Chocolate, Sugar Fun

Last weekend we decided to visit the South Bend Chocolate Factory and go on their free tour.

If you want some chocolate, you need to wear your hair net.

Waiting in line to receive our free sample. Nearly perfect chocolates are good enough for us!

Here we are.

Yum!

Where did my chocolate go?

Please mom, can I have another chocolate?

A rabbit as big as Ryan.


Ryan decided to brush up on his investment knowledge. It's not really a posed picture. He really wanted to look at it and then started to flip through the pages.

This weekend we went with our housing complex to Sugar Camp Days. It is a celebration of Maple Syrup. What gets better then that? They had cooking demonstrations, juggling, horse drawn wagon rides, baked goodies, maple cotton candy, maple caramel corn, crafts and ice sculptures.

Looking at the horses. The ice sculptures are in the background (not as exciting).

Pancake breakfast with sausages, milk and maple syrup. I was told the maple syrup comes from the park. Ryan liked it so much he tried to drink it out of the little cups it came in. And they had run out of forks so we ate with spoons and knives ;)

Ryan thought this dog was the best part of the whole day.

Making a pioneer button toy. I was impressed with how carefully and meticulously he scribbled on it. Never got any sharpie on his hand.

Mom, does this look good?

Our last stop was to the nature center were we saw some bees.

At this point I should probably have uploaded out ultrasound pictures, but they are all in a long strip on our fridge and I'm lazy. But we're going to shake things up a bit and have a girl. Jesse knew about half way through the ultrasound. I again was a little lost and the technician moved the camera thing around. Ryan just stared past me at the monitor completely mesmerized, not moving or saying a word. Baby looks good and she is spot on growth wise for the number of weeks I am (was).

Update... and a guess

First of all, it is no longer snowing or freeze/thawing. The weather has been warmer like the high thirties :)

Really big icicle outside our building. It kind of blends in with the electrical wire on the side of the building so it isn't as long as it looks, but still really long. They had to come a few times this winter and knock them down.

Why we didn't make it to Ben's endowment. And we were very sad :(

It has stopped snowing and we can see mud and some grass.

Jesse has learned how to engineer giant bugs out of Legos.

The first batch

These ones are big enough to ride

Ryan is looking super handsome in his church clothes. He is loving nursery and barely says good bye before running in. Big change from his first few weeks.

Ryan has a big boy bed. I'm sure you can't see anything in this picture, but he's there I promise. He loves his bed more for playing than for sleeping, but he still sleeps in there alright.

Ryan's post Valentine's Day romantic gesture. I was making the bed and Ryan found one of his old church toys (flowers in a plastic jar from our wedding) and dumped them all over the bed. Cutie isn't he?

Bubbles... Ryan loves bubus and will push the chair into the kitchen anytime you are washing dishes. Or any other time Jesse or I are doing something in the kitchen. Ryan will yell bellper bellper (helper). He will ask for his apron to be put on and he will stir or shake spices, dump measuring cups or push the start button on the bread maker. He's a helper alright :)

Ryan loves stikies (stickers) and will search the desk trying to find a piece of paper to stick them on. Sometimes he settles for his forehead, this happens more than one might think.

Trying to get a picture of him is quite the chore. Usually he wants to see the beebee and will run to the other side of the camera and sit on my lap to see him.

Ryan likes to plug things in; baby monitors, vacuums, fans, power strips, AV cables, Wii nun-chucks, headphones anything. There is one outlet in our house he can get to and luckily it has a light switch attached to it. He will drag the vacuum from the living room into the bedroom just to get to it and plug it in. He likes to plug the nun-chuck into the headphone jack and then pretend to shave his hair. He also likes to open up the Wii controller box, take our the controller and point it at the TV and shake the controller. When Ryan isn't plugging things in, he's climbing, building or playing with something with wheels. He's learning to say prayers and will kneel on the ground and fold his arms for a few seconds before Jesse leaves in the morning.


Good thing Ryan is learning to occupy himself because...

he'll have competition soon. Anyone want to make a gender guess?

Ryan's 1st Hair Cut

It took two parents, some cool toys, a pen and paper for scribbling and a cookie, but we have stayed the course and it doesn't even look that bad :)

Got Milk?

Florida Part 2

So the blogging has fallen a little behind. The end of the Florida trip first, then Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Years. This could take until Valentine's Day. Luckily we now have later church so perhaps I will find more "time" ;)

This post will cover the pre-launch party and Disney World

Ryan enjoying some delicious food at the pre-launch party.

Refreshments

My uncle is in quarantine so this is the flat version.

Hey, Uncle Mike over here!

Cousin Jamie and Chris's wife (?)

Chris (my Uncle's brother), my Aunt Lesia and cousin Jamie

Breakfast as the Sunrise Cafe. The Motel we stayed at didn't have it's own food so they gave us daily vouchers for breakfast.

Ron Jon Surf Shop

Disney World with Aunt Tater and Grandma Carrie

Jumping with Dad. Each jump did something different to the doors up above. This is the only one that made a good noise.

I saw these guys pushing ovens around Disney World. So we decided to check it out. It turned out to be a very cool drumming performance. There is also a good video on my video camera, but I have yet to figure out how to post those (because they are huge files).

Outside the Beauty and the Beast gardens.

Inside the Indian(?) walk around area.

Ryan really was there. He just rode in the backpack for part of the time.

View of the Disney World dome from across the lake.

Toy train in the German section.

Ryan and Jesse in front of the Werther's candy shop in Germany. They had very delicious caramel corn.

Look at these people we found at Disney World.

In front of the dome

What is going on over there?

Happy Boys