Thursday, October 30, 2008

Fall Activities

Hard to believe that fall and all it's glory are quickly fading away (as evident by those gross, make me curl up and cry, snow flurries a few days ago.) Some brightly colored leaves still linger (not as bright as seasons past), but are here nonetheless. I just wanted to share some our events over the last several weeks....commonplace during this beautiful season, but still brand new to Luke :)


PUMPKIN PATCH
The first set of pictures are from Kingsway Pumpkin Patch in the Hartville area. David and I highly recommend it for taking your young ones to. They have everything from the corn mazes, to toddler train rides, petting zoo, some fair food, play areas, and hay rides that can take you out into the pumpkin patch to pick out your own personal pumpkin (or just choose one of the various sizes that have been pre picked). We went on a Sunday afternoon and it was SUPER crowded, and it IS slightly more expensive during this time as well. If you are fortunate enough to make it on a week day, the visitors are more sparse and it is cheaper. Luke had a great time!

Just arrived.





Not so thrilled about having his picture taken inside the pumpkin.



Again, not so thrilled.




My big boy climbing the ladder to the slide all by himself. Poor little thing though, once he got to the top there were a bunch of kids bigger than him going down the slide really fast. He tried to squeeze in line, but didn't know what to do cause they'd all just go in frong of him. I felt so bad! I climbed up and helped him slide to daddy.




Kissing the sheep




Feeding the sheep some grass





Shocking....he's kissing the goat



"Hmmm....how big are your ears?"




Not so thrilled about sitting among the "bumpboons" (decoded from Luke's language meaning pumpkins! :)




Pointing to the deer in daddy's picture




What?




The kid LOVES to put my headphones on and have me turn music on my Zune. He dances around and ocassionally will hold out an earphone for me to listen with him.




Quite an attractive face I might say.....if you're trying to mate with a pig maybe.





Being a goofball.



More goofyness!



OK, NOT to say that Luke hasn't had his fair share of mishaps, messmaking, accident happening incidences under my watchful eye, but this one was a DOOZY, (and under daddy's not so watchful eye.) I received a phone call at work and was told by Luke's daddy that he had gotten into a large container of PETROLEUM JELLY! He proceeded to tell me that not only was it ALL OVER Luke, but in his room, in OUR room on the TV, the walls, etc. The picture below David took when initally put him in the bathtub and the the water rolled off of him like water on a ducks back! Guess who was the one to clean it all up when they got home from work at 8:30pm after working 13 hours!?? C'mon, take a guess!





Sad little boy. See the one lonely tear? Got in trouble for doing something...don't remember what now.





Uh oh, more crying. Holding the new hammer daddy bought him. ( I know it's "only" 12 oz AND the ends are rounded but when did it become a good idea to buy a 21 month old a hammer???)


At the Camp
I was able to take Luke down for a day to daddy's hunting camp so he could experience the great outdoors and watch daddy practice shooting his compound bow. We had a nice cook out lunch with hamburgers and hotdogs, some chili, and other goodies before we did some more riding and went on our "hike". Luke napped while daddy and grandpa went out for the evening hunt. When he woke up it started raining so we hung out on the porch and used the swing.


He LOVES getting on the 4 wheelers!




Playing in the pine trees. The needles along the bottoms are gone from the hungry deer!!





Using daddy's grunter to attract those does!





Swing time :)





Practice makes perfect.





Since he wasn't allowed to shoot the bow, Luke was satisfied with climbing on the trailer!





Goin for a ride!!




I was riding beside them on the back of grandpa's 4 wheeler. As we pulled up beside them, Luke looked over and smiled. It's blurry from all the movement, yet still so cute.





This reminded me what a big boy Luke is getting to be already. And he's not even 2! Where does the time go?





Doo, duh doo......bear, water, and twig in hand!





Not the best "fall" picture or anything, but the little road we hiked down.





Luke took a detour off the road and started climbing up a 7 foot 75 degree embakement! He made it about 1/2 way up and then we gave him a little boost!





Made it to the top. Quite the little adventure seeker!




Look what I found! (and look at your nasty sticky hands afterward!)




Shoulder ride back to camp :)




Daddy's turn. All of a sudden Luke turned and stole grandpa's hat right off his head!

Grandma bought Luke the deluxe Mr. Potato Head since he loved playing with our old one when I was a kid.....it was missing a few pieces! Luke doesn't care if Mr. Potato has an arm coming out of his nose, or ears in his mouth. It's fun anyhow!
Trick or Treat!
Trick or Treat in our area was Sunday the 26th from 3-5. Whatever happened to night time treating? Anyhow, Luke only got in a 10 minute nap on the way home from church and was a bit grumpy when we arrived at G and G Estes'. After 20+ minutes of trying to get his dinosaur costume on with no success, we thought there would be no trick or treating. Low and behold grandpa and daddy distracted him somehow as they slid his arms and legs in. Once it was on, he was good to go! He even went out walking around in his socks.....BAD PARENTS! We weren't going to push our luck....it was warm, no harm done! He WOULD NOT wear his had part though. Went to a few houses in the neighborhood and then headed over to G and G Kandels to finish off the treating.
Happy Dino!

Hmmm grandma, what's in here?



My very first house!




Strollin down the street.

Walking up to Grandma Kandel's house.




Finally got him to put on his hat and the feet things over his shoes! I just wanted to eat him up! :) Here we are at Beck Beck's house.



Hiding in Beck Beck's bushes!


He even kept his costume on until I had to change a poopy diaper. Luke is obsessed with tickling feet. So he was tickling Grandpa as well as trying to put potato head's glasses on them.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Sweet Boy....ha!

Such a sweet little boy!!
Build your own Blingee

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Vacation, More Vacation, and a Little Bit of Luke

WARNING : Those who find A LOT, I mean A TON of pictures "annoying", "excessive", "boring", or a "nuisance", this is NOT the place for you! I will give a brief synopsis of David and I's wonderful vacation along with the pictures that follow. Although you will view many of the things we did, it will not be the same as being there.....thank goodnes cause we wouldn't have WANTED you there! Unlike all of my previous posts, Luke is only part of the final few photos. Therefore if you don't give a crap about our vacation, scroll down to the end! (As usual, the description of the photos are BELOW the photo)



The happy couple at the airport after having awoken at 3:30 am! :) CHEESE!



Not creepy at all.....flying out on UNITED on September 11! Waiting at Chicago's O'Hare airport.



Get this....the white limo picked JUST David and I up from the airport to take us to our rental car place! SWEET!



Just cause I felt like lounging in a limo that we ALL TO OURSELVES!! Too bad the car rental place was only a few minutes away :(



Still in the limo....probably the first and last time!



These were just some of the cool halogen lights over our heads as we "walked" in O'Hare. Gotta love those moving platforms!


Our hotel we stayed at for 2 nights before the cruise. A view from out by the pool.


Our bedroom area.....




The bathroom.......




The sitting room.....with another TV and a microwave and mini fridge. The balcony was right off this room.




We were on the 9th floor. This was a view straight down off the balcony.



To the right.......off the balcony of course.



For some reason I really like this picture. I think it's the sun's shadows. You can see that when the tide is in especially, there is very little "beach" space.





Sitting in the restaurant for breakfast and this was our view out the door.





A lazy river....how cool is that!



Being lazy on the river!



Trying out the underwater feature on the camera. Not fair...David can open his. Darn him and his NO CONTACTS!



More underwater.....dragging my "hooha's" along the vent.....NICE! Again, the advantage to SEEING under water.



LOVE THIS! I wanna go back. The zero entry pool with the ocean right behind!



Me in the water with David looking out at the ocean.



Our "Embarkation" (for those who have not cruised...."getting on the ship") picture :)




Miami from the ship.....


more Miami from the ship........



Our cozy little interior room! That is a luggage mat on the bed and then David ordered me a "Bon Voyage" basket full of slippers, gel and lotion, massage toy etc. THEN he had a night shirt delivered as well as a 4 pack of drink coupons! What a thoughtful guy! All I did was order some chocolate covered strawberries for him....oh well :)



The itty bitty bathroom where the toilet tries to eat you alive and there is nowhere to shave your stinking legs!



A game of cornhole in the lobby.



Sunbathers on board



Breakfast!! What a view!




This is the "Venetian Palace" where they played Bingo all the time and we watched the evening shows.



The elevators by our room....did I mention we were on the Lido deck (which is where they have ALL the food!!) MMmmm.



Spent a little bit of time in the game room, racing cars, and motorcycles, etc



My meanest racing face...yeah right! I still lost :(






Didn't see many sunsets....just the last little bit of one.






Me and my handsome hubby on the first formal night.



Of course I drug him through a few photo opportunities. He LOVED it! :)



Nothing says "Cruise" like TOWEL ANIMALS!!




A couple at our table....Amy and Dave. Spent a little bit of time together playing some Euchre. Amy didn't do too bad considering we taught her one night at 1 am!






COZUMEL

The next group of pictures are from the port of Cozumel. Most of them are actually from our excursion that we actually did on the mainland by Playa Del Carmen. We took a 30 minute ferry ride over.




Our pictures as we step off the boat onto Mexican soil!


On the Ferry we took across to the mainland.



Mariachi band in the outdoor mall.



From the second level of the mall



Same as above




We booked an excursion called "Caverns by Jeep" - We took a ratty old Jeep Wrangler (with a retired couple from Idaho) out to these Mayan caverns. Went underground where there were stalagmites and stalagtites and a clear spring river. Rented snorkel gear and underwater flashlight and got to swim around the cool cave. The water was clear all the way to the bottom (about 25 feet). From there we took the Jeeps to our own little private beach where we ate an authentic Mexican buffet and then got to swim in the beautiful water! Such a fun experience....



Our nice little Jeep....David was so excited he got to drive!


We had to wear hard hats cause there were some places you could crack your head on the rocks! Sexy huh?







Just a quick pic that David snapped. I thought the camera took a nice photo that closely. We were received our instructions on going into the caverns.






In the cavern where we swam. The only light we had was from where this plant was growing up through.




The plant :)





The cave....



Me touching a stalagtite under water




Underwater view of the "ites" :)



EVERYWHERE has a McD's!



Our little "huts" where we ate our buffet.



The BIG hut where they served the food and had other seating. Around the bar area where the food was, instead of regular seats or even bar stools, there were these really cool swings that you could sit on!



The water we swam in after filling our bellies! No one else around (other than our excursion group!) How cool is that?




The beaches in the Cozumel area are all pretty rocky, so when we encountered these spots, we would pick up whatever was under our feet......WITH our feet :)




The swan holding our "Captains Cocktail" invitation and "Past Cruisers" pins.










Grand Caymen


Grand Caymen is a beautiful place....one of the lesser destitute islands around! One I MAY consider actually visiting for a vacation. Again, we did not see very much of it, but some cool stuff. Here we swam with the stingrays at the Stingray Sandbar and then snorkeled about 5 minutes away at the "Coral Gardens". After our water adventures (and near sickness) we changed clothes near the port entrance and then went back out to do a little shopping.





Exiting the ship again





The ship had to "park" further out and we had to take a tender boat to shore.





David's funy face while shopping





Taking our boat out to the sandbar...getting a little nervous about actually swimming with the rays.




Successfully made it into the water.....As you can see, it was only about 3 1/2 ft deep. The water amazing of course. The weird thing is a couple hundred yards out we can see a significant change in the water color. We were told that at that point the depth goes from 4 feet to 6,000!! YIKES! That's over a freakin mile!




He's cute...even in snorkel gear!




One of our newly aquired friends!




Yes, I AM holding the stingray!




Coral Gardens - it was pretty good snorkeling, but I'm still waiting to go somewhere and see in person what I see in pictures with all the brightly colored coral and fish.



More Coral




No vacation is complete without a picture of Margaritaville!




Formal night number 2





Gotta love a man in a suit!!!!



Okay, don't laugh....only posting this picture because David made fun of it because it looked like I was "from the 80's" :(




Jamaica

Jamaica, Jamaica....not sure I'd want to stay there unless it was an all inclusive kinda deal. If you think they're pushy salesmen in Cozumel, go to Jamaica. They basically try to drag you by the arm to come and "look at just one thing". "Respect mon". We were excited to go here because of the excursion we chose. If any of you EVER go to Jamaica, you have to climb Dunn's River Falls! It is inside of a whole park area (which we didn't really get to see), but just even to climb the falls is like nothing you'll ever do again (probably). We went with a group of about 20 and climbed together along with our guide and a Jamaican cameraman. He had us doing chants, falling into the deeper water, and standing under smaller falls. They make a DVD (that we bought) and have it ready by the time you have to be back on the ship. Had to wear water shoes because of how slippery it was, but it was truly awesome. Over 600 feet tall. From there we went over to Dolphin Cove where we watched some captive dolphins swim around and some nurse sharks as well. Had some food and relaxed a little while on the beach. The clouds started to roll in and we called it a day a little bit early. Strolled through the nature area and then waited for the bus to take us back to port.


Our last port :(




The view out on the beach as we started climbing the falls. SOOO would've gone jet skiing if we had the time!



View after climbing up just a few minutes



"Ya mon" - As David pointed out, instead of the "ya mon" symbol, I was telling everyone to "rock on". Oops!



Dunn's River Falls



There were several different groups of people climbing at once, but plenty of room.




I could have sworn it was gonna go right up his nose!





Not quite as adventurous - my luck it WOULD have gone up my nose!





LOOK....more falls!!



YEAH.....our official pat on the back for successfully navigating our way up. I wanted to sneak back down and do it again!



Dolphin Cove





Flipper!!



Chillin in my beach chair after a mediocre hamburger and flat Mountain Dew.




They wouldn't let us go and climb on the rocks....party poopers!




Our home away from home (as seen from the beachchair that I was chillin on after a mediocre hamburger and flat Mountain Dew.)




The crazy men who got in with the sharks and then proceeded to flip them on their backs and pet their belly's. WHAT?





Polly want a cracker? Or two?




His name is Elvis......okie dokie.




They had a sign by a few webs telling you what kind of spider this was. Then I'm walking down the rest of the path and they are frickin EVERYWHERE! Beside me, above me, a scene out of "Arachniphobia"!




Back on board. The water amazed me that even as deep as it was, it was still so blue. Almost fake blue like you added some coloring. Gotta love the Caribbean!




These were our wonderful waiters! Our head waiter Charlie and his cohort in crime Haji (spelling?) Both were Philippino. They spent their days and nights serving people, yet had such pleasant attitudes.




The fun is over.....almost. This was our suite at the Hyatt Summerfield Suites. Really nice place! Recommend it to anyone visiting Miami. The only downfall is it's in the "financial" district of town. Surrounded by other nice hotels and some big company buildings. Not on the beach either :(



Time for some TV....saddly too we had to bury the red suitcase. (mine of course). I believe the cause of death was overpacking. As is typical for me, I packed everything but the kitchen sink and on the trip noticed that the fabric started tearing away from the seam....OOPS! Had to buy a new bag :( David is the official "packing inspector" for future trips.




Our cute little bedroom with the comforter that I wanted to take home.




Went to a ratty little mall that we hated with part of the day we had left. Just had to take a picture of the restaurant. A reminder of having to go home :(



I will NOT go into the awful details of trying to get home, but let's just say we had to spend the night in Chicago instead of being home to see our sweet little boy. We DID however get to see THIS sweet little boy. Our friends who THANKFULLY live in Chicago, took us refugees in for the night and we got to see their 6 week old cutie Caden. So there was definitely a plus to missing our flight!

We finally arrived home Monday evening the 22nd of Sept. and it was SOOOO WONDERFUL to see Luke!! After lots of hugs and kisses and playing, we just stayed the night at Dave and Sheree's.


This is how we found Luke sleeping when we were going to bed.




What does any 20 month old love to do....Play with tape of course!



Yes he could still breathe!





He would run around the room and then come back to daddy for an additional piece.



Coming after mommy with a plastic golf club.





My Doodlebug!



NEWS FLASH!!!
Luke has shown interest even more lately in mommy and daddy going potty. So I drug out his little potty again and sure enough he wanted to sit on it. He actually deposited about 2 tsp full into it!


Luke's potty




My goal was to get a picture of the first pee, but in the time it took me to get the camera from downstairs, the STUPID DOG licked it up :( The evidence was compromised. Oh well.

Now he sits on it for about 3 seconds, gets up, and looks down into it. Then sits back down and does the same thing about 10 times. Silly boy!



TickleFest



Kisses for daddy! :) (he gives real kisses now...not just open mouthed tongue kisses!)
THE END! FINALLY!


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