farm fun

we made it! it took about six hours (with a cracker barel lunch break - where madelyn ate like she had not eaten in days), but we had a very nice trip to north manchester to visit for great-grandma's 90th birthday celebration weekend. last night we visited with papa's brother dennis at his farm. great aunt joy made a wonderful dinner for all of us and matt's cousins and their families came over to visit too.

not only was there a lot of family to visit with, but we got to enjoy all of the fun things on great uncle dennis and great aunt joy's farm. here are a few of the pictures from last night. i am posting while madelyn is trying to nap in the next bed at the hotel before we meet up for great grandma's birthday dinner in a few hours. madelyn is a little confused by the "great" titles - i think that we might have to call her "great nana" to make things a little clearer (she keeps looking for her "grandma" from florida when we say "great grandma").

madelyn sitting with the big kids - nolan, leah, and dayton - on the golf cart.

almost sleeping while riding on uncle derek's shoulders during our hike after dinner - she really loves her uncle derek.

daddy swinging out over the creek. madelyn kept saying that it was "maddie's turn too" and great uncle dennis offered to hold her and swing, but daddy and i were too chicken to let her try - yet.

madelyn got to swing with nana and dayton instead at the cabin on top of the hill. there were these little seed like things from the tree and madelyn kept saying that they were worms. she wouldn't walk on the grass because there were too many "worms". daddy finally convinced her that they were not worms, but part of the tree and then she was good to explore again.

here she is swinging with help from great uncle dennis. a few minutes later he helped her swing by hanging upside down from her knees, which she loved.

a family picture with papa, nana, uncle derek, mommy (and baby brother), madelyn, and daddy at the farm.
all of us with the indiana g family. it was so great to visit with everyone again!

there is an hour time difference and madelyn stayed up until like 10:30 local time before finally conking out. we weren't sure how she would do sleeping in a big bed in the same room with us at the hotel, but she did great! she was exhausted from our day, but was too excited to sleep. she was singing all kinds of songs to friend - including "happy birthday". she has been singing happy birthday to (and for) daddy and me since i told her that we were coming for great grandma's birthday - she also sings it for great grandma. she has yet to sing it to great grandma, but i think she will do it tonight at dinner with the rest of us.

this morning we went back to great grandma's and were surprised because madelyn remembered which building was her's. granted she also pointed across the street to say that "maddie's house" was over there and our neighbor "dan's house" was next to it.

we met up with great grandma, nana, papa, uncle derek, and nana's siblings for breakfast. madelyn was lucky enough to get a ride from great grandma as we were walking around the hallways. she has also really enjoyed seeing an impressive caged bird display and fish tank. she is just loving all the new sights!

more of our trip to come later. love.

thanksgiving visit

papa, nana, and uncle derek flew home yesterday and we were glad to have gotten to spend some time with them. unfortunately, i didn't get a lot of pictures (at least with everyone dressed and cleaned up - most were early morning pics). but we did do more than just eat thanksgiving dinner. what trip to visit maddie would be complete without a personal tour of the milwaukee zoo? it was a beautiful day to be outside and not terribly cold. i didn't even wear a coat - although i probably should have...

madelyn had a lot of fun holding every one's hands as we walked around checking out all the exhibits. we paused to take pictures at the photo-op outside the giraffe house. madelyn was really excited about putting her head through the whole after watching daddy and uncle derek do it first. but she was so excited that she just kept looking at the giraffe to see what she looked like - at least nana smiled in this picture.

as always, madelyn fell asleep by the time we got back to the house and stayed asleep for almost 4 hours! we had to wake her up so that we could head out for some cheese shopping and dinner.

cheese shopping is a popular activity for all of our out of town guests. not only is cheese here delicious, but the store we take them to offers samples of their cheese and produce. madelyn has learned that this is a tasty stop as well.

after stocking up on cheese, we took papa, nana, and uncle derek out for sushi (one of matt's favorites). papa and nana had never had sushi before and i don't think that they were very excited about trying it, but they were good sports about it. all in all, i don't think it was their favorite, but it wasn't too bad. madelyn had a lot of fun eating with chopsticks. we eat with chopsticks from time to time at home (because i love it) and madelyn was so happy to finally get a try at using them. she liked how she could dip them in the tempura sauce and that the rice would stick to them long enough to make it to her mouth. she also insisted that i use my set to feed her rice. it was difficult to get my chopsticks into her mouth with her sitting on my lap - i couldn't see her mouth.

we spent saturday like most other families - watching college football. unfortunately, uncle derek had to head to the airport before getting to see his GT alma mater win. but it was really good that they left saturday because they might have had delays today.

love.

san diego-kansas city-home

the rest of our time in california was spent in the laguna beach area for a wedding (julie and joe's). madelyn got to go 'swimming' in a big pool for the first time at the hotel there friday afternoon before we went to dinner (where she enjoyed the flowers outside again). i took some video of her splashing on the steps but none of her actually 'swimming' - matt and i were both needed for her to go back and forth. she is so fearless! another lady at the pool was commenting on madelyn's bravery ("go girl" was the repeated phrase) and was surprised to hear that it was her first time in a big pool. madelyn was even kicking her legs and arms a little when matt and i would send her surfing on her belly back and forth between us - with a huge smile the whole time. she really liked that she could hold the railing on the pool steps to step into the pool. that was something new she did on this trip - walked down a flight of steps. she had started walking up steps (not crawling) about a week before we left, but refused to walk down more than 4 steps so this was huge! (particularly since we have stairs in the house.)



the wedding was lovely and the church was just what you would expect a beach side catholic church to be - very calming. (that is the ocean behind us in the picture.) we were lucky enough to be able to sit next to double doors that were opened to a little courtyard with a fountain. this came in very handy for a couple of reasons - one, there was a great ocean breeze since the church was not air conditioned. two, we could make a quick exit when maddie got too squirmy or chatty. and three, the water fountain made for great white noise to make maddie less disruptive to the ceremony.


madelyn really enjoyed watching malikai (sp?), aubry, and keturah at the reception and really took a liking to keturah. once the dance floor cleared for the cake cutting in the other room, maddie and keturah made their moves on the dance floor. maddie got her knees bouncing and roamed around on the dance floor. keturah was really good and twirling and that got maddie even more excited about dancing with her. it was too dark to get any video - i tried. they were so cute and both laughing.

we were so spoiled by the thought and effort liz and julie put into making maddie content during the reception! they had a 'goodie bag' for her at the table (and for the other children in attendance) that was personalized especially for her. her goodie bag had a stuffed dog, which she kissed repeatedly upon receiving it, a doggie book and a good night california book, and assorted snacks. these items were very useful for everyone at our table to have an enjoyable meal with a very content little girl. in fact, madelyn did outstanding that night! it must have been all the excitement and having other children to entertain her didn't hurt either because it was well after 10pm when we called it a night! and we left more because we had to get an early start back to san diego for our flights than that maddie was fading.

amazingly maddie was all smiles the next morning too with the monkey her uncle derek got her at the zoo. after a long ride back to san diego, we said goodbye to uncle derek and boarded our plane with papa and nana on our way to kansas city. thank goodness for laptops and dvds is all i can say about that flight! madelyn was starting to get cranky before getting on the plane and waiting for take off was torture. i think that is the worst part of flying - waiting on the hot plane for take off. matt and i have concluded that pre-boarding is not really an advantage when traveling with a lap child. once we got above 10,000 feet we got the movie going and after watching for an hour maddie fell asleep for about an hour - that was the only nap she had all day. she didn't even get to bed until around 10pm.

we just love how excited maddie gets to be back home after a trip. she must have pulled out every toy in the house just to say "hi" - literally. it is just so sweet. it is going to take a few days to get her back on central time but it was nice to take this trip and see everyone out in california. i know that madelyn enjoyed seeing her papa, nana, and uncle derek again too.

we start construction on our basement this week and since our personal computer is in the basement, i don't know how frequently i will be posting over the next month. (i say this, but with her doing new things everyday i don't know if i will be able to stay away other than from sheer exhaustion from my work project this month.)

just one more note and video. madelyn now really says "hi" - not in a soft, baby voice, but in a real speaking voice. that is the best way to explain the change. it is totally different from how she said it before even though it was clear that she was saying "hi" before too. she did it for the first time at our first hotel in california while playing with the phone. i didn't really get it video of her best "hi"s, but you should get the idea. love.