Can I be a baby again?

We’ve been reading a book called America the Beautiful for the past couple of days trying to explain the concept of our flag, country, and freedom to Jackson before the 4th of July. In the book is a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge. Derek was talking to Jackson how we visited that bridge when he was a little baby, so we started looking back through the photos with him.

The whole slideshow went like this: “what’s that?”, “how?”, “why?”, “Who’s that?”… over and over. And then he asked, “Can I be a baby again?” He has already asked a dozen times if we can go back now that he’s a “Big Kid.” Plus, he doesn’t think it’s fair that he got to go and not Belle. {Does this kid not realize that I try very hard to do fun things for/with him now that he’s older!?!?}

I looked back at my blog post about our California trip and while I did a good job summarizing our trip, I can’t believe I only included SIX photos! We have hundreds so I want to share some more {especially since this blog is basically his baby book. If it’s not here, it didn’t happen…}

Baby's first airplane ride!

We toured the Jelly Belly factory. So fun! 

Grandpa drove us up to the dam at to Lake Berryessa. As we were looking through the pictures today, Jackson kept asking what it was and Derek was doing his best to explain without using the word, “dam.” It was very humorous to overhear, but really, as much as this kid talks, it’s in our best interest to keep that word from his vocabulary for now.

Jackson’s first boat ride—we took a ferry to San Francisco.

And Jackson celebrated by doing a bunch of this:

We strolled {literally!} through the streets of San Francisco.  

And hopped on another boat over to Alcatraz. 

Jackson had lots of questions about this place today. We told him it’s a prison, a place where the police would put bad guys away. Jackson responded, “no, they put bad guys in cages in JAIL!!” Okay, fine.

The next morning we traveled to Muir Woods to check out the California Redwood trees. I seriously felt so tiny walking through here! 

And finally the picture that was started this whole thing—Jackson and Daddy at the Golden Gate bridge. Ohmigosh—it was so windy!!!

And lastly, the whole reason we visited California—Great Grandpa {and really, for Great Grandpa to show off his first great-grandson.} He was getting ready to put his house on the market to move back to Kansas City, we are sure glad that we did!

But I’m really glad that we were able to squeeze in a short trip before he moved back! :)

Our Texas Thanksgiving

To celebrate Thanksgiving this year, we traveled down to Texas to visit some friends who moved down south this summer. We drove down with Brad and HanNah after the guys got off work on Wednesday and drove until the wee hours of the morning. 

We finally entered TX around 1am. 

We ate our Thanksgiving dinner at Cracker Barrel. Eating out on Thanksgiving was a first for me. It wasn't bad, but I'd much prefer to eat home cooked turkey next year {as long as I'm not the one cooking it!}. But most importantly, it was fun to be with our friends and what a treat that no one had to cook or clean up!

We skipped Black Friday shopping this year and visited some places around Fort Worth instead. We had breakfast at some cool pancake place. Delicious! And then we headed over to the stock yards {where the real cowboys come out to play}.

Jackson enjoyed looking at the long-horn steers, but he wasn't so thrilled about me taking a step back to take his picture.

Jackson was so thrilled to be hanging out with his BFF, Carter. He was attached to him practically the entire weekend.

Texas is clearly the Dr. Pepper mecca {and we've even been to the Dr. Pepper museum in Waco}. Derek has had the jelly beans before, but Dr. Pepper jerky-- GAG!

I love me some boys in cowboy hats!!!!

And check out our cute little cowgirl! She's waving for the camera.

We went to this awesome ice cream place. You pick out a flavor of ice cream and two cookies and they smash it together to make your custom ice cream sandwich! Ah.may.zing.

We don't have many {or any pictures} from Friday afternoon on-- mainly because, well, sickness invaded our living space. We had nine people in a cozy two bedroom apartment, three who got sick at exactly the same moment. It was way weird. Lots of vomit. All night long. Lots of sleeping and recovering filled the following days. Thankfully, our family dodged that bullet. I did get the naseau bug on Saturday night, but fortunately, I was able to hold down my meal, but I was thought I was dying for a couple of hours for sure. 

And then, Derek and I were stuck with a little baby that WOULD NOT SLEEP! Oh my goodness. We had to drive Belle around at every moment we needed her to nap-- morning, afternoon, and bedtime! She had a high fever and was so cranky. She hardly ate anything and my word was she difficult! Did I mention how much time we spent in the car just to get her to sleep? We drove all the way to Texas so we could drive around and sit in the McDonalds parking lot so we could use their wi-fi because some little cranky-pants would wake up the moment the car engine went off. She has already been told that all the gas money we spent getting her to sleep will be deducted from her college fund.

It's really kind of comical to look back upon. Pathetic really. We were so careful to plan to make sure that our Texas trip wouldn't turn into a disaster {after our last trip ended up costing nearly $1,000 more than planned} and this bug just came and invaded our plan. I can't help but chuckle at how the whole thing panned out. But, we wouldn't have traded our visit for anything. I really miss Brooke {and Trey and Carter too} and it was just super great to hang out with her again. 

I'm sure we'll go visit again, but Derek has already made it clear that the kids will be kenneled the next time we venture out of our city. Yes, kenneled-- his words.

Whew!

In the TWO WEEKS it's been since I've blogged, we have been very busy. This has been the longest time without a post since I first started! Here's light review: Hopefully I will get around to posting more details about our end of summer fun!

Derek took a couple of days off work and we traveled to St. Louis for a mini vacation. We went to visit his brother and family and we also squeezed in some time at a few of the local attractions.

On our way to St. Louis, we grabbed some McDonalds for dinner. Much to my surprise, there was an 8gb micro SD card included with my cheeseburger. I did happen to take the card back (after browsing the contents, of course) and for my "troubles" they comped my meal. Not so sure I think that's enough. Even though no harm was done, there was potential for major damage! I mean, it easily could have been in Jackson's food and those cards are tiny. 

Derek and I went to a Royals game with Derek's company one Sunday afternoon. We were in the dugout suite and it was cool. Like, dugout as in the other half of the dug out that the players are in. Great view!

A friend from high school came down to visit last week. It was fun! Exhausting, but fun. She has twin two-year-old boys... so add that to my two year old plus an infant-- we were outnumbered and busy! So glad she could spend a few days with us!

Breakfast for three! 

We visited Deanna Rose Farmstead last week and got to see how they milk a cow. Jackson was pretty interested and enjoys telling people that milk comes from cows. 

Last weekend was Derek's army duty weekend. Jackson was invited to go to the State Fair with Derek's parents. He had tons of fun and even got to ride a pony. I took Belle and visited my parents house to spend time with the family before both of my sisters leave for college this week (crazy!!). I worked at a wedding at the Ranch on Saturday night. 

Yesterday, Belle started CRAWLING! Seriously, I was so not prepared for her to be on the go quite so soon. And in our attempts to get our house organized and rearranged, we put together a new (hand-me-down) bed for Jackson. He loves it, but has a hard time staying in when it's time to actually sleep.

And lastly, I've been pretty crafty lately, so I've been spending the time I would typically be going through pictures and blogging working on some super fun crafts. I can't wait to share about them. I'll leave you with this: these are the goodies I picked up at a Salvation Army while we were in St. Louis and all are being upcycled to cool things for the house. Two are completed, one in progress, and another is awaiting more supplies!

I still feel like I just need to sit and say, "whew!!!" In fact, I just did. Ha. I'm a dork.

The week Christian came to visit

This past week flew by in a blur! With Julie's brother, Christian, in town we were busy from sun-up and way past sun-down cramming in as much as possible. We tried our best to let him experience our every day American life and to see the things our city has to offer. I had so much fun playing host mom/tour guide. Here's a recap of some of the things we did!

Thursday, April 21st
Christian spent the day with Julie at school-- just what every 21-year-old guy wants to do when he visits America, on his Easter holiday no less! But it was good for him to see what Julie's been up to while she's been here and he even ended up with homework. More on that later. That evening we had planned on going to the Royals game so he could experience some baseball, but the weather was terrible so we lucked out that our hockey team had a play off-game instead! Christian's a hockey player (he even played on Denmark's national team!) so he explained a lot of what we didn't understand!

Friday, April 22nd
With the little kids and the Danish siblings, we all crowded into the car to go visit Derek at work and then headed over to Oklahoma Joe's BBQ, which was the one place Julie really wanted him to eat. Kansas City is known for the having the best BBQ and Oklahoma Joe's is definitely my favorite. Christian was pleased as well, as his comment was "This is the best sandwich I've ever had." That night we grilled burgers and then Julie and Christian went to a birthday party, where they serenaded the birthday girl with the Danish birthday song!

Saturday, April 23
The day started off with the Easter Egg hunt at church. After lunch, we headed up to the city. Christian was eager to tour the World War I museum (the only one in the country) and then he and Julie went to the top of the Liberty Memorial tower for the great view of the city. We headed over to the Hallmark Visitor's Center next and even go to see a Danish greeting card in the international display case! Before heading home, we stopped at Yogurtini. YUM!

Sunday, April 24th
We got all dressed up and headed to church for Easter Sunday. Christian was a good sport as he was succumbed to posing for pictures!

We headed to Wal-Mart on Sunday afternoon. As a Dane, he was excited to go as he's just heard so much about this empire called Wal-Mart and as an American, I generally have a bad attitude about going into the ginormous store! Christian was even more excited as he realized exactly how much cheaper items are here in the states than at home. Later on Sunday evening, we had friends over to hang out and Christian got to experience making and eating a S'more!!!

Monday, April 25th
This was a busy day! First, Christian had to go back to school... to teach a class!! He is studying mathematics at the Univeristy of Copenhagen (actuarial mathematics, to be exact) and so Mrs. Dahmer invited him to teach Monday's lesson to the Pre-Calculus class. I would shoot myself if any vacation I took involved pre-calc, but he seemed to enjoy it and did a great job!

Per Christian's request, we had more BBQ for lunch. This time, Arthur Bryant's. He agrees with me; it's good, but not as good as Oklahoma Joe's. Then we headed over to do some shopping at the outlet malls, where he and Julie were super excited about the strength of the Danish krone to our dollar- specifically at Tommy Hilfiger, Forever 21 (for his girlfriend), Converse, and Banana Republic.

Before leaving the shopping center, I took them into Cabela's. In the parking lot, I told them both that this store was unlike any store they'd ever visited. I'm getting a good chuckle just remembering their faces as we walked in... to see the mountain (literally) of stuffed animals that used to be alive, enough camouflage to clothe an army of hillbillies, and a wall full of hundreds of guns. The guns, specifically, were amazing to him as Denmark (and most of Europe) doesn't have the same appreciation for our second amendment.

Tuesday, April 26th
This is the day Christian had to fly home. But on our way to the airport, we did stop at Dilliard's for one last item to take back home for his honey. Julie was super bummed to say good-bye, but reality is that she will be on that same journey in just a few weeks. We heard that the flight out of Kansas City was delayed so he missed his connecting flight to Frankfurt. But it all worked out when he ended up traveling to a different route; he was only three hours later than expected and he got a first class seat on his trans-atlantic flight. You've seen how tall the guy is- I am so sure he totally loved all that leg room, especially on that long flight!

We had such a good time! I has taken a couple days of recovering to get all rested up from our super busy week. Julie, Christian, and any one of their family will forever be welcome in our home! And anybody who ever wants to visit, actually!

We made it to Georgia!

With a little under five hours of sleep last night, Belle and I headed out this morning for our trip to Augusta! Grandpa drove us up to the airport, but not without a quick stop to get a Coke. I definitely needed some caffeine. Jackson insisted on a million kisses before I left the car, so after I kissed his cheeks, eyes, ears, nose, chin, arms (I called it quits when he wanted me to kiss the car)... we said our goodbyes and headed inside!

The trip went super smoothly. Not surprisingly, Belle captured all sorts of attention. Everyone oohed and ahhed and told me just how pretty she was! One teenage boy even said, "I like your baby!" Ha. The flight attendant on the first flight asked to hold her so I could get my bags and she showed Belle off to every single passenger we passed!

Belle practically never opened her eyes on either flight. We just cuddled the whole time-- it was probably the most comfortable I've ever been on a flight! She's just so snuggly. (ugh- look at those bags under my eyes! I even used make-up to try to hide them!)

I opted to use the same strategy from when we traveled last fall-- use the stroller for the luggage, not the baby!

And I decided to wear Belle. Have I mentioned how I looooove my Moby wrap?! I use it all of the time.

She was the perfect lap baby! This was pretty much how she spent the entire flight. She didn't even make a peep!

This super cute pug was our seat companion! The dog can sense when her owner is going to have a seizure and will go get help anywhere between one minute to one hour before it happens. How amazing that the dog can do that! The cuteness factor in our aisle was through the roof!

So, now we're just chillin' at the hotel! It's been a good day. I've really gotten the chance to cuddle and enjoy Belle all by herself, without several other things to attend to. So, I've gotten touch her super soft skin, play with her head full of hair, and listen to the coos I talk about her daddy. We can't wait for Derek's graduation tomorrow!