Parent's Don't Know What Happens When They Sleep

Last week was vacation week.  We jumped in a plane and traveled far away to a place far different than Oregon. Gina, Autumn, Hanni, Peter, Abe and I enjoyed Arkansas and my parents.  

This is the view from my parent's back deck:

That is indeed a beautiful lake.  What you don't see is the boat dock just off to the right that houses the boat we can take out anytime we want.  Staying with my parents is like staying in a nice resort.  

On the trip back to Oregon, I fell asleep.  I always fall asleep when flying.  There is just something soothing and I can't stop myself.  On the long leg of the trip, I had the pleasure of sitting next to this fine young lady.  

As I lay peacefully asleep, that innocent looking travel partner grabbed my Nexus 7 tablet and took a few pictures.  I didn't see these until a couple days after arriving home.

Hanni has a knack for capturing me at my best.

Doesn't she look satisfied with herself.  I'm just glad my beard hides drool!

Here is another one of me passed out!

The Lesson:  Your kids are capable of things you never imagined.  Just expect the unexpected and enjoy them!  I always think my kids are more innocent and serious than they really are. And I underestimate their capability to accomplish both constructive and silly things.

Peter (and Hanni) In Blueberry Land

Look at these two.

Gina took this as Peter and Hanni headed to bed.  They just finished watching Phineas and Ferb while munching on a frozen blueberries they picked last summer. Hanni's right hand was almost entirely blue from pulling berries out of the bag.

A great children's book inspired the title of this post - 

All our kids enjoyed this book and Autumn reads it to the children she babysits.Guaranteed to please!

Hanni turns 10 - She is Wonderful

We have a wonderful 10 year old daughter.  

Hanni - The Wonder Girl

Johannah Grace is her given name but everyone knows her as Hanni.  She turned 10 a couple days ago and it was a fun day.

A couple things we do to celebrate birthdays:

• Go out to lunch or breakfast
• Birthday person get the dinner of their choice

Hanni chose Chipotle for lunch, so we (Gina, Scott and Hanni) headed over to the neighborhood eatery at noon.

Here is Hanni getting ready to dig into the monster burrito.

We paused for a moment to catch our breath and let Gina snap a quick picture.

 One of the cool things about Hanni is her burrito eating technique. She likes to eat from the middle out.  This time she munched in the middle and then ate the innards with a spoon.

Right after lunch we drove home and opened the presents.  The picture does not do justice to the paper bag wrapping that Peter did for Hanni.  Everyone thought the wrapping paper was cute.

 Hanni loves opening gifts.

Here is Autumn finishing the Hanni's burrito. (I add this photo becuase Autumn loves when I put these kind of photos out for the world to see.) Hanni brought home soda and the leftover burrito to share.  For some reason Gina and I did not have any leftovers.  Of course we had vegetarian bowls instead of burritos.  The leftovers don't seem to be in much demand, while the meat burritos are always quickly consumed.  

Dinner consisted of the world famous (ok - they should be world famous) Cheesy Potatoes.  Trust you would have trouble not eating at least two helpings.

Peter and Abe were at basketball practice while we eating.  I had to restrain people so there would a token portion for each of them.  We aren't very sympathetic to family members that miss dinner.

For dessert - Pie. Now I always pick cake but we have a cadre of pie lovers in the house.  Hanni is one of those. She is like her mother in many ways.

These two young ladies made the pie.  

Gina rolled out the crust and Autumn and Emily made the delicious pies. Here they are baking away.  They smelled soooo goooooood..... 

Getting ready to blow out the candles.

The birthday girl digging into the pie and ice cream.  Another bonus for the birthday person - They are the owner of all desert that is leftover.  They get to decide who and how much of the leftover ice cream and pie/cake to share.

This picture is evidence of why Gina is thin and I am a little on the round side of life.  She is eating salad instead of all the other stuff.  The salad was delicious but...

 More pictures of people eating.  Seems that there is always at least one pregnant Snider.

Another day at our house.  

A Few Thanksgiving Picture - 2012