Jayden filled up the memory card on the camera again. I thought I’d share a few pictures with you guys so you can see what the world looks like from Jayden’s view yet again!
Here’s Dad!
And here’s the view of Dad Jayden sees when he doesn’t look up!
Singing Clementine on the computer
Mom and Willow
Jayden’s “buddy dino”. (”buddy dino” is how Jayden always refers to this dinosaur)
I think this one looks like the view from “buddy dinos” persepective as if he were hunting Willow
Jayden finished his drink!
One of Jayden’s babysitters, Ellie (or maybe it’s Maggie. they are twins and I have a hard time telling them apart unless they are standing right next to each other, but i’m pretty sure this one is Ellie)
Jayden’s self-portrait
Sugar shaker is always important, especially when making toast!
One of the dinosaurs on the quilt on his bed
Willow’s eye.
After that picture, I told Jayden not to set the flash off that close to anybody’s eye, especially Willow’s and his own. So, this is what you get.
And these are from the first present Jayden got to open for his birthday, from his best friend Noah.
Man am I tired! I feel like we have been celebrating Jayden’s birthday for days! It has been a busy week…Grandpa Fireball arrived on Monday, Grandma Norma arrived on Tuesday, Wednesday Royal and I finished up Jayden’s birthday shopping and went out on a date (what??? a date??? I know, shocking :) almost as shocking as actually having a 4 year old! ), and Thursday began the celebrations!
Jayden’s 4th birthday was this Saturday (the 24th), but since we were going to be leaving for the weekend, we did his birthday dinner and cake and presents on Thursday evening. I am sure it is going to come as a shock to everybody, but Jayden wanted a dinosaur cake, so here’s what I came up with, kind of a dinosaur oasis thing going on… :)
Then it was onto opening presents - holy smokes I forgot how fast kids open presents. I hardly got pictures of anything because I’d hand Jayden a present and by the time I grabbed my camera, he had it open and was asking for another one, and I’d grab him another present and grab my camera and stop Willow from opening Jayden’s present, and then he’d have that one open and want another, so I pretty much gave up on the picture taking thing.
Royal and I got Jayden a new bike for his birthday. He’d been asking for one since before Christmas and the bike he was riding pretty much would fit Willow now and he had been getting really frustrated with it because he couldn’t ride it through the rocks. Well, now he can! We thought this one was fitting because it is a Huffy Major Trouble bike.
Willow pretty much just chased Jayden down the road on his bike. I have a feeling as soon as she can reach some pedals she’ll be riding after him as fast as she can!
Early Friday morning, we loaded up the car and headed up to Kansas City to have lunch at the T-Rex cafe. Gigantic, moving, roaring dinosaurs everywhere!
After lunch we headed to our major destination, the Great Wolf Lodge!
I don’t have too many pictures of this since there is water everywhere and you can hardly stand anywhere without getting splash from one side or the other, and my camera’s aren’t waterproof… so you’ll have to take my word for it that everybody had lots of fun. Grandpa Fireball’s neck got sore from going down too many slides. Here’s a little video of the the baby slides, where there usually isn’t too much splash. ;)
Saturday, Jayden’s actual birthday, he got to open a couple more presents and then we went and had breakfast where he got served a doughnut with lots of whipped cream and a candle and got sung an obnoxious song. Jayden had been feeling a bit worried about turning 4. He kept telling me he didn’t want to be 4, that he only wanted to be 3, and he wanted to know who was going to be 3 now that he wasn’t 3 anymore. But after he got a breakfast doughnut with a lit candle and our server gave him 3 green beaded necklaces instead of just the 1 that he was suppose to get, he decided being 4 wasn’t really all that bad and I haven’t heard one more word about it since!
After the boys went swimming in the morning, while the girls went shopping, we loaded up the car again and headed into Kansas City, MO to another hotel where we were going to be staying that night. That evening, Fireball, Royal, myself, and Jayden all had tickets to the Royal’s game. Fireball is a huge sports nut and since we were going to be so close to Kauffman stadium, we decided to stay one more night and take Fireball to a baseball game. (we missed the Mariners by just a couple days, bummer!!!)
Wouldn’t you know it, but it poured down rain the entire game. I fashioned Jayden a little rain coat out of a garbage sack, and got quite a few compliments on it. After like 3 or 4 innings, Jayden had had enough of sitting in the rain, so Jayden and I walked around and stood behind the huge water fountain behind the outfield and got soaked by that a couple times. We stayed there for so long because Jayden and I kept having a conversation kind of like this :
Jayden : Can I go swimming in there?
Me : No way, dude. It’s freezing out and that fountain is just for looking at, not swimming.
Jayden : What lives in there?
Me: What?
Jayden : Does a whale live in there?
Me : Nope, no whales.
Jayden : Does a dolphin live in there?
Me : Nope, no dolphins.
Jayden : What about sharks? Do sharks live in there? Or fish? Anything? Does anything live in there?
Me : Nope, nothing does. There are pipes and lights and holes that the water shoots out of, and that’s about it.
Jayden : So, if nothing lives in there, why can’t I go swimming?
Once we were tired of getting sprayed in the face by the fountain and I was tired of drunk people trying to talk to me, the fountain happens to be right next to the bar - although it was the drunk people who commented on how nice Jayden’s raincoat was…maybe they were making fun of us??? I’m not sure, but I’m just going to pretend they thought I had mad designing skills with garbage bags… Jayden and I went over to the kids area and went on the carousel a couple times. By the time we were through with that, it was like the 7th inning and Royal and Fireball had had enough with sitting in the rain (and listening to the annoying people behind them), so we left early.
Royal had gotten 4 tickets to the Wichita State baseball game for Tuesday (the 20th) night. And it was perfect timing because Norma was in town to watch Willow, so Royal, Fireball, Jayden, and I headed to the game. We had plans to go to a KC Royals game while in Kansas City the following weekend, so I thought this was a good way to test Jayden out and see how he did during the game. The game, however, was s.l.o.w. But Jayden was entertaining, so I turned my video camera on him and just started taping him watching the game.
My favorite quote of the night, which sadly wasn’t caught on camera…all the sudden Jayden yelled out, “We got nothin’ for ya, cupcake!”
What??? Where in the world did he pick that up???
And here’s a little video showing my favorite Jayden snippets that I heard all game long, I think he’s pretty darn funny. (and he does mix up baseball with a little football, we tried to explain they were different games, but he didn’t quite catch on…)
We met up with a couple friends this morning to go to the Great Plains Nature Center. Our original plan was to feed the ducks and check out the turtles, but the weather had other plans. So since it decided to rain today, we hung out inside in the Habitat Hall.
Then during nap/rest time today, I planted my hanging baskets for the backyard! Royal bought me these sweet Bogs boots for gardening last weekend, so I had break them in!
One more year. I feel different ths year and I decided I wanted to do something different than previous years.
4/14/2007, I found out my brother died in a car accident. I pretty much went into survival mode, shut off all feelings and emotions, became the person who got things done and took care of people, all in order to keep me from taking care of myself or having to deal with anything. Then during that year and an entire year of therapy, I learned how to turn my emotions back on, and found out I was really angry. (Really sucked to be Royal during that year!)
4/14/2008, We had an unveiling at my brother’s grave for his new marker that his best friend Forrest designed and worked really hard on. I. did. not. want. to. go. But I did. I was tired of my brother being dead, I was tired of dealing with the aftermath of his death. I love that marker that Forrest designed, I love it so much I have it tattooed on my arm. But I did not want to mark the year anniversary of Willie being gone by spending it in the same place I was the year before. I wanted to feel like I had moved even just a small bit past burying him. But honestly, I wasn’t that far past it. By not dealing with anything for the majority of the year before left me pretty much sitting on the edge of my brother’s grave with my feet dangling over the side. We did go eat Ritz burgers though later that day in memory of Willie, so I have him to thank for that gut-bomb. :)
4/14/2009, I was in Kansas, so I had no choice but to spend this anniversary with no family around. And I didn’t do anything. I had a fairly new baby, so my options were somewhat limited. But I remember that I wanted to do something, but I didn’t know what to do that was out here in Kansas that would make me feel like I was doing something in remembrance of Willie. Willie is lakes and mountains and snow and skiing and motorcycles. Kansas is lacking in most of those categories. So, I stayed home with my kiddos. Royal took us out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant so I could have a big ole margarita. That was nice.
4/14/2010, I was determined to figure out something to do today. Kansas might not have mountains and snow and stuff, but there was plenty of it that I hadn’t seen. So, I figured today was as good as any day to go discover one of the 8 wonders of Kansas. I figured it was something that Willie would totally make fun of me about, so it felt right.
We went and checked out Mushroom Rock State Park. It is a 5 acre park that has these rock formations that were formed during the Cretaceous Period (dinosaurs, people!) that look like, well, mushrooms.
On the way there, I saw this, and if you look closely and kinda squint your eyes (and you don’t see the PNW for long periods at a time) this could almost pass as mountains in the distance! Okay, maybe not, but look people, I found some hills in Kansas!!!!
And this is what the kids were doing in the backseat…
And here’s the mushroom rocks!
Jayden climbs a rock….
That means Willow wants to climb a rock…
We packed a picnic lunch and decided that now was as good as any time to drink some of Willie’s soda. I’ve got quite a collection at my house thanks to people giving me the soda that they’ve found in stores around here, and Jayden’s been begging to get to drink out of the bottles with my “brutho” on it, so I brought a few with us to drink with lunch. Holy Sugar! We all ended up sharing just one of them because they were so sugary! Jayden would of finished it happily for us, but with 47g of sugar and a 90 min car ride back home in our near future, we tried to limit how much he drank, but he’s a sneaky little sucker. :)
(please excuse the peanut butter and jelly on the kids faces. we were having a picnic, even if it was just in the back of the truck! Royal pulled a tick off his leg, so we decided to stay out of the grass)
When we got home, it had finally warmed up enough, and Jayden had begged enough, and Royal was home so he could reach it for me, we set up Jayden’s splash pad. This thing has made it 3 summers so far and these probably aren’t the last of the pictures you’ll get to see this summer with the kids splashing around in it! :)
Royal took us out to dinner again so I could again have another big ole margarita (delish)! I felt different today than the previous years. It felt good to get out and do something that we don’t normally do, and I felt like I celebrated Willie more today. And you’re not going to believe this, but I found Willie today on this mushroom rock. And it says right on there “I Love Will”. So true.
Jayden has struggled with figuring out how to put socks on, but this morning he decided he was putting on his own dinosaur socks. He’s sitting on the couch and I hear him say he got one on and then a few minutes later I hear this : Mom! You have to help me! I can’t get this sock on, it keeps messing around…”
This weekend, we drove up to Leavenworth to hang out with our friends the Sessoms who sadly are moving to North Carolina in a little over a month. Guess when we get our trailer (because I killed Royal in our March Madness bracket!!!!) we have a place to go visit!!
The Sessoms have a blow up jumper in their back yard. It’s pretty awesome and the kids had a blast jumping on it, even Willow got in on the action with the bigger kids!
Here’s some pics of the kids, (mostly in the car) that I think are pretty hilarious.
Jayden is having a real hard time giving me a normal smile, so this is what you get. :)
Willow likes to put on her own sunglasses, and when she does, she always puckers up her lip and stares are you like, “What?”
When went into Kansas City today to have some fun with the kids, and it was Royal’s first trip ever into Missouri, he was pretty excited about that. :)
We started at the train station because they have a bridge that goes over the top of the train tracks and you can watch the trains coming and going into the station. Jayden loved it and pretty much didn’t want to go anywhere else. Dinosaurs and trains, it just doesn’t take much to make that kid happy.
Here’s the kids waiting for a train to show up!
Finally! 2 trains at once!!! Could we get any luckier??? :)
And we pretty much just can’t go anywhere where we don’t spot a dinosaur somewhere! I guess there is a dinosaur exhibit coming to Kansas City in a couple weeks. Guess we’ll be making another trip! :)
We ate lunch at Fritz’s where you sit in a booth, order your food over a telephone, and then your food gets delivered by a train that runs on some tracks over your head. It was pretty sweet.
We also stopped by the Crayola store, and let me tell you, I could of done some damage in there! But Royal was always near by making sure I wasn’t getting one of everything!
I did manage to pick up some sidewalk paint! Jayden loves painting, but man is it a mess to set up and take down all the time, so I figured since he might enjoy having an entire driveway to paint instead of just a piece of paper. I was right. :)
Willow was going to get in on the action too, but she had to take a little time out in her car…
…because the first thing she did after dipping her brush in some paint was try to eat it….
Oh! and my favorite quote of Jayden’s from the ride to and from KC this weekend (just so I don’t forget it later), out of the blue he says, ‘Gosh mom, I really hate all those wrinkles in my toes’
The Walking With Dinosaurs show is coming to Wichita in a couple of weeks and in order to promote the show, a 6-month old baby T-Rex made it’s appearance today a the mall. We got there a little early and managed to find some friends who had a spot right up front, so we crowded in and sat with them. It was pretty awesome! Jayden loved it, as long as the baby t-rex was a few feet away. If it got a little close, he’d start scooting around behind me. He knew it wasn’t real (we’ve been talking about it all day), but he said, ‘He’s got huge teeth!’ Willow just chilled in our friend’s stroller and really didn’t think too much of it.
(all my pictures are from the ground level, as I was sitting on the floor with the kiddos. :) )
Supposedly there is a big thunder storm rolling into Wichita this evening. I love how in Kansas you can see the storm coming, there is a total edge to it.
Looking straight out back of my house the sky looks like this…
Good-bye blue sky and sunshine…
Turn your head 90 degrees and you’ll get this view from my back porch…
Hello Storm…
Turns out, the storm pretty much missed us here at the house, (unless there is another one coming). We heard thunder in the distant, but that’s about it. Here is the view from the porch now, about an hour later…
I love that Jayden loves to do things for and with Willow. He reads to her all the time, and this is one of her favorite books. He’s such a good big brother! And Willow is the typical little sister, pulling on his ear and everything. :)
