there's no place like home

it was a really great trip home and i always wish i could stay longer. when i got to wichita on saturday night, mom and dad and i went straight over to adam and abbe's to see creyton. he is so precious! i got to just hold him for a while. some of adam and abbe's neighbors were having a little too much fun with fireworks after the 4th (considering it was the 8th!) they were pretty loud and they woke dakota up. he was pretty upset and started crying. adam brought him out into the living room and he was so cute he kept saying, fire crackers go BOOM! POP! fire crackers make me JUMP! he finally settled back down and went to sleep.

sunday morning i slept in and then ate lunch with mom and dad. adam called me when dakota woke up from his nap and i went over there to play with him while abbe got a little bit of much needed sleep. then mom and dad brought pizza over for dinner and dad made home made ice cream-yummy! thanks dad! aaron and jessie came over too. as we were sitting down at the table, dad asked dakota if he could sit by him. dakota answered, "yeah....if you can behave!" i wonder where he's heard that? :)

monday mom and i went over to grandma and grandpa's house in the morning. it was good to see them and i've decided grandma needs a new computer. she's so cool, she's been a mac user as long as she's had a computer. i can remember playing on her first computer in the den. it's screen was smaller than my laptop's now and it was black and white. ahhh, the good ol days! after that i went to lunch with lauren and mallory. it was so good to catch up with the two of them. i was hoping mallory would at least have a little belly, but no such luck! i'm excited i'll be home for christmas, so i'll get to be there when the little one is born. that afternoon i went back over to adam and abbe's. molly was over there and i caught the tail end of because i said so-great movie by the way. i got to sit with creyton asleep on my shoulder for about an hour-pure heaven!


tuesday mom and i took dakota to pump it up (see post below), and went out to adam and aaron's job site. then it was time to head on up to KC to the ariport. mom and i hitched a ride with duane (thanks duane!) it was a great trip!

let's go jumpin!!

so wichita has this completely awesome place called pump it up that's bascially a giant wonderland of blow up fun for kids. it's for kids 2-6 and it's a big room with a bunch of blow up moon walks. one has a bunch of kick balls in it. another is a big obstacle course and there's a gigantic slide. mom and i got to take dakota there on tuesday morning before i had to leave. we got there right when they opened and for the first 15 minutes or so we were the only ones there which was awesome, and let dakota warm up to all the huge blow up thingys. he loved it, although it took him a little while to warm up and he hated the big slide. i think they need a place like this for adults. what a great idea! afterwards we went out to adam and aaron's job site in valley center. it had been raining, so they were caked in mud, but it was cool to see where they're working now. dakota is always so interested in what daddy and uncle aaron are doing. he know all his tools and when they have a boys night out, they go to home depot. dakota thinks it's the greatest thing ever. they go around looking at all the tools and he names them all. he's a little builder in the making.

coffee talk reunion

Ok, so this is kind of sad that I'm just now posting about my trip to kansas that was 3 weeks ago. but i know you're all dying to hear about it. so i got there on friday night (after a really annoying hour delay at the airport) and stayed with kirk and marisa that night. the next morning we got up and met at heather's house to drive out to amanda's parents house to meet up with all my college girlfriends. we got mildly lost on the way, stupid construction, but made it there none the less. we (we meaning heather and kristin) made pizzas for lunch- great idea marie! and talked and just caught up and had a wonderful time!what would a party be with a pinata!? so i brought a boot for nashville. i think kristin was the one who finally broke it open. lily (amanda's 3 year old) was so cute. she kept saying "the boot broke and the candy fell out!" the little ones sure enjoyed the candy! kristin and i had to leave a little early to make it to wichita before dark. it was really great to spend some one on one time with kristin and i wish i would have gotten to stay longer with the whole group, but i had to get down to see this beautiful nephew of mine! it was such a good time to catch up and see everyone who i hadn't seen in a long time. love you girls!!

california dreamin

Ok, so due to some technical difficulties (namely, me forgetting my camera everywhere we went and Meaghan's burned picture CD not so much working on my mac) I have no pictures to show you from my visit to the good ol sunshine state-is that even california's nickname? anyway, i had a wonderful time and it was the perfect amount of relaxation and running around.

I got into LAX around 10pm and randomly ran into Steve Knox (Kevin's brother). He had arrived about an hour before me and couldn't find his ride. Add to that he left his cell phone in Kansas, he was going to have to take a cab home. So, I offered my ride to him and when Meaghan and Jeremy came to pick me up, we took Steve home. That was a fun and completely random detour. Then since that day was Meaghan's school's graduation (which she planned beautifully) the teachers/administration were having a party. We met them all at Hollywood Billards and Meaghan and I spent the whole time playing darts. Can I just say, I am WAY better at darts than she is, yet somehow she won 2 out of 3 games. Stupid scoring system!

On Saturday we woke up late and went to the beach to Meaghan and Jeremy's normal spot-lifeguard station 3! We met up with their friends Al and Lottie and their daughter and just hung out and relaxed. It was wonderful. When we got home, Meaghan and I went shopping. Yay for Xi and H&M. These are the cutest and cheapest stores ever! Too bad they're only in LA :( When we got home we had hamburgers made from Koci beef, which were of course delicious!

On Sunday we went to the Crystal Cathedral to see Justin play with flood. It was an interesting experience to say the least. To get Meaghan's opinion click here. After service we went to The Block and huge basically out door mall. We ate lunch and walked around a little. Meaghan and I found Steve and Barry's whcih carries Sarah Jessica Parker's new line Bitten. It's pretty awesome. Justin had to head back with the band that afternoon. In the evening Meaghan and I went to this Mexican grocery store, which I forget the name of, and it was awesome! They play blaring Mexican music, have really cheap hideous decorations, and all the annoucements over the intercom are in Spanish. We bought stuff for carne esada-yummy! Then we stayed up way too late playing cards. Apparently I'm awesome at nerts and really bad at funtbucket.

Monday, Meaghan and I went and got pedicures at the mall and then met Kevin and Nikki for lunch. By that time we had to go to the airport. So all in all I had a wonderful trip. Thanks Kocis!!

dog park days

creyton john doll is here!

Well he finally made it! Abbe started her contractions at 3am on the 4th of July. She and Adam went to the hospital at 6am, minus their bags because Abbe didn't want to jinx it! This was no false alarm, she was in real labor! She was so happy to have gone in on here own instead of having to be induced. Creyton was born around 4:45pm. He is 7lb 2oz and 18 1/2 inches long. Much shorter and chubbier than Dakota. He's so adorable and big brother is so proud! Mama abd baby are doing wonderfully.