Virginia

We finally made it home to Virginia with the kids!  Mom and Dad had not yet met Gwen, so it was about time.  I put off my annual summer trip because our friends had planned a Richmond wedding in October.  A lovely and huge party with a group of good friends!  And we had eager babysitters!
Stephanie is a well-seasoned traveler.  In all honesty, there aren't many times that I see life through her eyes and think it is all amazing and fantastic, but airports are actually super cool when seen through her eyes.  Which is good, because otherwise they kind of just stink!  Gwen has only flown once before, from here to Seattle, during which she did fine.  She did not so fine this trip, as it resulted in a burst ear drum.  She screamed and cried for a good part of the flight there, tugging at her ear.  Kevin says, "I think her ear is bothering her."  I say, "No, she just does that when she is tired".  After landing, there was a pool of blood in her ear and she was happily sleeping.  Guess that point goes to Kevin.  On the bright side, bursting an ear drum apparently isn't that big of a deal.  She didn't sleep well the first few nights we were there, so I guess it might have been bugging her, or perhaps she didn't sleep well for any number of reasons and it had nothing to do with her ear.  Either way, by the day of the wedding, she was back to being her super pleasant self, and I was so happy my parents got to see the sweet happy baby we love!
As for the visit itself, Mom may have gone a bit overboard last Christmas with toys, and since we didn't want to rent a U-Haul to get home, we left some there.  It was really great to have new puzzles and games to play with when we got there.  So much so, in fact, that we didn't even leave the house for the first two days.  Then we had wedding things happening, and suddenly it was our last day.  At that point, I realized that my camera had been safely tucked away in my bag for the whole trip, and I made plans to get the pictures I needed for posterity.  And here they are, a mere 30 shots of hundreds:

Stephanie is holding Buzzy Bee 2 which mom made her in order to relieve us from traveling with Stephanie's Buzzy Bee.  I wasn't sure if it was really going to work and was worried about frantic sleepless nights without Buzzy Bee, but Stephanie actually completely adopted him as if he were the real thing.  Mom definitely gets points for this idea!

I made them haul the pumpkins to the site that I had envisioned for our family picture.

And then he let Stephanie actually drive the Gator.  Didy had to save us from a few close calls with trees.

Gwen's first Gator ride!

Not our best shot, but it was quite funny that when I took Stephanie to the area I had selected for pictures, her immediate instinct was to climb the tree.  

I think the cousins pictures was actually among the very best.  I love that Jared held the baby!

As if driving the Gator wasn't enough, let's let her drive the (sorry if I get this wrong, Jared) front end articulated loader.  

Jared did request, and rightly so, that Kermit drive while he cleaned the truck with the power washer.

Oh, and the fun to be had with Didy's hat.

Halloween 2014

Cold night here in Kansas, but Stephanie had a great Halloween night!  I realized as we walked down the driveway that we didn't bring a jacket for her, but no matter... hard to get cold when you run at top speeds from house to house!  In case you haven't seen Despicable Me and don't quite recognize the costumes, Stephanie is a minion, Gwen is a purple minion, and Kevin is Gru.  I was supposed to be a bad minion like Gwen, but I never got that far in on the costume designs!  Besides, I learned a long time ago that no one is looking at me when I have a cutie pie like Gwen attached!
As a side note, I would like to claim "minion" as my own idea, as I did have a plan in mind to pull it off and Kevin was totally on board, but mostly we needed workable ideas as Stephanie's suggestions for costumes included soap, the number five and a cookie.  I am interested to see what happens Halloween 2015.

Sunflower State

Speaking of all good things farm and Kansas, I just realized that I never posted pics from the sunflower field just north of Lawrence.  This is a super popular place to visit for the handful of days the sunflowers are in bloom, and helps us justify our state's nickname.  

Kaw Valley Farm Tour

This was our second year being agritourists around the Kaw Valley, and the farms did not disappoint.  We did three on Saturday (a pumpkin patch, an alpaca/bee farm, and a winery) and three on Sunday (a poultry farm, mini horse farm and an organic produce/eggs/goat farm).  The only repeat on this year's tour for us was the poultry farm.  Who knew that Turkey farmers put on such a nice event?  We did! And we wanted a second round this year.  Everywhere was really kid-friendly and Stephanie got to do all sorts of crafts, pet/brush animals (petting not always popular with her, but she had lots of chances to do it, and did a few times), and a surprising number of things to ride on... including, but not limited to "trains" (this is when farmers hook large barrels to wheels, attach them to a lawn mower and drive kids around... seemed odd to me how many places offered this), hayrides and even a mini-horse drawn buggy ride. Sadly, this year's pictures are lacking in actual farm animals, but we saw plenty, I promise!
 

Train 1

Gwen may have been a bit surprised to have corn flung on her.

Train 2... And sadly no picture of train 3... but you get the idea.

If you are wondering where Gwen's clothes are... She started the cold morning in fleece Santa jams chosen by sister, but it got too hot.  Luckily, I had thought ahead and packed several outfits to from which to choose.  Too bad I didn't actually put the bag with said outfits in the car.