When we got Scooter from the Wagners about a year and a half ago and brought her to our house in Olympia, we thought she was the dumbest cat, as far as defending herself or hunting goes. I mean, less than a month after we had her, we had to take her to the vet because she got attacked by probably a raccoon, and the vet told us that it looked like Scooter didn’t even try to run away from it, she had just turned her back on the raccoon and let it wack her. We watched Scooter numerous times eye a squirrel in the middle of the road, walk up to it, sniff it a little, and then lay down next to it. Royal had to climb up a tree to retrieve Scooter once because she got scared and bolted - at least she ran away from her attacker that time. So, we just decided Scooter did not have a very good killer instinct and pretty much couldn’t fend for herself outside. Kaylee used to tell me how Scooter would leave “treasures” for her on their doorstep, little animals that she’d killed and brought home. I just figured Kaylee had it mixed up and it was probably Sammy, their dog, that was leaving them presents. Well, it turns out Scooter has hit her hunting stride here in Wichita. A few nights ago, I swore I heard some animal outside and it sounded like it was screaming, but I couldn’t figure out what it was and I really didn’t think much about it. Then this weekend, while Royal and I were staining the fence, Royal looked under the deck and goes, ‘oh! it looks like Scooter killed a mouse or something’. I was like ‘gross, there’s no way i’m cleaning it up’. And then upon closer inspection, we figured out it wasn’t a mouse, it was the body of a small rabbit. Where was the head? We have no idea, I guess that is Scooter’s favorite part. So, Royal cleaned it up and threw it away. Then yesterday, while we were out staining the fence again, we found another dead rabbit under the deck. I was like, ’sad, those poor cute bunnies’. Royal of course had to clean it up, because I can hardly stand to have to get rid of spiders or anything like that, and really Royal’s around and I’m pretty sure it was in our wedding vows that he would take care of all that nastiness. So, last night, I thought I heard some more screaming from an animal, and I knew Scooter must of had another rabbit cornered. I tried to wake Royal up to make him go outside and distract Scooter so the rabbit could get away. Sadly, either Royal was sleeping too hard, or did a really good job ignoring my fingers poking him in the ribs, but he wouldn’t wake up. And today, I just had to call Royal a few minutes ago to tell him he needed to come home and take care of something. This time, instead of keeping it under the deck, where I could of left it for Royal to take care of when he got home, Scooter decided to bring up on the deck, where Jayden likes to hang out. Jayden was out on the deck and I was watching him through the window, when I see him backing up, eyeing something. Jayden doesn’t like big bugs or nasty things either. And he looks and me and says, ‘mom, what is that?’ So, I go to check it out. It is the leftover parts of whatever Scooter was snacking on in the middle of the night, there were rabbit ears, some nasty looking organ, what looked like part of a leg, and a bunch of fur. And Royal WOULDN’T come home to clean it up…what the heck???? Where are his priorities??? So, I had to do it and it was disgusting, but at least it’s cleaned up. Guess whose finding Scooter’s collar that has a bell on it? That’s right, that would be me. Scooter won’t be going outside without me providing some warning for the cute little bunnies. If Scooter can catch a bunny with a bell around her neck, well, I guess she probably deserves it.

This weekend Royal, Jayden, and I participated in the Wichita-Komen Race for the Cure for breast cancer. This was the first “race” that Royal and I have ever done where we signed up for the non-competitive walk, which means we weren’t timed. So unlike us…we’re way to competitive for our own good. But this way, we could bring Jayden with us in the stroller, and my StrollerFit class was also participating, so we were part of the StrollerFit team. Royal had a hard time in the beginning not wanting to pass every single person, but he finally chilled out about half way through when the crowd thinned a little and we were able to walk at our own pace. Which wasn’t that fast, as I am getting slower and slower these days. By the end of the 5K, there was way more waddle than I would of liked to my walk. :) But it was fun to get out and do our first “race” here in Wichita, I know we’ll do lots more before our time here is up!

Here is Jayden sporting one of the freebies from the race. A pink warrior scarf that we tied around his head!

The weather here has finally cooled off and become much more enjoyable. So far, I am liking fall WAY better than summer. It’s clear skies, low humidity, and gets to the low to mid 80’s every day. Sounds more like a PNW summer to me! So, this morning, we decided to check out the zoo. Supposedly, it’s the 18th largest zoo in the US and the #1 tourist attraction in Kansas, so we figured it had to have good stuff in it.

We started off with the giraffes and lions. As normal, it took Jayden awhile to warm up to the animals and figure out they were not going to come out of their cages and get him. This morning, while we were talking about going to the zoo to see some elephants, he kept asking for reassurance, “they won’t get Jayden’s toes, they won’t get Jayden’s hair, they won’t get Jayden’s gum, they won’t get Jayden’s hands…” and so on and so on.


We got real up close and personal with the lion and he even let out a few roars, much to Jayden’s delight. The female lion wasn’t out as she had cubs just a few days ago. We were told they will let her and the cubs out in November sometime, guess we’ll have to go back!

It kinda looks like a bird is landing on Royal’s head here.

Royal insists on reading EVERY sign about EVERY animal - probably why he’s a smart guy. Jayden who spent most of the zoo tour on Royal’s shoulders had to keep tapping Royal on the head and saying, “a different animal, dad!” (translations : let’s move on!)

We ate our snack with the cougars. However, just to engrain a little more NW into Jayden, we had him say, ‘Go Huskies!’ a few times.

Here Royal and Jayden are in the jungle, looking up at some birds. All the birds are flying around in here, so you have to watch out for droppings. Royal even got pecked in the leg by one of the birds on the ground.

Jayden was never too sure about the statues. He liked to keep his eye on them, incase they decided to move and touch him or something.

And these were Jayden’s favorites. The ginormous tortoises. This one even managed to step in his food bowl and spill it all over the floor. Jayden thought that was hilarious and is still talking about it.

While Jayden and I were in Washington the past couple of weeks, Jayden really started missing all the wrestling Royal does with him. And lets face it, at this point, I’m not so good at wrestling, there are way too many “rules” for Jayden - as far as jumping on my stomach goes - and really if I get knocked down to the floor too many times, I might not get back up, I could high center. So, Aunt Kay-Kay got to be Jayden’s “victim” for practicing all his moves, and Royal has managed to teach him a few good ones. If Jayden can get you to sit on the floor, he can pretty much take you the rest of the way down. You’ve all been warned if Jayden innocently asks you to sit on the floor next to him. Jayden will get behind you and either grab the collar of your shirt, or 2 big fistfuls of hair real close to your scalp. Then, he will stretch his arms out, so you can’t grab his body hardly at all, and as you keep leaning farther back to try and grab him, he just keeps pulling on you. Once you’re a bit off balance, Jayden quickly comes around your head, and shoves the palm on his hand onto your nose (if you’re lucky, he’ll hook a finger into your nostril) and pushes your head down until you’re on the ground. The poor person now on the ground, probably thinks for the most part it’s over, and may try and sit up. Sorry, but that is just not in Jayden’s plan. He quickly puts a foot on your stomach, and grabs one of the arms you put up just by reflex, and gets both feet on your stomach. Then, as he lets out an evil little laugh, he’ll say, ‘ready?’. He then bounces twice real quick and flings his feet into the air, so he’ll land on his bottom on your stomach (’jump, jump, bounce’ in the words of Jayden). Here is Jayden in action. Kaylee even told Jayden beforehand that she wasn’t going to lay on the ground because it was dirty…looks like the little guy won.

VICTORY!!!!!

Jayden and I made it back to Kansas around 10:30 last night. I was a little nervous for the flight, as our 1st plane left Seattle at 3:00pm, which gave Jayden plenty of opportunity to not take a nap. And low and behold, he did not disappoint, he didn’t even appear somewhat sleepy in the car on the way up to the airport, demanding that my mom and I sing to him pretty much the entire time. I was just thinking that this could be the beginning of a REALLY long day. But, Jayden did pretty darn well. I kept “surprise” snacks for him, like rainbow colored goldfish, mini cookies, granola bars that he thinks are cake, hidden until he had to be sitting and buckled in his seat during take off and landing, and that seemed to help keep him preoccupied for awhile. There were only a couple moments where I thought he was really going to lose it because he was getting so tired. But, then he’d remember that dad was going to be waiting for us when we got to Wichita, and that seemed to perk him right back up and he’d tell all the passengers around us that he was flying on an airplane to Kansas, so he could mow the lawn with his dad. We made it to Denver 10 minutes early, and walked practically a mile to our next gate and had plenty of time to spare before the next plane took off. I was expecting this flight to be a little crazy, as Jayden was “done” being on airplanes. I mean how many times can you open and close the window shade, or twist open the air vents before you’re sick of it? We ended up having to sit on the airplane for about 45 mins before we took off, as I guess the airplane needed new tires, which put us way back in a long long line of airplanes that were waiting to take off. Finally, we were in the air and Jayden was anxiously staring at the seatbelt lights waiting for them to turn off, so he could stand up in his seat. No such luck on this flight. They obviously were expecting a bumpy ride, so we had to have our seat belts on the ENTIRE time. Yea, good luck getting a 2 year old to stay sitting in a seat he can undo the buckle of. Each time, Jayden wiggled out and stood up, a lovely little flight attendant hurried right to my row to tell me that he needed to be sitting down and buckled…”it was federal aviation law”. Oh pullleeease. Each time, I explained I was working on it, but come on the poor kid is 2 and bored out of his mind. Each time, she stood right there though, right next to my seat, until I managed to wrangle him back down into his seat belt. After like the 4th time, I kinda wanted to tell her that since it was the law, she had better go sit down and buckle up herself. Jayden did really well, despite having to be trapped in his seat the whole time. At one point, he belted out a really loud “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”, and earned himself a round of applause from the other passengers on the plane. He thought that was fantastic, so then he started making up songs about silly putty (one of the only things I brought with me that kept him in his seat for more than 10 minutes…who’da thunk?) and he then he kept asking why people weren’t clapping. But we made it, we were a little late getting in, but at least I wasn’t feeling like I was going to lose my mind this time. And Jayden was most excited to get to see Royal again. He keeps asking me when dad’s going to be home from work. Hurry up Royal, hurry up!

Well, this just goes to show that you really can do just about whatever you want at Grandma and Grandpa’s.  What started out as reading the paper and putting it on the pile set to go out to recycling, turned into picking up a piece of the paper, reading it and then tearing it into pieces, which turned into throwing the paper all over the floor and then sliding around on it, pushing it into every little corner of the room.

Jayden loves fire trucks.  We have a fire station near our house that we drive by often and if the fire engines are out of the garage, Jayden wants me to drive around the block over and over, so that he check them out.  So, while down here in Kelso, we managed to arrange a private tour for Jayden.  My good friend Pam’s husband, Kacy, is a firefighter for Longview and said we could stop by the station and let Jayden see a fire truck up close.  Kacy gave Jayden his own fire chief hat and a bag full of coloring books and stickers.  Jayden had so much fun driving the truck, getting in the red truck, then getting in the yellow truck, and running around the garage.  The only thing missing was getting to honk the horn and turn on the sirens, but as we were in the garage we all would of probably left with headaches if that happened.

Grandma even got in on the firehat action, it was her birthday after all!

Besides coming home for his mom’s birthday, another perk was that the fishing on Royal’s river is real hot right now.  So, Royal has been up at 4am everyday and has been out on the river with his dad and best friend Mikal until at least noon, and he has got some good fishing in.  Most of the fish he has had to throw back, but he has managed to bring a couple legal ones in.  My dad even got up at the crack of dawn to go fishing with them one day.  And if anybody knows my dad, he’s one of the most unlucky fishermen ever, but after losing 3 different fish, my dad managed to wrangled a monster stealhead to the boat!

The plane ride went really well.  Jayden did soooo much better than last time, in fact, he decided all the people around us were his new friends.  So, he asked all their names and spent a good hour talking to them about his horsey, how he had big hair and was going to get a haircut, how he was riding on an airplane, and pretty much anything else he could think of.  We had Heather behind us, Ben was sitting next to us, and Jeff and Tracy were in front of us.  I am just so thankful he wasn’t crying and crazy the whole time.  :)  We’re down in Kelso right now, visiting with our friends and family down here.  Jayden is having a great time with Grandma and Grandpa and Great Grandma Mary.  Royal was actually able to fly in for the weekend for his mom’s birthday, so we have got to hang out with dad for awhile too!  Sadly, Royal has to fly back to Kansas today…I guess someone’s got to work around here!

Here is one of the reason’s Jayden loves staying at Grandma and Grandpa’s.  He gets to do just about whatever he wants.  Grandma happens to have an entire drawer full of flour and Jayden just has to put an apron on and he gets to play in it.  (This is pre-haircut…all of us have managed to get our locks chopped while we’re here)