up rocks and sticks and watching the model airplanes, but soon started telling us "sleepy, sleepy". We headed home for a nap....

Christmas

It seems that as soon as one holiday is over we need to get prepared for the next. So the day after we got back from our Thanksgiving trip, we bolted out to bring home our Christmas tree. This is our 4th year getting a potted tree that we plant after the holiday. Braedyn is getting a little too anxious to start digging the hole.....

Cousins

Braedyn hanging out on Thanksgiving day with Elisabeth and Joshua.

More tractors

It was just a few days before this shot that we got out to go see the new Warren Miller ski film. The film featured a lot of great skiing and riding by really young kids, most of them had the typical baggy pant style even while out on the snow and many of them looked like they were about to loose their pants. We had a fun conversation later just wondering what Braedyn would be like as he gets older. We then came home to find him already dressing like a snowboarder.....

Shopping

When the weather turned to snow in Iowa we headed to some indoor entertainment at the nearby mall. Braedyn got to hang out with Mima and check out all the fun toys as well as do a little shopping for himself (he wants a kayak for Christmas).

Although he seems to get showered with new toys each time he goes to see MiMa and Papa in Iowa, Braedyn seems to enhoy the toys that have been used by all the other kids that have been around. This toy cycle is by far his favorite to scoot around the house in even though the front wheel is falling off and it is showing its age elsewhere.

Playtime at the farm

We also got to spend some time just playing at the farm which includes throwing stuff in the stream (rocks and sticks) as well as running around in the leaves and dismantling the fire ring.

Tractors and buggies

We spent a gorgeous afternoon out at the Schoff's farm in Vinton, Iowa. Papa got to show Braedyn how to operate all of the tractors and Braedyn got quite a kick out of it. He also got to go for a little ride with daddy on the little 4 wheeler.

Family

We've been in Iowa hanging out with family for the last few days. Braedyn has really been enjoying all of the extra attention and seems to have an affinity for being in the spotlight.

Here Braedyn plays with his second cousin, Miranda who is from Mexico and was having a lot of fun teaching Braedyn to count to ten in Spanish.
 

Playing the Piano with Papa Perry
 
 

Kindermusik

Braedyn has been going to Kindermusik pretty much since we moved to Washington. Mommy takes hime each week while daddy gets to tag along only every once in awhile. Braedyn really seems to enjoy it there, although he sort of hangs back a little and keeps an eye on what is going on. There are lots of songs to sing, different instruments to play and other kids to watch so it is always exciting. Many of the songs are well known at home, when he's told about Kindermusik he'll name off a couple of the songs with the one or two words that represent them to him, or break into a spontaneous groove dance that is in pure Braedyn style!

Traveling

On Thursday morning we packed up and headed to the airport to go to Iowa for the Thanksgiving holiday. We had a rather uneventful plane ride from Seattle to Denver and then from Denver to Cedar Rapids. It was certainly a little tougher this time around as Braedyn does not just sit still anymore and so was walking the aisles of the planes for a majority of the flight. Luckily he's sorta cute so most people just smile. As long as he isn't screaming I guess most people will be happy to see him.... On our flight out of Seattle we were taking a peak in the cockpit when the pilot came in. He invited Braedyn in to have a seat in the pilot seat and play around a bit with all the buttons and controls and encouraged daddy to take some pictures.

We made it in to Iowa just fine, Braedyn even did well without taking a nap the whole day!

Blocks

Braedyn's really gotten into stacking blocks up lately, mainly for the purpose of knocking the stack over once it is built up to a certain height. He really gets a kick out of the big CRASH.