Thomas Family 2011 - In Pictures

Good Evening,

Many of you have been directed to this blog by our Christmas card.  For those of you that don't know me I am Ben the Cat, master of the Thomas household.  The picture at left pretty much illustrates how I feel about them, and in turn the unwashed masses who will read this blog posting (at least until it becomes required reading in college civic's courses).  Please sit back and let me take you on a tour of our year during 2011...

So we had snow this year. Lots and lots of snow in February - cold, wet, sticky snow that ruined my morning strolls and caused me to become buried simply trying to get out of the house. In short, I hate snow, almost as much as the stupid hat Joe Cool here on the left is wearing...



The "family" left me in February (maybe cause of the snow) to visit Cousin Wendy in Phoenix.  This is at the zoo, or so I'm told.  I love this picture of an African Baboon and an Oklahoma Baboon.  You decide which is which. 

The "family", Cousin Wendy, and my Christmas dinner from 2003

Continuing the theme of abandoning Ben - this is from the "family" going to Ireland in April. 

Delusions of grandeur from the tail puller

Why is he so excited?  This house is clearly in foreclosure!

From Powerscourt south of Dublin.  Don't they look happy - I think I just threw up in my mouth a little

In case you were wondering they are this exciting at home as well.  Gray did love sitting at the bar like a grownup while in Ireland.   

Now onto Easter.  The big fellow is supposed to be the Easter Bunny or as I like to call him "Christmas Dinner 2011"

In May the "family" went to San Francisco to visit Joe and Kyla and then NYC to spend a couple of days with the "extended family" including Grandma, Papa, Meg, Chai, and Chai's parents.

At Gary Danko with rock stars Joe and Kyla (sheesh - they do not pay me enough to spout this drivel)

Ah, so cute - Gray's 4th birthday in April.  Yes, I fully realize these pictures are in no rational order.  However, realize that 1.) I am a cat with no opposable thumbs; and 2.) I don't give a crap

Here we are back in New York with the "extended family"  The handsome devil in the suspenders is Papa taking pictures of a Jackson Pollack painting.  The midget in my house likes to do similar paintings...

"I'm the king of the world!"  No kid, you are not, you are standing on top of a statue in NYC surrounded by people who, while charmed, aren't buying your royalty

Ah, my favority hairless ape - she is almost as nice to me as I deserve.  Plus she's next to Van Gogh.  I do love me some Van Gogh

Little Gym graduation - wow how we dwell on the mundane...

So the "family" went to see Spider Man on Broadway while in NYC.  Led to the smallest pink ape developing a complex because his "web slingers" weren't working....sigh

With Grandma and Papa at the Guggenheim in NYC

One of my personal favorites.  Gray at his pre-school.  Instead of buckets they should be giving them sweat shop craft projects.  Kitty needs a new catnip toy....

Onto Seattle in July.  Hotter than an oven here in Tulsa and where are they?  Not here, sweating, with me.  Wait I can't sweat and I have a fur coat.  This truly sucked. 

Dad why are you always staring at that machine?  I think you love it more than me!  (this joke never gets old he he he he he)

Do you suppose he's confused about the boat, the water (which we have none of in OK), or just relaying the usual disappointment with his parental units. 

Awwwww (good God I need another drink, and to fire whoever didn't pick out the brown M&M's in the green room)

Now we are at Gray's new school Undercroft.  It took him a short while to differentiate it from his previous school Betty Rowland.  This one is the "work school" whereas he used to be at "play school".  I like these people's style even if they had a creepy dude dressed up as a sort of lizard thing...

Ah the Tulsa State Fair.  That almost needs no explanation.  Here we see our two "heros" one frayed bolt away from orbit...

A pirate says "arrrrrgh"

Mom's a gypsy, kids a pirate, dad's not in the picture - its the American Dream

Headed for a career in food service.  As long as his cat food is as good as his cookies...I'm okay with that

I have no idea what is going on in this picture - I do remember the vicious gang of squirrels of camera off stage left...when my bones knit they are dead men

Mom and Donna in NYC for a girl's weekend

It must be said, that no matter how many times I push the small one into the pool these damn swim lessons keep him alive

Mesmerized by the giant, shiny balls....seriously this is too easy

And here is our tree.  I must say despite my meloncholy demeaner I do like a good Christmas tree and I am looking forward to the visit by the "extended family" starting tomorrow.  On behalf of the "family" I wish all of you wonderful holidays and a happy New Year!

Oklahoma

You gotta love Oklahoma! (This is a rest stop diner and gift shop in SE Oklahoma)

Ireland

Robert had a board meeting in Dublin in mid-March, which gave Gray and I an excuse to go on vacation. We arrived early in the morning and spent our first day north of Dublin looking at battlefields and ancient tombs.


While Robert was in his meetings Gray and I toured Dublin, including feeding pigeons in St. Stephen's Green.


If Gray's favorite part of our trip to Italy was the gelato then his favorite part of this trip was getting to sit at the bar in the pubs. The bar tenders thought it was weird when we told him he was so excited because he wouldn't be allowed to sit at the bar in The States (no worries, nobody tried to serve him a Guiness).


Going to see the Book of Kells at Trinity College.


When Robert finished his work we headed south and stayed in the castle town of Kilkenny (pronounced kill-kenny as was clarified for me by the customs inspector, and yes, many south park jokes were cracked during our stay).


One day we drove to the south coast to Waterford and took a tour of the Waterford factory. We watched them blow and engrave the glass and Gray got to smash a couple of rejected pieces.


Another day we drove to the Rock of Cashel and toured the castle there.


This trip was great fun but there was so much of Ireland that we didn't get to see that we definately want to go back. We had great weather but I would love to see Ireland later in the spring when it is really green.

Escaping the Snow

Very luckily we had planned on a weekend trip to Phoenix for a few months. We were even more excited about leaving last Friday morning after 3 days of being mostly snowed in. We stayed with Robert's very cool cousin Wendy, and saw most of the kid friendly sights in 2 days.

On Friday we first hit the Children's museum. Here's Gray at the top of the 3 story climbing structure.


Then we spent some time at the Natural History Museum.


After an early Saturday morning at the farmer's market with Robert's aunt and cousins we walked around the botanical gardens.


Robert and I were surprised by how beautiful the desert was, even during the winter. It was especially enchanting given the above 60 degree afternoons!


Lastly we went to the zoo and we all agreed that the spider monkeys were our favorite animals, though these baboons were pretty entertaining too.

Happy New Year!

Okay, so we have been horrendously lazy about posting on the blog for the last six months but will attempt to get back on track. This is a monster post of the most interesting things that have happened since August.

Please also see the previous post for the most recent update on our horrendous weather.

First off we went to Italy in September with Robert's parents, sister, and brother-in-law. It seems appropriate to start off with a picture of Robert's dad Bob and Gray with a gelato in hand since gelato was a common theme throughout the trip.




Next up is a picture of us on a water bus in Venice. Gray loves boats, looooooves boats, looooooooooves boats. Thus Venice was a great experience for him and, as a result, his parents.



The family on a foot bridge in Venice.



An excellent dinner, way past Gray's bedtime, but given there was pasta and bread and gelato he didn't mind at all.



On the way home we had a six hour layover in New York City. What to do, what to do? We took the train in from Newark to the city, went up the Empire State building despite driving rain, and then had pizza on the way back to the airport. We would have been exactly on time had our flight not been four hours delayed.



We spent Thanksgiving in LA visiting Robert's sister Megan and brother in law Chai. Afterwards, Laura and Gray traipsed around Southern California. Where was Robert? Flying for 48 hours to Australia and back for 52 hours on the ground. First off for the vacationers was the Santa Barbera Zoo with Nif and Ryan. Well known for its astroturf hills best experienced by sliding down them on cardboard. Who needs lions and tigers and bears anyway...



As you can see Ryan and Gray got along famously bonding over a common language of Star Wars.




Then the LA Zoo (notice a theme here) with Julie, Brittany, and Trevor.



No recap of our fall would be complete without pictures from THE Tulsa State Fair. Fried food, low alcohol beer, and the best people watching in middle America! Gray loves rides; Gray's parents love when they end and the one bolt between the ride and orbit around the earth stays in place.





Then onto Gray's second favorite holiday - Halloween! In a major shocker for the Thomas household Buzz Lightyear was the costume of choice. This year was even better than last year as Gray really could get into the real spirit of the holiday - you know the ruthless search for the most candy possible. We still have most of it sitting around...



Next up is Gray's Christmas party at preschool. This mostly consisted of twelve 3 year olds sitting around not singing as the poor teacher Mrs. Wells attempted to get them to sing. At least there were cookies!



In December Laura hosted a baby shower in Seattle for our friends Tom and Yaya (who delivered a happy healthy baby Abbie a couple of weeks ago). While Laura was in Seattle Gray and Robert had a guys weekend - beer, monster trucks, the gun show, and food covered in "cheese"



Lastly, we spent the week of Christmas in Seattle at Robert's parents.