Happy Anniversary

My mom came in for a long weekend, so we decided to take advantage of her coming so near to our anniversary (8 years...5 of them blissful, as Tyler likes to say) and take a mini vacation to the Country Club Plaza of Kansas City. Tyler has been there several times for fancy dinners with work, but I have only driven by with our realtor 2 months ago. So, Friday at lunch, we leave the kids to have a blast with Nana and make our way. We ate lunch on the second floor balcony of Brio...Tuscan food. We looked out at rolling hills of trees and huge homes as we dined on amazing salads. Seriously...the BEST grilled salmon salad I've ever had! Not like I've had many, but I can imagine. Then, we spent the afternoon shopping in all the neat stores, walking around like tourists in our own city...taking in the many fountain views and drinking iced coffees. After checking into the hotel and relaxing for a while, we made our way back to the Plaza for another patio dining experience at Baja 600. It's "Mexican" food. I was excited since we haven't really had good Mexican since we left TX. It was very good, but not your typical yummy, greasy, tex-mex that we natives are used to. However, the experience was good and the patio was great. We were stuffed, so decided to walk back up the hill (yes, there are many hills in this place!) to the hotel instead of calling the shuttle. Saturday morning we slept IN...yay!!! Then, another walk to the infamous Plaza for another wonderful meal (I think all we did was walk and eat, but it seemed so wonderful!). Brunch at the Classic Cup (on the patio, of course)...the BEST "griddle cakes" and french pressed coffee (Kansas City Brew) we've ever had!!! Our plan after that was to be lazy by the pool, but the impending clouds changed our minds. Instead, we got ready, checked out, and headed back to our neck of the woods, stopped at Dick's for new tennis shoes (Happy Anniversary, sweetie), grabbed some Starbucks and came home. Babies were sleeping, but we had a nice reunion when they woke. We brought back gifts, of course! We were so excited about our fun trip, we had to take the rest of the fam to see, so we went back to the Plaza AGAIN and showed them the sights, houses, fountains, and patio dining galore. After visiting Deanna Rose farmstead this morning rather than church, and having brunch at Granite City, Nana had to fly back to TX. What a short trip!!! We had so much fun. I know when the kids wake from their naps, they are going to have some serious Nana-withdrawals!! Daddy is taking off Monday and Tuesday, though, so that will help out a lot!

Can you tell by my face I hate standing in pictures alone?

Bacon is good.

Nana swinging with the kiddos at Deanna Rose

Porter will only feed the baby goats...not the full sized ones

Piper is trying to point out to the goat the piece of food she dropped while the goat snacks on her hair instead!

Night-Night!

Today on a whim, I decide that having two cribs and Porter's "big boy" bed and furniture all in his room, is just too much (they have been sleeping in his room since the move...we dare not separate them yet--they are extremely attached!). So, I push the cribs out of the way, pull the trundle out from under his twin bed and let the kids see it and play on it...thinking if they get used to the idea of a real bed, maybe they'll one day sleep in it??? At bed time, we decide to just try it out. The kicker is they both want to be in the same bed. I know this will not last throughout the night as Porter does aerobics in his sleep, they each have a blankie, plus Piper's baby and it's bottles of juice and milk, Porter's bear, and numerous pacifiers. So, I get Piper to lie with me on the bottom trundle, and Tyler lies with Porter on the top bed. Then, about a minute later, we tell them it's night-night time and to go to sleep, Mommy and Daddy are leaving. We get up and walk to the door, look back, and they are actually lying down and going to sleep for the first time ever in a real bed! We are amazed and perplexed! They've been asleep in there for almost 3 hours now and we haven't heard a peep. Kids are so much better at change than we give them credit for!! So, we'll continue this for the week and then hopefully get rid of those cribs and create a lot more space. It's all a little sad...a big step for my "babies". I'm so proud of them, though. I also love that they have each other. Everything they do, they experience together. They, more often than not, fight, but can hardly stand to be in a room if the other isn't there, too. It's a wonderful thing to observe...TWINS! God is so creative.

(The morning after...Piper pops up and says "Hi, Porter!")

Poolside Porter...

So, we're having pizza poolside with three other couples and their kids (our new friends--yay!!). I look up and see my kids have wandered off to the complete other side of the pool. I get up and start walking to them to bring them back our way when Porter decides to just jump off into the deep end. He is wearing his arm floaties (for only the second time ever), so I hesitate for the slightest second thinking "He'll be OK until I get there", then that thought leaves as quickly as it came and I sprint like a mad woman and dive in to rescue my baby. He was a little shaken up, but was totally fine, so after many kisses and I love you's, we headed back to everyone else. Tyler says "You know he was just floating there and was OK, right?" Well, maybe, but I can't imagine leaving my little boy floating, scared, in the deep end all by himself while I took my time leisurely strolling over to fetch him out. So, despite Porter being stuck like glue to me for the rest of the night and many comments about my "save", we had a nice evening.

Side note: Piper is now adding a "y" at the end of all her words in place of the "s", unless it's both like..."I want drinky, Mommies" AND we haven't turned our air conditioner on (except at night when we sleep) in two days...jealous?

That silly girl...

So, all of a sudden today I notice that Piper is adding an "s" to almost all her words. Very odd. I noticed it first with "Porter"...he is now "Porters" and I am "Mommies". She was even looking at her hair today and said "hairs", but I guess that one could actually make sense. She pointed at bear and it was "bears". The only thing I can conclude is that she has taken us saying "that's Porter's" or "this is Mommy's" to mean that she is to add an "s" to all words to make them possesive. The strange thing is that she just woke up doing it...did she dream about it or lie in her bed thinking about it this morning or last night? Kids!