With temperatures continuing to be incredibly low and snow continuing to accumulate, indoor activities have been the name of the game. The latest fun game that Jen has discovered is having the guys clean the windows. They don't exactly do a great job, in fact they do a terrible job, but it still happens to be one of the neatest activities we can give them.
Jen had the boys alone a couple of weekends ago so she had to be creative in how to occupy their time.
They have become even more obsessed with Elmo. The word "Elmo" probably accounts for 40% of all words they say. This usually involves them pointing at a TV, phone, or laptop since they now now that all these devices we own are nothing but mere portals to endless Elmo entertainment.
Jen took them out to play in the yard after the major snow stopped last weekend.
She took them on a fun sled ride.
They even built a snowman!
The whole family journeyed downtown last Saturday to get their feet measured and get them new shoes. We also got the bonus entertainment of getting to watch other pedestrians slip and fall on all the ice throughout town.
At the shoe store, Martin was quick to do what he does best: identify a bear. Although he pronounces it: BEE-oww.
On Sunday I got home from work and quickly put together some pretty shabby tacos for a quick dinner with the family.
Grandad played with Elliott.
Auntie Lauren entertained Martin and Evelyn.
Grandma, however, seemed concerned as she held Evelyn.
It looked like she knew something. Something terrible.
No matter! Martin and Elliott had a great time in the bath!
And my beer spreadsheet had approached the number 1,000! This put some pressure on me as to what beer I should have to celebrate this landmark.
I chose this Chimay Speciale Cinq Cinquantes which I've been aging for almost two years. This was a fantastic beer to celebrate the 1,000th beer since record-keeping began.
Unfortunately, Grandma's sense of foreboding was for good reason.
On Monday Lauren and Doug were knocked out of commission by a horrible stomach virus. On Tuesday, Grandma and Grandad were the next to fall. Early Thursday morning I succumbed to this horror. On Thursday night both the Wombats fell. On Friday there was Evelyn.
It looked like Jen would be the only one to avoid this terrible plague. Alas, it was not to be and on Sunday she finally hit the sack and I took over Wombat-care duties as she recovered for her flight to Salt Lake City on Tuesday morning.
Both the guys were so sick that they both fell asleep randomly during the day, something that hasn't really happened in six months. Such was the power of this stomach illness. Elliott recovered quickly (only to replace stomach illness with an eye infection) but it took Martin about five days to finally shake it.
During the day they guys were, for the most part, in good spirits. Martin was in such good spirits the other night that he was sitting in my lap, went to spring up quickly and toppled over, hitting his nose on the floor and giving himself his first ever bloody nose.
I'm always glad when I can be there for their milestones. Even the really terrible ones.
Jen returns on Friday and I'm hoping she brings some good luck from Salt Lake City so that we may have a better week on her return than we had before her departure.
I'm just hoping that Doom Grandma doesn't predict any additional maladies.