Sesame Street Live

Thursday evening we took the kids to see Sesame Street Live, which is basically as it sounds... basically a live episode of the tv show. We dressed the kids up their Elmo apparel and headed out to "skyscraper town"as Jackson likes to refer to downtown. We ate at the Whopper Bar before we made our way to the Sprint Center.

We arrived early to check out the play zone!

Hanging out in Big Bird's nest!

A quick visit with Grover.

Of course, we had to visit the star of the show... Elmo! 

And Jackson took a quick minute to play on Elmo's piano...

"La-la, la-la, La-la,-la Elmo's World..."

We found our seats and waited! 

And just one photo to prove I was there too! :)

And once this started....

My kids were mesmerized.

I wish I could have bottled up Jackson's excitement. I swear, I will never forget his amazement. Although we had told him we were going to see Elmo, he really had no idea what we doing. And when the cast came on stage; he just could barely believe it. He looked at me with a the biggest smile possible and said, "Mom! I love it!" Oh, it was so wonderful. 

Murray was there with the letter of the day.

After all of that fun... it was time to say good-bye. Literally. The kids both waved and said good-bye!

It was such a fun thing to do! Jackson said his favorite thing the singing. And I tried to ask Belle if she had fun, but she replied in typical Belle fashion with "no." But I know better. She sat so perfectly still, that's how I KNOW she had fun. Great Grandpa, Derek, and I... we all enjoyed the show too. But I bet we can all agree that the best part was seeing the kids so happy.

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! :)

Father’s Day

My kiddos have the best Daddy.

And I do too!

We enjoyed a nice Father’s Day up at my parents house. We celebrated with my parents, Derek’s parents, and Great Grandpa {Linda’s dad}. I love it when our families come together! We’re so blessed.

I asked Jackson about his favorite thing about Daddy and then he asked me what my favorite thing was. {I said that Daddy works really hard to provide for our family and protects us to keep us safe.} Then, Jackson turns to Derek and says, “What’s YOUR favorite thing about you?!” Haha. Derek replied, “my awesome good looks…”

These are Jackson’s favorite things:

• Daddy: Playing tackle {and demonstrated what looked like a sit up}
• Great Grandpa: Going to McDonalds and shooting baskets
• Papa Forrest and Papa Johne: something about fixing tractors. {no clue!}

Like I said before, we’re just super blessed with lots of great father’s in our family!

Great Grandpa's Old Car

This morning, we went out and about running some errands when we decided to stop by to see if Great Grandpa was home. Unfortunately we missed him and Jackson was pretty  bummed. I decided to check out some garage sales and I learned today that Jackson really enjoys garage sales {yes, I am very proud}! After leaving the second garage sale, he said "I love garage sales. I am so, so happy. I am not mad at anyone right now!" Haha. In all honesty, he has been having several "mad" episodes lately, so this is a very critical disclaimer!

We get a call from Great Grandpa and he says, "come back, I'm home now!" So, we drove back over and visted him. My kids really love to play with the trinkets at Great Grandpa's house. Jackson started playing with a Model A toy car, which Jackson was very excited to know that Grandpa had one in the garage that matched {he loves when things match}! Before we know it, Grandpa decides to take us for a ride around the block in his retirement community. It was a fun little adventure!

Jackson exploring the old car

Despite the grumpy face, Belle really did enjoy it. She loved looking out the window as we drove!

Jackson liked the backseat, but only while it was parked. He definitely didn't want to sit in the back with me while we drove.

Grandpa's Model A is 79 years older than Jackson {it's even older than Grandpa}. Jackson enjoyed the ride, but his thoughts about it were summed into two points: 1) it's noisy and 2) it's bumpy.  He was mostly impressed that Grandpa has THREE vehicles!! That's like little boy heaven {and apparently Grandpa heaven too!}.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!! No one in our family is getting pinched today—we’re all sporting green! {my eyes closed in a picture… always happens. Ugh!}

We didn’t make it out to any of the larger celebrations around Kansas City like
last year, but we did go to our town parade! We had a good time. I love that downtown is super close. It’s barely over a five minute walk and we beat all the traffic!

My favorite St. Patty’s day picture EVER! {see how short she is?! These are capri pants, well, are supposed to be, but they almost fit like full length pants!}

Miss Cutie Patootie wasn’t too fond of holding still to take a picture. I love this shot—Jackson’s trying to so hard to get her to cooperate. I love these two together!

We got to kind of a grumpy start having to wait for the parade. And then the firetrucks came first with their sirens and Jackson really isn’t a fan of loud noises. Once the candy started being tossed, he loosened up and ended up having a good time!

Once she saw Jackson waving “hi” and getting candy, Belle started in on the action too. That little arm was waving like crazy!

And just because I can’t stop taking pictures of her cuteness, I snapped a few more on the walk home!

Along with St. Patty’s day, we’re also celebrating the anniversary of Derek coming home after spending nine months of Army training in Georgia!! I feel I summed it up best in my facebook status earlier today:

One year ago today Derek came home!!!!!! It was the longest nine months of my life, but I'm so proud to be the wife of an American Soldier. Jackson and Belle have had to sacrifice a lot too, and one day they will understand why Daddy has to go away sometimes. Great hubby, great kids, great country-- life is good.