New Pictures

Our friend Marvin took these family pictures of us. Not much of an update- but at least it is something to look at!! We are all happy, healthy and loving every second we are together!

Wesley Milo Slavens

Wesley was born at 12:14am on February 25th (6 days past his due date). He weighed 8 pounds 14 oz and was 20 inches long. He looks just like Mason did as a baby but Wesley has blonde hair and Mason's was dark brown. Wesley weighed one ounce more but was 1.5 inches shorter than Mason.

Mason is an excellent big brother. His job is to make sure that no one kisses Wesley on the face and that everyone uses had sanitizer. (RSV is really bad right now and I am being a little over-protective).

My parents flew in on the due date to help out- but had to leave on the 28th! They were able to be with Mason while we were in the hospital, watch Mason ski, help cook and clean- and I even dragged my dad on a hike with me! I just felt bad that they had to hang out with me (no one that goes past their due date is very pleasant to be around- especially myself!)

The coolest kid ever!!!!

Mason skiing. This is from one of his first trips this winter. He has gotten much better since this video. Mark is hoping that if skiing continues to be successful this season- then Mason will begin snowboarding next year. Mason is pretty excited about that idea. One of his favorite things to do is watch snowboard videos with his dad!

Our Family!!

This posting is a shout out to our wonder family
that we rarely see enough of.

Mason's cousins on Mel's side of the family: Devin, Elly, Mason, Reagan, Avery and Sidney. A very unique group of kids! One other has been born since this picture- baby Connor, Avery's little brother.







Mel's brothers and sisters- very rare occasion when we were all together. Mitzi, Michelle, Mel, Gina, Darrin, David, Shane and Justin.








Mason's cousins on Mark's side of the family. Mason, Spencer and Max.







The boys- Mark, Don (Mark's dad), Andy (Mark's brother), Mason, David Lucas (Mark's brother) and Spencer. Mark's brother Jesse is not pictured.

Fresh Start

I had lots of plans to put a slide show of 2008 on this blog... but it is just not happening. So, we shall just say that 2008 was fun and full of adventure including our trips to Wyoming, Utah, Maine, NYC, Adirondacks, and several interesting places in the Ithaca area. Thanks to all those that visited us, or took the time to spend with us when we were around. Thanks for being part of our 2008 memories! For those of you who weren't part of our 2008 memories- you better get ready to join us for something in 2009!!

Do You Realize?

I was listening to one of our CD's on the way home from work yesterday. For some reason I felt like the words applied to me and my inability to keep in touch with those people that I have deep feelings for- but have been so bad at showing it, especially since moving on to every new part of our lives.

The Flaming Lips:

"Do you realize that happiness makes you cry?
Do you realize the everyone you know someday will die?
Instead of saying all your goodbyes
Let them know you realize that life goes fast.
It's hard to make the good things last.
You realize the sun doesn't go down,
It is just an illusion caused by the world spinning round."

I have been touched by many other poetic and inspirational quotes and songs but this is the one on my mind today- as I remember great friends, great times, and all the happiness each of you provided for me- despite my failures to communicate that to you!

Happy Birthday Mark!!!

Mark turned 31 years old on March 28th. Getting old. He struggled a bit with this birthday and threatened that he was going to get himself a midlife motorcycle. The movie clip is Mason singing his version of Happy Birthday. (The candle on the cake is from Christmas a couple years ago and Mark is under his blanket because we were pampering him!)

Easter 2008

Mason's third Easter. We did the usual egg decorating, egg hunt and easter basket full of books and toys... and no candy! We will continue to stay away from candy at holidays as long as he lets us!






It was a good Easter- although Mason had a stomach virus for 4 days before the "big day." He couldn't keep anything down for 3 days and unfortunately one of those days was spent traveling home from our desert trip. Poor little guy... it was rough for all of us and I still smell vomit just thinking about it!

Trip to the Desert

If anyone knows me, you know that I love red rocks, blue skies, sunshine and slot canyons. Lucky for me Mark enjoys these things as well. Luckier for me was that Mark was needing a break from school around the same time of the year that I go through my deep longing for the desert items just listed. Mark surprised Mason and I by purchasing tickets to Las Vegas. Hurray! A much needed trip for the mentality of all three of us.



Mason was such a big boy and was very insistent on pulling his own bag (or carrying it while Mark or I carried him) through the airports.








We visited the Valley of Fire in Nevada with my sisters, Gina and Mitzi, and Gina's daughter, Avery. We had a perfect day of 80 degree weather and clear skies.











We stayed in Mesquite, NV for a couple nights for some swimming, miniature golf, and yes, $20 lost at gambling :( Then we moved on to St. George where we met up with our close friends and family Kyle, Beth and Finn Price. We visited Snow Canyon and enjoyed the swimming pool at the Price's hotel... which coincidentally was where my good sister Mitzi works.

We stayed with Gina and Aaron for a couple nights- and spent some good quality time with family.

I have so many great pictures of this trip... but I haven't figure out how to add a slide show so the pictures are somewhat limited.

Buckskin and Antelope Canyons

Our desert trip continued to Paria Canyon. I had big plans to hike the Wire Pass to Buckskin Gulch, which is about 4 miles of hiking through slot canyon and actually passable with a kid. We made it to the BLM and were strongly encouraged not to drive out to the trail head secondary to muddy/ impassable roads (we had a rental car without 4 wheel drive). I was almost in tears... We traveled over 2400 miles to go into a slot canyon. I was ready to give up when a jeep of fellow hikers told us to follow them. We made it to and from the trail head with no problems other than a little beautiful red mud on the car.



The hike was beautiful. Nothing beats a slot canyon in my eyes.















We then moved onto Page, Arizona; home of the well know Antelope Canyons. I have seen pictures of these canyons... but needed to see them with my own eyes, especially if I wanted to use similar pictures to decorate my house. Well, the canyon was very beautiful as you can see from the pictures... but the magic of the desert red rock was lost because of how populated the canyon was. Only tours can go to these canyons and it cost us nearly $35 per person. The canyon was packed full of other tourists- not unlike ourselves. It was quite disheartening... but we still were able to take some fantastic pictures.

February Fun

February was a fun month for Mason because of Valentines Day. This was the month that he discovered how cool scissors are (because it is the first month I let him use scissors... child safety ones, of course!) Whenever asking Mason what he wanted to do- he would say, "Make Valentines to give to my friends." So I would get out all the paper, stickers, etc- then all he really wanted to do was cut the paper into tiny little pieces of confetti... which is why none of Mason's friends ever got a Valentine this year!

He also really enjoyed making Valentine cookies- which is quite apparent from the picture associated with this blog!


We also had a special visit from Grandma Cioffi which meant taking her to see the cool waterfalls and gorges of Ithaca. We love visitors!!!

Addition to the Family

During the last couple months Mark had been spending far too much time at the SPCA (unknown acronym for the animal shelter in Ithaca). It was becoming apparent that he was serious about a new addition to our family. Unfortunately there were far too many barriers... for example: Mel didn't want to be cleaning up dog hair or smelling stinky dog all the time, we don't have an actual yard so we couldn't adopt an outside dog, we needed a dog that we knew would be OK with a two year old terrorizing it, we didn't want a wimpy lap dog that couldn't be a running partner and we didn't want to adopt from a horrible pet store that charges $750 per animal!

At this point the research started and we found that there were dogs out there that would fit our lifestyle. Two days after the decision was made we found Olive on Craig's List. One year old Schnauzer/ Poodle mix (no shedding!) that was already potty trained and was already used to a two year old messing with it. She did choose to run away and stay lost for about 24 hours (the coldest night of the year)- but we found her and have really enjoyed her since.

Blogging

So, obviously blogging is not a strong point. Life tends to be hectic (as everyone knows) and the last thing I consider doing when I have a second is to post a new blog. This may be why it has been nearly two months since there has been anything new on this site. The good news is that it is possible to make up and enter dates of when I really wanted to post the blog. For example, our un-descriptive little Christmas blog was just posted today, February 9th- but no one would know because I dated it December 25th! Hah!

Another blogging issue is that I named our blog "Adventure Slavens." So, what happens when the Slavens aren't adventuring? It can be slightly embarrassing. I am considering a change of name to "Lame-o Slavens" or "Wannabe Adventure Slavens." Any thoughts?

If imagination counts then consider the pictures posted with this blog. This would easily be one of my top ten choices of where I really, really want to be adventuring right now! I would almost give anything to see the contrast of blue sky and red rock-- oh and to have a tan again!
(Pictures taken in June 2004).

January Adventures

I must quickly update on January. Pictures include Mason's second time bowling (the first time was when Uncle Andy and Auntie Cynthia were here), Mason playing outside with his friend Emanuel and hiking around Beebe Lake. Items of interest that do not have pictures to correspond includes several trips to Greek Peak for snowboarding and skiing, including Mason's first time on skis. (At some point I will post a video clip of Mason's first skiing trip- once I figure out how to download from our video camera!)

Christmas

We spent Christmas Eve with our good friends, John, Shari, Kate and James Peterson. Shari happens to be Mason's babysitter and I can safely say that Kate is Mason's best friend. John served us Ratatouille and we all decorated ginger bread houses.

Christmas day was very quite and somewhat lonely. The good thing was that there was very little pressure and lots and lots of time for Mason to focus on his new toys.
Surprise! I didn't cook a nice Christmas meal... instead we ate at Greek Peak, the nearby ski-resort. The first time Mark left the house since his second surgery.

Merry Christmas!!!

We don't live in New Jersey, just visited- but this picture seemed festive enough to be our "Merry Christmas" picture. We love you all and hope this message finds you happy and healthy! (Hopefully next year we will be on the ball enough to get some actual picture cards sent out!)

Merry Christmas and may your New Year bring much adventure and happiness!

New York City at Christmas

Rockefeller Center, The Radio City Christmas Spectacular and the Charmin Sponsored Restrooms were just the tip of our fun filled Christmas trip to "The City." We also saw over 100 million pennies, Saks Fifth Avenue window displays, several shops, lights, taxis, the World Trade Center Memorial, and my sweet friend, Scout, and her family. What a wonderful couple of days happily spent with the Crook grandparents!

The Perfect Tree!

Thanks to Grandma and "Papa" Crook we were able to find a tree, cut it down and get it home even with the close call at getting stuck and the half inch layer of ice on top of the snow. (Mark and I were not much help since I was busy taking pictures and Mark was still somewhat disabled from his first surgery).

Let it Snow!

Here is Mason trying out his new ski gear! He seems pretty excited but we shall see what happens when he takes a ride on the snow.

Mark is ready and willing to get Mason on the slopes. Unfortunately our December adventures have been limited by Mark's surgeries. (Double hernia repair... laproscopic the first time... when that didn't work they had to slice him open three weeks later).

Thanksgiving

We stayed in Ithaca over Thanksgiving. Gratefully it was not as lonely as last years Thanksgiving. Mark's cousins that live in Scarsdale (mentioned previously in our blog) came to visit our tiny little townhouse. It was cozy and very nice to be with family. The morning of Thanksgiving we all went on a hike to Taughannock Falls. It was a chilly morning but ended in a beautiful view. (The tallest waterfall east of the Mississipi).

Thanksgiving dinner was made completely by Mel, (despite my struggle with cooking). We were about an hour and half late eating- but the meal ended up tasting OK.