FIVE YEARS

Yesterday was our 5 year anniversary! Those 5 years have FLOWN by, which I guess means we're having fun. We really are having a blast! We've already lived in 3 states, have 2 beautiful daughters, we're always on the go, and we have some pretty great friends and family. Now usually we don't really celebrate.....just the two of us....but my Mom and Dad came down Thursday night and Derek and I took advantage and went kayaking by ourselves Friday morning and afternoon. It was a nice treat and just what we both wanted to do.

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a nice Memorial Day weekend. Derek's brother, Kevin, and his family (Tami, Abby, Kaiya) came to start looking for a house since they are moving here next month. Derek and I watched all 4 girls on Saturday and we kept promising them that we'd take them to a splash park. By the time we all got ready it was nap time! Once we got on the road it was time for dinner so we stopped to eat......finally we were actually headed to the splash park. Unfortunately, once we got there it wasn't opened up yet...we were 2 days too early :( The girls still got to run around on the playground and work up a sweat. Here they are in the car.

That night Abby and Allie wore their princess pj's and were so excited to be dressed the same!
We can't wait for them to move here so we can at least have a year of being really close to family! I know it will be a lot of fun for all of the girls. Avery was so cute around Kaiya. Should be a fun summer.......or year, for that matter!!!

Kayaking

We had a great time today on the MAD RIVER doing some kayaking with our new kayaks. We were hesitant to take the girls, not knowing how they would do (especially Avery). So, we just decided that we'd give it a go this time to see how things went and then we'd know if we should take them or not in the future. Surprisingly, the both were great. Avery was a little whiny at first, but she calmed down once we started going and in between Daddy feeding her puffs and giving her different toys to play with. We took our Bebe Pod with us so she could sit in that without falling forward and under the front part of the kayak......it really worked out well. She started getting cranky again towards the end, but eventually fell asleep and Derek took her out of the seat and put put her on her back in between his legs. 10 minutes after that we were to our destination. It ended up being a 5 mile trip. Allie was also a trooper. She put up with me getting her wet and hitting her head with the paddle quite a few times! She did say that she would ride with Daddy next time!

Fair Oaks Dairy Farm

Fair Oaks is in Rensselear, Indiana and it opened up in 2005 or somewhere around there. I know it was after Derek and I were married and before we had kids! We went there with some of Derek's family shortly after it opened up. There wasn't a lot to do then, but it was free and informative...and on the way to Chicago, which is where we were going.

Anyway, it's much bigger now and there is more to do......it's also not free anymore, but the cost isn't too bad. I had kind of forgot about the place until one night a couple years ago when Derek and I were watching DIRTY JOBS on TV. We couldn't believe it, Fair Oaks was on the screen! It was a very interesting episode and of course it made it more fun and interesting since we had been there before.

Since it's only about a 45 minute drive from Lafayette we decided to go there on Friday. I don't think Allie is quite old enough to understand everything or really be all that interested in it, but she still had fun. She got to see cows and play on the little playground. Unfortunately their fun outside activities weren't open yet. I really wanted to see a baby cow being born. There were 7 born while we were there, but we missed them all. There was one little lady that was about to have a baby and I sat there waiting and waiting for something to happen, but it never did. I'm sure she probably had it right after we left. The bus ride was very informative and this is where you learn that the farm is fueled by the cow manure! I had remembered hearing that on Dirty Jobs......there is so much more to see on the show that you don't get to see on the actual farm itself so if you ever watch the Discovery Channel and see Dirty Job look for the Dairy Cow Midwife episode. It's pretty funny! If you want to check out a clip on youtube of Mike Rowe (from Dirty Jobs) helping one of the cows give birth, then check it out here:


Here's pics of our visit:
Anytime Now!
Just missed it
Milking contraption
Papa and Allie trying to figure it out

Columbian Park

Columbian Park is the place to go to in Lafayette. If you search for things to do in Lafayette this place will come up #1 (well Purdue might come up in some cases). This was the place to go when I was little, but a lot has changed. The playground is much bigger now - but I do miss the old school slides and climbing contraptions. The zoo is also ALOT bigger and there is way more to do (it's still FREE). The rides are still there - minus a few of the best ones (the cars and the train). The biggest change from when I was little is the HUGE water park, Tropicanoe Cove. Although it's too cold to go to the water park right now, I'm anxious to take the girls there this summer for their first water park experience.

Of course we hit up Columbian Park while we were here. Allie loved the animals and the playground. She really wanted to ride the rides too, but they aren't opening up until next weekend.


Dino Dig!


I'm a veterinarian

First Ride in the New Boat

Last Saturday we took the boat out for a little drive. It just happened to be about the windiest day ever. We were bouncing around everywhere because of the massive chop. Despite all of that the girls were somewhat happy - which hopefully means that this year will be a good one on the LAKE!

Avery ~ 9 Months

Our little bugger is 9 months old now - 3 short months from being ONE. Her latest accomplishment was crawling. She had been doing somewhat of an army crawl before and since we've been in Indiana this past week she has decided to get up on her hands and knees and GO.

She's such a doll baby! I love her thick, curly hair...so cute. Avery loves being held or at least having someone within eyesight. If no one is around she'll scream the shrillest little scream. I don't remember Allie having that loud of a voice. We love her growing personality and that irresistible smile!

UPDATE from Avery's 9 month well baby visit: 17.2 lbs (18%), 27 in (48%)

Our 3rd Child

No, I'm not pregnant! Not even thinking about another little one anywhere in the near future. Our third child, really Derek's third child, is the boat. Derek has been dying to bring it home from the storage lot and get it ready for the lake. He finally brought it home yesterday and he was up until late in the night working on it and then up early this morning working on it some more. I know that he got the cd player installed on it, both engines purring and the new cobra jet fins put on. He still has to clean out the fuel lines and the boat definitely needs cleaned! Other than that, I don't know what all he has left to do. Shouldn't be much more because we're planning on taking it out for a spin on Saturday! He did order some hyrdo turf to replace the carpet and it's not supposed to get here until next week - but should be pretty cool once it's put in. Derek is trying to come up with a good name for the boat, but is being very picky and can't decide on anything. Anyone have any ideas? Here are some of the ideas we've come up with: BAAD's Jets, Jet Duster, Wave Duster, Jetty Betty........I can't remember the others! We really like Hydro Therapy, but Derek doesn't want to use it because he found the name on a forum he goes to about jet boats and that was what someone else named their boat. Anyway, here is a pic of the boat.......and one of Avery in the drivers seat just like the pic we took of Allie when she was this age (I hope to find that pic and post on here too).



Plus a couple pics from the park yesterday....

Garage Sales Are Awesome!

Well, we had a garage sale this weekend...our first. We've been saying we were going to have one for a while and set the date for it. I wasn't sure if it was really going to happen or not because Friday was here and the day set for it was Saturday, but we still hadn't tagged anything with prices and almost everything was still in the basement. We stayed up until 1 am bringing everything up, pricing everything and making signs. We really weren't expecting a lot from it....it was supposed to rain all day and our only form of advertisement was our signs and an ad on craigslist. Our goal was to make $100 and we'd be happy. Well, I'm happy and excited to say that we surpassed our goal and made over $300!! The weather was beautiful and everything turned out perfect. We took a big box of stuff to Goodwill last night and a few things to Once Upon a Child and Plato's Closet. We didn't expect to get much from either of those places because the most we ever get when taking something there is a few dollars. Of course we didn't get anything at Plato's, but we got $11 from Once Upon a Child (and they only took 2 outfits and a toy)! So, I just have to say that garage sales are awesome and you really do make money at them! We were tempted just to take everything to goodwill and I'm glad we didn't because I know that we sold things a lot cheaper than what they will there. Now, who wants our left over clothes?

Hiking, Climbing, Animals & More

So I've been a little behind in my blogging........I'll briefly try to catch everyone up on our happenings. Two weekends ago we went hiking with some friends at Clifton Gorge. It is a beautiful place with waterfalls and cool rock formations. It's also a bonus that it is only about a 10 minute drive from our house (it's connected to John Bryan State park, which I've mentioned before). After we hiked for a little while we decided to grab our climbing gear and go climbing over at John Bryan. We were originally going to drive but after a quick vote it was decided that we would hike. I should probably mention that we didn't start our adventures until around 4 pm that day because Derek was stuck at school until 3 pm. I don't even know what time it was when we started for our climbing destination, but we figured it wasn't that far and we'd have plenty of daylight left. Well, it took a lot longer to get there than we thought it would and Avery was NOT HAPPY. She was tired and hungry. I stopped to feed her and told the others to go on and I would find them. When I found them Allie looked exhausted and she was starving! Anyway, we got the climbing in and we had to hike to our cars in the dark........but it was fun.




This past Friday, we went to Carriage Hill with friends. It's a cute little "working farm" set in the 1800's. Allie was thrilled to be spending time with Adeline, "Cole", and Laurie. We saw some animals, had a picnic and went to the little country store for some penny candy where I got Allie a good portion of chewy candy and one piece of hard candy......and a sucker for myself - and when we got in the car Allie asked if she could try my sucker, so I let her.......I never got it back! She did trade me her candy though. She's a smart little cookie. So, I didn't take a whole lot of pics, but you can find more on Nicole's photography blog. She takes such AMAZING photos! If any of you are ever out this way and would like some photos taken of you and your family I would HIGHLY recommend her!


Friday night Mony and Papa came over! Allie was really excited about this. We met them at Chic-fil-a so we could eat and Allie could play. Saturday we went to Allie's favorite playground. The weather was sooooooo beautiful! It's always nice to have Mony and Papa visit!