Family Time This Weekend

Picnic dinner in the side yard:

First Jimmie Cone of the season:

Couch time with Daddy and iPhone games:

The Monthly Costco Run

Family Day Afternoon

Today at Our House

Monday is Dave's day off and our "Saturday," so Dave and I slept in, along with Graham, who contentedly snoozes on and off until we come to wake him. I know--most amazing three-year old ever.

Dave made our traditional Monday breakfast of scrambled eggs (known here as "Daddy's Eggs Fabuloso") and toast. Of course, it's not quite that simple. We always have two kinds of toast, whole wheat for Dave, Matthew and Esme, and gluten free for Meg, our celiac girl. Graham, who can't have eggs at all, had instant oatmeal. I, who eat mostly grain-free, had peanut butter on a banana with my eggs.

Now Dave is in the shower and the kids are sliding down the stairs in their sleeping bags, screeching at the top of their lungs.

Our entire living room floor is covered with toys, despite the fact that the kids cleaned it up beautifully just last night. I guess that's one consequence of sleeping in.

We have no plans until late this afternoon.

It's snowing very lightly outside.

Ahh, sweet Mondays.

(Whoops, no irony or meanness intended there... I promise we're working hard on the weekends, when most people have their down time!)

New Year's Outing

Over New Year's we had the pleasure of a nice, leisurely visit from Jan. It was the first time we've seen her since Dad died in October, and it was so good to be with her, to talk, to remember, and to process how, for all of us, life continues.

On January 1st we went downtown and stood in line to see the model trains at the U.S. Botanical Gardens. I think it took about half an hour for us to get into the train room--not a bad wait, given that the line moved quickly and we never stood in one place for more than a few minutes. Here's a shot of Jan and Meg, just before we made it into the train room.

And then... Thomas. All of my pictures are blurry, but they do capture something of our Graham's excitement about seeing the engines whoosh around the tracks and through the tunnels.

There was squealing, and there was jumping up and down, and there was gasping with hand over mouth. Repeatedly. Dramatic? No, not us.

The theme of this year's exhibition was the U.S Exploring Expedition, which took place from 1838 to 1842, and of which I had never heard before. Here are Graham and Esme in front of the U.S.S. Porpoise, flagship of the expedition.

And here's Meg with a model of the Queen Anne's Revenge, a.k.a. flagship of Blackbeard.

There were many other cool things packed into the relatively small train room--more ships, lighthouses, a grotto with imbedded underwater scenes, a waterfall with mermaid. And I think, looking back (though I could be wrong), that all of the scenery was made from plant matter. It was really nifty.

Since it was January 1st, and since I am working to read the Bible straight through in 2015 (something I have not done in years), I had read Genesis 1 that morning. So it was lovely to stroll through the rest of the indoor displays, which featured a dizzying diversity of botanic life, and see for myself some of the things God spoke into existence so long ago. I wasn't really taking pictures after we left the train room, but then in the large jungle display we bumped into an orchid with a familiar name...

Then I walked into the official orchid room, and the camera flew into my hand of its own accord. As you know, I am no photographer, but orchids? Orchids defy you to take a bad picture.

The only other planty picture I took was of these gorgeous little kumquats, with which I was (and am) utterly smitten.

I don't think I've ever tasted a kumquat...

Just before we left, this lady showed our kids how to make little houses out of plant stuff.

And I had to take a picture of this impressive model of the Capitol (currently much more impressive than the real Capitol dome, which is obscured by dense scaffolding).

And here's our crew in front of the model of the Botanical Gardens itself!

OK, just two more pics, I promise.

At lunch, Esme insisted on having her portrait taken with JanJan:

And then we went over to the National Museum of Natural History, which was a mob scene. I mean, swarming with people. We didn't stay there long. But again, our daughter required a shot of the iconic elephant in the rotunda, because elephants are Esme's favorite animal. (She's alliterative that way.)

Magnificent, no?

What a fun and memorable way to spend the first day of a brand new year.

Hiking Sugarloaf

A couple of weeks ago on our family day, we packed up water and snacks, climbed into the van, and wound our way over country roads decked in autumn glory to Sugarloaf Mountain. Now I've heard cynics call it "Sugarlump," and it's true that the only notably elevated point in our immediate area doesn't exactly rise to the level of "purple mountains majesty." However, as we Wilcoxes learned, it's quite enough mountain for a family with small children who are all hiking on their own two feet!

There's my crew, laboring uphill.

Graham, who was pretty miserable that day, was nonetheless determined to be a "rock climber." He just wasn't quite clear on what that meant.

Now there's a climbable rock.

Did I mention that our Graham was not doing so well that day? Check out his hilariously pained "smiles" in our group shots.

Queen of the Hill!

One tired boy...

We had to give up long before reaching the summit, but we did make it to a sweet overlook where we were rewarded with this view:

Hooray for lovely fall!

Park Day

Oh my, little blog.

Well, no time to waste in lamenting. Let's get right down to business. Recent pictures, from one of our spring family days lately... the littles did the swings with me while Daddy took the big kids to practice bike riding on the baseball field.

Then Graham spent some time exercising his valiant steed, er... chipmunk, which he said was a fox. And if you don't know what a two-year-old sounds like when he tries to say "fox," well, then, you might have been one of the people raising their eyebrows at me that morning.

There was a guy at the park with a super cool remote-controlled airplane. I'm guessing it had about a 3-foot wingspan. He was really good at flying that thing--it was a fairly windy day, and he had no problem making it do just what he wanted. We had so much fun watching it loop and soar and glide to a halt on the green soccer field.

But the really exciting news of the day was that bike-riding finally really "clicked" for Meg, and Matthew had some nice long runs too! It was great, because Meg went into that day so discouraged that she has no place to practice safely at home (we live at the top of a hill, with no driveway) and convinced that she would never get it. But it was her day after all.

Lunchtime with Esme

One family day, as we all (except Graham) sat around the table for a late lunch, I noticed that all eyes were riveted on my hands as I crumbled a granola bar into my fruit-and-yogurt bowl. "Wow," I said, "everyone is staring at my hands."

"It's strangely fascinating," replied my husband, without taking his eyes from my food.

"Yeah," agreed Meg, still riveted.

"Yeah," echoed Matthew, entranced.

"I don't really think so," said Esme cooly, taking a bite of her mac 'n' cheese.

(Es continues to be our independent child, definitely ok with forming her own opinions and sticking to them!)

Bike-Riding Family Day

These pictures are from one Monday back in... late March? early April? Either way, it was one of the first Mondays that we had good weather here, and we took the kids to a nearby park so they could get in some bike riding. It was a beautiful afternoon.

It was also the first day Graham ever wore shoes of any kind. Had to take a picture of that!

Meg worked on learning to ride with no training wheels...

...while the younger kids hung out in the grass.

Here she comes!

Later, at the playground...

This girl loves her baby brother so much, and they are so sweet together.

Here's to many more outdoor family days to come!