On Thursday, September 23rd, 2010, I turned two (2) years old! We had a party at my daycare, Tiny Tikes! Oh what fun that was! And then, on Saturday, September 25th, 2010, @ 4 in the afternoon, we had a party at the park with my friends and family! Kari and Joel Gilliland; Sarah, Kenzie & Taylor Kinzer; Mike, Michelle & Christina Stafford (Hannah had a volleyball tournament); Thelma Raile (our neighbor) and Great-Nammo Ruess Reynolds were all in attendance! It was a lot of fun to play at the park, open gifts and EAT CAKE! My cake was totally awesome, it had Bullseye on it from Toy Story 2! Yippee!
Mommy and I getting ready to blow out the candle (or aboosh as I call it, yes, I LOVE fire) and cut the cake!
All the loot I got for my 2nd birthday! All my friends and family are too nice!
And last but not least, the ducky potty seat that Mee-maw and Pee-paw Chinn had sent to me for my birthday! And my momma and daddy are soooooo proud of me b/c I went pee-pee in this potty last Thursday night, October 7th, 2010, for the first time! And GUESS WHAT, when you potty in it, it plays music and cheers for you and then when momma dumps it out it plays even more music! So awesome!
Thanks to everyone that made my 2nd Birthday and unforgettable one! You guys are the best!
The past few days I've had a great time playing and hanging out with some of my Saint Francis friends! I've put up a few pictures and a video on this blog of my friend Joel Gilliland (his mommy and my mommy are friends and Joel and I are only about 6 weeks apart. Joel's birthday is in the middle of August and mine is toward the end of September)! We also go to daycare together! There is also a picture of my friend Aaron (his mommy and daddy are friends with my mommy and daddy, too. Aaron is a little older than me but he's still fun and I think he could teach me a lot of stuff, especially about motorcycles and real "man" stuff)!
Thursday, August 19th, 2010, mommy and daddy's friends Dan & Kris Blair stopped by our house after mommy, daddy and I got back from an evening walk together! They had been out riding their motorcycles on the cruisin' strip and saw us out and about so they stopped to chat. This pic is of Aaron Blair, Kris and Dan's son and I sitting on Kris's bike! I immediately knew I liked Kris and became her instant friend so I could play on my, I mean, her motorcycle! It always helps to know people in high authority positions and befriends them!
This bike was so cool! When you twisted the rubber thingy on the end of the handle bar, it went VROOM, VROOM really loud! So I rev'd her up a few times! My mommy says this makes her nervous for approximately 14 years down the road. I think it makes me EXCITED for 14 years from now! Can't wait to get out on the highway and as the song goes "Get your motor runnin' head out on the highway, lookin' for adventure and whatever comes our way!" Which brings me to my friend Joel Gilliland....
Tonight, Friday, August 20th, 2010, Saint Francis is holding its annual Relay for Life! Mommy wanted to take me to the entertainment portion of the evening b/c her friend Kari Gilliland's daughter Molly was dancing with her Dance Ranch friends! Along with some of my other friends and daycare friends too! Of course we had to get a grape snowcone in order to appropriately watch Molly dance and to fully appreciate it! I was also very happy to see that my friend Joel was there too (Joel is Kari's son and Molly's little brother and we all go to daycare together)! We had lots of fun entertaining ourselves when we got bored....
Joel and I had lots of fun running and chasing each other and copying each other tonight! He's so cool! And I really wanted him to come home with me to play!
Here Joel and I are chasing each other around the bandshell during the Relay for Life entertainment! A lot of comments were made about how cute we were or we also heard comments of "Oh lord, a Gilliland boy and a Gardner boy being friends. Look out and those parents are gonna have their hands full!" I have no idea what any of that means, we are just kids having fun (mommy and daddy say that's the problem)! Whatever, hee-hee!
Toward the end of my evening at Relay for Life, Joel and I were getting kinda tired so we took a little break and sat around the water fountain outside of the bandshell! My mommy thinks we are both pretty darn cute and up to no good! "MOM, I AM INNOCENT and PRECIOUS! " HA!
On Friday, August 13th, 2010, we headed off for a "Family Fun Weekend" in Salina, Kansas! We met up with The Eidson's (Chris "Goo", Laura and Bella) and The Flagg's (Mike, Stephanie and Maggie) for a little weekend meet up together! It was momma's, daddy's and kids! Yippy!
Ready, set, gooooo!!!!! The start of a long, 4 hour drive to Salina! This is us pulling away from our house, excited to get on the road for our fun weekend!
Geez, this drive seems to be taking FOREVER! Are we there yet?
This is as we were turning onto I-70 in Goodland, Kansas (only 30 minutes down the road)!
These are the only pictures from Friday of the trip! We arrived in Salina and checked into our room and I was quickly laid down for my nap. After nap we went to Applebee's to eat supper and mommy, daddy and I left before ordering because I decided I didn't want to be there anymore! Or at least, I didn't want to be there if I couldn't get up and run around the busy restaurant. Apparently my momma wasn't having any of that nonsense, so we left! I mean what do they expect! I had been in a carseat for 4 hours (well 2.5 b/c we stopped in Hays for a leg stretch at Wal-Mart (where I also had to be carried out screaming b/c again, I wasn't allowed to run around the store w/o holding momma's hand) and then 1.5 for the rest of the way to Hays) and then went straight down for a 2.5 hour nap! I had some energy that needed to burned off! Momma says "can anybody say TERRIBLE TWOS are upon us!" GEEZ mom, that's not very nice!
Saturday morning, August 14th, 2010, was a much better day! I had a good nights sleep and was ready to hit the road for our daytime adventure! And this adventure not only involved me and my mom and dad but also mommy's two friends, Stephanie Flagg and Laura Eidson and their daughters Maggie and Bella! Oh and their were also other dads there besides mine! Maggie's daddy, Mike and Bella's daddy Chris, a.k.a Goo!
Our adventure for the morning was the Rolling Hills Wildlife Adventure and Museum in Salina, KS!
Photo from l to r: Stephanie and Maggie Flagg; Me and my mom and Laura and Bella Eidson!
We got to see the giraffes while they were still in their houses and also when they let them outside to play! They are so tall and they like to eat sticks!
T
There were all sorts of these statues all over the zoo and Maggie's mommy and daddy put her on this one to get her picture taken!
This animal is a duck and that reminded me of this thing mommy sings when it rains! It goes "quack, quack, whaddle, whaddle; quack, quack, whaddle, whaddle; we are the Delta's and your in luck; if it rains all day we'll quack like a duck!" That mommy, she sure is weird and funny!
Time for a snack break!
Bella was enjoying a snack as well!
I had already devoured my snacks and chugged my juice! Ready for round two!
This lion made my mom very, very nervous! They were several little tykes watching the lion and mommy said the lion was definitely watching us. It just paced back and forth looking like it was plotting how to get out of the cage and catch one of us for its snack! YIKES!
Mr. Mike let Maggie ride on his shoulders! I mean, sometimes a kid gets tired of riding in a stroller or walking! And this is what dad's are for, right?
Mr. Chris "Goo" giving Bella a closer look at the catfish that we fed in a pond at the zoo! That catfish was HUGE and there was also a funny little turtle eating the fish food too!
Now this bear has the right idea! I think the mommy and daddy's were jealous of this napping bear!
The Flagg family enjoying an air conditioned break in the museums kid area! They are playing with lego blocks!
The Eidson family also enjoyed the break in the kid area! Bella enjoyed the hand puppet show her momma put on for her! This area had a hand puppet for almost every animal imagineable!
Bella sure thought it was funny when her mommy was "getting" her! She was screamin and shreiking with delight!
Maggie says "Excuse me while I check my email...it's very important but it will only take a second!"
The Eidson family in the Rolling Hills Wildlife Adventure Wildlife Museum!
Me cheesing out! Ha ha, I just noticed that the cheetah in the background is biting that poor zebra! I wonder why? Maybe that's not an exhibit to "cheese out" by?
Notice how red my checks are and how sweaty I look....we went to the zoo at 8am and by 10am it was 90 degrees with a lot of humidity! We sure were thankful that we went right as the zoo opened...not only because of the heat but because of the crowds as well!
After we went back to the hotel from the zoo for lunch and naps, us kids did not want to stay in a hotel room to play! We wanted out! It was too hot to do anything outside and the hotel pool was PACKED so the mommy's loaded us up and we went to the mall (notice all the excuses of why we could not hang out at the hotel, hee-hee! Mommy's are silly, us men knew what they were up to)! But of course, the mommy's knew where the men would head to while they were shopping!
The mommy's, Stephanie Flagg, specifically, thought the three of us, the three mommy's, the three cars (carseats are easier to keep in the car they go in and not try for all of us to ride together) and the three strollers was funny so we decided to do a pic of all the kids parked by the cars! LOL! Crazy momma's!
After we went shopping we met up with the daddy's at the hotel restaurant/bar...O'Malley's for some supper! Of course, the kids weren't too hungry because the mommy's were awesome and bought cookies at the mall and we had one (or three) of those while we shopped! So the while the adults were "attempting" to eat, the kids played on the couches at the restaurant! By this time in the trip Maggie, Bella and I were good friends! Those girls were so much fun!
The adults ended up packing up their suppers and bringing them back to our room to eat while the kids played and watched a movie! The bed was the best part! Bouncing and jumping and pillow fighting on the bed was probably the best part of the trip! Aside from running around the hotel lobby area like maniacs, screaming or riding the glass elevators!
I think by this time Mr. Mike had started to crack! Look at him, so silly with that tiger on his head but at least the tiger is the mascot of the school on his shirt! MIZ-ZOU!
Bella, Maggie and I jumping on the bed! I think Maggie is looking at her dad in either disbelief or embarassment or thinks he's pretty awesome with that tiger on his head! I think she thought it was pretty awesome! ;)
Maggie and her mommy playing with the pinwheel my mom and dad got me on one of our pit stops!
This was the last day of our trip to Salina, Sunday, August 15th, 2010! The adults decided we would "go out to eat!" So we went to a McDonald's with a huge play place! I'm not sure Mickey D's is what they really had in mind but this time they actually got to eat because there were all kinds of fun things for the kid to do while the adults sat and watched and visited and ate (and it was a separate room with a door on it so we were sort of coraled in)! These are my new friends and their mommy's!
Photo from l to r: Mommy, me, Stephanie and her daughter Maggie and Laura with her daughter Bella
We had such a fun time and I already miss my new girlfriends! I ask about Maggie and Bella everyday! I hope they had as much fun as I did on our family fun weekend and I can't wait to get together with them again! Hopefully soon! My daddy had a great time with Chris "Goo" and Mike too! And I know my mommy misses Laura and Stephanie all the time!
On Thursday, August 5th, 2010, Daddy, Mommy, me and The Kinzer Clan headed out to the Cheyenne County Fair. Then on Saturday, August 7th, 2010, Mommy, me and The Kinzer Girls headed back to the fair for some family fun time! I loved riding all the ride: the airplanes, the cars, the swings, the train and the carousel! Had so much fun at the fair this year! It gets better and better each year my family takes me!
Swinging was soooooo much fun! And mommy didn't even have to push these swings! They went round and round and they were kind of fast! I giggled the whole time I rode them and wanted to ride, AGAIN, AGAIN and AGAIN! I'm still not sure why I had to get off and go back to the end of the LONG lines on Saturday night! The wait was so long. But mommy said I was a trooper for being a two year old and not really understanding waiting my turn in line! I guess that's good! You know the saying "if momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy! Tee-hee!
This was by far my FAVORITE ride....THE CHOO-CHOO TRAIN! It was sooooo fun! I rode once with my momma and Kenzie Kinzer and then another time with my daddy and Tay and Kenzie Kinzer! I think it's funny that daddy had to ride with me....his poor legs! But the engineer said someone bigger had to ride with me! Sorry daddy!
Weeeeeee.....fly like the wind Silver Zephyr! Chugga, chugga, choo-chooooooo!!!!
Me and Miss Sarah Kinzer! She's such a nice lady! I love her very much!
These are Miss Sarah and Bayne, a.k.a. Bean Kinzer's girls, Taylor (Tay) and McKenzie (Kenzie)! I love hanging out with them! We always have such a great time! I miss seeing them three days a week! :(
And here's a pic of Mr. Bean and Miss Sarah!
On Saturday night of the fair, momma and I went with the Kinzer Girls to the fair and we also met up with The Padgett Crew! This is my friend Mahra Padgett! She really like riding the cars! I know what she means, they were awesome! Especially ringing the bells that were on the cars!
I also enjoyed a few rides on the airplanes! Mommy didn't really like them as much as I did because 1. I could undo the seatbelt buckle (and I did a few times (in mid-flight) of course); 2. she thought it went way too fast for being so high off the ground and since I would undo the buckle and 3. she was scared I was going to try to climb out during take-off, the flight or the landing! That mommy sure worries a lot!
Mommy was in heaven riding the carousel with me! It was a good time but not nearly as exciting as those airplanes! Overall, an awesome time was had at this years fair! Can't wait until next year...maybe I will be "allowed" to ride the ferris wheel then!
On Thursday, July 29th, 2010, mommy and daddy loaded up the van and came and got me from daycare....we headed off for a vacation to Shelbyville, Missouri! We stopped that night, halfway down the road in Belleville, Kansas, to catch some sleep and finish out the trip to The 'Ville the next day, Friday, July 30th, 2010! I decided, when we got to the hotel, that a good way to strech my legs from the long ride, was to stand in the window and enjoy the view of the hotel parking lot!
Mommy and daddy got a suite at the hotel that was pretty sweet, if I do say so myself! The room we had, had a jacuzzi tub in the middle of it, with stairs up into the tub! It was AWESOME! I played on the steps into the tub and in the tub most of the night. THEN, when it came time for my nigh-night bath, I got to sit back and soak and swim in the jacuzzi tub with my daddy! It was so fun! This is mommy, prepping me for bathtime! Look how short my mommy looks with me on her hip! HAHA! It won't be long and I think I will be taller than her! YES!!!!! Watch out momma!
On Friday morning, July 30th, 2010, we resumed our travels to Shelbyville. I decided to make good use of this time and catch up on my reading. This days selection was "Guess How Much I Love You!"
Over the weekend in Missouri, Shelbyville was having their annual fair, called the Old Settlers Reunion. It was so cool...they had rides and games and ice cream and all sorts of entertainment. Mee-maw took me on this thing called the Merry-Go-Round. I road a white horsey and the ride went round-n-round in circles, really FAST! Mee-maw helped keep me on the horsey during the ride!
Mee-maw and I riding the Merry-Go-Round at Old Settlers 2010 in Shelbyville, Missouri!
The next thing I wanted to ride was this BIG SWIDE! But nobody would ride with me.....but then, daddy came along and he never lets me down. He said he would take me for sure! So we made the trek up the LONG staircase! This is daddy and I at the top of the swide!
Here, daddy and I are zipping down the big swide at 100 mph! Daddy thought maybe the swide was a 'lil too fast for a 2 year old. But I loved it....even though in this picture, my face says differently! Daddy looks like he really enjoyed it too! I love that I can always count on my dad to make sure that I have a great time!
Mommy and I rode the Merry-Go-Round together too! Those white horsies were so much fun that I got to ride them TWICE!
Mee-maw and I played the "peg game" while mommy got my bath ready the first night we were there. I wasn't feelin' so hot but Mee-maw made it better by snugglin' up with me on the couch to play the game!
On Saturday mornin', July 31st, 2010, daddy went with Mee-maw and Pee-paw to the Old Settlers parade. I went with mommy to the Emergency Room in Macon, Missouri. There weren't any doctors offices open on that Saturday morning so she decided to take me to the ER. When we arrived in Missouri on Friday, I had a fever of 104. Mommy thought maybe it was teething and that I was exhausted so she gave me some Motrin and put me down for a long, 3 hour nap. I was a 'lil better when I woke up from my nap but then thru the night into the next mornin' I continued to run a high fever that momma couldn't get to break and I felt terrible. I really didn't do much but lay around. I even had the shakes. So we headed off to the ER where we found out that I had tonsilitis. The doc thought maybe I had gotten it from all the drainage from teething (darn two year molars)! The ER visit was not fun for me...I pretty much cried the entire time we were there...I didn't feel good and I DID NOT WANT the nurses or doctor to touch me. They can be scary sometimes. But mommy was nice and told the doc that after all I had been thru that mornin' we were not going to go with the shot...just antibiotics!
I'm bummed out that I missed the parade because I missed these really neat firetrucks from the Shelbyville Fire Department! Thankfully daddy took pictures for me! This is just one of the many firetrucks with the Shelbyville Fire Department and one of the many pics that my daddy took! Just thought I would share one!
Here is the Casey's General Store of Shelbyville float! Mee-maw is the manager of this Casey's Store and her and a few of the kiddos walked behind Uncle Jeremy's pickup truck throwing out jelly beans and mini beach balls! A couple of the kids are my 2nd cousin, Breanna Gibbons and my 3rd cousin, Taylor Still! AND Mee-maw even saved me some jelly beans and one of the beach balls to take back to my house in Kansas! My Mee-maw Chinn is one in a million! I love her and miss her already!
On Saturday night, Mee-maw and Pee-Paw had a fish fry and they invited out the family to enjoy with us! Breanna (my 2nd cousin) and I had a lot of fun blowing bubbles with the bubble sticks Mee-maw Chinn gave us! Breanna helped to show me how to work those crazy things! FUH-UN!
Those family members at the fish fry were: my Great-Grandma Erlene & Great-Grandpa Ennis Dean Grubb (mommy's maternal grandparents); my Mee-maw & Pee-paw Chinn (mommy's parents); mommy & daddy; Uncle Jeremy (mommy's big brother) & Aunt Samantha Chinn and her two nieces, Jo-Jo & Zoey; my Great-Uncle Tim & Great-Aunt Debbie Gibbons and their kids (my 2nd cousins) Bridgett, Bryant & Breanna; my Great-Aunt Brenda and her new husband Michael and my 2nd cousin Carrie Beth Buckman and her son (my 3rd cousin) Austin Fifer and her step-son Dalton Buckman!
There were a lot of family members there and it was great to see each and every one of them!
By Saturday night, after a dose of antibiotics, I was feelin' a 'lil better! Still was runnin' a fever but a little bit lower than earlier in the day....around 101 at this point. But I did sit on Pee-paw and Mee-Maw's couch between the two of them for this picture after my bath, right before my bedtime! They are so cozy and nice! I love you Pee-paw and Mee-maw Chinn!
On Sunday, August 1st, 2010, I was feeling A LOT better after my second dose of antibiotics and was finally fever free most of the afternoon and thru the evening and bedtime! So we played outside for a little while! I loved Pee-paws tractor but was a little intimidated by it when it was started up with Pee-paw on it and driving. I'm not sure if I was more intimidated by the noise from the "tracker" or the fact that Pee-paw was driving it!?!?!
On Monday morning, August 2nd, 2010, Mee-maw, daddy, mommy and I went into town and went to the city park to play for awhile! Their playground equipment was awesome and I could've played there all day, except it was REALLY HOT and HUMID and I had sweat running down both sides of my face AND the back of my neck within 15 minutes of being there so needless to say, mommy and daddy wouldn't let me stay and play very long! But it was fun while it lasted especially since my 2nd cousins "The Gibbons Kids" (Bridgett, Bryant and Breanna) rode their bikes down to the park to play with me too!
Daddy took me down the BIG SWIDE! Shelbyville, Missouri's big swide is bigger than Saint Francis' big swide! I'm gonna have to go and have a talk with Sainty's city council members about this ridiculousness!
Swinging is sooooo much fun, no matter where you go!
Hmmmm....wonder what's on the other side of this tube.....it's another fun swide!
Look at my cousin Bryant! He's so silly and likes to "monkey around!" Maybe one day I will be able to do cool tricks like that....wonder why my moms face is cringing right now? Hmmmmm.....
Bridgett was clownin' around too and was trying to make this frog rock so far that its nose would touch the ground! These Gibbons kids are so funny!
Later Monday afternoon, after my nap, we got ready to leave Mee-maw and Pee-paw's house! Vacation time was coming to an end and no one wanted us to go, including us! Mee-maw, Pee-paw, mommy and I spent our last few minutes sitting on Mee-maw and Pee-paws bed, snuggled up, talking and playing with Pee-paw's pocket watch together! Everyone was getting sad that we were leaving! :( Especially my mommy because she misses her mommy and daddy everyday, terribly! I miss them too!
On Monday night, we decided to stop in St. Joseph, Missouri for the night and spend a night, just the three of us, in a nice hotel room together. We had another suite (thanks to momma's job the rate was the same as a regular room...SCORE) and this time, there were two rooms and two TVs! Double the fun! I slept in the living room and mommy & daddy slept in the bedroom! We had a lot of fun having supper delivered to our room from a pizza joint and just vegging our, spending our last overnight in Missouri as a family, just the three of us!
By the end of the night, I was ready for bathtime and bed. I was EXHAUSTED! I must of had way too much fun with my Mee-maw and Pee-paw Chinn! They wore me out! So lets get this show on the road! I was so tired that I slept from 9:30pm to 9:30am, STRAIGHT! I did not wake up once (while we were at Meems house, I woke up every night at least two to four times a night)! Mommy and daddy were very thankful that they were finally able to get some rest and a full nights sleep b/c I generally sleep thru the night at home. Traveling, being on vacation and being sick, really thru my schedule for a loop! I do welcome the return of my schedule and my own bed when we get home! Sometimes being at your own home after being away for awhile just feels so good and comforting, especially to little fellars like me!
We made it home, safe and sound on Tuesday night, August 3rd, 2010 (my momma's birthday)! We miss our Missouri family and friends more than they could ever possibly know and look forward to seeing them again (hopefully very soon)! Love you all and goodnight! I'm hitting the hay after a long, exhausting week and trip in the car today!
