Well, this just goes to show that you really can do just about whatever you want at Grandma and Grandpa’s.  What started out as reading the paper and putting it on the pile set to go out to recycling, turned into picking up a piece of the paper, reading it and then tearing it into pieces, which turned into throwing the paper all over the floor and then sliding around on it, pushing it into every little corner of the room.

Jayden loves fire trucks.  We have a fire station near our house that we drive by often and if the fire engines are out of the garage, Jayden wants me to drive around the block over and over, so that he check them out.  So, while down here in Kelso, we managed to arrange a private tour for Jayden.  My good friend Pam’s husband, Kacy, is a firefighter for Longview and said we could stop by the station and let Jayden see a fire truck up close.  Kacy gave Jayden his own fire chief hat and a bag full of coloring books and stickers.  Jayden had so much fun driving the truck, getting in the red truck, then getting in the yellow truck, and running around the garage.  The only thing missing was getting to honk the horn and turn on the sirens, but as we were in the garage we all would of probably left with headaches if that happened.

Grandma even got in on the firehat action, it was her birthday after all!

Besides coming home for his mom’s birthday, another perk was that the fishing on Royal’s river is real hot right now.  So, Royal has been up at 4am everyday and has been out on the river with his dad and best friend Mikal until at least noon, and he has got some good fishing in.  Most of the fish he has had to throw back, but he has managed to bring a couple legal ones in.  My dad even got up at the crack of dawn to go fishing with them one day.  And if anybody knows my dad, he’s one of the most unlucky fishermen ever, but after losing 3 different fish, my dad managed to wrangled a monster stealhead to the boat!

The plane ride went really well.  Jayden did soooo much better than last time, in fact, he decided all the people around us were his new friends.  So, he asked all their names and spent a good hour talking to them about his horsey, how he had big hair and was going to get a haircut, how he was riding on an airplane, and pretty much anything else he could think of.  We had Heather behind us, Ben was sitting next to us, and Jeff and Tracy were in front of us.  I am just so thankful he wasn’t crying and crazy the whole time.  :)  We’re down in Kelso right now, visiting with our friends and family down here.  Jayden is having a great time with Grandma and Grandpa and Great Grandma Mary.  Royal was actually able to fly in for the weekend for his mom’s birthday, so we have got to hang out with dad for awhile too!  Sadly, Royal has to fly back to Kansas today…I guess someone’s got to work around here!

Here is one of the reason’s Jayden loves staying at Grandma and Grandpa’s.  He gets to do just about whatever he wants.  Grandma happens to have an entire drawer full of flour and Jayden just has to put an apron on and he gets to play in it.  (This is pre-haircut…all of us have managed to get our locks chopped while we’re here)

Well, Jayden and I are off early tomorrow morning to get on a plane and fly back to Washington for a visit. I’ve tried to cram all of our clothes into one suitcase, as our airline baggage restrictions now limit one checked bag per ticket and a stroller counts as a checked bag (boooo). And I’m afraid there’s no way I can go without some sort of stroller. We have to change planes in Denver and it’s quite the walk from one gate to the other, and there is no way I can carry a 30 pound child all that way, as we have a tight connection, without throwing myself into labor. Soooooo, here’s to hoping I can keep my bag under 50 pounds!

Now, the next thing I am wondering is if I am going to be traveling with this child…..

or his evil twin that emerged the last time we flew together…. We are NOT flying United this time, even though they let you check 2 bags per person…

Jayden is always trying to love on Scooter. He tries to kiss her, pet her, put her up on the bed so he can jump with her. He’s finally gave up on trying to carry her around, as he always ends up getting scratched and bit. Scooter doesn’t really love Jayden like Jayden loves her. Scooter really doesn’t like any of us that much. Today, Jayden wanted to share his favorite animal Horsey with her, or maybe he was showing Horsey just how much fun Scooter really is.

Looks like Horsey might be getting a little carried away…..eeek

I found these pictures on my old camera this morning after I had Royal take the prego picture. I had totally forgotten about them, as I got my new camera right after we moved here. These pictures were from the transition time we were living out at the lake before we left for Wichita.
Royal caught a little fish in the lake.

Then the boys found the costumes at Nana’s house and were trying some on.

Ok, this is for all the begging I’ve had for a picture. I had Royal take a picture this morning before he left for work. Jayden and I are on our way to go work out!

26 weeks done, quite a few to go!

We went up to Kansas City this weekend to visit some friends of ours who are currently stationed near there. Royal was able to get some fishing in and caught his first Kansas bass. Yipee! Jessie however caught a bigger one. :) Jessie fried ‘em up and it wasn’t too bad.

On Saturday, we decided to take the kids to the Leavenworth County Fair. Laura and Jessie have 2 little girls, Abby (5) and Martha (13mo). I have to say, the Leavenworth County Fair, in a little town called Tonganoxie, is about as good as anything Shelton could put on. There was a demolition derby going on when we showed up, so there were lots of Kansas rednecks for us to mingle with. We ate hotdogs and funnel cake and rootbeer floats, checked out the fair animals, and of course went on rides.
First was the goats. Abby loved the goats, Jayden pretended they didn’t really exist.

Next came the stinky pigs. Jayden really didn’t care for the pigs, especially the ones that weren’t laying down sleeping.

Now, the cows, the cows were different. Jayden loved the cows, he kept mooing at them. I think he was actually talking with them because they were all mooing back at him. This is Jayden’s ‘cheese’ face.

The geese, ducks, chickens, and roosters were even better than cows for Jayden. He was finally warming up to this whole fair experience. He did a lot of yelling at the them, ‘Hey ducks! Hey chickens! Cock-a-doodle-doo!!!!’ Then, we moved onto the final barn, the bunnies. Oh, happy day, the bunnies. There were small, soft, they didn’t make loud noises at you, or smell really bad. To Jayden, they were like a small and nicer version of Scooter, and he just wanted to love on ‘em.

Next, we hit the rides. Jayden, well all the kids really, loved the carousel. We had to take 2 trips on that. Jayden also decided to spend his ride tickets driving a little red jeep around with Abby, which I found out later, Jayden thought was a train. And that kinda makes sense, since all the cars are hooked together and following each other around.

The Sessom girls hit up a ride on the ferris wheel.

And finally, for the grand finale, these are some of my favorite pictures. Jayden wanted to go down the super slide. So, Royal paid the tickets and took Jayden to the top of the slide and got situated.

When Jayden came off the slide, I asked him if he liked it. He said yes real enthusiastically, like he loved it. Royal said that Jayden didn’t seem like he was scared, like he liked it. However, the picture shows a bit of a different story. It looks to me like Royal loved it, and Jayden is scared out of his wits.

Jayden is just a crack up. :)

Who doesn’t want to see some little chubby legs sticking out of the top of these boots?

I’m not sure why I continue to try and make felted slippers/boots or anything felted that goes on the feet, it is usually a big disaster, yet still I do it again and again. I saw these little felted snugs and the kit was on sale, so I bought it without thinking. They are wool on the outside, yet lined with alpaca wool on the inside (super soft!), and the picture just looked so darn cute. Then I started knitting them, and I started having doubts, because felting slippers or boots for me has never worked out, they never shrink like I think they will and usually end up huge. I even had a pair try and kill my dad by throwing him down the stairs. Poor dad, he’ll put on anything I knit him, no matter what, gigantic felted slippers, slippers that look more like feet condoms, anything I try and experiment with, he’ll be my guinea pig (sorry dad, these won’t fit you). So, I knit these in the smallest size (0-8 months) figuring that even if they end up too big, maybe Jayden could wear them. I knit them up easily while watching the Olympics the last couple nights and my gauge was right on, I mean if Michael Phelps can win gold all the time and break world records, why couldn’t I have one pair of felted slippers work out? So I felt confident when I put them in the washing machine to felt today. Well, one felted up pretty darn good, the other one struggled a bit (the one that struggled must of been the one I knit while watching the US women gymnastics fall off the balance beam and jump out of bounds). I left it in the washer to see if I could felt it a little more, but alas, it had had enough and wasn’t going to cooperate (silver medal for that sucker, I give it a 4.0 for execution, 9.0 for presentation, I mean it is cute). So, I have one boot that’s a little looser than the other, but at least they shrunk down, not as much as I wanted them too, they are basically one size bigger than they should be, but that’s not bad, this new baby should grow into them sometime, hopefully not in the summer… Anyway, I decided to spruce them up a bit and add some polka dots, so after they spent the afternoon drying in the 90 degree sun outside, this evening I needle felted on some color. I only poked and made my fingers bleed 3 times with the little barbed needle used for needle felting. Guess I’m not ready to watch the Olympics and needle felt at the same time…or maybe I should of tried to make my fingers bleed like 8 times, since that’s supposedly the lucky number for the Olympics this year. Hmmmm, I don’t think so, my bloody finger tips hurt.