Zooniversary

Five years ago Tiffany and I got married.  Really it's been almost six years (at a bonfire on Tiffany's b-day)  that we've been nearly inseparable, if you neglect the past few months where I've been touring the midwest for work, but I digress.  Some couples might celebrate something like this with a trip somewhere like Europe or the Caribbean, but we opted for somewhere more exotic - Missouri.  We went to St. Louis where it was a little warmer, a little wetter, and they have great BBQ and an awesome Zoo.  As well, one perk of living in a hotel for the past few months is that we got upgraded to a suite (Kayla loved the two TVs and her pull-out bed).

Logan and I at Pappy's  - he was a natural.

And Kayla lover her Strawberry Fizz.

At the pool - Logan was a little fish and Kayla has almost gotten over her fear of the water.

At the science museum learning about physics and static structures hands-on...  it took her about 20 seconds to destroy the gateway arch.

They also had an animatronic T-Rex, but Kayla was somewhat afraid (read terrified) to get close.  She was however open to doing impressions.  I believe what you see above is her impression of a triceratops that just noticed the T-Rex around the corner, and below is her best T-Rex impression...

...which looks surprisingly like her Hippopotamus impression.

Checking out the elephants - there was a whole family, and Kayla (and Tiffany) thought it was awesome.  See lil' Stampy below

And this guy appears to be hatching a plan for escape.  Just biding his time...

Giving loves to his sleeps sister (I have no idea how she slept through his mauling)

Hitting the road on the way back to the car!

As I'm finishing this I'm realizing that I don't have any sappy pictures in this post.  Tiffany, I guess that will fall on you for the sequel!

Shameless Post of Pics of the Grandkids

Rule #1. To keep the Grandparents happy, live nearby.

Rule #2. When you violate rule #1, post lots of pics.

Rule #3.  Remember rule #2 (we're working on it)

 Logan loves apples.  Really the Log-man loves food. Anything edible.

 He also loves seeing what type of container would be ideal for shipping a big sister to Indonesia.

 ...and playing with the phone (watch out - he looks so cute, but really he's just deleting apps and sending texts).

 Obligatory bath-time shot

 He's graduated to climbing all of the stairs in the house, not just the pansy carpeted ones.

 One of many fancy-shpancy Sunday hairdos.

 Obligatory bathtime shot #2.

 Escape!

 Right now the kids love each other, we'll need to blow this up and frame it as a reminder...

 Spelunk!

 Build!

 Sled!

 More Loves!

 Kayla gets into mischief...

 ...while Logan cleans up the mess...

 ...and eats snow.

 Seat of your pants parenting tip:  When you're caught off guard by the snow and don't have a sled, the laundry basket will do in a pinch...

... though not that well.  It's got to be a pretty tight pinch.

 Attacking Tiff with a snowball.  Look at the form!

No wait, look at that form!

 Logan prefers the "I eat my snow by the fist-full" method

Tiffany's method hearkens back to the "if you lick soft enough you can get individual flakes" school.

No, fistful works best.

Happy end of February!

A Twenties Funeral

Braden officially left his 20-somethings on Monday to join the ranks of those "in their thirties".  When did we all get so old?  I personally continue to turn 24 every year, which has been working out nicely for me, except that now I am married to an old man (wink wink!).

Taking the day off from work, we started the day by letting the birthday boy sleep in a bit.  I made orange rolls, sausage links, attempted to make orange julius, and kind of failed at making hash browns. Luckily Braden pulled up the proper way to make hash browns on his phone and he quickly made some that weren't gray.  After breakfast he got to open presents!  Kayla picked out her gifts all by herself.  Originally she wanted to get something from the toy aisle, but we couldn't decide which toy Braden would want.  So she decided to go a different route and went for candy: a large package of Reese's peanut butter cups and a triple-pack of sugar-free root-beer flavored gum.  

After breakfast we all kind of hung out and played for a while.  Braden went to the tailor to pick up a pair of pants and I started getting things ready for his (surprise) party that evening.  After I put the kids down for naps I got started on his cake, which was a lot of fun to make!

We decided to go bowling for Braden's big birthday activity, which was a first for our family!  Kayla enjoyed the first 5 frames or so, then got bored and wanted to go to the "castle" - mini golf next door.  Logan was kind of a nightmare trying to run onto the lanes or putting his hands in the ball dispenser.  Then he fell off one of the chairs onto his face and mellowed out after we stopped the bleeding.  Braden and I had a lot of fun playing and helping Kayla.  Her enthusiasm for the first 5 frames was contagious and everyone in the bowling alley watched her get a spare or two.  Admittedly, the first ball she attempted went 3/4 of the way down the lane then started rolling back.  One of the workers had to help it the rest of the way back to us.  And one of the balls got stopped by the pins.  She got an 88 though, which is better than some of the people bowling in the lane next to us.  Braden and I both broke 100, so all that Wii bowling years ago has paid off.

Luckily for me, bowling ended right on time for us to head home.  Braden opened the door from the garage and heard a little voice yell "surprise!".  He turned back into the garage and looked quizzically at me as I was frantically trying to get Kayla out of the car and into the house.  Then we all went in and our friends were there to shout "Surprise and happy birthday!".  I am very fortunate to have friends willing to help decorate while we were gone (thank you Linds!).  I think everyone had a fun evening celebrating Braden's big day with us.  Thank you Williams, Powells, Marshs, and Monroes for sharing the evening with us!

Decorations for the party - white-chocolate dipped double-stuffed Oreos

We have another root-beer lover in the family!

Braden is such an amazing man.  He sets high goals, plans ways to meet those goals, and achieves them.  He is always learning new things and encourages me to do the same.  Although we have had kind of a weird schedule with work lately, it has allowed Braden to do things with the family that we normally wouldn't all be able to do together.  I am so grateful to be married to Braden.  He is always striving to do better and work harder and tries his best to balance everything going on in his life.  I love you, Braden.  Happy 30th birthday!

Isn't he handsome?!

How to Deal with a Midwestern Winter

Sometimes it's the only way...  Happy January!