All Aboard!

Above all else, Will loves TRAINS right now. We got him this Thomas starter set last Christmas (although I don't think he got it until Valentine's Day) and he recently has been obsessed with it. He builds tracks all over and ideally is watching an episode of Thomas and Friends On Demand (both his demand and the cable company's system. . .). So we have had our eye out for a train table. Toys R Us ran a section in their past few circulars but I didn't love what they had. We were at Target yesterday for odd and ends and I made the mistake of going near the toy department. Will yelled "Thomas!" and pointed and almost jumped out of the cart. We stopped and he played with a train set on the end of an aisle while I spied an entire train section (hmmm, who knew?). They had this cool "activity table" for a great price, so Christmas arrived at our house yesterday! Will helped me put it together instead of taking an afternoon nap and has been enjoying it ever since.

Now he's hoping that Santa brings more trains and tracks. Mom sprung for one new train ($2.99 Circo brand not that crazy $20.99 for a Thomas one!) while shopping yesterday which bring his total to 4 cars.

Then to make the weekend extra awesome, we were already planning to RIDE the big train into the city! That was an event by itself as there were 20+ stops where we got to "pick up people" and he could practice saying, "all aboard!"

Be sure to notice the Thomas clutched in his hand. . . . .and the expression of pure joy on his face! :-) We rode the train to Union Station; met Uncle Ryan for a yummy brunch; and rode the train back home. A wonderful day!

Game Day

As with other K-Staters, we've been showing our pride and sporting lots of purple recently due to the great success of the football program this season. Saturday was a beautiful fall day, so we did a little yard work before catching the afternoon game. Everyone already knows the result of the game, so no need to discuss that. We actually were on our way to Target for odds and ends when while loading Will into the car he spied his bucket and toys in the garage, bolted from the car to grab them, and ran away into the front yard. I didn't see any reason not to enjoy the beautiful day, so I joined him in the sunshine and said Target could wait.

We didn't have any responsibility except to enjoy ourselves, so we moved around some small piles of leaves and soaked in the sunshine. Here Will is carrying a few from one pile to another. Doesn't he look like such a big boy?!

Bedtime Stories

After living it up on vacation by sleeping in a big bed (more precisely, Mommy's bed), Will decided he did not want to go back to sleeping in a crib by himself! His immediate solution was to climb out of his crib and head for the master bedroom to find mommy. So we felt like we needed to convert the crib. Originally we were going to go straight to the full size bed (the back of the crib as the headboard) but everytime we talked up the big bed Will cried that he didn't want a big bed. So, we just took the front off the crib and now it's a "day bed." It most certainly isn't a night bed. . . Will enjoys playing in his bed and he likes me to lay on it with him, but he's been really hit or miss on sleeping there this week. It takes an hour plus to get him to bed and then whether he stays there is another story. A few nights he slept with me (Jason was traveling) and one night he slept all the way through. So, I guess we'll see. But we're all tired. . .

This picture is him hiding from the camera. He's saying, "no more cheese!"

Our Big Roadtrip

This is a long post with lots of pictures, but we had such a fun-filled 8-plus days on our trip that I wanted to remember all of the great memories! We hadn't been to Kansas City since Will's 1st birthday and we hadn't been to McPherson in even longer, so we wanted to get there this fall. I have a lot of vacation left to use, so Will and I took out in the MDX for our roadtrip on a Sunday morning with Jason flying in the next Friday to join us!

Will was an exceptional traveler and wonderful companion. I'd also like to think my planning of no more than 3 hours in the car and lots of fun and tiring activities helped with that! First stop was Davenport, Iowa for the first of many chicken nuggets and apple juices. The original plan was to go to a children's museum in Iowa City, but we got a late start out from home and I had no idea how pokey Will was during a meal, so we skipped the museum due to time and stopped to play at a park in Davenport. That wore Will out the necessary amount to get us the next 3 hours to our evening stop in West Des Moines.

I highly recommend the Hilton Garden Inn in West Des Moines where they have a delicious breakfast (Will ate 3 plates of eggs. . . I need to look for that photo) and an indoor baby pool. We swam before bed on Sunday and after breakfast on Monday before heading to Olathe to visit my friend Nikki and her family. Will LOVED Lindsay's toys -- especially her kitchen where he "cooked" for hours!

Tuesday morning was a trip to the popular Deanna Rose Farmstead in Overland Park which is FREE and has tractors! I must say that road construction was a huge hit with Will who pointed out diggers, tractors, cement mixers, etc, to me along our drives.We met my friend Mandi and her boys Mitchell and Maverick who were old pros at the farm and showed Will all the ropes -- like how to scale the fence at the baby goat exhibit!

This picture is dark but shows how Will sleeps. The little sliver of bed to the right of Will's head was my space to sleep! We confirmed that he had outgrown his pack 'n play since he could climb out and he slept with me all 8 nights. He also slept with me our first night back home since he showed us (several times) that he could climb out of his crib. We were shocked to hear his bedroom door open!

On Wednesday, Nikki and I took the kids to the Louisburg Cider Mill where they had their small pumpkin patch set up. The corn kernal silo was a big hit, as always. There were also two pigs out on the loose which you can see to the right of the picture below.

And no trip (or so I had heard, so I had to indulge!) is complete without the apple cider donuts. Will and I each had two and then had no interest in lunch before starting the next stage of our roadtrip: to Grandma's house in McPherson!

My parents were thrilled to have Will visiting and bought him this ATV to use at their house. The "dump trunk" on back was a big hit, as it was filled over and over with rocks, paver stones, sticks, balls, dog toys, you name it, as it was driven inside and outside.

I talked a lot before our trip about their "two puppies" to get Will excited, and he thought "Maggie puppy" was tons of fun! She seemed to like having him around, too, and showed him how to use the doggy door to/from the back yard. . . .

Finally at 2 years, 4 months old, Will got a real haircut. We took him to my mom's hair dresser on Thursday night. He sat quietly and patiently on my lap and watched in the big mirror over my shoulder.

Look at that great looking kid! I liked this smile and his haircut, but it's one more shot of him filling up the ATV trunk.

Finally it was time to pick up daddy, so we drove to KCI on Friday morning to get Jason. We were excited to spend the weekend with our great friends, Keith and Desiree, and their son, Aiden. The boys played together like the little buddies we always hoped they would be. Aiden did an amazing job of sharing his toys with Will and being patient with the younger kid.

Will was in heaven with all the truck and construction toys that Aiden had! Wow, oh, wow!

On Saturday we enjoyed a beautiful day at the Kansas City Zoo. The polar bear was diving and putting on quite a display, and the Sky Tram was very cool! Aiden got a huge, bright blue, stuffed snake and Will got a super soft zebra for being such good boys all day!

Sunday brought an early alarm and more miles in the car as Will and I drove to Manhattan for the 15th annual Kappa Alpha Theta WildKAT Chase philanthropy 5K. We were so happy to catch up with some more good friends!

Since Will sat in the car and then sat in the stroller, he was ready to run and play after the race. We walked from Aggieville to City Park and played on their awesome new playground before driving home and collecting Jason (who spent the day at NASCAR) before doing a late night drive to West Des Moines to get a start on our long drive home.

We had a wonderful week, and I'm so happy to have shared the time with our family and friends! I also really loved getting to spend so much quality time with my little boy!