Our maple tree

It's really amazing how much our maple tree has grown in just one season.  Daddy and I planted it on 9/27/09, and it's now over 7 feet tall, growing more than 4 feet!  Compare the picture below with this picture!

Orr Family Farm

We had planned to go to the "Orr Family Farm" today.  It's a farm with hayrides, pumpkin patch, a corn maze, petting zoo, and lots of other fun stuff.  But I wasn't feeling very well this morning, and even though yesterday I had been excited about going, I told Mommy this morning that I didn't feel like going to the farm today.  I ate some breakfast and watched a movie, and then Daddy asked me if I felt better and wanted to go now.  No, I still felt yucky.  Then he mentioned that they have a carousel with horses.  All of a sudden I felt much better, jumped up, and was ready to go!

And guess what, the rest of the day you'd have had no idea I felt sick this morning!

The first thing we went on was of course the carousel.

Then we started exploring!  When I saw this next thing, the giant pillows, I couldn't wait.  It was like a really big bouncy-bounce that Daddy and Mommy could go on too.  We got a lot of exercise! 

The last time we were here I was far too little to go on the pedal cars (I had just turned 1), but now I'm a lot bigger and could do it all by myself!

Usually Daddy and Mommy have to ask me to pose somewhere so they can get a picture.  But this time I surprised them, walking up to this pumpkin display and saying "Daddy, take a picture of me!" 

They had these really fun slides.  They were really long and big enough for all of us to go on.  We went down a lot, sometimes racing against each other, sometimes with me in Daddy's lap.  I'd get off at the bottom and run right back up to the top.  Whee!  Watch the video at the bottom of the page too, Daddy and I are going down together.

I don't know what this horse's name was, but she was really nice.  She came right over to us and gave us loveys!  She poked her nose in my tummy and I giggled.  We gave her a lot of loveys in return!

This little pig was very inquisitive too.  He liked sniffing my shoes!

I knew right away which pumpkin I wanted!

We got to go through their corn maze, and I always wanted to be the leader!

They had a playground too, and Daddy and I did what we like doing best - scaring Mommy!  I told Daddy I wanted to go upside down on the bar, so he helped me.  And then let go!

  

We also went on a train ride, a hay ride, saw a lot more animals, got a pumpkin at a real pumpkin patch, and did a lot of running around.  Like I said, you'd never know I was sick today!  On the way out, I insisted on one more thing - I had to sit in the toy spaceship.  Ready for takeoff!

It sure was a fun day! 



We had an earthquake today!

There was an earthquake today that registered 4.3 just a few miles south of us in Norman.  Although Mommy and Daddy just felt it as a "boom" at their workplaces, apparently it shook our house good enough to knock two pictures off the mantle.

Fortunately, no other damage though.  However, I got a fun present today.  As Mommy and Daddy go through the attic and boxes to get ready for our move to Ohio, Daddy found this toy castle from when he was my age that Grandma had kept for me!  Daddy showed it to me and right away I wanted to play with it.  It's a lot of fun!

 

Up to Owasso!

Today is Columbus Day, so Daddy and Mommy both had the day off.  We decided to take a trip up to Owasso to visit Grandma and Papa.  Plus, since Papa is scheduled to have prostate surgery on Wednesday, we knew this would be the last chance for me to really play with him for a few weeks.

We've been looking around for a Halloween costume, but haven't found the right one quite yet.  Well, soon after arriving at their house, Grandma, Mommy and I went in "my" room and came out a few minutes later and surprised Papa and Daddy!  Look at this beautiful princess dress!  I had the biggest smile on my face as I walked down the hall and everyone knew right away that this was exactly what I wanted to be for Halloween.  Turns out Grandma has had this dress for at least a couple of years now, just waiting for me to grow into it.

I wore it for a while, and even remembered to lift my dress up when walking through the grass.  Mommy and Daddy have no idea where I learned to do this, though!

I had to change out of my dress to go down to the park, but when we got there, Mommy, Grandma and I sure had fun.  You can barely see Daddy and Papa coming to join us after taking care of some other business.

Hee hee, I'm winning Daddy!  (He thinks I cheated, but Papa would say that just serves him right.)

Daddy often "flies" me on his feet.  So I decided to do the same for my doll Snoozy.

Papa and I "snuck" a treat while nobody was looking.  We weren't really very sneaky though.

I found my doctor's set like last time and got to play doctor on Mommy and Daddy this time.  Mommy's ears checked out okay!

It was a really fun trip and I hope we get to go up there again real soon.

Rode our bikes to a new playground!

Mommy was feeling really tired today so Daddy and I got out of the house to let her take a nice long nap.  We rode our bikes down to the new elementary school where there is a new playground.  It was a long way away, about a mile!  But Daddy and I have been riding further and further recently, so he figured I could handle it, especially since we were in no hurry.  We had a fun time there, and even got rained on a little bit.  On the way back I was getting a little tired, and we took a few breaks.  However, Daddy wasn't quite buying it when I finally told him "Daddy, I don't think I can make it home."  He really started laughing, since by then we were close enough to see our house!  Yes, I did make it the rest of the way.

OU Aviation Day

Every year the airport in Norman (OU's Westheimer Airport) holds an "Aviation Day" where they have a lot of neat airplanes and things for kids to do.  Daddy and I have gone the last two years, but this year Mommy went too!

The first thing we headed for was this blue police helicopter.  Daddy was so proud of me.  Notice that I'm in the right seat, the pilot's seat in a helicopter!

When we got out of the helicopter, we looked down the parking ramp and saw Mr. Steve and his wife Brittany.  I took off running toward them and gave Mr. Steve a big hug!

We talked with them for a while and then went around to see other airplanes.  We climbed aboard the FAA's DC-3 (which we've been aboard before but it never gets old), and got a window seat!

This DC-3 was used by the FAA for flight inspection of navigational signals, and I got to pretend to be the "Flight Inspection Recorder".

They had a lot of activities for kids, and now I'm finally old enough to start doing some of them.  Here Daddy and I make a paper rocket that we launched by stepping on an empty water bottle.  It went really high!

I was fascinated by the miniature control tower and light gun, but needed Daddy's help to stretch way out there!

I was glad we got to show Mommy how much fun Aviation Day is!

Why did the chicken cross the road?

We don't know either, but it did, right in front of our truck!

I later turned this into my second joke - "Daddy, why did the chicken cross the road?  To get to the house!"  I thought it was really funny!

Taylor airport fly-in lunch

Daddy invited Mommy and me to go flying with him today.  His friend Walt bought a plot of land east of Dallas with a grass runway on it about 6 months ago, and finally it was in good enough shape that today he hosted a fly-in lunch (and dinner, and campout, but we only stayed for lunch).  He was very excited to go down and see all the progress Walt had made, and asked Mommy if she wanted to come with him.  Much to his surprise, she said yes, and thought it would be a great day together as a family.

Of course, I've flown with Daddy a lot more than Mommy has recently, so I knew the routine.  I hopped right up on the wing when it was time to go.

It was a nice flight down with a slight tailwind, and took a little under 1 1/2 hours.  When we got there, I got right to work looking at airplanes, and at the few powered parachutes that were there, like this one!  They fly under a large parachute and Daddy and I sure thought they looked like a lot of fun!

I got in a lot of practice counting.  Mommy and I walked up and down the row of airplanes counting how many there were.  On this trip, there were 12!

Daddy's friend Jim said he had a present for me, and surprise, I ran right over.  It's a "little" big for me now (it's an adult size small), but if you can read the patch, it's a Piper jacket!  He also gave me a couple extra Piper patches.  Thanks!

Mr. Walt has this really cool golf cart.  I had fun pretending to drive it, and even scared Mommy once when I reached down and pressed on the gas pedal a little.  It was still on, and it moved (but only about a foot)!

Of course Mr. Walt saw how much I liked pretending to drive the golf cart, so after we were done eating and talking to everyone, he let me drive Mommy and Daddy back to our airplane.  He operated the gas pedal, but I did all the steering, he didn't even touch the wheel!  Good thing it's got those big tires, because we were definitely off road.  I was having a great time!

We also had a nice flight back, and I got to watch some Dora movies.  I had no idea Daddy was even taking a picture of the three of us!

We all really had a great day, and it was nice to be together.  Of course Daddy thought it was REALLY a great day because he got to fly too!

More cute sayings

Over our vacation and since, Daddy noted some funny sayings of mine.

Of course, I've continued coming up with new versions of the "What did one tomato say to the other tomato?" joke.

At a restaurant once, Daddy was coming back to the table.  I saw him coming, and said to Mommy, "Who's that handsome man?"  Mommy and Daddy got a good laugh out of it.  I must have picked that up from Mommy!

Also at a restaurant, Mommy got up to get more food at the buffet.  I looked at Daddy with a serious look on my face, and said very solemnly, "Daddy, I really really miss Mommy."  He did reassure me that she'd be back in just a couple of minutes!

I have mentioned several times to Mommy, "Mommy, when you were gone and Daddy and I were all by ourselves, we were soooooo sad."  We were!

At the resort in Orlando, the first time I went potty, I stood at the sink to wash my hands.  I looked very puzzled, and told Mommy and Daddy there was no soap!  Daddy came in and introduced me to "bar soap".  I had never had to use a bar of soap before!  So he taught me how to use it and I thought it was great fun after that.  I even showed Mommy and Daddy how good I was with it by showing them how to use it several times!

In the car recently, out of the blue I got Mommy and Daddy's attention by saying loudly and authoritatively, "Okay, here's the deal!  When we get home I'm going to give Mommy big loveys."  I knew what I needed to do!

On our way back home

We sure had a great vacation, but today it was time to leave.  First though, we got a family picture of us all wearing the same shirts we bought last night!  I thought it was pretty neat and kept pointing out "we're the same!"  I insisted on holding my Ariel balloon.

At the airport, I had fun walking all around with my backpack. 

It was pretty heavy, but I wanted to wear it just like Daddy!  I did really well and didn't compain about it one bit.

I like sitting by the window, even though I let Daddy sit there a little too.  Notice the "Transfer" tag I got from the baggage check-in when we got to the airport earlier.  I liked it and wore it the whole flight.

It was a good flight back to end a great vacation!

One more trip to Blizzard Beach

We had one more water park trip left on our Disney World tickets, so we went back to Blizzard Beach again.  We really have a fun time at water parks, and I absolutely love going down the tube slides.  At Daddy's prompting, I'm even being silly and screaming as we go down the hills.  Wheee! 

I've also expanded my "troll bridge" act!  Now every time we'd get to a bridge I'd run a few steps ahead just like before, turn around and tell Mommy and Daddy "Nobody crosses over my bridge!"  But now there was a joke involved!  Sometimes they had to tell me one, sometimes I told them one, but nobody was getting past until there was a joke.  Sometimes I would tell Mommy or Daddy it was their turn to be the troll, too!

By far my favorite joke of the week is one that was on the box of crayons at a restaurant we went to the second day we were here - "What did one tomato say to the other tomato?  You go on ahead and I'll ketchup!"  What makes it even funnier for Mommy and Daddy is that I don't quite get the tomato - ketchup/catch up connection, so I use the same joke with other foods as well!  "What did one apple say to the other apple?  You go on ahead and I'll catch up!"  Or pears, or carrots, you get the idea.  I laugh every time and think it's really funny, and Mommy and Daddy get a kick out of it too.

We take a break

It has been 8 continuous days of fun at the various theme parks, and we needed a break!  So we spent the whole day today at the resort and the pool.  Mommy and I went swimming in the morning while Daddy worked on a job application for Dayton, OH that is due Monday.  In the main pool area there were 2 big pools and one Piper-sized pool that I got to play a lot in.  I had a great time "swimming" around.  Daddy came back and we all went out to lunch.  After lunch, I announced that I was tired and needed a nap!  This is pretty rare for me to do, so I must have been really tired.  I asked Daddy to cuddle with me first for a few minutes, and that's all it took for me to fall sound asleep.  I slept for at least 2 1/2 hours, so Mommy and Daddy got in a nap too!

When I woke up I watched a movie with Mommy and Daddy and then we went to dinner.  I played a little at the playground after dinner, and got to practice my Spanish with a boy my age from Venezuela!  Then it was bedtime.  It was a very calm, relaxing day, and judging by the length of my nap, I really needed it!

Sea World

Today we didn’t go to any Disney park – we went to Sea World! Sea World was offering a military special where we all got in for free. On the way there, we stopped by IHOP for breakfast, and there was a man there making balloon characters! I wanted an Ariel, and he made me one!

One of the first stops at Sea World was one of their big aquariums. I could have stayed here a long time!

We also got to see (and Daddy touched) some manta rays. I didn’t want to touch them, but I sure liked to look.

They even had a pool with little baby manta rays! We couldn’t touch these ones though.

We went to see the Shamu show, and then headed to the Shamu’s Harbor play area for kids. They had a lot of neat stuff there, including a really big rope-climbing/tunnel-crawling area that even had some tire swings. It was really high off the ground. The top net was a couple stories up! And yes, Daddy and Mommy crawled through the tunnels with me!

Daddy was having fun “helping” me get up!

“Come on Mommy!”

We then went on a Shamu roller coaster, and I went on it two times in a row!

They also had a carousel with whales and dolphins and other sea creatures.

They had great underwater viewing of dolphins and manatees!

We also saw a show with sea lions, an otter, and a walrus. It was pretty funny, especially when one of the sea lions got a little ahead of the script! Then there was a show with dogs and cats that I liked too.

It was such a busy day of running around, I fell asleep on the way to dinner at Shoney’s. I stayed asleep all through Daddy getting me out of the car, into the restaurant, laying down on his lap, and even once he moved me over to the seat (so he could get up)! He did wake me up a little later so I could eat, but I was tired!