Home for the Holidays

It's always a balance when you live far away from extended family to plan travel.  On the one-hand since you live far away you want to travel to see your loved ones, and it's nice if they come to visit you.  There aren't that many opportunities in the year for Mason to get extended time away from work, which is usually necessary when traveling anywhere, because we want to make our travel efforts worth the time and energy it takes to get anywhere.  It's also hard to make arrangements because sometimes we want to go places that aren't "home" and those guilty feelings creep in quickly.  Fortunately we were able to spend early 2015 home in Illinois/Tennessee for a visit to family and we were able to take a family trip to Canada over the summer.  We finished off the year with a visit to Evanston and it was so great. 

We've got our travel routine from Minot to Evanston down pretty solid.  We travel from here to Minneapolis, stay at the same Embassy Suites every time and then Minneapolis to Evanston.  We stay at my parents house and it all works.  But it's hard.  It's also that little reminder of what non-military life is like.  Family dinners, going to birthday parties, getting to know our nephews!  Spending time with Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents.  It's all awesome!  But at the same time, it makes us realize that we do love things about our military life too.  We get to see awesome parts of the world, we have awesome adventures, and did I mention Mason gets to fly planes?!!!

Anyways, we had a great time visiting family, seeing high school friends, taking an overnight adult trip (thanks mom and dad), have holidays with family and relax.  It was a great trip with so many highlights.  The boys loved having so much attention.

Christmas was excellent, and it was definitely fun to share the joy of our kids enjoying the holiday with our family.  Woodrow got some costumes and assumed full character once he put on the costume.  Theo was a bit overwhelmed by all the attention being on him.  He even cried on Christmas Eve opening presents with Mason's family.  When we asked him what was wrong, he said, "But Dad doesn't want us to have more things."  HA!  The minimalist has been seeping into our children's minds.   

It was a great time.  Our drive back to Minneapolis was going so well and we ended up there early and so we took the kids to the Mall of America Waterpark.  It was pretty awesome!  Theo was upset when we first got there, but warmed up and had a blast!  Woodrow loved it.  I'm so glad both of our kids are water babies!  As soon as we pulled into the parking lot of the hotel after our fun adventure, the stomach flu hit Woodrow.  Without too many details we'll just say from Saturday evening until Wednesday was a pretty rough time for the family.  Lots of illness.  Basically making us not want to go on another road trip the rest of 2016...but I think we've recovered by now. 
 

Going to the Dentist

 If you live in Minot, and have children, I HIGHLY recommend Dakota Kids Dentistry.  Where was the kids dentist office when I was little?  It is so cool, I want to go there!  The boys both had dentist appointments today.  I was anticipating Theo to do excellent as he has done in the past and Woodrow to freak out because it was his first time and when we go to the doctor, he screams the entire time!

They took Theo back first to take x-rays.  He had this done about a year ago, and I know he doesn't like to do it.  I think it's hard for him to keep the little tool in his mouth, but he didn't really complain.  He liked being in the "Space Room."  After his x-rays we got to go back to the waiting room and read books...woah...my kids favorite activity.

When they called us back, the kiddos each got to pick their own toothbrush.  Woodrow dove right in and chose some transformers toothbrush, Theo took his time and inspected each single toothbrush to make sure that he picked the *perfect* one.  I think he ended up with a Ninja Turtle brush.  One hygienist whisked Theo into a chair while Woodrow and I went in a separate room.  Theo and I both didn't really have time to be nervous about this.  I wasn't too nervous about him because he's always been fine before, but you just never know.

Woodrow shed a few tears when he went into his room, but once I sat in the chair with him he started to check out all the cool things in the room.  Monsters University was playing on a TV screen, and the room is covered in under the sea motif.  He was holding his toothbrush very tight, but also really wanted to open it.  He got to pick "candy" (cotton candy) flavored toothpaste and did AWESOME!  These ladies know what they are doing.  He said on my back and laid back and he would have let her brush his teeth forever.  The good news, no cavities, the bad news...his two year molars haven't come in yet...CRAP!  I was hoping we were done with most of the teething.

Woodrow finished with the hygienist and the dentist came in and counted his teeth and Woodrow did awesome.  We got to go out and see the end of Theo's check-up when the dentist was doing the fluoride treatment and checking his teeth. No cavities for Theo either!

The boys were super excited that they got to end up taking home a new toothbrush, two stickers, and a prize, each!  I hope my visit later this month is equally thrilling!  

Happy New Year!

Hopefully by now most of you have received our holiday letter and card...as my cousin Nora said, apparently the Pony Express was delivering them this year because it was taking up to two weeks in some areas.  Anyways, I hope you all had wonderful holidays and a happy New Year.  I hope to blog more regularly this year so you aren't reading about Easter when Halloween is approaching.  And I totally just saw my typos. Whoops!

Happy Holidays!                                                                  

This year flew by!  It’s hard to believe that it is already December again and a whole year full of fun, amazing memories has past.  We started out the year visiting family and friends in the Chicago area after the holidays.  Mason headed to Vegas for a work trip and the kiddos and I headed East to Tennessee.  Mason joined up with us once we were there for his Dad’s wedding and then we all made the drive back to Minot together.  This summer we took a big two week road trip to Canada!  We went to Waterton Lakes National Park, Banff National Park, and Jasper National Park-more beautiful than I can describe.  Bears, moose, and mountains! And we’re finishing off the year with a trip home to the Chicago area for more time with family and friends. 

Mason has been a busy guy this year-not uncommon!  He is in the 69th Bomb Squadron and is responsible for managing the squadron’s weapons and tactics program.  He has had several trips this year to his second home, Las Vegas, as well as Louisiana and Oklahoma.  This year he took Theo on his first non-backyard camping trip to a small forest near Minot.  He also took the kids to a Pow Wow, Jurassic Quest, and lots “night hikes” around the neighborhood.  He’s become the expert Aurora Borealis spotter and has taken some amazing photos this year of the Aurora and our trips!     

I am continually grateful to be able to stay at home with the boys and enjoy this time with them while they are little.  We spend lots of time on the go, but also plenty of time just hanging at home enjoying down time.  I am still working for K12, teaching online 6th-12th grade English and Social Studies courses.  The workload really picked up this Fall, but it’s remained manageable with my schedule.  I stepped back from a few roles this year and it’s lifted a huge weight from my shoulders and I’ve been able to focus on my spirituality and just really spending time with good people.  It’s amazing how a few small changes can really impact life in a big way, and I’m excited for the upcoming year! 

Theo has grown-up a lot this year.  He turned four in September and just has the funniest things to say.  He talks NON-STOP at home, which is why it is so funny to me that his preschool teacher says he’s very quiet at school.  Theo started in preschool this Fall two mornings a week and he loves it.  It’s the perfect amount of time for us and he is learning a lot.  He got to bring cupcakes on his birthday, has had show-and-tell, and he’s gotten to be the daily helper twice.  He also attends the Wise Owl Science Club 3 times a month and Lego club.  We’ve taken swimming lessons on and off this year, and attend gymnastics each week.  He’s gotten much more coordinated than last year.  Theo is an awesome big brother, and is definitely into Super Heroes, building with Legos, and pretend play!      

Our little Woodrow doesn’t seem so little anymore.  He is bounding around the house like a big kid these days and always wants to keep up with his big brother.  Woodrow started speech therapy in the Spring and he’s just grown by leaps and bounds!  He picked up quite a bit of sign language and was using it regularly, and now we hear him using words and chatting away all the time.  Woodrow likes his one-on-one time when Theo is in school and all the other times Theo is busy with activities.  Woodrow gets to do mommy and me gymnastics and he mostly enjoys it.  He’s not a fan of the floor part or the trampoline, but the boy digs the balance beam, bars, and circuit.  This little guy is totally into cars, trains, and anything that moves!  He also really likes playing with all of our toy animals and of course playing superheroes with his big brother.   

While I haven’t been blogging as much as I would like to, I am still keeping at it.  You can check out all our adventures at http://ellenmason.blogspot.com and Facebook for photos from our trip to Canada.

                                                                                                                                       Peace and Love,

                                                                                                                        Mason, Ellen, Theodore, & Woodrow