California and Monterey

Dallin and I are in California visiting my parents. We wanted to make a little trip to see them before Dallin turns 2 and can't fly for free anymore. We have had such a fun time. Dallin loves exploring a bigger house and getting into cabinets that aren't child locked. He loves going up and down (mostly up) the stairs and playing on the landing.

He likes to look down at people on the main floor. He'll stick his head through the bars too.

His head is not actually big enough to get stuck between the bars, but with his ears sticking out, he "thought" he was stuck and cried for help.

There is a gate at the top of the stairs to keep him from falling down, but he found a way to get around that.

He couldn't get his shoulders through so he was stuck like this.

(Don't you love that on two different occasions, when Dallin was stuck, I ran to get the camera instead of helping him first?)

On Saturday, we went to Monterey, California.

We ate lunch at the Fish Hopper Restaurant. You get a lovely view of the ocean from your table. I had some delicious crab legs and Dallin had some bread.

Then we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. There were lots of cool fish and things to see. Dallin really had a good time.

There was a little touch pool where you could reach in and touch the wildlife. Dallin liked to pick up the star fish and fling them around in the air.

I'm sure the starfish would have been screaming his head off in terror if he had a voice.

It's been rainy most of the time that I've been here in California, but the sky cleared up a little bit for us so that we could enjoy the ocean.

Musical Pi

I found this video and thought it was pretty cool. I'm sure all the musical/math nerds will enjoy it.

Happy Pi Day!

Dallin's First Haircut

After almost 2 years, we decided it was finally time for Dallin to get his first haircut.

I've been hesitant to cut it because his hair is so thin and I didn't want him to look bald, but it was really getting long around his ears.

Mckay did the actual cutting. I worried that Dallin would be afraid of the clippers since he's afraid of other similar sounds like the vacuum, mixer and hair dryer. He was just fine though. We let him hold the clippers for a bit and we turned it on to let him get used to the sound before starting the trim.

He sat still on Mckay's lap the whole time and didn't cry or get scared at all. The biggest problem was that he kept trying to turn his head to look at what Mckay was doing.

Dallin put up with it all very well and his hair looks really good.

Mckay did a great job cutting and we think it makes Dallin look more grown up.

Dallin is still in awe over the whole experience.

Chili

Dallin is starting to become more comfortable with eating food. A problem we're encountering now is that he doesn't want to be spoon fed by someone else. As an almost 2 year old child, he wants to be independent and feed himself, but he is no where near having enough coordination to do it. But we let him try anyway. Last night we had Chili for dinner and he loved it.

The great thing is that he will actually put his spoon in the bowl to get a little scoop and then put the spoon in his mouth.

While he's probably getting more food on his face and shirt than in his mouth, he is learning. And if he is willing putting solid food into his mouth, I'm not gonna stop it.

He liked the chili so much he licked his bowl clean.

He may have seen me lick my bowl once, and now he does it all the time. I love the habits I'm teaching my child! And hey, eating is eating!

Overalls

While going through some of Dallin's clothes, I found a pair of blue denim overalls in a 12 month size. 12M is not quite his size yet, but he is getting much taller so I thought I'd try them on him. I think overalls look so cute on babies, but I wasn't sure if he would be too old to still look as cute in overalls.

He is definitely not too old for overalls! I think he looks so stinking cute in them!

And I am so proud of him that he fits into 12M size pants! There's still room to grow, but he is by no means drowning in them.

This boy has been very much into books recently.

He's constantly crawling to me with a book in hand and signing what he thinks is the sign for "book," but is actually the sign for "more." We're still working on clearing this up.

He has been mobile for 5 months but he's only just now realized that he can reach the books on the bookshelf and pull them off.

He's very good at only touching "his" books. He doesn't even care about the other ones.

He's loving pop-up books lately. He's usually very gentle with them and doesn't try to rip the pictures.

Usually.

He's even figuring out how to work the little pull tabs in the books.

My little overall boy is growing up so fast.

What am I doing wrong?

I can't cook dry beans.

I have tried using dry beans to make Chili many, many times, but the beans are always a little crunchy still by the time the chili is ready. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong but I can't figure out what it is. For all those seasoned bean cookers out there, I'll describe what I do and maybe you can tell me what my flaw is.

I've tried soaking the beans overnight. I've also soaked them starting the morning of cooking, which translates to about 6-8 hours of soaking. I've even soaked them for days at a time in the fridge. After soaking I'll dump the beans in with the rest of the chili fixings (meat, tomatoes, spices, etc.) and let simmer for an hour to 2 hours. After 2 hours I taste the crunchy beans and simmer for another hour. With beans still crunchy but stomachs growling, we give in and eat the chili.

I've tried making the Chili in a Crockpot and cooking it for 4 or 5 hours. Doesn't work.

We enjoy eating Chili and I would like to be able to use the dry beans I have, but I can't figure out how to cook them!

This may seem like an obvious step to others, but apparently not to me, so please humor me. After soaking the beans, do you have to simmer the beans on their own in water and cook them before adding them to the chili? This would make sense and would most likely fix my crunchy bean problem. But I feel like it should be easier than that. I think I should be able to add the beans right after soaking and having them cook with the chili. Otherwise, I spend all day soaking beans and hours cooking them and making chili and it seem like too much time spent for a simple bowl meal. I guess this is why people just use canned beans. They come out of the can perfectly tender already!

So help me out here! Do I need to cook the beans first? Am I not soaking the beans correctly? Tell me what I am doing wrong.

R.I.P. Patrick

Patrick Easton, 20 years old, died at 4:30pm on January the eleventh at exit 140 on I-65 North due to acute engine failure brought on by a damaged cam shaft.

Patrick was born in 1991 and adopted by Mckay and Sheri Easton on April 12th, 2008. Together they have traveled in 8 states, visiting friends and family. He is survived by his parents and step-brother, Dallin.

Patrick has repeatedly traversed the scenic Colorado Mountains, including a Honeymoon trip in Glenwood Springs, and a return trip from camping through Aspen. He got us to Eagle Lake, California for the Crapo family 4th of July camping trip.

We hoped we could have seen him make it to 200,000 miles, but he has lived long.

Although he has had a long life, he has also experienced many injuries. On one such occasion, we were driving to St. Louis for Christmas in 2008. Sheri was 6 months pregnant and Mckay was recovering from his bike accident so we were a pretty pathetic pair. At 10pm, his alternator failed at the Kansas Turnpike tollbooth. We kept warm in an empty tollbooth while waiting to be towed to nearby Lawrence, Kansas. We had help from Dad Crapo and brother-in-law Ryan, who came from St. Louis in the middle of the night to rescue us. What a Christmas we had!

He has had to endure all types of ridicule because of his old age, but he endured it with grace.

He helped us move from Utah to Indiana during the summer of 2010. He was a small car, so he was packed to the roof with boxes and clothes and Dallin's toys. Like the little engine that could, he made it over Vail pass going 30 mph.

(Patrick at last year's Trunk or Treat)

On the journey he would never complete, Sheri was driving back from Dallin's doctor appointment in Indianapolis. He braved the elements of wind and snow, but 30 miles from home, he could not endure to go on. The tow company said it could take 40 minutes in the blizzard to reach Patrick. Together Sheri, Dallin and Patrick sat on the shoulder of the busy highway while large trucks zoomed past. A policeman came to our aid shortly thereafter. He even called the tow truck to demand that he get there as soon as possible. But it was too late; Patrick had passed away.

His body has been buried in the local junkyard, but his memory has been buried in our hearts.

Patrick, you will be missed.