Flyin' High Friday

Friday started off with a bang!! We all woke up earlier and made our way out to Aurora, MO, which is about 30 minutes from my parent's house, so we could watch PaPa fly his airplane. The kids were super excited because they got to go up in the plane with him. After the disappointment of his lesson getting cancelled last week, this was must anticipated. I should be clear, in case I haven't been up until now, that my father does not have his license yet. He is still working toward that. He is currently doing his 40 hours, so an instructor still rides with him. He is actually flying, but an instructor has controls also, and therefore the ability to take over if need be. This scares a mother! Knowing that my two babies were going up thousands of feet above the ground in what could easily become a flying torpedo was the scariest thought ever! Thank God for instructors though. I felt a bit more secure knowing he was there too.

Regardless, the kids went and nothing went wrong.

This is my father standing in front of his airplane. He was doing all his pre-flight checks.

Kaedyn was so excited!
So was Kylie!

Here are the kids getting all strapped in and putting on their headsets so they could communicate with PaPa. Once everyone was buckled up and all flight checks were complete, it was time to get going. They are on their way to the end of the runway here.

They spent an hour just practicing take offs and landings. This meant that they would take off, circle the airport, land, then take off again, without stopping.

Here is a take-off. The kids loved this part!

And a landing. This was one of the better ones. A few were pretty darn scary for a mother who was watching, knowing her kids were in there. Remember, PaPa is still learning. So once again, thank God the instructor was in there too!! =)

This is a video of one of the touch and go's.

After doing about 10 touch and go's it was time to get out. Dad had just parked the plane and was shutting down all the controls here.

Kaedyn was telling Grandma all about it. He said it was "so much fun!" He also told us how hot it was in the plane. He talked about the cows, ponds, and trains he saw from the plane, and said they all looked like ants. Kylie said she saw the first cow.
A priceless picture to mark this event in the kids' lives. I think they look up to their PaPa even more now.

After the plane ride, we went back to my parent's house, grabbed lunch, then packed up the car to go to St. Louis to visit my grandparents. They actually live in a town called Bonne Terre, which is outside St, Louis. They live on a lake, so we were looking forward to swimming, boating, and fishing. Even though it takes 3 and half hours to get there, it is completely worth it. They have a beautiful home and lots for the kids to do.

Here is a picture of their house on the lake side. My dad took this from the boat dock.

The kids and I sitting on the dock getting ready to start fishing. My grandpa said we shouldn't swim because they had recently spotted a huge snapping turtle hanging around their dock.

Kaedyn likes to sit with his feet in the water when he fishes. It thought he looked so cute sitting there.
Look, he got one!
And Kylie too. Even with a popsicle in her hands!
After fishing from the dock for a few hours, we decided to take a boat ride. My grandparents have a 20' pontoon. The lake they live on has a no wake policy, so all you can really do is drive around real slow looking at stuff. We had fun though. They are some beautiful homes on the lake, so it is nice to dream for awhile.

This is my grandma, and you know those people behind her.

We went back to my grandparents once it got dark and enjoyed some time in the sunroom that overlooks the lake. It is really tranquil out there just watching the water while everything is so still. You can just get lost with your thoughts and feel at peace for a while. Then, back to reality once the kids come in! It's okay though. Since we were spending the night, I was holding on to hope that there would be another chance to relax, alone by the lake, tomorrow.

Wet N' Wild

Today was a day filled with water play. The kids spent the night with Karen last night, and when I picked them up this morning, Karen took us over to Jordan Valley fountains in downtown Springfield. There are fountains and small wading areas there to play in. The kids had a blast!

This is in one of the small wading areas

Kylie sitting on the rocks that are part of a faux stream.

There are so many fountains, the kids could get lost in there.

I caught Kylie mid air, and who knows what Kaedyn was doing! They were waiting for the fountains to shoot up again.

This was a dinosaur sculpture in the park that we stopped at on our way out.

After the park, we said goodbye to Karen to headed to my in-laws home for lunch and more water play. Dottie, my mother-in-law made a lasagna. My brother-in-law, Chris, and father-in-law, Mark, were there too. It was a nice lunch. I am close to my in-laws and get along with them all really well, so I don't mind hanging out with them without Rob isn't here. We even made plans to go to Silver Dollar City next week.

Dottie had the pool all ready for the kids to jump into after lunch.

Chris got caught up in a water gun fight. It was hard to tell who won!

Even Pop Pop Mark got caught in the middle of it all!

Chris and Mark work 2nd shift at their jobs, so they headed to work and Dottie and I visited for a few hours. We had a really nice chat and she shared old photos of Rob with me. She even gave me one. My parents don't have a scanner or I would have posted it!

I left Dottie's and came back to my parent's just before they got home from work. My dad headed to his flying lesson and my mom and I ate dinner with the kids and then got in the hot tub for some relaxation.

Tomorrow is going to be a very busy one for us, so I may not get to blog. I will take lots of pictures (of course) and share them soon. Our plans include going to my dad's flying lesson in the morning, where the kids will get to go up with him!! They are soooooo excited! After that, we will be leaving for St. Louis (3 1/2 hours from here) to visit my grandparents on my dad's side. They live on a lake, so we will be boating and swimming the rest of the day. We will then leave their place Saturday afternoon to come back to my parent's house.

Hopefully, I will have lots of fun pictures from these adventures real soon.

Triple Threat

I was really looking forward for today. Today was the day I got to babysit my 2 nephews, Corbin and Max. I have watched Corbin before, but never Max. He is only 6 weeks old. My sister, Jennifer, had her 6 week check-up, so I was the lucky one who got to babysit. I titled my blog "Triple Threat" because when Corbin, Kaedyn, and Kylie all get together the noise level tends to increase 3 fold! They have a great time together though, and I spend a lot of the time laughing at the difference in personalities.

I took the rare opportunity of all 4 cousins being together to snap a few photos.

This is sweet baby Max. He has my eyes!

He was just chillin' on my parent's bed.

Kaedyn says he doens't like babies, what do you think?

Kylie LOVES babies.

Triple threat, except when the baby is near!

Awwwwwww

It was Kaedyn's turn to feed a baby since Kylie got to last night. Remember, he doesn't like babies and is against me having anymore. We'll just see about all that!

Before Corbin and Max left, Kaedyn wanted to show Corbin his new Spiderman-like trick. Good thing I had the camera ready. I had to explain this was a one time deal. Grandma and PaPa would not be happy to see him doing this.

After babysitting my nephews, the kids and I got ready to take a trip into town to Bass Pro Shops. Springfield, MO is the headquarters of Bass Pro. The store here is HUGE! When I say huge, I mean 4 levels of shopping, mounted wildlife, waterfalls, HUGE fish tanks, gun shops, art exhibits, a barber shop, restuarants, boats, museums, and much, much more. Too much to name really. Needless to say, the kids love going there. We usually don't even shop, but still manage to spend hours in there just looking around. I did actaully buy Kaedyn a pair of Disney Crocs today, but that was just so I could take advantange of that 10% military discount buying something he needed anyway.

Although this picture does not do the store justice, it is the only one I managed to get. The parking lot is full of trees, so I couldn't get a shot of the entire outside. This is the main entrance.

Once inside we headed straight to the boats, like always. That is the kids' favorite part, plus I like to dream.

Kaedyn asked me to take a picture of him pretending to fish so Daddy could see him. I think Kaedyn is starting to get used to the fact that Mommy takes her camera everywhere since he is now asking me to take his photo.

Here they are in front of the snapping turtle pond. They thought those turtles were funny.

My favorite fish tank is the one that houses the large mouth bass. They are home to Missouri record breaking bass. Just look at how huge that thing is. It was so big Kaedyn thought is was a shark from a distance. Nope, none of those in MO.

Look out guys, there is a bear right behind you, and he looks mad! =)

Boy, I hope that guy doesn't fall!

Walking around Bass Pro is kind of a time of reflection for me. I can remember my parents taking me there when I was a little girl. Those large mouth bass where there and so was all the stuff in the photo above, but it was not near as big inside as it is now. I really enjoy coming to MO and taking my kids to the same places I went as a girl, though. It is comforting to know that some of the experiences I treasure as a child, my kids have the opportunity to also, just 2 decades later.

Besides just going there as a child, I have other fond memories of Bass Pro. I used to work at Hemingways, a restuarant inside, while I was dating Rob. I waited tables there and he used to come in and sit in my section just to pay me a visit at work. There is one visit in particular that sticks out from the others. You see, days earlier we had discussed the possibility of getting married one day, and I shared that my favorite colors were lavendar and yellow, and that I always dreamed of a wedding done in those two colors. A few days later, he came in and sat in my section bringing along two roses: one lavendar, one yellow!

Since that is such an awesome memory for me, I will leave you with that for tonight.

Meeting New Life

Not much to say about Tuesday. It was a rather uneventlful day. The kids and I spent the day just hanging around the house not doing much more than playing games and eating! =) By evening we went out to ride the 3-wheeler.

Here we are in front of a tree my parents planted when Kaedyn was born. It is called "The Kaedyn Tree." They have one for each of their grandkids.

Kaedyn really wishes he was tall enough to drive it.

Kylie just likes to pose, no matter where she is.

After 3-wheeler riding, we had the honor of meeting my cousin's first baby. Camren is 9 weeks old now. He sure was a cutie.

Kylie is going to make a great mommy some day!

Not much more to say about Tuesday. After my cousin left it was just showers and bed.

A Day Devoted to Being a Kid

What a busy Monday we had, but it sure was loaded with fun!! Warning: I went a little camera crazy today!

The day began with a little relxation at my parent's house. But after lunch, it was non-stop fun! First on the agenda was a trip to Build-a-Bear, but not before a quick photo shoot.

Kylie and I in my parent's kitchen before we left. This the the dolphin she made at Build-a-Bear on a past trip. Her name is Flipper.

Kaedyn wanted Kylie to take a picture of him and I too!

After a quick drive to the mall, we arrived safely at Build-a-Bear where the fun began.

Kylie picking her heart

Kylie kissing the heart before putting it in her bunny

Kaedyn stuffing the bear he made

Kaedyn kissing his heart

The kids' favorite part is giving their new friends a bath!

Kaedyn picked a very special outfit for his bear. He asked me what Daddy wears "when he is fighting," and I showed him what was the closest thing to ABUs I could find. He was so proud to dress his bear like Daddy. He even told the lady working that his bear was his Combat Daddy bear that he can talk to when Daddy is gone. He already has a Daddy Build-a-Bear from last deployment, but he really wanted to make another one. The one from last deployment is not wearing ABUs, so this one is more real like.

He took great pride in putting his clothes on. It even came with dog tags! And, we got the brown boots to match.

The original plan was that we were going to make St. Louis Cardinals Fred Birds for Daddy (he is a HUGE Cardinals fan), but once we got there the kids changed their minds. Kaedyn, of course, made his Combat Daddy bear, so there was no way I was going to intervene in his creativity. Although I tired tirelessly to convince Kylie to put a Cardinals outfit on her bunny, I lost the battle! She was so excited about this purple polka dotted outift, I didn't have the heart to tell her no. Sorry Daddy!

Kylie dressing her bunny

And here are their final creations. Introducing: Combat Daddy and Puddle (Don't ask. Kylie comes up with some pretty silly names for all her stuffed animals)!

We ended up with 2 stuffed animals, a tent for Combat Daddy bear, since sometimes Daddy has to sleep in tents when he is away, a purse for Puddle, and two small magnetic Build-a-Bear teddy bears. Oh well, we don't do this very often, so when we do, we splurge a bit. Besides, the smile on their faces made it all worth it. They haven't put their new friends down since they brought them home.

We stopped for this photo opportunity on our way out.

After Build-a-Bear, we strolled the mall for a bit and then headed back to my parent's house. I was making dinner for my parents and Karen, who was coming over for a visit, so I had to get home to get it all started.

After dinner, we all went to play mini golf and ride Go-Karts. The kids were so excited for this. We had passed by the place on the way back from Branson on Saturday, and I had promised them we would go one night this week. We started at the mini golf course.

My dad thinks he is Tiger Woods. He takes it so seriously!

Kylie kept saying there was a spider in that hole, so she wouldn't hit her ball in. I couldn't find any spiders! =)

My mom didn't play golf. Instead she took all the pictures, but we still managed to get one of her. Kaedyn hopped in it too.

The kids getting ready to start a new hole. There's me in the background.

Where am I?

Good ole' PaPa and the kids

After 18 holes of mini golf, it was off to the Go-Karts where the real competition began! If you know my family even kind of well, then you know we are all super competitive. None of us like to lose, but especially not to each other! The first race Kylie rode with me and Kaedyn rode with Karen. Dad went solo.

Karen and Kaedyn

The race started off nice with Karen and Kaedyn in the lead, then me and finally trailing (haha) was my dad. Well, my dad passed me with his dirty racing tactics and he was attempting to pass Karen when he spun them out. I flew right past the wreck to take the lead! Kaedyn was terrified after that, so Karen had to slow down. PaPa felt bad afterward. Kaedyn was fine. He just isn't the adventurous type. Kylie, on the other had, kept telling me to go faster!

You can't see it that well, but the white car (the second one from the left) holds me and Kylie. We are getting ready to lap Karen and Kaedyn. They were easy to lap considering Kaedyn made Karen go so slow after the wreck.

And here I am gettting ready to take them on the outside. As I flew past, Kaedyn looked me with frightened eyes. Poor guy!

And here is PaPa and I swapping some paint! I ended up beating him in the end though! HAHAHAHAHAHA I told you we are competitive!

On the second race, my dad and I went solo and Kylie wanted to ride with Karen. Kaedyn sat this one out despite his plea to go again. He was too shaken up, so I thought he would fare better as a spectator.

Here is Karen and Kylie in the white car.

Karen and Kylie went on to win, and I finished a close 2nd. My dad? Well, he came in dead last! Of course he had tons of excuses as to what to happened. Once we got in the car to leave, my mom told us that a lady in the stands was commenting about how hornery my dad was out there. Apparently he knew he wasn't going to win, so he was just trying to wreck every kart that got in his path! What a goober! Hey, like I said last night, "If you can't run with the big 'boys,' stay out of the way!" We had a blast!

After all that, we headed to Braum's, an ice cream parlor. The kids wanted a break from their usual root beer floats at my parent's house.

Kaedyn got chocolate chip in a sugar cone.

Kylie and I enjoying our tasty treats!

Karen was really liking hers!

So, if you have me as a friend on your MySpace page, you may have noticed a picture in my albums of Kylie from when she got ahold of my camera and went on a photo shoot all around my house. Most of them were of her, and a few were pictures were she made teddy bears and various other toys pose. It was super funny! Well, we were talking about it over ice cream last night, so Kylie decided to show us how she took the pictures of herself. She even showed us some of the faces she made. Karen offered her camera for Kylie to duplicate one.

Here is the photo she took!

This sparked an interest in her to take more pictures, of course. She told PaPa and Kaedyn to act serious, which they did....

...right up intil the flash went off and the picture took!! LOL

The fun continued into the car!

It is days and nights like this that I live for!