Buddy's Playdate

Kaylyn dog-sit her friend's dog last week for a couple of days. She mostly kept him in her room because he's not completely house broke but she would take him out every now and then to potty and to play with Buddy. They were SO cute together!! Oh, and about Pete's coloring...he is purple LOL. Kaylyn and her friend decided to put a little coloring on him that they thought would wear off quickly...it didn't.

Poor Pete, no dog should have to be purple LOL.

Buddy has grown so much since these pictures were taken. I'll have to take some recent ones of him to put here.

He also had a playdate with Lori's puppy, Maggie, but we didn't get any pictures. She'll have to bring her back soon.

Stephen At Work

Stephen posted these pictures on his Facebook so of course I had to steal them. I love having pictures of him working on the pipeline and especially love the one of him with my Daddy, his boss. I am so proud of Stephen and how hard he is working to put himself through college.

These pictures were taken in Ohio. It's so beautiful there!! He is getting to see so many places working on the pipeline. So far he's worked in Arizona, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. There's a chance he may even go to Alaska in 2011.

Our Trip to Ohio

We left for our trip Thursday morning at 4:30. We spent the night at Lori's house the night before so we could leave earlier. The kids were excited and I had no trouble getting them out of bed and dressed. I have to brag on my kids :-). We could not have asked for a better sixteen hour drive than we had with two kids and a puppy. I gave the kids motion sickness medicine before we left and Landon slept probably 12 of the 16 hours and Kinley is just a good traveller. She slept a lot too but when she wasn't asleep she was happy to just look out the window. The few times Landon was awake I kept him happy with the DVD player.

Maggie was in her pet carrier for most of the trip but we did let her out some to get a break from the carrier. She loves attention!!

Kinley thought it was cool that we were in six states in one day...Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio. Here's Cinncinati...

Daddy, Lynn and Stephen are staying in the cutest little house. The kids called it the Christmas house :-). It sits up on a hill by itself and the backyard is a park. Across the road was another park with great stuff to play on. We spent a lot of time there and the weather was so cool we never even broke a sweat. It was in the 60's and 70's the whole time we were there.

The first day we were there we went and picked up Lori and went to some garage sales. Kinley found a LOT of baby clothes for her dolls. Then we rode around and looked at some Amish farms. We also saw a bridge built in the 1800's called an S bridge. After we dropped Lori off we came home and played in the park. After Daddy and Stephen got home Daddy took us riding out to where they are working. He drove us up the huge hill/mountain they are going up. It scared the kids!! I loved getting to see where Stephen is working.

Saturday, the 4th, we went to a place called The Wilds. Lori and Deano didn't go with us because they went to Niagra Falls for a couple of days. The Wilds is on 10,000 acres and we rode in an open air vehicle. They had a lot of endangered animals there. It took three hours to see it all. They stopped a few times and let us get out and walk around, feed the fish, get a snack.

Nothing makes me happier than seeing my Daddy with my kids. He's never gotten a chance to really get to know Landon because he's gone a lot and because Landon has never been one to spend the night away from home. Also, with his Asperger's, for so long he wasn't good at interracting with people. This trip was so great because they got to see a side of Landon they've never seen and he got so close to them. He told them all the time he loved them and they laughed at him so much...he's funny with the things he says. Daddy and Lynn both told me several times what a good kid he is and that made me feel good :-). On the way home from The Wilds we went to eat at the Chinese place. Stephen said they eat there every Saturday night. It was a long day and we were all very tired but it was a good tired. That night MawMaw Lynn, the kids and I sit on their front porch and watched fireworks over the mountain.

On Sunday, we went to Trade Days, which was a huge flea market type thing. Before we went Daddy took us riding again through Amish country. It is just so beautiful there and so much to look at...so different from where we live. After we got home Stephen and I went to Walmart and Daddy and Lynn kept the kids. That evening we had a cookout under one of the gazebos in the park behind their house. It was Daddy, Lynn, me, Stephen, Kinley, Landon, Lori, Deano and Uncle Richard and his son Corey. Daddy cooked hamburgers and Lynn and I made some dip. Landon even met a couple of little friends he played with for a while. It was a perfect day!!

We left at 4:30 (Ohio time) Monday morning to come home. It wasn't as easy to get the kids up and going as it was Thursday morning. Daddy had to carry Landon asleep to the car. Kinley was very sad about having to leave. The trip home wasn't as easy as coming because the motion sickness medicine didn't make him sleepy like the first time. He probably only slept three hours out of the 16. But, he was very good and mostly watched the DVD player. We rode by Graceland in Memphis, which was a huge disappointment for me. It's in a really bad part of town and just not what I had pictured. I enjoyed this trip so much and all the time I got to spend with Lori and Maggie in the car. She makes me laugh so much I'm sore the next day. Kinley said there were a couple of times Aunt Lori almost made her pee in her pants LOL.

We let Maggie out a little more on the way home because she'd just had enough of that carrier.

We got home around 7:30 that night and back to our house around 8:00. Jose' and Buddy were SO happy to see us. I think Kaylyn was even glad we were home :-)