Bringing Down the House

When we bought our Fort Collins abode we openly knew that our kitchen sucked.
Crappy electric stove, no discernible flow what so ever, a microwave that does not work ......

So, to ring in the new year we are tearing the mutha out.

Before

Anyone want to buy some used "vintage" oak veneer cabinets?

Here come the new windows, we actually don't need the lights on in the afternoon anymore.

Bye Bye Wall...
The Phil Edwards is poised to overlook the project (that's the surfboard for all those who may not know)

We cannot wait to get this done and start having some kitchen christening dinners. Everyone is invited.

Candygram... Plumber...

Axel had a great time at Halloween this year. He went as the landshark. For those of you who haven't seen the landmark SNL skit:



Many of our neighbors were confused when we knocked on the door and said, "flowers... telegram..." but they gave him candy anyway and he loved it!

Getting ready:


Got the bag:


Getting the hang of this trick or treating thing:


Not smiling but he got a bicyle on his pumpkin this year (one of his favorite things, along with trucks, cars and airplanes)


Close up of the teeth. So scary!

trip to Boston

I didn't do a very good job of taking pictures on our trip to Boston to visit the Griffiths, but here are a few.

Axel and Jun:


Getting ready to do (be?) laundry:


and the flight home, Axel in his 'own' seat:


Lucky for me Katie, blogger extraordinaire, did a fabulous series of posts on the trip with videos of Axel, Violet and Field and with Teresa and Jun, read more about it here, here, here and here.

1st haircut

It's a little hard to tell, but here's a post-trim shot of Axel (early October).

poppa vans and baby vans

Listen for "shoes", "whoa!" and watch as the big Vans turn in to very tiny Vans.

dad's got big shoes from Claudia Boot on Vimeo.

P.S. I know it's sideways, the IT department is working on it. In the meantime you'll have to tilt your head.

pacific northwest, part 2

From Eugene we drove to Myrtle Point, OR to celebrate Sarah and Barry's wedding. Myrtle Point is a bit inland so we also got out to the coast to visit Bandon.

It was windy.
The wedding was a spectacular farm affair with Rev. Dr. Paul Ralifo presiding.

The setting was gorgeous, accompanied by fine food and plenty of Pelican Ranch wine. Axel had a great time dancing and playing with all the other kids and meeting all of his graduate school cousins so-to-speak. Here's the Crews Lab (where I did my Ph.D.) emeriti along with the next generation.

This is the first time we've been to a wedding when he's been this mobile which made both more fun and tiring. Luckily he was also a champion sleeper; napping in the house during wedding prep and sleeping in the wedding night trailer while mom and dad enjoyed some late night dancing. Twice during the weekend we woke him between 12 and 1 am and transferred him to the crib in the hotel room with out many complaints. I think he had as much fun as we did.

On the way back to the airport we rendezvoused with AJ, Patrick and Fionn near Corvallis. AJ is one of the baTchies and if you'd like to know more about that go here. Two cuter boys I cannot imagine.

No so sure about the parents.

Other than a very delayed flight the rest of our trip was uneventful. I think it took a few days for all of us to catchup on sleep, work, learning new words, ect. Speaking of which, Axel probably has about 30 words in his vocabulary, and maybe about 6 of those words people that aren't his parents can recognize. My favorite new one is Mama. I'm in Alaska for field work right now and we're video chatting at night and the moment Axel sees me he says, "Mama!", it makes me melt into a little puddle on my chair.

We're off to visit the Griffith's in October where Axel and more BaTchie babes: Violet, Field (and possibly Jun!) will finally meet. I'm expecting good things and knowing the Griffiths, good food.

pacific northwest, part 1

We've had a busy and outstanding summer and to finish it off we took a trip through the Pacific Northwest. The journey started in Seattle where I was attending the International Society for Microbial Ecology meeting (I bet you've guessed about now that this is by Claudia writing). Rich and Axel met me half way through the week and while Rich was doing some business Axel and I toured what the city have to offer including the aquarium and pacific science center where the splashing-equipped water activities were the highlight (a theme that repeats itself throughout the trip).

We then jumped on an Amtrak train to visit Tim, Brook, Alex and Colin in Portland. The kids had a great time playing together and it was tons of fun to catch up with everyone. We visited the Japanese Garden and Portland Children's Museum. (This picture isn't the best, but I thought it was the funniest).

Splashing=fun.

We then headed south the Eugene to visit Mike and Sarah where Axel enjoyed helping Sarah water (read:soak himself entirely) the garden.