Summer Vacation 2012 Part 5: Chuck E Cheese

 Chuck E Cheese is a family favorite. I believe the saying is "Where a kid can be a kid" but lets face it, it's where an adult with a kid and pregnant with a kid can still be a kid too. 

But we'll talk about my kid and how much fun he had.

Grandma bought gobs of tokens for Kohen, my cousins (Stuart, Ben, Danielle, Krista and I) :)

and we had at it for hours.

 

Kohen loved this squirt game! Look at that concentration. 

 He also loved this ride and rode it so many times that I think every kid in the place (and maybe all of us teens/adults) were able to sneak a ride on it with him too. In every picture I had of him on it there was a different person riding with him.

 Eating pizza while playing hockey, climbing up the slide, and cheating and climbing up the game to get closer.....such a boy.

 Ava was such the good helper and Kohen loved a buddy/the attention. It seemed like just yesterday I was playing with my cousins when they were Kohen's age (grantid...this was just 3 years ago).

 Thanks to Ben & Danielle, (and Krista, Mommy and Daddy) Kohen made out like a bandit. I think he had over 1400 tickets and was able to get lots of fun prizes.

Afterwards my dad took us all out to Chevy's (another family favorite). 

Chase and Ava were SO into Kohen. It was so cute to watch them interact and play with him. Ava was such the nurturer and little Mommy. She'd even grab his face and get him to smile for the camera (which he now does to me haha) and help get everything for him. Kohen was a crack up because he loved the attention but I think at times felt a little too loved...or just playing hard to get because at once point he held up the menu like he was reading it and got his shifty "leave me alone" eyes. 

We had lots of fun and were so glad to be able to spend time with family.

Summer Vacation 2012 Part 4: Fun at Grandma and Papa Rawlins

Kohen loves to visit Grandma and Papa Rawlins.

There's always lots of toys,

a big TV with a remote and more than a couple channels,

a snack cupboard that he never forgets and is not shy at helping himself to,

the kitty or as he calls it "meow"

a yard complete with swing set, play house, pool and basketball court,

lots of run around room....and boy does he love to run and get chased,

and of course lots and lots of love and attention.

 Wrestling with Papa, playing with Uncle Ben, jumping on the trampoline, running like crazy and of course playing the piano.

 Kohen likes going upstairs to go explore the rooms. 

This trip he ventured into the boy's old room and found the whack a mole game.

He and Grandma cuddled since they both weren't feeling well at one point.

 Kohen conked out. Kohen being silly and having fun.

But that poor little boy in the tent was having stomach/bathroom issues if you know what I mean and wanted privacy so he kept hiding in the tent but would peek out periodically to make sure no one was looking. 

 Grandma pulled out the play dough and would make different animals and things for Kohen. It was funny to see his reactions to some of them.

 Kohen had so much fun playing with Auntie Krista and Uncle Ben. He kept pulling Krista into the living room to play the piano ten times a day or play with her disco lights.

And Uncle Ben would chase him and make him laugh. 

Did I mention he loves attention and someone else to play with besides Mommy.

Summer Vacation Part 3: July 5th

July 5th was my dad's birthday so to celebrate he treated us all to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom and dinner afterwards. :)

 Kohen had been so excited for weeks to see real whales. (You'd have to hear him say whale..once again cute) But those aren't tears of fear. No. This kid was upset because he couldn't go swimming with the whale. I don't know how much candy and snacks we whipped out to try to get him content. Then when he saw that the whale ate fish he decided to share his goldfish with the whale and started hucking them (hitting the people in front of us). The poor kid just couldn't win. 

All he wanted was to swim with the whale and feed it.

Here's Kohen telling daddy he was going to share his fish with the whale.

 Kohen hadn't been getting enough sleep and was pretty emotional most of the time.

He cried the whole time in line for the train. And he cried once we got on the train since the little boy behind us decided to randomly whack Kohen's arm hard. I must have accidentally deleted the photo of Kohen glaring at the kid behind us the whole time. It was a crack up. 

But once he got on with daddy he was much better and even put his hands in the air like a roller coaster pro.

 He was happy on the carousel too. That is until the end when he went to cheer "woohoo" and conked his head on the pole. haha

 Kohen's favorite movie for months on end was Happy Feet. He loved penguins and still thinks that all penguins dance. These penguins were so cute and were totally interacting with Kohen. They'd swim all around him and stay right up against the glass and follow him. Kohen apparently liked them too because he would kiss them through the glass and get territorial when another kid would try to squeeze in.

 The walruses were full of personality as well. Kohen liked them but because the water was so murky sometimes they'd pop up out of no where which scared Kohen a little.

Kohen was still quite the trooper. He made lots of friends with kids while we waited for others to ride rides. "Papa" even bought us the biggest snow cones you have ever seen! Seriously, these suckers were the size of a ball. AND you got to put on your own syrup. 

We had so much fun!

Summer Vacation 2012 Part 2: 4th of July

We spent our 4th of July swimming, BBQing and of course fireworks. 

Can it get much better than that?

 Kohen liked the big pool but would alternate back and forth between the  jacuzzi with Krista and I and the pool with Stuart and my dad.

This was the first time with out an actual life vest and only arm floaties so I think he felt a little nervous at first. But he soon warmed up to his new found freedom and liked being able to stand in front of one of the jets and "swim" over to us. (Which was really barely drifting) 

There was a sickness spreading around the house when we were visiting so my mom was sick in bed on the 4th and 5th. But here are the rest of us eating our dinner and joking around.  My dad teasing me about throwing up (typical haha), and us teasing Ben about always shaving his head. We thought we'd see what wigs look like on him. He is such a good sport.

 I saw a cool idea on pinterest where you have the child hold the sparkler through a cup so that the sparks don't get their hands. (I'm still a chicken about sparklers)
But Kohen came about a half a second close to "out smarting" us and about grabbed it with his other hand.

 Kohen thought he was big stuff and kept picking out fireworks and trying to open them with his teeth. (His grandpa, a dentist, and his dad, a future dentist, must have taught him that.)

But once he discovered poppers it was all over. He loved them! And was oblivious to the fireworks until he ran out. Then he was upset that he couldn't go stomp on the big fireworks since he was so sure that's how they worked.

 

So, like any good parent, we bribed him with candy for a little while to get him to hold still.

 

Summer Vacation 2012: Part 1

We have had one busy summer. The month of July has been jam packed and won't totally slow down until August. As busy as it's been (especially on my part) it has been fun to get to do so many fun things, enjoy sunshine and see all our family!

Here's an outline of our trips so that the many blogs to follow will make more sense:

July 2nd- Stuart got home from work at 5:30 am and got about an hour or two of sleep since I had to be at the doctors for 3.5 hours getting tested.

Noon- we finally are on the road and start our 5 hour drive to Middleton (Boise) to see Stuart's family and stay the night

July 3rd- Fly to Sacramento (thank goodness we didn't have to drive an additional 8 hours each way. That saved us 16 hours in our about 40 hours of driving we did over the past couple weeks.

**Spent a little over a week with my family swimming, celebrating the 4th of July, going to Six Flags Animal Kingdom in Vellejo,...etc.**

July 11th- Fly back to Boise/Middleton

July 12th-Drive to Twin falls for Stuart's sister's wedding

Drive back

July 13th-Drive back up to Lewiston so that Stuart could work that night

July14th- Drive to Kamiah for Stuart's sister's reception

Drive back

July 17th- Drive to Cascade/Mcall for Stuart's Rupp Reunion for the week

July 19th- We left a little early back up to Lewiston since Stuart had to work the next day anyways

This all sounds so simple when it is laid out but I assure you...there were many challenges between being as pregnant as I am, having a busy toddler to keep entertained/chase (who actually did super well for the most part), no air conditioning, no sleeping, car problems, horrible allergies, all the gobs of cleaning, packing, re-packing, planning, ....etc.

But I know I will be wishing things were sunny and busy when I'm stuck inside with a new baby and toddler this winter. So I'm glad I soaked it up  :)

NANNY & GRANDPA RUPPS HOUSE

MEETING BABY ALICE

WAITING AT THE AIRPORT

 Hanging out. The dad's teaching their sons baseball.

 Playing with Uncle Jordan

 I love these pictures! The guys were going to practice a different haka dance and Kohen joined right in and was imitating their moves. I, being his mother, thought it was of course adorable!

Stuart's parents have a neat tradition of getting a cow for each of their grandchildren each year and the money they get from selling them goes towards the boys' mission funds and the girls' college funds. Kohen finally got to meet one of his cows "Mumble" (since he loved Happy Feet at the time) Unfortunately the poor kid takes after his mom and is allergic to hay and grass and broke out in horrible rashes and hives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stuart's brother and his wife just had their baby the day before we got their so we were able to stop by the hospital and meet baby Alice before catching our flight. Kohen LOVES babies and is so cute with them.  Every time he'd see baby Alice through out the past few weeks he'd squint his eyes and say things like "Awww.  The baby."  He loved watching her every move.

 

 

We had some waiting time at the airport and let Kohen check out all the rides. This was after Sacramento where we had gone to Chuck E Cheese so he was a pro at knowing what to do and there was no way he was going to let us pass it up.

Kohen tried giving baby Alice "knuckles/fist pump" I told him that she was too little and didn't know how so he then decided he was going to teach her. SO cute if I do say so myself! I can't wait to see how he is with his little sister.