Don't Mess With Texas

Well, I am happy to report that I was really surprised by all that Texas has to offer. I just got back last night from visiting my good friend Ashley and her adorable newborn son, Emerson in beautiful San Antonio. Although Ash was a bit under the weather during our visit, she was such a trooper and trucked us (us, being me & my friend Jen - another high school pal) around town (I'm in love with Taco, Taco restaurant), drove us to see the Texas hill country, showed us the beautiful Texas wine country (who knew?), and introduced us to the Welfare Country restaurant, which is located in the heavily-populated German area outside of San Antonio (again - who knew??).



I am so glad that I got to meet Emerson and see how my best friend from college has gone from my "fraternity party co-pilot, dancing in the stairwell at 2 a.m., duct-taping our dorm room off into thirds because we couldn't stand our 3rd roommate" friend, to the most loving, doting, compassionate mother any baby could ever hope for! As for Emerson, well... he's perfect. And that's just the best way to sum him up. :)



Here are some pics of the trip...

Trick-Or-Treat

Payton's new redention of "Trick-or-Treat"...

Just in case you can't understand him, here are the "lyrics":

Trick-or-treat,
Smell my feet,
Give me something good to eat.
If you don't,
I don't care,
I'll pull down your underwear!

Oh... the humor of a 3 year old. Priceless!

Wild Ride

We went to Busch Gardens with some friends of ours this week. It was a beautiful day so we stayed a lot longer than we initially had planned. Hence the reason Payton was literally snoring on the way home.

The entire day was really fun from riding the sky ride across the park, to the splash area in Land of the Dragons, to the kiddie rides and everything in between. But one of the more interesting things was our wild train ride. We always take the big steam locomotive around the park when we go (I know, shocker). The train goes through all sorts of animal habitats and one of the park employees always points out which animals are which, where their native habitat is, etc. But this train ride, we had two very close encounters with the animals.

First, there was a mother and baby rhinoceros in the African safari area. Somehow, the baby wandered off from its mother and got caught on the opposite side of the train tracks when we came through. So, the mother was on one side, and the baby was on the other. The baby took off running - (I had no idea how fast rhinos could run!) - right along side of the train (see picture). After the train passed, the baby leaped over the tracks and ran to it's mother's side. I have a feeling he was going straight into "time out" for that one!

The second encounter was funnier. My friend Jen was on the opposite side of the train from me, and we were sitting backwards on the train since we were in the last row of the train car. I started seeing all these people grab their camera and point and laugh and then I heard over the loud speaker, "Please do not attempt to pet the ostrich!" And just about that time my friend looked over her shoulder and - I'm not exaggerating - the ostrich was about 10 inches from her face! It was hysterical! I wish I had my camera rolling for that one.
And one other close encounter we had was in "Jungala" where they have these beautiful tigers in this amazing habitat. There are several viewing areas where there is nothing but a few inches of plate glass standing between you and these amazing creatures. This particular tiger seemed quite interested in our two boys and stared long and hard at them... but in a curious way, not in an "I want to eat you" kind of way. It was very interesting!

Here are some more photos from the day:

Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween

So, as stated in my previous email, I love fall and all the festivities that come along with it. Months ago, Brian and I decided to take Payton to Disney World for "Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party." When we made this decision, we involved Payton by "saving up" for the tickets. As you can imagine, it's not cheap to go to Disney these days - even if it's only for a special evening event. So for example, when we would be in Target and Payton would ask me to buy him a new toy, I would remind him that we were saving our money to "go see Mickey for Halloween." So for several months now we've been talking about this event and Payton has been so excited to go. Finally, the day arrived on Thursday! He was so thrilled he could hardly wait until 7 p.m. when they allow you into the park.
And may I just say, that if we had to pick a day/time to go to Disney, this would be it! It was so nice and cool out. And even though there were a lot of people, it wasn't so crowded that you couldn't just walk up to any ride and get right on. In fact, the only ride we had to wait for was Dumbo, and that we the very last thing Payton rode.
It was so much fun seeing the park decorated for Halloween. There must have been a thousand jack-0-lanterns throughout the park. There were trick-or-treating stations set up throughout the park where the Disney employees - I'm sorry, "cast members" - would give out handfuls of candy into the gift bags they gave out at the entrance. There was also free (can you believe Disney gave out something for FREE???) facepainting, a Halloween parade, a huge fireworks display, and of course all the characters were dressed up in costumes. All in all, it was a fantastic event and I would highly recommend it to everyone.
Oh - and apparently you don't have to be a kid to enjoy this event, as Brian and I were definitely in the minority since we didn't come dressed in costumes. We saw more adults dressed up last night than the best costume party we've ever attended! We saw adult couples (with no kids mind you) dressed up as Cinderella and Prince Charming, we saw husbands and wives dressed as hippies, and entire familes dressed up in themes such as Peter Pan (Mom), Captain Hook (Dad), Wendy (daughter), and Tinkerbell (other daughter). It was crazy!
And we were quiet surprised that Payton lasted until 11:45 p.m.!!! He was in the best mood, never fussy, just full of energy until we got onto the monorail and it was quiet and dark... and boom - he was out like a light!

Happy Halloween everyone!

I Love Fall!

I love fall. No, really... I love it. In fact, it's become quite a joke in my family that I decorate long before the actual holiday is approaching, and I milk it for all that it is worth. Here are a few examples of how I induldge in this season...



1. I began decorating with fall leaves, pumpkins and candy corn back in early September.

2. Starbucks non-fat, pumpkin spice latte. Enough said.

2. I've made some sort of meal with pumpkin in it for the past several weeks (Payton adores the pumpkin-pecan pancakes, whereas I fell in love with the pumpkin sage risotto I made for dinner last night). Also I've been drinking pumpkin-spice creamer in my coffee for weeks now (yikes - the calories!!), and yesterday I bought gingerbread and peppermint mocha creamer as well (I might as just well live at the YMCA this fall)...

3. Last Saturday we went to 3 different stores just to browse around the Halloween (and Christmas) decorations. Payton has definitely inherited this gene from me because I think he had more fun than I did!

4. The local pumpkin patch opened up on Monday and I was bummed that I didn't get there for opening day... so we went first thing when it opened this morning. Payton had an absolute ball running through the piles of pumpkins, checking out the scary characters hanging from the trees and searching through mounds of tiny pumpkins to find one "just his size."

5. Lastly... hide your scales people... the Pumpkin Pie Blizzard at Dairy Queen... oh, it's so dangerous I can't even begin to tell you.

AND... it was actually so cool last night at Brian's softball game that I wished I had brought a sweater with me! I LOVE FALL!!!

Thanks Aunt Jenny!

Gotta throw some love out to our sweet Aunt Jenny. She sent Payton the cutest Halloween card with a sheet of Halloween stickers.

He absolutely loved them and immediately wanted to put all the stickers onto paper and other various surfaces around the house. Thanks Aunt Jenny for always being so thoughtful and remembering how much kids love to get things in the mail! You're the best! We love you.

Why is this SO funny???

Payton thinks it is absolutely hillarious when Brian pretends to run into walls and falls down like he's hurt. Why is this? Why do children find it so funny when people pretend to get hurt?

It boggled my mind, until the other day when I recalled a memory from several years ago... We were living in a condo and Brian was BBQing in our back patio. When he turned on the grill a mouse jumped out of the bottom and went running for cover. Of course it surprised Brian and he went running too... right into the closed sliding glass door! I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in my life. How awful is that?!? Fortunately, he wasn't hurt... but I still chuckle every time I think about it. So, I guess it's not too odd that Payton finds this sooooo funny.... take a look...

More Photos from Train Show

Busy, busy, busy!

This past weekend was busy, busy, busy! Payton & I were so fortunate to go spend 3 days at our friend's beach condo in beautiful Longboat Key. Payton had an absolute ball playing on the beach, at the pool, and even in the condo's courtyard area. They scoured the tall trees for long sticks that had dropped on the ground and then march around with them making up various games. Of course, this gave me & my friend Rachel lots of time to relax with our coffee and enjoy the cool morning breeze as they occupied themselves with the sticks.


The days were spent playing on the beach for hours and hours. They loved walking the beach, finding coquina shell habitats in the shallow waters, searching for seashells (or crabs or coconuts), chasing the sandpipers and seagulls and covering themselves with as much sand as humanly possible. We had a wonderful time! (Thank you so much Rachel!!)

Then today after church we headed out to the 55th Annual H&R Train Show out in Pinellas Park. The show was at the same train store where Payton previously had a huge meltdown (see previous blog post), however this time, we made sure he understood that we were NOT buying anything.

And that the show was just for looking.
He did so much better - actually, he was perfectly behaved the entire time. There were more than 40 train displays set up and he walked from train to train with the most wide eyes. He studied each set up and watched so carefully as each train passed by. It was the most adorable thing. Of course, Brian couldn't pass up the big sale they were having and purchased an entire electric set for Payton, which he will not get until Christmas. All in all, it was a huge success.

So, it was a busy weekend full of fun activities. And the Gators won, which makes it even that much better! Too bad the Rays couldn't pull out a win tonight. Oh well... there's always tomorrow night...