Week by Week 6

I have decided to post about Utah at the same time as I am catching up on John-Luke's weekly posts. I will post about the corresponding week that we were in Utah when John-Luke was 6 weeks and so forth. Phew. With all that technical mumbo-jumbo out of the way, lets get to the point!
We spent the first few days recovering from our flight out to Utah and then we headed up to Alpine, Wyoming for our annual family reunion. It was quite fun except for when I tried to take the kids anywhere in the car longer than about 20 minutes. Here we go.
This is the way that John-Luke looked for most of the trip. Asleep. I just can't get over how easy he is. Even as I'm typing this post he has been asleep for 6 hours (since 3:30 pm) (yes, I do check to see if he is alive regularly). Doesn't he look sweet? This is how James looked much of the time. He would sit up to the counter and eat whenever anyone else was eating (which with 15 people in a house is pretty much all the time). It got to the point where no one would sit too close to him as he would secretly (or not so secretly) try to steal their food off their plates even as he had his own plate of the exact same thing right in front of him. This is James with his cousins Lexi (at the counter) and Ashlyn. James and Lexi were practically inseparable during our whole trip to Utah. They played awesome together.
We did lots of fun stuff while there even though I was stuck close to home with a 6 week old John-Luke. We went and threw rocks in the river.
And we played with sticks and mud and rocks in the water.
We built a fire.
And Lexi tried to burn herself. It could have been bad but ended up being very funny. My dad thought she burned her "privates" and the only water he could find was in Bubba's sippy cup so he was trying to dump it down her pants and it just wasn't giving up any water. He finally got the top ripped off and dumped it down her pants. Of course, Lexi was fine except she didn't understand why Edpa was dumping water down her pants. And my dad was really irritated at me for laughing when he thought she was hurt. It was classic. Perhaps you had to be there to really appreciate how my dad reacts to one of his family members getting hurt. Or when he thinks they are hurt.
Then we did a bit of hiking/exploring and found all sorts of fun stuff like rocks, sticks, leaves and even some flowers and berries.
Oh, and James discovered ashes. He liked them a lot. I didn't notice till it was too late and so I just let him finish the job. Of course, I always say that it wasn't a good day unless we are dirty from head to toe. This was a GOOD day!
We have a ritual of singing songs before bed at our house and we recruited everyone else in on the fun. Lexi especially enjoyed this ritual and her and James frolicked on the bed and around the room while we all sang fun songs every night.
John-Luke slept a lot. True to form.
Meanwhile, James was a blur we could hardly catch on camera. There was so much to explore he could hardly stand it. Of course, he had lots of fun playing with his cousins and his aunts who couldn't help but squeeze his cheeks regularly.
We ventured out to a little lake up the Gray's River Road. It was a great little outing. Here is John-Luke sleeping while his cousin Ryan smiled for us all. Ryan is quite the smiley baby. All you really have to do is look in his direction and he is ready with a smile. He is also quite a stiff little baby. His legs rarely bend so this is a gem of a photo with one leg bent. And (at least at this time) John-Luke was pretty much the opposite.
Here is James enjoying the mud on the lakeshore. He especially liked throwing the sand.
Here he is with all his Fila side cousins (except the babies). I think it is the only picture taken at the cabin with them all in it. They were getting ready to take the boat out onto the lake. It is a perfect lake for kids. Super small and shallow for quite a ways out.
Meanwhile, John-Luke was sleeping on his Aunt Karen. She loves babies and I took full advantage of her.
My sister, Pink, deserves a medal for taking all the kids out on the boat (including Bubba). She said it was all she could do to keep him from jumping into the water. I bet. At least he was well protected with all the gear they put on him.
That life jacket was just a bit too big eh?
And it wouldn't be a complete day unless we sampled some of the local mud.
More dancing and singing in the evening. Here James and Lexi are dancing while I sing Bingo. Ignore the singing please.

A rare occasion indeed. John-Luke is actually awake. Another pic of John-Luke with his older cousin. Ryan also wiggles constantly whereas John-Luke was constantly being mistaken for asleep even when his eyes were open. He just wasn't a very wiggly baby. I called him my Zen baby. Aren't they cute together?
James also got to ride a horse for the first time. He loved, loved, loved it.
My dad just rode around the coral area with him and he thought he had died and gone to heaven.
I just love how James is laughing with sheer joy in this clip. It is kinda long. Deal with it.
Meanwhile, John-Luke slept some more.
We (me and my sister, Wu) made the mistake of being talked into going to Teton National Park with the kids. We drove together with all 3 kids in the back. It was horrible. At least it was a pretty day. James and the babies pretty much cried the whole way unless we were singing.
Then we got there and couldn't find the rest of the family cuz we miscommunicated about where we were going to be. I let Bubba play in String Lake for a while till I discovered that John-Luke had crapped huge in his pink carseat. (I had to wash that thing about 9 times in 6 weeks. Talk about ridiculous). Me and James in front of String Lake (I was pretty livid by this time and done with the whole experience. Can you tell)?
So we went back home (after being there for about 30 minutes) and we all went to sleep.Overall it was a great trip. We played games. We (the adults) ate crap food (much to my dad's chagrin). We stayed up late talking and did all those things that you would think we would do at an annual Fila family reunion. It was great! We did discover that the cabin we stay in is just too small anymore. Too many kids and not enough rooms/beds. Next year we will have to see what happens. We have been going to the same place for 15 years. Unfortunately, Brian was still in Geneva working and didn't join us till the next week (just in time for the Gillespie family reunion). We missed him lots. I know this is a long post but I did take over 900 pictures and 77 videos while I was there. So this really is only a sampling of what I could have shared. Enjoy!

Week by week 5 (One month old)!

2 months ago today,Cap'n turned 1 month old. I took him to the doctor for his 1 month checkup. He weighed in at 10 lbs 2 oz (4.605 kilos) and 21.65 inches (55 centimeters). Just to give you some perspective, James weighed 10 lbs 7 oz and was 22 inches long at birth. So, John-Luke is still playing a bit of catch-up but he is growing nicely. He grew 2.5 inches and 2 lbs 11 oz in one month! This is his one month photo (next to his little monkey).And I'm going to go ahead and say that he can roll over from his belly to his back as he has done it 4 times now in front of me. He hasn't perfected it but it is only a matter of time. He is really an awesome baby to have around. Never (and I really mean NEVER) cries. (Well except when James "accidentally" bit him. James cried too). And he sleeps about 18-20 hours a day. It is hard work to grow so much in such a little amount of time. Here he is sleeping away at my his cousin Ryan's baby blessing (Ryan is 5.5 weeks older than John-Luke). Please ignore the pink carseat as I had to borrow a carseat while in Utah. Notice his bib said "Who needs sleep?" Apparently he did.If I could be assured of having babies this easy every time then I might be able to have some more. Especially if Brian's mom and my mom come out to help for a few months!! My mom is still here but she flies home Saturday (oh sad and wretched day). I will try to catch up a bit on my posting. I was in Utah for 6 weeks then school started and it took us a week to adjust back to Geneva and then I potty trained James. Lets just say that it has been busy. I will start by trying to catch up with John-Luke's weekly posts with a bit of Utah thrown in there.

A Visit to Red Square

I should first like to point out, that traveling is just not the same without my favorite travel partners. Here is what I look like when I start traveling without my peeps.

One of the benefits of working in Switzerland, is the occasional business trip to a new and previously undiscovered place. This last week, work took me to the Russian Federation; specifically Moscow. One of my colleagues, who was also going on the business trip, proposed that we take a few extra days for sightseeing in Moscow and then head up to St. Petersburg for a few days. I must say that I had quite a bit of apprehension about going to Russia. I guess I have seen too many movies and heard too many tales about the country that I began to even fret the trip. This was further exacerbated by the proposition to take the overnight train to travel between the two cities. As you will see, however, I not only survived, but also had a good and safe trip.

I think that this trip is best described in pictures than in words, so I'll let them do the speaking, with a little commentary here and there.

This is the view from my hotel looking onto Red Square.


This is red square to the left and the Kremlin to the right.


Inside the Kremlin looking at the government buildings.


One of the cathedrals within the Kremlin.


St. Basils Cathedral on Red Square.


Lenin's tomb on the Red Square.


I had the terrific opportunity of being in Moscow for Moscow Day. They had closed down the Red Square for ten days, and the only way in was to by a ticket to the concert. So I shelled out a few hundred Rubles for the show, but mainly to see the square.



Straight away after the concert, we headed to the train station and took our places on the overnight train bound for St. Petersburg. You can actually read it on the train (A C is and S, and H is an I, K is N, and T is T...N is P, P is R, etc)



Now I should mention, that we booked our hotel at the Deluxe Hotel in St. Petersburg. Here is the grand arched entrance that leads to the hotel. At the bottom left you can see a tiny yellow sign. That is the hotel's sign.

Now we get a little closer, and things don't look as promising. Where is the entrance, we wondered?

A little fuzzy, as were our minds when we found the entrance.


Now to the heavy metal reinforced door that leads to the 2nd floor where the hotel is located. You have to buzz to be let in.


What a lovely hotel courtyard. Very deluxe if you ask me.


Now for the second steal reinforced door to the hotel on the 2nd floor.


Overall, the hotel was actually decent for the price we paid. It was secure, but in a dumpy little building, and the location was pretty deluxe. We were a short walk to most places.

Here is the Versailles of Russia. It was built at the order of Peter the Great.


Here is a nice Cathedral in St. Petersburg. The interior is just as stunning as the exterior.


The entire inside is covered with pictures. Don't be fooled, though, because these walls have been entirely done in mosaics. The tiny mosaic tiles are about a centimeter or less in size, so you can imagine the enormity of this project.


This angles shows you that it is indeed all mosaic.

A museaum.
A great sunset over Peter the Great's Fortress.


The Hermitage (it is purportedly the 2nd biggest museum in the world. I actually got lost inside.


The Hermitage also served as a palace. So there are many palacially decorated rooms. This is the throne room, but don't mind the guy with the wedgie, he just wishes he were on the throne to release the pressure.

I thought that this was one of the coolest rooms in the museum. Now that is deluxe!


So it was a fun trip, albeit in the absence of my small family. I hope that you have enjoyed the pictures, and will one day (if given the opportunity) will seize upon the occasion to visit Russia, as it is a beautiful country.