Weekly Happenings - 2/20 - 2/26

1. We had a fairly quiet week this week. Peyton's new favorite evening activity is to play golf. She is getting quite good at swinging her club and hitting a bigger soft ball in the basement - before long she will be striking the little white balls quite a distance I'm sure! This year she even wants to wear her golf glove and it fits her great! All of my pictures of her practicing failed miserably - the girl moves so fast! Hopefully I can get a good shot one of these days!

2. Here are a couple of pictures of how Garrison spent his days in January/early February at school. I love the first one where he is holding hands with one of his friends and the last one where he appears to be concentrating very hard on his art! So cute!!





3. Peyton has always wanted to help with Garrison but recently she has started asking to help feed Garrison. During most meals now she feeds him a bite or two and really does a great job. It is best when Garrison is really hungry as he opens his mouth really wide for her!


4. On Saturday Daddy headed to the golf show where he met-up with some friends, Grandpa and some of Grandpa's friends and then had a chance to play his first round of golf of the year! What a beautiful day to be out in February! While Daddy & Grandpa were busy with the show and playing golf, Grammy came up for a fun visit! We started our day at the mall with a little shopping and two trips on the carousel! All the girls got new shoes - Garrison didn't seem to disappointed that he didn't walk away with new shoes. ;) After our shopping adventure we headed to Olive Garden for lunch - always a hit with our family and then home for rest, to bake cookies and of course have play time. Grammy brought up my flower girl dress from when I was in my aunt & uncle's wedding when I was about Peyton's age for Peyton to play with. She LOVED it, especially how it twirled around her when she spun around. She didn't want to take it off at the end of the afternoon! After their round of golf, Daddy & Grandpa came home to catch the end of the MU vs. KU game before we all headed out to dinner at Red Robin. What a fun day!!




5. Sunday we started our day at church, ran some errands and then got to play outside for almost 2 hours in the late afternoon - it was GREAT to spend time with our friends outside again, the weather was perfect! Peyton drove her car, rode her bike and even drug out her tricycle (which she is now WAY too big for!) and Garrison hung-out in the front carrier and just enjoyed the weather (and even snuck-in a nap!). Daddy also built some shelves in the garage to organize us a bit more - a much needed chore. All-in-all, a great day! Here are a couple of pictures from Sunday - check-out the first one where Garrison is starting to get his knees under him - crawling may not be far away!

Weekly Happenings - 2/13 - 2/19

Wow - we've had quite the weather shift over the last week. Our week started with our first measurable snowfall of the year and ended with playing outside every day of the weekend!

1. Sunday night we started getting our first real snow of the year (amazing!) and Peyton was super excited. When we got home from school on Monday night I bundled the kids up and we headed outside. It was great because it was close to 30 degrees and not super windy which made playing outside lots of fun. We had some stuff going on Monday night so we couldn't stay out long but Peyton helped me shovel the steps, made a few snowballs and rolled around in the snow. Garrison didn't really know what was going on but he smiled the whole time!

2. Tuesday was Valentine's Day and here is a pic of our two cuties followed by some pictures from Peyton's school party (and one of Garrison's too! ;)) It was hilarious to see all of the 3 year olds try to patiently wait for their turn to go through the food table line - I honestly thought it was going to be a disaster but they all did GREAT! After the parties, we stopped by Papa Murphy's to pick-up a heart-shaped pizza (with lots of black olives!) and a S'mores pizza for our Valentine's dinner. It was great - I think we may have just found a new Valentine's Day tradition for our family.

3. Wednesday we had swim lessons and Peyton now LOVES to go to swim lessons. She talks about it the whole way there and then is excited when it is her class' turn to start. This week they started swimming without their "bubbles" and Peyton went under water several times. She even tried her goggles on (something we weren't sure she would ever want to do!) and liked them so much she left them on for about 1/2 of her lesson. At the end they get some play time to swim around with their bubbles on and Peyton has a blast during this time and isn't ready for play time to be over. We may have had a rough start but we have definitely hit our stride with swim lessons - YAY!!!

4. Garrison has been quite active recently - he now rolls wherever he wants to go (stringing several rolls together) and is even starting to inch-worm across the floor. He continues to do great with sitting and is building all kinds of muscles to get ready to crawl - look out world! Garrison also has started to sleep on his tummy more and more, especially during naps but even at night time some too. What a big boy!

Check-out Garrison's sweater in this picture - Great Aunt Marry made it for him for Christmas but since we really haven't had much cold weather he hasn't gotten to wear it often. I finally had my camera close earlier in the week when he had it on so I wanted to catch a picture of our young man in his sweater - isn't he sweet?!

5. Story time at bedtime is one of my favorites. We usually all gather in Peyton's room to read two books before everyone heads to bed. I rarely have my camera upstairs but did one night this week so I was able to capture this very special time. I love how Peyton wants to share her story time / bedtime with Garrison - such a great big sister.

6. Friday I was able to pick the kids up a little early from school so we took advantage of the nice weather and headed outside! Garrison even got in on the action and got to try the outside swing out for the first time. Of course, big sis wanted to be the one to push him - she did a great job and Garrison loved swinging!

7. Also on Friday, Peyton fell off the couch in her classroom onto a chair and got a bit of a bruise on her cheek - ouch! This picture doesn't quite do her poor cheek justice but she assured me that she was ok!

8. On Sunday, Daddy and the kids headed to Lexington for a visit with Grandma & Grandpa Todd and Aunt April, Wyatt & Whitney. They had a great time playing - Garrison showed off his mad rolling skills and Peyton & Whitney are the giggle box queens! Check-out the last pic - apparently it was VERY quiet back in the bedroom area and Daddy found the three oldest grandchildren all under the covers watching Phineas & Furb - apparently Peyton's cousins love that show as much as she does! While they were away I was busy filing our taxes. I know, doesn't sound like much fun but I feel great to have it done! :)

9. Now it is time for some fun stories:

Peyton is very into names right now, especially people's middle names. She has found out that my name is Amanda Sue and now often refers to me as such. It is hilarious to hear her say, "Amanda Sue, Garrison is getting kind of fussy."

Peyton has also learned the concept of teamwork and often wants us to use teamwork to walk up the stairs - picture it, Mommy holding Garrison, Peyton holding Mommy & Garrison's hands (one each of course) all walking up the stairs. Teamwork. Oh, and we also have to sing the Wonderpets Teamwork song as we are walking up the stairs - "What's gonna work, teamwork. What's gonna work, teamwork!"

While at school Peyton was playing dress up and she told her teacher she was going to church. The teacher told her that was great and Peyton told her that she needed to be quiet and listen to "Pink God." To Peyton, everything must be pink! :)

Last night while I was putting Peyton to bed she simply looked at me and said, "Mommy, you're special." Wow - melt my heart my little angel - you are pretty special too!

Weekly Happenings - 2/6 - 2/12

We had a pretty quiet week, all-in-all, which was much needed after a great vacation and somewhat difficult return trip home! We all enjoyed a day at home on Monday to recover from our trip and then jumped back into our routine on Tuesday morning. Peyton was excited to get back to school, dance class and swim lessons. I was excited to get to go to her swim lessons this week and see how well she is doing! What a big girl!!

1. On Saturday we had a quiet morning of just playing around the house. Check-out the two pics below - Garrison has become quite the accomplished sitter and Peyton is hosting "dance class." For dance class each baby (including Garrison) was required to demonstrate several different steps. I love how her imaginative play continues to grow and love it even more that she likes to involve Garrison in her play - what a great big sister!!




2. Around lunch time, Grammy, Grandpa and Grandma Mintun brought Apollo home and stayed for a great visit! We had lunch, rest time, lots of play time and then Daddy & I snuck away for a tasty Valentine's dinner at Pierpont's while everyone else took a trip to the McDonald's play place (aka "Chicken Nuggets" according to Peyton!). While we were gone they even baked some princess shoe cookies - Peyton was so proud of them we both had to have one (even though we were stuffed!) as soon as we got home! Peyton had a great time telling everyone about our vacation, especially that "we landed at the WRONG airport" over and over again, very dramatically too! It was hilarious! Her other proclamation was about seeing the pandas and how they eat bamboo - this may not sound that interesting but it is hilarious to hear her say bamboo! Check-out Peyton in her new dress (over her clothes) in the first pic below - she was so excited to get it that she wanted to put it on right away - silly girl! Thanks so much, Grammy & Grandpa, for watching Apollo and for coming up for a visit!




3. On Sunday we again had a relaxing morning and after lunch and Peyton's rest time, Grandma & Grandpa Todd came up for a visit! We showed them our vacation pictures and Peyton told them several of her vacation stories - she even told them about having her one major meltdown of the vacation at the golf course. When she was done she made sure to get in some fun play time with Grandma & Grandpa before heading off to a birthday party for one of her school friends. We are so glad Grandma & Grandpa came to visit!


That's it folks!

Weekly Happenings - 1/30 - 2/5 - San Diego Edition!

That's right! Our last week was spent in sunny San Diego and man did we have a GREAT time!! I think Blogger would probably explode if I tried to upload the 200+ pictures I have now narrowed down to from our trip so here are just a few of my favorites along with a few stories as well.

1. EARLY Tuesday morning, I'm talking 3 AM, we woke up and got ready to head to the airport. Garrison slept on the way there but Peyton was too excited for our vacation and talked the whole way about getting in the airplane and going to San Diego. Daddy dropped the kids & I off at the gate and then parked the vehicle. The line looked very short so I decided to give going through security with two kiddos on my own a try. Amazingly this went very smoothly and we got through without incident - especially nice since I was traveling with extra milk and food for Garrison plus a stroller! Peyton did a great job following my instructions and Garrison gladly came along for the ride. The line still wasn't bad when Daddy came through but we definitely had more room to move around once we were through security. Our two flights were uneventful and we made it to San Diego at 9:30 AM - a full day ahead of us!

2. After getting our car and checking with the hotel to see if our room was ready (it wasn't) we headed to our first destination - the zoo! San Diego's zoo is absolutely amazing and HUGE! We were starved so enjoyed lunch right away and then walked around for a few hours seeing all kinds of animals. Peyton especially enjoyed the giraffes and bears on our first day. Since we had been up since well before dawn we called it a day a little early and headed to the hotel. We had a two bedroom suite which was awesome and provided us with lots of room. The hotel even provided dinner on weeknights which worked out great - saved us money and more importantly a trip out after we had called it a day! We had some fish tacos, watched a little tv and then called it a night around 8 - all of us! Day one was a success!




3. On Wednesday we enjoyed breakfast at the hotel and then headed to Sea World for the day.
Going to Sea World on a Wednesday during a non-peak season was the best way to see the park! We never waited in line for any of the rides and arrived at all of the shows about 5 minutes before they started and found great, dry seats! We started our day in the Sesame Street Bay of Play area where Peyton rode several rides and even met Zoe & Elmo. She wasn't super excited about actually meeting them (only wanted to see them from a distance) but with a little push she took a picture with them on Daddy's shoulders. We then walked around to see several of the animal exhibits - Peyton's favorite was probably the penguins that we had to walk through a second time. Next we started our "show circuit" with the "Pets Rule" show which had dogs, cats, pigs, kangaroos and even an ostrich that put on a fun show. Peyton didn't seem to know what to think but enjoyed it in the end and even went up to meet a few of the "stars"! Then we headed over to "Blue Horizons" which was the dolphin show. Peyton was quite impressed with the divers and dancers and thought it was pretty cool to see the dolphins jump - I tend to agree! Lastly it was time for the big one - "One World" which featured several killer whales and they were amazing! By this time Peyton was really getting into the shows and had fun watching the huge whales jump high in the air. Afterwards we visited Shamu as well - very cool! Lastly we wrapped-up our day with a skyview trip across the bay and a few more animal exhibits. And through all that, Garrison was quite a trooper - what a great baby! His favorite seemed to be the fish in the Turtle Reef area - he was mesmerized!








4. Thursday was our "quiet" day in San Diego and we started our morning by heading to Torrey Pines, a famous golf course in the area. They had just hosted a PGA tournament the week before and were still tearing everything down but since we arrived early and the course was not yet full we even got to walk around a bit and see the 18th green where Tiger Woods caused the US Open in 2008 to go into a play-off. Pretty cool!

After our trip to Torrey Pines we took the scenic route back to San Diego and enjoyed our drive along the coast. Since we were nearing lunch time we stopped just south of La Jolla at the beach and dined at a great place with an ocean view - they had been voted the best fish tacos on the beach and I must say they were tasty! After lunch we enjoyed some play time on the beach and Peyton was definitely in her element here. She would run and jump over tracks in the sand, helped Daddy build a sand castle and even got her toes wet in the cold Pacific Ocean! We then continued our drive down the coast (while the kiddos got in a short nap) and headed over to Coronado Island. I love the huge bridge that goes over to the island so we drove over that way for some more beach fun. We found a really cool sand castle that was built for Joe's Crab Shack and then Peyton & Daddy built their own again. I think Peyton's favorite part of the beach was just running around on the sand!






5. On Friday we headed back to the zoo to see all that we had missed during our first visit. We started our day with a bus ride around the zoo - Peyton loves riding on buses right now! The highlights from our trip this day included seeing the panda bears (who eat bamboo Peyton proudly announced to us!), elephants, "Momma Jaguar" (from Go, Diego, Go! - Peyton was a little concerned that "Baby Jaguar" wasn't with Momma but she thought it was pretty cool to see "Momma Jaguar" from one of her favorite shows!) and taking lots of pictures. Every time Peyton would see a statue she would ask me to take her picture with it and even asked for a picture by herself with the Zebras! Garrison again took it all in and was quite a happy camper throughout the zoo!

We wrapped-up our day with dinner at In-n-Out Burger. Luckily I researched the secret language of In-n-Out Burger before we placed our order and I must admit I felt like a pro - two double doubles, animal style, fries well done, cheeseburger plain and a neapolitan shake. Whew! The double doubles were a little much for us but all in all we enjoyed our experience!

6. Saturday we headed into downtown to the Maritime Museum. We started with a tour of several old ships & submarines (man, those working on submarines must be small!) including the HMS Surprise which was used in the Master and Commander movie (one of Daddy's favorites!!). After a quick bite for lunch we then boarded the Californian, a replica of the 1847 Revenue Cutter C.W. Lawrence, which patrolled the coast of California enforcing federal law during the gold rush. The Revenue Cutter Service, along with four other federal maritime agencies, was consolidated into the United States Coast Guard in 1915. Daddy helped with raising the sails and after we got out of the bay they were able to cut the engines and we sailed for over 3 hours. It was a gorgeous day, perfectly clear and a calm day out on the ocean. This was one of the things Daddy wanted to do in San Diego and I am so glad that he did - what a great, relaxing day!!




7. Sunday was our travel home day :( We had breakfast and then headed out to see a few more things before our flight. We went to Old Town which is a replica of what San Diego was like many years ago including a courthouse, home, stagecoaches, etc. as well as many shops and restaurants. Lastly we headed to the Gaslamp Quarter for lunch at Hard Rock Cafe before heading to the airport. Lunch was awesome - Peyton even found a pink guitar on the wall which she thought was pretty cool! We got to the airport with a little time to spare so we just relaxed and talked about what a great trip we had. Our trip to Salt Lake City was uneventful but that is when things started to go wrong...They warned us when we left Salt Lake that there was a possibility we couldn’t land in KC so they gave us extra fuel and de-iced the plane. Then we got to KC and we got the “we’re on our final decent” message so we were super excited. We circled the airport at least 3 times and that's when we started thinking something was wrong. First they told us we were going to be diverted to Wichita but then there wasn’t anyone there that could help the passengers so they diverted us to St. Louis. When we were about to land they told us that we might land, re-fuel and head back to KC or possibly back to Salt Lake – oh no!! We landed and instead of re-fueling they came on the plane to tell us they had chartered us two buses to take us back to KC. Ok - not great but at least we will get home and not have to sleep in the airport! We landed at 1:10 (already an hour and a half past our KC landing time). The buses were supposed to arrive at 2 – not bad, we thought we could change Garrison into his PJs, let Peyton potty and run around, etc., right? Well, the bus arrived after 3 AM. We drove through fog the whole way back to KC on the bus. Luckily the kids slept, Daddy & I just held them and since we were sitting up and holding kids we weren't able to sleep. At long last, we arrived at KCI at 7. Daddy went and got the car while I changed and fed the kids in the airport. We finally arrived back at our house at 8:30 Monday morning – UGH! What a mess! At least the kids were AWESOME through the entire thing – not a single fuss from either one of them. We were very thankful. We were the only ones traveling with little kids so I was nervous about how the other passengers would handle it if one had a meltdown but at least we didn’t have to find that out. We had several people compliment us on how well behaved the kids were and how well they (and us) were handling everything – always nice to hear as a parent! Here is a picture of Daddy with the kids in St. Louis' airport.


All in all we had an amazing family vacation, one full of lots of fun and great memories!

A few funny stories from the trip:
--Peyton LOVED pushing the elevator buttons and would be at the elevator waiting for us to meet her every time asking "up or down" and then "which number" When we would get to the floor with our room she would always run to the same room first (which wasn't our room...) and then she would ask which one was ours. We tried to have her read the numbers to us but being the stubborn little girl that she is when Daddy asked what number Mommy was pointing to she responded with, "that one." Silly girl!
--Ok - check back here as I have a few others written down that I can't remember at the moment! :)