The Next Day!

These Kentucky posts are getting out of hand! Just one more after this one! The morning after the wedding we spent a lot of time hanging out with family at the hotel's free breakfast (free breakfasts are the best!). The hotel was really nice and had these gigantic planters and fountains everywhere which Paige kept trying to climb into. It also had a glass elevator reminscent of the one at our mall; the mall elevator does not stop once it starts closing even if you push the side, like a normal elevator. Owen made it his job to make sure everyone got into the elevator safely so he had to hold onto as many people as he could while we all walked in together :)

Don't quite remember what the problem here was but I think Paige was feeling ready to go home :)



Me and Jamie!



Dad, Scott, Pat

This cereal box was pretty hilarious

While Paige was playing with cereal boxes, Owen was recruiting people to sprint around the hotel.

Scenes from the Reception!

I think some tickling was happening here

Dancing! I told Pat I was going to show him this picture at Paige's wedding. It's totally going to make him cry :)

The Wedding!

Finally! Some pictures from the wedding! The whole reason we were in Kentucky in the first place! I tried for a very long time to get these pictures in chronological order and finally gave up. The wedding was beautiful, the reception was lots of fun and the kids were fantastic through everything! We had such a fun time and were so glad the kids lasted longer into the night than we expected. 



Paige was fed a constant stream of Puffs to keep her busy during the ceremony:)



Aunt Marlene (Mother of the Bride) and Scott (Brother of the Bride)



Uncle Bill (Father of the Bride) and Erica (...the Bride!)



We waited outside for everyone else to file in for the reception and got some fun pictures



Erica and Blain. Aww!



Owen started the day with a sweater vest but it didn't last very long in the heat!



Great Kid's Book!

I requested Press Here from the library after seeing it on a blog and it's now one of my favorites simply because of the giggles it elicits from Owen! It loses a bit of magic after the first time but we've still been reading it every night and he still thinks its hilarious!

Fooooood

Important to know...after we arrived in Kentucky on Friday we were looking for somewhere close to eat and settled on Applebee's after the front desk of the hotel recommended a place nearby with a billion restaurants (Hamburg Place). Instead, a faulty GPS led us to Applebee's Park where a baseball game was being played...we got to Applebee's eventually but not at the location we had been told about. Saturday we decided to find our way to Hamburg Place. This had to be the largest gathering of restaurants and big box stores I've ever seen. We drove around in Hamburg Place so long looking for Cosi (Pat was convinced that we definitely needed to find this place because they had the "best food ever" or something along those lines) that Paige and Owen both fell asleep. Turns out that the food at Cosi was pretty impressive and all the driving around was totally worth it. Now I desperately want one near us, who can make that happen for me?



Sleep in Kentucky?

See that crazy look in Paige's eyes? That's probably from lack of sleep. The night before I took this picture Paige went right to sleep without a problem. No problems at all. Until...she woke up screaming and wouldn't stop. Not cool. The only reason I mention it is because it led to one of my favorite moments of the trip. I needed to snap Paige out of her screaming fit and nothing in the hotel room was working so Owen and I put on our shoes and the three of us traipsed around the hotel with the two kids in their pajamas. We ended up on a balcony by the pool where I think the warm temperature and the rhythmic sound of the water calmed everyone down. We stayed there awhile, enjoying the moment. When we eventually went back to the room, Paige went right to sleep and did great for the rest of the trip! 

Roadtrip!

We traveled to Kentucky over the weekend to see my cousin get married and had lots of adventures on the way and while we were there. I'll be putting up short posts over the next few days covering our trip! We wanted to make the most of our time in Kentucky so we drove up with my parents while Pat was still at work. The kids were fantastic although my parents behavior was a bit questionable (ahem. Just kidding!). We would definitely roadtrip with them again! We stopped at a super nice gas station/starbucks/subway where my parents got Owen an activity book that was a big hit and Paige spent her time staring into a cooler until we had to remove her to go back to the car.

The front seat!



Activity book!



Kisses for Hippo!



Visitors!

We had some friends from Colorado visit a couple weeks ago and we got to meet their baby for the first time!

David, Everett and Dani

The kids!

The babies!

Playing at the playground

Zooooooo!

The elephants are back! Ok, they've been back for awhile but we saw them for the first time over the weekend. They were super excited to see us too and spent much of their time flinging mud at themselves. It was hot. Perhaps if some mud had been made available I would have tried it too. 


I thought that meerkat looked like Owen so I took a picture of it. (Tricked you, right?! It's really just a photo op. Owen stuck his head so far through that we were a little worried he would be stuck.)



Feeding the bird(s)

Owen loves Paige. Paige loves sippy cup (and Owen)



Zoo train. Always important.



Soccer!

Owen's soccer season is over already! It seemed to go so fast but I missed some of it because Paige and I stayed home when the weather wasn't so nice. Owen really loves playing and it's fun to see how the games change as the kids get older.



Owen and Giraffe

June 2007



May 2009



May 2011



Power!

 A horrible storm come through yesterday that caused funnel clouds in the area. There were several downed power lines and trees in our neighborhood along with some hail. Luckily it looked like most houses escaped damage but we were left without power for a day.

We could see this fire from our front step. The fire from the power line left a crater in the pavement

Owen showed off the hail

We weren't without entertainment while the power was out.
Owen can balance water bottles on his forehead for a long time.

Happy Birthday Dad!

We celebrated my dad's birthday over the weekend with some Bocce ball, train playing, cake and a cookout.

Saturday

Working hard

Hardly working

Happy Birthday Grandma!

My grandma's birthday was on Sunday so we went to see her and join the celebration! 

Grandma and me!

Paige spent a lot of time rolling around on the floor. Super clean.

Owen's Race!

Owen has been asking for a long time now when he would get to run in a race and we finally found one for him! Over the weekend he got to run his hardest for 100 yards at the stadium! The whole thing was a bit chaotic so we weren't able to get any action shots but here is Owen showing off his medal. We're so proud of him!

Water!

If it feels warm for even a second we get out the shorts and do summer activities outside. That means Paige (and Owen) got to test out the water table she got for her birthday! It was a big success! Water = fun. Paige was loving it too until she realized her feet were on the grass. You can see how she dealt with that in the second picture. She would not put her foot down until I got her some shoes. Grass = not fun. 

Mother's Day Weekend!

We fit a lot of fun into the weekend and Mother's Day was just part of it. We saw Pat's family, we saw my family, I ran a 5k, we had some yummy food...good times!

Paige was very serious about steering this piece of playground equipment. She did not have time to pose for a picture.

Slide!

Paige likes slides, sunglasses and staticky hair.

Progress!

Paige has been working extra hard on her walking the last couple of days so I thought I would post her progress. I love wobbly babies!

New Bike!

We finally got around to getting Owen a bike this weekend and he is very pleased about the whole situation. I didn't realize, however, that I would have to supply him with so much instruction. A couple things we learned: don't stop your bike for no reason at all when someone is biking behind you (ahem), and watch where you're going instead of checking to see if your bike riding companion has caught up to you.



I just asked him to smile, he did this fancy pose all on his own