New Addition

We spent the last week with my family in Michigan. Several weeks ago, my brother asked if we wanted another cat. He and his wife, Kimber, were fostering one that was brought in to her vet clinic, but with 2 other cats and 2 dogs, they couldn't keep him. We Definitely did not want another cat.

Then, of course, we stay with them (and the cat) for a week. Parker loves the cat. He actually loves her. Maxx and Finn tolerate her but don't voluntarily curl up next to her. She spent almost every waking second running around the house looking for Little Kitty.

We were sort of considering until the other day when Parker says out of the blue, "I love you Little Kitty." Dang it. Now we're taking a cat home.

So, we have rearranged our plans and are stopping by my brother's house on the way back home next week so that we can lug a kitten back to Indiana.

I hope Maxx and Finn forgive us.

So Busy

We've been really busy hanging out with my family so I haven't had tons of time to post about our adventures, but here are some pictures from today. (I took a TON so I just randomly picked some cute ones!)

Parker peeking through the trees in my parents' yard.
Parker and Aunt Kimber
Aunt Sally, P and Aunt Stacy
Parker and Mommy on the trampoline.

Forget the Real Thing

We go to the Shedd Aquarium.

My child is mildly interested in the real animals.

However, she stops to pet, pat, hug, kiss and talk to every single statue there is.

PS - Did anyone else know that teachers get in FREE? Awesome.

Wordless Wednesday

Fun in the sprinkler at Grandma and Grandpa's

Brookfield Zoo

We went to the Brookfield Zoo today with Alicia's family. Parker really enjoyed seeing animals that we don't have in Indy.

Here, she is looking at Camels with Grandpa.

Parker and Grandma
and Parker and Uncle Eric. We saw camels, kangaroos, bears, rhinos, hippos (although they were in the mud looking like rocks), all the big cats, dolphins, penguins, fish, monkeys and gorillas. We were a little disappointed with the penguins because Indy has so many, but there were only maybe half a dozen today. The bear exhibit and Ape house were VERY cool.
Parker was so excited to see the Gorillas that she was pretty unexcited by the other monkeys that came before the Gorillas.
It was pretty warm today and Parker was fading fast so, we didn't see everything. We tried to get a family picture and this was the best we could muster.
It was a good day. We are ALL very tired. :)

At the Park with Grandma

We didn't have much planned for today because we had a busy weekend and are going to the zoo tomorrow, but we did hit up the St. John Municipal park for a couple hours this afternoon. Parker had an awesome time and wore both herself and her Grandma out! She even did the slides and suspension bridge by herself after being initially completely freaked out by both. (I know this is not a big deal for most almost 2 year olds, but my kid is VERY cautious!)

I think I got this picture right before P went down the slide for the first time by herself. She was quite unsure, but then hollered, "AGAIN!" and ran for the steps!
Here she is ready to go once she decided she liked it!
And this is my new favorite picture. She's just so happy to be with Grandma and reaching up to Mommy!

Weekend in the Corn

This weekend we went to Forreston, IL to visit Alicia's Mom's family and to have a baby shower for Alicia's cousin. It was a good time with good food (most of which WE had to bring home - so much for my big idea of losing weight this summer!). Parker had a really good time playing with her second cousins - all girls born in September (well except one who was born the first week in October, but that's close enough!) The new baby is also due in September. If Erin has a boy, I think he might feel a little left out! P also had a great time exploring Doris's yard and looking at all her pretty flowers.

Here are some pics from the weekend.

Parker and her Grandma "Booga" on Doris porch
P getting excited about Erin opening her gifts!
Parker and Madison playing in Maddy's purple toy tub! (Maddy is 2 years older than Parker.)


And here is Parker exploring Doris's flowers and bird bath. P really loves the outdoors and flowers, but we are SO bad at keeping them alive. Oh well, that will make visiting family that much more special!

So our "vacation" is going pretty well so far. I think we're just going to hang out tomorrow and head to the Brookfield Zoo on Tuesday. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate!

Vacation - Day 1

Today was the first day of our vacation. We left home around 10:30, stopped by Half Price Books on the way out to get Parker's free books for the week (Thanks, Amy! Parker has gotten 9 free books in the past 3 weeks!) Then we headed toward Alicia's parents' house. On the way, we stopped at Fair Oaks Farms. Parker was much more interested than she was the last time we stopped (as she was only 9 or 10 months old the first time!). She had a great time playing on the playgrounds and riding a bus to see the cows.

We watched a baby cow being born for a little while, but I wasn't particularly interested in the 'whole' show and Parker was ready to get ice cream and head out to see "Grandpa Booga."
We got to Alicia's parents and Parker played around outside with her Grandpa.
We had a pretty low key evening; Parker playing with the 'old school' toys and the rest of us just hanging out. I always get very nervous about Parker sleeping away from home since her track record is not great, but bedtime went pretty well. We'll see how the rest of the night goes. Tomorrow we head out to Forreston, IL for a baby shower for Alicia's cousin's girlfriend.

Hilarity at the Parade

I'm not normally a fan of parades, especially home town parades. Perhaps it's too much marching band in the corn - I don't know. But, we thought that Parker would get a kick out it, so we went! The Noblesville Parade was at 5pm. HOT! There were quite the interesting entries.

A turtle:
A lion head on the side of an suv:
Roller skating Uncle Sam (at least that's in theme!)
Super heroes?
If this guy thinks he is superman, I think we are all going to die:
My brother is convinced that this dude lost a bet.
I don't even know what to say about this one....
Parker got fully into the spirit of the parade, firmly clutching candy that was given to her. We sat right at the beginning and P is so cute that almost every single candy-passer-outer came directly over and individually handed Parker way more candy than she could ever eat. :) We finally convinced her to put most of it in the bag, but she insisted on holding on to these suckers.
Oh right, and a roller skating rabbit.
It was a good time. A very, very hot good time.

Cute pics from a Day with Stacy

Playing "peek" from behind the trees with Aunt Stacy.Aunt Stacy gave me a new 'do. Mommy needs to learn how to do this!
I love my Aunt Stacy!