Worlds of Fun

Well, to continue the absolute madness that has been our lives for this fall, we took the youth group to Worlds of Fun this past weekend! They won the trip by selling $1000 in raffle tickets for the Fish Fry, so it was totally a for-fun event. And we did have fun... I hadn't been to Worlds of Fun in a long time, probably close to 10 years. The very sad news I got when we got there, was that the Orient Express had closed!! That was the very first roller coaster I ever rode, and it was on a youth trip! I was very sad about that. But I did get to ride the Patriot, which was one of those rides where your feet just hang loose, like the Batman ride at Six Flags. It was really fun, I love those rides! I only rode that and the Mamba, which is that really HUUUUGE roller coaster, because it's pretty hard to ride many rides with a one year old tagging along! Anyway, it was a pretty easy day, because we only stayed until 7:00. During October, Worlds of Fun does a Fright Fest thing, where they make it really spooky and scary at 7, so that was a darn good excuse to head out early! Anyway, I didn't take many pictures, because I was trying to corral Elena most of the day, but here are a few! :)

In a bad move by Mommy, Laney wore khaki's and her camo jacket... so she got called a boy the WHOLE day! :) Not sure the dog on her head helped, but it was awful cute. Sam actually won that and gave it to her. The big pink dog was Andrea's, and she was nice enough to let Elena borrow it... and didn't even mind when Elena slimed its nose! :)

The carousel isn't just for little girls! Ruth, Jordyn, and Heather rode, too!

Mommy & Laney on the carousel. She was not convinced that she liked it. Kind of like the frogs the weekend before, it took a lot of convincing!
Random... but Elena kept sticking the head of this turtle in her head... never mind that it's a bath toy, she was loving it! :)

In other news, Elena had her first bout with spaghetti at home, and it was definitely an event that merited breaking out the camera!! Not much to be said about these pictures, just enjoy them! :)

WOW... onery, much???

Life with a one year old continues to be really interesting. We've developed some new fun tricks, like barking when someone asks what a dog says, and she's really close to using Mama and Dada purposefully. She's got more, please, and all done down pat in the sign language department. But, there have been some not-so-fun tricks, too... like pinching, which she got from her mommy, unfortunately. It seems like it is a frustration thing, when she doesn't get what she wants or she's having trouble letting us know what she wants, she'll just grab whatever's close (arm, face, chest, whatever) and pinch with her whole hand. Sometimes, if you tell her no, she'll grab herself- hair, ear, hands, even face- and pinch herself. It's pretty frustrating for everyone, but we're working on it. The last couple of days she has been very, very fussy. We're guessing it's teething, but it sure isn't much fun!

But nothing beats a Sunday afternoon nap with everybody in the same bed!! Last weekend, we took a good, long one, and Laney woke up with some SERIOUS hair... check out the spike!! :)

This picture is just for Aunt Jane and Jess! Does this look familiar?? Laney kept walking around doing that (honestly, her ear probably did hurt) and it was cracking Ruth and I up. And it made me think of Florida... and Disneyworld... and ol' Jess with the swimmer's ear... :)