Holiday Fun

As we near the end of 2015 I have found myself with some more fun pictures and vacation time.  The flexible nature of my position lets me arrange my days as such that often times I don't need to use vacation days to get time off.  This blessing leads to extra days at the end of the year where I get to do a little more relaxing.  This has been especially fun as it has given me some mornings and afternoons with Forrest.  Generally, Mandi takes care of the shuttling of the little man back and forth to school.  Sometimes you never really understand what you're missing until you experience the joy of a thing:

When we drop him off at school John, the gentleman who runs the school greets each student, helps them out of the car, and sends them on their way.  The kids then walk on their own around the back of the school and to the door.  Watching Forrest take this walk is fun in the most melancholy of ways.  But before we know it he's back in the afternoon, and this is when the fun begins.

Forrest loves to build.  In this picture we had begun building "houses" (as he calls them) from some Jenga blocks.  The actual game of Jenga is only fun for Forrest for the first... oh... 5 minutes.  After that though, we had quite a long bit of entertainment from stacking the blocks and building a house.  This one he built all on his own, arranging the blocks to support each other.  I was struck by the resemblance to Mr. Frank Lloyd Wright's "Fallingwater".  Forrest thought so too.

I promise this picture isn't as ominous as it appears, though it is as tall as it appears.  One of the father-son activities we enjoy is an afternoon trip to Monkey Joes.  This place is awesome for helping the little man get out some pent up energy.  By the end he was going down even the biggest slides on his own.

On the quieter afternoons we will poke around with some crafts, including building a Play-Dough snowman that Forrest received as a gift from his teachers at the Montessori school.

On one of our weekend nights we decided to get the whole gang together for some bowling at Uncle Buck's (Bass Pro Shop).  It was crowded, and crazy... but a good time.  LMC managed to win the day with an amazing performance... 5 strikes I think.  At least 4 and three of them in a row.  None of us could compete!  We fled the scene for dinner though, it was too crowded.  River1000 offered us all we could eat in Asian food buffet and Sushi.  That place has definitely improved.

Last but not least was the annual UnityPoint Holiday Party.  A big thank you to both UnityPoint for hosting, as well as to Gigi and Poppy for taking care of Forrest for the weekend.  Mandi and I enjoyed our date weekend :)  Friday night we got all dolled up for the party, with a trip to Monticello and Champaign on Saturday.  We got to enjoy all of our favorite places to eat, see family, and enjoy adult conversation without interruption.  No doubt Forrest is a blast to have around, but sometimes a break from the 3 year old is just what the doctor ordered.