Family Game Morning

With all of the efforts surrounding selling our house and buying our Portland house, it is nice to have a lazy morning (where Mom and Dad are not busy cleaning, straightening, and making our beds) where we stay in a pajamas a little bit extra. 

One of my favorite things after cars, trucks, buses, monster trucks, swimming, reading... is playing games.  Before we packed everything up, Mom and Dad were letting us play some of their Mom & Dad games, including this one below with the crazy dots.  I call it "Twisty."  Since the spinner twists in a circle.

I also like to play Sorry and Checkers (plus my own games).

Peace Out,
Phin, the "Twisty Champ"

Poconos or Bust (again, only in 2015)!

In keeping with the annual tradition, we made our President's Day pilgrimage to the Poconos.  After this trip, I must confess that Pennsylvania has a lot of cool stuff (a chocolate museum, an ice cream museum (which we have not been too yet), the Please Touch Museum, and the Poconos).

As usual, we stopped on the way to the Poconos in Philadelphia to go to the Please Touch Museum.  As you may remember, we went to the same museum in 2013 and had a lot of fun (we tried to go in 2014, but it was closed because of a snow storm - so we went to Target instead, which was not as much fun).

Aside from the Please Touch Museum, we also went snow tubing, hiking on the frozen lake, exploring in the woods, to the scary Blakeslee Flea Market, and to the Boden Outlet .  This trip was our coldest Poconos trip yet.  Saturday the high temperature was 5 degrees (with -15 wind chills) and Sunday, the high temperature was -1 degrees (with wind chills hitting below -25 degrees). But, we did not let the cold stop us for long.

Here are a few highlight photos, you can see the rest here.  You can also check out photos from when we went in 2012 (when I was a very little guy and it was evidently warm).

Snow tubing with dad!

Checking out our snow giraffes

School time with Uncle Brendan

Peace Out,
Phin

Portland Pics - Finally (They're from October)

Back in October, the FuFu Foursome took a trip to Portland.  Mom and Dad wanted to show us around, make sure we liked it (even in the rainy Fall), and look at houses.  After 4 months, we finally convinced them to upload and share the pictures. 

To ensure we did not get bored looking at houses and driving around neighborhoods, we did a lot of cool things.  I asked Amelia how many different types of transportation we took while in Portland, she said "6, 7, 8 things."  No worries, she's close (and still working on what counting means).  We used 9 different ways to get around (Dad calls it multi-modal methods):

1. Rode the Metro to the Airport
2. Took a Plane (direct) from DC to Portland.  It was a long flight.
3. Rented a car
4. Rode an aerial tram/cable car
5. Rode on a trolley
6. Rode the Portland MAX train (named after my friend Max)
7. Played on parked trains - which is kind of like going for a train ride
8. Went hiking
9. Road the moving sidewalks at the PDX airport a lot (for no real reason) - we also watched a guy play the piano at the Portland airport, but that does not count

After that huge number of transit methods, I knew I would love Portland.  Everyday, I bring up something new about my Portland house (which we still have to buy), like:

• We can get a new fish in our Portland house (Amelia is really concerned about this since Mr. Bubbles Orange Green got sick, died, and flushed down the potty)
• We can get a dog in our Portland house - maybe when I turn 5
• We can have a room for Nana, Papa, Grandma, & Grandpa in our Portland house
• We can have a yard in our Portland house
• We can have DC friends come visit in our Portland house
• We can have our toys (most of which are currently in storage) back in our Portland house
• We can go look at waterfalls from our Portland house
• We can see the train from our Portland house (like we can from our DC house)
• We can have a desk for Dad in our Portland house, so he will not have to work from the bedroom floor
• ...

It is a long list with a new item added everyday.  No pressure Mom and Dad, but you have to find a good house with room for a dog and a new fish.

Anyway, here are some of the pictures from our trip.  The rest can be found here.

Here we are riding the aerial tram up to the hospital.  So fun

Playing in one of Oregon's cool trees.  They have a lot up there.

Pushing a passenger train into place, without Amelia's help

Group shot on our waterfall hike

I forgot to mention we also went bowling - it was Amelia's first time.  She loved it.

I am looking forward to going back this summer!
Peace out,
Phin

Amelia-isms at 2.5 Years Old

Amelia has her own language sometimes.  Sometimes it seems like she just makes up words.  When she was little we used to play this game, where I would say a word and she would say it back.  The game usually went like this:

P: Amelia, say 'Car'
A: Car

P: Good, say 'Boat'
A: Boat

P: Good, say 'Cow'
A: Cow

P: Now say 'Double Decker Bus'
A: Smuggle Shoe Bus

Then we would all laugh.  For some reason, the game always ended on Double Deck Bus. 

While Amelia can now say, Double Deck Bus with no problem (probably all of the practice), she has a few Amelia-ism (also referred to as 'MeeMoos')

• I say Cucumber, Amelia says Cooputta
• I say Granola, Amelia says Growla
• I say Strawberry, Amelia says Trawberry (she forgets it starts with an S)
• I say Spoon, Amelia says Poon (again with the S)
• I say my name is Phin, she calls my Phinny (or sometimes Phinny Bear) - never just Phin
• I say Excuse Me, Amelia says Goomsy (Mom and Dad think its cute when she say Goomsy, they sometimes say it too)
• I say Finger, Amelia says Fiiiingggghar
• I say Fountain, Amelia says Mountain
• I say Cup Holder, Amelia say Putta Butta (I have no idea how this MeeMoos even happened, but it took a week of Putta Butta's to figure out what she meant).
• I call her Amelia, she refers to herself as MeeMoo or MeeMoo Rose
• I say she's silly, she says she's Foo Foo (as in little bunny foo foo who hops through the forest)

That Amelia, she's so Foo Foo, but we love her, especially when she puts her Fiiiingggghar and Poon in her Putta Butta. 

Peace Out,
Phinny Bear

Can I Sing You the L O V E Song?

We were sitting around the dining room table Wednesday (because all of the toys are packed for the Open House and there is not much else to do), when I thought it would be a good time to share some of my knowledge with Mom and Dad.  At School, we do a lot of singing, but at home we mostly just dance, play, and act creatively.

So, while sitting around the table, I asked Mom and Dad if I could sing them the L-O-V-E song.  We queued the song up on YouTube and I started singing.  Surprisingly, Mom and Dad knew the song too.  Below is a compilation of my 2 times through the song.

Happy Valentines Day everyone!

Click the picture or here to start the video

Peace Out,
Phinny Bear