Farming and Cousins in Texas

After a great time up North, we traveled south to Texas to spend some time on the farm and with those Torockov cousins!  We flew in from Boston late one afternoon with one thing on our minds...Fried Chicken!  Yep, you heard that, we were heading up to Babes in Sanger to meet Grandpa and Grandma, and Molly had been telling Daniel to say "Fried Chicken" over and over again on the flight.  He got pretty good at it.  Unfortunately, by the time we got to Babes, Daniel was done, tired, jetlagged, overwhelmed...it took some time to get him to settle down, but once we did, he enjoyed his Fried Chicken. 

The next day Daniel learned about round bales.  He became obsessed, wanting to see the hay bales and to go see the bull in the pens out back.   Here's Grandpa putting Danny up one of the bales.

Not sure how I'd feel if I saw a round bale of the same proportional size to me as this one is to Danny.

We took some photos of Grandpa and Grandma with Danny by the bales, and here's a video to prove how annyoing we can be when trying to get Danny to look the right direction, but at least he knew where the cows were.

That day, we went out visiting Cooke County, saw Great-Grandma Krahl over in Muenster, went to Fischer's, and then to Great-Grandma Schad's (or as Danny called her, "Other Grandma").  Here's a couple of pics from Grandma Schad's (photo credits go to Grandma's camera): 

We tooled around a bit Lindsay town too, and stopped by Schad Field, named after Daniel's great-uncle Danny Schad.  

After that we went back to the farm (well..truth be told there may have been a stop at Braums between where Molly got two separate peppermint ice cream cones), and went back outside.

More hay bales...

Then, we caught a glimpse of a bunny is Grandpa's shop.  We chased it out and it went under the flatbed trailer.  Here and Grandpa and Danny trying to get a closer look at the bunny. 

The next day, we took Grandpa and Grandma's Mule out for a spin to have Daniel check out the horses of our neighbors and the cows.  He got up close and personal with the horses that Grandpa brought an apple for. 

He's very comfortable around horses...

Maybe a little too comfortable...

After seeing the horses, and the pond, and then the cows, on the way back, Daniel succumbed to exhaustion.  In this video, he is fast asleep on Grandpa's lap as we're driving the Mule back to the house.  

But, there was some time for relaxing at the house in one of Grandpa's chairs. 

Later that day (Friday), we headed down to Frisco to hang out with the Torockovs.  We got to go with Nate and Emmy to pick up Katie and Joe from school on Friday afternoon, and that night had some hella good bbq at Hard Eight with Aleks, Joe and Nate.  The next day the grandfolks came down and we went out for a family walk in the nearby park in Frisco. 

We later gave a few gifts, including the pie in the face game we got for the Torckovs.  Here is Alex, convince that he is going to live to see another round. 

For Molly, no such luck; though, she took it much better than Daniel did. 

The next day we flew back home after two great weeks on the mainland.  We had an awesome time everywhere we went, and we're happy too to be back home.  Happy New Year! 

More Christmas Photos from up North!

More photos from our Christmas travels...this time from my (Tom's) phone, which admittedly doesn't take great photos, but they are worth keeping all the same.

We start as our trip did, with a late evening flight on Christmas day from Maui, here's the bean sleeping on his mama, or at least wanting to sleep under the blue tint of the plane's cabin lights, while on our way to Dallas. 

The trip was long, but we made it Maine the next day and soon found ourselves in an unknown place, one with tons of snow!! Or, as Daniel says, '...Coldddd.....!'  With thanks to the Diamond Stanics for the warm hospitality, we managed to survive using all the extra winter gear we got to borrow.  At the same, it took a little convincing for Danny...

He knew this new snow thing was neat, but just wasn't quite as comfortable with the idea of it as those crazy cousins!  Suzie for sure was a pro. 

Our trip to Maine had all the staples of a great trip, food, football, family.  Danny and Mark got to hang out a lot, and chill with Danny's Uncle Aleks. 

One morning we woke up and went sledding down a big hill near a school in Auburn (next to Lewiston).  Daniel and his Mama were much braver then the old man of the family whose Texas upbringing didnt instill much of a sledding knowledge.

But, in part, I'm blame the jetlag.  The jetlag was for real this time.  We came to realize that this is the furthest that we have ever flown with Daniel in one go.  Often times, we have stopped in Dallas for a while, of just gone to the West Coast.  The distance to the East Coast is no joke, and someone (cough..Daniel...cough) didn't want to switch over his body clock, meaning his parents were up for some late nights early on.  One night, I stayed up and played downstairs with Danny until almost 1 am.  As the video below proclaims, Mama was "sleeepin.."

After a couple of days, Grandad and Nana arrived and the fun and games continued.  Danny and Mark loved listening to Grandad's mandolin...course, in this pic, they all seem to be singing some ode to the snowy squirrels outside.  

Molly and I actually got to go out for some fancy kine dinner while in Lewiston, at a place called Fuel.  I thought since it was the first time we went out sans Daniel since he was born, that I should at least wear my cowboy boots like a proper gent.  Little did I realize that cowboy boots are not built for Maine ice...it was cold!!  Here's a pic outside of the restaurant with a bank temp for the record...6! 

Despite the cold, we got out for some nice walks around Bates College, just nextdoor to the Diamond Stanics place.  Danny and I both warmed up to the cold once he stole Antie Maggie's scarf, and I, Grandad's snowmobile suit.  We're weak, we fully admit. 

One day, we went out for a lite lunch at a place called Forage, and Danny loved the chalk-board table.

The fun with the cousins dominated the week, and many times they couldn't be seen separated.  Suzie and/or Mark would push Danny around on Thomas the train, or they'd be playing with Hotwheels cars down a track, or puzzles. 

We did a bunch of dancing and playing around as well.  Here's a group shot of us and the cousins, with Daniel of course looking the other direction.  Impossible to get everybody looking the same direction.

We had a great time in Maine, and afterwards went down to Boston (Auburndale) for a night to catch up with our good friends Suz and Coley, and of course Cassidy and Rocco.  I didnt get any good photos really, but here are a couple of shots of Molly and Danny playing in Cassidy's awesome reading spot and Danny and Rocco trying to turn on the Beatles CD in Cassidy's old school CD player. 

That pretty much wraps up on Northeast part of the trip (as summarized in a sparse sampling on my pics)...next post we go to Texas!

Christmas Travel Photos

Here are just some pictures from my phone from our awesome trip to the east coast and Texas!  Tom also has some great ones we'll have to post in another blog.  We also need to go through our actual Christmas photos on our camera one of these days.

After a mostly sleepless redeye, this kiddo slept through our layover.

Finally arrived in Lewiston!  Cousin time was immediately enjoyed!

Daniel's first sledding experience!

These two munchins played together so well!

Happy snow fun!

Out for walks and Suzie pulled the two little boys for most of the way!  What a strong kiddo!

Beautiful Bates.

More sledding!

Even though he's not smiling, I swear he was having fun.  He'd look at the sled and say "fun! slide!"

We got to spend an evening visiting awesome Tucson friends, Suz and Coley and their two kiddos!

Then it was off to Texas to visit Grandma and Grandpa.  Daniel loved pointing out all the hay bales and cows!  Little farm boy.

Schad boys and a tractor.

Headed down to visit the Torockovs for a couple of days.  Daniel and Joe are buddies!

Cousins going for a spin with Uncle Alex.

These next pictures are out of focus, but I just love them anyway.  Proves why Tom is the fun parent.

Blue eyed bean.

After a long 8 hour flight, Danny couldn't believe we had to wait for baggage!

Missing family, but oh so happy to be pants-less and reunited with his bike!

That's a start for now.  More coming soon-ish!