Back home again in Indiana

Tonight I shall regale you with the beginning of the story, that of the week-and-a-half the boys and I spent in Indiana without Dada. It's all quite complicated, how he wasn't there -- we drove to Dayton, all of us together, with his grad students following us; we parted ways, where I drove the remaining 1-1/2 hours to Grandma and Grandpa Ross's house in Indianapolis. Meanwhile, our crazy Dada did field work in Ohio for a few days, then drove back to Delaware, where he did field work on the beach for two days, then drove to Virginia, where he did field work for another two days. I think somewhere in there he slept and ate.

But more important, naturally, is what the boys and I did, and how many pictures I took in the doing. Here are the best ones from my camera, taken before Dada arrived with his sultry new digital SLR (from which we literally have hundreds of pictures). I will sift through Dada's pictures soon, because they will accompany the telling of our spiritually packed and eventful weekend of wedding + baptism. For now, you get to see pictures of my cute boys playing with their relatives and working on their Indiana farmers' tans.

I took this one at the beginning of I-70, right outside of Baltimore. I'm guessing this Cove Fort place is in California?
But look! Only a scant 420 miles to Columbus! And then another, oh, 180 from there to Indianapolis. Aren't you jealous of us, driving all that way with two very young monkeys?

Actually, they did very well. Isaac is so easy to attend to; all one requires is a DVD player to plug into his brain and he is good for an all day drive. Jacob slept a bunch, and at first when he was awake he enjoyed talking to himself. After awhile he started to get highly annoyed at his car seat, poor man. He exploded on me, both emotionally and poop-ally, as soon as we left Dada in Dayton, and I had to stop at a rest stop to change his entire ensemble. As I nursed him out of his fuss, I snapped my new favorite picture of him, Mr. Big Blue Eyes:



It wasn't long before we were all being spoiled by the indescribable luxury of having more adults than babies around. Here, Dadaw (Grandpa O'Neal) and Jacob enjoy an afternoon chit-chat:



At the house of Meemaw and Papaw (AKA Grandma and Grandpa Ross), Isaac was highly amused by Meemaw's sparkling faux fruit:



And everybody spent lots of time playing in the front yard:





Here's Meemaw teaching Isaac to roll down her big hill of a yard:






Our Jakester, however, was more interested in practicing his new gross motor skillz indoors with props. We hit some yard sales and struck baby gold with your basics -- plastic rings and a mirror:











We also visited Dada's sister's family at their new behemoth kiddie wonderland house. Here are my surly boys with their Aunt Robin and cousins Emily and Sarah. I think we only got those foul-looking faces because I asked them to stand still for a second.



While we were there, Uncle Joe put together their trampoline in the backyard, replete with hard-core safety net, so Isaac could bounce his little brains out:







Poor Jacob was more into his naps than such activities, especially when Mamaw the Sleep-Bringer works her magic tricks:



To lure Isaac out of the sun, Aunt Robin set up the infamous tray of rice, and Sarah and Emily spent more than an hour showing Isaac what it was all about:





During the weekdays, we tried to visit Meemaw and Papaw at their respective workplaces so they could show off their grandboys. As always, Isaac hogs all the fun, whether it's riding on a tractor at the Caterpillar/Kubota dealership managed by Papaw ...



... or spinning in Meemaw's office chair and soliciting chocolate from her coworkers:



Without Dada there, we basically just hung out, keeping our agenda as low-key as possible, and spent lots of time outside relaxing. This was nice, because as soon as Dada arrived it was time to gear up for the wedding of the century. Did I tell you Isaac was the ring bearer? Oh, do we ever have pictures for you. For later.