January in Pictures

After returning from our Winter Adventures, we settled back into our normal routine and in addition to all the preparation and planning for Logan's First Birthday, we also managed to do some interesting things close to home.

The kids have been enjoying playing with their Christmas Gifts of course.

Our first weekend back in town, we took RJ to the Hiller Aviation Museum since it was Open Cockpit Day. RJ got to sit in some cockpits and pretend to fly airplanes, which he absolutely LOVED. He loved the simulators that they have there as well. RJ and I should never try to fly a helicopter together though. We kept crashing.


The next weekend RJ and Hayden had a great outdoor play date. We had been out a few times in the snow in Buffalo, and January has been very rainy here, so I hadn't been getting outside with the boys as much as we were used to. It was great to get outside and active. Plus, RJ enjoyed having Hayden to run around with since Logan can't really keep up yet.

Then of course, we had Logan's Birthday Party and AFC Championship Weekend (Go Steelers!).

And we ended the month with getting RJ involved in his first volunteer experience. We all went and helped clean up the trails at Muir Woods for a morning. Our group was responsible for flossing deck, which meant that we poked all the mud, needles, and leaves out from between the planks of wood that made up the bridges and wooden walkways through the National Monument. We had to get up really early to get there by 8:30am, but it was well worth it. The volunteering started out a little rough because RJ approaches anything new with obstinateness. But once given a choice to sweep or use the dust pan (he wanted to sweep and the broom was unavailable initially), he warmed up to the idea and quickly switched over to the dust pan (the tool originally intended for him) and stuck with it for the next few HOURS. He quite happily scooped up piles of the flossed organic matter and plopped it in bags (they use it for mulch in other areas). He would hold the dustpan for sweepers or just pick up piles left by them. Either way, he was quite helpful and I would argue an indispensable part of the team. He was really proud of himself for being a good volunteer too. Logan also helped by riding in the Ergo, happily, the whole time. At break time, I nursed him and let him run around a little, but otherwise, he bopped around with me, looking at all the trees and then after break, he fell asleep on my back.

Since we were already in Marin county, we took the kids to the Bay Area Discovery Museum in the afternoon. We changed out of our dirty clothes and moved on to the important task of playing. The kids loved it and so we converted our admission fees to a membership. Now we can go to it whenever we want and get deep discounts at other museums (even across the country). Here, RJ and Daddy play with sharks that RJ named Bruce, Stew, and Dinner.
And Logan is getting to the age where he can join in the fun too!

It was quite a busy month! As always, click on the pictures to see the whole albums.