The long awaited Vegas trip finally arrived. Though I have to admit...as excited as I was to go I also didn't want to go. The longest I had ever been away from Kaelyn was about ten hours. This was going to be two whole nights and three days!! I always thought she was the one who suffered from separation anxiety but now I wonder if it's really me with the problem! I'm just not used to being away from her! But we left the house at 730am before she woke up. That in itself was hard but probably easier than seeing her
We got to Vegas at 1030 their time. Felt like 1230 to us. We got a ride to our hotel...paris! Dropped off our things in the room and hit the streets to look around and find lunch.
We ate at the Harley davidson cafe. Sean was happy that way. There were motorcycles going around the top of the room on tracks or something. It was really good and I had enough tea to keep me going for quite some time. After lunch we started strolling the hotels. This is my third trip here and I'm still in awe. Especially of the themed hotels that look like actual streets inside. Each hotel is a city on it's own. I think you could stay in one hotel for your whole trip and have plenty to do. I think we liked the Venetian the best. There was a love statue there. And gondola rides which we stood and watched for awhile.
At 530 we wanted to catch the live free show outside treasure island. We had never timed it right to see it before. It was so totally lame I couldn't believe it. I think it could have been quite cool but instead of making a cool pirate show it was more about booty if you know what I mean. I guess that's Vegas for you
We were still pretty full from lunch so we just grabbed some big cookies from Starbucks and went to our beetles cirque du soleil love show. We saw a different cirque du soleil show a fee year ago and I still say it was the coolest thing I've ever seen. This show was cool too but they didn't do nearly as much of the flippy circus stuff so I was disappointed by that. There was some but I think the show was more dancing and symbolic stuff about the songs. Which I didn’t really care about. It was still cool but I would o see the other one again and I would not see the beetles one again.
After that we walked back to our hotel which was a fair distance. We grabbed a snack downstairs an went to bed at 10. That may sound sad being in Vegas and all but that was midnight our time and I'd been up since 5 and we walked for like eight hours straight! I'm making excuses. We're just old and we were tired!! :)
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Vegas trip day one
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Christmas 2010
Christmas really sneaked up on me this year. I think it's partly because the weather hasn't been TOO terribly bad. But it came either way and I was somewhat prepared for it. Our plans seemed to keep shifting and shaping but we eventually got everything settled. Sean, Kaelyn and I actually started opening our presents the weekend before Christmas. It was nice to spread it out a little! Sean gave Kaelyn her gift from him first...his old musical keyboard! We set it up on the toy box and she stands and plays beautiful music all the time. She also likes to climb on and over the keyboard which also makes interesting sounds! :) Next, we gave her a Zhu zhu pet. It seemed like a good idea. It was small and furry and would run around on the ground so she could chase it. Well, she seemed a little interested at first, but when she couldn't actually CATCH the thing, she got mad. Now every time she sees it she yells at it. I'm not sure if she was scared of it or just frustrated that she had trouble catching it. Either way, I'm glad it didn't cost much because we haven't been playing with it. Sean and I also gave Kaelyn a big playset that we set up in the basement back in November. It was meant to be a Christmas present but we set it up when the weather started to get cold so we'd have more to do inside. It has two slides, one down each side, a couple of steps, a steering wheel, and has been all sorts of fun for her. She likes to throw her animals on wheels down the slides along with assorted balls and other things. She slides as well and has recently taken her bubble popper toy downstairs to put that down the slide as well. We saved her last gift for right before we left on our Christmas adventures. I gave her an Elmo toy that sings 10 different songs. She mostly seems to like the chicken dance song and stomps along. Occasionally she will push another button and I am always grateful for that. But hey, I don't care if she makes a lot of noise, as long as she's not yelling at me, I'm happy! So play that chicken dance, girl!! :) Elmo had to go along with us on our travels because he needed to be poked more than just for the one day.
We started our adventure by driving to Des Moines to stay with my parents. We went on Thursday the 23rd during Kaelyn's nap. When we unpacked at their house, it was like we were moving in. 4 days is a long time! :) On Christmas Eve we spend the morning at my parents house playing around and then headed to Chick-Fil-A at the mall for lunch. It was my kind of day! :) Because it was snowing a little, there weren't many people there so that was nice. Ah yes, a white Christmas. I think I would have preferred a WARM Christmas, but whatever. After Kaelyn got up from her nap we headed over to Sean's brother's house. He lives about 15 minutes away from my parents so that was handy. It worked out nicely travel-wise for us this year. Sean's brother and his wife just had a baby in October and weren't up for traveling yet so they invited his immediate family over there to celebrate. That was great because that meant we didn't have to try to travel 3 1/2 hours between the two families in a short amount of time. We still got to see everyone and only had to drive one direction. The bummer of it was that Kaelyn did not cooperate with me pretty much all afternoon. It wasn't much fun for me. I don't know if it was her cold (she'd had a little one for a couple of weeks), being in a different house, being grumpy after her nap, or any number of combinations. It was just a rough afternoon. She kept wanting to go to the basement. It was a small, unfinished area and there wasn't much down there. I usually went just to keep her happy. But sometimes, like when opening presents, we just couldn't take off. And that made her MAD. She also wanted to crawl and stand on the counters where others were preparing food. That's not really a good idea and I wouldn't let her. That made her MAD as well. I got yelled at a lot and wasn't able to enjoy the afternoon or evening because trying to keep her semi happy was taking ALL my energy and then some. She even yelled through much of the present opening. Finally, just before 8, I had had enough. It was close to bed time anyways so I threw her in her pjs and took off. I hope I didn't seem too rude. I didn't take time to say much to anyone, I just went. I was SO tired of being screamed at! Kaelyn didn't fall asleep on the drive back to my parents house but when I put her in bed there she didn't make a peep. She must have known I couldn't take one more little yell! :) I left her there in bed to sleep and when my parents got home from church I went back to Sean's brother's house. We played bop it and there were a few more gifts to open. I fell asleep on the couch eventually, but it was the nicest time I had ALL day. Other than Chick-fil-A, maybe! ;) It was so peaceful and quiet and I could talk to everyone and enjoy the evening without having to entertain or be screamed at for no particular reason. Ahhh.

Christmas Day Kaelyn seemed to be in better spirits. We were all pretty lazy and it took until Kaelyn's nap time for all of us to get ready and showered and dressed etc. Even Kaelyn slept in. And I let her! I didn't want her getting up ANY earlier than necessary. I think it was about 9 before she finally decided to see the light of day. She was worn out from all the screaming! :) So we lounged around and after her nap that afternoon, we headed to my sister's house to see my niece and nephew's new toys. They had chili for supper. Kaelyn enjoyed playing in their school room which had some desks and chairs she could climb and some balloons she could toss. She also enjoyed playing in their big walk-in pantry, of all places! She liked investigating all the items, I guess, and climbing on the little step stool. Whatever, she was happy! I wasn't able to visit with everyone as much since I was playing with her in other rooms, but at least I wasn't being screamed at! We headed home before her bedtime and got back to my parents house in time to let her run a bit and then head to bed.
On Sunday the 26th we went to a 9:30 church service at my parents church. Kaelyn LOVES playing on the ramps at that church. It's usually no big deal and I don't feel like it bothers anyone. But lately, she's enjoyed being chased and hiding from me and having me find her etc.
Well, at church, she would go up the ramp and as she thundered back down she would see me again and it was like I "found" her and this illicited excited screams. I didn't think AHHHH in the middle of the silent prayer was a good thing, but at least she was happy! Eventually she got done with the ramps and we were able to sit and look at her books for most of the rest of the service. I guess she wore out? Is that possible? Um no! :) We went back to my parents for lunch and my sister and her gang came over. After we ate we opened our stockings quickly and I put Kaelyn in bed for her nap. Once she was awake the present opening began! It took her a little while to wake up but once she did and realized what was going on, boy did she have fun. This was the first time she really got into opening presents. She didn't care what was in them once the paper was off, but boy did she love opening the paper! She couldn't open them fast enough. She'd open one and then reach for the next. Sean was just trying to keep up and make sure she wasn't opening other people's presents as she brought them out. Which she did...mine!! I think I only opened maybe half of mine and some things I didn't even know I got until I packed things up the next day! Oh well, she was having fun so who cares! She got a lot of neat new toys and some clothes and pjs too. She's one happy girl! After all the craziness I think Kaelyn was ready to get away. The gifts were done and she had nothing left to tear apart so rather than play with all her new things she grabbed my finger and took me upstairs to chase her with her favorite Tiger toy. I think she just needed a little peace and to get back to the norm for a little while. It was hard for me to have to stay away from the group again. Play like we always play at home and all. But I figured at least she was happy and that was better than trying to force her to be in a room she didn't want to be in and have her scream at me.
The rest of the day went pretty fast and we just played and played. When Kaelyn went to bed my niece wanted to watch Ramona and Beezus. That was pretty cute. The next day, it was all over. It was still crazy because we were all in one house, but the major chaos was behind us. We all packed up and headed to the mall for lunch. Sean, Kaelyn and I went early so she could play for awhile and get some running in. She did plenty of that! Then we ate at Chick-Fil-A again and went our separate ways. We drove home and Kaelyn fell asleep before we hit the interstate and slept the WHOLE way. I think she was really worn out from it all!
The night we got back, Kaelyn coughed ALL night long. I think I got maybe 3 hours of sleep. As I mentioned she'd had a little cold for several weeks. But I was getting worried that it was sticking around and didn't like the sounds of the cough so I took her to the doctor our first morning back home. It turns out she has her FIRST ear infection and possibly sinus infection as well. The doctor was impressed that this was her FIRST visit to the office other than regular check up and shot visits. Her left ear is pretty bad and the right ear slightly infected as well. She's on antibiotics for 10 days. So far that hasn't been fun. The first dose ended up back on her shirt after I put it in her mouth! :) But after just two doses, she only woke up twice last night coughing and only for 15 minutes instead of 2 hours like the night before. SO hopefully she's on the mend already. Maybe that was part of the issue CHristmas Eve? Who knows! She's not telling!!
Overall it was a great Christmas. We got everything we could have wanted and more, and more importantly, got to spend time with family. We have one more Christmas celebration New Year's Eve weekend so hopefully that will make up for KAelyn's attitude CHristmas Eve since the party is with Sean's family again. I hope she's an angel this time around! For her sake AND for mine! And everyone else's for that matter!
Merry Christmas and have a great 2011!!
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Winter Update
It's winter now so our zoo visits have been very limited. We HAVE gone several times, though mostly in the afternoon after Kaelyn's nap. That's the only time it's semi-warm enough. Though one day last week, yes in DECEMBER, we went in the morning!! It was going to be above 50 that day and nice and sunny. It was a little chilly in the morning but with our coats and hats we did just fine. I figured we better go because it might be the last chance until spring, who knows.
Another place we have been enjoying is the children's museum. My sister gave us a season pass for an early Christmas present and we've already been a handful of times. We can also take visitors with us for free so that's nice too. Kaelyn has a lot of fun there but I do worry that she picks up illnesses from all the other kids. Last time I went, she threw up in the afternoon when we got home and two days later, I had the flu. So when we go again I'm going to try to be diligent about washing her hands often to try to fight that off. I know we'll keep going because it's a fun thing to do! I just don't want it to be un-fun later!! Right now they have a big area upstairs at the museum of outdoor play equipment. That's really nice because we can't really play outside much these days so it's nice to go somewhere and at least pretend!
Thanksgiving was very nice. We went to Lincoln and spent a few days at Sean's parents house. Kaelyn got used to their house and enjoyed the rocking horse they had in the basement. She also liked watching people play pool and pushing on a musical angel that was part of a plastic nativity scene. We spent Thanksgiving at Sean's aunt and uncle's house and I drove Kaelyn around in the car for her nap. That worked out fine and I didn't even get too lost! We came home at bedtime only to find we had no heat so that was a bummer. It was a long, cold night, but we survived. We got it fixed the next day and then headed to my parents house for the weekend. More turkey and eating, of course.
Just recently, within the last week or so, Kaelyn has started a new thing. I'm calling them fits.
We seem to have come up with a new game. It's called chase Kaelyn around the circle in our house. It started with the bouncing Tiger and has moved on to include the hammer that makes noise and lights up. In the last few days, I think we've spent nearly every waking moment while we're home playing this game. It's funny, if we're home and NOT playing it, Kaelyn will grab the hammer or Tiger, hand it to me, and then push me away like, okay, go mama, go hide, then I'll find you and you can get me! It consists of me running around the circle and ducking in somewhere to hide. Kaelyn will catch me, I'll just out at her and she'll just SCREAM and SCREAM. Happy screams this time! Last night, she seemed to like it best if she SAW where I hid. Then she'd sneak up and I'd peek out of my hiding spot several times. This would start the giggling. Then when I'd finally attack with Tiger the scream of delight was SO loud I think I lost a little hearing after playing it for so many hours. We'd take a break here and there but inevitably KAelyn would get one of those toys, grab my finger, stand me up, hand me the toy, and give me a push off to start the game. She was having a blast. At least I know we were both getting our exercise!
Our interior of the house is painted with a bad, flat paint so I've gathered some paint samples and we've chosen some colors. Yesterday for our outing Kaelyn and I bought the paint for her bathroom. DId you know there is such a color as Rubber Duckie Yellow? Well, that bathroom is decorated in ducks so we HAD to have it! I did the first paint round yesterday while she napped. I have to admit, I'm not a good painter and I was rushing. So it will definitely need a second coat. But it's a nice bright color and it really brings out the ducks in the room! :)
I think our Christmas plans are in place now. I can't believe it's almost here already. I'll have to write after the holidays again so I remember some of the things about Christmas this year. Christmas last year is very hazy so I'm glad I wrote about it and we took lots of pictures. For now, Kaelyn seems to be sleeping in so I better get some writing for pay done! :)
Saturday, November 20, 2010
2010 Christmas Picture
Monday, November 1, 2010
18 mo and Halloween
October 24th was Kaelyn's 18 month birthday. Earlier in the week we went to the pediatrician for her shots and check up. She's getting more and more opposed to those trips! She weighed in at 26 pounds which was 75%. She was 32 inches tall at 52% and her head was at 90%. Plenty of room for brains cause she's very smart. Just ask her! :) She has to go back in a month for a second flu shot. After that I THINK she's done with shots till kindegarten. That will be nice. Though she opposes EVERYTHING the pediatrician has to do, the shots are definitely the worst. I don't think they ever really did get a look in her nose and ears. They tried, but I'm pretty sure nothing came of it!October has been a rough month for colds. I swear Kaelyn just gets over one and a few days later her nose is running again. She's had four colds from the beginning of October till now. I'm not sure what to do to help her get over them for good. She used to get sick so rarely. It doesn't make the days more fun when she's stuffy and more grumpy. She wants to be her
normal self but just doesn't feel quite right. That and all four of her pointy teeth came through AND one upper molar. There have been some rough moments! But overall, she's still a great, fun kid.This was Kaelyn's second Halloween. It was much more fun than last year. Last year she was a lady bug and though she didn't mind the costume she just didn't care about anything at all. This year, Kaelyn HAD to be a duck. Sean suggested it because Kaelyn sleeps with two rubber ducks and takes them with her everywhere we go. I was like, of COURSE, that's a PERFECT idea! So we found a costume at Nobbies and that was that! She, once again, didn't mind the costume. Had she known she was a duck she probably would have loved it. When we put it on her to take these pictures a week before HAlloween she ran right out back to her slide and went to play. It was a little hard to get her in and out of the swing, but she managed!
The day before Halloween we were at my parents for my grandpa's 95th birthday celebration. And yes, we DID put 95 candles on the cake! No fires, just a lot of smoke. And it took him and two kids SEVERAL blows...okay, like a dozen, to get all of the candles out. Anyways, trick or treat night was the night before Halloween in my parents neighborhood so we went to a few houses. Those houses knew they wouldn't get many kids (and my parents didn't get any!) so each was rather generous with their candy.

Then on Halloween we came home and our friends from church came over with their little girl (who was a giraffe) and their new baby (who was peas in a pod, way cute!) and we had supper with them. Sean's parents came by too because they wanted to see Kaelyn as a duck in person. We walked around the neighborhood after supper and had much better luck than last year. One of our two neighbors was home (the other brought Kaelyn a candy bag earlier in the day, handy!) and some people down the street from church were home this year too. We went to more houses between this year since the kids were a LITTLE older and it wasn't like we were just getting candy for ourselves. Though I have to admit, Kaelyn has yet to try any and I've had several. Nice of her to share. Not that she knows she's sharing! :) But she DID share at one house. Instead of taking from the bowl the people offered, she gave THEM a chocolate bar. She doesn't quite get the concept yet! I'm sure she'll catch on! It was a little chilly but not too bad. We took the stroller in hopes of not having to carry Kaelyn and she did pretty well until we started to head back home. Then she HAD to have mama carry her. Mama and ONLY Mama. Anyone else that dared got majorly screamed at and I couldn't bare that. It was dark, she was tired, she was scared, it was a weird thing we were doing, totally new. So I carried her. And she cuddled right in and gave me a good work out up that HUGE hill leading back to our house. I arrived majorly out of breath and sweaty but we made it! I deserve the candy of hers I ate! And will eat! :)
Maybe next year Kaelyn can tell us what she wants to be. She'll enjoy the day more and more as the years go by, I'm sure. She made an adorable ladybug last year and a cute duck this year. No telling what the years to come will bring!
Friday, October 15, 2010
Vala's Pumpkin Patch
Yesterday Kaelyn and I joined our friends Andrea and Logan at Vala's Pumpkin Patch. Andrea got a season pass to Vala's and she was able to put THREE adult names on her pass. She put herself, her husband, and ME! That was so super nice of her. So whenever I go WITH her, we can get in free! Since Vala's is an expensive place and with a little kid you don't want to stay there ALL day, we've only been there twice this season. The first time was for KGBI night when we got in free due to work. Yesterday with our friends was the second time. Kaelyn enjoyed KGBI night but yesterday was WAY more fun. It was morning/early afternoon so she was fresh and we had friends to give us the tour. I didn't have to keep an eye on the map to figure out where to go!Kaelyn loved this windmill! The first time we went up we took this picture. We went by it again later and she decided running up and down the two ramps that led to the windmill was a blast so she did that over. And over. And OVER again.
Hey, whatever works!
We visited Bunnyville, which is adorable. A bunch of bunnies running around. And they have a whole cute little town. Houses and buildings. They have quite the life! One bunny got loose and was running around on the path for the people. But he eventually jumped back in. The railing is pretty low so I can see how they could easily get out if they REALLY wanted to. Kaelyn kept putting one leg up on the railing like she was going to climb over. She never did, but she sure thought about it! She seemed to want to! She giggled at those bunnies! We got to ride this free tractor ride too. It was really bumpy but Kaelyn

loved it. She sat across from me for most of the ride and then on my lap for the last few minutes. She seemed to like the fake pigs on the ride the best. We drove by all sorts of things but she wouldn't tear her eyes from those fake pigs as they went by!
This big rocking chair is another thing both kids enjoyed at Vala's. Kaelyn liked it when I put her in it and she would slide to the back. IT kind of worked like a mini-slide. It was a little hard for her to crawl back to the edge, but she managed. Several times! Luckily, the chair doesn't really rock!

We found a play area with several slides towards the beginning of our trip. Both kids went down several times and liked watching other kids play too. There was one that was a decent size so I was able to help Kaelyn climb the slide. She prefers to climb them and then slide down. Rather than climb steps in the back or something. Easier for
her. Not so much for me! :) It's hard when we go to another playground where the slides are too tall and I just CAN'T help her climb them. We actually HAVE to go to the stairs! Like the huge playground in our town. That equipment is giant, there's no WAY I could help her climb it. She actually has to go up the stairs. And, that stuff is SO big, I won't even let her slide down alone. So I get to climb the stairs too and slide down with her! Last time I was quite sweaty when we finished!
There was a little school house just Kaelyn's size that she loved going in and
out. She'd go in, look out the window at me, then turn around and run back out. There were cute desks in there she probably would have enjoyed sitting at, but she was too busy running in and out of the house! This was near the pumpkin eating dragon show. We tried to watch the show, but no one was singing so Kaelyn wasn't interested. She wandered and found this school house instead. Whatever keeps her happy and entertained!I was calling Kaelyn pigpen towards the end of our trip because she was one big dustball. She was SO dusty and dirty it seemed like everytime she took a step she let off a puff of dust! At first I Tried to keep dusting off her pants, but eventually I gave up! We were on a farm, what did I expect!
Towards the train there was a big pit of corn. Last time we went I put Kaelyn in the corn and she immediately tried to eat it so I had to take her out. This time,
she really enjoyed picking it up and dropping it and even sludging through it. I had to go in with her the first time but after that, she went in and out several times on her own. The only problem this time with the corn was that when we got HOME, I found several hard little kernels in EACH of her shoes! Poor thing was walking around for hours in that! I guess it must not have bothered her to much or she would have complained at some point!There was an old tractor near a pit of sand that Kaelyn liked to sit on. She likes to pretend to steer things. It was pretty big for her, but she made it work! The tractor was next to a big sand pit that had little wooden landings. She liked climbing on the landings, walking around them, sitting on them. Oh, and there were stairs up to a big slide nearby too. She liked the stairs, but we never made it down the slide.

We had some free train passes so we rode the train too. Kaelyn started eating her lunch in line and happily ate her puffcorn popcorn while we rode the train. It was a nice ride and we didn't have to wait in line long so it was worth it.
And, to top it all off, we were able to get another mega bag of kettle corn on the way out! The pumpkin patch is about 45 minutes from our house so we stayed till 1. I figured Kaelyn would take her nap on the way home. Well, Vala's is about a mile from the highway, and KAelyn was asleep BEFORE we reached the highway! I guess she was worn out! We're hoping to go a time or two again before the season ends. We sure had nice weather for it and it was a totally different thing to do. Dusty, yes, but loads of fun!
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
New Cousin
Kaelyn has a new cousin! Sean's brother Joe and his wife Dacia had a little girl yesterday. It was a C-section and she was about 6 weeks early, but all seemed to go well. They named her Isla Marie (said Eye-Lah)...I'm not sure on the spelling yet. We can't wait to meet her. She's only 5lbs something so she's little but mighty! More details later when I get them! We hope to go meet her next weekend.
In other news, I found an adorable duck costume for Kaelyn today to wear for Halloween. Not that she's really into trick or treating yet. I know it's more for the photo op. But she sleeps with her rubber ducky and takes him everywhere so it only seems fitting!
I just heard from Sean today that he IS being sent to Las Vegas in January on business so I'm excited. I plan to go with him for a few days to see some shows. I said I'd only want to be away from Kaelyn for TWO nights so we'll be flying separately. My first time EVER flying alone. Could be interesting! I'm looking forward to it and I know Kaelyn will do fine. I just hope she remembers me! :) I have awhile to imprint myself on her mind.
We just got back from being at my parents for quite a few days so I'm attempting to play catch up during nap time. Better get back to it!
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