fun at the mall w/ friends.

I forgot about how cool the mall play area is. We went there on the last Friday of our vacation to play w/ Ian and Della. And Cael, but he had to stay w/ his mommy b/c he is only a little tyker. They always have so much fun here. And I very much enjoy asking the older kids (you know, the ones that really shouldn't be in the play area) to be careful and stop running so carelessly. Seriously. WHERE ARE THEIR PARENTS???? Gotta love it:)Too classic. Climbing up the fruit slide WITH her dred lock baby. (It has dred locks. Seriously. K has twisted the hair into dreds, but it is much better than pulling her own hair out!)

Slips and Slides.

Well. Our cutie petutie pool got a little hole in it on Friday. I took it back to Target and while most of the pools were gone, I found the coolest Dora slip n slide. My cousin's little girl has one and it was decided that we NEEDED one. Jon wanted one so badly, but when I told him I didn't think K was old enough, he basically admitted that he wanted it for him! So, once we saw that Hailey and Sidney were able to play on it, I knew it was a must. And of course, Jon did go down. 3 times. K kept saying, "Daddy turn. Daddy turn." And she LOVES it.

I also went to Menards and got a pool that is super similar to the one that popped. Maggie and K fit in the pool at the same time - Super Bonus. I am not sure who loves it more. It has a canopy that has a hose hooked up to it and it creates a shower from the top.

The coolest waterfall ever. EVER.

After the zoo, we went back to the hotel and actually had a 2 hour nap. MUCH needed 2 hour nap. Daddy and Papa went to another Cards game, so Rach, Grandma Julie, K and I went to Macy's and then to eat at TGIFridays. Kennedy ate, actually DEVOURED, a bowl of spagetti and a glass of chocolate milk. Then we decided to walk to a park that had this awesome waterfall! It was the coolest. K loved it, but wanted to walk in the big currents that were a little too scary. There were so many stairs - she had a blast. Needless to say, after that we went back to the hotel, watched Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (numero DOS) for the second time that day and basically went to bed at 9. Except when we went to our own bed to go to sleep for real. You guessed it. Another night of being SOOO excited she couldn't get to sleep. She didn't go to sleep until after 11. Oh well. It was still a great trip!

We did go to the arch, but the pics aren't worth posting - all of a sudden Kennedy doesn't like to have her pic taken. She yells "STOP!" with her mean face and finger wagging at you. Kind of hard not to laugh.

We did go to the zoo. Really, we did.

But it was HOT. Sweaty Hot. Just ask Daddy. And Kennedy decided it was so much fun in the hotel that she didn't need sleep. That first night was ROUGH. We finally had to turn the tv off at 10pm. I don't think she went to sleep until 11 though. So, yes, we endured an hour of "night daddy" and "night mommy" and "where papa?" "rach" (RAKE as pronounced by Miss K). Finally though, she did fall asleep. And then we had

to wake her up at 8 to go to the zoo. It was just so hot, K just sat back in her stroller. We didn't

take that many pics at the zoo, it was kind of frustrating at first, we didn't see any animals. And the the apes weren't out, so that was kind of a bummer. We did get out of the stroller in the reptile house and let me tell you, this girl has NO fear. She was trying to grab the snakes as they zipped in front of the glass, same with the turtles. I had to include a pic of the crocodile (or alligator - I can't remember the difference) b/c it was being all peaceful until Kennedy went "ROOOAAR!" to it, then it started to walk toward us and a little girl next to us started to cry. Kennedy told her, "it's ok!" Too cute!

The Cardinals Game. First EVER.

Well, Miss K did a super job on the ride to St. Louis - thanks to the DVD player in the Durango, she was able to watch Barney over and over. And then she finally fell asleep with an hour to go. This wouldn't be enough of a nap, but I was totally thinking she would just take a little snoozer when we got to the hotel. Yep, I was MISTAKEN. Apparently, it is super fun to be in a hotel room for the first time, and even more fun when there is a connecting door right to Papa and Grandma's room. Needless to say, there was NO nap. Kennedy was crazy excited and totally wound. But in a great mood. We got dressed, went to the Team Store and got a cutie petutie tshirt for the game that night. Here's how we looked at the start of the game. But this only lasted about 2 innings. Then we had to walk the stadium in the stroller b/c she just couldn't get settled back - I think she wanted to go back to sleep, the game started at 7:15, and without a nap, she was probably ready to be done for the night. But here, you see, she got her 2nd wind. She clapped and cheered when everyone else did. She even looked to the sky for the fireworks:)Here she is w/ her first stab at nachos. HOT. Papa got the supreme ones, this meant they had cheese, meat, salsa and jalepenos. She may have eaten a small bit of hotness b/c she cried and cried after eating her 2nd chip. But, like the trooper she is, she must have forgot how hot that one was, b/c she asked for 'more'. Here she is at the end of the night. Sweet thing - she made it all the way to the 8th inning. I think it was after 10pm by then. Thank goodness for dip-n-dots.

Vacation Day 1. Park. Woo Hoo!

On the first day of our vacation, we went to the city park in Swisher. Super cool play castle, but more for a tad bit older kid. And they filled the play area w/ little rocks. Rocks! No mulch, no rubber stuff, heck, I would have even been ok w/ sand, but ROCKS! Made it a little hard to walk/run. This thing was huge though - many levels - and the stairs were at one end; with each level was a different size slide, going from a small kiddo slide (which you think would have been ok for K) all the way up to a large twisty slide (this ended up being the slide of choice).

Crossing the rickety drawbridge - this was soooo scary the first time, but after that, she became a pro!Up top on one of the many landings. Climbing (actually, running as fast as her little legs would go) to the tippy top of the largest curly slide she could find. And see that little, teensy, weensy "castle" at the top? Yeah. Hard to keep her still long enough to fit in that and get her on your lap, but she loved the slide, so we did it...Wee! K and Grandma Julie loved the slide:)This was a grill that someone made! They made it into a tractor and K loved it. She was driving. Pretty sure.

Parades, BBQs, BARBIE JEEP & Fireworks, oh my!

This weekend was North Liberty Fun Days, and let me tell you, FUN they were! We didn't even make it to the actual festivities (rides, games and more), but we had such a fun weekend all on our own! I apologize for the long post, but I can't keep any of it out!

It begins on Friday. It rained on our parade. Usually a bad thing, but man, we got the most candy ever! And when we walked home, the streets were literally COVERED w/ candy, which seems like such a rarity with parades, but there weren't as many kids out, so there was plenty to go around.

Seriously? Rain? But, yes, that is a DUM DUM sucker in her hands.

And who can pass on a BOMB POP?

Saturday morning, our cousins Garrett and Nathan came over while their dad played volleyball. Here is a priceless picture of Garrett and K sharing, not only the Dora couch, but also, blankies and babies. And yes. DUM DUM suckers, sweet tarts and chewy chocolate chip cookies. MMMmmm. Breakfast of champions:)

And then....we had our BBQ on Saturday night. We think it was pretty fun! Sooooo many kids to play with and people to chat with. I spent a long time cleaning up broken water balloons - FUN, huh? And vacumming grass from the carpet:) But it was very much worth it. We think.

Cheese!

What's in the cooler? K and Hailey were investigating. And Garrett watched.

Hailey found ice. And beer. But she only cared about the ice. I swear.

And then they drank juice.

And K w/ a little dirt on her hands. She was like, "oh, no!" and I had to clean her off...
And here is Della. There were so many other friends there, but I didn't get any pics of them - I wish I would have:) Next time, for sure!

Next. With North Liberty Fun Days, come NORTH LIBERTY CITYWIDE GARAGE SALES!!! I wasn't even going to go to any, even though there was a 4 page list, I really was going to pass. But, I happened along one on my way to the grocery store. What did I find? A BARBIE JEEP. In pristine condition, I might add. The amazing part? There was a sticker for $30 on it. Seriously? A barbie jeep for $30? I figured it didn't work. When the owner saw me looking at it, she lowered the price to $20 because she didn't have a chance to get a battery. WOO HOO! I snatched it up, went to Wal Mart and got a new battery and it was a HIT! Nathan drove Kennedy and Garrett around and then the older kids got to use it at the BBQ. Kennedy really showed no interest other than being a passenger. Until today! She hopped on, put her foot on the pedal and was OFF. I am pretty sure she will be a driver by the end of the summer. Who said you had to be 16 to drive? 2 works, right?

Finally, to end the weekend festivities, there were the fireworks. I don't have any pix of them b/c it is near impossible to photograph fireworks, but K sat on my lap through the entire display. Lucky for us, they are pretty much in our backyard, so we just sat out back and enjoyed the evening.

Thanks for reading:) sorry it was so long, but as you can see we were very busy. We will surely have more to say this week as we are on VACATION!!! YEAH!!!! St. Louis here we come:)