My name is Scott T. Holland. I'm a newspaper columnist-editor-designer, a self-published author and a marketing-sales-Web-whatever else guy for my parents' family business, now living in Gurnee, Ill. The site is about my life, which includes a beautiful wife, our four young sons... plus way too much time watching the Cubs and bad television. That said, if you don't find me interesting, this blog will likely bore you to tears.
I realize if I just kept current with my photo uploading, I wouldn't have to start each post with an apology for how long it's been since the last one. But I have a pretty good track record showing that's not likely to change, so you get what you get. And what you get right now is pictures and videos from our Labor Day weekend trip to Fulton. The first few shots are from one of the first things we did — spend a few minutes with Kristie's cousin Bethany and her kids, plus Aunt Pat and Aunt Pam, who are generally not in these photos because they were earning Charlie's affection by giving him food.
Hungry Hungry Hippos with Bethany and Jenna. From How's House
Charlie shows off his summer attire. From How's House
On the Sunday before Labor Day we arranged a substantial caravan of vehicles (packing essential and delicious rations) for a day on a Mississippi River sandbar.
This video is of Max and Charlie's second-ever boat ride (on the way back from the sandbar), but I still enjoy it. It's kinda loud, though. You may want to watch it with the volume down.
And, on Monday night before we left, Charlie struck this adorable pose.
The vast majority of this post is pictures of Max poking his face through the wooden cutouts as part of the water conservation display outside the primate house at Brookfield Zoo. I probably could have gotten by with fewer photos, but Max was so proud of himself because he posed for each one, I felt compelled to share the best shot from each display — and a few others from this trip. (For the record, this is from Aug. 19, the Sunday before Jack started school for the year.)
Waiting for the dolphin show to begin. From Brookfield Zoo
On Aug. 12 we packed up the bounce house for a trip to Libertyville for our annual family birthday dinner. Sadly, Aunt Kim was already back in California and Kat wasn't able to make it, but we had a very nice evening with Uncle Matt, Pops and K. We did connect with Kim via video chat (despite some technical difficulties) and while it turns out I didn't take as many photos as I usually do, I did grab a few worth sharing.
Trying to video chat with Aunt Kim. From Pops and K's
While Jack and Max were at How's house, Kristie made the all-star mom move of the century. She found, on Facebook, a mom from a neighboring suburb who was getting rid of her Little Tikes bounce house — for free. Seems the family had left it outside and she no longer cared for the fact it smelled like a tent.
These things sell for around $280 new. We know since we priced them before Christmas 2010 when Kristie thought it might be a good idea to have one in the basement for Max when she was downstairs washing Charlie's diapers, Charlie at that point being a few months away. At the time we decided it was too expensive and not entirely practical. But almost two years later with an unbeatable price, well, that was a different story altogether.
Kristie didn't say anything about the bounce house to Jack and Max until they got home with How and Pop. Having that surprise available was a pretty good way to ease their transition back to home life — and did I mention it was free? Besides, when you can use a toy like this as a prop to help set up adorable photos, well, it's pretty much a no-brainer.
I posted this photo and video over at Be Thou Our Guard, but they warrant sharing again in case you missed them the first time... or forgot them since it's been more than a month. For the record, these photos are from Aug. 11 after Kristie, Charlie and I shared a super awesome dinner out with Pops at Capt. Porky's in Wadsworth.
The video shows Charlie running in place, trying to copy what we were doing in response to him actually running, but go ahead and tell yourself he's dancing. It's even cuter that way.
After leaving Elizabeth, we drove straight to Fulton to leave Jack and Max with How and Pop for a few days. Kristie, Charlie and I spent the night Aug. 7 and stayed through dinner the next night. In that time, I was able to get some excellent pictures of Charlie, who really grew into a wonderful comfort zone at How's house — which really paid off when we returned a bout a month later for Labor Day.
It was a Wednesday when we drove home, How and Pop brought Jack and Max back to Gurnee the next Saturday. It wasn't as long of a stay as Jack would have liked, but family circumstances dictated a shift. To his credit, he accepted the change of plans as well as any kid his age possibly could, which means he far exceed my expectations. Perhaps some of his graciousness came from me telling him Kristie and I would leave him alone while we were there, but no matter the reason, I was thrilled to see him display such uncharacteristic maturity.
And now, what you came for: adorable toddler pictures.
This was Charlie's first ride in the Jeep. Jack was an excellent chauffeur, taking great care to use his free hand to secure his tiny passenger. The little man's smiles are absolutely priceless, and his big brother is a pretty smooth operator behind the wheel.
As noted in an earlier post, my dad's mother died on the first Friday of August. Fortunately we were able to get the entire family together for services in Elizabeth, Ill., the following week. So while it was in no means a happy occasion, I was able to get some decent pictures during family time. As part of catching up on my photo backlog, I present them to you now. The first few are from the church basement during the post-funeral luncheon, the others are from Aunt Shirley's house, where the family headed after things closed down at church.
In my ongoing quest to get caught up with photos, I bring to you now, in the first week of September, these pictures from the first week of August. As always, thank you for agreeing our children are adorable.
For starters, is it any wonder this kid is so regular?
These last three are from a big park in Waukegan we checked out on a very warm summer Sunday. Max and Charlie had fun, too (Max especially enjoyed the enormous slides), but I didn't get great pictures of them.
I will get to photos eventually, I'm sure. But for starters, here's a video of Max telling us about his weekend in Fulton. (We'd just gotten back from taking Jack to the bus stop and I was basically rehashing the conversation in order to get it on video.)
