I’m not sure what I’ll do with my blog. I feel like trying to include some more software development information if I can…it’s something to write about at least and I feel like giving back to the community.

Our first overnight destination was the Maumee Toledo, OH area. Traffic wasn’t bad up to this point despite it being Memorial Day weekend. We traveled from Toledo to visit Hershey Chocolate World in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The kids thought it cool and hadn’t seen so much chocolate in their life. From there we traveled to Strasburg, Pennsylvania to visit the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum. Jayden and I could have stayed there a lot longer, but we had to continue on to visit the Crayola Factory in Easton, Pennsylvania. We got to see a mini crayola factory and all things color. We also got to play with some boats and cannals. We survived driving through New York City and Connecticut even though “Carmin” (The Garmin GPS) let us down in a few spots…more on her later.  We managed to arrive at my Sister’s place on day three.

It rained the first two days we were in New Hampshire so we decided to do a few things that didn’t require us to be outside…shopping and visiting a few places. We went to the Cape Neddick Lighthouse on York Beach, Maine, and shopped at some outlet stores in Kittery, Maine. The following day went Boston to visit the New England Aquarium, and Ikea.

Finally, on May 29th we had no rain! We headed to The Flume Gorge and then up to a fogged in Mt. Washington.

We also made extensive use of Steve’s Kawasaki Mule (Red Gaiter) and 4 wheeler. We also visited Hampton Beach a couple of different days. Jayden loved the ocean, but Josie hated it. Karrie and Steve also threw a party for us with Steve’s family and their friends. It was fun to meet them all and have kids play/make new friends. Steve also hooked up his leaf blower T-ball machine. It was hard to say goodbye as we had such a good time out there.

On our return visit we stayed overnight at the Wolbrinks’ in Liverpool, New York and then made our way to Niagara Falls, New York. We also missed the Supper Nanny, but saw her car. We arrived back at our place on June 4th after another night’s stay in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Here are a few tips for anyone taking long road trips. Get your hands on a GPS. That thing saved us so much and let us find places that we normally wouldn’t have gone to. Yeah, I can read a map, but this gave us the flexibility to do something at a whim instead of having to plan out the whole trip. I did have the hotels booked for on the way out before we left, but didn’t book them for the way back. Garmin along with the Marriott 800 number got us places to stay on the way back. Another thing that I’m glad we got before we left was the iPass/EZPass for tolls. We only found one state that we had to actually pickup a ticket and pay at the end for tolls. The rest of the states we used the iPass. It was so much easier than having to stop and pay someone. We also packed Josie’s little porta-potty thing. That saved us a few times. Her bladder really is as small as she is.

All in all, we had a great time and trip. The kids were great and Kim had lots of activities planned for them to do in the van.  She’s so organized. We wouldn’t have been able to do it had she not had everything setup the way she did. Now we just have to figure out where we’re going next summer!

The complete set of pictures can be seen here.

So, what’s been going on? Well, we had  a great Christmas and 2009 started out pretty well inspite of The Great Depression II. I’m very fortunate that the Ag industry is holding strong.

Jayden has been learning all the time and is becoming the little man.  He loves to figure out how everything works. He also loves talking your ear off once he gets going. He also knows how to use pause on the DVR. It’s sad he won’t even know what a VCR was. (Actually, it’s a good thing the VCR is dead. ) Jayden got to make a pirate box to put his pull-ups into and have the pirates visit with a bunch of treasure. We’re so glad that he’s doing pretty well in making it through the night without a pull-up. He still wakes up wet occasionally, but he’s getting there.

Josie is a daddy’s girl. It’s not uncommon to hear her tell me, “I need you” and then proceed to try and get you to drop whatever you were doing and pick her up. I don’t mind. She’s my little Princess, Tinkerbell or Cinderella depending on the day. One day we tried to straighten her hair, but I told Kim that I never wanted it straighted again…unless Josie does it herself when she’s a teenager. She did not look like our little Josie at all.

Kim has been feeding her facebook “addication” and has hooked up with quite a few people from her past. It’s pretty cool to think we can reconnect with people in such an easy method.

Well, there you have it.  The start to 2009.

Around the same time period, Jayden and Josie got pink-eye and then gave me the pleasure of experiencing it too. Needless to say Josie ended up getting it twice and Jayden three times before it was all said and done.

Kim’s Mom had surgery back on the 19th so I watched the kids (I took last week and this next week off from work) while Kim went and waited with the rest of her family. We took the kids to see Grandma Pat that afternoon and then went back again that night to help Kim’s Dad get back to our place to stay the night.

This memorial weekend was rather interesting to say the least. On Friday Kim came back from shopping with a friend and said that she had some interesting news for me. As soon as she said it was about her Dad, my heart sank as his health has been questionable as of late. The good news is no health problems that he currently has was the issue. The bad news was that he had been struck by lightning while sleeping Friday morning. Dale was sleeping when he felt the lightning bolt start up his feet and continued up through his spine and ending at his head. He especially felt it when it hit his back as he has metal rods in his spine from previous back surgeries. He told Pat that he thought his legs had blown off when it initially happened. It’s odd that he even drove himself to breakfast that morning as he was pretty incoherent later that morning. The lightning knocked the picture off the wall and left a mark on the white paint (see larger image from link above).

So we decided we’d head down to Creston on Saturday after attending a couple of graduation parties. It’s always an eery feeling going somewhere when you’re not sure what to expect. Yesterday Dale feel asleep a lot (he fell asleep with his breakfast in his lap). He also slept through Dinner. Fortunately he was doing a lot better today. He even drove himself to the restaurant for breakfast this morning.

It’s amazing that more damage hadn’t occurred and I consider it a miracle that Dale even survived. So all in all, quite an eventful month.
 

How does a single parent manage to handle two kids? All I can say is I don’t know how. Take the simple thing as having Jayden needing to go to the bathroom. We stopped near Ft. Dodge on the way back and had some McDonalds (I know, I usually dislike eating there, but it’s quick and the kids usually eat something there). Well, about half way through our lunch, Jayden needed to go use the bathroom. Not a big deal if Kim and I were both there. Obviously, I took Josie (with chicken nugget in hand) in with Jayden and I. Everything worked out okay, but still, it’s not fun having to deal with both of them at the same time…making sure Josie doesn’t touch something she shouldn’t and keeping her chicken nugget off the floor.

All in all, the kids were pretty good for the whole weekend. But, it sure is nice having Kim back home.

Josie started making some funny tongue noises the other day so I thought I’d share them with you. Enjoy the video.

Funny Tongue Noises from Kevin Minnis on Vimeo.

Till next time…

On a brighter note, Josie’s all better now and constantly grazes the cereal boxes whenever she can. She’s also trying to talk more. You can kind of understand somethings that she says. She’ll make the sound a cow, sheep, monkey and horse make. And she’s also said tractor. She does play with Jayden’s toys quite a bit.

Only 9 days till Christmas!

Yesterday we took our annual trip to Howell’s Tree Farm to get the kids their pumpkins and to have some fun playing with all the stuff they have setup. While there we also saw Amy and Zach Larson so that was cool. It had rained the night before and it was pretty muddy, but we had a good time anyway and washed our shoes when we got home.

More pictures can be seen at the Halloween 2007 Picture Set.

Karrie, my sister, made a surprise visit to my Parent’s home and it happened to fall on the same weekend that we had Jayden’s B-Day party so she was able to make it too.

Jayden wasn’t the only one to have fun during his birthday weekend. Josie likes wearing his hat and does a pretty good job modeling it.

They also both had fun with shaving cream in the bath tub. If you’re ever looking for something fun for the kids during bath time, shaving cream is another option.

And of course after a long day’s work, you just gotta take a rest from it all. Jayden feel asleep on his pillow in the living room during the middle of the day.

We made the trek north to my Parent’s home the first week of September and had a great time. My Aunt and Uncle, Iris and Gary Baxter had their 40th Wedding Anniversary party so we went and helped them celebrate.

It was a great weekend to go up as the weather was perfect. Jayden and Josie got to go outside and checkout the farm. Jayden helped Grandpa feed the calves and Josie got to play on the trampoline and other toys.

We also got to play with Great Grandpa’s four wheeler.

And Jayden got to ride on Uncle Kelly’s forklift with Brianna and Madison.

More recently, Jayden has started riding his bike. It’s getting different going on walks now as he’d rather ride his bike over riding in the wagon with Josie. The next thing we need to work on with him is using his brakes. Instead of pushing back on the peddles, he puts his feet down only and his toes touch the ground. He’s also trying to use the potty more. We’re gaining ground which is good. Josie has been trying to say more words, “Belbo” for Elmo, baby, and “Daday” for Jayden, “Belba” for belly button and bubbles. She’s cruising like none other and would climb up on anything if she were allowed. She got another tooth on her left side so she now has 6. We’re hoping she’ll get some more on her right side. We’ve also concluded that she’s a Daddy’s Girl. The minute I get home from work she’s at my feet if she isn’t eating.

More pictures of can be found under Jayden’s Birthday and at our trip up north links.

Jayden now asks for a Dewski whenever Kim goes into Quicktrip or Kum & Go to get her fountain Dew. I’d say that’s a pretty good accomplishment. He’s almost there with using the peddles on his trike and bike. If only he were there with potty training. We’re hoping that a switch will flip and he’ll want to finally use his “big-boy scibbies”. He talks about everyone else using the potty, but still no go. He still has the occasional melt down, but, knock on wood, they don’t seem as frequent as before. He’s also looking forward to his birthday and now asks for things for it.

Josie has started to walk on her own. She does mostly walking now instead of crawling. It’s fun to watch her make her tiny steps. She’s kind of wobbly at times, but is doing a pretty good job so far. She’s also good at getting into trouble. It won’t be uncommon to turn your back for a second and find her standing on top of the kid’s picnic table. She is learning a lot fast. She’s also good at being a Daddy’s girl.

House painting is done for the most part. I painted the back last week so the “normal” areas to paint are done. I’ll probably try and get the garage door and the concrete part of the foundation done sometime before it snows. I also have to make a cover for the sandbox. I’m tired of looking at the blue tarp that covers it now.