My Awesome Husband...

...has had his first ever big deal publication!  That's right, his work is published in this fancy journal:

And what, you may ask, did he write?  What was his important medical research about?  Well, the best part is, he submitted a poem.  :)  And they accepted it!  Apparently they publish a couple of poems every issue.  Here it is, for your perusal:

I'm absolutely tickled that his first-ever publication in a medical journal is a poem.  He is my renaissance man, and I love him.

Our West Virginia Vacation

Conrad had a week off in August, and we headed north to Monangahela National Forest in West Virginia.  Not only is it a beautiful locale, but it also makes for a great place to meet up with our dear Massachusetts Mylers!  We stayed the first night in a motel and enjoyed the pool and sandbox.  After church the next morning we hopped in our cars to drive to the Middle Mountain Cabins.  We drove and drove...and drove...and finally after 3 hours (it should've been 1.5) we found the cabins!  We had 3 GPS units and 2 sets of directions among us, or we may be looking for them still.

Naptime and bedtime for kids meant game time for grown ups!  We played lots of Dominion, Set, and Carcassone.

Coen is happily collecting pinecones.  He was very sticky afterwards.

Bug collecting with cousin Hadley and Uncle/Cousin Tristan.  Tristan had some pretty spiffy bug nets and collecting vials that he was willing to share.

This is Silas digging for worms.  Somehow the children always thought it was a great idea to use their spoons to dig for worms right before dinner.

Conrad is guarding the Dutch oven lest any children try to touch it.  The main kitchen cabin had a gas stove with an oven, but the oven part didn't work.  Fortunately our neighbors let us borrow their Dutch oven before we left.  We baked pizza, veggie pot pie, and hot fudge cake in it.  Conrad took charge of burning the wood down into coals every time.  It was a very time-consuming task, but I think he liked it.  And the children found the whole thing very entertaining.

Happy cousins!

Everyone should make falafel while camping.  Delicious!

Mmmm, Dutch oven hot fudge cake.  We celebrated Eli's birthday with it.

More happy cousins, and Auntie Heather too.  In the background you can see one of the little sleeping cabins.

Coen and Conrad pumping water to use in the sink.

Story time with Uncle Josh.

Silas is happy so long as there's a stick to hold.

There was no running water and no electricity.  We couldn't check our emails or answer our phones.  Conrad was there to help me put our boys down for naps and bedtime every day.  I kept telling him what a lovely relaxing vacation it was.

Where Did Summer Go?

It seems like summer just flew by.  Here are some of our doings from the hottest months of the year.

Pregnant lady as of the 4th of July.  It is hard for me to look at this and acknowledge that I now am much bigger.  I'll put up a more recent pregnant picture soon.

In July we went to Michigan to visit Grandma and Grandpa McKnight.  They took us to the MSU Children's Garden and we ran into Conrad's Grandpa Schafer!  He was helping with the mini train set there, which the boys loved.

Here are the boys playing on the play train at the Children's Garden...

...and here they are riding a REAL steam engine at Greenfield Village a few days later.  You should have seen their faces while we rode.  It was a little boy dream come true.

Here's the engine that we rode.  It even stopped for coal and water and let off steam partway through.  I asked Coen if he would like the job of the engineer, but he said it would be too loud for his ears.

Greenfield Village also had an adorable playground, including our favorite steam shovel (minus Mike Mulligan).

Coen had me take this picture of his dragon arm painting.  Bobo the clown did it for him at the library's end of summer reading party.  Coen wore his cape and helmet to dress up for the party...when you're 4, party clothes mean superhero garb for sure.

Here are my boys enjoying snow cones at the Tomato Art Festival in August.  They also got to help decorate and eat the world's largest ice cream sundae at the event.  There were bounce houses and balloons too.  (Thankfully one of the bounce houses was inside an air conditioned gym or I don't think I would've made it--it was HOT that day!)  On the way home Coen was already talking about going again next year.

These are my two handsome boys, all dressed and ready for church.

The weather cooled off enough for us to enjoy a walk/bike ride around Radnor Lake.  Coen is known to yell, "Guten Morgen!" and, "I'm as fast as a cheetah!" to people we pass by.

This is Silas' face after eating a crepe with Nutella rolled inside of it.  It really wasn't even that much Nutella.  He just has a special talent for getting food all over his face.  In other ways he can be very neat and tidy.  For example, he always insists on putting the milk cap back on the jug immediately after I pour it.  But he loves to mix and mash and dump his food.  Side note:  We ate a lot of crepes in August because I volunteered to make them for a Relief Society activity and had never made them before...so I practiced lots and they turned out great!  And nobody around here complained about having to eat all the practice crepes.

Coen insisted that I tie this empty box lid to his back so he could be a dump truck.  :)  We bought a bushel of apples less than 3 weeks ago and they're mostly gone.   

You know your child has listened to too much "Little House on the Prairie" when...

You hear him explain to his father that old-fashioned things don't waste electricity because they didn't have electricity back then.

He starts exclaiming things like, "I declare!" and "I'm hungry enough to eat a raw bear without salt!"

You overhear him telling his father how to build a cabin door.

He designs covered wagons with built-in threshing machines.  Just in case you drive over any wheat.

Your toddler develops a special affinity for cows.

Wandern-Lust

Seems like we've been doing a lot of hiking lately.

On a little hike at Edwin Warner Park in Nashville.

Conrad is very into hammocks lately.  This is his big double one that can hold the whole family (if we squish).  He also has an ultralight one that he sewed himself.

 Conrad and his brothers hiked Zion National Park for their first-ever Myler Mountain Man backpacking excursion.

In their wetsuits to hike/swim the subway.

At the top of Angel's Landing.

Chasing after waterfalls.

A couple weeks ago we took a vacation on Cumberland Island.  It is a national seashore only accessible by ferry.  We camped there for two nights.  Our second day we hiked 3.5 miles back to our next campsite.  Coen did it like a pro!  We even got him a special pack and he carried his own clothes, snacks, and water.

I got to carry Silas, who will hereafter be known as THE CHUNK.  He is getting way too heavy for me to carry.

Coen liked to climb this crazy sideways tree in our campsite.  Silas wanted to climb it too.

Wow!  Look at the size of those packs!

And then of course, we also got to play on the beach!

Silas was an absolute nut in the water.  He kept wading in and then sitting down in it.  His goal seemed to be to sit in the water exactly neck-deep.  And then he would roll around and splash and walk on his hands with his legs floating behind him.  He also liked to examine the bugs on the sand.  He does that at home too; he is always finding some little ant in the garden and pointing it out to me.

Coen was a good treasure finder.  He found some very nice shells that we packed out with us.

Cumberland Island also happens to have beautiful wild horses!  And terribly ferocious squirrels.  They ate right through our food bag.  

This is us exploring the ruins of the old Dungeness Mansion on the island.  I like the second picture because Silas looks like a potted plant.

Pirates and Goggles

Here are some funny little videos we've taken in the last few months.

Pirates Part I & II

Goggles

Wrestle Hugs

Basketball Player

My Entrepreneurial Son

...has created an advertisement for some bubble blowing solution that he wanted everyone in the world to see on their computers.  So here it is.  I should mention that the note at the bottom got cut off, but it should say:  "to learn the adventures of bubbles, visit D.org"

Olympics

Tonight Coen discovered figure skating and this was his reaction:

"Brrr, she must be cold because she doesn't have enough clothes on."

"Wow, he must be really strong to pick her up.  A grown up picking up a grown up?  That's cool-icious."

Little Smackerels of Silas

We listened to Winnie-the-Pooh in the car over the holidays, and now Coen and I discuss the need for a "little smackerel of something" around snack time.  Or any other time.  My boys eat all the time.  This morning I took a quick shower shortly after feeding them breakfast, and when I came out they had broken into the granola bars.

Now that Silas is becoming a little person (we even gave him his first haircut!), it's time for me to introduce him more fully.

Silas likes stethoscopes.  Real ones or toy ones.  If you have one he will cry until you share it with him.  He also likes mardi gras beads.  I think he just likes putting things over his head and pulling them back off.  He's too small to dress and undress himself, but he can choose how he accessorizes!

Silas is a messy eater.  Extremely messy.  I sometimes suspect he is messy not out of ignorance, but out of the joy of smearing the frosting all over his face before eating the cookie.  He refuses to allow me to spoon feed him anymore.  He tries using his spoon, but he usually decides his hand is better suited to the task.

Silas likes hats.  This one's great for pulling down over one's head and back up again for peekaboo.

Actually both my boys like hats.

Silas loves to brush his teeth.  Conrad will tell you he gets that from me.  It started with me just giving Silas a toothbrush to chew on while he was teething, but then he got his first taste of toothpaste and there's no going back.  He goes to the bathroom and cries for toothpaste multiple times a day.  This evening Coen left the toothpaste tube too close to the edge of the sink.  Right before bedtime I found Silas gleefully sucking the toothpaste out with a look of triumph on his face.  

Perhaps this would be a good place to mention that Silas also likes markers, crayons, scissors, paper clips, magnets, and many other things that I don't particularly want him to have.  He loves to get hold of a forbidden object, and then look over at me to see if I see him with it.  I ask him to give it to me, and he'll fake me out and then run giggling the other way.  He likes being chased.

Silas loves going outside.  He always finds the container of bubbles on the back porch and brings it to me, all the while saying, "Eese!  Ease!"  ("please").  Unfortunately the bubbles have been frozen for most of the last two months and that is rather difficult to explain to him.

Silas loves wrestling with Coen and Daddy.

Silas loves his teddy bear and his blankets.  When we pick him up out of bed he insists that we pick up one of his blankets too so he can cuddle with it.