Two Longs (+1): The Traveling Travelers who Travel... a lot

So, I’ve been trying to find time to update the blog with our post-Africa travels, and… Wait. Why does the calendar say it’s ~~December? Is it December? When did that happen?!?~~
Aah!! Even worse, it's January now! This update is so overdue.

Weeeeell, no time like the present. Sound good? Good. ‘Cause, here we go!

One would think, wouldn’t one, that after three months in Africa we’d want to come home and put our feet up for a while to recover from all that world-traveling and jet-setting, right? Wrong. We figured that since we were so used to living out of a suitcase that we should just keep going and visit everyone in the states that we can possibly think of before Ryan starts work at the university. And in case you’re a friend/family member of ours and are currently wondering to yourself, “well, I’m a friend/family member of theirs. Why didn’t they visit me?” It’s because (A) that “everyone we could possibly think of” was sarcasm. We visited quite a few people, but we were working within a finite amount of time and even we have our travel limits. Or (B) we just don’t like you that much.

Just kidding! Have no fear friend/family member. We’ll get to your house eventually. ;-)

And in case you’re not a friend/family member and you were wondering to yourself, “did they really visit that many people in three months?” Lemme tell ya!

We started out visiting my sister and her family in Ohio, (after a delayed flight fiasco in New Jersey that required a hotel room and a somewhat sleepless night). Mimi and Pops joined us there a little later in the visit. It was great for Caden to be able to see his cousins for a few weeks after three months of being without another kid to play with.

Man, we look so swashbuckling!

Peekaboo.

Gotta get dressed. We're pillaging a village today after nap time.

Alright, guys. Pretend you like each other.

Oops. I'm running out of batteries.

Just kidding. Ha ha! Tricked you!

A picture of all the "grands."

Pool time!

What kind of things can we drag in here that weren't intended to be pool toys?

The Light! It burns us, precious!

And then Joey grabbed the camera...

What is it about kids and drinking the water they play in?

Baby foot!

Caught in the act!

I was just pouring it out, Mom. Honest.

"Yeah, I think your flux capacitor is worn down from overuse. Where've you been driving this thing?"
"Just back to the future."

...I crack myself up...

The budding music snob snubs mommy.

And lastly, strong evidence that Erin and I both have a high level of nerd in us.

Yes we saw the movie, and yes we wore the t-shirts.

When that visit was finished, Mom and I drove (with Caden) over to Colorado. We spent about a week with the Grands, and Caden loved every minute of it.

Pops directs the movements of the bubble army.

The role of Godzilla will now be played by Caden.

Gun safety begins with proper training. ;-)

Mimi introduces Caden to the song he would continue to request every minute of every day that we visited.

...Thanks, Mimi...

The calling competition.

While we were in Colorado, there happened to be a Renaissance fair going on in Estes Park. So we ambled on over for a day.

I've never seen so many kilts in my life! Nearly every guy out there was wearing one, the babies that could barely walk, the strapping young lads, and the 90 year olds who could also barely walk. Thank goodness it wasn't a really windy day. ;-)

Sword shopping.

Band practice. They sound so cool. :-)

We also got to see a real jousting match--all the armor was real, all the jousts were real, all the horses were real--which was a real eye-opener, for me, to how the sport really works. It's not like in the movies at all. There are seconds of intense excitement followed by minutes of calming horses, false starts, poor aims, etc.

One thing that I thought was very interesting was that one of the professional jousters was a woman! Apparently she'd been doing this for some time because she kicked butt on that field, which was pretty impressive because, as you'll see in the pictures, some of the guys she went up against were pretty big!

Sir Something-or-other with Clifford the Big Brown Horse...

Sir Beefy McMohawk-something... The dude was huge.
I can't remember any of their names. :-/

I think this is the lady. There's really no way to tell, what with all that armor, but I think this is her.

And here she is preparing to give her opponent what for! You go, Sir Lady!

Next, we (Caden and I) flew to Portland to meet up with Ryan, who flew to Portland after dropping me and Caden off with my sister. Caden was so happy to see his daddy, and he also had a lot of fun spending a few days with the "grands" from the other side of the family.

Getting a short ride (from one end of the driveway to other) on Papa's Harley.

Helping Papa take out the trash.

Helping Daddy with firewood for a cookout that night.

Getting a snack in Nana's veggie garden.

Nana and Caden at the cookout.

One for the bowl, one for me. One for the bowl, two for me. One for the bowl, three for me...
Have I mentioned how much he loves tomatoes?

Ladybug!

He didn't care for the pepper too much.

After exploring the wilds of Africa, Caden braves the wilds of Nana's garden.

Here's the cherry tomatoes that Caden kept snacking on. I don't know what they fed these plants, but it sure worked. There were buckets and buckets of tomatoes on each plant! Caden loves tomatoes, but he'd never seen a tomato plant before. When he discovered that he could just walk over to the garden fence and pick whatever he pleased, he was one happy camper! Food right out of the ground? What an awesome idea!

Dramatic wheelbarrow shot!

Grandma's caiques are so fascinating!

I wanna poke it with a stick... parrots like that, right?

Okay. Well, we're about half-way through this post now... Hang in there, people. You can do this!

Next we flew to Idaho and moved in with some very good friends of ours, who are letting us stay with them while we save up and look around at houses and property (or until they get tired of having us here and decide to kick us out).

Exploring a piece of land outside of town. Beautiful, but it's not in our current price range. Still fun to look, though. Those kids don't look like they're up to anything suspicious at all, do they? ;-)

Jousting with babies! It's like traditional jousting, only even more dangerous.

Putting up the crib in the spare room.

Making a ginormous bowl of pearsauce. Mmm...

While we were with Chris and Jeannette we all decided to take a trip over to McCall, ID. Ryan had a meeting to go to near there, so we three hung out at the resort for a few days while Ryan had his meeting, and then we went sightseeing. McCall is a beautiful place, kind of touristy, but still very beautiful.

It was a little chilly outside.

Is he building a skyscraper or a deathstar? You be the judge.

Caden requesting his favorite song for the 47th time in a row.
yay.

Fun sighting while out and about, a pileated woodpecker! It was about the same size as a raven, and it let me get pretty close to take this picture. Probably pretty used to tourists gawking...

And now we have reached October, and our short trip back to New Jersey. We spent all of October there so Ryan could finish up some work at Princeton, so he attend the conference in Pittsburgh, PA, and so that we could get one last long visit in with all of the dear friends we now have on that side of the country.
Love you guys!

Caden on the plane. This kid is so well-traveled by now, it's crazy.

Visiting a farm with some of Caden's buddies. One last playdate before we leave NJ for good.

Somebody get that kid a haircut.

This is one of the two farm dogs. The only time I saw them not lolling around on the porch of the farm shop was when they were following kids around hoping for handouts, which they were obviously not in need of.
Can you say chubbeh?

I will plow a field thataway.

Pa Caden and Ma Eva drivin' their tractor to town. ;-)

How do you explain to a child that bunnies don't really like to play?

It was really ironic that the same birds I'd seen running around wild in Gorongosa (guinea fowl) I also found on a farm in NJ.

Strike a pose!

After New Jersey, and while Ryan was at that conference in Pittsburgh, I was able to spend some time with our very good friends in WV, which was such a treat since we both have children about the same age. They had a blast together, running around in fields, drawing with chalk, mashing play-dough, watching Curious George, and just having fun being kids. This was our last stop before traveling home to ID, and we packed as much as we could into the days of good weather that we had available to us. :-)

As a special treat we took them to a local zoo/discovery center to see some dinosaurs. Yay! What kid wouldn't go bonkers over that?

I wanna ride it. Can I ride it, mom?

They had a room-size automated train set! It was so cool. There were mountains and tunnels and shops and cars and people... and trains of course.

They were inspired to build their own train set.

After Ryan's conference we were all able to go to the Pittsburgh Zoo together. That was a cool experience!

Hi there.
Just like the snake at the beginning of the Harry Potter books. :-)

How tall are you compared to a rino?

Pretty kitty... behind some very thick glass.

This little mallard is the posterduck for persistence. She saw us giving the kids some cookie snacks and she dang near followed us across half the zoo. We had to throw some crackers at her and run away just so she would leave us alone.