Ski Week

So naturally after a week of non-stop puddle madness (for the boys) and a weekend of partying like I was still in my 20's (without the ability to sleep in since the boys have hotwired a 6:30 wake up call in my brain), we all got sick. I think the boys lost their body weight in snot on a daily basis. We have all been so congested that we have coughed, sneezed, wheezed and thrown up mucus all over the house (it's lovely, come on over!). Here is Tyler looking naturally pathetic, we didn't even have to ask him to pose for this one. Of course now he wants to be sick so he can drink smoothies and watch TV all day long (hey, I want to be sick, too!).
Then we got some sunshine in the form of Grandpa and Kookie (ahhhhh...) along with a good dose of the real thing. Finally, back to the beach...

Their visit coincided with what is known as "ski week" around here. We all get the entire week off instead of just one day for President's Day so people can go skiing. We went to the beach instead as well as hit some of the attractions around L.A. including.....

The Petersen Automotive Museum where Tyler showed Uncle Jim just what a good trolley car driver would say and do (strangely enough, it highly resembled the Polar Express' conductor's lines).

Then we hit Train Town with our good friends Casey and Kyle from down the street. The little boys could climb on a dozen or so real locomotives as well as go on a miniature train that took us around the perimeter of the grounds a couple of times.

I think a real freight train could pass by and Tristan would hardly notice it if rocks were around.

We also spent some time horsing around at our favorite parks. I can't believe how big the boys look in this picture, where did my babies go?

Letters!

Tyler and his entire class wrote letters then walked them up the street to mail them in a real mailbox. So much fun!

Tyler and Tucker pretend to be pilots at school. "Busy Airflight 1, you're clear for take-off!"

Tristan's best friends are letters, especially "H" for some reason (and not the little one, only the big one!). I use letters to prevent meltdowns even!

This was the start of my Wednesday morning:

Tyler: "Emergency! Emergency!" He races into the bedroom where I am putting away the boy's clothes.

Me: "What is it? Did the guys in your castle eat too many cookies?"

Tyler: "No, it's Tristan. Come look!"

We scramble out of the bedroom to find Tristan standing on the dining room table chewing on a knife he apparently found there. The kid is going to give me a heart attack. This was after I found him standing on the wobbly arm of the chair in the computer room where he likes to play computer games. He was just calling my name, "Mama, mama." Very casually. He either wanted me to witness him jumping and breaking his arm, or he wanted me to save him. I opted for the later. Other than being a daredevil, Tristan is absorbed by letters. Like in the alphabet. We have a DVD about them and he is fixated on it. He loves to play with them in the tub and he apparently likes X so much he picked it off my keyboard (luckily he's not into vowels).