We're on our way home now after a couple of loooong days at Disney.

Tuesday we got up early (around 6), had breakfast, and were at Animal Kingdom by 8:30. We did Expedition Everest (their big coaster) and the Safari (very cool) first, then wandered around looking at stuff.

We saw all kinds of animals on the safari - lions, elephants, giraffes, warthogs, you name it.

We packed some pb&j's for lunch and only spent money on parking and a present for our neighbors who were feeding Dash. Aud took a short nap in the afternoon in the stroller, thank goodness, and we probably stayed until 6:30 or 7:00. The big hits of the day were two shows - Festival of the Lion King and Finding Nemo. Although we had to wait a while for both, they were totally worth it!

Yesterday we spent 14 crazy hours at Magic Kingdom. The number of people there was insane! Hopefully that'll help me appreciate it more next time we go! We rode pretty much everything we wanted (with the assistance of the Fast Pass, a wonderful invention) except the Pirates of theCaribbean, which was closed for technical reasons every time we were close.

Conner really enjoyed Space Mountain and wanted to go on it twice; Audrey says her favorite was Nemo (from the AK) but enjoyed seeing the pretty purple castle, too.

So now we're heading north. The plan is to stop somewhere tonight that has a pool, ring in the new year quietly, and finish the trip tomorrow.

We had a super long day in the car yesterday (from 8:20 to 4:45) but the kids did great and we made it to Kissimmee without any problems. Once we checked into our hotel and wandered around a little bit, we went to Outback for dinner (courtesy of Eric's work's Christmas present). One couple actually stopped by our table on their way out to tell us what well-behaved kids we had - that was definitely nice to hear! After a quick stop at Target to get some twizzlers, bread, and pop, we headed back to the hotel for bed. Audre had a lot of trouble getting to sleep, but Conner went pretty easily.

Today after breakfast at the hotel we drove over to Downtown Disney, a collection of restaurants and shops. We had a great time wandering around! We even rode a water taxi across the lake...

The captain gave each of the kids a pirate bandana (Audrey's also had pink hearts on it).

Now the task is to figure out the best way to get to Magic Kingdom tomorrow... or is there a best way?!

We left our house yesterday morning around 1:45 (yes, that's a.m.!) to head out on our big adventure. The kids and I slept for a while, woke up for a little bit, then went back to sleep some more. Aside from getting stopped south of Louisville by an accident, i was smooth sailing. Around 8:00 (central time) we stopped for breakfast just north of Birmingham, Alabama at a Shoney's. We made it to Butch and Margie Hogue's around 11:00.

Three families of Eric's cousins came over to visit for the day. Christy (with her husband Philip, daughter Faith, 6, and son Mason, 2) just live around the corner. Joey (with husband David and daughters Caroline and Katherine, 4th and 7th grades) live about an hour away. Patti (daughter of Eric's Aunt Mary) and her husband Wayne drove in all the way from Atlanta. It was nice yo see everyone after so long and we had a nice afternoon/evening to visit.

Conner's first words this morning were "Where's my DS?". There were several floating around yesterday as all the kids played. I'm glad he could join in!

We're on our way now to Levi's 3rd birthday party. I can't believe he and Aud will soon both be 3! Crazy.

Conner's conference at school went well; his teacher started a new red/yellow/green behavior system that seems to be working well for him. He's srayed green every day except one (someone was outside mowing and he just had to go to the window to watch!). She said that she'd forgotten about his previous behavior because he'd been so good lately. Mrs. Hale sent home a set of 20 or so sight-word cards for us to practice with. Some they'd done in class, some they haven't gotten to yet. We've been practicing every day and now he knows them all! I took him to the library yesterday so we could pick out some books for him to practice reading... he's really doing a great job!

Sept 09

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Tonight's the big night - Trick or Treating! We're going with our friends the Earleys (who we went with last year) over in their neighborhood. Both kids are going to dress up as pirates, which should be pretty cute. That is, as long as Audrey's allowed to go. She's made her nice clean room into a disaster area in the last hour while she was supposed to be napping. Right now she's lying on her bed singing Happy Birthday to herself.

Things have finally calmed down some with our activities. Soccer and swim lessons are now over and all we have during the week (aside from our Thursday group) are karate lessons right after school on Thursdays until 4:15. Conner wanted to go, but when I've gotten there to pick him up all I see is him goofing around with the boys he's next to. I told him that if he wants to continue karate after this 4-week session is over then he has to start listening to the instructors and stop messing with everyone. We'll see how that goes!

He brought home his first kindergarten interim report yesterday. He got satisfactory marks in all of his subjects (language, mathematics, science, social studies) but "Other" was checked for needs help to progress and she'd made a note next to it: Classroom Behavior. These were her remarks at the bottom of the page:

"Conner is a bright and happy little boy. He knows all but 2 letter sounds in the alphabet - a most impressive accomplishment. He knows all of the sight words we have worked on and is beginning to put together sounds to read words. Conner's math skills are on target. Conner needs to work on sitting nicely at meeting and keeping his hands to himself. I am proud of Conner's efforts."

At least he's consistant! A box at the bottom of the page was marked: "A conference is requested by the teacher." I'd already scheduled for a conference (for Monday the 9th) but now I'm wondering what she's going to say! I told Conner last night that I was going to ask Mrs. Hale to put him on the colored squares when he's misbehaving (which is her way of punishing)... he said he's never been there before. (It seems as though he hasn't gotten in trouble since that first week in music class, at least according to him!)

Audrey's still goofy... I was trying to brush her hair the other morning when she was eating her cereal before school and she told me, "Leave me alone! I'm trying to eat!" Wow.

I went to see the show Rent Thursday night with some friends; Eric called as we were on our way and told me that he'd just found Audrey. He said he'd been calling and looking all over the house and couldn't find her anywhere. She finally came walking in the front door carrying her pants and panties and told him that she'd "peed down the hill" outside. She'd seen Conner doing it when we got home from school and thought she'd give it a try!

To finish up, here's a video of Conner swimming at his last lesson:

Friday mornings are a nice "break" for me. Usually Eric is home so I don't have to get the kids up, fed, and ready to head out the door at 7:30. I sleep in half an hour later than my normal 6:00 wake-up, get ready for school, then have a chance to sit and read the paper while I eat my cereal before leaving for school. It definitely makes for a nicer end of the week!

Sometimes the kids wake up before I leave, sometimes they're still snoozing. Today Conner and Audrey both came downstairs as I was sitting at the kitchen table. Aud had panties and jeans on and was carrying her (Dora) t-shirt; Conner was still in his pj's. I guess she'd woken up, took off her pj's and diaper, and gotten her panties on. Conner said he'd helped her button her jeans (but apparently she put those on by herself, too!). Says Conner, "I'm so proud of her!" Very cute.

A whole month since my last post?! I'm ashamed of myself. If it helps, though, this is a picture of our calendar from September... we definitely haven't just been sitting around!


Conner's really been enjoying school, though it takes some heavy questioning to figure out what he does all day! I've found that I have to be pretty specific with my questions and he has to be in the right mood to answer. He's started bringing home homework on Mondays that he has all week to do; Monday has typically been the only night we don't have anything, so we've gotten into a pretty good habit of doing it then.








Audrey's definitely a terrible two - she has a mind of her own and no matter how many threats or spanks she gets on her bottom, she continues to do her own thing! I guess it's good that she has some independence, but I wish she would listen better! Her most recent frustrating activity has been at bedtime. Both kids go upstairs around 8:00 to get ready for bed; lately when I've gone up to go to bed at 10:00 or later she's still awake! Last night I laid down with her, but it was probably around 11:00 before she fell asleep. It was a difficult job waking her (and Conner, for that matter!) this morning.


We had a busy weekend, especially Saturday! Conner had a soccer game at 10 (they won 2-0) then went to a friend's birthday party at 1:00. It was his first party for a school friend, which was awesome for Conner but a little boring for Mommy! After we got home found Aud sleeping on the floor in the family room (see the above picture); she woke up just about as soon as we walked in the door! After Eric did a little running around we all jumped in the car and headed to the Brown County Fair (and you have to say that with a country drawl). There were a few animals (which freaked Audrey out - she likes the idea of animals but doesn't want to get too close!) and some rides. After enjoying an elephant ear (yum!) we went over to watch the tractor pull. Conner thought it was really cool (but loud). We didn't leave the fair until after 10 and got home around 11 - Conner was sacked out in his seat in the back, but I'm sure you can imagine who was wide awake when we got there... and stayed up for a little while even after that!





We went for lunch Sunday after church to a new diner in Amelia - it just opened up. It's modeled after a 50s-style diner and is very cute!

I think I've discovered the secret to getting Audrey to sleep easily at night:
1. Shorten her nap during the day (Eric woke her up yesterday because he had an appointment to get to).
2. Go to Chuck E. Cheese's for dinner.
3. Come home for ice cream and to play with her friend Ashley.
4. Stay up until 9:00.
5. Wear panties to bed.

I just desperately need to figure out which of the five things listed above was the clincher! She went to bed last night without a fuss... no crying... straight to sleep. It was amazing. She woke up happy and dry (yay!) around 7:45 today.

If it's the short nap that did it, then I'm definitely golden for tonight! She's currently sleeping on the couch (Conner's on the loveseat sacked out). We just got home a little bit ago from King's Island, where we spent the day with our friends Brian, Ashley, and Sarah. It was quite a looong day (7 hours at the park!) that included rides, water, pizza, and ice cream. Boy, are we tuckered out! It's nice to think about having that extra day off on Monday for Labor Day - I think we'll need it!

Conner's still having fun at school... he came home yesterday and said, "Mom, we did the coolest thing today!" I asked him weather it was in his music class or in his regular class. He said, "Neither! We got to go outside two times!" It turns out for some reason they got an extra recess outside - he loved it! I'm pretty sure that we had two recesses in elementary school - it's sad that they don't get that even as kindergarteners!

Audrey's in some sort of bad rut right now that we can't seem to shake - and a lot of seems to stem from the night a couple of weeks ago when I took away her paci (bad Mommy!). It's been really hard for her to get to sleep at night (sometimes taking up to 2 hours) - she doesn't cry for her paci, but she's definitely not been able to calm herself down. She's also been waking up a little early - today was 5:45! Luckily after a quick trip to the potty she went back to sleep and I had to wake her up a little after 7.

Aud's also had some trouble listening - but that could definitely be a two-year-old thing! Every time I ask her what she needs to do, she answers, "listen!" but then proceeds to do her own thing. Right now she's working on finishing up her dinner - it's been over an hour since she started and she's been all over the house (including her bedroom for a quick stint on her own!).

I really think a lot of this is because she's tired - she's definitely not getting her regular amount of sleep at night, but we can't seem to catch up. It's just a big ugly cycle.

One thing I do need to say is that her potty training is going amazingly. She's been dry for the past week or so at night and even longer during her nap. It's somewhat ironic seeing that Conner is often wet in the mornings - especially when he's super tired!

She's had some funny conversations on the phone - with herself! It's usually with "papa and weyla" and involves a lot of "yeah.... yeah..." She always tells the other side where she is (at Mommy's, or in the car) and what she's doing. Very entertaining!

Conner seems to be having a good time at school, though we don't hear much about it. He's come home with several cute crafts - today's was a drawing of a mouth and teeth with a paper toothbrush glued on top. He did a great job! (I actually kept asking him if he'd drawn it...) He must be feeling pretty comfortable at school because he got his name put on the board in music class on Friday; of course he couldn't remember what for! I'm sure it was for talking or goofing around with his buddies. He managed to stay off the board today.

His class has 15 kids in it, 5 of which are girls (poor Mrs. Hale!). The principal told us at the orientation meeting that this is the smallest kindergarten class they've had so far since he's been there... and each of the three classes has only 4 or 5 girls.

He's started soccer, too, and has a great time running around. I volunteered to be an assistant coach (might as well put that knowledge to some use!) and have been having fun watching him and the other kids (there are 8 on the team) learn how to play. Pictures are next Wednesday and games start the weekend after that (the 12th). Should be very interesting!

Today was the first day of school for both me and Conner. I think for some reason he was much more excited about his new school year than I was!

We stayed pretty busy right up until the end. It got to be, though, that the kids didn't want to go places like King's Island or Coney Island. I guess they were getting tired of our summer "routine"!

Here are some random pictures that finish out our break:

Aud napping on the couch Sunday afternoon. We went to the Creation Museum with some small group friends - she was definitely worn out!






Conner playing at Coney.










At KI a couple of weeks ago.









The boys had a camp-out in the backyard one night. Conner: "You made my dreams come true!" He loved it, obviously.







We went to the Children's Museum last week... the kids had a ball. Here they are checking out the turtles and the "fishies".







At the Creation Museum on Sunday.

The end-of-summer countdown has begun. :( I feel like I only have a few more days with the kids and am not looking forward to that ending!

Today I took Conner to King's Island with our friends Noah (turned 5 in June) and Cheryl. Audrey went to play at Shannan's (and seemed to have a great time with her daughter Ashley!). We started out our day at the water park, where the boys ran around and swam, and then we all went down some of the bigger slides. After stopping for lunch, we took the train over to the main park and rode some rides. Conner and I enjoyed the log ride (Noah didn't want to go) where we didn't get too wet (fortunate since we'd changed our clothes!). After doing a few more rides and enjoying some ice cream, we took the train back to the waterpark and headed home. The boys (and moms) were obviously tired, but Conner decided that he wanted to go to church for his last night of kiddie-venture (VBS for 3 -5 yr olds).

I think we'll end up at Coney for the next couple of days (we went yesterday, too), but I'd still like to find a day next week to take Conner to KI just the two of us - though I feel bad leaving Audrey again for the whole day! We'll see.

Aud took her nap today at Shannan's without her paci. I guess that means that I should try and get rid of it at home! She went to bed tonight with a paci that she doesn't like that much (and never asked for the others)... maybe I can ease her out of them?

We got a letter from Conner's school about what's going to happen in the next couple of weeks. He goes next Friday morning (on the bus) for screenings and doesn't have school on Monday (the 24th), then we'll go Monday night to an Open House to find out who his teacher is and see the classroom. Tuesday's the big first day! I think he'll really enjoy it; I'm just not looking forward to packing a lunch for him almost daily!

I set my alarm this morning (for 8:30 :) ) and ended up taking the kids up to King's Island. We never actually went to that park itself, but went to Boomerang Bay, the water park that's attached. I figured that if it ended up not being hot/nice enough to go swimming then we could just head over to the other side and ride some rides.

Luckily, it ended up being a beautiful day (finally!). We were there for about 2 hours and hit most of the pools. Audrey actually did a bunch of different slides (which she's resisted the past couple of times we've been there) and had a ball. It was a great morning!

We didn't get our picture taken today, but this is the picture from the last time we went (at the end of July).It's the cheesy one that they take as you walk in the park. I never buy them, but now that they have them available online I save my ticket and get a copy of it from the website (using a cool "snipping tool" that I have on my computer).

The weather's been pretty stinky lately, so we haven't done a lot... not even Coney! The kids went up to the cottage last weekend with Mom & Dad (though they came home earlier on Sunday than they'd planned because of the rain). I have to admit that it was pretty nice to be childless for a few days! Eric and I actually had to set an alarm to get up in time for church on Sunday.

The nicest day this week, Monday, we didn't get a chance to really do anything either. I drove up to Jeffersonville and met Mom with the kids for lunch and didn't leave until about 1:30. I'd been hoping to stop at King's Island on the way home for a bit, but both kids were sleeping pretty good when we drove by. I figured that I shouldn't waste the moment.

Yesterday it rained. All day. We met a friend for lunch at 12:30 then came home so Aud could nap.

Today didn't start out too promising. It was gray and looked like it would rain but never did. It probably would've been a great day to go to the zoo or King's Island, but I was supposed to have a computer thing at 10:00 for a class that I took (although there were issues with the website and it never happened). We just hung out here, watched Pinocchio and Peter Pan (picked them up yesterday at the library), I did some cleaning in preparation for our friends coming over tomorrow for group, and Audrey slept all afternoon. I've let her wear panties for her nap 3 times... she's been dry once. If she's wearing a pull-up or diaper, though, chances are it'll be dry. I guess she just wants her sheets washed! Today turned out to be a 3.5 hour nap, so I knew that chances were slim that she'd make it through. And I was right!

Eric stopped by quickly to take a shower, then took off again to get his hair cut and go to Kroger's. The kids were driving me crazy (especially Audrey... I think Conner's selective hearing has been passed on!), so after dinner we went for a nice long walk up to see the cows. It was pretty cool - there were a bunch out eating, so the three of us stood by the fence for a bit to watch them. Two of the calves actually came over close to us (probably within 5 feet) and just started staring. It was neat! Something startled them, though, and they took off without getting any closer.

On the walk home, Audrey was saying that the cows were eating. I asked her what they were eating, and she said, "Grass." Then I asked her if she liked to eat grass - I got a resounding "No!" When I asked her what she likes to eat, she told me "Dinner."

So it's July 23rd. Summer is nearing an end (once we hit August I may as well be in school!), vacation is over, and Audrey is officially 2 1/2. What have we been doing to make the last 6 weeks go so quickly?!

We've kept pretty busy. The kids and I just got home from a trip to the Cincinnati Zoo with our friends Amber, Brendan (3), and Emery (4 mos.). Both are sleeping right now! Actually, I take that back - I don't think Audrey's sleeping, but she's upstairs in her room and is supposed to be taking a nap! I can hear her on the monitor. Conner's sacked out on the couch - I usually just leave him in the car when he falls asleep in there, but I took pity on him today and brought him in. These are some pictures from our last trip to the zoo with Amber, Brendan, and Emery (on the 30th of June).

The weather's been crazy this summer! Today's high was supposed to be in the 70s... I'm not sure it reached the 70s yesterday and rained all day. I'm afraid that this cool weather means the hot weather is waiting until we go back to school.

We've had some big moments in the past few weeks...
1. Conner is officially training wheel-less on his bike! He'd made some comments about wanting them off, so a couple of weeks ago (it was the 7th, I think) I took them off and away he went! He had no problems at all! It was crazy.

2. Audrey is officially pull-up-less! She's been wearing panties during the day with only one problem (and that was at a restaurant in Myrtle Beach, which was lovely). She's still doing diapers during naptime and bedtime, but often wakes up dry.

We went on our big vacation to Myrtle Beach last week and had a great time. I think Aud's going to grow up and be a beach bum - she absolutely loved the sand and the ocean! Conner seemed to prefer the pool, but that was because they had a lazy river that he could play in (and pester everyone around him). We didn't do too much activity-wise. Our mornings and afternoons were spent at the ocean/pool (with a break for lunch - then we left the little ones inside to nap). We went out to dinner several times all together (with Doug, Marge, Andy, Erica, Levi, and Ezra), but there was one night that Eric and I went by ourselves to dinner and a movie, too. The four of us also spent one evening putt-putting... I won't tell you who won (cough, cough).

I have lots and lots of pictures of our trip - I posted them to my shutterfly site (click here) if you'd like to check them out!

Off we go!

We've been keeping pretty busy lately - Coney Island, the Zoo, King's Island, a local waterpark, etc. (Doesn't it make you tired just to think about it?! That's the goal :) )

I'm actually going to take the kids to Coney here in a little bit. We normally go from 10 to 12:30 or so (and it's after 2:00 right now), but we're leaving in the middle of the night for our week-long vacation to Myrtle Beach. Eric and I thought it might help to have the kids be extra tired... maybe they'll sleep a little more in the car! Aud's taking her nap; we'll probably get ready to go after she wakes up.

The car's all packed. I wonder what we're going to forget?!

Our Journey

We loaded in the (newly cleaned up!) Jeep yesterday afternoon and took off for a ride! This is a map of where we traveled (approximately, of course... Eric tends to like back roads).

The stops:
1. From our house, we headed down towards the river. We stopped at U.S. Grant's birthplace in Point Pleasant (but they charged $ to go in, so we kept going).

2. Our next destination was the Chilo dam. Eric had been there Thursday night with a guy from work (they were fishing) and said we should go back. There was a (free) museum, a neat-looking playground for the kids (but it was too hot to go on, to Audrey's chagrin... "play! play!"), some docks down to the river, and a telescope so you could see boats/stuff on the Kentucky side of the river. We spent quite a bit of time in the museum - there were some surprisingly interesting things to read/interact with/see. A girl working in the museum told us about a blueberry festival across the river, so our next stop was. . .

3. Augusta, Kentucky. We drove a bit down 52 to get to the Augusta Ferry. Conner was certain he'd never been on a ferry before (I guess he doesn't remember going to Kelley's Island/Put-in-Bay when we was 6 months old!) and loved it. We didn't find the festival, so we went to the Augusta Pub (and played a little bit of indoor cornhole!) for dinner.

4. Because it cost $5 to ride the ferry, we decided to work our way back across the river a different way. We drove down Rt 8 until we got to Maysville, KY and crossed a pretty neat new bridge.

5. Back on 52, we went west (north?) until we came back to Chilo. (By this time the kids were getting tired - Conner'd conked out earlier and Audrey was enjoying her paci but wanting her blankie.) We stopped at the Chilo Dairy Bar, where Conner woke up for a messy messy ice cream cone.
6. Home! Approximately 5 hours after we left and about 90 miles, we made it. It was a fun trip and definitely bedtime when we got here.

So busy...

We've kept ourselves pretty busy for the past few days! Here's a quick (?) recap.

Friday: Got up early to go garage sale-ing with some friends. I found some good buys including a kids' picnic table (for the back deck), snow boots for me, jeans for Conner, and lots of clothes for Aud. Then we all headed to Chick-Fil-A for lunch and to play. After Eric got home from work we went to Kings Island for the evening - got there a little before 7 and stayed for the fireworks at 10. The kids were obviously very tired, but they did great! Both Conner and Audrey were tall enough to ride a few new rides, which was very exciting. This is a little video of them (mostly her) on the bumper cars:

Saturday: Conner went to Woodland Lakes Christian Camp for the day (from 9 - 4) and had a ball. He couldn't remember much of what they'd done for the day, so thank goodness they sent a CD of pictures home with him! It looks like the kids had a ton of fun!

Sunday: Very low key. After church we came home and hung out for the rest of the day. I met some friends at a local coffee place for book club ( this month we read Those Who Save Us, by Jenna Blum).

Monday: I took the kids to Coney Island to play in the morning. We normally get there around 10 (when they open) and leave between 12:30 and 1:00 so we can get home for Audrey's nap. After a quiet afternoon the kids and I headed up to Fouss' so they could hang out while I had a softball double-header. We ended up playing from 6:15 to 9:15 - it was a long evening! (And came out of it with 2 ties!)

Tuesday: Conner's behavior wasn't great Monday evening when I went to pick them up, so I told him that we weren't going to do anything "fun" on Tuesday. We went up to the library to return some videos, then I took the kids to McDonald's for lunch and to play (so, ok, I went back on what I told Conner, but they'd both been really good!). Conner loves the climbing and sliding; Audrey does too, but she has trouble with the climbing part of it. Fortunately, her big brother was willing to help (for a while, anyway... then it was all Mommy!).

Wednesday (today): The weather was supposed to be a bit iffy (but of course it looks beautiful now!) so I wasn't too sure about going swimming. We ended up meeting our friends Amber and Brendan (who's 3) at a playground by Lunken Airport called "The Land of Make Believe". We'd never been there before, but I'd heard good things about it and was really impressed with what they had! There were several different jungle gyms and slides, swings, a little shelter, and a little sandy area. The kids had a ball and it was a great way to spend our morning!

Miscellaneous notes:
1. I'm sorry that I ever taught Audrey the word "up". She loves to be carried around, and it seems that all I hear these days is "Up! Up!"

2. We're on day 2 of her wearing panties and all is going well! I actually don't worry about it at all when we're out - it's when we're home that she has the most trouble. She did great at the library and McDonald's yesterday and the playground today. Hopefully we've turned a corner!

3. The novelty of sleeping in the big girl bed has worn off. Last night she was not crazy about going to bed and very very soon was coming down the steps. Today's nap seems to be going ok, though she got up early (7:15) this morning and was climbing up in bed with me!

4. Aud's figured out that she can open the fridge. We've never gone through so many apples so quickly!

5. Conner's last 2 t-ball games are tonight and tomorrow. It'll be nice to be done, but I'm sure he'll miss it (at least the playing in the dirt part of it!). He's signed up for fall soccer, which is supposed to start in August. I'm sure that will be a nice cool activity.. not!

Summer Part 2 - The Zoo

It was another yucky gray day this morning, but it wasn't raining when I got up. I checked the radar online and saw that though it looked kind of bad, the chances for rain in the morning were pretty small. I decided that it might be a good day for the zoo!

We left the house about 9:15 and got there a little before 10:00. The parking lot wasn't crowded at all, though there were a bunch of kids (seemingly on a field trip) waiting to get in. Conner, Aud, and I all had hats and were ready to be rained on if necessary, but all we encountered were a few sprinkles. It didn't look pretty, but it definitely was a good day to walk around! There were very few people there and it wasn't hot at all (which was wonderful).





Audrey hasn't been to the zoo for a while so I thought she'd be pretty excited to go see the animals. She seemed interested in what we saw, but she was very very quiet - maybe she was tired? Maybe overwhelmed? I don't know. I pretty much just let Conner dictate what we were going to see and we followed. She really enjoyed the Reptile House (lovely) - had to peek in all of the windows.

We also had a nice ride on the train (you can see how few people were on with us!) after we figured out the seating situation. The kids wanted to sit together, but after we got started moving they had trouble sharing the space. I think the picture to the left is cute, but the best this is that right after I took it, Conner was whining that he couldn't see and Audrey was elbowing him to get him out of our space. She ended up sitting with me for the remainder of the trip.

We also the carousel. Aud was definitely not crazy about that one! I had to hold her on, then she calmed down... until it started moving. We'd gone about a quarter turn when she first said "All done" and wanted off.

After a quick trip through the McDonald's drive thru we headed home - somehow she stayed awake the whole time and is now sleeping peacefully in her new big girl bed!

Summer Part 1 - The New Bed

It was a pretty nasty rainy day yesterday, so Eric ended up coming home around 10 AM and we ran out to do some errands. Our first stop was at Schloemer's Furniture, which is a local store that we've gotten several different things at over the years (Conner's bed, our dining room table, coffee & end tables. . .). We were looking for two things - a twin-sized mattress for Audrey and a new kitchen table (we like the one here with the bench). Their inventory looked pretty low, but they did have a few pillow-top twin mattresses, so we ended up getting one. After several other stops, we made it home so Audrey (and Daddy) could take naps. Conner and I took a trip up to Walmart to get her some (Tinkerbell) sheets, mattress pad, and bed rail. Since the only rail they had was $30, I talked him into (ok, I bribed him with some M&M's!) going with me to a nearby secondhand store. She had 2 bedrails for $10.50 each.

When we got home from our trip, Eric went back up to Schloemer's to pick up the mattress in the truck. As soon as he got home we all headed upstairs to get the bed put together! I got a couple last pictures of the kids in the crib, then we got it put up and started getting the bed put together. Audrey was pretty excited - I just hoped that it would last long enough for her to fall asleep in it at night!




It took a bit to get everything together, so after we got the room set up and came downstairs for a few minutes to relax, it was close to 9:00 before the kids made it to bed. Audrey did really well - we kept telling her that she was to stay in bed until I came to get her in the morning (I'm not sure that she can climb in it by herself, which may help). When I went up to bed and checked on her, she was lying with her head centered perfectly on her pillow under the sheet.

And, yes, she stayed in bed until a little after 8, when I heard her talking and went to get her! It was a great first night.