Seattle Part One

We flew out of DFW last Monday at 7am. We arrived early at the airport as suggested. After going through security, we found our gate and started the two hour wait for boarding. Kylie thought she was already on vacation. You wouldn't think she got up at 4am from the way she was running around. We took turns following her and making sure she didn't make our fellow plane riders crazy. They all smiled as she ran from chair to chair, but I think they were secretly hoping "I hope that kid is quiet on this early morning flight". They got their wish. Kylie was an excellent passenger!! We boarded the plane and she just looked out the window until we took off. I had Kylie on my lap for the flight. We figured it would be easier than having to take our carseat, plus it didn't cost any extra. Thankfully Kylie isn't two yet. After she turns two, she has to have her own seat and ticket. Our seats were near the engine, so not even ten minutes after taking off, the engine vibration put her to sleep (which I think the running around for two hours helped with that). She only took a nap for about thirty minutes. The next three hours consisted of coloring, watching videos, waving at the nice lady sitting next to Joe, and eating snacks. Kylie and I shared a fruit and cheese platter. We had grapes, cheddar cheese (white and yellow), crackers, and brie cheese. The nice lady ( I never got her name) offered Kylie the rest of her grapes, which of course Kylie accepted. She even pulled up cartoons on her laptop for Kylie, but we didn't want Kylie messing up her laptop so we pulled out the DVD player we brought. The flight seemed like it went by fast. We even arrived about twenty minutes earlier than expected. After arriving at the airport, we went in search of the baggage claim. After getting our suitcases and KJ's stroller we headed for the car rental counter. As I posted in the previous post, we decided to rent a car (a minivan) and drive to Portland, Oregon to try Voodoo Donuts and see whatever else we could find. Portland was a BUST!! We found the donut shop, however they were closed for construction (even though the website said it would be open), there was another location, but we didn't feel like searching anymore. We hadn't eaten for a few hours so we stopped for lunch at Byways Cafe (which was featured on an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives). It was good food. After lunch, we decided that Portland was not for us. We think that Austin should give their quote "Keep Austin Weird" to Portland. We definately did not fit in with the people of Portland. The drive back to Seattle was quite long. We hit traffic a few times, but finally made it back to the airport to drop off the car. We gathered our all of our things (or so we thought) and got a very expensive taxi ride to the hotel. After arriving at the hotel we sort of unpacked and realized our camera was not with our luggage. We remembered having it last in our rental car, and knew that is where it was. I called the rental agengy at the airport immediately. The young lady I spoke with said she would check the car and call me back. Four hours later she called me back and said they couldn't find our camera or our rental car. They don't know what happened to the car, but think it went back to "Home Base" (whatever that is). I told her we really needed our camera. We hadn't taken very many pictures of our vacation, but the pictures that were saved to the memory card already were of Kylie's first snow and other Kylie pictures. She continued to tell me they had no idea where the van was. She told me I could contact Lost and Found and see if anything had been turned in. I called and the message said they closed at 4:30pm ( it was 7pm). I called the young lady back and she said "Yes, they close at 4:30", however she didn't tell me that the first time I spoke with her. She contined saying "Well it will show up sometime" in a very rude voice. Everytime I asked her a question she said "I don't know". I was getting very upset. I told her I wanted to speak with her supervisor and she said he had just left to run an errand (how convenient). I told her I did not care and expected to hear from him. About ten minutes later, her supervisor called me and again said they did not know where the van was (how do you a van that just got turned in??). He acted as if he didn't care, but said he had my information and would contact me if our camera was found.
It had been a long day (up since 3am), so we went to sleep and hoped for a better day on Tuesday.

This was not the way I wanted our vacation to start out.

To be continued...

Seattle Bound

Vacation time is finally here...well in about three hours.
Vacation starts as soon as we get off this afternoon. We won't be back to work until next Monday.
We will be leaving for Dallas after we get off work today. We will stay the night in Dallas and fly out tomorrow morning at 7am. We will be arriving in Seattle around 9am (11am- Waco time). We aren't able to check into our hotel until 4pm so we have added another stop on our vacation. We are renting a car and driving down to Portland, Oregon. We are going to make a stop at Voodoo Donuts. We have seen this place a few times on the Food Network and Cooking Channel and have wanted to try it. They have some interesting donuts. You can check out their menu here. We are going to take a little tour around Portland and then head back to Seattle later in the evening.We are not exactly sure of our day to day intinerary. I think we are just going to see what looks fun or interesting at the time. The stops we know for sure we want to make are at: Pike Place Market, The Seattle Space Needle, and the Children's Museum (for KJ).
We will spend 4.5 days and 4 nights in Seattle. We will be back to DFW on Friday night/Saturday morning.
I am ready to experience my first plane ride :) We have everything we think we need to keep Kylie occupied on the plane. Snacks, drinks, coloring books, and dvds of her favorite shows are all packed in her little backpack. We told her we are going to fly like a bird and she said "tweet tweet". I think she is excited too :)

22 Months

Kylie Jo is 22 months old today!
In two months she will turn 2!

All about KJ at 22 months:

• Weighs about 27 pounds
• Don't know her exact height, but I know she is tall for her age.
• Wears size 6 shoes
• Loves her "babies" (a fur real bear cub she got for easter, stuffed animals, and a few baby dolls)
• Says so many words I can't think of them all.
• Loves to eat! Her new favorite is a plain piece of bread.
• Likes to use a fork to eat her food (even her bread)
• Likes to help mommy and daddy water the flowers and vegetable garden. Mommy even bought her a small watering can so she can carry it herself.
• Loves bath time. All you have to say is "bath" and she runs to the bathroom. Her favorite part is splashing water on mommy :)
• Loves pup pups (dogs). Any dog is a pup pup to her no matter how big it is.
• She loves to kisses on the cheek and hugs around the neck (she puts both arms around our necks and gives the sweetest hugs)
• Says "Momma" or "Dadda" and when we turn around she just smiles and hides her eyes.
• She is funny and loves to laugh.
• She is the most beautiful, sweetest girl and the best little girl (even though I still call her my baby) anyone could ask for.

I love you Kylie Jo! Happy 22 Months!

I guess I better get started on planning your birthday party :):)

More Pictures

Our Weekend

The past few days have been busy for our family.

Friday- We spent the morning buying flowers, soil, and galvanized tubs to plant flowers. It only took us about twenty minutes to drill the holes in the tubs and plant the flowers. The hard part is going to be keeping them alive. After planting our flowers we decided to start our garden. A few months ago we bought a raised garden kit and seeds. The garden kit and seed kit comes with everything (except for soil and weed blocker) to build the garden and plant the seeds. The seed kit even includes a planting template that shows where to plant everything and how deep to plant them. The seed kit includes everything for a "Salsa Garden" (tomatillos, red tomatos, cilantro, basil, parsley, jalapenos, serrano peppers, and onions), and a "Vegetable Garden" (more red tomatos, eggplant, yellow squash, bush beans, red bell pepper, yellow tomatos, zucchini, and cucumbers). I can't wait to make my first homemade salsa!!

Saturday- Kylie spent the night with YaYa Friday night so Joe and I could get up early to drive to Burnet, Texas for the Vanishing Texas River Cruise. It took us about 2 hours to drive to Burnet and the drive was great. We saw beautiful scenery. There was nothing but cliffs and trees along the road for about ten miles before we got to the cruise. The cruise is a two hour boat ride on Lake Buchanan and then the Colorado River. It was very relaxing. We were able to get the last two seats on the top of the boat and enjoyed more beautiful scenery. The cruise is a 24 mile cruise. For the last twenty minutes of the ride, Joe and I went to the observation deck at the front of the boat and enjoyed the breeze coming off the water. We forgot our camera, but were able to get a few pictures with our cellphones.

  

 

After the boat docked we headed into Marble Falls for lunch. Although our lunch wasn't the best we still had a good time just being together. We then decided to go to Austin to the Container Store. The drive from Marble Falls to Austin was beautiful. We saw more trees, cliffs, ranches, and huge homes in the hills of Marble Falls. The day was beautiful so we were able to drive with the sun roof and windows open. After finally getting to our destination (thanks to a few wrong turns...even though we had a GPS), we shopped around the Container Store. I would buy every kind of organization item in that store if I could! We then walked over to Whole Foods. I love this store!! I wish we had one here. We walked around just to see what kind of things they have. We ended up buying only one item...a single bottle of beer (an Irish one I think). Joe is going to enjoy it tonight after work. We made one more stop before heading home. We can't have a long car ride without a stop at Starbucks. After getting our favorite drinks we headed back to Waco to pick up our baby girl. We hadn't seen her in about 24 hours. That is the longest time I think we have ever been away from her. Even though we had a great time with just the two of us, we couldn't wait to see her. I don't think she missed us too much. She had a great time with YaYa. She got to follow Uncle RyRy around before he went to work, visit Drift (the "pup pup"), and go to a wedding with YaYa. We heard she was quite a hit at the wedding. She danced and clapped for the guitar players, ran around, and even had a cupcake before heading back to YaYa's.

Sunday- Just another day at work  :(:(

 

21 Months Old

Tomorrow Kylie will be 21 months old. How is that possible? Time is going by so fast!

We recently had her pictures taken by a lady that worked with my mom. For anyone that has not seen the pictures, you can see a few of them by going to my mom's blog (http://www.sisteroneoffour.blogspot.com/). All of the pictures turned out great. The photographer told me that I could pick ten pictures for free and she would put them on a CD for me to print off whenever. I couldn't pick just ten, so I paid for the rest. All of the pictures were taken at the Quad area at Baylor University. Kylie loved climbing up and down the stairs. The photographer just let Kylie run around and she chased her with the camera. She had a great time and gave the photographer (and mommy) a good workout.

Some Stats about KJ:

• Height: The last time we took her to the doctor they said 34 inches, but I don't think she got shorter since her 18 month checkup when they measured and said 36. They measured her standing up instead of lying down, so she may not have been standing completely straight. All I know is that she is tall for her age. She is about 1 to two inches shorter than our neighbor who will be three this year.

• Weight: 27.4 lbs

• Shoe Size: I think we are at 5 maybe almost 6

• Wears size 18-24 months in most things. She wears some clothes that are size 2T (I don't know exactly what size that is)

• Words she says: YaYa (mom is so glad), MaMa, DaDa, RyRy (for her uncle), PaPa, nanna (banana), byebye, go, pup pup (for any size dog), ball, car, manman (snowman), ba (blanket), shsh (shoes/socks), Nenna (Jenna, her godmother), rock (when she wants to rock in the our recliner), chair, down, please (and uses sign lanuage so show the word), Ky-ee (for her name), GoGo (for Dora the Explorer...don't know how it got the name "go go"), me, church, purple, bible, bow, cheese, baby, Elmo, call (she picks up the phone and wants to call somebody). She is picking up new words every day.  I may have forgotten some words because she is constantly talking and I can't always hear (or understand) what she is saying.

• Loves to read or have someone read to her.

• Loves to give hugs and kisses

• Waves to almost anyone (unless you tell her to wave, and then she won't)

It is hard to believe that KJ will be two in three months. I am already planning her birthday party. She climbs on everything and loves bananas so a monkey themed party is perfect for her. A pink monkey party of course!!

Church Pictures