Hi Ho Hi Ho, It's Off To School I Go!

First day of K4!  What blows my mind is that this is the age I taught before children, and I thought they were "big kids" back then!  News Flash: 4 year olds are still very much babies!!!

 Kenadie with her sweet teacher, Mrs. Tara, along with "Pretty" the cat!  Everyone got to bring their favorite stuffed animal on the first day of school :)

 What a cute door to go in every day!

I snapped this one today, 3rd day of school, and before I could take my lens cover off, Berkley had promptly found her spot at the table and was already busy at work!  Thanks B for not making a scene when it was time to go!  She displayed some major self-control, I tell ya :)  Kudos, I know that one was hard!

We've got one more day to go to school this week!  This mama is having some adjustment issues with having to be somewhere 5 days a week!!!  I haven't had to do this in about 5 years!  Happy almost weekend!!!  I'm thinking there will be an ice cream stop after school tomorrow!  

Berkley goes to Mommie & Me

Yesterday was a fun day for Berkley!  Our Mommie & Me class started back up, and with Kenadie going five days a week to preschool this year, we look forward to being faithful participants :)  We had a great time, and look forward to spending our Monday mornings with our new friends!

Singing the welcome song to Berkley, while she has her turn in "the chair." :)

Mrs. Madalene reads a story!

And since Kenadie started school today (Tuesday), we figured we would let her come with us!  

If only Berkley was just a little better at making such a solemn face :)...  Despite how emotionless she appears in the above picture, she had a great time and I know she can't wait to go back next week!!!

She said it...

"Mommy, I know why Berkley wears night time diapers... that way she will know it's night time and she wears day time diapers so she will know it's day!"

Lindsey: "Oh Kenadie, I wish I wasn't so sleepy."

Kenadie: "Well Mommy, that's just how God made you!"

"Mommy, you're the best mommy I've ever had!"

"The reason I got louder while I was saying my prayer was because I wanted to make sure God could hear me."

"Mommy, remember that time Berkley was in your tummy and you let me pick her to be a girl?"

"Please tell me that dogs don't eat people!"

Mommy, remember that time you were cutting that string off my shorts?  Well, I was scared you were going to cut my leg and then I would bleed.  Ya know, bleeding is just not one of my favorite things to do!"

Lindsey talking to Aaron on phone: "You will not believe!  This lady in Walmart, who was severely overweight, COULD NOT get over how fat Berkley was!!!  Can you believe that?  She's always in the 50% on weight, it's not like she's THAT big!  And really, if I'm being honest, I have seriously never seen a larger gluteus maximus than hers!"  I use the term gluteus maximus so that Kenadie won't know what I've just said...

Kenadie from backseat: "Mom, did you know your gluteus maximus is your bottom?"

I'm 18 months old!

I'm 18 months old!  Can you believe it?!?  Well, I'm actually just a few days past 18 months, but sometimes I just get so busy playing with my big sister that I forget to blog about such important milestones!  As you can see in the picture below, I am all about feeding things!  Myself included!  I really just wish my mommy & daddy would stop altogether with trying to feed me!  I REALLY can do it all by myself!  So, back to the picture... that's me and one of my mommy's baby dolls from when she was little :)  And that "Count" bowl you see there, yeah, that was my Uncle Wes'!  My Kay Kay sure knows how to save some things :)

I'm usually a pretty happy girl!  Well, if I get my way of course :)  No, really... I AM getting much better when I don't get my way :)  It sure makes my mommy happy when I don't throw a fit for not getting what I want!  I choose to do that sometimes.  But every once in a while, a girl just HAS to have a meltdown!  I love playing in the playroom!  I can make a real BIG mess, REAL quick!  My favorite song is "This little light of mine", and I'm just so cute waving my little "light" around :)  You really need to see me!  My mommy sure smiles big when I do this :)  I love my paci and "Foo Foo!"  I use to get them all day, every day, but when my mommy & daddy returned from that long trip they went on... well I guess Mommy thought it was time to start leaving those things in my bed until I was going nap-nap or night-night?!?  I was a little confused as to why I couldn't have them around the clock anymore???  But I got over that pretty quickly, and now I just get even happier when it's time to go to sleep because all my loveys are in there!

I love pretty much ALL foods!  Especially any sauce I can dip my food in!  I make a REAL big mess, and we aren't quite sure why sauce gets all over my clothes, but my bib can remain stainless???  I've really come to love Papa & Kay Kay's new pool!  And I'm so sweet when it comes to getting my sunscreen put on!  My favorite part is when Mommy puts that little stick of stuff on my face!  She says it's to protect my skin and so I won't get premature wrinkles!  I sleep very good at night!  I go to bed around 8:00 and usually get up around 7'ish these days!  I've decided that 5:30 stuff is for the birds!  My mommy is sure glad about that too!  I take two naps a day, typically one that's good, and one that I wake up really grumpy and possibly too early from, but ya know... I just don't want to miss anything my big sister is doing!  So, I cry & cry and then eventually my mommy will come to my rescue!  I'm usually quite grumpy and no fun to be around for about an hour after that.  Then, I get like this second wind kind of thing and I'm good as new until bedtime!  

I went to see my doctor for my 18 month check-up, and this is what he told me.  He said I had grown since my last appointment and that now I was:

32 1/2 inches long (68th%)

24lbs. 6 oz. (70%)

18 1/4 inches (head circumference) 50%

I love, love, love to put on ANY shoes I come across!  I also enjoy putting clothes on, on top of whatever I already have on :)  Those who love me are ready for me to talk a little bit more, but for now, I really only enjoy saying: uh-oh, bye bye, Da Da, Ma Ma, all done, Kay Kay, Papaw, ball, bow and night night.  I was saying "thank you", but now when I need to say that, I just kind of hum the sound of the words "thank you."  

Well, I guess that's about all I've been up to!  Oh, wait!  I did go to the beach back in July and had the best time!  I'm going to try to stay on Mommy until she gets that posted on here!  Well, that's all I have time for, for now!  I'm off to practice my running!  I've been watching the Olympics, and I'm almost as fast as Lolo Jones!  Mommy can hardly catch me anymore :)  Bye bye :)

Let's wrap this up!

Our next to last day in SF was spent in a rental car driving down Hwy 1.  We made stops when we wanted, but one of our favorite stops was recommended by the concierge at our hotel, Fetzgerald Marine Reserve.  It was just really something seeing all these seals out on the beach!

                     I will spare you the other 30+ pictures I took of the seals!  Neat, nonetheless!

                                        And then the fog lifted, and everything looked beautiful :)

We knew we had to return to Golden Gate Bridge, remember?  I basically had a picture of mine & Aaron's foreheads with the bridge behind us!  I ALWAYS scope out the possible photographers nearby, and let's just say that sometimes I have poor judgment!  Even if the person has a camera just like yours, it doesn't automatically mean that they know how to use it!

This was the best I could get of us together!  Stranger #1 was a failed attempt, so we waited a little longer for stranger #2, and I just decided to take Kenadie's advice, "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit!"

Our last day was spent going back anywhere we didn't feel like we spent enough time at, walking, walking, and then a little more walking!!!  We also went through rather quickly, ahem, 2 hours, the Walt Disney Family Museum.  It should have taken 4+ hours, but seeings how this lady can only read so much trivia for sooo long, Aaron had to cut his tour a little short to accommodate said lady!  Aaron fact: ANYTHING & EVERYTHING he reads WILL be retained and NEVER forgotten!  Please, children, have your daddy's brain!!!  It will REALLY help you when studying for a test!

There you have it :)  My last San Francisco post.  We had a great time, and were so excited to see our girls!  Noting this for one day when Kenadie doesn't think its cool to be my best friend anymore... and because I've never felt more loved... As soon as we got home and were reunited, I picked Kenadie up, we hugged for a long time, and when I looked at her, she had tears streaming down her face :)  Sweet, unforgettable moment :)  She had missed me :)... and Aaron too, of course!

SF Part II

Okay, so picking up where I last left off...  Aaron's conference was Mon.-Wed., so on Thursday, we went on a group tour of the city.  It was great!  Definitely felt like we saw most everything we  needed to see!  It was an 8 hour bus tour, and you definitely needed all that time!  The idea is to get a tiny snippett of the sights and then return to the places where you want to spend more time.  There were literally some stops where the guide told us we had 5 minutes to be back on the bus, or you would get left!  And she wasn't kidding!  We left a French family of 5 behind at one stop!  I questioned did they really know that 5 minutes was barely enough time to grab your picture and get back on the bus!  Time management... that's one thing I'm good at!  Well, at least when no children are involved!  I WAS NOT going to get left, and I probably annoyed Aaron just a little with being OCD about getting back on that bus!  The tour wasn't cheap, and I wasn't about to be the reason we got left somewhere, because there would have been NO way to catch back up with the group!

Moving on... Our first stop was Lombard Street, also known as "the crookedest street", which is technically not the crookedest street anymore, but hey, I'd still say it was the crookedest street I've ever seen!

We actually drove down it ourselves the day we had our rental car, ya know, just so we could say we did :)

Coit Tower

Chinatown

Grace Cathedral

Palace of Fine Arts

Next stop was Golden Gate Bridge.  It was very foggy, and the stranger who took our picture had perhaps never used a camera before, so we were definitely going to be coming back here!

After this, we went to Saulsolito, no pictures to show for, but that was where we ate lunch before joining another guide for our tour of Muir Woods. 

Redwoods as far as the eye can see!  Picture doesn't do it justice!

This concluded our tour!  We are tired!  We rode the ferry back and crashed for a little back at the room.  This isn't quite where I wanted this post to end, however, for some reason, it's not letting me post any more pictures...  I suppose blogger is getting tired of hearing about our San Francisco trip :)

We're Home!

Aaron and I got home on Sunday, and man were we happy to see our girls!  We had a wonderful time in San Francisco, but it's always nice to return home :)  Ya know, a girl can only take so much of doing no laundry, having no responsibilities, no cleaning, and eating out every meal, ha!  Thanks to our wonderful parents for taking such great care of Kenadie and Berkley!  It was quite a treat for the girls to get 9 straight days of constant attention from the grandparents!  My mom said all she managed to do while she had the girls was get half of one of my dad's shirts ironed, ha!  I'm going to break up our trip into several posts, so as to not picture overload you all at once, and because I have two little jewels who wouldn't quite let me stay at the computer long enough to do it all in one post :)

We flew out of Gulfport early Saturday morning (July 14th) and landed in SF at 3:00.  We got to our hotel and set out to walk the streets and find some food!  No kidding, I KNOW we must have walked 25 miles while we were there!  I know for a fact on our last day there we walked 5, so it's possible it was more than 25!   

I didn't take any blog worthy pictures the first day (traveling), so the first "event" on our agenda was the Giants game on Sunday.  That was fun!  There were about 45,000 there, and Aaron and I were 2 of the 10 people there not sporting our Giants attire, which we have none, however, I did offer to wear such so that we would "blend" in, but Aaron refused and said the only team we wear are the Braves, ha!  So, we just stuck out like sore thumbs, but that didn't bother us any :)  Note to self, if we attend another Major League game, I will be wearing one of the teams playing, and it will probably depend on whoever has the best colors :) because I'm such a die hard fan like that!

 Bay Bridge

Alcatraz, which we toured on Monday. 

Loved Alcatraz!  If you go to SF, get your tickets early!  Our tour guide said they were already sold out till September!  This is where Monday starts.  Aaron attended the conference he was there for, I met him for his two hour lunch break, and then I returned to the room to catch up on my scrapbooking.  We met back up when he got done at 5:00, and headed to board the ferry to Alcatraz Island.

Looking a little too jolly to be touring a prison, but I have a hard time taking any picture without smiling :)

The next day was another day of Aaron attending the conference, me meeting him for his two hour lunch break and scrapbooking in the meantime while I waited :)  Totally was enjoying myself doing that!  Today we went to Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39 to see the sea lions, shopped some and had dinner.

Pier 39

Have I mentioned how cold it is here!  Highs were typically in the upper 50's, lower 60's!  A BIG shout out to my SIL, Joy for helping me get my wardrobe ready!!!  Needless to say, Aaron may not be inviting me on a 9 day trip for a long time :) :) :)  Nothing like 9 days worth of new clothes, new shoes that I usually don't pay that much for and all new accessories, including a watch that I totally indulged in!  Yay me!  Yes, I've returned to reality!  But it sure was fun :)  I just don't do anything halfway ya know :)  All or nothing!

Thank you iPhone for getting us around EVERYWHERE we went!  While I people watched and took in the beautiful scenery, this is what Aaron looked like, and no, he's not checking one of his thousand emails!  Remember I DO NOT navigate well! 

To be continued...