Football Weekend

Go Wolves!

Craig's first game of the season was Friday night at Duchesne. And they pulled off a nice win to kick off the year!

Camryn couldn’t stand the wait until “daddy’s ball game” last night. Craig's been gone a lot lately and I've been telling her he's at football practice, working with the football players. Earlier in the week we started talking about the football game on Friday. So when I woke her up Friday morning, it was the first thing she mentioned when she woke up. “I go ball game mommy.” We got her all decked out in Timberland duds, and she kept telling me she had her “ball game” shirt on and her “ball game” barrettes.

We got there early and she was able to watch the cheerleaders practice and Craig had a few seconds to come over and give her a quick hug.

We stayed until the end. Final score was 41-14. Camryn did pretty good. We had both sets of grandparents, Aunt Linda and me to play defense if she tried anything crazy. She was great about clapping when the crowd or cheerleaders clapped. She even got to run out onto the field afterwards. Very sweet.

Here's where she spent a majority of the game. Playing with her pa-pas. She did the same thing last year. Carl even took her for a half-time walk just like last year.

Go Tigers!
Becky, a college girlfriend scored tickets (well, actually, her husband Chris did, who says he pukes a little each time he hears M-I-Z...Z-O-U, but I'm not so sure because he subjects himself to a lot of Tiger sports). They gave us four and also invited our other friend Emily and her husband Jeremy. I have not seen Emily since about 2 weeks before Camryn was born so I was so eager to see her! Becky has moved to town this summer and it's been great to see her more often. We met near the dome before the game to tailgate a bit.

With our four tickets, Chris and Jessie came along. Chris missed his connecting flight coming home from Alabama, so Carl was Jessie's date. They came with us to tailgate.

Jeff popped over from where he was tailgating to say hello.

View from our seats. Ha, ha! We knew we were in nose bleed seats, but we were in the very last row. The very top. We were above the lights for the dome. And yes, we were technically on the Illinois side, but our section was about half and half so thankfully we weren't the only fans rooting for the winning team. Walking into the dome was absolutely amazing. It was so deafening to hear the crowd yell M-I-Z...Z-O-U. You could look straight up and see people taking escalators up to their seats. They were looking down at the crowd still coming in and yelling the M-I-Z part. Really amazing!

Here's Chris, Becky's husband. So, he's a big KU fan. He and Becky get tickets for every MU/KU contest they can. So, he was kind of rooting for Illinois since he doesn't like MU. So why is he wearing yellow, you might ask? According to him it's not MU yellow. Whatever. He just can't make up his mind. Here's proof positive. He's wearing a Budweiser necklace, and drinking Miller Lite. (OK, that's a coincidence, but thought it was ironic how he can't pick a team. Ha, ha!)

Hula hoopin' fool!

I don't know if I've picked up a hula hoop since Play Day in elementary school. I was the three time 1st place winner in the event, thank you very much. Anyway, we had an End of Summer Luau at work to lift up everyone's mood, and I thought I'd give it a whirl. Guess who won the hula hoop contest? There were a lot of jealous watchers as they all witnessed my unknown talent.

Personality traits

Personality traits are so interesting to me. I've heard on multiple occassions how they differ from from first born and middle children to youngest. It can impact your job, your earning power, who you marry, etc. Here's a recent list I've seen.

First borns: Smarter (Sorry Jon & Jeff, but you know it's true!), better educated, parental favorites, conformists, hard working, bossy
Middle children: Less decisive, peacekeeprs, less connected to family, more mysterious
Youngest children: More adventurous, more agreeable, funnier, pampered, spoiled

One thing I think is missing from the first-born's list is attention to detail (or anal retentive). I'm that way, although have slacked off more since Cam's been around. But Camryn. Wow! She's so detailed. If a door or drawer is open, it must be closed. When she covers up her dollies, the blanket must be smoothed out just so. When she plays with a toy, it's always the same way. I'll try to mix things up a bit just to keep her creative juices flowing, but she doesn't care for that much.

She has this toy that's like paper dolls, but you dress them up in the bath and they stick to the wall. They have a variety of outfits and she likes to display them all. Not one piece must be missing from her display and if one does happen to be gone, she knows exactly which piece is missing. Yikes! She may be worse than I am.


The sad thing is, I'm her worst enemy and she doesn't even know why yet. While I've become a lot more laid back than I used to be I still have a need to check things off my list and she does to. Many times we're just not working from the same list!

Since this is a family blog, I don't want to forget about Craig. One that immediately comes to mind is his procrastination (not typical of a first born, by the way). I'll admit that I've always had a bit of that in me too, but he was finally busted by the law the other day for procrastinating too long. His license plates were due in January. The funniest part is he works 2 miles from home, and the officer that pulled him over was on the school campus. He had actually put the renewal papers in his car, and planned to go that day, which is the one and only reason he was let go with a warning. The new plates were on his car that night.

by the way...

If you're reading this please say a little prayer for me. For the last 2 months I've known there's a possibility that my job could be eliminated. The company is going through a reorganization and the chief marketing officer and other senior executives have been trying to determine how best to structure the marketing folks. They can't seem to make up their mind, and so we've been waiting to find out if we have jobs or not. Mine is in jeapordy just due to the fact that if we organize a certain way, I'm in a redundant position. The crappiest part of all is that while we wait, these senior people are taking a trip to Hawaii for a week. It's an annual trip given to the top sales people, so this decision gets placed on hold. It's just crappy timing. We're supposed to find out in early September.

Lack of posting

So, I've been a slacker on posting. Any spare time we've had has been on the couch watching the Olympics. Probably another reason I'm tired every day. We stay up watching these events and look at the clock and think "oh crap! it's 11:00 already". Ah well. It only comes around every 4 years.

In the absence of photos, I thought I'd share a funny story. (Yes, mom, it is funny.) So, one day earlier this summer we were at the neighborhood swimming pool and Cam had come out of the water for a snack. I was sitting on a lawn chair next to a couple of neighbors where Camryn joined us. As with many 2 year olds, she has developed a magnet in her finger that goes straight to her nose.

I read in one of the many parenting magazines a long time ago that there are multiple ways to handle this, but when push came to shove I needed to pick my battles. This is a habit that is gross, I'll give you that. But there are worst things she could do, like strip down in public, scream at the top of her lungs in a restaurant, throw food on the floor, rub poop on the wall, etc. No, she doesn't do these things, but prevention is key. She does have a whining problem. I'd rather focus on nipping that in the bud and worry about the nose picking later.

Back to the story and the finger in the nose...so my neighbor, Julie looked at Cam and told her that a snail was going to bite her finger off if she wasn't careful. Camryn's finger immediately came down and she stared at Julie trying to figure out if this was real. This is one of the most random things I've heard, but I jumped on that puppy. In fact she asks about the snail at least once a day. I catch her occassionally with the finger hunting around her nostrils, but tell her "you never know when the snail is going to bite. Do you want this to be the time? Be careful!"

Fast forward to this past Friday when we went shopping with mom and dad. Mom and Camryn were looking at a mannequin, and all of a sudden Camryn tells me the lady is missing a finger. I didn't think anything of it until the next morning when that was the first thing she mentioned when she woke up. She was concerned about this poor, faceless, woman without her index finger. I had an "ah-ha!" moment on Saturday morning. "Cam, you know why her finger is missing, don't you?" She didn't, but had been searching for a logical answer. "She was picking her nose and the snail got her." And that was it. That's all I heard this past weekend. "Mommy, that lady!" or "Snail bite lady finger off?" This morning she placed her finger right next to her nose and looked at me with a goofy smirk. It didn't go in her nose, so I know what she was thinking. I just wander what she tells the other kids at school. If her teacher hears it, she might blow my cover. Maybe I'll clue her in too. :)

That's all for now.

For anyone keeping track, here is a potty training update, nearly 2 months in: Camryn is back in pull ups (sorry Dr. Polito!) because she hasn't learned to tell us when she needs to go. It seems to bother her that she can't wear her big girl panties, so hoping that will be her something to work toward. Stay tuned...

Lights, Camera, Action...Wiggles!

We took Camryn out of school early and changed into her fancy dress and pig tails for her first concert...The Wiggles! They only come through St. Louis every so often on tour, so when mom told me they were coming to town, we grabbed tickets. We met mom and Linda early and had a fun dinner at Hard Rock Cafe downtown before we walked over to the concert.

When we got there, mom was asking Cam where the Wiggles were and Camryn kept yelling "Where are you Wiggles?" (the movie is a bit dark, but you can hear what she's saying)

Mom said I bet Jeff (the Wiggle dressed in a purple shirt) will fall asleep sometime during the show. And this dad in front of us, without turning around, just said "You can count on it! There's no way we can get through the show without having to yell 'Wake up Jeff!' " (I've always wondered why they have a narcoleptic character in the group, and laugh at all ridiculous songs about Jeff being asleep, so this was funny to me.) Later the same dad bought his son a plush red guitar (like the one Murray, the red Wiggle uses) and figuring he spent a small fortune on it told him he had to wear it all night. Halfway through the show, mom and I glanced over and the kid had put it around the dad's neck! Ha, ha! Guess he needed to get his money's worth out of it somehow.

Anyway, if I can take a moment to critique the performances. Stink-o-rama! Yet, completely entertaining. Especially with Camryn doing her thing. But I just sat there and laughed to myself thinking how much money these people must make for not having to be perfect at their performance. If they screwed up their choreography, the kids won't know. And who cares what the parent's think? They're just there for the smiles on their kids faces.

And that's the truth! I would have paid $1000 to see that look on Camryn's face when The Wiggles came out on stage. I was almost in tears just watching how excited she was. It was a 90 minute show and she danced almost all of it. They sang her favorites "Rock-a-bye Your Bear" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." And lots more. She did all of the motions to the songs she knew. So cute! On the way home she told us that was "fun." She also got a Big Red Car wand that lights up and she wanted to make sure we all had a chance to hold it during the performance. She held that thing all the way home, and all the way up to bed.

This morning when we got to school, her teacher asked her how she liked seeing The Wiggles and Camryn just turned around to me and smiled. I'm guessing that means she had a good time.

On the road again!

So, the road trip to Destin just wasn't enough miles. I decided to make the trip to Louisville with mom and dad to see Bryan Fox perform. Jean & Bruce drove up from Jonesboro and wound up being about 30 minutes ahead of us on Hwy 64. They'd call mom and tell her which exit to turn off and what to see. Felt like we were living their trip 30 minutes behind them. Although we didn't go all the way to Santa Clause, IN or make it to the store of items only crafted from chain saws. But we did take the scenic route for abou 10 miles and stopped at St. Menidad (or something like that) at a small grocery store and ate. I felt good for supporting a small store. I made fun of their fancy (not really) artwork and their wide selection of fried chicken, chicken tenders or livers & gizzards at their "to go" counter, but I left with a happy feeling that we supported a small business.

Anyway, we got to Louisville and just hung out and chatted. Ryan & Bryan's house is amazing, and the tour took an hour in itself. (Just kidding Ryan.) Seriously though, it's a beautiful home, and I thought they've done a great job at making it feel homey.

We went to Bryan's concert, which was great. He had taken on a little more country sound from the last time I heard him play. Jon, Jeff & I drove over to see him probably 4 or 5 years ago and it was much more rock based. Great music. We're all rooting for you Bryan that your songs are picked up! Keep it up!




Back in St. Louis, Cam & Craig hung out with Linda & Carl on Saturday. And, let me just brag that on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, she was 100% on the potty training. Not so much on Tuesday. Craig said he asked her and took her frequently over the weekend, so I wonder if it's a time thing with the teachers where they just can't possibly be on those kids frequent enough. So how do we teach Cam to go to them or to us and say I have to go? She doesn't do that with us either.

Florida adventures

We spent a lot of time on the beach and just vegging for the most part, which was fine by us. With two little ones, you have to work your day around naptimes. This made it especially nice to be in a house. We could all go to our separate rooms, but we had a beautiful back deck, a living room and kitchen to gather and spend time together. It was ideal with this many people going.

This was the first time we've taken Camryn on a vacation. She did so well. We had been talking up the beach for the last month and when she got here, she couldn't get her swimsuit on fast enough. This was also the most time we've been able to spend with the entire family for a long time. It was nice. I think Charlie got pretty used to us by the end of the week. She's so sweet. It was cool to see the two girls play together every day. They'd dance for us and chase each other and play with each other's toys. Yes, there were power struggles on toys, but that's normal toddler stuff.

The girls were fun on the beach. Charlie loved having the waves rush up on her legs (although it's funny to read Liz's blog as she had a completely different take on Charlie and the waves). Cam not so much because when the water rushed back into the ocean, she'd sink into the sand a bit. Didn't seem to care for that. She was content playing with buckets of water in the sand.




Cam didn't like to walk far in the sand. She said it hurt her feet. I think it just felt so different to her. There were little dead plants in the sand and she'd come up to one and scream. I'd turn around and it wouldn't be any larger than a dollar bill on the ground by her feet. I asked her to walk around, but for some reason refused. With all of the toys we hauled to/from the beach that I'd have in my hand, I finally said, "see you at the house" and she'd figure out how to get back.

The water was not great for swimming in it. There was quite a bit of seaweed and jelly fish. Although that didn't stop the boys. All of them would swim quite a ways out there, despite the purple flag flying (warning of potential dangerous marine life). Some folks we spoke to that come every year say this July was the dirtiest they've ever seen the water. June is usually crystal clear, but with more storms in July, the seaweed comes in and stays for a bit. Still, the water great to look at, walk along side and listen to. I could just sit on the beach and listen to the waves coming in for hours. It's so relaxing. We took a great walk on the beach the first evening.






On Tuesday, Craig, Dad, Jon, Jeff and his friend Mike got up before dawn and went out on an ocean fishing adventure. Their boat was called Don't Let Go!, and they all did pretty good. Dad said he was the first and last to catch the fish. Craig got a large King Mackeral (40" long). Several of them also caught an Amberjack, which apparently have a lot of fight in them and are tough to reel in. Craig said when he caught his, the pole was almost bent in half. When he got it in it was something like 27.5", which is considered a baby, so he had to throw it back in. I teased him that it was that hard for him to catch a baby fish. I wondered how hard it would be to get an adult. They had the fish cleaned there, and brought a bunch of Red Snapper home to eat. Not being a fish eater, I figured I'd load up on the sides, but Mike grilled them up for all of us, and it was really good.

Here's Craig with his King Mackeral.

The captain said it was the largest one he's seen caught this year.

Here are the boys with their catch for the day.

On Wednesday, we took Camryn to a place called Gulfarium. It was like a poor man's Sea World, only we paid $40 bucks to get in. The tanks needed a fresh coat of paint and the bleachers were super old. There was a dolphin show, a sea lion show and a combined dolphin & sea lion show. Each were supposed to be 30 minutes. The dolphin show started 15 minutes late, and Cam had to pee so we ran down to the bathroom and made it back just in time. One of the dolphin's tricks was to splash outside the tank. We happened to be standing in the lucky spot. So we were drenched. Then Cam had to pee agian. By the time we raced back up to the dolphin show, it was over. Oh, the joys of potty training. The next two shows were short as well, but cute. Cam spent more time asking me for another sip out of my soda and playing with the snap on her pants. A little too young still I guess.

The next two days were spent soaking up as much beach time as we had left. Jon rented a kayak and the group shared it throughout the day. We even took Cam out, which was probably one of her favorite things. Maybe next time we'll rent a boat for a while.

This picture looks like Craig is about to knock Cam and me out of the boat. What's up?

On the last night we went over to a popular shopping area that had a water play area for kids. Camryn & Charlotte were in heaven!

We even had a temporary pet that Camryn called Dewey. The name stuck around. And so did Dewey. Maybe that's because Mom kept feeding him bologna and cheese.
It was a wonderful trip. Great time with the family. Thank you mom and dad for such a wonderful week!

The road trip to Florida...

...was supposed to be a quick 2-leg flight from St. Louis through Memphis, ending in Ft. Walton Beach, with a quick drive to our destination in Destin.


Craig, Camryn and I met Jon, Liz and Charlotte at the airport. We had about 30 minutes to spare before our flight was scheduled to board, so we quickly shoveled in 2 pizzas and a salad, that set us back $30, and eagerly awaited them to begin boarding.


We were in line to get on the airplane for our 5:25pm flight. Liz was actually the next one in line to board when the pilot came out and said not to board any more passengers. There was an issue with the windshield wipers. They were calling maintenance. This made us a bit nervous. Our stop in Memphis was supposed to be very short. Less than an hour, but enough to give Camryn and Charlie a little time to stretch their legs, a bathroom break, and maybe a quick snack before we boarded another plane. We were nervous because any delay in STL would endanger us making our flight.


About 20 minutes later, they cancelled our flight, and said there were no others we could get on that evening. They would pay for our hotel (silly, because we live there), and would re-book us on a flight tomorrow. Only we were supposed to wake up in Destin. They asked us to call the 800 number (rather than dealing with us in person) and make our own arrangements. All that was left (for all 6 of us on the same route) was a 3 leg flight, leaving at 7:30 in the morning, and going through Indy & Memphis on 3 different airlines, getting us in town about 3:30 on the next afternoon. No thank you. Not with two kids. This evening flight was working around both of their nap times. Or we could drive to Kansas City and leave at 6:50 in the morning, or we could drive to Memphis and fly out at 9:30 in the morning, both getting us there about 11:00am. I could make the justification to drive the several hours to Memphis and fly out in the morning. It would be an early morning, but we'd be on the beach by noon.


But, Craig and Liz began campaigning to drive. Not to KC or Memphis, but through the night and straight to Destin. Jon and I laughed at the idea of making a 12 hour car journey with a one and two year old in tow, and continued to work on getting both of our families on a flight to Florida. But the longer we tried and failed to get a flight option that would get us in later than first thing in the morning, the less the driving sounded like a hair-brained idea. We gave in. We'd all take legs. It wouldn't be so bad. We were starting to psych ourselves up. It was was about 6:30pm. An hour after our flight was supposed to leave. The girls would sleep through the night, and so with just a few stops on the way, we'd be pulling in by 7:00 in the morning and have breakfast with mom and dad. 8:00 tops. Let's do it! And so the adventure began.


Jon and I called Northwest back to request a refund for our tickets. Only when we purchased them through Travelocity it was a Delta flight, so Northwest, who cancelled the flight said they couldn't help us. Delta would have to and would probably direct us back to Northwest. Delta did. But with some firm pushback, they refunded 5 of our tickets. Liz, somehow really did have a Northwest ticket, and we're hoping she has a flight back.


So while Jon was battling that, I headed to the rental car counter to change my reservation from picking up at the airport to driving one-way. FYI...the one-way trips have a hefty premium attached. The Northwest discount we were supposed to receive (for our trouble) wasn't being accepted because one-way rentals were sold out. The lady said she'd help anyway. Literally, a little more than an hour later, we had our reservation. Don't ask me why it took so long. The lady was afraid to tell me the $750/wk rate we would be paying was now $2300 for a big Surburban. She punched in all kinds of scenarios trying to get me a discount (I think at least) and was still coming up short. We were trying to get a bigger vehicle than the minivan we planned to use to hold all of our luggage and still have leg room for 12 hours. Jon said a Tahoe was the same thing as a Surburban, and with that change, the lady could shave off $1000 (with a military discount...which is a secret). Done! We got our paperwork and then climbed onto the shuttle to get the car. It was now about 8:30. The girls were doing quite amazing. They were running all over the place. By this time, they were showing signs of getting quite sleepy, but hanging in there like champs.


Back to the Tahoe...we couldn't find one on the lot, so we went in to ask where there was one parked and thought I'd take the opp to make sure our luggage would fit. Nope. There was no room for all of our luggage, Charlie's pack n' play, 2 strollers and 6 people. So they showed us some comparable Dodge SUV. Nope. Then he suggested a third vehicle that was like a mini van but a little bit larger. Awesome storage space. This will do. We loaded all the luggage in and were getting the GPS system fired up. Only when we went to install the car seats, the middle seat wasn't anchored into the floor. It was just sitting loose. Back inside we asked the guy for help and he came out, trief for about 5 minutes and decided he wasn't going to deal with it that night. So onto vehicle #4. They had a Toyota Sienna mini van. Great space for luggage. Ample room for car seats and 4 adults.

At long last, we had a vehicle. At 9:08pm, Liz and I began documenting the trip by photos. We were in our 4 of our journey and still right across the highway from the airport. Luggage was loaded, Charlie's seat strapped in, and done. Whew! Craig, nor I wanted to haul Cam's big car seat through the airport, so we had rented one for scooting around Destin. So, when we saw what we got for the $50/week charge, we gave it right back. Total piece of crap. No way she was going to make it for the 12 hour car ride in that thing. So stop one was 5 minutes away to the airport parking garage to get her car seat out of my car.


Thankfully we were able to rent a GPS system, which we affectionately named Judy. (Somehow, the Garmin system sounded like Garland to Liz, so she began calling her Judy and it stuck.) God bless Judy! She dropped us 2 miles from our destination. At 10:15pm we hit a traffic jam on hwy 70. CRAP! We were 3 miles from our highway and moving about 1 mile per 10 minutes. It was the total shady part of town. There were large girls in clothing 3 sizes too tight getting out of their cars dancing and hugging (we thought they were fighting at first). One dude opened his mini van door while the they were moving and was making weird faces at us. Yikes.


The girls finally fell asleep about 10:30. And we finally got moving around 10:45. Once we got out of the city it was relatively painless. They woke up periodically when we stopped for gas, which was good because they got to stretch their legs a bit. They didn't really get a ton of sleep overall, but maintained a low stress level for the car ride. There were a few moments they hit a wall where they were so tired, one would cry and set the other off. You couldn't blame them really, but I can't say enough about how well they did. From the time our flight was cancelled our entire adventure lasted almost 18 hours. Thank you Camryn & Charlotte. They entertained each other a lot.


Craig took the first 6 hours. Whoa! How he had energy, I have no idea. We were all so drained, and none of us could get comfortable really to rest up for our leg. He also drove through really heavy rain.


Judy estimated the time we'd arrive in Destin. The whole time we were thinking she was accounting for the time change in Florida. Only there's no time change as we eventually learned. We did have that extra hour of driving to go. She took on a few odd paths, but dropped us right into the heart of Destin. We pulled in by 11:30, Dad greeted Jon & Craig with a beer. By 12:30 we had our suits on and were on the beach.


It was the best ending to a long road trip. Now that it's been several days, and I can reflect on it, it's nice to know that we're only 12 hours from the beach. And now that I know Cam can handle it, maybe it's an option down the road.

Pictures to come when we return home.

Celebrating independence!

As usual we celebrated July 4th at the Horn Extravaganza! Lots of family and friends. It was the best weather I ever remember having. We could actually sit out side without needing a towel to wipe off the sweat that would form from doing nothing. Way more comfortable. No fireworks this year, but the washers were going. There were activities for the kids this year. Mom set up this game. They had to fish out a rubber ducky in a net. Not much skill to it, really, but they loved it. Because then, they got to run inside and pick out a prize. They had about 30 options. Mom had a bunch of little items in bowls. From necklaces to tiny lizards. I wish I would have thought to take a picture of the prize table. I guess Cam talked Dad into getting her fish for her. You're such a sucker PaPa!

Here's Camryn and Charlotte in their matching 4th of July tops that Liz got them. And yes, it's impossible to get them both to look at the camera at the same time. That's okay girls.

Auntie Jay and her sweet little neice, Charlotte.

The Fox family drove over to St. Louis for the day. It was so nice of them to make the 4 hour trip (each way!) to spend the day with us. We only see them one time a year which is too bad, but it's so fun to see how the girls are growing up. Jean & Bruce came up as well.

Ryan & Pepper

Bruce & Dylan

What's up Liz! You know you love

that I make sure to take pictures at EVERY family function.

Aunt Linda was playing with Cam in the water after the duck game was over. She thought she'd squirt Camryn and wound up with water on her own head.

Aww! What a great looking family! I took three pics to get

that smile from Linda. Hee, hee.

The next day Camryn caught Craig and I not paying attention, so she went "shopping" in the pantry. When she does this she normally grabs the sprinkles and a glass container of bouillion cubes and other random stuff. Then she'll pretend to pour them on paper plates and serve me or her dollies dinner. Well, she's gotten REALLY good at opening containers, and I guess we both heard her in the pantry and assumed she was feeding her dollies. Assuming was the wrong thing to do. I walked in and she had sprinkles every where. These pictures don't do the mess justice.
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I hope the video works.