Too Funny…

Laney has been helping me make busy days today… she loves to help count the cups, and pour stuff in. She also loves licking the spoon, ‘cause who doesn’t? :)

And, when not cooking, Laney LOVES to listen to an ABC cd while we’re at home (it’s a great way to NOT have the TV on, and the songs aren’t that annoying- I’ve heard worse). Anyway, her favorite (and mine) is this song:

(side note: my living room was totally picked up last night… amazing what a two year old can do!)

What’s really funny is that she yells “J” in the middle of it… she’s starting to recognize letters, and names that start with them. She started with E for Elena, obviously, and now she knows what Liz, Josh, James, Jessie, Ruth, Carol, Chuck, Charlie, and Audrey start with. Anyway, she gets really excited when she hears or sees a letter she knows, so she was excited about J because she knew it started Josh! Pretty impressive… it amazes me how fast she learns! She’s learned to count to 12, too! Crazy how fast little girls grow up!

Anyway, just wanted to give everyone a good laugh today!! :) We sure are enjoying our days at home!

Memorial Day 2: Zoo & G’De & G’Don’s house!

One of the great things about going to Springfield over Memorial Day weekend is we didn’t have to go home Saturday night!  Sunday morning we headed to church.  And then we got to do something we’ve been wanting to do but just haven’t had time- go to the ZOO in Springfield!  Laney had actually never been to a zoo… which is funny because we kept telling her “Laney, we’re going to the zoo!”  “Aren’t you excited for the zoo?!” and she finally said “What’s a zoo?” 

Anyway, we ran home after church to change clothes, grabbed a couple of sandwiches at Subway, and had a little picnic at a park next door to the zoo. 

Audrey mostly slept through the picnic…

Laney ate about 4 bites, then ran off to play on the equipment!  Oh well…

The zoo in Springfield is called the Dickerson Park Zoo.  One cool thing about it is the peacocks that just wander around.  They make these screaming/cat noises, and they’re everywhere.  One of their favorite places (or so it seemed) was right at the gate…

We brought the stroller, but Audrey was the only one in it most of the time!  Laney spent most of the day climbing on fences to get a better look at the animals… flamingoes, in this case!

  Leila and Laney spent most of the time running around and looking at the animals together.  They were awful sweet holding hands!

Just a few cute pics…

  Laney was fascinated by the map… hopefully she will have a better sense of direction than her mommy!! :)

They had a petting zoo, too, where you could buy some food and feed some animals.  They mostly had goats, but that didn’t seem to bother the girls!

And, never fear, the babies were enjoying their trip to the zoo, too!  Kael spent the day chillin’ in his stroller with a bottle…

 

…and Audrey mostly slept!

It was REALLY hot, so we were all glad to find this little sprinkler.  Just a nice fine mist.  Most of us just kind of walked through for a refreshing mist.  The girls, on the other hand… they just stood in it until they were dripping!  We finally got them both out, and they ran right back in!  Oh well, they were sure having fun!

Laney liked all of the big cats.  She spent awhile pounding on the glass yelling “Here, Kitty!”  It was pretty funny… but the picture came out pretty well!

 

Part way through the zoo, everyone needed a little break, so we went for another first- first SNOW CONE!  Everybody loves a snow cone, and Laney was no exception!  We did have to put it in a cup and give  her a spoon, though… didn’t quite have the eating part down!

Shortly after our snow cones, it started pouring down rain.  We expected it to be a short shower, but it actually rained pretty hard.  The kids all went back into their strollers, and we spent some time in the cheetah lookout, which had a roof.  Eventually, though, we just gave up and kept walking… we got soaked, but it was nice and warm, so it was still fun!

One of the coolest animals to watch was actually the hippo.  He was MASSIVE, and I guess he was feeling playful, because he was in his pool wrestling with a tree/log that they had for him to play with.  The girls were pretty amazed!

 

You can just see the log underneath his head… sure wouldn’t want to go up against one of these in the water!

Big, nasty teeth…

And, finally, a peacock to bid us goodbye!

The zoo really was a lot of fun, despite the rain.  Laney says her favorite animal was the giraffes.  They were pretty cute.  We missed giraffe feeding time by about 15 minutes… we’ll have to make sure we get there a little earlier next time! 

After the zoo, we tried to get Laney to take a nap, but she wouldn’t have any of it.  So, we just headed into the backyard to play with bubbles while Grandpa & Daddy grilled.  It was a beautiful evening, and so nice to just relax for a couple of hours after our busy weekend!

Playing with the bubbles… don’t mind the outfit, she was not interested in changing clothes.  We put on comfy pants to nap, and then she took out her pig tails… oh well, fashion doesn’t count in the  backyard!

Josh & Dad, grilling and being goofy!

Dinner that night was awesome- pork chops & pork steaks, with our new apple cinnamon bbq sauce (which was every bit as delicious as we were hoping!). 

Monday morning we got up and had a big breakfast, then the girls, Josh, & I headed to Grandma De & Grandpa Don’s house for lunch.  They hadn’t met Audrey yet, so it was fun introducing her to a new side of the family!  We had lunch with Drew & his family, and Jeff, too, which was cool.  We hadn’t seen them since Christmas, so it was pretty neat.  They loved Audrey, and were amazed at how much Laney had grown!  We wandered outside looking for Anaias for awhile, but he wasn’t interested in eating the wild strawberry we found, and it was REALLY hot outside… so we spent most of the afternoon inside, playing! 

Love that we got her this laptop toy for her first birthday… it’s the longest lasting toy she has, and she still loves playing with it!

She did take a break from her laptop to torture Grandma with one of her Look & Find books!  She sure does love them…

There are some more pictures on the baby blog week 9 post… but, PHEW, what a weekend!  We had an absolutely fantastic time.  Loved seeing all of the family, and having time to hang out down there for a long weekend, instead of racing down on Friday and back to Columbia on Saturday.  What a treat! 

Memorial Day Weekend: SDC!

So, we had a great Memorial Day weekend.  And, when I went to make a folder of the pictures that I wanted to put in a post (I just make a separate folder so I can drag all of the pictures on at once), by the time I was done I had 41 (!!) pictures!  Since 41 pictures is a bit much for one post, even for me, I figured I better do a couple of posts about this past weekend!  I did take 350 pictures, so I guess 41 isn’t so bad, but nobody wants to look through that many pictures in one post! 

So, here is the first half of the Memorial Day Weekend post…

We headed down to Springfield Friday afternoon, and spent that evening hanging out at the Looten’s.  We had dinner, and watched a princess movie that Laney brought (of course). 

Laney and Leila, watching Aladdin (at least it was a good princess movie!).  They were pretty inseparable for the weekend!

One big change at Grandma & Grandpa Looten’s house: with Audrey around, Laney can’t sleep in the pack & play anymore!  So she got to sleep in Grandpa’s office on the futon.  She loved it!  She did not love me taking a picture of her first thing in the morning… but who can blame her?! :)

On Saturday, Josh, the girls, & I headed for Silver Dollar City, and the rest of the fam caught up later.  Audrey needed to eat pretty much as soon as we got there, so she and I headed for a nursing station (LOVE SDC for the nursing stations… so convenient) and Josh & Laney hit up Geyser Gulch.  First up, they had to play with the balls.  Geyser Gulch has this giant room with all of these foam balls that you can suck up in giant vacuum tubes, shoot with guns, or put in a gumball machine that spits them back out of the top.  Laney absolutely loves it, and I’m not sure Josh had any less fun than she did… they’re both a couple of kids! :) 

Just loved this scream of happiness picture… good shot, Josh! :)

Sucking the balls up with the hoses, always a good time… would occupy her for HOURS!

After playing in the ball room for awhile, Josh & Laney discovered the water mat!  It’s one of those places where water shoots up randomly from the ground.  Whoever invented those- genius! :)  Last year, Laney wasn’t too sure what to do with those fountains (see this post- I can’t believe how much she’s changed in a year!), and at Young Christians’ Weekend it was a little (or a lot) too chilly to play in the water.  But this time it was PERFECT, and man did she love it! :) 

Of course, she had to drag Daddy through it, too.  By the end they were both soaked!

Total joy!

See- SOAKED!  Check out the stringy little pony tails and wet shirt!

We had to leave Geyser Gulch to meet up with Grandma & Grandpa Looten, Jess, Kael, and Leila.  Josh & I rode some “big kid” roller coasters (I hadn’t ridden since last summer, so I was missing them), then we headed to the bbq joint to get some lunch.  Towards the end of lunch, Laney started throwing a fit (she threw a whole chicken strip on the ground… I paid $3.50 for two chicken strips… thanks, Laney), which said to me “NAPTIME!”  Since Audrey was hungry, too, I just put Audrey in the front of the double stroller, put Laney in the back and laid it down, and headed off towards the farthest nursing station (better chance of Laney falling asleep).  She acted like a siren the whole way there (love being stared at while my child wails in the stroller), but when we got in the a/c and I turned off the lights and fed Audrey, she passed out.  She looked so cute laying in that stroller…

As a side note, the double stroller is AWESOME!  We left the back laying down and had Audrey in there for most of the day, except while Laney napped.  But it was so nice to have a place for Laney to nap on the go.  She may be a big girl, but she is a CRANKY girl without her nap! 

After her nap, we just ran around the park- we ate delicious frozen lemonade, shopped some, and listened to a show.  Leila and Laney sure had fun watching everything!

Cousins!

One of the cool discoveries of the trip was that Laney was tall enough to ride the American Plunge, because it only had a height limit of 34 inches.  I couldn’t believe that she wanted to ride it, but she said she did even after watching it a couple of times.  So, we rode it!  I told her to just put on her monkey face when we were going down the big hill (that’s what they do in swimming lessons- “Put their whole monkey face in the water.”  It works great for keeping her from panicking when there’s water in her face).  She actually really liked it!  We went down the big hill and once she kind of cleared the water out of her face she turned around and said “Can we do it again?!”  My little daredevil…

Since it was her first big ride, we had to buy the little souvenir photo… 

She looks so serious, but that’s ‘cause she had her monkey face on!  Pretty funny… and, on a side note, check out the kid behind us!  Talk about panic…

Anyway, the last time we went to Silver Dollar City, for Young Christians’ Weekend, Laney REALLY wanted to ride the lady bug ride in the World’s Fair section, but she wasn’t tall enough because you have to be 36 inches to ride that ride.  So we told her we would SEE if she was big enough now, but I totally expected another breakdown.  Well, this time… SHE WAS EXACTLY 36 INCHES!  And I mean exactly… I had to hold her feet against the wall, and Josh had to hold her head up straight, but the guy in the official measuring station said she made it!  The cool thing was that she got a bracelet there, so she didn’t have to be measured for each ride.  AND, being 36 inches meant she could ride pretty much any ride in the park, except the big roller coasters!!  So, we spent the rest of the time pretty much just riding rides… so exciting!! :)

Of course, we rode the lady bugs first!  She just kept saying “Mommy & Daddy can’t ride the lady bug ride.  Only me.” because that ride is too small for adults.

Next up, the TEACUPS!  (We decided not to actually spin them, because we thought that might be a little much).  She tried spinning, but mostly just held onto the circle!

Daddy and Laney…

 

A bad family shot… but right after we took this one the guy said we had to put the camera away on the ride, so we couldn’t take another one!

Then, Daddy and Laney rode the elephants, one of the rides she melted down about at YCW.

 

And Mommy & Laney rode the pirate ships… which Mommy NEVER needs to ride again!  They went really fast, and it was hard to stay upright.  Laney seemed to like them, though… particularly since we were in a pink boat!

The last ride Laney rode was the newest one.  It’s a squirt gun fight, with guns on the boats and also on the shore.  I imagine it is pretty fun, but it was getting late by this point, not nearly as warm, and Laney couldn’t actually operate the gun.  So this was not a favorite… but maybe next time!

Next time we are DEFINITELY taking her to ride the Lost River.  I think she will like that one, if she has us sitting with her, convincing her it’s fun, not scary (it’s all about attitude).  Heck, if she could handle the American Plunge she can handle the Lost River! :)

After the water fight ride, we just did a little more shopping (candy store, anyone?!) and bought some awesome BBQ sauce (it was the Bluegrass & BBQ festival).  It’s by a company called Ole Ray’s, which is actually based in St. Augustine, FL (small world, huh?).  Anyway, we got the Apple Cinnamon, and it is spectacular!  Going to have to order more online when this bottle is gone!

By this time we were totally exhausted, so we headed for home and some Papa Murphy’s pizza.  What a great day!  I cannot believe our little girl is big enough to ride the rides!  This starts a whole new era for us in SDC trips! :)

Coming up Sunday… the rest of the weekend, including a trip to the Springfield Zoo & Grandma De & Grandpa Don’s house!!  What a weekend…