Weekend at the Lake!!!

We had a mini-getaway last weekend to hang out with my Iowa family and spend some time at the lake. Since half of Iowa is under water, when we first got there the lake was "no wake." The lack of business on the water caused us to be able to have a great weekend of fishing though!!!

 

We did some cruising around the lake in Dad's new Polaris (until Sam and I were driving around and we got a warning that we were out of gas... bummer!). We mainly used it to make trips up to the marina when we needed more worms or catfish bait!


Chacey got to do plenty of swimming in her turtle pool/sandbox on the deck. I couldn't believe how nice and enjoyable the weather was, since we had just been enduring a week of 100+ degrees in Kansas City!


Chacey loved the nice, slow boat rides that we went on (we had to go slow so that we didn't make a wake). The radio in the boat kept her entertained; we just cruised around the lake while she danced and danced!



On Sunday afternoon, right before we were getting ready to leave, they lifted the no-wake and we were able to do some tubing. The picture below is of Katie and Rebecca tubing. I didn't realize how difficult it was to do it with two people! Trying to hang on sideways made my neck and shoulders sore for a week!

Finally, just a sample of Iowa's floods...
If you look at the picture below, you can see the top of a big passenger van. This was on Sunday afternoon. When we went through on Friday, all you could see was the roof panel, so the water had actually gone down quite a bit by this point!

Where Sam Can Be a Kid...

Today we decided to take Chacey to spend a couple of hours at Chuck E. Cheese. She had such a good time! We wouldn't have even had to spend any money, she just wanted to sit in all the seats, push the buttons, and run around! We did end up getting some tokens though (more for Sam than for Chacey) and Chacey and Daddy played a few games.

They both became Skee Ball experts. Chacey started by throwing the balls as far as she could toward the targets. When that didn't work, she just climbed onto the ramp and walked the ball up there. In the bottom right picture, she is looking in the hole where she was getting the balls from, confused because they were all gone!

 

We have taken Chacey to the play area at Independence Center several times, but she usually just plays in all of the toys, sitting in them and moving the steering wheel/pushing buttons. Today she got in the Clifford toy and I put in a token, turning it on. She was AMAZED. She hung on for dear life, but smiled and laughed the whole time! I have a feeling she isn't going to enjoy just "sitting" in them anymore!

Chacey and Daddy got to spend the day playing a whole bunch of games, and they were able to get a "sketched" picture of themselves... which would have probably turned out better if someone had willingly sat still. While I am sure that Chacey had a great time, I think Sam enjoyed it more than she did!!! I think he almost shed a tear when I told him that there were only three tokens left! I guess that they both got to be kids today.

 

Introducing... Our New "Pish"!!!

So... I REALLY want a dog. Obviously a dog isn't ideal for us right now, so we settled for... a fish? Chacey loves Elmo and Dorothy, and has recently gotten very excited about identifying the "pish" in all of her books/Sesame Street shows, etc. So, today when we met Amy at Target, Petco called my name! We stopped in and started investigating the fish. After the very nice, helpful Petco employee flat out told us "you will kill them" to our first choice of fish... we decided that a Beta would be easiest.

We bought a Beta Kit... which comes with the enclosure, food, a little cage decor, and wall mountings! Yes, apparently it is very serene to decorate with Beta fish, mounting them to your wall. Then we bought a bottle of "Beta water," which is probably tap water in a bottle with a pretty label on it, but whatever, anything for Chacey's fish. We selected the most beautiful $8 fish we could find and headed for home!


On the way home, we were talking about the fish and Chacey randomly yelled "Pablo!" So I guess that we now have a Beta fish named Pablo. :) Chacey and Sam got Pablo's new home all assembled and filled with water, then dropped him in! We are going to have to continue to keep him far out of reach... someone thinks she can carry him around, but other than that she enjoys him! She runs into the dining room, stands on her tiptoes and peeks over the edge hollering "pish! pish! pish!". Pablo is definitely the perfect pet for us!

Girls and Their Shoes...

Chacey got a box in the mail yesterday full of excellent goodies. She got a few new outfits, a book, some toys, and a pair of shoes. Her favorite thing, of course, was the shoes.
















Even after bath, when we was all clean and in her pajamas, she had to have the shoes on. She kept walking around the apartment, stopping every few minutes to pull her pant legs up and show me her shoes. She stopped several times to get the piano music going and did a little dancing, too... guess she had to make sure that she still had her moves!

















We even caught her one time balancing on her head, using her hands to lift her pants, looking at her shoes. I guess she thought that she needed to see them from eye level!





She was very proud of her new shoes (she almost got put to bed in them). People always talk about "women and their shoes"... I guess that we just got started a little early. I have a feeling she is going to need a big closet!

Royals Game

A friend at work had some Royals tickets that he wasn't going to use, so we took advantage of the free tickets and had a great day at the game!

*The Royals won!!!
We are now 3-0 for games we have attended this season!

*Chacey was on the big screen twice...
Once dancing and once waving her giant foam finger around.

*Sam won the "Word of the Game" contest
They put a scrambled word on the big screen (it was Fun Run) and the first person to text in the correct answer wins $50 and their name on the screen!!!

*We also got to go visit the outfield section and the fountains.
Sam and I had never been back there ourselves since all the Kauffman Stadium renovations, so we had to go check it out!

*Our seats were perfect!!!
In the shade with a nice breeze and we had a great time!