Naples Children's Museum

Rainy day in Florida so we decided to go to the Naples Children's Museum. Mason loved the outdoor water play area! 

Thankful for a change of clothes in my backpack..... he was soaked! 

They had this giant treehouse that the kids could climb up. They are at the very top in that window. 

The kids loved the store. The cash registers actually had buttons and made noise. I'm not sure why buttons and noises are so satisfying. Ha! 

Mason reporting the news. 

Their favorite part of the children's museum was the vet's office! Mason made sure they had the area all to himself..... ha! He had a bad cough and parents were guiding their children away from him throughout the whole children's museum. The vet's office was a small enclosed area, so parents quickly got their kids out. Ha! There may have been a few times where we also looked around like "who's kid is that?" haha! 

Veterinarian Addison taking care of her animals. 

This was in the midst of Mason's love and demand to see cows while we drove. So I snuck him on the statue for a quick picture. 

Cooking us food in the kitchen area. It's fun to watch Mason do pretend play... he hadn't done much at this age! 

This was a great way to spend a rainy day in Florida. The kids had so much fun! It rained all day this day, which was usually for us. We were ready to be outside again! 
 

Flying to Florida and Loose Tooth

I was itching for a vacation and I found cheap flights, so I booked a last minute trip to Florida over Thanksgiving! I think we booked it 3 weeks out if I remember correctly. 

It's so easy to fly with the kids - ha! Actually Mason does take some work if he is awake. I found Tractor Ted on Amazon for this trip, which was amazing for my little farm loving boy. He loves Tractor Ted and the Munchy Crunchy episode (about farming carrots). 

Addison discovered a loose tooth on the flight, she was soooo excited!! I didn't believe her at first, since she is always saying she has a loose tooth. But she actually did! This was a very happy day for this little girl. 

Had to make our trip to the outlet mall to see the turtles in the pond! 

Went to Costco and got the infamous hotdog and soda deal - ha! Addison got herself a new pair of gloves from Costco. Gloves in Florida.....who knew? She wore them the whole trip. Then she lost one I think in March. She was devastated. She worked very hard to find it (we all did), but never found it. One day, one of her friends thought she found it. We were all so excited. Until we realized it was the same hand we already hand.... therefore not our glove. Lots of disappointment in our house that day :( She has been saying for months the first thing on her list for Santa is a new pair of purple gloves. Ha! 

 We love the golf cart rides!! Mason had to take the baby along for this ride :) 

Okey State

Last minute trip to Stillwater :) Landon asked my dad if he wanted to make a road trip to Stillwater on a Monday. It had been 40 years since my dad had been there and the fieldwork had been in good shape. 

They asked the rest of us if anyone wanted to go. I told Ryan he should go and I would stay home with the kids. He said the same to me. Well, Friday morning about 10:30am I decided I would go and my dad was going to pick me up at 3pm :) We stayed in KC that night, then drove the Stillwater the next morning! 

We walked around and enjoyed their tailgate scene a little while before the game. They set up tents on their campus and beer is sold at tents outside the stadium. Lots of big black trucks, red dirt, and cowboy boots! 

Landon's connections once again got us free tickets. These were our seats! The big screen was quite impressive. Not sure why ISU thinks ours is so great..... lol. 

A fun game day atmosphere, Landon and I concluded much better music than ours. I get quite bored of the same old songs game after game, year after year. Ugh. There was more entertainment at their games as well. And lots of girls wearing leather pants - ha! 

Sent this to Ryan, he would enjoy the 12 views during a review. 

ISU ended up losing, it was disappointing. But still fun to get to another road game. Drove back to KC that night, then home the next morning. 

It was really fun to go on a road trip with my dad and Landon, I'm glad I made the last second decision to go! 

And this was happening at home :) Ha! 
 

Trick or Treating and Clone Cones!

Pre-season basketball game and Grandma Rita wanted to buy the kids a clone cone. This is from the parents who never ever (and I mean never!) bought something at a concession stand during a game growing up! I think my first clone cone was with Ryan! 

It was a giant clone cone!! And just the first of the season :) 

First game of the season and this little dude wasn't scared! It was fun to get our first picture with Cy. 

Mason's daycare got them all dressed up and had treats outside for Halloween. I apparently didn't take any pictures, but they had the parents sign up for a trunk or treat event. So I signed up and tried to decorate my car (it was pathetic). But I had a bubble machine and toy cars, tattooes, and bouncy balls..... It was a hit! 

Picture on the left is another trunk or treat that the Ames church put on. Again, not sure how I didn't have more pictures.... 

Picture on the right was trick or treating at our house on Halloween. Addison wanted to be both an angel and a pirate.... ironic, yes. Ha! The costumes were $5 from wal-mart so I was okay with two costumes. She also had a trick or treat event at the school, so we got good wear out of both costumes! (Spoiler alert: both kids wore their pirate outfits on a Disney cruise two weeks ago!)

Beautiful night for trick or treating!! The kids went hard the whole time, they had a good time. Mason loved the activity, can't wait to see what he thinks this year! 
 

Dogs and pumpkin carving

Loving the corn pit at the pumpkin patch! There was always so much that came home in Mason's pants.... 

Addison loving the new zipline. Mason will love it this year! 

Working on his roping skills. 

Addison's assignment was to draw a picture of her pets. Well, she has none. So she drew Scooby and Baby Dog (Thor), who she is deathly afraid of. Ha! We laughed that she drew them inside houses with no way out, we assume that was done on purpose. Ha! This was at a time when she had so much anxiety around all dogs and would cry and basically freak out. We were at Landon's and I put her on a chair in the living room that I thought Thor wasn't allowed on. Well, we all heard her scream..... it's the one chair he's allowed on and he jumped up with her! I felt so bad. 

Cooper was the only dog that she would be semi-okay with..... but the old man passed away and we were all sad. She said for about 9 months that she wanted Cooper for her birthday and Christmas. Broke Nicole's heart! Cooper was an amazing dog. I told Addison we would definitely had a dog if it was just like Cooper. 

We got this at her school conference in November, had no idea she had drawn it. It was a fun surprise at conferences. 

Addison told me last night that she wants a kitten but when it grows up to be a cat she will sell it. I told her no one would buy a cat :) And she wants a puppy, hamster, and guinea pigs. Ha! 

Pumpkin Carving!! Mason didn't love the guts but he did better than Addison :) We have some pretty good videos and pictures of the last few years pumpkin carving with her. They wanted a scary pumpkin last year. 

Here is their scary pumpkin!! We also got some fun pumpkin stickers, they enjoyed those more than carving (and much cleaner and faster!!)

 

Growing fast

Measuring Mason at 2.5 years, this kid is growing like a weed! He is much taller than Addison was at this age. He's in the 80th-90th percentile in most areas and Addison was always in like the 5th percentile. Ha! It makes me said that Mason wears bigger clothes than Addison did at the same age.

Scrub scrub scrub! I like that the kids like to help clean...sometimes. Ha! They enjoy scrubbing the floor and get a rag with a bucket of water. 

And more football games! These kids are excited for football to start in a few weeks! 

 Addison took this picture to send to Tracey to tease her..... when she is in Tracey's bed, Tracey tickles her. There was one time that Landon slept in Tracey's bed and Addison said to me "I can't wait till Tracey finds out Landon slept in her bed, she's gonna tickle him!!" Ha! I can't wait either kid. :) 

This is how this kid looks after daycare. Almost every day. Ha! I would ask him if he ate dirt..... 

His hands would be dirty and he would rub his hand from his mouth up to his nose. Ugh. Filthy dirty every day! 

Checking out his turkey booty in the mirror. Ha! He wore this out the year before, and it apparently still fit!