Day 838 | Just the Three of Us

It finally had to happen: Chris started his job today. Back to real life and that means just me and the boys. I wouldn't say it was our best day, but it could have been a lot worse. That's a success, right?  

As glorious as the last five weeks (!!) have been, I think we're all ready to see what life in our new house in our new city is really going to be like. We've been in a constant state of vacation since we left the District on July 13. Whoa. 

Oh, and Chris's first day went well, for those keeping track. Everyone seems really nice and his commute alone (less than ten minutes) is enough to keep him happy for awhile. We've got a good feeling about this. 

Day 837 | An Intimate Family Gathering

Today is my Grandma's birthday. My dad and his seven (!!) siblings hosted a quaint, intimate party to help celebrate the occasion. 

Above is a photo of a few of the 18 cars parked in and around the driveway. I heard there were 51 people in attendance. That's crazy. 50+ people attending your birthday party...that's how you know you're loved. :)

Day 836 | Family Mini Golf

It's been a good day. A really good day.  

Chris's brother and his family came over for a day trip. We can do day trips now!

We enjoyed a morning + lunch exploring our new city and then played a round of mini golf (a first for all the kids!). I forgot how great mini golf is. 

Being close to family, and this specific family, is why we're here. It was a really good day. 

Day 835 | Treasures

There have been some unexpected surprises that have popped up since our move to Wisconsin. One of these surprises is how many treasures our children seem to discover every time we visit one of the grandparents. Today's discoveries include two sets of awesome headphones and a kids record player from the 80s. Lucky, aren't we?

However, in all seriousness, we're so thankful to have such loving and generous grandparents closeby that have already aleviated our child-based stress tremendously. I guess these new "treasures" just go along with the territory. Seems like a good trade.  

Day 834 | MN Fun

What a perfect day for a trip to St. Paul to see some of our favorite people and visit the Minnesota State Fair (a first for us!). 

The weather couldn't have been better, the three boys handled the chaos (and sugar) of the fair like champs, and man did we accomplish all the goals we set for our short visit.  

A few highlights: 

• Racing vegetable cars down a ramp.  
• Viewing the seed art  
• Petting several baby animals  
• Meeting the 1200 pound pig 
• Walking through the 4-H buildings (favorite exhibits include an art piece of cats made out of rocks and a diorama entitled "Humanity's Worst Day" as scene by an elementary-age child...it was dark)
• Taking a trip down the giant slide
• The food. Oh, the food. In a period of about 3.5 hours our group managed to eat the following: apple cider freeze pops, roasted sweet corn, cheese curds, corn dogs, mini donuts, pretzel-wrapped hot dogs, ice cream cones, and a snow cone.

Well done, team. 

To top it off, we got back to our friends' house in time for Robbe to nap (which he did instantly) and some quality low-key hang out time before we ate a yummy dinner and hit the road to head home.  

Today might just be in the running for best day ever. :)

Day 833 | A New Blog

I've been hinting at this day for a long time. My new blog (and website name) are revealed!

Small City | Big Days seems like the perfect continuation in documenting the daily life of our little family. I'll be redirecting visitors from the District Day Dreams website for a bit, but update your bookmarks to www.smallcitybigdays.com to make sure you don't miss anything moving forward.

And now, the other really big news of the day...the Water Street Bridge is open! You might not fully appreciate the excitement surrounding this development but you would if you knew that every night for the past week we've been making trips to check it's progress. The bridge is about two blocks from our house and opens up an even easier walking path to a bunch of restaurants + bars + local stores. Woohoo! 

Above is a collage from today's ribbon cutting + first walk across as well as a few photos from the in progress excursions we've taken along the way. See? Big day.

**Side note: I never realized how many bridges Eau Claire has. I think there have to be at least 300. Ok, not really, but there are a ton. I guess that's what happens when two rivers converge in the middle of a city's downtown. Perhaps I'll do a blog post with photos of all (more like, some of) the bridges some day. Stay tuned.

Day 832 | Chase's First Movie

It's been a long time coming but Chase finally went to his first movie theater movie last night. Big deal, right?

He and Chris saw Finding Dory at the budget theater that's walkable from our new house. The best!

Before the movie, Chase was the most excited version of himself. He could not keep it together. And, from first hand reports at the theater (from Chris), he was the sweetest version of himself through the whole thing. 

For any of you that have watched an in-home movie with Chase, you'll be interested to hear that he didn't close his eyes, ask to fast forward, request to leave, or bury his head at all. I've never been more proud.

Day 831 | My Wrist

I realized after a couple of inquiries that I probably should have elaborated on the story behind my wrist surgery. Sorry about that! I hate not knowing the back story behind things just as much as the next guy and yet I did it to all of you. To make things right...

A brief overview of my current wrist situation:

• Last fall, I started noticing a small bump appear on the inside of my left wrist (most likely from how I've been holding the babies for the last 4.5 years). 
• After Christmas, I met a friend for yoga (which was really painful) and she told me that she thought it might be a ganglion cyst. Google it, if you're interested. 
• Soon after, I had it checked out in DC and the diagnosis was confirmed and it was drained. I was given a 50/50 chance it wouldn't come back.
• No luck, fast forward several months and the cyst had become much more painful...the packing + unpacking didn't help. 
• I decided to have it checked out here to see what my options were. After another trip to the doctor and a MRI, it was determined that surgery was necessary (the cyst was becoming a bit too friendly with my ulnar nerve). 
• Surgery came and went uneventfully last Friday and now I'm on the road to recovery. 

There it is, the whole *abbreviated* story. Now I'm stuck with this wrist splint until next Wednesday (AHHH!). It's already starting to drive me crazy. I think I'll make it, though. 

And, just think, it's possible that in a few months (maybe more...) I'll be back to yoga. My heart smiles just thinking about it.

Day 830 | Snow Cone

As I mentioned, Chase has been waiting for a snow cone since the last week of school. His school had a little carnival but he was too sick to attend (remember this?). You wouldn't think it would be that hard to make good on our promise to find him one. Can you believe it took nearly all summer? The anticipation only made it better, though. Chase enjoyed it thoroughly. 

Day 829 | Festival in the Pines

It's been a surprisingly busy weekend around here. Today we spent a good chunk of the day at the local Festival in the Pines event. Although my wrist was trying to cramp our style (I had surgery on Friday), we still managed to squeeze in a school bus ride to the festival (definitely a highlight), a snow cone (Chase has been waiting all summer), a petting farm, a magic show, a few corn dogs, and an attempt to win a goldfish (which Chase actually succeeded at with his last ball but then chose a stuffed animal as his prize...what?!?). 

We got home and all took naps (except Chris, I guess) before heading to a neighbor's house for a little neighborhood welcome gathering. We're hoping for a quieter couple of days ahead, but we can't really complain since we're having such fun.

Day 828 | Seeds of Hope

Another great day in Wisconsin.  The highlight of the day was definitely a trip to the Seeds of Hope sunflower maze with some family.  The boys loved running through the flowers, spending time on the tractors hidden throughout, and there was even a horse-drawn wagon ride.

**Special thanks to my brother for installing our ceiling fan today. Such a little thing that makes me so happy. Another big project off the list.

Day 827 | Looking Cozy

I know I haven't posted many photos of the new house. It turns out getting a new house set up takes a *bit* of time. Although 96% of boxes are unpacked, we still have a random box or two stacked in most rooms. There's also at least one surface in those rooms covered with piles of misc items that just need homes. Not my favorite sights, but, you know, priorities.

Anyway, we're finally close to finishing up our family room so I wanted to share! We're still working on some sort of an ottoman and there will be a bookshelf, but it's looking good. We're really happy with how it has come together. Hope you agree!

Day 826 | Advanced Tricycling

New driveway + beautiful weather = lots of quality time practicing various modes of transportation.

They kicked it up a notch today, when they tried this fancy advanced move. I'm not sure this specific tricycle was meant to be a double but it worked! They boys were so proud of coming up with the idea.

Day 825 | Making Dad Proud

I mowed the lawn for the first time to night...at least I think it was my first time. I mean, there's a chance I offered to mow our lawn once growing up and then quickly gave up because it was much harder than I thought. 

I made my dad proud tonight, though. I mowed the whole thing. Aside from having to stop every three minutes due to requests from my children, it wasn't too bad. And it felt good. I even have slightly greened shoes to show for it.

Day 824 | Wisconsin Boys

This is what two adorable Wisconsin boys look like, in case you're curious.

Day 823 | Home Again

We made it home after a fairly terrible two hours in the car. My kids are *definitely* not great at car trips. I guess that'll change eventually, right? Right?!?

Vacations are the best. Like, the very best. However, sometimes kids put a bit of a kink in what is otherwise the perfect little getaway. Robbe has had a pretty dramatic personality shift since we moved. He's not sleeping as well. He's grumpier than usual. He's become more agressive. I could go on. Is it all the changes this little guy has dealt with in the past six weeks? Is it the near-constant attention (which he's not used to)? Is it just that he's going through some crazy developmental/emotional/physical stage that's just messing with him? All of the above? That's probably it.

Anyway, we pulled into our driveway this afternoon just in time for nap (thank goodness...I needed a break!). We put our very tired wee ones to bed and I spent 1.5 hours on my computer working. But not only that, I sat out on our patio + our new patio furniture for the first time since we moved in. There was a glorious breeze, there was nothing but the sound of my keyboard, and my mood, in that moment, immediately shifted: I'm so incredibly lucky.

We love (I mean, really love) our new house. We genuinely enjoy both sides of our family (hands down our favorite way to our spend time). We have two sweet, [generally] well-behaved, healthy, fun-loving children who fill our days with more happiness than we could have imagined (which totally overshadows the fact that there's also a *bit* of frustration involved in those days). I have a spouse who makes me laugh every single day.

Two hours with two screaming children is not ideal. Instead, I'll focus on a life that is overflowing with blessings and good fortune.

Day 822 | Firetruck Fun

Check out our sweet ride to get ice cream this afternoon. We all squeezed onto a vintage firetruck belonging to a friend of Chris's brother.

A great time was had by all. Thanks, Cooper family!

Day 821 | Dog Walking

If you're in need of a dog walker, Chase is your man. He successfully handled Angel on a pretty decent walk this afternoon and thinks he could manage up to four at a time now (such confidence!). He was also incredibly polite as he asked Angel to speed up, slow down, shift directions, etc, by offering up lots of thank yous. It was adorable.

Day 820 | Toys

Chris's mom kept an impressive amount of his toys from his youth. Saving things for 30 years in mint condition with all the pieces accounted for is an amazing accomplishment. And every time we come back there's some new treasure chest full of yet-to-be-explored toys. It's pretty much like Christmas. No wonder our boys are so excited about making the trip!

Day 819 | Birthday Fun

We celebrated Chris's brother's 40th (!!) birthday all day today. One of the highlights was quality time with the kiddos at the lake. To say we had a great time would be a huge understatement.

Also, isn't Robbe the cutest?