Outdoor Fun!!!

With the weather becoming warmer and warmer as the days come and go (with the exception of last weeks cold weather) we figured we'd better get some outdoor toys for Allison to climb on....so here she is enjoying her new climber and slide.

Bird Watching....

Yea I know...can be sometimes pretty boring....but it's the exact opposite as you walk through our back door.....a hanging plant....which holds a nest...but not just any nest...
a cardinal's nest!! Pretty darned exciting if you ask me....that this momma...or soon to be momma cardinal chose my hanging flower pot as the nest where she will lay...(which she did) her eggs and hatch them!! Then we get to hear the chirp chirp of baby cardinals at all hours of the day! (pretty exciting, just as long as it's not at 5am!)

Spring is indeed here...even if it doesn't feel like it! Look for updates on Momma Red and her 3 offspring to come....trying to get photos of Papa red but he doesn't like me very much!

Home from Panama

We are home...yes we arrived home Monday evening from our AWESOME trip to Panama! We wish we could have stayed longer, we enjoyed the weather and seeing Jon and Heidi so much! But, of course...work calls, as Chuck had to return back to work.

We enjoyed seeing all the sights of Panama City, it wasn't what we were truely expecting....Chuck has been telling everyone that there is a lot of America, but that probably b/c there was an American presence in Panama for many years.

Our trip included: visiting Heidi and her 4th grade classroom, which Allison had a ton of fun listening to the students read, we also toured the Panama Canal, Ancon Hill, a beach that was about 1 1/2 hrs from Jon and Heidi's home (can't remember the name of it), and we also explored the local market and picked up some souvenirs. I must say that we really had an awesome time and can't wait to go back!!! (maybe we'll try to go every year? if they'll have us that is)

We headed to the airport on Monday morning (early) and prepared for a long day in the air and airports. We were happy to be home after a very very long day of traveling! We have uploaded photos from the trip on our Picasa Web Album...just click the link that says photos and you can check them out!

The downside about coming home....is coming home to the little messes that were left behind, a bit of laundry here and there, dust, dog hair, etc! So yesterday was my "catch up" day, as I did about 5 loads of laundry, cleared out the dishwasher...and reloaded it, and sucked up all the dog hair/dust with my handy dandy vacuum cleaner!!

After all that work was done, Allison and I headed outside to play in such awesome weather.
Today is suppose to be a bit rainy....and Chuck just informed me that it is starting to sprinkle.

I suppose I should continue my day picking up odds and ends around the house. Hope everyone is enjoying the warmer weather...for now!

Greetings from Panama!

Hey everyone, we have got some down time this morning, Jon is at a meeting for work and Heidi is at work/school also. So I figured I'd give everyone an update on our trip, even though it's our first full day here.

Yesterday was a pretty easy day of travel, even though we had 3 different flights, starting out at 6:40am with our first flight....I had to be up at 2:45 to get up, showered, get the other two up and then pack up the jeep and head to the airport (which is a 45 minute drive from our house). We ended up leaving 25 minutes later than planned but made it to the airport and got on our first flight. Allison slept through most of the plane ride on our way to Memphis. We then went from Memphis to Houston, which was a different story. Allison was just so busy, we colored, watched a Backyardigans DVD, then she finally crashed about 10 minutes before landing. We had a nice 2 hour lay over in Houston, which gave us time to eat a late lunch and wear Allison out a little bit, as we let her walk through the airport instead of riding in the stroller. I recently made a purchase of a little teddy bear that attaches to Allison (like wearing a backpack) and then there is a rope (the tail of the animal) which I had a hold of. I would highly recommend this item to anyone with a toddler!!!!

We finally made it to Panama (after sitting on the tarmac for 20 minutes waiting for our gate to free up) and were greeted by Jon and Heidi at the entrance to the airport around 8pm.
We grabbed a late dinner and headed to the grocery store to purchase some diapers, juice, milk and baby powder for Allison. (the baby powder will hopefully keep moisture off of Allison and me as I've already used some this morning)

It is GORGEOUS here from what I have seen. The weather is a bit on the humid side (something we aren't use to as of right now, since it's been a bit chilly in KC lately), but we are enjoying it all so far! We will visit Heidi's classroom later today and maybe go to a shopping center (so if you want a t-shirt, now is the time to let me know, haha!) I think we will see the Panama Canal tomorrow. I'll try to update while we are here!!

Panama....HERE WE COME

So....3 days left til our big trip down south to Panama City to visit Jon and Heidi (and Sophie too)!!! We are pretty excited about going, we've been wanting to take a lil vacation, so Panama is going to be our destination this year.

I've been fretting (like I did last year before our vacation to Jamaica) for the past few weeks, making lists to make sure I have everything packed for everyone, mainly Allison. The nice thing for this trip, is that there are stores that carry the things we use, like diapers! So thankfully we don't have to take up so much space in one of the suitcases just for diapers! Chuck told me I was crazy b/c I started packing the suitcases on Friday. I do this so I can review what I'm taking/not taking, plus I'm just that excited about going, I think that packing my suitcase will bring our leaving day faster!

I'm not sure exactly what we'll be doing down there....Jon and Heidi have come up with a few things that we'll do....I'm pretty sure we'll be doing some sight seeing and we are headed to a beach (2 hrs away from jon and heidi's house) on Saturday....so we'll get to set foot in the ocean!!

This will be Allison's 2nd trip by air....and we are a little nervous about how she'll handle it, she was pretty easy last year, but she was just a lil thing then. Now she is just all over, so hopefully (crossing our fingers)she'll behave. It'll be a 12 hour day of flying/lay overs/etc for us, wooftah!

We leave Wednesday and arrive back here in Kansas City the following Monday. Hopefully our air travel goes smoothly!!! Be on the look out for photos of our trip next week!

First Zoo Trip of the Season

Today we made our first trip to the zoo for the year of 2008! It was a gorgeous day here, lower 70s, even though there was a breeze, it just felt awesome to get out and do something! Allison's Aunt Sydney also came with us, which she was a big help holding Allison's hand when she wasn't in the stroller and just showing her all the different animals, while I manned the camera!
We also became Friends of The Zoo today, we made a donation and now we have a membership to the zoo, so I imagine we'll be going quite a few times this spring/summer/fall. Check out our pictures from the zoo by clicking the link for Allison's photo to the left. Here is a photo of Allison on the carousel at the zoo!