Has it been 2 years??

I found a slip of paper among my records that I had scribbled a note of a few funny things Timmy had said.  It's hard to believe it was almost 2 years ago that he was just starting to talk and say these funny things!

When Timmy saw Scott put on his badge for work at NASA, Timmy said:
"Daddy's wearing a daddy ticket!"

"Mommy - stay back here!" was a common Timmy saying back then.  He always wanted me close by, and would command it over and over.

Timmy liked to play with tape when he could get it.  He got a piece of tape and put it on me and exclaimed "Momm is a star!" and then as he put it on his back, "I a train!"

The kids are happily playing and exploring here in Cleveland.  Today Scott took them to the Cleveland Zoo, and they had a great time!   I enjoyed a much needed day off.  This week, I took the boys, swimming, to the library (3 times), to the gym several times, on lots of walks, to the park, to the store, grocery shopping.  We are joined at the hip...me and my boys.  Today was a good catch up day to organize life and make more plans for the next few weeks!

Best news of the past couple weeks has been that we found an apartment in Aachen!  And we have two Kindergartens for the boys that are saving room for them.  I have appointments with both to tour them the week we get to Aachen, and then we can decide.

Scott is trying to write, write, write and get his projects complete before we leave.  Working at NASA is going well.  He got a computer this week at work, which is great, so he doesn't have to work on his laptop anymore!

Wacky Ohio

So, we just had a very nice Saturday, with the temperatures in the low 70s and barely a cloud in the sky.  We wanted to go hiking, and had heard a rumor about a cool place to go called Thompson's Ledges.  Since it was only an hour away, we packed up and headed out to the middle of nowhere, Ohio.  

One of the first things that struck our fancy was this water pump.  To you and me, it's just a water pump.  But, to a 2 year old, it is a curious source of unending entertainment.  I have no idea how Aaron was actually able to get the thing going, but he had to rock his whole weight on to it.  Good thing he had that extra bowl of cereal this morning!

So we start on the hike, and immediately found ourselves going town this little slot-canyonesque crack, which was about 2 or 3 feet wide and dripping wet, but pretty awesome.  Slot canyons in Ohio, whoda thunkit?
 

Anyway, the whole "ledges" are these cliffs that are totally overgrown with moss.  What's more, the rock seemed to be unable to decide whether it was a moss carpet, southern utah sandstone filled with pock-marks and striations, or a miniature version of Maple-canyon cobblestone.  Very neat, and something I would have never expected to find in Ohio.

So after hiking around these cliffs for a while, we come to this big sand dune.  Seriously, a sand dune!  And it was really fine sand too.  We were 10 or 20 miles away from lake Eerie, in the middle of the great moss kingdom at the base of some crazy cliffs, and we ran into a huge sand dune.  I was perplexed, absolutely stunned.  I was wondering if a sleep-deprived mother nature was working a little too late in the night when she created this section of the planet, when all of the sudden........

.... we saw the concrete factory. * 

*Note: if this doesn't make any sense to you, yes you should feel uneducated and ashamed.  I know I would.  Sand is in fact one of the main ingredients of concrete.  The "sand dunes" that we listlessly frolicked upon were, in actuality, a huge industrial stockpile of imported sand, destined to become your office building, parking structure, driveway, or the barricade that you "kiss" with your car because you think that you can text and drive at the same time.  As you are paying some crooked autobody shop a small fortune to correct your little mishap, just know that the unyielding wall that caused more than cosmetic damage to your ride could have once been my son's sand castle.  How's that for deep? 

Oh, and then we went to Kirtland, one of the early settlements of us Mormons.  That's all, nothing zany and/or witty to write about that.  My apologies.

Just about DIED laughing when I saw this on Facebook!

Nice Southern Utah Pics

So as part of our extensive travels, we got to spend a weekend with my brother and his family in southern Utah.  I wanted to send him these nice pictures, but why not just put them on the blog? 

I really like this one as a desktop background: it's a very nice color, and lots of interesting lines.

 I don't know who "coco" and "jj" are, but I want to be clear, I do not support their actions.  Shame on them.  But I liked the texture.  I thought about going into photoshop and changing it to "world peace" or something more meaningful, but my weak skills would just butcher it.

Lizard tracks.