JustJessie

A Week in Pics

Grandparents' Day:

   

First Flag Football Game:

   

Grant's Birthday!

   

Many details to follow, but for today, lots of coffee, couch time, and little boy snuggles.  :)

A Welcome Weekend

Those first two days of school last week were worse than a medieval torture chamber, so we were thrilled to see the weekend come.  Jeff and I decided that since the boys proved at Disney to be capable of walking long distances with a minimum of whining, we would try taking them on a hike Saturday.  You all know Grayson can do nothing without being in character, so before we left he had thrown together an Indiana Jones costume.  He had so much fun being our "scout" and "safari guide".  (You can't see it in this picture, but he even had a jump rope for a whip. heehee)

 

He was pretending that there were lots of booby traps, and he would point them out to us along the trail.  There were also some horses on the trail that day, so he was tracking them (the "polchers").  All this talk of tracks and traps was a little confusing to Grant, who cried out, "Look!  Booby tracks!" every time we saw hoof prints in the dirt. 

We got carried away and hiked a little farther than we meant to, so that most of the way back Grant was either whining about being tired or riding on Jeff's shoulders.  All was forgotten when we saw our car peeking at us through the trees.  Grant took off running and said, "That was a great 'afari!  Now wet's go git some Gatorade!"

Whadda Week part 1

This last week seemed like it lasted four, and since I didn't do much blogging, it may take a couple of posts to catch up.  For starters, I've been asked for more about our vacation.  I already told you it was wonderful, but I guess that's about all I said!  So, the plan was to leave for Disney World at about 3:30 am on Saturday.  We had the car all packed up, alarm clocks set, and were in bed by nine.  One problem.  I am such a kid when it comes to vacations.  I laid there wide awake for two hours, before I turned to Jeff (who started snoring the second his head hit the pillow), and said, "Honey, I can't sleep, can you?" heehee. So by the time I showered and rounded up odds and ends, we were on the road at midnight.  I know, I know, you all think I'm crazy.  Really, though, it was perfect.  Grant slept until five, when we got out to eat breakfast, and then he took a nap from ten to twelve, so he was asleep practically the whole time we were driving.  Poor Grayson has too much of his mama in him, and couldn't sleep.  He finally drifted off when we were about an hour from the Disney World gates.  Check out that face as he saw the gates the first time:

 

We stayed in a Disney hotel that was Fantasia themed, and Grant was so excited.  Not only does he LOVE Mickey, but this was his first time in a hotel room since he was a leetle baby.  We spent the spent the first day at Magic Kingdom, and we had so much fun, we decided to extend our stay by one day so we could be sure and go back.  The kids saw all their favorite characters, and I was proud of them both for riding all the rides without freaking out.    

About half an hour after we entered the park, we happened upon Woody's Round-Up Gang doing the cowboy hokey pokey.  As soon as the guy with the mic said, "Come on and join us buckaroos," Grant ran out right smack in the middle of them.  It was great.  He got to dance with Woody and all those other guys for a long time. 

The next day we spent at Animal Kingdom, which was cool, but way too hot and way too crowded.  We still had fun, but we will definitely not go back there in the dog days of summer.  We did happen on this guy while we were there, though, which made for a super cute picture. 

Whew!  That's enough typing for me right now.  Tune in tomorrow for Grayson's first day of FIRST GRADE!!

Grant at the Beach

This is Grant's third or fourth time to the beach, but it's the first time he's been in almost a year.  Everything was brand new to him.  The look on his face in that first picture says it all.

The Magic is Over

I guess you could say it's been awhile since you heard from me, huh?  Sorry to disappear on you like that.  We went on our first family vacation in ages, and I'm way too paranoid to announce to the world when my house is going to be abandoned for a week.  Ha!  It's sounds silly I guess, but if there is one thing I've inherited from my father, it's a healthy dose of paranoia.

So!  We had a wonderful week together.  We spent the first three days here: ,

where we had WAY too much fun and dined with these guys: .

We spent the next four days with our best friends who live near this beach: ,

where we went out on this boat:  

where everyone looked like this: .

It is so hard to come back to reality after that.  The boys had the best time of their lives, and Jeff and I had so much fun watching them (okay, truth be told we had more fun than they did!). 

And Then We Bought a Rope

If you read the post before this, you know that this morning, my usually creative boys could think of absolutely nothing to do.  That is, until we bought a rope.  You see, Grayson has been obsessed with swinging from ropes (a'la Indiana Jones, Tarzan, pirate captains).  He's been following me around the house with a rope and a piece of packing tape insisting that the tape would hold if I would just let him attach it to the ceiling, and then he could swing all over the house.  I have found him more than once standing tip-toed on the back of the couch trying to reach high enough to attach it himself. 

I decided rather than end up with a seriously injured young'un, I would let him swing from something of MY choosing and supervise him doing it.  We stopped at the hardware store for some rope on the way to my parents' backyard (they have better trees).  Luckily my dad was there to tie a good knot in the part of the rope we attached to the tree, and the rest of the day was spent playing as hard as can be!

   

The whole thing was topped off by fresh picked blackberries from Mom's garden.

Yes, I promise there are berries in there somewhere.  They were too sour even for Grant, who will eat anything if it's fresh from the garden, so Dad went to get a "little bit of sugar" to sweeten them up.  I would hate to see his idea of a LOT of sugar!

 

He's too cute not to post it.

G-day

For the second year in a row Grayson, his Daddy, and his Poppy are on their way to the G-day game.  That's three generations of Keith men between the hedges together again.  The picture above is from last year's game.  It blows my mind how much Grayson has grown since then.  One thing is the same, though.  His favorite part about the trip is staying in a hotel room.  He called this afternoon, and our conversation went a little something like this:

Me: Hey Buddy!  Whatcha doin?

Grayson:  HEY MOM!  WE DROVE ALL THE WAY HERE THEN WE GOT TO THE HOTEL ROOM THEN I WENT PEE THEN WE PUT ON OUR SWIMSUITS AND WENT IN THE INDOOR POOL AND THEN WE CAME BACK AND I WAS JUMPING FROM BED TO BED TO BED TO BED TO BED TO BED TO FLOOR BECAUSE WE HAVE TWO BEDS AND A FLOOR BETWEEN THEM AND I WOULD  JUMP FROM ONE BED TO THE OTHER UNTIL I GOT TIRED OF IT AND THEN I JUMPED ON THE FLOOR AND DADDY DOESN'T CARE AND I DON'T KNOW WHAT POPPY THINKS ABOUT IT BECAUSE HE'S NOT IN HERE SO IT DOESN'T REALLY MATTER WHAT HE THINKS BUT NOW WE HAVE TO GO EAT SUPPER MOMMA I LOVE YOU BYE!

Me: K.  Love you too. 

Gosh, I hope he's having a good time.

Seep-Ober

In all the hub-bub of Grayson starting school, I never told you guys about a big "first" in Grant's life.  Last Friday, he had his first sleepover away from home. 

To understand why this is such a big deal, you'd have to know a few things about Grant.  He is the kind of kid who loves his own bed.  He never naps on the couch, or in our bed, or anything like that.  Only his bed will do.  For this reason, and also because he is very much a momma's boy, no one has ever invited him to spend the night before. 

So Friday afternoon, I loaded up the boys and their suitcases, along with Grant's "Bears" (his blanket), his big dog shaped pillow, and his lullaby cd, and took them all to GaGa and Dado's.  Grant felt so big walking up to the door with a suitcase as big as he is, and telling everyone who would listen that he was going on a "seep-ober."

Off to school

There's my boy, all packed up and ready for his first day of school.  I'm feeling too many things to write right now.  I've been trying for the last fifteen minutes, but what I need to say just won't translate here.

Suffice it to say, I'm a proud, sad, excited, nervous momma.  Everything in me wants to go back to the school and tell them they can't have my baby.  He belongs at home with me.  But, as much as I wish it, that's just not what he needs.  He's out there, testing his wings for the first time, and I have to let him.  But I don't have to be entirely happy about it.