Ice Castles

We went to see these amazing ice structures while staying at the cabin over the weekend. They were formed in front of a resort in Midway by a man who made an art out of sprinkler pipes, water, and freezing temperatures. He designed a makeshift icicle farm of castles reaching 20 to 40 feet. There's even a path around the castles so people can come in and get an up-close look at the amazing formations.

Some daytime views:

We took the whole family when it was dark out so that we could see the ice castles lit up.

Some nighttime views:

There were tunnels that we could walk through.

Blake was pretty excited when he found his own icicle to taste.

Troy commented on this ice structure; "That's going to impale someone!" Luckily, Blake's Grandpa didn't quite put him close enough for that.

Blake decided to lounge in the snow bank for awhile. However, he didn't really like the aftermath of a wet backside.

Proof that Nash was there, too.

After seeing the ice castles, we got ice cream at the resort's pastry shop and sat in the tea parlor.

Blake was good about sharing what he thought was "his" ice cream.

Mostly, he saved all the ice cream for himself. He has recounted the experience of seeing the ice castles and eating ice cream all day today, so it must have been a memorable experience for him!

Filling Out

Nash hasn't even hit the 7 pound mark yet, but his little cheeks look so much chubbier to me than when he was born. It's just not fair how fast newborns grow up.

Would you like some tea?

I love some of his expressions.

Have I mentioned his cute hair?

Brothers

Best friends in the making.

Nash's Nook

We decided to make our guest room into a shared nursery. We weren't quite ready to give up our guest room completely, but we also didn't think it would work for the boys to share a room yet. The space is a little crowded and Nash's section is literally just a nook of the room, but we made it work. I actually rearranged the furniture and put the crib together the day before Nash was born. Maybe that was what put me into labor! Talk about finishing just in time though. I tried to coordinate the baby items with what we already had in the room so it's nothing too cute or exciting, but I added a few things to make it more nursery-like.

I couldn't find a crib sheet in the color I wanted, so we made our own over the holidays (by "we" I mean I picked out the fabric and my mom did all the sewing).

This mobile turned out to be a nightmare to make, but I love the end result! I thought it would be a simple afternoon project but it ended up taking much longer. The strands got completely tangled while in production, I had to completely disassemble the entire thing and re-glue all of the circles when they kept falling off, and it took two entire movies just to tie the ribbons on. I thought about throwing it away several times. It truly was a labor of love.

 

We squeezed in the rocking chair and made the dresser into a makeshift changing table.

Voila, Nash's nook! Now if I could only paint the walls...

Symbols of Marriage

A wedding ring is a daily symbol of commitment and loyalty to the one you love. Troy lost his ring about six months ago. I wasn't at all surprised. In fact, I was amazed that it lasted through more than three years of marriage! He took it off and played with it all the time and constantly spun it on flat surfaces. It's a good thing we're not very sentimental people because it was just a matter of time before it disappeared forever. However, after six months of appearing as if not married, I thought it was time to get him a new ring. We went on a Valentine's date the last weekend of January, which was good since we ended up having our baby a few days later. I thought it would be the perfect time to give Troy a replacement ring. I got him a very simple inexpensive ring knowing that he would probably lose that ring too. He was not very thrilled. He thought I was trying to "claim my territory." I guess that might have been part of it, but I thought that he would genuinely appreciate the thoughtfulness. I think the new ring has spent more time spinning than it has on his ring finger.

That brings me to my next story about wedding rings, or rather the lack thereof. This is a classic "You know you're at Walmart when..." story. The day before Nash was born, I went to Walmart to pick up something that I had shipped to the store. A gangly man in his mid-twenties helped me carry the item out to my car. While en route, he asked me how old Blake was. He then asked me when my baby was due. I answered both of his questions, and then in all seriousness, he asked, "Same dad?" I thought, are you kidding me? I frankly responded, "Yup." Who asks that kind of question? I mean, really? Do I look like the type of person that employs two different dads for my children within two years? He then proceeded to ask me a series of inappropriate questions about my marital status. The only credit I can give him is that I wasn't wearing my wedding ring because it gave me a rash towards the end of my pregnancy. The moral of the story is that wedding rings are apparently very important to avoid awkward conversations from strangers. Hopefully Troy can at least carry that knowledge into his use of wedding ring #2.

Happy Valentine's Day!