Part Three

We spent the last part of the trip in Wichita, just us three.  We picked it because it was a halfway point between Texas and Lincoln, but we had a lot of fun there.

We hit some outlet malls in Oklahoma City on our way to Wichita on Thursday.  Score!  An Ariel for Izzie, as well as her very first pair of Nikes.  Daddy was really excited to buy her those!

Setting up camp at our hotel.  Iz slept like a champ at night and took great naps. But we found out darker was better so she slept in a lot of bathrooms... 

 Another phone!  Hotels rock!

Yummy

Post swimming cookies.  You have to recharge. 

We went to Exploration Place on Friday.  It was AWESOME.  Children's Museum on steroids.  Bryan and I had just as much fun as Izzie.  We were really excited because they had a special dinosaur exhibit...

...but as it turns out, Iz prefers her dinosaurs stuffed or in books.  These were a little too real-life for her tastes.

We could have spent the whole day there -- we didn't even make it to all of the stuff!

Hats and trains...sounds like Daddy's specialty.

Helicopters, airplanes, tractors, oh my!  This girlie had plenty of things to drive.

She love the teeth trivia game, though I wouldn't say we scored very well...

This lovely man wanted to teach us about archaeology.  Iz wanted to dig in the sand.

Back to the hotel for a nap and then for a walk along the river.

There were tons of beautiful paths and sights along the way.  Quite lovely.

Saturday was all about shopping!  When we sensed Izzie's patience was running low, we spent a good hour on baby rides, in the playland, and at Build a Bear.

The experience of making Ralph ended up being more traumatic than fun (she might need to be a bit older next time), but she is quite in love with him now.

Checking over our purchases at the end of a long day.  No surprise she spent a lot of time trying on the new shoes...

Part Two

The second part of our trip was spent in the lovely town of Haslet, TX.  We got to spend a lot of time with Matt and Leslie, and their kiddos James, Pierce and Iris.  Swimming and relaxing and snuggling and sunning.  Much fun was had by all!

Cowboy boots go with every outfit in Texas

 If you're thinking these two look like trouble, you would be correct...

 Pierce was generous with his toys...

But when Pierce is away, the Iz will play...

And this is why I love rompers...

Peek A Boo!

  

We couldn't leave Scout out of the action.  Sweetest big girl puppy ever.

 Sun hats are going to make a comeback after this picture...

No words.  She just rocks it.

Family photo op after a fun day at the beach!

Who doesn't want to snuggle these guys?!?

 Izzie and Iris sharing a secret...

Delicious.  I'll take seconds.

Road Trip!

Well, this will be part one of our trip.  The rest of the trip will have to come later, as I'm sure there are way too many pics for one post.  We took a 1500 mile road trip a few weeks ago, and it was marvelous!  Iz was a stupendous traveller, and we had a great time with family and friends.

We left on a Friday and spent the night in KC, and then it was off to Arkansas Saturday morning.  We were able to spend the weekend with Bryan's grandparents, and had a lot of fun relaxing and eating and exploring!  After that, it was off to Texas for a few days to see the Cruzes, and then we spent a few days together as a family on the way home.

Award for Best Toddler Traveller goes to...  Okay, probably not Iz because there's most likely some 16 month old somewhere that managed to whip his parents up smoothies and serenade them in Italian while driving 24 hours... but this girlie did awesome!  Lots of sleeping and snacks, and an occasional Mickey Mouse show and she was happy as a clam!

Her favorite thing about the hotel room?  The phone.  Hands down.

At Gigi and Grandpa's lake

Throwing rocks with Daddy

Gigi had her at "Puzzle"

Church on Sunday morning

A little hike Sunday afternoon

New Things

Two new things in Izzie's life last week...swimming and mustangs.  We had our first swimming lesson last Wednesday, and our second one last night.  She screamed for pretty much the entire first lesson.  She was not impressed by the singing or the games or the fact that she was being forced to participate in them (with Daddy, of course).  But last night went better--she cried much less and actually had fun with some of the activities.  The only redeeming factor for the place is that they let her play with balls in the water.  If it weren't for that, I'm pretty sure she would have walked out.

" A game with balls?  Not too bad..."

"I have to crawl all the way up here and put it away?  CHILD LABOR!"

"I'm sorry, you want me to do what?  Fall in the pool?  No, thank you.  I'm fine right here."

These floaties under her arms lasted about 5 seconds...

And then--OH, THE TORTURE--she had to float on her back and go under a tunnel.

We also bought a Power Wheels Mustang convertible last week.  For those of you who don't know, Bryan LOVES mustangs.  He has wanted to buy Izzie one since she was born (and I have secretly wanted to buy her any Power Wheel to fulfill my childhood dream of having one), but they are super expensive and she is too little.  But we found a great deal on one at a garage sale down the street, and couldn't pass it up.  Luckily, cousin Caden was with us, or I have no idea how I would have gotten it home.  It was pretty cute to see him and her cruising down the sidewalk in that thing.

Though she's not quite big enough to ride, she loves to sit in the passenger seat and play with the radio.  She also likes to copy Caden and pop the hood to "fix it".  

This is the Face...

This is the face of our big, grown, almost 16 month old girl!

A girl who says...ball, baby, Mommy, Daddy, puppy, book, more, cheese, yeah, no, acky (gross), broccoli, shoes, hockey, apple, one, car, bird, outside, quack, Mickey Mouse, cracker, cookie...

A girl who is starting to test Mommy and Daddy's boundaries and patience.  Hitting and sassiness are becoming an issue.  As a result, this girl gets multiple time outs a day.  But doggone-it if she doesn't come hug me when they're over.  So this is also the face of a girl who knows how to play Mommy.

A girl who usually doesn't like to be cuddled or play quiet.  She likes to stomp and roar and yell and eat dirt (yes, eat) and get bruises and run and wrestle.  (This is a favorite book.  She picked it out at the book fair when she was 9 months old and still loves it.  ROAR!)

A girl who can be the sweetest, loveliest thing in the world.  Here she is attempting to give Maya and Pixie love (she just gets semi-close and then tries to lay her head on them).  They are usually unimpressed but tolerate her nonetheless.

A girl who is starting to get how to do things and can follow simple directions.  But she wants to do things herself and do them right.  If you tell her to put the book away, she will happily run over to the shelf and put it away.  But watch out if there isn't room for it--this chick will freak out!

A girl who loves to play and be silly.  "How much does Mommy love you?  SO MUCH!"  Daddy taught her this trick awhile ago, and it's one of our favorites.

A girl who continues to find more ways to make Mommy and Daddy fall in love with her every day.  Just look at that face!  

MS Walk

We participated in the MS Walk for Auntie this last weekend.  It was storming quite a bit that morning, but the rain managed to hold off for the start of the race.  The mommies and kids did the mile walk (though we'll use the term "mile" loosely as it started pouring so we turned around before we actually made it to the half mile mark) and the daddies ran the 5K.

Obviously Caden and Avery had the best seat in the house!  

Iz was really happy to see her friend Henry from school!