December 31

Found a new love.

indianapolis

i went to indianapolis for a few days to visit my old college roommate. this is brandon. he hates the cold, he hates the snow, and he hates the outdoors. but i drug him to this state park where we hiked through the snow, climbed down to a half frozen waterfall, and saw some wolf caves. he was sore and complained for two days afterwards. them colts fans are out of shape! after i showed him what i like to do, he took me to a dueling paino bar in down town indianapolis. it was surreal. thanks brandon and jena!

refreshed

We took advantage of the weather today and made an afternoon trip to the beach. We've been craving the fresh air but every morning that we wake up planning to go its cloudy and muggy or cold and windy. Today was simply perfect. Bright blue sky, small breeze, cool water.......ahhhhh.

:: We feel much better now ::

day 17

day 12

Sea World

We took a nice relaxing trip to Sea World the other day. Kaiden guided us around the park like a pro, using his newly found map reading skills. We've got year passes to Sea World so we've been there many many times. We were happy to have him show us around, going into every single gift shop, stopping to see every white ibis looking for food, and walking on every single ledge on the edge of the sidewalk. It was a slow moving day indeed but its our favorite way to visit!

One of our favorite parts of the park is the dolphin nursery. We sat there forever watching the mama's and babies. They are so curious about us, and us about them. They really seem to be communicating with us - flirting almost!

This is the first time we've been to an amusment park and Kaiden has truly been into going on the rides. He was loving the thrill of them and by the looks of this picture so was I!

This a picture of Kaiden right before going on his first roller coaster type ride. He's finally tall enough!!! He was so proud but got really nervous right before the ride, Journey Through Atlantis, started. He was fine going through the BIG splash but we were unaware of the 2 other drops at the end of the ride wich caught him off guard making him not want to go on again. But with a little coaxing he caved in and went again. He LOVED it the second time around and we went again and again!

Now Kaiden is itching in his seat to be tall enough to go on Kraken, just like his Daddy of course!

a trip in pictures

We took a picture in front of this cactus 3 years ago. It was gigantic, green, and thriving. Look at it now! DEAD. Something about not transplanting it with the south side facing south?

We've been on a countdown to October 5th for about a month now. Only 4 more days to go!!!!

Do you want to know why?

There is an awesome exhibit coming to our town - to one of our most favorite museums!!!! G-Wiz is having a KING TUTANKHAMUN EXHIBIT!

It seems that there is no end to Kaiden's mummy obsession in the near future. It's neat how things fall into place just when you need them!

day 3

We're going on day three now with no Randy. So far I've only heard bits a peices of his trip (this is due to really bad reception) - Sedona, Pink Jeep tour, dead cyotes, a vortex rock, indians, humming brids, stealing rocks from archaeological sites, hiking, Steelers football game....... It was a bit difficult to keep up with him! But what I did get out of our short conversations is that he is having an awesome time - that's whats important right?

Has anyone noticed the beautiful change in weather? We had the windows open in the house most of the day and it was delightful. Kaiden and I cuddled on the couch most of the morning reading to eachother with the cool breeze and morning sun shining in. I could have stayed in that moment all day! But of course 4 year olds only have so much attention to give to those kinds of moments so I reluctantly moved onto the next thing.

We took a trip to my mom's house today for litle visit - that was nice. Dah had a bag full of goodies from their school carnival for Kaiden. When we got home that one bag of stuff kept him busy for nearly 2 hours - 2 hours that I used to finish up my project that has taken way to long! Again, pictures soon to come :)

Since the weather was so wonderful today we made a trip over to Arlington Park before dinner. We've avoided parks this summer like the plague - its just been so dreadfully hot! Anything we've done has usually involved water. I think we might actually make a trip to another park tomorrow. And if we're lucky enough to have a day like today perhaps we'll ride our bikes? Just maybe.

Sept. 25

You can find this flickr speller here.

Kaiden and I have been a bit sick this week (fever, aches, pains). The two of us have been laying low watching lots of movies, enjoying the sunshine out back, and making some new things to freshen up the house (pics coming soon). But Randy has been busy busy! Mike, and old friend from his high school days, needed a little vacation and decided to come down to Florida for a visit. He's been showing Mike around town and taking him to all his favorite spots.

Siesta Key of course.


Check out this sea weed! Randy said the piles were enormous and covering the entire shore. I've never seen such a thing before!

Kaiden went out last night with Mike and Randy to see the sunset. We thought he could use some fresh air after being sick at home all day. It did seem to help because he's almost back to normal today!

Yesterday Randy and Mike went fossil hunting at the Peace River in Arcadia.

I'm not sure what the plans are as of yet today. All I do know is I'm getting a little break! Randy will be leaving to visit his folks in Phoenix this weekend for 4 days so I'll be all by myself with Kaiden (which means no BREAK!). So he's being a darling and giving me a day to myself. Thank you love.

an ice skating lesson

I met an awesome new friend at work, his name Glenn. He's a very good hockey player and is now off to school. But anyways, before he left he took Kaiden and I ice skating! It was so cute seeing Kaiden watch Glenn skate. He had such determination in his eyes to skate just as good as him. We started off REALLY wobbly and he was falling and hanging onto the wall for the first hour and a half.

But then all of a sudden he GOT IT! He was skating!!! He just kept trying to copy Glenn (all the while Glenn is telling Kaiden what a good hockey player Kaiden is going to be so it's boosting his ego). I was so proud of him. He is such a determined little guy with absolutely no fear. And he probably wouldn't have done so well had Glenn not been there to show him because I certainly can't skate!

Thank you Glenn for taking us. You should definitely become a coach for little kids one day!!!

"Karla will you please stop shopping?"

I had an amazingly fun afternoon with my best bud Karla today! My mom and sister were so sweet to take Kaiden for a bit so we could have a peaceful grown-up lunch at one of our favorite joints. Thanks guys!

After lunch we picked up Kaiden and headed to the stores. Since Karla is from the sticks, and is deprived of such wonderful stores as Target and Old Navy, we had to hit them up. And did I mention that Karla LOVES to shop for a deal? This girl will search EVERY rack for a bargain. No Joke. We also went to Payless and Ross. Poor Kaiden was begging Karla to stop shopping by the end of the day! But as always, we had a blast with our friend.

While at Payless I picked Kaiden up a pair of Airwalk sneakers. I told him that when I was a kid all of the kids who skateboarded wore Airwalks so of course the second we got home he had to pull out his skateboard!

He was trying to get me to go to the store to buy supplies to make a skate ramp so I told him that it takes lots of practice before you can go on a ramp and that as soon as he's a pro at skating we can build one. He responds with: "OK Mom, I'll practice all day tomorrow, then the next day we can build a ramp!". Oh jeez.

in good company

We met up with the McManus clan at Siesta Key today for some fun in the sun - 8 kids in total.

sand toys, buried feet
sand castles, big deep holes, and sand in the crotch
papparazzi mamma's
sun burns, skim boarding
jumping the waves, sea weed
sandy sandwiches, juicy watermelon, and twinkies
...all in the company of good friends and family!

Luckily the weather held out for us and gave us some awesome waves to play in.

Kaiden finally got to try out his new skim board in the ocean.

And even though it was only his first time out he impressed us with his natural skills!