Christmas 2

On December 23rd, my friend from college, who now lives in TN came for a visit. She's back in SD for a few weeks and she and her husband drove down for the day to hang out with us. We met at Fazoli's (Kaelyn's favorite) and she showed them what kind of damage she can do on breadsticks...she ate four. They came back here and I put Kaelyn down for nap, during which she sang and counted and carried on. She never did fall asleep. When she got up, she warmed up to Stana, my friend, and had herself a new buddy! It was nice, I just sat and watched most of the time. :) Kaelyn is still really shy so the fact that she warmed up to Stana and played with her long and hard was really good. She even asked about her the next day.

My husband's dad had knee replacement surgery the weekend we had our first Christmas of the year with my family. That meant he wasn't up for much traveling and he wasn't up for much company actually ON Christmas. But we went down to their house on Christmas Eve, just for the day, to visit and spend a little time there. Kaelyn was REALLY good and we had fun. She napped really well and played with all of their stuff and the few things we brought with us. She even ate well so it was a nice day. We got home in time to plop her in bed for the night.

As we drove home that night, I told my husband I thought this Christmas was going to be the first Christmas EVER that I had been in my own home actually ON the day of Christmas. The more I thought about it, the more I think that's really true! Growing up, we always went to my grandparents house and were there Christmas Eve and Day. By the time that stopped and I would go to my parents house, I wasn't living at home anymore. So this year, I was actually in the house that I live in ON Christmas.

I always said before that I didn't care if we were home on Christmas. I just wanted to work out whatever was best for all of the families involved so both sides can get together whenever works. After being at home on Christmas, though, I may change my mind. It was SO nice and peaceful and relaxing and just all around enjoyable.

We weren't really planning on opening presents right away when Kaelyn got up, but I had brought them down from the closet I had been hiding them in. She saw them. Presents again! Presents again! She said until Sean went to get a shirt over his undershirt since we'd be taking pictures. By the time he got back, she had half of one open that wasn't even for her.

Again, she enjoyed the things she got, but mostly, she just wanted to open things. She was just as impressed with the shirts and posters we got him and the calendar and shirt he got me as she was all her cool things. She got a train, which she likes to have run into her face, an Elmo house toy, some Elmo books (with her name in them!) and DVDs. We saved her last present for after her nap.

Christmas was on Sunday we got ready and went to church after the present session. We managed to get Kaelyn to wear her Christmas dress again and we were ready early enough we could take pictures as a family. Kaelyn LOVES taking pictures. "Cheese again," she'd say. We were almost late to church. :)

When we got home, we had a quick lunch and Kaelyn has some Christmas custard. Her face was a mess. After that...she wanted to take more pictures. So we have a lot of REALLY cute pictures of her and of us, but her face is just a mess! Oh well, tis the season!

While she napped that afternoon, Sean and I watched The Christmas Story. We watched Elf the next day. It was just an all around relaxing, nice weekend. When she got up, we gave her her final present. A trampoline! Which she calls her bounce house. She spent quite a bit of time bouncing on it and throwing herself off and to the ground. Hopefully it will keep her entertained if we get snowed in this winter sometime.

I have to admit, I always thought holidays would be MORE fun with a child. The last two years, that has not been the case. When Kaelyn was a baby, she didn't sleep well and I never felt like I was "with it" because of that. Plus, with her nursing, etc I missed a lot. Last year, she was pretty sick around Christmas and it wasn't really much fun either. This year, though, it has actually been a lot more fun having a kid around. The wonder and joy of opening presents...the way she randomly says "baby Jesus!"...and seeing all the "pretty lights" around our house and out in the other neighborhoods. It's much more fun this year and I can't wait for the next two Christmases with Sean's side of the family...coming New Year's weekend!

Christmas 1

Kaelyn is one lucky little girl! She gets to have four Christmases this year! Actually, she has caught on to the phrase "I'm so lucky" and she'll often say that to me at random or when I put her to bed. She used to tell me she had a good day when she went to bed, but now she tells me she's lucky. Pretty sweet if you ask me!

Our first Christmas this year took place at my parents house the weekend before Christmas. It was the 17th weekend. Sean, Kaelyn and I drove over after he got off of work on Thursday night. Kaelyn ate her supper in the car and watched her Care Bears and Elmo videos. It was a strange time of the day for us to travel, but she did really well. We got to my parents house in time for her to play and have some ice cream before bed. Though, my sister and her family were there too for awhile and that got Kaelyn rather riled up.

Let me explain. She and her uncle Paul came up with a new game,
which she calls peakaboo. She would stand on a chair on one side of the pool table and throw a ball towards the hole on the other side. He put his face down low, level with the hole. When she got a ball in, he'd fall back like she had hit him. She thought it was HILARIOUS! However, they left and when it was time for her to go to bed, she cried for an hour and a half. It was a little too fun. :)

The next day, Friday, we didn't have much planned, really. We ran a few errands in the morning and had lunch at CFA, yum! Kaelyn napped and my sister and her family came back later in the evening. I managed to get Kaelyn upstairs to do her bedtime routine just before they arrived. I didn't want to rile her up again like we had the night before! She went to bed nice and quietly that night.

Saturday, once everyone was up and had breakfast, it was stocking and present time. I think everyone was even able to get dressed except the kids. They were in pjs all day long. As they should be! We opened stockings upstairs then moved downstairs for presents. Kaelyn got lots of neat stuff. You should have seen her face
when she opened the first hot wheels car from my
sister's family! They gave her 7 along with a hot wheels track, which she loves. Once we got it
home she also experimented by throwing other things down the track besides the cars. :)
She also got a musical Elmo that plays drums, tamborine, and sings. An elmo guitar that lights up and plays music. A stick horse. Some clothes. An aqua pet (which she calls her octupus and takes with her in the car so it can sing and dance to her) and several other things. Kaelyn liked everything she got, but while she was getting the items, she didn't much care. She would open one thing and then say "presents again! More presents!" and just want to rip through more packages. She opened most of Sean's and my gifts too. We needed the help. :)

After the present opening it was almost lunchtime and after lunch, Kaelyn napped again. The rest of the evening was play time and she enjoyed her cousin Tyler's new wall car track that he got. She also played a lot more peakaboo with whomever was around the pool table.

Sunday, we all got ready for church and went to my sister's church since her kids were going to be singing. I had gotten this cute Christmas dress for Kaelyn, but she's pretty picky about clothes (as in if it doesn't feature Elmo, she's not wearing it!) so I was unsure as to whether or not she was going to wear it. On Saturday, since the kids wanted to open presents right away, Kaelyn didn't take a bath till after suppertime. Since she had had such a late bath Saturday, we skipped it Sunday morning. That meant that I was able to sneak the dress on her while she was playing without her really noticing. And once she had it on she was pretty proud of it and wanted daddy to take picture after picture after picture. So we have dozens of pictures like this one above...all of which are cute.

After church we went back to my parent's house for lunch and headed out at Kaelyn's naptime. I was worried she wouldn't sleep because she was very keyed up and kind of going wild. But this is what she looked like 20 minutes into the drive. Unfortunately, she only looked like this for about 30 minutes. That was it for her nap that day! But she was fine when we got home and we played outside and managed to get her pretty dress all dirty so that was good. :)

It was a fun Christmas. On to Christmas #2!

2 1/2!!

Kaelyn officially turned 2 1/2 on October 24th. I have to say, there are parts of the "twos" that are terrible, as people say, but for the most part, I like this age better than any other I've experienced so far. Kaelyn is SO much fun. She repeats things that I say, comes up with her own songs, and runs and plays like crazy!

Luckily, she's mostly potty trained now. I still put a diaper on her during her nap and sometimes she uses it a little. I also put one on her overnight which she THOROUGHLY uses. I should probably try her without a diaper at naptime pretty soon,
but at this point, I just don't want to ruin a good nap! For a while I would take her out in public with a pull up on but I've recently stopped doing that. She's pretty good about telling me when she needs to go. And sometimes, we go OFTEN...especially in church. It's a new, novel thing for her to do, I guess. She has the most fun, though, when I go as well. She cheers and jumps up and down, it's quite a celebration...as if I haven't been doing this for 30 years now. :)

Kaelyn was a giraffe for Halloween this year. Our friends from church had the costume for their little girl last year and it was SO cute I asked to borrow it for Kaelyn this year. Plus, she genuinely likes
the giraffes at the zoo. Having her actually SAY giraffe is another story. The gir sound comes out like your and the ffs are definitely more like ss's. So I don't ask her to say it in public, but it's sure funny at home! :)

Her music class wore costumes to class on Halloween so that was really fun. Kaelyn wore hers for like 5 minutes and then she wanted it off. The head feels kind of like a stuffed animal and she just wanted to carry it around and cuddle it. So be it! It's HER costume! :)

That night, our friends from church came over and went trick or treating around the neighborhood with us. It was decent weather and Kaelyn really enjoyed it this year. Our two next door neighbors had little bags of trinkets and candy for her, so that was really nice. The rest had normal candy. Most of which Sean and I eat. :) Poor Kaelyn. She gets all dressed up and does all the work and she hardly
gets any of the spoils. :) She got good at trick or treating. So much so that the next day at the zoo, she tried to trick or treat in the bathroom. That sounds bad, let me explain. There was a little boy in the bathroom with a basket of candy and she thought she should just go over and take a few pieces! Once I told her that wasn't a good idea, she was okay with it and we moved on. She was just used to taking candy from strangers' baskets at that point!

Playing in leaves this fall has also been a very fun thing to do. We usually make a small pile on either side of the driveway and run from one to the other, jumping in to make a crunch. I have to play too, of course. She gives me a little push to make me go then comes barreling after me. At my parents house, they made several BIG piles of leaves when we were over and she could be totally buried. My little piles here at home sure looked puny after that, but she didn't complain, luckily.

The twos come into play, I think, when Kaelyn gets frustrated. She's getting pretty good at communicating, but there are still some things that I just don't understand when she's trying to say them to me. And, she is very particular in her ways. I had BETTER not turn on a light or open a door on my own or beware her wrath! She has things she likes to do and they have to be done in a certain way or she gets worked up into a little tizzy. For the most part, I don't mind. But sometimes it's just annoying. Turning on a light when you walk into a room is a habit! And sometimes I would like to open the toilet seat myself when I really have to go! :) I'm trying to teach her that these are things she sometimes GETS to do, not things she HAS to do. She gets her way a good majority of the time. I think it would be good for her to know that she's not boss. :) Wish me luck on that one.

We sure have fun, though. She's been a pretty good sleeper...
finally! She'll go to bed around 8 and get up between 7 and 8. She naps from 130-3 or so most days. I still try to get up early in the morning to give myself some time to run, shower, and write and I use every second of her naptime to write and catch up on things. There never seems to be enough time, that's for sure. But I always try to remind myself that she's only going to be little once. Someday, once she's in school and we don't have so much time together, I'll probably look back on these days and wish we could have them back. So I do my best to cherish every moment. Except for the ones when she's yelling at me for opening a door. :)

Sean worked hard over the last two months and finished off the basement. It looks really nice. All that work, other than for our use, was also due to the fact that we offered to host Thanksgiving here. So on Thursday my family will be here and Friday his whole gang with all the aunts and uncles and cousins will come as well. That day is the big Iowa vs. Nebraska game so that
should be interesting for my dad. He's a big Iowa fan. Pretty much everyone else that will be here is all about Nebraska. Poor him. :) I could care less, of course. And Kaelyn has a shirt that signifies she's a fan of both. :) She's a people pleaser. Actually, since my mom made that IA/NE shirt, she wears it often. She finds it in her closet and says Go Hawks and pulls it off the hanger.

We're looking forward to Christmas too and the shopping and preparations are moving along.

I think KAelyn is ready for some of that playtime
now. I think naptime is over at this point! :)

Visit to Vala's

We spent our first day at Vala's for the fall and boy am I glad that we got a season pass. It was so much fun and we only saw one small part of the farm today.

We arrived about 9:30 and headed straight in to Bunnyville. We petted a few goats on the way past and then enjoyed watching the bunnies hop in and out of their various homes. From there, Kaelyn spotted the ponies and she just HAD to go for a ride. She looks traumatized in the picture because the ride was over and I backed up to take her picture and the lady that operated the ride touched her. :) The horror! Otherwise, she really DID enjoy the pony ride, promise!

From there we crossed over the bridge over to the train area and we took the train for a ride as well. Kaelyn had fun making train noises, though she almost jumped from the train when she saw the pumpkin jumping area. I promised her we would go there next and she was satisfied with that. We rode on and she pointed out every plastic horse along the way.

Once we were done on the train, we headed straight over to the pumpkin jumping area. It's like a big bouncy house with no walls. These big plastic pillow come straight up from the ground. They're surrounded by sand and you take your shoes and socks off, climb on, and start jumping! I didn't think we'd EVER leave that area because Kaelyn was having SO much fun. I made her stop after about 45 minutes to eat a few bites and then back on she went! I finally talked her into leaving to explore a little more, but we were there so long we didn't have much time left! Her favorite thing to do, other than jumping, was sliding down the green side of the jump area and then climbing back up. Of course, she would not do this alone, Mama had to go every time too! Lucky me. I got to have JUST as much fun as she did. We had to wipe our hands and feet with baby wipes when we were done. We were both SO dirty. ACtually, Kaelyn even had dirt on her FOREHEAD, that's how much fun she had!

The same area also has a big vat of corn that kids can crawl around in. This was one of KAelyn's favorite things last year so I wanted to make sure she saw it again this year. She liked it again and jumped right in and ran the corn through her
fingers and dove around for awhile. When she got out I tried to shake some of the corn from her clothes, but we still found about 10 kernels when we got home. :)

After the corn, she was desperate to ride this peddle wheel tractor thing. Well she can't exactly reach the peddles so they gave me a FAMILY sized peddle tractor. So she got to sit pretty up front and I had to do all the peddling alone of this rather large tractor thing. It was REALLY hard to get it started but once we got rolling we did pretty well. We went around the track twice and that was about all I could take. She was worn out from jumping, I was worn out from the peddle tractor! By that time, it was noon and I figured we better head home so she could nap. When we got home, we both completely changed clothes. I washed her face and hands and mine as well. Found lots of corn kernels and even more dust and dirt. That's what the farm is for! We plan to go again next week (or sooner) and I will walk in a different direction so we can explore different things. At least I know one area she LOVES, if nothing else, we can always go back there!

On another note, have you ever heard of planking? Apparently it's some weird phenomenon where people lay flat like a board in strange places and then take pictures. Well, Kaelyn was doing that yesterday. She was going all around the driveway laying down like it was the most
comfortable place in the world. Then she laid down on her picnic table on the porch. I was pretty sure she must have heard about the phenomenon and wanted to participate. :)

As for potty training, Kaelyn's first outing went semi-well. We went to music class and she peed in the car. Once I changed her when we were there and showed her the bathroom, she did okay. Though she went EIGHT times while we were there. And then she peed again in the car on the way home. So apparently she pees a lot in the car, which I didn't know. :) My mom and I took her out the next week to lunch and Target with no diaper and she had no accidents. She also went to the church potluck diaperless and did fine. So she just needs to learn there are bathrooms EVERYWHERE. Sometimes I take her out in a Pull up and at times she will tell me when she needs to go and I can take her. Other times, she probably doesn't and just uses the Pull up. It feels too much like a diaper. She had a pull up on at vala's today and never once told me she had to go. She was having WAY too much fun.

Yesterday during her nap, when she woke up, she was singing away. Jesus Loves Me, her current favorite. When she got done with a couple of renditions of that she said "Mama, where are you?!" How could I resist! :) She's babbling again now. Though none of the words are real at the moment, they're still cute.

Potty Testing and pre-Thanksgiving

Kaelyn is doing really well on the potty! I'm thrilled. Potty training wasn't nearly as hard as I was making it out to be. At least with Kaelyn. She just seemed to decide that that's what she wanted to do and one day, she did it! After I forced her to try it a few times, at least. Now it's a fun thing that she really seems to enjoy. She even cheers for me when I go, aren't I lucky?! :)

My biggest concern was, how do I get her to go in public? I had not yet taken her out in public without a diaper. Partly because I didn't trust her, partly because it was inconvenient, and partly because she had never gone potty on a BIG potty. She only uses her little potty chair. I figured my nest step had to be getting her to go on the BIG potty at home, then I could test things outside the house. So, a couple of nights ago, when she said she had to go (by patting her potty area) I said, okay, let's go on the BIG potty. Before when I've suggested it, she has shaken her head in vehement dismissal of the idea. That day, she said okay! Then trotted in to the BIG potty and went, with help of course. Ever since that night, she only goes on the big potty.

So now, I think I should test her outside the house. Before, I've always taken her diaper off first thing in the morning. We play for an hour or so, take a bath, and get ready. At that point, I put a diaper on her and we go off for the day on our errands, to the zoo, park, wherever. Then, after her nap in the afternoon, I take it off again for the rest of the day. She rarely has an accident.

My plan is to try it out tomorrow. We have music class in the morning and will be somewhere familiar and I know RIGHT where the potty is and it's nearby. Wish us luck!! She still won't poop on the potty, though, big or small. I'm not sure why, but we'll figure it out!

We decided it might be fun to have a Thanksgiving gathering at our house this year on the Friday after Thanksgiving. It will be the big NE/IA game day as well. Anyways, since extending that invitation to BOTH of our families, Sean decided that he should finish the basement! That's great news, though it has taken a lot of his time. He's done a lot of the framing and it has kept him busy. He was working on that this weekend so Kaelyn and I went to Nebraska City with some friends from church for the annual Apple Festival. It rained ALL day, but we had a great time.

We first went to the pumpkin farm where we had lunch and visited the petting zoo. Then Kaelyn was desperate to ride a pony! You know, those little pony rides with a couple of horses that walk in a circle at a VERY slow pace. When I tried to put her on the horse, she clung to me. I had to kind of force her on, but once she was on and realized I wasn't leaving her, she liked it. I walked next to her the whole time and held on to her. She neighed at the horse and seemed to like the ride. Enough that she wanted to go again! But we just watched after that. :)

Then we went to the apple orchard, which was VERY busy. Yes, it was still raining and we were all wet. But it was a fun day. It was also another test because I didn't make Kaelyn nap. We headed out to the festival after church (during which she sat in the sanctuary with me for the WHOLE service, which was surprising enough!) so there was no time for a nap. I kind of hoped she'd fall asleep on the way there, but she didn't. She was too excited. We got tired of the rain by about 3 and headed on home. Kaelyn, of COURSE, fell asleep ONE mile from home, can you believe it? So I drove a little farther so she could sleep for 20 minutes or so. She had QUITE a fit when we arrived home, but after we ate supper, she perked back up again. She slept well overnight so the no napping didn't seem TOO bad. I still don't want to do it on a regular basis. More for me than her. But I've also heard kids that don't nap for several DAYS in a row are worse than one that doesn't nap just one day. Now I know it CAN be done when we REALLY want to, but I will make those times far and few between, trust me!

Her talking is still moving right along. She has started counting a lot of things. She sleeps with two rubber ducks and just before her nap today, she said "One ducky, two ducky" pointing to one then the other. In the basement, she likes to go around counting the framed boards on the wall. She'll get all the way up to 12 before she has to stop and say "Yeah!" and celebrate. She still LOVES the work okay and says "here you go" quite a bit. She also recently started saying "Mama, where are you?" when we plan games inside and I'm on one side of the room and she's on the other. Makes your heart melt, I tell you! She's even more precious when she talks!

More later when I have an update about our diaperless outing! :)

Talking potty training etc update

Kaelyn is becoming more and more fun. Of course, as with all kids, she had her moments, but for the most part, she's pretty fun.

Lately, after her nap, she wants me to pile ALL of her stuffed animals into the bed with her. Then, when she gets out, we play with her piggy bank and then she gets out all of her play jewelry, puts them on, then has to go look in the mirror. Very pretty girl.

She's becoming quite the little talker. She'll repeat almost anything you say, or at least try. More than talking, really, she sings and sings and sings! She'll sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Do you know the Muffin man, Daisy Daisy, Happy Birthday, I'm a Little Teapot and many others. Sometimes she surprises me and sings something I didn't know where she learned. She also LOVES the turtle and beehive songs from music class that have actions to go along with them. As for actual talking, her favorite word right now is Okay. No matter what you ask, she'll say okay, whether she means it or not! :) I'm glad she's not one of those kids that says NO all of the time. In fact, she never does! It's always okay! :) She also likes to say daddy stinky. She has even segued into Mama stinky and Kaelyn stinky. Nice, I know. When she has gas she'll say, I had a little toot. That's pretty cute. And sitting at supper the other night, she made a real mess and she held up her hands and said I'm a mess!! She was right. :) So she's definitely learning her words and she understands EVERYTHING.

We still try to hit the zoo every week and it seems like we see something different everytime we go. We only got to see the polar bear swim once this year, so far though. And the sloth still hasn't moved. Kaelyn's new favorite thing is the jungle trail in the basement of the jungle. We went there once with a friend and now we have to go everytime. We never bothered before because it's impossible to push a stroller through there. Now, we abandon the stroller and she just walks.

As for potty training, it's going surprisingly well. I thought it was going to be really hard because she seemed traumatized over it. In the evening, I let her wander around nude hoping to catch her. She stopped wanting to just go anywhere, but without a diaper on, she didn't know WHERE to go. She would have to go SO badly and just walk circles crying and crying. You could tell she was in pain. This kid is amazing, she can hold it for HOURS. I'm not kidding, she's gone 5-6 hours before naked without going! I can't even go that long! :) So after awhile I just had to force her to sit on the potty and she would go. The first few times it was a HUGE deal and she was not happy about it in the least. But we'd party and give her a treat and make a big deal about it. This last week we were at my parents house and we got out a potty chair there. She was traumatized a few times, but then started to like it. She started to sit down on her own, even! She still wanted me to be RIGHT there and hold her hand, but she was doing really well. Once we got home, it was almost like a game. She wanted to go ALL the time. I'm not kidding, she went 17 times in one 20 minute span. But she always went a few drops so we'd have a party and go through the big rigomorale. Last night, though, she sat on it a few times and went big so that was good. And yesterday morning, she sat on it twice just to toot. Then wanted me to flush it. :) So I think she's doing really well. I keep a diaper on her when we go out and during her nap and overnight, but I think she's headed in the right direction.

We're glad for fall and cooler weather but we sure don't look forward to winter. I don't want to be stuck inside! KAelyn LOVES parks and the zoo and all things outdoors. Even just playing outside at home is a nice option to have. What do you do!

Potty Party

Last night, Kaelyn and I had a potty party!!!!

She tends to enjoy being naked in the evenings and I tend to let her. This can be a problem when she has to go potty, however. Last night, I took her diaper off at like 6pm. So I decided to follow her around EVERYWHERE with the potty chair. If she needed to go, I was GOING to catch her! :) Or so I hoped.

So, at about 7:45, we were in the playroom and she tinkled. I didn't catch her. She gave no indication she had to go and it happened fast and that was that. Bummer, the potty chair was RIGHT there.

Then we moved into the family room and she was poking around down there again and I said, "Kaelyn, do you need to go potty again?" She said yes so I told her to sit right down on her potty chair and go...and she DID!! I couldn't BELIEVE IT! It was a small little turd, but it was a poop ON the potty and I was SO excited.

We had quite the little potty party. We got up and danced and jumped and shouted. Kaelyn was pretty excited by the little party. I also gave her a few pieces of candy and then we partied some more. You have to start somewhere!! Can't wait for our next potty party!

Branson Complete

We didn't make it out the door by 8am as we'd hoped, but we didn't do too bad! Kaelyn didn't even get up until well after 8. Both Sean and I showered and we even did two loads of laundry. The shower and laundry room are RIGHT by the closet where she slept, but nothing seemed to bother her that morning! I woke her from a dead sleep but she was excited to see me since I brought her her breakfast.

We made it on the road by 9 and had an uneventful drive. I have no idea where we stopped, but Sean dropped us at McDonald's for lunch and then went to get gas and drive through Arby's. Kaelyn dragged her diaper bag ALL the way around the restaurant...twice. Just for fun, I guess.

She only slept about 45 minutes of the drive, so that made it seem long, but she was pretty good. She watched some videos, looked at every book we brought, and played anything else we gave her. She ate her lunch in the car so that gave her something to do too. We got home at 4:30 or so after 7 1/2 hours in the car with one 20 minute break. It was worth the drive, we had a blast.

And now...we wait. 2 years until another big trip. Wisconsin Dells here we come! 2013!!!

Branson Trip-Friday

Our last full day of vacation that doesn't involve driving a looong distance. What a bummer! After we got up and ready this morning, Sean Kaelyn and I went to a few t-shirt shops to do a little shopping. We didn't find much in the short amount of time we had, but we got a pretty red shirt for Kaelyn that has Branson written in sparkly rhinestones or something. She liked it. After that short outing we had a quick lunch and everyone but my parents and Kaelyn headed to the theater for the Noah show. I had heard it was 2 1/2 hours long and there was no way I wanted to pay that much for a ticket and not get to see it so I figured it was best to leave Kaelyn behind. My parents are staying an extra day anyways so they can see it on their own then.

We arrived early at 12:15 for the behind the scenes tour, which started at 1. It was a really interesting tour that took us, well, behind the scenes. We got to see some of the sets and learn a little about how they built them. We got to stand on the stage and see some of their marks and we even got to see inside the turtle costume. The show uses live, animatronic, and costumed-people animals. The information we got on the tour made us curious to see the show. It takes them 3-5 years to build the sets, get the script and songs written etc. It's quite a production. After seeing it, we can understand why. And we also understand why it is the most expensive show in the area!

After the back stage tour, we had an hour before the show so we went to a nearby craft mall to shop around. It was lame so we didn't do much shopping, but at least it was something to do and somewhere to go for a little while.

Then, it was time for the show. The sets were simply amazing. We couldn't take pictures, of course, because it's all copywrited. But they were SO neat. They had live animals running around on stage from time to time and they led them up and down the aisles at times too. The very end of the first act was Noah and his family loading the ark so there were a lot of animals involved in that. Then, at the beginning of the first act, the revealed the set for the interior of the ark. It had stuff all the way around us on both sides. It was the coolest thing I've ever seen, set wise. The main level was real animals like camels, sheep, goats, ducks, pigs. The second and third levels were animatroinic like elephants, giraffes, penguins, etc. There were also real people in gorilla and monkey costumes. There was so much to see it was hard to know where to look.

The play itself was pretty cool and the music was nice as well, but the sets really stole the show. The theater group itself is really neat, it's all Christian based and their mission is just to spread the word of God. On the backstage tour the guide said that they have understudies and back ups for every role but it's not a competitive thing. The understudies get to go on at least once a week and be on stage because it's not about who's better, it's a higher purpose. I thought that was really neat. The whole atmosphere was very cohesive with a single purpose and it was obvious they had their stuff together and their aim in the right place. It was called Sight and Sound Theatre and I would love to see more of their plays in the future.

After the big show, we came home and ate a quick supper, took a picture in front of the house, and went swimming! It was after 7 when we got there, but it was our last chance, so we went anyways. It sounded like Kaelyn had a great nap and ate a really good supper so I figured she'd be good to go for awhile. She had a blast at the pool again and it was hard to leave.

We hope to get things packed up and hit the road first thing in the morning. We'll see how that goes! I sure don't want to go home. It'll be nice to get things organized and back in place at home, but I don't really want vacation to end. It's nice not being alone and having lots of different things to entertain Kaelyn...and me. :) But what do you do, vacation only comes every so often! Take what you can get and enjoy it while it lasts! We sure have enjoyed this one!

Branson Trip-Thursday

Kaelyn woke up rough again on Thursday due to duck loss. I need to chain those things to her wrist or something! It was a bit before 7 and I wasn't quite ready to wake up myself, but what do you do! Once she had her duck and rolled around awhile all was well. She actually got ready before most people, but once everyone was ready, we headed back to Silver Dollar City for another fun-filled day!

This time, we went to the small kids area first with the little rides. Kaelyn actually rode the frog ride with me after watching my niece and nephew ride. She just sat there the whole time, totally expressionless. I think I had more fun than her, but she didn't hate it and wasn't scared, so that was nice! She didn't seem to want to go on again, but the one time we went was great. :)

We explored a little and then it was time for the big stunt dog show that my niece was REALLY looking forward to. We all attended that and Kaelyn, again, was rather afraid at first. Before the show started she had fun going up and down the stairs but they started the show with some strobe lights and the dogs had on costumes with lights so the stadium was mostly dark. You couldn't even really see that there were dogs and it was something TOTALLY new for Kaelyn and she was just afraid. The crowd was cheering loudly on and off too so that wasn't helping. She wasn't loud about her scared-ness, though, she just burrowed her head into me and cried a little bit. After they turned the lights up and we could SEE the dogs, she seemed to enjoy it more. She started moving around, quite a bit, really, and pointing at the dogs some. She giggles a few times. Those dogs could do some neat tricks! They rode tandum bikes, skateboards, did obstacle courses, all sorts of things.

After the dog show we had lunch and headed back out for more fun! Some of them rode a water shooting boat ride, which I got to ride later and got TOTALLY soaked on. It was a fun ride, though. Something different for a water ride and pretty fun. It was sure nice that Sean and Kaelyn had a good time wandering, playing, and exploring so I could go on a few rides here and there!

There was another kids area that we didn't hit the last day we were there. Part of it was Geyser Gulch, which had squirting water, but then there was a large treehouse with all sorts of entertaining things. There were stairs to climb and slides to go down and all these foam balls to shoot at targets. Kaelyn's favorite part, other than the slides, was the foam ball pit. It was actually a small box that was just corralling the balls. I think you were supposed to take balls FROM the box and shoot them etc. But Kaelyn wanted to get IN the box and why not! She had a great time rolling around in there. She also enjoyed shooting the balls with Sean, once she realized how that worked.

We ended up back at the area that had the slide and bounce place for littler kids eventually and Kaelyn had a GREAT time there again as well. She did a lot of bouncing and went down the slide a few times. Then we went to meet the rest of the group, who had gone BACK to the dog show. My niece got a wax figure made of her hand, something she was fascinated with the day before. Then most of the group went to some farm area while my dad and I rode Thunderation, a wooden roller coaster. I didn't want to go on one that went upside down and this one, from what we could tell on the map, didn't. It was a nice roller coaster, I liked it a lot. It didn't have any major big drops and didn't go upside down either. Just lots of crazy turns and fast speeds. It was just my style. We actually rode it twice, don't tell. The lines were short and my dad's a big kid. :)

Once we met up with the group again we headed out for the day, returned to the house for a steak dinner and some went swimming while Kaelyn simmered down for bed. I'm impressed with how well she did over those two days at the amusement park, really. The second day was even better than the first. The first day she was kind of having fits when I wouldn't carry her, but the second day, I think she realized where we were and that it was a fun place etc and she knew how things worked. She didn't sleep either time, though she seemed tired for many parts of the day. But she didn't do too bad having no nap. Probably because she was highly entertained the whole time. The not napping caught up with her the next day last time, so we'll see what tomorrow is like for her! It was a special event that I do NOT plan to let happen often! She WILL nap from here on out! :) I hope. She better not realize she can get away with it and still survive. I don't know that I could survive many days of THAT much action with her in a row. But for vacation, it worked.

We're looking forward to tomorrow because it's our big Noah's Ark show day. Everyone but my parents and Kaelyn are going. I didn't want to take her to a show THAT long she may or may not like. So my parents will go Saturday on their own after we all leave. The show will take up much of the day, but we'll have the morning to do some other things.

This week is going really fast, I must say. I look forward to catching up on things at home, but after that, I think Kaelyn and I will be bored being all alone again next week with just our normal things to do! What do you do! Back to the real world!

Branson Trip-Wednesday

Wednesday we decided to take a break from the big Branson stuff and go swimming again in the morning. However, we woke up to rain. It rained and thundered overnight but I had hoped it would go away. It didn't. After awhile it let up and we checked to see if the indoor pool was open. It wasn't. The rain lightened so we went to the outdoor pool anyways and after we were in for a few minutes the rain stopped. It was cloudy and cooler, but the water was still nice and warm. Kaelyn played a little bit in the baby pool and floated with me in the big pool some, but this time, her favorite thing was the steps that went into the big pool. She would jump down the first step then walk down the next three. Then turn around and go back up again! Over and over again. There are only 4 steps so she was almost completely in the pool on her own. But going down the 4th step would have put the water over her mouth so I'm glad she never tried because I think that would have scared her. She stumbled a few times here and there and wasn't pleased so she was happy with the way things were. My dad squirted her with a water gun in the back and she thought that was funny. Maybe she's starting to get over her fear of sprinklers and shooting water. It's just unexpected to her, I guess, so she doesn't always appreciate it.

After our rainy swim we had lunch at the house and the guys were supposed to go golfing, but the rain started up again so that got put on the back burner. Poor them! :) However, an hour later, they were able to get out and go. Kaelyn woke up from her nap majorly grumpy and did a lot of screaming throughout the afternoon. That was not pleasant. She was probably tired from the big day before and she didn't nap long enough to make up for it. We had a nice time while the boys were golfing and my mom went to pick up my sister and niece (they had gone to see the Dixie Stampede). We blew bubbles and rode scooters and bowled, but mostly she yelled. We had spagetti for supper and that perked her up for the evening hours.

It was a nice evening, Sean and I actually got to go out and go mini-golfing! Sean had picked up a few brochures of places we were pretty sure we had been so we looked through our coupon book for the area and found a place we hadn't been before. They had two courses, a knight/castle type course and a jungle type course. We played the knight course and Sean beat my by 3 or 4. It was pretty even but I choked in the end. Then we decided to play the other course too and Sean only beat my by 1. So he won both, but it was a close one! It was a good time. We haven't mini-golfed in forever. And the course was PMGA certified! Did you know there was pro mini golf? I hadn't ever really thought about it, but I guess there's probably pro everything!

I was able to make my own ice cream treat when we got home. Nicole has been making a smore creation for me every night. It's awesome. Vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup, gram crackers crumbs. Totally awesome and tasty and all that good stuff. She's a great chef.

After all the kids went to bed we played some poker for awhile. I, once again, succeeded in ridding of all my chips first so I could go to bed. Apparently, it came down to my mom and Sean and Sean ended up winning. Even though my mom is conservative with her chips and not a great bluffer from what I hear.

Branson Trip-Tuesday

We decided Tuesday was the day for Silver Dollar City. I planned to go in the morning, then take Kaelyn back to the house for her nap after lunch and return in the afternoon. Once we got there and saw how far the parking was from the park and how far deep into the park we were going to be around that time, I changed my mind. I decided we'd stay and hope for the best. Kaelyn used to sleep in her stroller at the zoo for her morning nap really well so with any luck... :)

We didn't have that luck and she was awake all day but she did surprisingly well. It was tough at first because we were in a new place and she wanted me to carry her. In order to set the precident for the day, I told her she had to walk or ride in her stroller. She did not appreciate this idea. Poor thing. After a few crying fits she got the idea. I didn't want to START the day carrying her in this huge amusement park or I knew I would never make it!

We went to a kids area first that had a big slide and some rope courses that were good for jumping and climbing. Kaelyn LOVED it there and didn't really want to leave when we moved on. In fact, she kept looking for it after we left! We went back a couple of times as we went past. My sister's kids and their dad as well as my dad rode a boat ride that had water squirters. The riders could squirt other boats and people watching could squirt the riders. They got pretty wet.

We had lunch at a small cafe that had a big wagon you could sit in. We didn't, but it was still neat. :) Kaelyn started her lunch much earlier so she wasn't all that hungry when the rest of us ate. After that, I was kind of hoping she'd drift off in her stroller. My dad, sister, her husband and kids and I went on the log ride. We all got pretty wet! It was only a 20 minute wait which wasn't too bad for that hot of a day. There was only one big hill and drop, which is where we got the most wet, of course.

When we got off that ride, Kaelyn was still wide awake and enjoying watching the boats come down the hill. We explored a few other places including watching the giant swing ride over and over. No one rode it, but Kaelyn liked watching that too. My niece Nicole really liked a rope ride where two people sit in a seat and hoist themselves up a rope and then drop. She went on that with almost everyone in our group! So she was an expert.

My niece and dad got involved in a water balloon toss and won the first round. They had some pretty close calls when the balloon would hit the ground and bounce instead of break or when they would catch just a small corner of it and it would stretch out. Their reward for the win was to get placed in the next game instead of being out. Not much of a prize. And their balloon popped that time after a bad throw.

Then we went on a raging river type ride. It was impossible to see how long the line was, but it took almost 45 minutes to get through it. For a ride that lasted maybe 90 seconds, maybe not all that worth it, but it was fun! Kaelyn was STILL awake when we got done with that. That time Sean had found a splash park area that she had fun in.

The group wanted to catch the circus show and we headed over to that theater. Kaelyn was obviously tired so I carried her and she was almost asleep when we got there. But, in a circus, with drumming people and bright lights, it's not really an easy place to fall asleep. She watched for awhile and seemed fine and then started acting scared and crying. I figured she was just tired so I took her out and we walked awhile while she cuddled and rested. She was almost asleep again when the darn train went by and tooted its horn, scaring and jolting her awake! At that point I gave up. I changed her diaper and she laid on the blanket on the ground for awhile resting. Then she wanted to ride in the stroller again so I let her eat her body weight in fish crackers and walked her around until the circus let out.

By that time we were all pretty tired. We visited another little kids area and then headed back to the house to eat. Most of us ate our leftovers from the throwed roll place. I was surprised that Kaelyn got a second wind and was running around like a crazy person. I had trouble pinning her down long enough to get her pajamas on that night, but once I did, she went to bed nicely and slept well overnight. Actually, she slept 12 hours and I didn't really hear too much from her.

I learned that she doesn't WANT to ride the carousel. Which is kind of nice. :) She's always been fascinated with them and LOVES sitting and watching. But at Silver Dollar City, since it was no extra charge or anything and since she likes to ride any horse she can find, I thought she might like going ON it. Well, we got into the ring and she would NOT let me put her on any of those horses! So we just walked around it and went on our merry way. Now I know! She just likes to watch! Fine by me! Probably would have made me dizzy anyways!

We plan to go back to Silver Dollar City on Thursday with our two day pass to see and do more. We only did the one show and there's a dog show my niece wants to see. We'll see if Kaelyn likes that one better than the circus. Probably will depend on the time of day we see it!

Brason Trip-Monday

I'm getting lazy! Kaelyn woke me up for the second day in a row at 7:15am. I usually get up hours before her. Oh well, that's what vacation is for! She had lost a duck so she started the day a bit rough but she was up and playing in no time. Actually, she played hard for over 2 hours! The neighborhood pool opened at 10 so we decided to go there this morning since it was SO hot outside. I gave Kaelyn a quick bath before hand just to keep our routine going and then we all threw on suits and headed over there.

The pool area is very nice. There's a big outdoor pool with a baby wading pool next to it. There's also an indoor pool but it was closed for maintenance today. Kaelyn started out in the wading pool and was screaming in delight. She had her two ducks with her so she'd throw them in, wade in, get them, wade out, repeat. Eventually she had a little interest in the bigger pool and would wander over there, go down one step, and then go back to the baby pool. After awhile, she'd go down two steps, then three. This all took over an hour. Then, when I was completely IN the big pool once and Sean was with her in the baby pool, she came over and just wanted to jump off the side onto me. So I bounced her around the big pool for quite some time. I now wish we were in water at ALL times. It's SO much easier to carry an approximately 30 pound kid in water! She continued to go back and forth between the two pools the whole time...as her diaper got bigger and bigger. :)

At one point, I was pulled into a chicken fight with my niece. It was me and my dad vs. my niece Nicole and her dad. I had her completely knocked over but her legs were still clinging so I'm not sure if she was all the way out. I don't know how she held on that way. It was pretty funny. I couldn't stop laughing.

After Kaelyn's diaper was bigger than the rest of her and she was starting to get hungry and crabby, we headed back to the house for lunch. She enjoyed "sharing" a freezer pop with Sean after, though she ate way more of it than him. We played a bit, then naptime! She's doing really well with her talking. She still mostly points and grunts at things, but if you tell her to say something, she'll say it back to you, or something that sounds somewhat similar. She's getting the idea. Her word for "swim" is pretty cute. It's more of just an s sound, actually, it kind of sounds like suess or something. Her favorite phrase right now, though, is daddy stinky. I have to admit, I taught her that. :) Only because SHE was stinky one time and I wanted HIM to change her so I told her to go say that to him. She did and now she says it ALL the time! Oops...

While Kaelyn was napping we had some crafting to do. I made Sean a camoflage duct tape bag for his ipad. It's very manly. Okay, so it still kind of looks like a purse. The duct tape was very sticky and ended up all over my hands, which then stuck to everything else!

After Kaelyn's nap and everyone else's showers we played for awhile and then packed up to go to supper. Our 95 year old grandpa has told a story for as long as we can remember about the home of the throwed roll, a restaurant in the area that throws rolls to you when you raise your hand up. He tells it over and over again and we thought he would be really tickeled if we went there. It was a 45 min drive but the wait once we got there was short and the service was fast. The rolls were good...hot too! And very throwed. :) Most of us brought food home because the portions were huge. We may not have to cook again the rest of the week! We took some pictures and videos of the experience and called grandpa to tell him we were there JUST for him! And it was fun for us too.

By the time we got home it was time to pack it in for the day and Kaelyn returned once again to her bed in the closet. Poor thing. :) After all of the kids were in bed we played Texas Hold Em poker. I have beat Sean and his dad and brothers at that game before, but that night, I didn't do so well. After awhile I started betting on everything so I could get rid of my chips and go to bed. I succeeded in being the first one out. :) Tomorrow...Silver Dollar City.