The first box of temptations they revealed the very evening of their arrival was an array of instruments fit for Alton's musical pleasure! We have already seen some of these in action in the Thanksgiving post, but here are some more pictures of Alton enjoying his melodious bounty.
His Grammy is an elementary school teacher (like his other grandmother and auntie on my side of the family!), so she is privy to generous hookups of kid-friendly supplies, like books, learning toys, and the fantastic box of instruments.
This past fall, Alton and I had been taking a little music class that met weekly for singing, movement, dancing, vocalizing, and instrumental fun! By the final weeks of class, Alton had gotten past his round-eyed gazing at all the other kids and teacher, and was having a blast gettin' down with the songs and marching around the room. During the songs that involve instruments, the instructor would put a big box of drums, tambourines, castanets, and other kid-sized implements in the middle of the room, and the half-dozen kids in the class would go to town trying out all of the different items with their unique sounds. Alton usually hung back a little during this melee, but always enjoyed trying out new instruments as they became available: tom-toms and triangles, cymbals and cowbells. (To which I usually interjected: "I have a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell." Yeah, nothing but crickets in response.)
At any rate, Alton was overwhelmed with excitement at having a whole box of instruments to himself to choose what he wanted to play. You can see what an incredible variety of instruments they provided for Alton. And don't the little crossed ankles just slay you? Grammy and Grandpa admired and assisted, along with their dog Tye, a.k.a. Minerva's doppelganger.
The next morning (the day before Thanksgiving) we had no time to spare! I was up early to do our Thanksgiving food shopping, then hurried home to corral the whole family into the car for a trip to the seashore. Grandpa had never seen the Oregon coast before, so a visit to Cannon Beach was definitely in order.
We had just enough time for the beautiful drive westward, a stroll along the main street to lunch, and a walk along the beach. We snapped photos of Haystack Rock...
...Alton got chased by Grandpa,
and he tossed rocks into a stream of water rushing through the sand...
...before heading home for a snooze in the car. No one likes to nap alone!
But we didn't stop there, folks! A little while to relax at home and then it was on to ZooLights! You might remember our fun evening last year to this annual show of lights at the Portland Zoo. We decided to squeeze this excursion into our busy day in case later nights for ZooLights possibilities turned out to be rainy or too cold (yep, two weeks later we're now experiencing daytime highs in the low 20s...glad we already hit the ZooLights!).
We tarried the longest at the elephant exhibit, where Alton was enthralled with the baby elephant and his mama.
Remembering our frosty cold experience with ZooLights last year, we added a few more winter accessories to Alton's outfit: wool socks and fleece mittens. He leans in close to his Grandpa's ear to say, "Oss...oss." "What do you want?" [Waving the be-mittened hands.] "Oss?" "Oh...you want them off...um...you...have to ask your mom about that one." Ha!
Well, you already know what happened after we got home from ZooLights. Thanksgiving was the next morning, although one thing that I have failed to note thus far is that starting right before Grammy and Grandpa arrived in Hillsboro, I was sick! I had been trying to ignore my aching throat and overall fatigue, but Thursday dawned rainy, soggy, and I had to face up to my illness. The rest of the family was indispensible in helping to take Thanksgiving preparations off my hands, prepping and cooking food, distracting Alton, walking the dogs to wear them out...but I look forward all year to making turkey and pies and sausage stuffing, and so I took a hot bath and pressed onward. Our team sat down to a delicious meal and gave thanks for the rest of our wonderful family and good food, then tucked in to our feast.
Friday morning there was also no time to delay! We got the clan up and out the door for our only "Black Friday" shopping experience: the local Hillsboro toy store, Let's Play. We had received a 15% off coupon in the mail and decided to head there to buy Alton's Christmas presents as soon as they opened, which fortunately for us was 10 a.m. I worried that with all the early bird deals out there ten o'clock would feel like mid-afternoon to some shoppers and the small store would be overrun, but we timed our arrival well and the crowds were thin at that time. Grammy and Grandpa stationed themselves on official Alton distraction duty and prowled all over the store while Andy and I stood hemming and hawing and blinking with dazed expressions on our faces at the incredible plethora of train gear adorning the shelves. We had tried to do some research ahead of time to get an idea of what we wanted to buy so that we wouldn't be at a disadvantage once we got to the store, but in person we were immediately overwhelmed with all of the options. After much debating, comparing, and testing of all the different little sets, we finally made our selections and left the store with our wacky relatives in tow.
Our next stop was the Christmas tree farm! Around this time of year there are more tree farms in Oregon than there are people, so we had our pick of places to patronize on Friday morning. The only problem was that I thought we were going to the tree farm right after the toy store, and Andy thought we weren't going until later in the day, so we arrived there without a saw. Or gloves. Or rope. Or old clothes. Or cash. Happily for us, the farm provided saws and rope, Grammy fronted the cash, and Andy didn't mind scratching his hands or dirtying his clothes to kneel in the mud and cut down the tree. Hooray!
This was our first year getting a Christmas tree with Alton, because last year (Baby's 1st Christmas) he was in the phase of pulling himself up on things, but not yet walking, and we thought a Christmas tree in the living room would be too tempting an item not to try to hoist himself up on! We also spent several weeks down in California around the holidays, which we're going to do again this year, but we have a whole month of Christmas tree enjoyment before we depart on our trip. We were limited in our decorating to only fabric and plush Christmas ornaments, because Alton greatly enjoys going over to the tree, removing the ornaments, and absconding them to various hidey-holes around the house, like his office.
The final piece of holiday fun that we got to share with Grammy and Grandpa was the Christmas train! Years ago when he first got his driver's license, Andy decided to use his newfound vehicular freedom to go Christmas shopping by himself for the first time. He secretly purchased an electric train, one that is intended to be put around the base of a Christmas tree, and woke up extra-early on Christmas morning to unpack the little train and set it up around the tree to surprise his family. They all enjoyed the little train, but for the last couple years Grammy and Grandpa didn't have big Christmas trees, so the little train set stayed in the garage during the holidays. But with Alton being the train-crazy guy he is, his grandparents gladly brought up the Christmas train and we set it up first in the front room, and then around the Christmas tree once it was in its stand. Alton is of course in love with the train and says "hello" and "bye-bye" to the choo-choo whenever he's in the room.
Whew, what a visit! Throw in a little reading...
snuggling...
and walking,
and this was an awfully full trip! We had a wonderful time with Grammy and Grandpa, and can't wait to see them, along with the rest of our family, in California for Christmas!
