Friday, November 14, 2014

Disney


We are now on our way home from our vacation to Disney.  We are excited to get home to the pups, but sad to say goodbye to Mickey!  We had a GREAT vacation. Konnor absolutely Loved Disney World. He had fun riding rides, seeing shows, meeting characters, hanging with family, eating lots of food, and anything else we did. 

When I originally signed up for the half marathon and we decided to make a vacation out of it, I was definitely a little nervous about taking a 2 year old to Disney World. Now that we have done it though, I would go again in a heartbeat. I know Konnor will probably never remember this vacation but the amount of fun he had this past week was well worth it. Korey and I have both been to Disney World several times but seeing it all again through Konnor's eyes was just like being there for the first time again. Everything was the most amazing thing to him. He was excited from the beginning of the day when we got to ride the "train" (parking tram or monorail) to the end of the day when we watched Foreworks or a show!

We visited all four parks and went to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party (thank you Courtney).  Konnors favorite ride was Dumbo!  We rode it several times!  He enjoyed pretty much any ride we took him on. He did so well being at the parks for long days and he took decent naps in his stroller and  slept well at night. I'm sure being at home again will now seem very boring!








Another great part of this vacation was the fact that we got to spend it with our families. Both of Konnor's grandparents, Aunt Courtney, Matt, Uncle Kody, Terri and Rylynn, Great Aunt Jean and "Unkie" Don were all there!  We got to spend time with everyone and we all had breakfast together to celebrate Konnor's 2nd birthday!  I think everyone had fun and we will make sure Konnor understands some day just how lucky he is to have so many great people in his life who all want to go on trips and spend time together!






So to recap I would say Konnor's favorite ride was definitely hands down Dumbo. His favorite show was "Mickey on the Mountain" (aka Fantasmic). He got to see that one with Grandma Kelso and Great Aunt Jean and he couldn't stop talking about "Mickey on the mountain". His favorite Disney snack was "popcorns" and his favorite character was probably a toss up between Mickey and Goofy. The characters were amazing. We met Goofy first and Konnor was a little unsure and he just sat down on the floor in front of Goofy. Goofy plopped down too and held out his hand and slowly slid forward until he was closer and Konnor started chatting with him. It was perfect. After that Konnor loved hugging all the characters we met!
I don't know If I could pick favorites for myself if I tried. I love Soarin, the new Mine Ride, and riding Dumbo with Konnor. My favorite show is the Wishes fireworks at the Magic Kingdom. Korey proposed during those fireworks and it's always nice to go back and be able to watch them with Konnor now too. My favorite character is Dug from Up. We saw him but didn't have time to wait in line. Maybe next time?  We will definitely be going back. This trip was so much fun. I love vacations and can't wait to take Konnor back to Disney and to also take him so many other great places!

Thursday, October 16, 2014

22 and 23 months

Of course I'm behind!  Not a big surprise I'm sure 😄.  Konnor's language is still expanding and we love listening every day to see what he will say and do next. One of my favorites is when he goes over to the pantry, opens the door and says "hmmmm let's think" and then asks for some kind of snack. It's even better when he puts his hand on his hips or his finger to his lips as he "thinks". 



He is still a fan of Mickey Mouse but he also likes watching Chuggington and sometimes Jake and the Neverland Pirates. We decided to let him be Jake the pirate for Halloween. If you ask Konnor what a pirate says he will tell you "ho ho ho" (might be a little confusing at Christmastime haha). It's also fun to have him say "ahoy matey" and "walk the plank". He's definitely very good at repeating anything you say!  




He likes to sing and if he hears singing on tv he sometimes will join in even if he doesn't really know what they are singing. When we stayed with our friends in Charleston they sang a prayer before meals and Konnor picked up on it and loved it, so we now sing the prayer before meals also. Along with singing he sometimes likes to dance too. He will hit the button on his piano that plays music and then come say "money dance" or "daddy dance". And no I did not type that wrong.  I am still called "money" instead of "mommy" even though if you ask him to say "mommy" he is definitely able to.  I'm okay with it though. It's cute and some day he will grow up and who knows what he will call me so I'll take being called "money" by our sweet little boy as long as he wants. 




Konnor also still loves books. We read before nap time and bedtime and any other time he asks. He has certain books he likes more than others and we try to go to the library at least once a week to switch out books so he has the chance to experience a lot of different books. I'm so glad he loves listening to us read and that he picks up books and is now starting to remember some of them and "read" them himself. 


He still LOVES trucks, cars and trains. Basically anything with wheels. Even of something isn't a truck he will try to make it into one and he will push it around saying "beep beep" and "coming through".  He enjoys playing with play dough, stickers and coloring with crayons. Watching him play is so fun. It's great to see how excited he gets over everything. I'm getting very excited for our trip to Disney next month. I can't wait to see how he reacts to seeing characters and riding the rides!!



Hopefully everyone is staying warm as it starts to get cooler out. Maybe I'll actually post again before Konnor turns 2!!



Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Vacation

Fall is here and we finally got to go on a couple of our vacations we had planned! Our first trip was up to Maine!  Korey competed in the Pumpkinman Sprint Triathlon there and did a great job!  Konnor had fun cheering for his daddy "run daddy" and he enjoyed rearranging the pumpkins they had set up. We also got to spend some time with all our great friends up there.  We miss all of them and we appreciate that every time we go up to visit they go out of there way to make sure they get to see us and spend time with us!  The only bad thing about this trip was that it was too short!  






Our second trip was to Charleston. Anyone who knows me, knows that Charleston is my favorite place we have lived. It was wonderful to go back there for a week. We went back for our friends wedding and decided to make a week trip out of it. Korey and Konnor were both in the wedding. Konnor did his job of walking down the aisle much better than I thought he would :). The wedding was beautiful and we had a wonderful time hanging out and talking with all our friends after the wedding. The rest of the week we tried to squeeze in all the stuff we wanted to do. We went shopping, walked around downtown, went to the beach, ate at some of our favorite restaurants, went to the aquarium and spent as much time as we could with our friends. Visiting Charleston again just made me realize even more how much I want to move back there and how much I really do not love the area we live in. Hopefully some day we can make it happen!
I must say that after both trips I'm pretty confident saying that Konnor is definitely a beach lover. It makes me so happy!  He doesn't mind sunscreen and he loves chasing birds and running into the ocean! I think it means we are meant to live by the ocean!!
Going back to both Maine and Charleston also makes me realize how many truly wonderful friends we have made in all the places we have lived.  We always have someone to stay with when we visit both places and we always have lots of people to see and spend time with.  We are fortunate to have so many friends from all over!








One more vacation to go in November!  Disney World here we come!!!!

Monday, August 25, 2014

21 months

More like 21 1/2 at this point :). I'm behind as usual. The past month hasn't been too eventful for us. A lot of training for triathlons and half marathons and Korey actually competed in his first triathlon of the two he is doing.  He did great and I have no idea how people can swim, bike and still manage to run at the end. I honestly don't know if I could do it!!

Konnor's language is still exploding and we love it. He will pretty much repeat anything we say (which means we have to be very careful). His vocabulary amazes me. I could listen to him talk all day long (and I usually get to haha). 
The other day we heard the music from the ice cream truck while we were in the living room and his eyes got real big and he yelled "ice cream truck" and ran to the front windows to look out and said "there it is". He then proceeded to get upset as the ice cream truck drive out if sight because he couldn't see it anymore haha. The toddlers days are definitely upon us. He's starting to test his boundaries and find out what he can get away with and what he can't!



He still loves books which makes me happy. He will disappear upstairs and come back down carrying a book saying "story time". He also has favorite books and will ask for us to read them. We got the book Move Over Rover from the library and I love hearing him say "move over rover" all jumbled up :). It's a cute book that we may have to add to our collection. 





He still likes Mickey Mouse and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is pretty much the only thing he watches now when we have the tv on. I really really hope he enjoys our trip to Disney in November!

Friday, August 8, 2014

My favorite season is...

This used to be an easy question to answer. Anytime anyone asked me, I would quickly say "Summer"!  I still love Summer but lately I find myself thinking about Fall a lot and getting very excited every time I do. 
When we were younger, Summer was a break from school and it meant vacations, staying out late to play flashlight tag, catching fireflies, swimming and all that fun stuff. Even after I grew up I still loved Summer. When I worked in schools I had the summers off and when I worked at daycares summers usually meant less kids because some parents were teachers or people were always out on vacations. When Korey was in the Navy summers were also great because we always lived near a beach.  Maybe my love for Summer dwindled a little this year because we are now at least two hours from the beach, Konnor can't really be outside too long when it's really hot out, we still haven't met many people around where we live, and we didn't go on any vacations during the Summer.  



Whatever the reason is, it's at least nice to know that I am really looking forward to the Fall for once. I used to dread the Fall. I used to get that sinking feeling when I saw all the Back to School stuff in the stores. I didn't necessarily dislike school but I never loved getting up early and I never wanted summer and all the fun to end!  This year though I'm excited to decorate for Fall, have pumpkin spice lattes, wear sweaters, take Konnor trick or treating, go on our vacations, watch football, go apple picking and all the other great things that happen in the Fall!








Hopefully I will love Summer again some day as much as I used to. Maybe when Konnor gets a little older and wants to catch fireflies and can stay outside a little longer in the heat. Or maybe when we move back closer to the beach some day!  But for now I will embrace my love for Fall and I will continue to dread Winter!