Swimming at the Y

The YMCAs in the Wichita area are awesome! (And only a half mile from our house!) Think climbing walls, giant pools with waterslides, tons of classes, child care, etc. My parents have been members forever, so I signed up for a month-long pass while I'm home. I usually hit the treadmill in the mornings for 3-4 miles while my mom watches Dan (or we take him to the Kids Zone, but he went into meltdown mode there on Thursday and I got paged over the loudspeaker--not good!). After his afternoon nap, we go back to the Y for a little fun in the indoor pool. I'm kind of obsessed with keeping him out of the sun because he just soaks it up (even with 50 SPF on) and turns brown and then everyone asks me why my kid is so tan.

(Begin rant. HE'S NOT TAN, THAT'S JUST HIS SKIN COLOR! Rant over.)

So anyway, this buddy loves the water! He likes to crawl around and splash everywhere and get his head dunked and jump off the side into my arms. My dad came with us to the Y yesterday afternoon, so here are some pictures:





Not so happy with the colder water of the outdoor pool:

Last Oklahoma post

The one thing that Aunt and Unc's farm doesn't have is a pool, but that didn't stop Dan! He invented a new activity that we decided to call Oklahoma Sidewalk Swimming. In between trips through the puddle, we had to watch him like a hawk because he has developed an appetite for rocks--perfect little choking hazards!

And here are some final shots of Daniel with my Unc (his Great Unc) in their John Deere hats:



Aunt Earlyn is my mom's only sibling, so Lauren, Layne, and I are the only grandkids on this side of the family. Unc, on the other hand, is one of 13 kids, so he has at least 30 nieces and nephews on that side of his family (most of whom now are married and have kids of their own, so their family reunions are bigger than some small towns). Every summer growing up, we would spend at least a week at the farm, so we have a very special relationship with Aunt and Unc. And I can't wait until Dan is big enough to spend time there by himself, learning how to fix a fence or build a gopher trap or find a lost cow. Thanks for a great week in Oklahoma, Aunt Earlyn, Uncle Verl, and Grandma Randolph!

Everyday farm life

Besides tractor rides and animal sightings, we just relaxed and enjoyed life on the farm. It was very easy to get Daniel into a great nap routine there because farm life is very quiet and there's just not a lot else going on. Our days were pretty predictable, which is just what we needed!

Daniel and I would wake up around 7, then we'd eat breakfast (cereal and a delicious donut stick for me, banana for him) and take a long walk along the country roads. My mom was our personal trainer and she would make us sweat going up those big hills! Dan would just chill in his stroller while we got our workout in. When we got back to the house, it was usually morning naptime for him and shower time for me. Then we'd play and hang out until Unc came in for dinner at 12:30. (On the farm, dinner is the midday meal, the biggest one of the day, and supper is the evening meal, usually just sandwiches or leftovers.) My grandma would spend all morning cooking delicious meals, complete with awesome desserts, including rhubarb pie, my favorite! And a salad to her usually includes jello, Cool-Whip, and canned fruit, which is way better than lettuce and carrots, in my opinion.

After a big lunch, everyone would usually take a nap for at least an hour. Then it was time for more play, or a trip to the barn, or to the goats, or even to town (to buy a newspaper at the gas station). Jeopardy! came on at 4:00 and we all watched it together, even the buddy. Daniel usually ate his dinner around 5:30, then hit the bath, then was ready for bed. The grown-ups ate around 7:00 or whenever Unc took a break from baling hay. And of course we had to watch Wheel of Fortune at 6:30!

At night, we would play games--Scrabble, Chickenfoot (a game with dominoes), or Yap (a homemade version of Yahtzee). And of course we had to get in our nightly games of croquet in the yard, even though it was usually a losing battle if Unc was playing--he's just too good!

Life on the farm is pretty sweet. I like to think of myself as a city person, but I could definitely get used to country living--as long as I didn't actually have to do any of the work!

When we were growing up, the house was just the dome, with the garage on the left side. When my grandma moved in four years ago, they added on the wing to the right of the dome for her (and for the rest of the family), to include four more bedrooms, three bathrooms, an office, a dining room, and a basement:

Mom and Layne, earning their keep:


Daniel, playing with the Yap dice, Great Grandma's walker, and Unc's tractor:




Hanging with Great Grandma:



Getting into mischief:




Silly boy:

Goats and Cows and Horses, Oh, My!

My uncle's nephew's kids raise baby goats for 4H, so we headed over to their farm to check out the little guys. They were so cute! Their mamas weren't very happy when Unc picked up one so Dan could pet him, but we were very gentle.






It's the wrong time of year to have brand new baby calves, so we had to settle for looking at the mamas and their not-so-little babies. None of them were small enough for Unc to wrangle, so we just admired them from afar.


The neighbors' horses came up close to the fence a couple of times over the week, so we made sure to treat them with a delicious carrot. They were beautiful horses, but I got a little nervous when they were up close, just because they were so big and powerful.





Throughout the week, we also saw an armadillo, a skunk, two toads, a gopher (that Layne caught in a trap), big spiders, lots of squirrels and bunnies, and a snake (but don't tell Aunt Earlyn because she doesn't know). Aunt loves hummingbirds and has four feeders, so we saw lots and lots of those. All we ever see in Hawaii are geckos and lizards (and the occasional cockroach), so the animal life on the farm was very exciting!

A very cool spiderweb that we found on the grass (when we touched the web, the vibration alerted the spider and he came out of the hole to see what kind of bug was going to be his dinner):

Tractors

Daniel loved seeing all the farm equipment, especially Unc's new tractor! It's just a little one, but it was the perfect size for Dan's first ride. No place to strap the car seat down safely, so he was just a lap baby (he even experienced truck rides sans car seat on the empty country roads!). And he had to wear his John Deere hat, of course. His melon is so big that the hat already fits him, even though it's sized for a 2-year-old!
In the truck on the way to the field:

First tractor ride:





Unc wanted to get him out for a motorcycle ride too, but Mommy had to put her foot down on that one! He can probably do the 4-wheeler on our next trip, but the dirt bike will have to wait at least a few more years.

Happy retirement, Aunt Earlyn!

(This is the first of many posts about our trip to Oklahoma, so keep checking back!)

We packed up the car last Thursday for the 3 1/2 hour trip to my aunt and uncle's farm in Oklahoma. This was Daniel's first road trip and he did really well. Sleeping just like Daddy, with his eyes just slightly open:

We arrived at the farm and had about 10 minutes to change clothes before we headed into town for my aunt's retirement celebration. The party was supposed to be a couple of weeks ago but a tornado came through Anadarko and knocked out power and postponed the party. Everything worked out, though, because we were able to be there and share in the excitement.

My Aunt Earlyn (my mom's sister) retired after teaching first grade for 40 years. Yes, that's right--40 years! When we were little, my sisters and I always used to tease her that we were smarter than her because she never made it past the first grade. She was an amazing teacher and all the kids that came through her classroom were lucky to be taught by her. I hope that we'll be able to see more of Aunt now that she has more time on her hands!

At the party, looking especially cute in his Hawaiian boy outfit:


Most of the family (Aunt Earlyn, my mom, Grandma Randolph, me, Daniel, Layne, Uncle Verl) (not sure where my dad was for the picture and Lauren couldn't join us until Monday):