The Quadcopter

Ryan got a quadcopter for Christmas.  He's had a fun time going to the park and working on his piloting skills.  Sometimes when it's late or raining, though, we fly the quadcopter in the house.

Ryan has taught Lucas how to fly it a bit too.  He's actually pretty good.

 Logan is mesmerized by the quadcopter.

 And here's a video of Lucas making the quadcopter do a flip.

Business Trip to London

Here's the last of the catch up posts.  Ryan took a business trip to London a few weeks ago.  We had known about this trip for a while but when it actually came time for him to go I was a little worried about having the baby early, or just not being able to manage the kids and being hugely pregnant all by myself.  Everything worked out pretty well, though.  My mom came and stayed with us for two days, and then we went down and stayed with her for two days.  Playing with family kept us distracted and entertained.  My dad made yummy shrimp for me to eat.  We never have seafood at home because Ryan hates it.  We spent most of our time just hanging out at the park or at my brother John's house in their new playroom.  Here's Joseph entertaining the kids.  They all thought Joseph was the best ever.

One of the days we were down in San Jose we went to Happy Hollow.  The kids had so much fun going on the rides and seeing the animals at the zoo.

 The park wasn't very busy so the kids got to ride the rides over and over again without getting off.

 Paige thought she was awesome getting to ride this car all by herself.

 Paige has been super in to babies lately, and her cousin Jonah is no exception.  Despite the fact that he is about the same size as her, she kept trying to love him and hold him.  He liked it for the most part so it was okay.

They had this roller coaster there, and Lucas has never been a fan of roller coasters and usually refuses to go on them, but for some reason he decided to give this one a try and it was mild enough that he liked it.  He rode it 4 times in a row, because there was no one in line behind his group.  Then we went back and rode it again later and he rode it another 4 times.  I couldn't go on it with him so Joseph had to.  Poor Joseph got a headache from riding it so much but Lucas thought it was a blast.  Here's a video I took of our group on it.  You can see how excited Lucas is.  Don't be distracted by the person waving at the beginning, our group is in the first three cars - Lucas and Joseph are in the second car.



We spent the rest of our time at home, getting ready for Lucas's birthday and going to the park.  We did alright, but the kids were definitely a little grumpy without their dad.  Paige took a few days to realize that daddy wasn't just at work and coming home soon, once she did she was pretty clingy and sad.  We made it through, though, and I told Ryan he's never allowed to travel again.  :)

Ryan was mostly going to meetings the entire time he was in London, but he did get to go sightseeing the first two days he was there.  He packed a lot into just two days.

 He took the Tube everywhere he went.

St Paul's Cathedral

 The National Gallery

 The Tower Bridge

Big Ben and Parliament

 Westminster Abbey

 The London Eye

View from the Eye

 Changing of the guards

 Windsor Castle

 Stonehenge

 London Temple

We're glad he had a good time, and we're glad he's back again!

Baby Picture Comparison

Everyone says that Lucas looks just like a mini Ryan, and that Paige looks a lot like me.  I've been looking at baby pictures of me and Ryan lately, though, and I think Paige might look a little more like Ryan, and Lucas might look a little more like me.  What do you think?

I guess they are both a pretty good mix.  It's fun looking back at our baby pictures and seeing what we looked like.  I'm glad both our parents kept track of stuff like this so we can see it now.

Just Like His Daddy....

I'm still working on getting the last few pictures from our trip posted, but in the mean time, Lucas put Ryan's glasses on yesterday and decided to walk around wearing them for a while.  He is so funny!  Doesn't he look just like his daddy?

Happy Birthday, Ryan

Bedtime Stories

Ryan Passed !!

Ryan defended his thesis on Thursday.  He has been working 12 - 16 hour days for the last 2 months to finish up everything he needed to do and fix the many problems that somehow happened to pop up at the last minute.  I was very anxious for his thesis defense to go well and was surprised by how nauseous I was the whole morning before.  I can only image how he felt.  Ryan's parents and I went and watched him defend.  I wanted to get a picture of him standing up at the front of the room all cute in his suit, but everyone showed up early, and I didn't think it would be very professional to take a picture in the middle of his defense.  He did a wonderful job.  His graduate adviser got up and talked about how wonderful of a student Ryan has been, and said that he worked harder than any other masters student he has had.  After about an hour of asking Ryan questions after the defense, they decided that he passed!  Yay!  Ryan has a few paragraphs and figures to change in his thesis but other than that he's done.  Our whole family is so happy.  I think Lucas is in heaven with how much time he's spent with his dad over the last day and a half.  In a few short weeks everything will be turned in and Ryan will have is Masters degree.  I couldn't be more proud of everything that he has done and how hard he's worked.

Visiting Dad on Campus

Lucas has really become a daddy's boy lately. He loves to visit his dad on campus, and he even knows how to get to his dad's office from the parking lot. Ryan has been really busy lately getting some testing done. He spent like 16 hours on campus yesterday. To make up for the time spent away from home, Lucas and I took his meals to him and spent time with him while he ate. Ryan has an office with windows, but the water tunnel that he's running his tests in is in the basement of the Clyde.
Checking out the water tunnel. It's huge!

Here's the mechanism he's been working on.

And here is a video of it outside of the water so you can see what it's doing.

Visit to Austin

I'm still playing catch up with our photos, but I think I'm almost done. We took a trip to Austin, Texas the weekend before Christmas. Ryan went so he could interview at National Instruments, and Lucas and I went just for fun. The hotel we stayed at was actually really nice.

But when I pulled open the curtains in our room that first morning, the view was just not on par with the rest of the hotel.

That's okay, though. Lucas loved looking out the window and brushing his teeth anyway.

Then we sat and ate some goldfish while watching tv.

Then Sandy came to get us and took us to this awesome playgroup. The lady hosting had yummy snacks and cookies for us to eat so we didn't have to go out for lunch, and she had a Santa there. Lucas warmed right up to the other kids and he had a blast. Here he is being chased by another one of the kids.

He was less than impressed by Santa, but he sat there okay for a few pictures.

After Lucas's nap, we went shopping at this huge outdoor mall that was right across the street from our hotel. This was seriously the best location for a hotel ever.

There were some cool play structures for kids too.

And a water fountain.

The next day we went over to Derek and Sandy's house to play for a while.

All the boys crowded around an electronic device. Typical!

We opened some presents too.

These are the tutus I made. Don't the girls look so cute?

Watching Dad Open his Present

Pj Dancing

After our mini Christmas, we went downtown to see some of the sights. I think Austin is a really cool looking city. Here is the capitol building.

Inside the building.

Walking with Daddy

Sitting with Pj

Then Derek and Sandy had to take the kids home because Ava wasn't feeling well. We went to check out the UT (University of Texas) campus. We went to an art museum and then just walked around for a bit. It was pretty.

The Bell Tower

We had a fun time visiting with family and seeing the city. The trip was way too short and we'll have to go again soon. You're probably wondering how the interview part of the trip went... we are too... we'll find out in a few weeks.