It's almost hockey time!

Well, it is getting close to that time of year where skating and hockey sessions start up for the season. Nathan will be starting hockey lessons and needed all the gear to go with it. Here he is all decked out in pads and pants, socks and underwear with a built in cup (he isn't too fond of the cup, I can't imagine it is very comfortable, but invited Nicholas to "knock on it"). Nicholas will be starting skating lessons, but wanted to try on Nathan's gear as to not be left out, so included are some pics of Nick. The pants kept falling down, I guess he needs to gain some weight before he starts hockey next fall. It will be a busy season to say the least!

The Hobo Express

It has been six months since my last blog, sorry I haven't kept current with updates on the boys. Well now that it is summer and school is out for most, I now have time to work on the blog (I also figured out how to download pics with my new camera and computer). The pictures above are from an outing that my dad, myself and the boys took on the Winnipesaukee railroad
during one of the many rainy days we have had this past week. The boys were extremely excited to ride on the train. They got a hobo bag, stick and coloring books, while my dad and I got lunch aboard the train (Nate and Nick had their usual PB&J). We rode from Weirs beach to Meredith station and back to the Weirs. It was a one hour ride and Nathan asked if we could ride it for "three days" After the train ride ended Nicholas spotted the bumper cars and desperately wanted to ride them, however when the time came to actually ride he was a bit apprehensive until I got in the car myself. My dad rode with Nathan and they were constantly on our tail. The day wouldn't have been complete without an ice cream to top off the adventure!

Hitting the Slopes

Nathan riding the magic carpet at Gunstock

Nathan and Nicholas on the magic carpet with me holding Nick's hand

Me, helping Nick glide down the slope

Mami taking Nathan for his first ride on the chair lift

Nathan opening it up at the bottom of the trail with Mami chasing after him



Here are some pics of the boys skiing. It was Nathan's first time this season, he had been twice last year, and Nick's first time ever. The weather was clear but very cold and windy, Nick did not want to be in the wind so I figured he wouldn't even put the skis on. After he watched Nathan come down the bunny slope he decided to give it a try. I think mostly he wanted to ride the magic carpet. He pretty much glided down on his own with just me holding his hand or riding in between Mami's snowplow. Nick went down about 3 or 4 times and decided he was ready to go back to the car. While Nick and I were heading back to the car my mom and Mike stayed with Nathan. Nathan wanted to go on the chair lift so my mom took him up for his first ride. He did very well riding the chair, and skiing down mostly on his own. I think before the season is done both boys will have the hang of skiing!

Christmas 2008

Nathan decided he should try out his cousin Lux's baby stroller to make sure it was working ok

Relaxing with Uncle Mickey after all the festivities

Lux very interested in Nick's cars

Nick loves his firetruck/city which is on the inside

I am finally back up and running with the blog. We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year! One of my Christmas presents was a new camera which wasn't much of a surprise since Nathan was very excited to tell me all about my new camera. However, when Dan was getting the SD card out of the old camera to put into the new one he decided to take the battery out as well and then reinsert it (which I had done numerous times while trying to fix it) and the camera decided to work again. So now I have two cameras which is good in case the old one decides to take a break on me again. The last time I posted was back in October so since then Nathan has been taking skating lessons and is doing very well. Nicholas has gotten on skates and has made progress with standing and bearing his weight on the skates while holding hands with Dan and actually shuffling his feet a little bit. We had a wonderful Christmas filled with love and gifts. The boys were very excited for Santa to come. Nathan did ask how Santa was going to get through our fireplace since we have a glass panel on it? I told him that Santa could put himself inside by magic. He seemed to think a better idea would be for Santa to break the glass. I told him that if Santa broke the glass then he would wake us up and then he wouldn't be able to leave the gifts. That seemed to be a good enough explanation for now! Nicholas was excited as well but hasn't quite started thinking rationally about the entire Santa process, he was just happy to have lots of paper to rip into. Overall it was a great Christmas and a happy new year!

Nathan's Preschool Pictures

Here are Nathan's first set of school pictures! I can't believe they came out so good. I guess I thought he wouldn't cooperate and would act silly, since he isn't always so candid with the camera, or maybe it is the delay on my camera that doesn't always capture the image I am trying to get. I totally forgot that Oct. 1st was picture day, we had just gotten back from Disney that Saturday so had I remembered he would have been wearing a collard shirt. He is loving preschool and making friends. Colin, Julia, and Sydni are the same three names he always says when we ask who his friends are. Colin is sitting right in front of him in the class picture, and Julia is wearing the black shirt, I am not sure which one is Sydni I will have to have him point her out. I would have had more posts between October 5th and now but my camera has been acting up and according to HP tech support it is a malfunction and I need a new camera. The only way I was able to add the school pics was by scanning them. I guess I have to have the rest of the pics on my camera card printed out so I can then post them. Needless to say I will have to take a blogging hiatus for the time being until we resurrect the old camera or get a new one. Until then, I will do what I can!

Nick's 3rd Birthday

October 2 was Nicholas' third birthday. We had a birthday celebration, just the four of us. Nicholas is crazy about cars and that is all he kept asking for. We saved that present for last, he could barely stand the suspense, he pretty much knew which present had the cars. When he finally got to open the cars he was so excited. To him it probably seemed like an eternity to get the cars out of the box. Once they were all out Dan and Nick lined them up so he could get a good look at his collection. He kept saying "I love cars" and enjoyed discovering the types of cars they were. Next up was ice cream cake. He loved the singing and being able to blow out the candles, but probably not as much as diving mouth first into the cake (I guess I better work on some table manners). He devoured his piece of cake in no time at all, either he really enjoyed it or he was anxious to get back to his cars. Either way he was happy!

Disney World Vacation 2008

Animal Kingdom LodgeViews of Wildlife from our balconyNick excited to ride in the Disney Fire TruckWaiting to meet the Characters

Meeting Mickey for the first timeMeeting many other favoritesPluto is Nathan's favoriteThe Coffeys and the GangRafiki at Animal Kingdom ParkThe Rapids at Animal Kingdom Park


Here are some pictures from our Disney Vacation. We stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge which was amazing. We had a wildlife reserve right outside our room. We got to wake up to Ankole Cattle, Zebra, Giraffe, Kudu, Ostrich, and some other species from Africa. However, I think the highlight of the trip for Nick was getting to ride the shuttle bus, and for Nathan was bunk beds which he wanted to take home with us. We visited The Magic Kingdom on Monday. We were told that the park opens at 8am and that the buses start running at 7am. So I managed to get everyone up at the @#$ crack of dawn so that we wouldn't have to wait in such a long line to get in. Many people had breakfast reservations with certain characters so they were able to enter the park early. We arrived at 7:30am and were asked if we had a breakfast reservation to which we replied that we did not, the guard notified us that the park does not open until 9am. We were told to speak with a park representative who asked our names and where we were from. At this point we are clueless as to what is going on, thinking we are going to have to hang around for an hour and a half with a 4 year old and almost 3 year old, which if you know our boys, that is no easy task. We were instructed to sit and wait and we would be picked up by a driver, (we are still unaware of what is going on at this point) The representative brings out two autograph books and pens for the boys and explains that we are the "First Family" and will get to help Mickey and the other characters Open the park. Our driver arrived and took us over to Toon Town where we got to meet several characters and get their autographs and have our pictures taken with them (both boys were a little uneasy meeting the characters at first but soon warmed up to the whole experience). If you have ever been to Disney you know that you usually have to wait in line to meet any of the characters so this was a pretty big deal. We then proceeded onto the train and rode it into the train station where we were introduced and asked to help Mickey with the countdown for the park to open. After the opening, we proceeded to the rides. Nathan's favorites were Goofy's roller coaster and the go-carts, and Nick's favorite was the go-carts. Dan and I probably scarred them for life on the Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion, although I think they were more petrified with the Mansion. All in good fun! The next two days we just relaxed around the pool, ventured over to downtown Disney, and the Boardwalk. On Thursday we went to the Animal Kingdom theme park. We went on the safari and a few kids rides, as well as the raging rapids which Nicholas was not to happy that he got wet, but Dan and Nathan got right back in line for a second go around. Both Dan and I took a ride on "Everest" the roller coaster. Our last stop for the day was a showing of "It's tough being a bug" which is an interactive 3D show with characters from "A bug's Life". This pretty much freaked both boys out, luckily it was a short show! The food was good, the weather was sunny and hot, and it was definitely a Magical Vacation which I know I won't soon forget!