Jonas' 1st Birthday

We were so blessed to be able to share the fun of Jonas' 1st birthday with so much of our family. I made Jonas' cake egg free and dairy free and it was pretty tasty if I do say so myself.

We definitely didn't go all out with decorations as you can see from my home-made sign. But at least it was enough to pull together some semblance of a theme.

We had our friend Chip (who is a fabulous, professional photographer) shoot some family photos and displayed them on this table where guests were encouraged to write cards to Jonas. The cards were started with things like, "Jonas you are special because..." or "When I see Jonas I think...". So we got some really great responses! I think it will be neat for him to look back on those notes when he's older.
Here is the birthday boy wearing his birthday outfit in front of his birthday sign.















Ezra and Daddy were both pretty excited about Jonas' special day.
















Opening just a few of the many wonderful presents!














Ezra got almost as many presents as Jonas! This picture looks like he's asking, "Am I not supposed to open these? I thought you said these were mine??" He was a very good boy the whole evening.









Time for cake!


The aftermath.












Jonas with friends and family.
















Jonas helping with the clean up.











Happy and tired birthday boy.

new blogs

I just created two new blogs, so if you are checking--look at both....if you want. :) The next one will be about Jonas' first birthday party so stay tuned for that, as well as some more wrap up pictures from our trip to Houston.

The Houston Zoo

Here is Ezra with his cousin Armani. Ezra loves to be tickled and Armani loves to do the tickling.
















At the zoo:
Ezra and Armani sticking their heads out to see the gophers running around in the habitat.



Mike doing some gopher hunting too.















Ezra and Jonas petting/brushing the goats in the petting zoo. Maybe Ezra was warming up to the animals at this point because he had almost as much fun and Jonas did.




We went to the zoo with Mike's sister Jenifer and her kids Patrick and Armani, and Mike's dad and Mike's brother, Caleb. It was HOT (therefore the animals weren't very active), but everyone had a blast.



Here's Jonas in the lion water fountain.





















There was a tunnel that went through this aquarium. It took some coaxing, but Ezra finally decided to try it.

















Cooling off in the splash park and grilling some burgers.

Visit to Houston-Kemah

We just got back from a two-week visit to Houston. Since we had back to back over seas tours, the military graciously paid for 1 trip back home. It was nice because we flew commercial (as opposed to being at the mercy of a cheap, yet unpredictable military flight) AND we had 4 seats. Despite the extra room, the 9 1/2-10 hour flight was still not very pleasant as the kids refused to sleep for 90% of the flight.

This first picture was actually taken about a week before we left to go to Houston. We went on a bike ride and the boys fell asleep holding hands. Too sweet!

The next pics are of some backyard fun with a kiddie pool and bubbles. What more could a boy want?




A couple of days after we arrived in Houston, we took a trip down to Kemah. We walked around the boardwalk, watched Ezra play in the water, rode the train, fed some fish, and ate some seafood.

Ezra was really scared of this shark.



Nana and Jonas on the train.

We left for Paris around 10:30 and arrived about 2:30. Our hotel was in a great location. Just about 6 blocks from Sacre Couer and Moulin Rouge in Montmartre. The hotel didn't have parking so we had to pay 30 Euro to leave our car in a garage for 24 hours and haul 2 kids and luggage a block or so back to the hotel. Thank goodness we packed light--as light as you can with 2 kids--one of which needed to sleep in a pack-n-play.


After we settled in a bit, we got out for some sightseeing. We took the Metro (subway) to the Louvre stop but didn't go in the museum. We were attempting to follow a walking tour (that went about 2 km down to Notre Dame), but went the wrong way.
We started walking though Jardin des Tuileries and then figured out that we needed to go the opposite direction. We walked down the Seine to the Pont Nuef, the oldest bridge across the river. It was completed in 1607. The first pic is of Mike and Ezra with the bridge behind them.
Then we made our way to Saint Chapelle. Finished in 1248, it was built to house Christ's relics in the possession of Louis IX, including the crown of thorns. It has amazing stained glass windows that were removed during the Revolution and both World Wars to keep them protected. Much of the chapel was destroyed in the Revolution, but 2/3 of the windows are original.





Then it was off to Nortre Dame.
Ezra was crashed out in the stroller by this time. We didn't go up to the top--too difficult with the kids. We walked around the perimeter of the inside (while a Sunday evening mass was going on with singing-very cool).





Then it was dinner time and off to Hard Rock-Paris. It was only a few blocks from our hotel, so we took the Metro back to Montmartre to eat.
We wanted to see the Eiffel Tower at sunset, so we took the Metro back down town. We had a fun time chilling out on the grassy mall in front of the tower and got some great pictures. Ezra chased birds and Mike chased Ezra. Jonas and I took pictures.



Lots and lots of pictures...

Me giving Jonas a kiss.

Jonas giving me a kiss.




Ezra running around.




Then we walked up to the tower and stood in line for about 5 minutes. Then we realized that it probably was not going to work out. It was already about 9 pm, an hour past the kid's bedtime and we probably weren't going to be at the top until about 10 pm at the earliest. So we walked back down the mall. We had hoped to wait around long enough to see them turn the lights on, but at 9:30 and probably another hour or so until it got dark enough, we decided to call it a night. Jonas was asleep by 11 and Ezra 11:30. It was a late night!


More pictures...




Jonas woke up at 4 am. Usually if he wakes up in the night at home, I ignore him and he goes back to sleep within a few minutes. However, in a hotel room he can see me in the bed, just an arm's length away and he's not as willing to go back to sleep. Plus, I had to believe that the hotel walls were not very thick, so I didn't want a bunch of travellers angry with us for having a crying baby at 4 am. So Jonas was up for about an hour. Thank goodness Ezra went right back to sleep after Jonas woke him up.
We got up and had a breakfast of juice, coffee, croissants, and bagguettes and then headed off to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa. It was crowded, hot, and the elevators were hard to find and not very conveniently located. Mike hauled the stroller up a lot of stairs. Jonas was tired from the late night and waking up in the middle of the night. He's also weaning so he wasn't very happy and all of our patience was wearing thin. We didn't really have anything else in mind to seek out at the Louvre so we just wandered around a bit. We found ourselves in an African sculpture exhibit which was pretty cool. Ezra was scared of many of the sculptures--especially the ones with teeth. Here's a picture of Mike and Ezra in front of a giant head. After that, it was nearing lunch time so we decided to end our short trip to the Louvre. Here's a pic of Ezra playing in the fountain in front of the Louvre.

We decided to walk to the Arc de Triomphe (about 3 1/2 km) through the Jardin de Tuileries and down Champs Elysees. We grabbed some fruit along the way.







Somehow my camera got a giant smudge on the lens right before we took the pics at the Arc. :( We didn't go up to the top here either, but we snapped a few pictures. Then jumped on the Metro back up to Sacre Couer. We hiked up to the base of the stairs and took some pictures. We didn't have enough time to go to climb the stairs (or ride the funicular) to the top. Then we walked back down to the parking garage and headed home.


Traveling is never easy with the kids, and it was a quick trip, (and expensive) but worth it. It was Mike's first time and he really enjoyed it. We all had lots of fun!

This video isn't the greatest. It shows Ezra chasing a pigeon, which he did a lot of in Paris. And then he runs back to a stroller that he thinks is his and gets embarassed. Sorry--that's the best I could do for a video during our trip to Paris. I should have gotten him chasing birds in front of the Eiffel Tower. Oh well.