Lake Myra Christmas show

This is an amazing Christmas lights show that we went to see tonight. They have 175,000 lights timed to music that you pick up on a radio station. This video does not do the show justice, but you get the idea.

All of the boys loved it, especially Rylan who "sang" along to the music and clapped his hands. But I think I liked it the most. It was like getting fireworks for Christmas!

Cole Says...

Cole: I woojally like to read easy books.

Me: You usually like to read easy books.

Cole: Usually?

Me: Yes.

Cole: (pausing to think)...Well then what does woojally mean?

There he is...my little one year old.

Rylan had a very uneventful birthday. I made him a cake that we took with us to Baskin Robbins and got ice cream. That's it. We didn't even get him any presents. Poor kid...I'll bet he'll be traumatized.

Also, it turns out that Rylan doesn't like ice cream. :)

Cute pics of Rylan

Here he is taking his first steps. He turns 1 year old tomorrow, so he better figure it out soon.




This video is mostly to show off his new haircut. My sister Miriam did it over Thanksgiving, and I spent the rest of the day moping around. Miriam kept saying, "You told me to cut it!" It takes some getting used to, but I think he looks cute now. Just older.

Watching my babies grows up always makes me so sad. I took Cole to Target the other day to get some mittens, and after trying the little kid's section, I had to take him to the big kid's section. My little Colie Polie is a big kid!

Music Lessons

Last year I was driving around with Erin's nephew Tristin (who was 17 at the time) and we were talking about music and I made the comment that "some people consider Avril Lavigne to be Emo" and he looked at me and said "she is Emo". I was shocked...

If you don't know what Emo rock is then take a gander at Wikipedia. The first "wave" doesn't really have much surviving music left (it's hard to find a Rites of Spring CD) but I listened to a lot of the second "wave" in high school and college and it's still a staple of my music diet even today. But nowadays they call any pop-punk band Emo without knowing what it originally was. And I do admit that that last sentence makes me feel old...

Anyway, I decided that Tristin needed to hear what real Emo was, so over Thanksgiving I made him a mix cd. Actually I made him 2. The first was an Emo sampler and the 2nd was a Head Bangin' mix just so he wouldn't feel like I was trying to be too nerdy :)

The Emo mix contains some songs from Fugazi, Sunny Day Real Estate, Mineral, Jawbox, The Get Up Kids, Engine Down, Jimmy Eat World (their older stuff is more Emo), Hum, Further Seems Forever, and others. Some of the songs are also from Emo related genres like Math Rock and Space Rock, but I think they still get the point across.

The Head Bangin' mix contains some songs from At The Drive-In, Brand New, dredg, Failure, Hot Water Music, Jawbreaker, Pilot To Gunner, Strike Anywhere, Thursday and others. All good thinking man's rock bands.

If any other friend or relatives would like a copy of these mixes, please feel free to ask. We'll be making the rounds to visit just about everyone this Christmas (we'll be in PA, VA, SC, KY and TN) so it should be easy for me to hand them out.

Eli Says...

A conversation overheard between Eli and himself (pretending to be his stuffed bear Baba):

Eli: Baba, I have a gift for you.

Baba: What is it? A necklace?

Eli: A bracelet.

Baba: Bracelets go on your head. You're putting that on my wrist, so it's a necklace.

Eli: No, bracelets go on your wrist, so this is a bracelet.

Baba: Okay, thanks.

Cole Says...

Cole must have picked this up from Primary...While playing Duck, Duck, Goose with Eli and a friend, he announced, "I won't pick you if you're saying 'Pick me, pick me!'"

In Case You Don't Know Who We're Voting For...

James Taylor gave a free concert in Raleigh a couple weeks ago to promote Obama and got the audience chanting this a couple times. Even though Cole says he's voting for John McCain, the two of them keep breaking into rounds of Go, Obama, Go.

Time Wasting Games

Being a software developer I'm constantly connected to the internet while working. There are also some "lulls" during the day where I can't really do much work (code is compiling, tests are running, etc). This leaves me exposed to the evils of the inter-tubes and on occasion I am lured into the dark pits of online games. I'm not a big gamer and most of the things I play are short 5-10 minute games that are very geeky (engineering, strategy or zombie killing) but I thought I'd take a short post to tell you about some of them with the hopes of infecting more people. Remember, wickedness enjoys company :)

Desktop Tower Defense
Build a maze of towers to try and shoot little bug like things as they crawl across your desk. Seems very simple (has a nice hand-drawn feel to it) until more and more bugs start coming. And after you've beaten the easy levels there are lots of variations you can play that are harder or more fun.

KDice
A simple strategy game in the vein of Risk. You protect your territories with stacks of dice and you try to invade other's countries. Most of the time when I'm playing computer games I prefer to play solo (some people get crazy involved with online gaming groups) but this is a nice fun little game where you are actually playing against other people.

The Last Stand
Kill the zombies before they kill you. If you need more information than that then you've never had the pleasure of killing zombies.

Fantastic Contraption
This is a really neat game that will make you want to be an engineer. And if you already are then it will definitely stroke the geeky part of your brain. Each level is a different task of moving a red object (usually a ball) from one part of the screen to the other. To do this you must construct a contraption out of sticks and balls.

If you try any of these out, let me know how it goes. And if you have any other time wasters that really enslave you, let us all know so we can enjoy the chains together :)

A Little Pre-Halloween Fun

A Schmorgasborg of Peters

Michael has accused me of neglecting this blog for my other one, so here are some fun glimpses into life at the Peters' house.

Cole Says...
Cole: I'm voting for John McCain.
Me: I'm voting for Barack Obama.
Cole: I think he's dead.

How Rylan Spends His Time
Rylan loves balls and technology:






Cole and Eli Puppets
I drew these pictures of Cole and Eli for Cole and Eli. They made them into puppets.

Book Review: Thud!

I've been meaning to write this book review for a while now, since I've already read 5 other books in the meantime. That probably says a lot about my personality, but I'm not willing to delve too deeply into that right now...

Thud! is a mix of The DaVinci Code, The Lord of the Rings, a police detective novel (in the vein of Michael Connelly) and a little Brittish humor all baked together to make one tasty cake. Parts of it made me laugh out loud. Parts of it make me think "Ahhh, how cute". Parts of it were page-turningly exciting. But the whole thing kept me locked up and entertained. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Thud! and I can't count the number of times I recommended it to Erin while I was reading it.

In this book we follow Sam Vimes (who besides being my favorite character so far in all of the Discworld books I've read, is the commander of the city guard) hears rumors about the murder of Grag Hamcrusher, a dwarf extremist religious leader. With racial tensions already at a fever pitch between Dwarves and Trolls, this is the last thing Commander Vimes needs in his not-so-fair city of Ankh-Morpork (which has the dubious city motto of "Pure in heart and water"). The book follows Sam on his journey to discover the truth behind Hamcrusher's death and along the way, to solve the mystery of "The Battle of Koom Valley", a painting created by an insane artist named Methodia Rascal.

Thud! is the 34th book in Pratchet's 36 book Discworld series. While it might be intimidating to jump right into the latter part of such a long series, I thought Pratchet did a marvellous job of making the reader familiar with Discworld (the imaginary world where the story takes place). I had read the first book (The Color of Magic) but nothing else in the series before picking up Thud! and I didn't feel lost at all.

I loved Thud! so much that I have since read 4 other books in the Discworld series (The Light Fantastic, Monstrous Regiment, Night Watch and Going Postal) and am currently reading Equal Rites. In fact, I've made it a goal to read all 36 books now. And Terry Pratchet's got my vote for a 37th as well.

I love Raleigh

I've been meaning to post this pic for two weeks now, and also I need to add a new post just so the latest thing on our blog is not Michael's political rantings. (By the way, from now on you will have to check to see who is posting since Michael has finally decided to participate in the family blog.)

One of Raleigh's nicknames is the "Smithsonian of the South" because they have so many museums here. They also seem to be keen on festivals considering that there has been a festival in Raleigh or one of the outlying towns practically every weekend since we've been here. That's okay, I love small-town-style festivals...

So two weeks ago was Bugfest at Raleigh's Museum of Natural Science, and it was freakin' awesome! Cole looooves bugs, so he had a great time looking at all the displays in the museum. And Michael, Eli, and Cole each got to eat ice cream with toasted ants on top. Yes, you read that right. Toasted ants.

Meanwhile, I attended a workshop on Backyard Beekeeping. Again, freakin' awesome. I am totally getting bees someday.

In other "I love Raleigh" news, I took my kids to the library right before the Bugfest, and the librarian said to Cole, "Your boots are so cute." I mentioned that we were heading over to the Bugfest, and she asked my boys, "Are you going to eat some bugs?" Then she told me my kids are cute and said she hoped we have a good day.

Why is this story significant, you may be wondering...Because I didn't get yelled at by the librarian! And not only didn't I get yelled at, she told me my kids are cute! In Silver Spring, I got scolded by various librarians at least once a month. Apparently, librarians in Maryland don't think my kids are cute (or well-behaved). That is one of the many reasons I am so happy to be back in the South.

Not to be too political...

One of the reasons I haven't posted to this this "family" blog yet is because during this time of the year I mainly just think about work and politics. I don't think any of you want to read about my thoughts on proper lexical scoping or hierarchical inheritance vs roles. And politics can be pretty divisive, so I'm trying to stay away from that as much as possible. But I saw this and thought it was just too juicy to pass up.

If you've been following the recent Wall St. troubles and the Bush administration's proposed $700,000,000,000 bailout then this quote might be as funny to you as it was to me:

We do not support government bailouts of private institutions.
Government interference in the markets exacerbates problems
in the marketplace and causes the free market to take longer to
correct itself.
-- Republican Party platform, 2008

Cole says...

"Momma, I'm boring..."

He meant to say, "I'm bored." He said this over and over yesterday. It kept cracking me up, and it was making him really mad that I was laughing.

I just read...Someone Knows My Name

After reading several so-so books in a row, it was refreshing to read a novel by an author that can actually write. This book had it all - beautiful prose, gripping storyline, strong and admirable heroine. For me, the historical information was the most interesting part, from the account of life in Bayo before Aminata was abducted into slavery, to the information about slavery on the islands off the coast of South Carolina, to the untold story of the Black Loyalists.

I only had two criticisms of this book:

1. Hill admittedly changed several historical details to make the story flow. I didn't mind this at all (it did make for a good story), but don't expect to be able to use this as a textbook.

2. I hated the resolution of the plotline involving Aminata's daughter. It seemed like a contrived happy ending, and while I wanted Aminata to have a happy ending, I wish it had been more believable to fit in with the rest of the book. If Hill wanted Aminata to have a daughter at the end, he shouldn't have written her out of the story halfway through. Or if he really wanted to have that kidnapping plotline, he should have found another way to give Aminata a happy ending.

Cole and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

This afternoon, I took Cole and Eli with me to the thrift store. While I was browsing the racks, I saw Cole pick something up off the floor - a small piece of plastic that probably came from one of those marble run toys. I continued shopping, assuming that he would put it back on a shelf, or at least drop it back on the floor. An hour later, we were at Burger King, enjoying a spontaneous ICEE treat when I hear a "clink" on the floor. "What was that?" I said. "Nothing," Cole said. I looked under the table and saw the piece of plastic from the thrift store. *sigh* Apparently, Cole had not only stolen it from the store, but had realized he had done something wrong so tried to get rid of the evidence at Burger King. I spent the next thirty minutes debating whether or not we really needed to take it back since it was a piece of junk that must have fallen out of a box of toys and wasn't something they were really trying to sell. In the end, I dragged Cole back to the store kicking and screaming, gave it back to the storekeeper (while holding Cole who was still kicking and screaming), and apologized (now furiously angry at Cole who was still kicking and screaming).

Warning, swear words ahead...

Fast forward another hour. As I'm sitting in the living room feeding Rylan, I hear Cole start shouting angrily at Eli, ending with "you silly ass!" This is a phrase the boys picked up from the musical version of Peter Pan. I have told them over and over that they can't say it, and finally the last time, Michael threatened to wash their mouth out with soap if they said it again. I had another internal debate - should I pretend I hadn't heard him? - before calling, "Um, Michael..." Michael carried out the punishment, and then we got to hear 30 minutes of Cole wailing, "I didn't mean to say ass. I didn't mean to say ass. I didn't mean to say ass."

The highlight of the day...

We went to the lake for Family Home Evening and rented a paddle boat. Cole was sitting behind me and announced, "I'm glad I'm behind Momma instead of Daddy because I love Momma more."

I said, "Cole, I'd rather you loved us both the same."

Cole replied, "Well, that's too bad because I love you more."

Cole gives the FHE lesson

You may not be able to hear him very well, but he's reading that book, I swear! Cole first started recognizing some words about a year ago, but his reading ability has really taken off in the past few months. Last night, he planned and gave the family home evening lesson all by himself.

Highlights of Our Trip to the Beach

We spent a few days camping at the beach on the Outer Banks of North Carolina last week. This was my first time to swim in the ocean (the two times I've been to the beach in Florida, it rained the whole time), and I have to say that I definitely prefer lake swimming to ocean swimming. Being slammed in the face by a great big wave is only fun to a point (not to mention my subconscious mind insisting that there are probably sharks lurking out there in the ocean, waiting to take a chunk out of my unsuspecting body). Michael, on the other hand, was in heaven. I've never seen him so excited to go swimming before. His one and a half days of body surfing left him fried (apparently only the second sunburn he's ever had). The boys spent most of their time playing in the sand, agreeing with me that water is more fun when it lies there peacefully like in lakes and swimming pools. I also decided after this trip that I absolutely need an RV.

Of course, our family can't take a trip without someone getting sick, and this time around we got a two for one - first Eli and then Rylan. Our first afternoon after getting back from the beach, Eli threw up and then crawled into the backseat of the car while Michael and I set up the campsite. I found him a few minutes later completely zonked out and wedged under the seat.















Rylan threw up in the middle of the night, which made for fun times sleeping in a tent. The next day, he had a fever, so Michael and I alternated holding him the whole day. Every time I laid him down, he started whimpering and dragged himself back into my arms. My poor baby!

10 Essential Changes for People and the Planet

I haven't shopped regularly at Walmart in four years. There isn't a single Walmart in all of Montgomery County, MD, so after we moved to Silver Spring, I stopped shopping there for convenience sake. Then a couple years ago, I watched a documentary about how Walmart is destroying the American economy, so I was happy that it was so inconvenient to shop at Walmart, and I started making a conscious effort not to shop at Walmart.

Now that we are in North Carolina, I have been tormented with trying to decide whether or not to go back to Walmart. On the one hand, it's the cheapest grocery store, and we are on a tight budget right now with two house payments weighing us down. On the other hand, Walmart is evil. Right?

I started wondering if Walmart is really as evil as I've made it out to be in my head, and if other grocery stores are really any better. The result of my search is the fantastic website www.betterworldshopper.com, which rates companies based on their social and environmental responsibility.

The verdict?...Walmart is evil, but less evil than Exxon and Philip Morris.

This is a cool chart about what changes you should make to have the most difference for people and the planet. After looking over this whole website, I've discovered I'm a B- kind of person. I'd love to be an A, but it's just too darn expensive.

Bathtime

I was giving Rylan a bath the other day, and as I watched, he shimmied his way out of his bathseat and pulled himself up on the side of the tub. You can tell from this picture that he was very pleased with himself.

Rainboots

I have been wanting to get the boys rainboots for a long time but couldn't justify the purchase since my kids never get to go outside when it's raining because I hate to get wet. Finally, I found these boots on clearance at Target the other day. They were the wrong size, but I thought they'd be fun anyway and they'd grow into them, so I bought Cole and Eli each a pair.

I have ungrateful kids.

Instead of hearing thank-you's for my fun, spontaneous gift, I had to listen to an hour of griping. The boots were too big. They hurt their feet. They were hard to walk in. They made them walk too slow. Blah, blah, blah.

Despite that initial hour of ungratefulness, though, both boys have worn their boots almost nonstop since they got them. This picture is of Cole pretending that his boots are fireman boots. (The jumprope is his hose.)

Say Anything

I've mentioned before that Eli spends half his day with no pants on. He puts on pants in the morning, but they're off the first time he goes potty, and if we don't go anywhere that day, he'll go pants-less the whole day.

I like this picture because it looks like he's reenacting the famous scene from Say Anything (except without any pants).

Also, btw, that's our new beautiful table in the background.

Cole says...

Cole: Momma, are there really such things as beanstalks?

Me: Yes, but they don't really grow as big as they do on TV.

Cole: So you can't climb a beanstalk to get to the giants that live in the clouds?

Me: Do you really think there are giants living in the clouds?

Cole (sounding unsure of himself): No

Me: What would happen if a giant tried to stand on a cloud?

Cole: He would get wet!

Cute pics of Rylan

A lady at church asked me on Sunday if I curl Rylan's hair with a curling iron!

Cole says...

"What did you say, Momma? Hold on, let me press rewind on my invisible tape recorder."

Cole says...

"When I grow up, I'm going to buy a motorcycle because one day, I might be running late for storytime, and I would need to go really, really fast."

Simmer down

One of the best pieces of parenting advice I've ever gotten was from an episode of Charlie and Lola where the two kids kept fighting so their mom made them "simmer down." She put them in separate chairs, and they had to sit there until they could resolve their argument and agree to play nice. Now every time Cole and Eli fight, I don't try to intervene. I simply tell them to simmer down and make them sit on chairs on opposite sides of the room. They have to stay there until they agree to let the other person get up. If Cole says Eli can get up, but Eli says Cole can't, they both have to remain sitting until Eli changes his mind, and vice versa. Sometimes "simmering down" takes just a couple seconds and they're up and playing again, but sometimes they scream threats at each other from opposites corners for five, ten, fifteen minutes. Either way, they're learning (I hope) how to resolve their own fights, and they don't kill each other in the process.

This is a picture of Eli simmering down at the park. He was in a particularly grouchy mood, so "simmer down" took at least fifteen minutes while he screamed at Cole that he would "never never" play with him again, tried throwing sand across the playground, threw himself on the ground, and finally announced, "Okay, Cole, you can get up."

Oh, what do you do in the summertime?

We love the park...













and the beach...

I just read...Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

I love the idea of this book: that there are people with the magical ability to read characters out of books. I thought the plot was great - not gripping because it dragged on too long in some parts, but still fun to read. The narrative had some lovely moments, surprising considering that it was translated to English from German. But on the flip side, the dialogue was stilted and unbelievable, and I had a lot of trouble picturing this book in my head. It could be because the story takes place in Europe, which is not a place I'm familiar with, so even though it is set in modern times, I kept imagining it taking place in the past, and then they'd say something like "cell phone" and I'd be thrown off. The characters never came together for me either. If I tried to read the characters of this book to life, it would turn out more like a Darius reading than a Silvertongue reading - they would definitely come out with mashed faces or bum legs or no voice - because I can't quite picture the characters in my head. Still, I've started the second book in this trilogy, and am looking forward to learning more about the Inkworld.

Eli says...

"Momma, food and water rhyme!"

"Um, no they don't, Sweetheart."

"Yes they do. They both have a 'puh' sound."

I just read...The Case for Make Believe by Susan Linn

I didn't realize until I'd gotten home from the library with this book that it was written by the author of Consuming Kids, which is an amazing book that I still think about often although I read it a couple years ago. I enjoyed this book as well, but I don't think the author supported her case in this book as well as in the previous one. I felt like she repeated her argument many times without giving good strong evidence to support her beliefs, and her advice for parents on how to save make believe filled only a few pages of the whole book. I also feel like she might lean too far to the extreme for the average person, advocating that parents wait as long as possible before introducing the screen to their child, which for most of us is just not possible. (For example, what am I supposed to do with my baby while his two older brothers are watching a video. I'm sorry, but the simple fact that he's the third child automatically means he's going to be introduced to the tube from a very young age.)

Despite these criticisms, though, I found this book thought-provoking, especially the case studies that she includes from her puppet therapy sessions. And even if I don't agree that children should have zero media access, I do believe that parents should responsibly limit and monitor their kids' TV and computer time and be actively fighting against commercialism. Overall, this book was a good refresher of why Consuming Kids was such a great book, and if nothing else, it resparked my interest in this subject and commitment to raising consumer savvy children.

Cole says...

"When I grow up, I'm going to have a couch made out of paper so I can draw on it."

(The boys got in trouble recently for drawing on the couch.)

Eli says...

"I finished cleaning my room!...But don't go look."

Rylan loves to scream

Rylan has the highest pitched scream of an baby I've ever heard, and he loves to scream. I decided to record his screaming because, as annoying as it is now, I know that 20 years from now, I will wish I could remember what Rylan's scream sounded like.

Cole Peters Pan

The latest obsession in our house is Peter Pan. As a Pan fan myself, I admit to kickstarting their interest by showing them the classic Mary Martin version of this play, but Cole is the one who's taken it to obsession level. I think he wore this outfit for at least part of every day last week.

Rylan can sit up...and watch TV!

While getting our house ready to sell, I have let my children watch far too much TV. Today, I even stuck Rylan in front of the tube. He sure looked cute with his eyes glazed over while watching Baby Einstein.

I just read...Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

My husband, who is a huge Neil Gaiman fan, recommended this book to me. After I read the first few chapters, he asked if it was too Douglas Adams-ish for me since he knows I am not a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fan. My reply was, "Not yet. Does that mean it's going to get stupid?" Since I've now finished the book, I can say that the humor in Good Omens is very similar to Hitchhikers, but it never gets stupid. There are no aliens with multiple heads in this one - just average humans with average flaws and human-like angels and demons. The humor was entertaining without being over the top, and the writing was fast-paced and imaginative. A very creative reimagining of the Apocalypse

Brothers

Each at four months. Any resemblance?

Eli practices the "guitar"

I bought Cole a t-ball set for his birthday last November, and it immediately morphed into musical equipment. The bat became a guitar, and the t-ball stand became a microphone stand. I believe it's been used for t-ball about two times since we got it. Other items that have become guitars: sticks, spatulas, spoons, vacuum attachments...The funny thing is, they both have toy guitars.

Also, for some reason, Eli likes to take off his pants when he pretends to be a rock star.

I just read...Eclipse by STephenie Meyer

Although I loved Twilight, I was very disappointed in New Moon, and I only decided to read Eclipse because I already had a copy and was curious how Stephenie Meyer tied up some of the loose ends from New Moon. I'm glad I did. This book wasn't wonderful, but it was definitely an enjoyable, easy read (took me three days despite its 600 pages).

The book started off poorly with Edward being overprotective of Bella to the point of insanity. He's always been stalker-ish, but really, kidnapping? That's not a very healthy relationship. But once Bella was "allowed" to start seeing Jacob again, the story picked up. Characterization is definitely Meyer's strong suit, so although the plot line itself was predictable, the dynamics between Bella/Jacob and Bella/Edward were enough to make it a page turner. My favorite part was when Jacob serves as space heater for Bella in the tent.

My biggest complaint about this book is its length. I know Edward doesn't want Bella to become a vampire. I know Jacob is in love with Bella. I definitely know Bella and Edward like to make out. Does it have to be repeated over and over and over?

I would rate this series the same way I do the Harry Potter books - A for storytelling, B for originality, C for writing style.

Cole says...

After I suggested to him that he should ask for fewer things in his prayers and think of more things to thank Heavenly Father for...

"Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for this day. Please bless Momma, Daddy, Eli, Rylan, and Cole. Thank you for...I can't think of anything I'm thankful for, so please bless me to be thankful for something. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen."

Rylan practices singing

If he's going to be the lead singer of our band, he's going to have to do a lot more practicing...

Cole the Visionary

This is an old picture of Cole at our playground last fall. I took it on my phone, so sadly, it's not high quality enough to print out, but I love it anyway.

I've been impressed at how much this little guy picks up without being taught or told things. He learned his ABCs before he was two years old without me ever trying to teach them to him, and now at four years old, he has taught himself how to write.

Michael and I have been talking for a month or two about the possibility of moving but hadn't mentioned it to the kids. A couple weeks ago, we were leaving church, and Cole said to me, "Last night I had a dream that we moved, and we went to church, and you said to me, 'I'm not in the Primary here.'" I was floored. Had he heard us talking about moving, or was he having visions???

Today, I had the Sufjan Stevens song "For the Widows in Paradise" playing in the car, and the last line repeats, "I did everything for you, I did everything for you." Cole asked, "Are they pretending to be Jesus when they say, 'I did everything for you'?" That's exactly what the song is about, and I'm amazed that my little four-year-old picked up on it.

Michael's boss gave us a nifty little video recorder that's about the size of camera so I can carry it with me in the diaper bag. Here's a cute video of Rylan I made to test it out.

My friend Annie, who is an amazing photographer, took this picture of me and Rylan on a hike with our play group. Look at those eyes!