Summer Travels

Dakota Dunes

Playing on the patio.
Amaya's BFFF (Best Furry Friend Forever) Meggie

Amaya and the Golfers (sans Corey-on his way to a wedding, and Matt-don't know where he disappeared to)

Amaya getting drawing lessons...
...and loving the attention.
Enough of those boys, let's go blow bubbles.
Look mommy, the tree has a face.

That is so funny and...

silly (giggle, giggle).

(I included all of these because her facial expressions crack me up. You have to click on the picture/enlarge the picture to see them.)

Toy Story 3 night with the cousins-Jena, Lauren, and...

...Brycen.

Daddy and daughter at the Omaha Zoo.

Lauren checking out all of the bees.

A bird's eye view of the zoo (1st chair: Amy, Brycen, Brian; 2nd chair: Jena, Grandma Kim; 3rd chair: Lauren and Grandpa John)

Amaya just looking sweet.

Taking a load off and enjoying the a/c in an indoor exhibit. It was high 80's and low 90's with like 70-90% humidity while we were there. Sticky!

Lauren enjoying a breather, too.

Amaya and her bestest Jena.

Fish Lips

The Gorilla's foot is bigger than Amaya's head!

Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the cave!

Look at Brycen checking out the gorilla in the background. His expression is priceless. It's like "whoa that gorilla looks mean...I am glad this glass is here."

Brian chuckling. Brycen still not sure what to make of it. And the gorilla, well, he appears to be pondering something. Perhaps he's trying to figure out a way to make the glass not be there/wishing he could meet this cute little boy.

Then the gorilla turns and makes eye contact with Brycemeister and we get more priceless expressions. The gorilla seems to sigh in resignation realizing there is no way to meet this little guy.

And again, more priceless expressions checking out the gorillas.

Amaya's favorite part of any zoo. The carousel.

Brian and Brycen

Amaya and Jena

San Diego

This guy was actually stacking and balancing these rocks. No apparent tricks here. We couldn't figure out how the heck he was doing it. He had quite the crowd gathered, too.

A carriage ride in a Cinderella carriage. Priceless.

Our horse was even named Prince Charming.

Sea World Blue Horizons show. It was fabulous, though it was more like a Cirque de Soleil with divers, trapezists, bunjee jumpers, etc.

The Shamu show was of course fabulous. It was my favorite.

Amaya and Scott had the Shamu chant down.

Had to throw this picture in. Many of you know how I looooove sharks.

Amaya made friends with this little girl while waiting in line for a ride at Sea World.

Their dolphins made friends with each other, too.

Watching the ride and waiting patiently for their turn.

Finally our turn! Amaya said it was worth the wait.

Legoland

This is Amaya's first time going up on this ride.

She's still oblivious to what's coming in this picture.

And then it happens. The ride drops down suddenly and fast, and Amaya's expression is one of "whoa, what the heck" as she grabs on for dear life.

White knuckle grip, but then.....

she realizes what a thrill this ride is.

A look of sheer exhilaration and jubilence.

She insisted on riding again....

...and again. This last time even keeping her arms up like daddy to add to the thrill.

On to the cars.

And more thrills with arms up. She had to ride this one multiple times, too.

This was a self-powered roller coaster. Kind of different.

San Diego Zoo

We got some great pics of the koala bears, polar bears, and grizzley bears. But this is my favorite picture from the San Diego Zoo. Amaya just hanging out with her friend Mr. Seal.

-I just realized I need to upload photos from our beach days. We used a disposable waterproof camera at the beach, so those photos are on a disk. Oops. Amaya had a blast building sand castles, making sand angels, and spish-splashing in the ocean. It was love at first sight when she saw the beach and ocean.

-That's all for now. I hope to get back to my monthly blogging sessions so hopefully it won't be several months between blog entries this next time. Happy Friday everyone!

-Check out the other 2 blog entries I did this week entitled "Summer Activities" and "The Many Faces of Amaya" if you have more time to kill. :)

Amaya's Summer Activities

Movie Time

The local theater had $2 morning matinees of previously released kids movies this summer. We saw Charlotte's Web, Shrek the Third, and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.

Computer Time

Amaya loved her computer class. Amaya hated her spanish class. She said the teacher was mean and threw her out the window. Both classes were at Snedigar but on different days. When she noticed us heading in that direction in the car, she'd always ask which class we were going to. She begged not to go to spanish class. The poor sweetheart. I finally let her stop going to spanish towards the end. (The a/c broke down in the building her class was located in so we got moved to the employee break room in another building.)

Dance Time

Amaya loves, loves, loves to dance.

I included this picture because it shows Amaya talking to one of her 2 little friends that are a sister duo whom know the FAVRES! They've hung out at the FAVRE's home when they lived in Green Bay. The sister duo are the girls in the black leotards with the colorful skirts. Their mom and I love chatting about the Pack while our girls dance.

An Action Shot
And Another Action Shot

Run Time

Slide Time

Birthday Party Time

Amaya and Jaxon waiting patiently for cake at little Brooks birthday party.

The Birthday Boy

Kate and Jaxon chatting it up.

Amaya pushing Jax on the swing.

I had the cutest picture of Amaya and her friend Will at the party that was suppose to upload here. Don't know what happened. :(

Soccer Time

Pre-practice stretching.

Cheering on her "teammates."

Soccer Stop

Running Drills

Kick that Ball

Hula Hoop Time

You go Amaya!

More drills.

Great dribbling Amaya!

Way to control the ball!

Notice the dress and sneaker look. Didn't you know that's the latest thing? :) Atleast to Amaya. I was rarely able to convince her to wear pants or shorts to soccer. She very much prefers to wear dresses.

But, the dresses don't slow her down.

She shows the soccer ball who's boss.

Play Date Time

Amaya enjoys just hanging with her peops. Here she is with Jax being silly.

Amaya also enjoyed playdates with her other friends. I just don't take pictures as often anymore.

Puppet Show Time

Enjoying a Cinderella puppet show with one of her good buds Brooklyn.

It was cute.

Pool Time

Fun in the sun with Ellie, Brooklyn and Alexis.

We also enjoyed pool time with Brooks, Ben, Jax, and Felicia at various times during the summer but I neglected to take pics.

*Other summer activities Amaya enjoys include sidewalk chalking, hop scotching, bubble blowing/catching, waterparking, splash pading, lunching, bounce housing, and gym-going. Don't have pics of these fun activies, but she loves them no less.

The Many Faces of Amaya

Sweet

Little Lady
Annoyed

Ear-to-Ear Smile

Superstar

Strong and Tough

Exasperated (these dance moves are hard to learn)

Impatient (let's get going already)

Stay tuned for pictures from summer later this week....FINALLY.

Amaya Update

(Falling asleep at dinner, see story in paragraphs 3 & 4)

I have been a bad blogger this summer. It didn't really register that I hadn't blogged all summer until Scott got a hole-in-one and I went to blog about it. Oops. I hadn't even uploaded any photos since May. Guess it's time to upload, edit, and print the entire summer's photos, all 1000 of them. Then I get to put them all in albums. Fun. Anybody enjoy that task? If so, first of all you can come help me....then you can go see a therapist. ;) The finished product is worth the effort, though. Amaya loves to look through our photo albums and someday she'll cherish having them. So I shall keep doing it.

Now that our summer photos are on our computer, I plan to start a series of blog entries entitled Amaya's Summer Fun to share what she has kept us busy doing all summer long. But first, since it has been soooo long since I've blogged, I thought I'd simply do an Amaya update. The photo above inspired me to do so.

The above photo was taken early last week. Amaya had about a 10-day period of record eating even for her. And those of you who have seen her eat know it would be hard to top her normal eating. But she did. I shall give you an example. I swear on the bible and all that I hold dear none of the following is an exageration.

The first day of this tremendous growth spurt started with Amaya eating her usual piece of pb and j toast with some milk. She then asked for a 2nd piece and ate 3 of the 4 triangles. Then she proceeded to ask for a bowl of cantaloupe, followed by a piece of cheese, then blueberries (where she consumed half of the container). She still wasn't done. After eating all of that she asked for grapes and ate atleast a cup full. When she was finally done eating "breakfast", we went to the gym. We would normally eat lunch when we get home at 11am, but I thought there is no way she will be hungary already, we'll swim first. But nope, she proceeded to ask for a ham and cheese sandwich, eating the entire thing sans the crusts. Then she asked for some cucumbers and some peppers, along with some more milk. Sheesh. I couldn't eat that much. I was beginning to think she had a tape worm. I couldn't keep her full for about 10 days like I said above and during this time she'd take naps in the afternoon where we couldn't get her to wake up even at dinner time. We make her wake up and she'd just fall asleep at the counter as you can see above. It was so funny. She'd sleep for up to 3 hours where as her norm lately was to more often than not not even take a nap. Well, it was indeed a growth spurt. She gained 2 lbs. and grew 2 inches. We could see her dresses visibly getting shorter and shorter on her. So bizarre when it seems they practically grow over night. She now weighs 30# and is 39 inches tall.

Other than growing, Amaya stays busy dancing, talking, "playing soccer", talking, playing in general, including playing princess and toy story, swimming, doing art projects, doing puzzles, reading books, going to the park and more talking. She loves to play with all her friends and frequently tells me she misses them. She loves playdates. She loves ponies, mermaid and buzz lightyear. Those are her current faves. She already has her wishlist ready for Santa and reminds us daily, but atleast she understands that she has to wait for Christmas. Got to love commercials. We do limit her t.v., but the sheer volume of toy commercials on one episode of Yo Gabba Gabba is plenty to get a toddler in a toy frenzy. Got to love marketing. We hear daily that she wants a mermaid scooter, a barbie pool, a pink pony like Brooklyn's, and a big, big, big buzz light year. Boy, she's going to have to be a very, very good girl!

So, that's Amaya's latest. Stay tuned for pics from summer. Happy football season all. Go Pack!

A Special Day Calls For Me To Come Out Of Blogging Retirement

*Saturday morning we were eating breakfast before Scott left to go golfing. He asked me the question he always asks me before he golfs. "What am I going to shoot today?" It's been a tradition around our house that I give him my prediction before he leaves. Sometimes I am right. Sometimes I am close. Sometimes I am pleasantly surpised. And occasionally we have to hit the driving range :). It's a fun tradition.

*Well, last summer I decided it's about time Scott hits a hole-in-one. I planted that seed in his head that he is due. It's time. I tried to 'law-of-attract' that for him. I first mentioned it when we were back for our annual visit to S.D., thus Scott's annual tourney at Dakota Dunes with some of his closest buddies, his brother and his dad. I thought that would be extra special if it could happen then. Nope, not yet. Occasionally since then I will tell Scott today is the day in addition to making my total score prediction. Well, I did add that "today was the day" on Sat. I didn't necessarily believe it. I say it all the time, knowing that eventually it would happen, but who knows when.

*Well, turns out I was finally right.

*Scott arrived home on Saturday with nothing seeming out of the ordinary. He casually held out his score card for me to see. He usually just tells me what he shot, but I didn't think anything of it. I looked at his score and I was excited to see he had a fabulous round. He shot a 73. I was happy for him and said something congratulatory. But he told me to take another look. Now I knew something was up. I scanned the rest of the card and immediately saw the 1 with 2 circles around it. It stood out like a beacon on a foggy night.

*We proceeded to do a bit of celebration. Hugs, high-fives, laughter, some fist pumps, some hoots and hollars. It was like the Packers just won the Super Bowl (law-of-attraction please work again). It was a fun moment I will always remember. Scott will always remember that moment in addition to "the moment."

*THE MOMENT: It was hole #17, 195 yards, at Club West. He hit a 5-iron. He hit it well and the ball appeared to be "right at it." Which means right at the pin for those of you who don't golf. He thought it could go in and conversation among his golf buddies ensued regarding this exciting possiblility. The ball landed directly in front of the pin and rolled right in. Celebration ensues. One of Scott's golf buddies, Mike, took pictures with his phone and emailed them to Scott to capture the event. See below. Then after the round of course they followed tradition and celebrated with a few rounds of cocktails. That was the best bar tab Scott's ever picked up in his life!

*CONGRATULATIONS SCOTT! I AM SO HAPPY FOR YOU! I CAN'T WAIT FOR YOUR NEXT HOLE-IN-ONE! ;)