The Lake

Today was such a fun day! We started the morning out playing with Katelynn and then packed her bags and sent her to Gran and Grandpa's for the day.

Then we loaded up and headed to Waupaca with Meghan and Laura for a day in paradise, aka "Winch Party!" Sun...boating...jet skiing...the lake...margaritas! ♥

Another Failed Boatride!

We've been having a lot of fun planning to go out on the boat.

Part One: Sunday, June 14
Finally, Jason had a break in his busy summer racing schedule! We planned to leave our house as soon as Katelynn woke up from her nap. Jason had the boat all ready to go, we just needed to make a quick stop at the gas station and fill up. As we walked out to the driveway, with our sunscreen on and cooler filled with yummy treats, I took a quick look up to the sky, that had been clear and sunshine, and noticed some very dark ominous clouds. I brushed it off, as we loaded Katelynn into the car, but as we started to pull away, I noticed they were directly northeast of us and we were headed to Green Bay. Hmmm... Jason seemed oblivious to this, but since he is such the self-proclaimed weather nerd, I figured he knew what we were getting into! He didn't. I mentioned the dark clouds and he said, no way, it's not going to rain. I asked again, are you sure? Well, then he took a look and with a quick glance to the boat, he pulled out his i-pod and checked the weather report. Maybe it will clear up he said as we pulled out of the driveway and headed to GB. At the gas station, we decided we would go south at go to the lake instead. As the clouds got closer, Jason decided we would just turn around and go home. The rain had started just as we were pulling into our driveway - what timing!

Part Two: Father's Day

All he wanted to do was go on a boatride with his girls. We seemed to have all things working in our favor. Katelynn woke up from her nap, we jumped in the truck and headed to Green Bay. Our first problem was at the boat landing, a full parking lot! So we headed to our second choice, just up the river. We launched the boat, got Katelynn's life jacket on, and Jason fired the engine. I was certainly paying more attention to Katelynn than Jason, so I failed to notice right away that we were having "issues." I aksed him what was wrong and he said it wouldn't idle, but after a couple minutes we were set and we on our way. We backed away from the boat landing and we were off! It was such a beautiful day! And then we were in the middle of the river and he couldn't get the boat to idle. This is apparently important, as you have to shift from idle to change gears. Well...we hung out in the middle of the river for a little bit. And Jason was starting to get irritated. He finally got the boat to idle and he said, okay, now we can go. As the boat started to move, Jason decided it was probably best to go back to the boat landing, so we didn't get stranded in the middle of the river. We limped to shore, where is stunk, might I add! Poor Katelynn and I really got to enjoy the stench, as Jason and some wonderful guys helped get the boat onto the trailer. Another sad day of boating, but atleast we enjoyed it for a few minutes!

Part 3: Tuesday, June 23rd
Jason hoped our problems on Sunday were an isolated incident, so after dinner with our beautiful, intelligent (and single!) friend Meghan, we went to Sunset Park so we could try this whole boating thing one more time, before bringing it to the shop. I can tell you that Jason was the only person who ever got in the boat and that it never was untied from the shore. But...we had fun!


As you can see, Katelynn really wanted to go on a boatride, as she carried her life jacket around the park!
Aren't they cute?

Hopefully, Part 4 will be a success! ♥

Happy Father's Day!

Dear Daddy,

Happy 2nd Father's Day!

Love, Katelynn

She really is crazy....

We played outside with Gran and Grandpa for about an hour tonight. This is typical Katelynn - always on the go, always running toward the street, always saying hi!

17 Months

The last month has seemed to go by even quicker than usual. We were fortunate enough to have a few weeks of vacation and we're just starting to get back to normal. Katelynn seems like she had grown two or three inches in the past few weeks. She is such a friendly little girl. She says hi and waves to everyone who walks by our house. She says hi continually (sometimes four or five times) before she stops and then she'll say bye bye. She also does this everywhere else we are: the park, the store, church, airport, restaurant, etc.

Katelynn has 12 teeth and is working on getting the remaining eight. She's been teething the past 3 weeks or so. Not that much fun, especially with the cottonwood floating around. She's coughing and sneezing non-stop.


In the past month, her vocabulary has increased and she is saying several phrases. Her enunciation is getting much better as well. We are trying to get her to use her words to communicate with us instead of "uh!" She repeats some things that we say and answers questions. My favorite story is when we were in Kansas City last month, sitting in the drive thru ordering dinner. They asked if we wanted a small, medium or large (in their garbled speaker voice) and Katelynn replied, "Medium!" We couldn't believe it and could barely stop laughing.

Katelynn loves to be outside. I'm sure you have noticed the magnitude of pictures of her with her car. She loves pushing her car around and riding in it. She loves to run around and help water the plants. She can climb the stairs to her slide all by herself. She also believes she doesn't need any help on the stairs to the deck, front porch, or to the basement. She's much too big for our help! And, check out her hair!





She's not our little baby anymore, she's a big girl (or so she thinks she is). Katelynn uses a spoon and fork to feed herself. Sometimes she can feed herself unassisted, but we normally help her. She loves to drink from a straw and loves to dip her food.

Here are some of the many words and phrases she says:
Mom (and every variation of it)
Dad, Daddy
one
two
three
night night
love you
see ya
bye bye
hi
where are you
thats it
no
yes
yeah
kitty
baby
good
mine
kitty
Bob
yabba dabba do
Gus
Diva
Grandma
Grandpa
medium
teeth
shoes
boo

We enjoy watching her play and imitate what the older kids are doing. She plays with the boys at church and even said Tristan's name on Sunday. She's always amazing us. I wish that we lived next door to the Mullinax Family... she had so much fun with them when we were in KC! She loves to play with the older kiddos. Wow...just imagine all the fun we would have then! I would love to be closer to our family and friends in KC!




Katelynn has been spending Thursday nights with Gran, while Jason and I are at the race track. They have this special bond. Katelynn is always excited to see Gran. She also loves to terrorize Grandpa's remote controls. She runs into their house and heads straight for his table of notes and the remotes! Nothing makes me happier than seeing that devious look on her face! :)


We've talked about it and we believe it is impossible for her to be almost 18 months old - so we aren't going to let her get any older! ♥

Bay Beach

I had been looking forward to a nice summer day so we could take Katelynn to Bay Beach. Saturday was beautiful and we enjoyed it! Since Katelynn hadn't been on any rides before we decided to take it slow and just try a few rides. We started on the carousel.




She barely moved! I tried to get her to smile and wave at Daddy and we passed by him, but she wasn't very interested. Of course, near the end, she would smile and say hi and bye to him. Then the ride was over and she put up a bit of a fight as we tried to exit! She refused to go back in her stroller, so we walked to the cars.


She seemed to be enjoying the car ride, she would turn the steering wheel and had a smile on her face. But then all of a sudden she looked a little green around the gills. Jason thought she might puke. After about a minute or so the ride was over, and this time she refused to get off.

So...we walked to the train station.


After waiting in line for a long time, we boarded the train. The whole family enjoyed this ride, since Jason wasn't afraid of the train.

Katelynn's last ride for the day was the boats. At first I thought she would be in the boat all by herself, but she was the captain of a full boat. I laughed and wiped away tears as the other parents said look at the little baby. She was by far the youngest of the boaters. But she had a great time!

We had so much fun, I can't wait to go back. Next time, we hope to try the helicopter ride, as that was broken. The ladybugs looked like fun, too!

Waiting to go outside...

The weekend was cold and rainy! Not a whole lot of fun if you are one and all you want to do is play outside! We did go outside for a few minutes before the rain started.



Katelynn enjoyed playing on the lawnmower, it makes me sick looking at how dirty it is! Daddy needs to clean his toys! :)