Colorado Trip-traveling

We're back from our trip to Colorado! I tried to keep track of what we did on what days so I could blog about it when we returned. So unless something exciting happens, my next several blogs will be about our vacation.

We left for Colorado at 7:30am Friday July 9th. I must admit I wasn't looking forward to the long drive. But that first day, Kaelyn was an AWESOME little traveler! We traveled for 7 hours that day, on and off, and Kaelyn slept only for about two of those hours. When she was awake she poked her alphabet apple toy and a few others. She was perfectly happy as long as I
WASN'T in the back with her. Go figure! So I stayed up front!

We first stopped in Kearney at 10:30am so Sean could visit a job site. It was at the fairgrounds so that left Kaelyn and I in a big field. She explored and ran around. It was good to stretch those legs!

As you can see the trip made her become a bit of a two fisted drinker. One water, one milk!

On our drive on Saturday, my parents, who were also going out that day, passed us THREE times! We didn't see any of Sean's family. We're guessing they passed us when we were stopped at Kearney.

We didn't make it all the way to Colorado Springs that first day. I figured Kaelyn had had enough of the carseat and we didn't want her to sleep TOO long during her naps and then not at night. So we stopped at a Walmart near Brush, CO. It's pretty nice that walmart lets you camp in their parking lots. There were lots of truckers and other campers there along with us. We ate at Wendy's and then Kaelyn had a GREAT time running around Walmart. She found a frisbee that she threw down just about every aisle she could find. Then she found a volleyball, still in the box, that she enjoyed tossing a bit. I think she would have stayed there longer! But as we went back out to the camper, she also enjoyed playing in the landscaping.

Then came the true test, after being in the car for most of the day, would she sleep that night? Yep! We let her stay up a little bit later...a whole 15 minutes! But she went RIGHT to sleep...AND slept till 7am the next morning! REALLY late for her!! We decided it would be easier to keep her on our time. Colorado Springs is an hour difference. That was source of MAJOR confusion for me the WHOLE trip! I was always talking Nebraska time and needed to stop and think about what time it was THERE! So, Kaelyn getting up at 7am was really getting up at 6am THEIR time. And we ate lunch at 11:30, which is 10:30 THEIR time. So we were early to rise, early to eat, early to bed, but what do you do! We didn't have to readjust when we got back home and it seemed easier not to mess with her anymore than we already were!

I was quite pleasantly surprised by our first day of travel. Kaelyn barely complained at all and was a much better rider than I expected. Stay tuned for details on day two and on the actual vacation once we arrived!

Packing frenzy

My husband says the sideways pictures are some kind of application problem with the iphone so hopefully apple will fix it and we can get an update. Because it's annoying to have to tilt your head to see what's going on.

Anyways, this is a picture of bathtime the other day. Our cat Ollie LOVES fresh water. I've read that some cats just like the taste of it better. They can tell the difference and some like it fresh from the tap instead of out of a bowl. One time when I was in our whirlpool tub a LOOOONG time ago, Ollie managed to get a drink while I was in the tub without falling in. I was impressed. And glad because I didn't really want my relaxing bath interrupted by a howling wet cat. I think that might have been his goal here in this picture but the water level was just too low and he never could figure out how to safely get a drink. So he just perched there and watched for a bit and eventually moved to the toilet to observe where he would for sure by safe. Kaelyn did poke him a few times so he knew he was risking getting pulled in.

The last few days have been a packing frenzy. We're going on vacation to Colorado soon and I wanted to get as much packing done now as possible while my mom's here to watch Kaelyn. Packing is MUCH faster when I can use BOTH of my hands! We're taking the camper so not only do we have to pack the normal clothes but also food, shower towels, bedding, all that good stuff. We figure it's going to be about a 10 hour drive. We're going to leave before Kaelyn's morning nap and take a lunch break and let her run around a bit. Then drive farther during her afternoon nap and see where we end up. That'll be day 1. Day 2 we'll go the rest of the way, however much farther that will be. Wish us luck! I think if she has a good, sleepy day, the drive won't be so bad.

We're staying at the Garden of the Gods campground. It looks nice online. Has a pool and playground and even things like pancake feeds. We plan to go to the Royal Gorge one day while we're there and otherwise probably just bum around Colorado Springs. Oh, and of course, Sean has two days of golf outings, but otherwise our plans are pretty open. I hope the weather is nice so we don't get stuck inside the little camper. Kaelyn seems to enjoy it in there for limited amounts of time. But playing in there for any LONG period would probably be tough. I'm sure there are inside places there we can find things to do as well.

This will be our second vacation with Kaelyn. Last summer we went to Kansas City with my family for a few days and stayed in a big cabin there. It was a nice close place where we could go and do some different things but not be TOO far from home. Next summer we plan to take another family trip to Branson where a couple from our church owns a nice big house and offered to let us use it.

But let's focus on this vacation first. I think I'm pretty well packed but now I have a list of last minute things that I can't really do until the morning we leave. Which is a bummer because Sean wants to leave at like 7:30am. So getting up and getting all that packed AND getting Kaelyn and me ready might be pushing it, but we'll make it! I hope. :)

Picture catch up

I need to figure out why the pictures are sideways. But at this point I'm stumped.



Here's Kaelyn at the zoo. She's taking her morning nap. This is how she sees the elephants. Over and over as I do laps around them. She never gets to see the elephants, the poor thing!









One day last week Kaelyn had a real rough nap. She just yelled and yelled. She was really serious about it. When I couldn't stand it anymore I went in and picked her up and rocked her. I wasn't intending her to fall asleep, I just wanted to calm her down. But she went right to sleep and looked like a little angel. It's been a long time since I held her when she was sleeping.








Ollie was just sitting on the stairs the other day like this. Like a real person or something! He usually lays in a ball or on his back all spread out. This was a strange place to lay and a strange WAY to lay!







Kaelyn is finally awake in this zoo picture and ready to run. At least run for the camera to try to grab it! I think we had just gotten done at Bear Canyon and she led me over to the Aviary.

Mishaps

Again, I don't know why these pictures are sideways, but they'll do I guess!

Yes, Kaelyn knows how to turn on an iphone. She pushes the button and slides her finger across. Then continues to push every button she can until she gets bored. She's done things to it I don't even know how to do! :)

When I was a kid it seems I had several mishaps. I don't remember them and I (supposedly!) did them innocently. One time I set off the fire alarm in the library by opening a fire door. I guess it wasn't quiet in the library that day! Somehow I pulled over a whole rack of shoes at a shoe store. And I completely shut down an escalator by messing just right with the hand rail. Sometimes kids just do things! Whether they mean to or not! I don't remember doing those things so I can't say if I meant to or not. But my mom believes it was all very innocent so I'll let her keep thinking that!

This past Sunday in church Kaelyn was running around, as usual. At the back of the church was the elevator. She's been fascinated by that for quite sometime. She can't reach the up and down button so she reaches FOR it. Sometimes I push it, the doors open, and she hops right on. We ride up or down, then go back to the main floor. This was no big deal until this week. Inside the elevator, she discovered she could reach some of the buttons! Oh joy! What buttons are lowest on this particular elevator? The call button, so you can talk to people if you're stuck in the elevator. And the alarm button, so you can make a loud bell ringing noise. She chose the alarm button. Things like that always seem to happen in a split second, but in slow motion. I could see her going for it. I could see what was going to happen. And yet I could do nothing to stop it. It was only a split second of an alarm...three times. And I wasn't sure anyone even heard it. Later my husband told me he had heard it in the church. And therefore I'm pretty sure most everyone else did too. But what do you do! Perhaps she takes after me in that way. Initiating mischief!

I know I've talked about how Kaelyn won't eat ANYTHING or put much in her mouth. Last week we went to some friend's house for dinner. She LOVED the chocolate chip cookies as you can see from that picture. She chowed as much of that as we would give her. Down the hatch! And all over the face, I might add. So now we can add chocolate chip cookies to her things she will eat. Among the gram crackers and veggie puffs and zuchinni bread. Not exactly a balanced diet! Good thing baby food gets her some fruits and veggies!

Pictures

I have a bunch of pictures I haven't posted recently so I thought I'd catch up a bit by just posting some pictures. Kaelyn will be awake soon so I'm sure I don't have time to write much. I don't know why some are sideways like that.


Her 4th of July dress











Her 3rd of July outfit that was my niece's









Concentrating on swinging outside

















Looking at who knows what in the swing!

4th of July

Kaelyn loves her swing, really she does! Just because she looks totally bored in these pictures... :)

We didn't really have any plans for the 4th of July weekend. Not for lack of trying! Sean's cousins were going to go camping nearby so we were going to visit them one of the days. But then they changed their plans. So no visiting. We asked some friends to come over for a BBQ but they were going out of town. We checked with Sean's parents to see what they were doing and they were going over to some friend's house. At that point I think we gave up! :)

So Saturday Sean mowed and Kaelyn and I hit the library for a bit. That was pretty much the extent of the day. Sunday we plan to go to church and take a test ride in the camper (more on that later) and Monday we have some grocery shopping to do. Big time plans, right?! :) But hey, it's a nice relaxing weekend and at least we're all together!

As for the camper, Kaelyn hasn't really ridden in it since August. She was pretty little back then! We're going to Colorado for a whole week pretty soon and we thought it might be a good idea to take a test ride to make sure her seat fits okay and she likes it okay. Not that it matters if she doesn't at this point. We have our plans set! We've done a couple of test weekends actually camping and that has gone well. Kaelyn has slept pretty good and enjoyed running around in the limited space of the camper. But I've always driven my car separately from the camper so she's never actually ridden IN it. At least not since August. She'll only have to put up with the ride for 10 hours when we head to Colorado!! Oh boy. Could be a long drive! But we've arranged it so we'll take full advantage of naptimes so hopefully that will help.

The last couple of days Kaelyn has had some major screaming fits. I'm wondering if there are some molars bothering her. Yesterday morning she woke up very unhappy. I went in to her room and she was just rolling around screaming. Usually in the morning she pops right up and stands up so I can pick her up. Not yesterday. I let her roll around for awhile while I stood there waiting for her to stand up. She never did so eventually, after we had long since woken Sean, I just picked her up and took her downstairs. She wouldn't drink her milk, she wouldn't eat, she just wanted to scream. She was SO upset she had REAL tears and a runny nose! Just not like her. I finally just sat at the kitchen table and held her. She was even struggling against that for awhile. But she calmed down eventually and ate a little and was fine after that. I don't know WHAT the deal was! She was EXTRA cute after her morning nap, though. Maybe she had teeth bothering her, maybe she slept weird, maybe she had a bad dream. I'm the first to admit I really don't know what I'm doing here! It's a new adventure everyday it seems. I hope not to have to endure many more of those fits, though. It's so hard to know what to do when everything SEEMS okay and yet they scream anyways!

I'm doubting we'll get to see any fireworks this year. Kaelyn goes to bed at 8 and it's still quite light out at that time. Maybe there will be a display on tv we can watch. I think that's what we did last year other than what Sean's dad set off in our backyard. Happy 4th to all of you!

Outside fun

Aren't kids the best when they're asleep? So peaceful and sweet! But they just don't sleep that much! At least mine doesn't! But being outside helps to wear her out.

When we're outside Kaelyn enjoys chasing remote control cars. I dropped ours the other day and broke a piece that we now know can't be fixed. So I got a real cheap one at Walmart and we tried it out this afternoon. She loves it! She likes when it chases her or comes over to her slowly and then she gives it a push to start it up again.

Another of her favorite outdoor games is toss the golf ball. She'll take a golf ball (or more recently two) and throw it across the driveway into the grass. Then we have to go retrieve them and throw them the other way. Occasionally they get tossed into the street and bounce down the hill away from our house. This is upsetting to Kaelyn and I have to carry her down to get them back. Which is no fun for me! So we try to avoid that travesty, but what do you do! It happens!

The other golf ball game involves her sitting on the porch and throwing the golf ball over the edge into the grass. At which point I "get to" retrieve it and hand it back to her. And then she tosses it again immediately. Lots of fun for me, as you can imagine!

Bubble blowing is also fun. Especially if the bubbles land and stick in the grass without popping. Then they can be popped by baby fingers. Much more fun than popping on their own!

And Kaelyn has a pink car that neighbors gave her. She won't ride in it but she loves to be chased BY it!

Wagon rides are also a good time. She has a foam rocket that she holds onto and sticks her finger in and just sits there looking around and chilling out.

Kaelyn has tastes chalk on a few occasions and made a few hash marks on the sidewalk. But mostly she tells me what to write! :) Things like welcome home daddy. And pictures of weird looking animals that I do my best to draw! I think I have more fun with the chalk than she does, but she DOES like emptying it from the box and putting it back in!

I don't know WHAT we're going to do when winter hits and we're stuck inside all day everyday again!