Texas Tech vs aTm

This weekend Kristin, Natalie, and myself flew down to Houston to visit my parents and grandparents. My folks got me tickets to the Texas Tech vs Texas A&M for my birthday, and I wasn't going to miss the game! Kristin was originally going to go with me, and was looking forward to it because she had never "experienced" College Station. Kristin wasn't feel well, so my mom was a happy gameday substitution. She had never "experienced" College Station either.

We had to leave early from Houston because the game was at 11 AM...which I am sure disappointed many college students who where planning on tailgating all day. As a visiting fan, I didn't really care, other than having to sit in the sun for 5 hours...it was HOT.

This first picture is me with my mom as we were coming into the stadium:

 

aTm reserved all the "good" seats for the visitors, and here is a picture from ours:

 

These were actually good seats in my opinion. It was almost like watching a video game because you could see plays develop and see all the spacing. You know you have a good aerial view when birds are flying below you during the game.

This is a picture of opening kick-off:

 

The last picture maybe the most important one...because we needed this win to keep conference championship hopes alive.

 

Overall, I had a great time at the game, and a great time with my mom (everyone together, "aahhh").

Landon

Merrymead Pumpkin Farm

This weekend was the annual Pumpkin/October/Fall festival at Merrymead Farm, where we buy our milk/ice cream/etc. Numerous people from Church were going together, so Natalie had several other kids to run around with. Our good friends, the Garrett's, just had their second child, so we took their first, Joshua, with us.

We all rode on a hay ride together:



Kristin took this picture right before watching the local ER helicopter take off. Don't worry, no one was hurt, they were just making a PR appearance. We took an almost identical picture a year ago, that can be found here.



At the end of the day, all the kids got to pick out a pumpkin to take home. Natalie and Joshua each picked 10+ pounders, and it made for a long walk to the car.



To see the rest of the pictures, click this link.

Please Touch Museum Philadelphia

This past weekend, Kristin and pretty much all the ladies at church went on a Ladies Retreat to a camp that our Church sponsors 30-40 miles west of Philadelphia called Camp Manatawny. It was a good time for the ladies, half of which are pregnant it seems, to get together and spend a few days studying God's word. I am sure there was lots of "talking" and "conversing" and "gabbing" and "some more talking"...which is wonderful.

All of the abandoned husbands decided to have a Man's Night on Friday, and nothing says Man's Night like grilling red meat...oh, and all the kids were there too, but they were too busy destroying the Clark's house and playing the popular game of "who can hold the most toys while trying to take everyone else's." Very popular these days with the 2 year olds. We had to break up a few skirmishes, but nothing serious. I didn't have my camera with me, as it wasn't on my list of things to bring for "Man's Night."

The next day was the grand opening of the new location for the Please Touch Museum of Philadelphia. The museum was previously located in downtown Philadelphia, in part of an old building with no parking. It was difficult to get to, small, and outdated. I guess they stopped putting money into it a few years ago when they started working on the new location. I say "new location" and not "new building" because the building that they moved into is this, Memorial Hall:



Memorial Hall was originally built to be the Art Gallery of the 1876 Centennial Exhibition and first home to the renowned Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Art Museum has since moved towards downtown Philadelphia (think the movie Rocky). Memorial Hall has 38,000 square feet of new exhibits dedicated to kids 7 and under.

I said that it was the Grand Opening, but it was actually the first time that the public was allowed in, and only for members who had RSVPed for the event. Knowing that Kristin was going to be out-of-town, I thought this would be a perfect time to go. Since our membership allowed for 2 kids and 2 adults, I invited Chris and Annie to come with us. Natalie and Annie were in heaven for almost 3 hours. We could have spent all day there...actually, we could have spent all day in only a portion of the museum. The place was HUGE!

Here is a picture of Annie and Natalie walking into the building:



Like any good parent would do, we let them go to the water exhibit first, so that they could be wet for the rest of the trip. It wasn't until they were wet that we realized they have aprons for the kids to wear. None of the other kids were wearing them, so it wasn't just our kids that were wet.



The next section was dedicated to pond animals. Natalie really enjoyed jumping from lilly pad to lilly pad as it made noise with each jump.



She stopped to take a picture with a swan, although she kept insisting that it was a "goose."



One of Natalie's favorite section of the museum was the "Philadelphia Hospital." Natalie quickly grabbed a baby from the nursery, and took it over to the exam table, along with a doctors kit. Well, actually, before she could get a doctors kit, she tried to take a few instruments from another kids bag.



She checked the baby's ears:



She even gave the baby a shot, "gently":



While Natalie was playing in the Alice and Wonderland section, a reporter from the Philadelphia Inquirer took a picture of Natalie having a tea party with Mr. Rabbit. He took her name down and where we were from. He said that they would be running a special section on the museum in next Sunday's paper (10/12). We do get the paper, and will keep an eye out for the report. If she makes it into the paper, I will post it on the blog, but I am sure that he took numerous pictures, so I am not getting my hopes up.

We finished up our trip with a few rides on the carousel. The second time around I went to go and put her on a donkey/goat/etc. and she looked at me and said, "no daddy, I ride horsey." OOOOkkay then. We found a horse, and all was well with the world again.





Overall, we had a blast, and I would gladly go again. To see the rest of the pictures I took on the trip, please see here:
All pictures

p.s. I had to take my camera to the Best Buy doctor to get fixed, and they won't have it back to me for 2-4 weeks. I broke it on our trip to Iowa in September, but have been making due. Most pictures are too bright, so I think that a sensor is broken. I was hoping that they would just replace it, but I wasn't that lucky. I have a back-up camera, thanks to Kristin's sister Mara.

First Day of Preschool

It was Natalie's first day of Preschool, and she could cry if she wants to...



She wasn't crying because she had to be away from Mommy or Daddy for a few hours. She wasn't crying because it was too early. She definitely wasn't crying because she didn't want to go. She was crying because she wanted to wear different clothes...



She cheered up enough to pose with Mommy before leaving...



But then the bottom lip came back out as she headed for the door.



I wish I had pictures of her getting out of the car at Preschool, because from what Kristin told me later, she turned to Kristin and said "c-ya Mommy!" and ran right in to play with the kids. We were thinking that this could be just a one day thing for her, and that she would be sad the next day of school. A few days later, we found out that this was not a one-time occurrence. She asks to go to school, tells us about school, will point to the school when we drive by on our way somewhere else, and when we drop her off, she almost forgets to say goodbye!

I guess each kid is different, but Natalie loves going to school!

Natalie Gets a Puppy!

We started rewarding Natalie for going to the bathroom in the potty. She isn't 100% there yet, but she is getting closer.

Natalie has been wanting a little toy puppy that she had seen in Target a few times, so we bought it for her and told her that if she was able to use the potty so many times, she could get it. Let's just say that she was motivated to play with that toy puppy, and exceeded our expectations quickly.

I must say, it is a neat little toy. It came with a doctor's kit, which Natalie uses to check the dogs heartbeat and blood pressure. They also have a syringe, bone, and bottle. When you pet the dog it whines, and when you pat it on the back it barks.

Natalie named the dog "Blackie" and she will often compare other dogs she sees while riding in the carseat to Blackie. From time to time, I catch her checking Blackie's vital signs in the living room when she is playing by herself.

So, she doesn't have a "real" puppy like her cousins, but this is all she is going to be getting for awhile. We will need to have our own backyard before thinking about getting a dog.

Here are a few pictures of Natalie and Blackie:

Trip to Iowa

Over Labor Day Weekend, Kristin, Natalie and I took a trip to Iowa to see Kristin's parents and relatives. We have been calling Kristin's parents, Grandpa Al and Grandma Terri. Natalie, on the other hand, calls them "Granpa Owl" and "Gramma Terri." At first we thought that she was saying "Al," but it is clearly "Owl." Al has been a good sport about it, and the name has stuck for now.

I had a busy week of work before going to Iowa, so being on the farm for a week was very relaxing. As with any vacation, you forget to take pictures sometimes, and I would put this vacation into that category. We did however take the camera out when we went to a local yearly event just across the border in MN. As a side story, you will notice that the pictures below are a little bright at times. When I went to get our camera out of the bag the lens was broken. Not the glass part, but the focusing function, and I am guessing the aperture adjustment. Good thing I bought the Best Buy warranty...I just have to find time to take it up there.

We went on a Sunday afternoon following church with Kristin's parents and grandparents. Here are a few pictures of Natalie with Grandma Terri, Great Grandpa (Clarence) and Great Grandma (Esther):





I think both Natalie and Terri enjoyed looking at all the animals. They looked at sheep:



They looked at chickens and roosters:



And Natalie even got to pet a pony:



I will leave you with pictures of some unique tractors. Natalie's favorite one was the pink one at the bottom. She even talked about it on the way home. Somehow she thought it was "her pink tractor"...not sure where she got that idea though.

New Jersey's Adventure Aquarium

I feel like I need to reintroduce myself again. We are still alive here in Philadelphia, just busy. We have been doing some very fun stuff lately, but getting everything posted on the blog has been a problem. As I am typing this, Natalie is running circles around the basement, singing portions of Disney songs, and playing with her dolls. Oh wait, she just broke her routine to come over to the desk to sing along to music playing on the computer and to ask me what the object she was playing with was. Somehow she got the lens cover to our digital camera. I have no clue how she got this, or where she got it from, but she did....she is 2, what do you expect?! So, as you can see, we have our hands full right now, so I apologize for not blogging. Any of you regular blog readers are welcome to visit and have Natalie entertain you while I write a blog entry. :)

Okay, let me recreate the highlights from the last month of Natalie's life...it may take a few days to catch up, so please come back.

About a month ago, I took Natalie down to the Aquarium in Camden, NJ. Camden is right across the Delaware River from downtown Philadelphia. Kristin stayed at home to get some work done in the house, so this was a dad/Natalie event, and I was excited to spend some special time with her since I think I was traveling the week before. Before we left the house, I pulled up the aquarium on the internet to buy tickets (www.adventureaquarium.com), but realized that they wanted $2-3 per ticket for a "handling fee." The only "handling" that was going to be done was me taking the tickets off my printer, and I wasn't going to give them the extra money. I decided I would just buy tickets when we got there and "save" the money. More on this later...

As I was driving down there, which would normally be a 1 hour drive, I hit bad traffic as they had the entire interstate down to 1 lane. I quickly changed my route, but it still look me 2 hours to get there. During my "extra" time in the car, I started thinking about how expensive the food in the aquarium was probably going to be. It was at this moment, stuck in traffic, that I came up with the "brilliant" idea of eating lunch in Camden before going to the aquarium. Food is food, right? I didn't realize this, but Camden isn't exactly Smalltown, USA or Safetown, USA. It is more like, WishIWasPackingHeat, USA or IHopeTheColorsIAmWearingAreSafe, USA. So, we quickly ate our lunch at McDonalds...and got back in the car. Maybe I am being a little dramatic, but hey, its genetic.

We finally make it to the aquarium, pay for parking, and walk towards the entrance. I realize there must be something else going on here, because there was a really REALLY long line and it wasn't moving. Turns out that the aquarium is the only thing in Camden that people would line up for, and this line is the one for tickets. If you already HAD tickets, you could walk right in. So much for saving a few dollars! I spent the next hour in line trying to keep Natalie entertained without losing our spot in line. Amazingly, she was so well behaved, I didn't have to chase after her once. Here is a picture of her as we get towards the front:



We get our tickets and start heading for the entrance. We stopped to take a few pictures while watching boats on the Delaware river. That is Philadelphia on the other side of the water.



Here is a picture of the Ben Franklin bridge:





We go inside, and the first exhibit is dedicated to coastal fish. They have a large, yet shallow, tank that filled with tons of pan shaped fish. Here is a few pictures we took in front of the tank:





The next thing that Natalie really enjoyed was the hippo. They have a few hippos and we got to see them swim right by us. These animals are huge! If you have ever watched Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel, there is one episode where Mike Rowe has to clean this very tank. Definately a "dirty job", because there was lot of "dirty" water.







I did take a few pictures of various other fishtanks, but they didn't really turn out. Too much flash, and not a steady enough hand to take pictures without a flash. I am sure if you check out the website linked above you can see more. They have plenty of sharks to look at.

Natalie really enjoyed looking at the jellyfish. Even when she sees this picture now, she says "NEMO! NEMO! NEMO!" I think Disney knows what they are doing!!

Walla Walla

We just got back from our yearly trip to the west coast to spend time with Kristin's side of the family. This year our trip was centered around one of Kristin's cousins getting married in Walla Walla, Washington. The locals say that the town is so special, they had to name it twice. For those of you that have not been to the southeastern part of Washington (which was me until last week), it is a dry place, and reminded me of west Texas at times. When you get near the Blue Mountains, you start to see wheat fields and vineyards. Here is a picture that I took from where Kristin's parents were staying for the week:



When we got to Washington, Kristin's parents picked us up at the small airport in Pasco, which is near where Kristin's grandmother lives. We stayed at her house for a few days while everyone else flew into town. Natalie stayed busy playing with their dog, Babe, which reminded me of my sister's old dog Kavu and playing in yard with a sprinkler Kristin's Aunt Mary bought her. I think she was doing her little Saturday Night Fever pose in this one:



Most of our time was not spent in the Pasco area, but in Walla Walla. More specifically, we spend more time hanging out at a house in the country where Kristin's parents were staying. If I were to turn around from the picture I posted at the top, you would see the salt water pool for their place. This pool was extremely popular with the kids, and some of the adult kids. Although I didn't get any pictures of it (because I was in the pool), Natalie's favorite thing to do was to jump off the diving board! She didn't want any help either. She would walk out to the end of the diving board, we would all say, "Jack be nimble, Jack be cool, Jack jumped into the swimming pool!" And with no delay (sometimes before we even finished the song), Natalie would jump into the pool. The diving board was a typical one, about 2-3 feet off the water.

She is getting good with her shoulder floaties, and would then swim to the pool ladder. I would stay in the deep end, treading water, until she got back up on the diving board. This routene quickly changed to me hanging from the diving board while I waited (treading water is a workout, and I was on vacation, and I had just eaten Mexican food...okay, I think my manhood is not in question anymore, I will move-on). We played the "jump from the diving board game" for 20 minutes, and then we just hung out in the shallow end. Here is a picture of Natalie playing with her cousin Elise and the two grandmothers, Mary and Terri:



On Saturday, Kristin's cousin Bryce was married to Sarah, and Natalie spent most of the ceremony playing the nursary with Dad. We have been trying to extend her time in church before she melts down, but on vacation, at a wedding, was not going to be one of those teaching lessons. On the other hand, at the reception, Natalie was in her true form on the dance floor....even before the music started. Here is a picture of her and Elise burning off some energy:



Natalie did try to start her own dance, but it didn't really catch on. Well, I don't think that she was given enough time from Mom for it to really catch on anyways. She literally, stopped dancing, sat on the ground, lifted up her legs, put them back down, got up again, and kept on dancing. She did this several times before we put a stop to her crazy dance moves.









We left Walla Walla the next morning, and then flew home the next day. I took more pictures of our trip, and they can be seen here:

Trip to Walla Walla