Day 3 - Pool - Yorktown - Shakin' a Booty

The hotel that we were staying in had a GREAT breakfast buffet that we ate it almost every morning. They had a lot of things that Alex liked and was one of the better buffets I've eaten in awhile.

After eating breakfast, Jay was off to his meetings, and Alex and I got ready to go to the pool. He was quite cranky while we were trying to get ready. (I probably should have let him nap!) As we were getting ready, Alex decided it would be more fun to play in his floaty boat.

He then had to go get a book - sit in his boat - and read his book. I was cracking up laughing!!

The pool was lovely. We had a really nice time there. We had two older ladies remark on Alex's beautiful tan. I just smiled and thanked them. ;)

The funniest part was my overhearing the conversation of three older ladies. (Remember, I was at a political conference) These three ladies were all spouses of elected officials in Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana. They were all spouses of Democrats. (remember - Jay and I are Republicans) They just sat in the pool - talking very loudly - about how horrible Republicans are. How we are all evil, pretend to be Christians, and are ruining the country.

Now, being around politics as much as I have, I will tell you that there are good Republicans, good Democrats, bad Republicans, and bad Democrats. It doesn't matter what side of the aisle you are on. I just had to laugh listening to them go on and on. I SOOOO wanted them to ask me about my affiliation. I was planning on telling them that I'm one of those evil Right Wing Christians that are ruining the world!! ;) (and then walk out of the pool!)

Alex and I got back to the room just as Jay was done for the day. He and one of his co-workers wanted to go to Yorktown, so off we went. Alex sort of slept - but not really - wouldn't sit still for the "historical" video - but did better when we got back in the car. Most of Yorktown is a driving tour. I'm embarrassed to say that I fell asleep in the car. ;) I'm not as into the history stuff as Jay is.

We got back in enough time to get showers/baths and cleaned up for Monday night's festivities.

We were supposed to go to the Oklahoma reception (next year's conference is in Oklahoma City), Kentucky Night and then Bush Gardens. We made it to the reception - it was nice - but crowded. Then we were off to Kentucky Night. We decided to take the bus so we wouldn't have to drive. So, stroller, diaper bad and Alex made it on the bus. Just as we pulled into the event the heavens opened up and it POURED. We were outside, in the rain, me in WHITE capris and a cute shirt, Jay trying to push Alex in the stroller UP A HILL, and the rain coming down harder and harder and harder. By the time we made it under cover, I was SOAKED, the stroller was soaked, and my hair was a disaster!!! Luckily I packed stuff to pull my hair up. I was not happy at all.

Alex, though, had a great time. There was a band and he just danced and danced and danced and danced and danced.

I can't believe we didn't get any video of him dancing. It was hilarious. And, of course, he was showing off for all of the pretty girls in the room.

Needless to say, I wasn't much in the mood to go to Bush Gardens after my soaking, so we went back to the room and actually got to bed at a half decent time. (and we found out afterwards that there wasn't much open at Bush Gardens, so we made the right decision.

Day 2 - The Birthday Party and Family Night

Alex and I had a big day planned for Sunday. We were leaving at around 9:00 in the morning to make the 3 hour trip to Soltana's for Derek's birthday.

First of all - Jay thought I was crazy. He couldn't believe that I would take our child - on a road trip - to meet someone that I had only "talked" to over the internet. (which wasn't exactly true - we did talk on the phone!!) I guess I wasn't nervous about it. He did make me promise to call when I got there to make sure that they didn't have us tied up in chains in the basement. ;)

The trip went well - Alex slept for most of it.

Then we got to meet Soltana and her family!! It was so awesome!!! Derek was having fun playing with his friends, and Cerah kept trying to escape! We had a GREAT time. Here are some pictures from the day.

For even more (and better pictures) check out Soltana's blog.

We had a wonderful time - they didn't chain us up in the basement - and we CAN'T WAIT until they come to Kentucky at the end of August!!!

By the way - I was showing Alex a picture of Cerah yesterday from Soltana's blog. He got all excited - leaned in and kissed the computer screen and then tried to give it a hug. SO CUTE!!!

We then drove back to Wiliamsburg (another 3 hours!) and got back to the room in just enough time for us to 'freshen up' and then head out for our Sunday evening event - Family Night!

Family Night took place at the Governor's Palace in Colonial Williamsburg. A drum and fife group came to our hotel and "marched" us over to the Palace. It was hot, but it was really cool. There was food, drink, and cool stuff going on.

The food was good - Alex was still on his protein and vegetable strike! (and of course he was charming EVERYONE that he saw - those old political southern ladies just couldn't get enough of him!!)

They had some old toys available for the kids to try. Here's Alex "playing" with the hoop thing. (you know that hoop that the kids would hit with a stick to make it roll over the ground) He didn't quite get the idea, but had a lot of fun hitting things with the stick.

We then went over to the outdoor stage where they had storytellers/singers/jugglers/etc.

Here was Alex relaxing!

Look how sweaty he is!! (and he's eating a "cookie" - at least that's what we call Fig Newtons!!)

We ended up going back to the room around 9:00. They were going to shoot off fireworks, and we weren't sure how Alex would handle them. He was also very tired (as was mommy).

It was a LONG day - but we had so much fun!!

Vacation - Day 1

Jay really didn't have to do anything on Saturday, so we took it easy in the morning. Since Alex didn't go to sleep until almost 11:00 the night below, he slept in the next morning. (which made mommy and daddy VERY happy)

We went and got breakfast, and then decided to walk around historic Williamsburg. We had barely made it onto the historic grounds, when we discovered this.

Alex has NEVER fallen asleep in his stroller - EVER! I just couldn't believe it. I think he was still pretty tired from the day before and his late night. Jay and I walked around for over an hour with Alex sleeping away. (have I mentioned yet how HOT it was??)

We went back to the room, where Alex woke up. We let him play around in the room for a little bit, and I went out and got lunch. This is where Alex's protein strike began. He refused to eat any protein (or vegetables) the entire trip. It was carbs and fruits the whole time.

After lunch, he was acting tired. Jay took him for a walk while I got a little nap in. When they got back, Jay and I switched. I tried taking him for another stroller ride, but it didn't work twice.

It was getting time to get ready for the evening event. We decided to take Alex out to dinner before the event as we didn't know if they would have any food for kids. (they did!)

Our Saturday night event was at Jamestown. We had the whole center to ourselves. Here are some pictures from that night.

Alex was fascinated by the Native American dancers. The little girl in the center of the picture above was ADORABLE.

It was another late night - Alex didn't get to bed until almost 11:00 again!!

My Car and our Big Road Trip

Jay - being the smart, wonderful, amazing husband that he is (why am I buttering him up? He doesn't read this blog!) - thought it would be a good idea to have the oil changed/car tuned up before our big drive. I thought this was a good idea - and we even had it in enough time to make it work. (the mechanics that we use are inexpensive, but SLOW!!!) I also wanted the cigarette lighter looked at since it wasn't working. For those of you who are worried - no - I didn't take up smoking. We wanted to take Jay's Sirius radio on our trip, and we needed a working cigarette lighter.

So, they called and said that the car was done, but Jay forgot to tell them about the cigarette lighter. Ok - so they were going to look into it, but they didn't get it done soon. Weekend passes, and the car is finally done the Monday before we were to leave. We go pick it up on Tuesday, I'm driving it home, and realize that the air conditioning was now not working. YIKES!!

We take the car back in Tuesday night - tell them that we need this fixed for our trip on Friday - and they assure us that they will look at it.

Yeah right! They didn't look at it until Thursday - found out it was something major ($800 +) and they wouldn't get it done in time for our trip.

I was SOOOOO mad. I just couldn't believe it. So, we ended up having to take Jay's car. He drives a 1987 BMW 3 series. (and please don't be impressed - it has over 250,000 miles on it and is starting to show it's age) It's MUCH smaller than my car (a 1997 Chrysler 300 - is that right, dad?) and I wasn't looking forward to the long drive in a small car. But - there was no way I was going to make this trip in a car without air conditioning. (Isn't that just so shallow!)

We did ok. We were able to fit everything in the car (with the car topper that Jay was smart enough to purchase). It was just a little cramped.

Alex did great. He slept, he ate, he read books, he slept some more. We ended up only stopping twice and we were on the road for 12 1/2 hours!! One of the places we stopped was Tamarack in Beckley, WV. We ate and let Alex walk around a little bit. There was this area outside that had things for kids to play on/around. Here's Alex having some fun.

Alex discovering mulch. I think he only got one handful in his mouth!

Our room was AWESOME!! It was a large room with a bed, a bar area, a sitting area and a fireplace. There was a room with closets, and a sink (kind of a changing area) and then another room with a door that had the tub/toilet/sink. Here are some pictures.

Here's Alex running around like a wild man when we first got there. It was very nice to have this little "room" to put his pack n play.

Those windows opened up to a nice balcony. We never went out there because 1) it was HOT and 2) there was a brick wall but it didn't go all the way across the balcony, and little man would have fit in the gap!! Yikes!!

We're Home - And LOTS of Catching Up!!

We are home! We actually survived our first family vacation. It actually went really well. I also have lots of catching up to do. Lots of pictures - lots of stories.

So, here we go.

A Week Ago

I decided to give Alex yogurt for breakfast. This by itself isn't news. The fact that I tried to let Alex feed himself is. Here is his handiwork.

He started out using the spoon....

And then it quickly went downhill from there!

He was quite proud of himself.

Alex and I then went to an amusement park where we "chaperoned" the kids from our church's youth group. I have chaperoned in quotes as they didn't require any work! They were wonderful. We had fun - but it was a long day.

My next post will be about our vacation.

Call For Prayers

I've seen the power of prayer work so many times over the past couple of months. God has big plans for our kids, and is faithful to us!

I'm asking for prayers for Andrea, T. (her husband) and K. (her son)

Andrea has been a wonderful prayer warrior for many people of the past couple of months. They got out of PGN over a month ago. Unfortunately, their process has stopped as their attorney was having a hard time getting K's birthmom in to sign off for the final time.

Can you all add Andrea to your prayer list. Please pray that:

1. K's birthmom made it in for the final sign off
2. If she wasn't able to make it in, that the attorney was able to travel to her village to get her signature.

(We are on our way home from vacation. We decided to split the trip up coming home. We should be home by late tomorrow afternoon.)

We Made It

Wow - What a trip. All day with a 14 month old at an amusement park on Thursday and then 12 1/2 hours in a car on Friday.

But - we made it - we are all in one piece, and Alex is doing great. I'll post pictures later and tell you a little about our adventures. Jay just took Alex for a walk, so I'm going to try to get some rest!!

We go to see Soltana, Larry, Derek and Cerah tomorrow!! We are so excited!!!!!

In Honor...

...of the new Harry Potter movie and the last book being released this month, I give you this test.

Your Harry Potter Alter Ego Is....

Click on the link and take the test.

My results are:


You scored as a Hermione Granger
You're one intelligent witch, but you have a hard time believing it and require constant reassurance. You are a very supportive friend who would do anything and everything to help her friends out.

Hermione Granger 80%

Albus Dumbledore 70%


Draco Malfoy 65%

Remus Lupin 65%

Sirius Black 55%

Harry Potter 55%

Ron Weasley 55%

Ginny Weasley 35%

Severus Snape 35%

Lord Voldemort 30%

Boy - It's HOT!!

I think it's hot just about everywhere - but it's been a really hot weekend here. We've pretty much spent our time in the house this weekend.

Alex still is refusing milk from his sippy cup - even if it's chocolate. I've resorted to giving him one bottle a day so I can get some dairy in him.

We have now added please and shoes to our signing vocabulary. He's SO cute when he signs please. He tries to say the word at the same time. I'll try to get a picture of it.

I've been frantically trying to get laundry done before we leave this week - I still have LOTS to do. :)

Here are some pictures from this weekend.

Whenever Alex does something that he's excited about - he makes this next face.

Isn't this a great picture? The sun was coming into the family room and putting this really interesting glow on everything. Unfortunately, I didn't take this picture - Jay did - he's much better at taking pictures than I am.

Here's Alex and Jay watching horse racing. He got so excited when he saw all the horses on tv. When they started racing, he starting running around and pointing and getting all worked up. I think Jay is counting the days until I'll let him take Alex to the race track. ;)

Alex has also started playing peek-a-boo with his hands and "jumping." He cracks me up!!

Mommy Spoke Too Soon

Alex won't drink his milk, now. :( Yes - I spoke too soon.

He hasn't had much milk over the past couple of days. I actually went out and bought two new sippy cups and some chocolate syrup. I'm going to try both of them to see if I can get the milk in him.

It could also be because - yes - Alex is sick AGAIN!! He's had horrible congestion over the past week, and Thursday he started pulling at his ears. I took him into the doctor yesterday and we have another double ear infection.

This puts us in the, "you can consider tubes if you want to" world. Our friend is an ENT so I'll probably be making an appointment when we get back from vacation.

I have no pictures because pictures of cranky, sick baby are no fun.

(and I keep talking about going on vacation. It hit me today - it's not going to be a vacation! Jay has to attend this conference, so basically I will have to take care of a 14 month old, all by myself, in a hotel room. What was I thinking?!?!)

Bottles, Beds and Singing

What a week!!!

I only had to work Monday and half of Tuesday. (it made for a very short week!)

I decided that starting on Wednesday we were going to start weaning Alex off of his bottles. (he is 100% on whole milk, now) I thought that we would start with his afternoon bottle and then tackle the other two.

I gave him milk in a sippy cup for breakfast just to see what he would do......he drank it!!! He then had a sippy cup full of milk after lunch, and then had milk for dinner.

Yes - my son gave up his bottles in one day. It made me a little sad.

Not only did he give up his bottles yesterday, but he also had another major change. Since we've brought him home, his crib has been in our bedroom. We wanted it there at first for bonding (and to make our life easier). We still haven't moved him. It was always something - we were going to be gone, he was sick, I was sick, something.

I told Jay that we had to move him soon, or we would have a 16 year old still sleeping in our room. :) So, Jay moved the crib to the middle of our bedroom yesterday so we would be forced to move it upstairs to his room.

We ended up going over the Michelle's house for dinner. We left at around 8:30...already at Alex's bedtime, and we still had a crib to move.

We put Alex in his pack 'n play while we attempted to move the crib. He was NOT happy. He screamed his head off. It didn't help anything that we had some pretty big technical difficulties with moving the crib. (did you know that the doorway for our bedroom is bigger than the doorway to Alex's bedroom? yeah - neither did we)

All of the sudden Alex was silent - and this is what we found.

Look how sweaty he is!! He was so worked up.

Here is what his room looks like. I can't believe that he actually has a real room now!

So, we then had to wake him up to get his diaper changed and into his jammies. That went pretty well - gave him kisses - and put him down. He didn't cry!!

I went downstairs - and cried....and cried....and cried. :( It hit me that he was growing up. I got myself pulled together and then I walked into our bedroom - it looked SO bare - and I cried again.

I wish I could say Alex had a great night - he didn't - he ended up getting back up and was up until after midnight. Today was better - his naps went well, and he went right to sleep tonight.

Alex and I have also started singing together. I was able to get some of it on camera. :)

Some Randomness

I believe that every family with a toddler needs one of these

Our family always had a dust buster growing up - but I have now found that this is my favorite item in the house right now.

Alex has added cracker and berry (as in blue berry) to his signing vocabulary - we are now up to about 15 words and he can really communicate with us.

He is OBSESSED with books. Especially his Diego book. These books aren't baby board books - these are regular books for 4-6 year olds. And we have to read it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and (do you get the point!). We are going to have our hands full with him. He is SO smart.

Example - we were on the way home from Columbus yesterday. He was looking at one of his books. He then started signing horse. I didn't think there were any horses in the book, so I looked - and sure enough - up in the corner were three little horses. NOTHING gets past this kid.

He found a little bottle of shampoo (from one of my business trips - you know - the stuff that is in your hotel room). I don't know how he knows it is shampoo, but he's been carrying it around, pretending to pour it in his hand and then he rubs his head - it's hilarious!!

I leave you with some cuteness.

Do You Like Free Stuff

My blogger friend, Sig, is having some give aways on her blog.

You can email her at SA3@aol.com and ask to be invited to see her blog. She has some cool stuff (at least mommies think they are cool) to give away.