Last week, we took a quick trip down to Arkansas to visit my family.  While we were there we saw both of my grandmothers, my aunt, and my great-aunt (who also just so happens to live next door to the hospital helicopter landing pad!)  It was a super short trip, but Katherine always enjoys visiting with family and entertaining them with her vocal skills and imagination.






I wish we lived closer to them, but not seeing them very often just makes our sporadic trips all that more special.

This weekend we surprised Jason's dad for his birthday with an unexpected visit and a surprise party. Katherine loved spending time with her five cousins, especially her older and cooler cousin Taylor.  Being the only girls in the family, Katherine and Taylor were inseparable over the weekend.

Towards the end of the birthday party, Katherine was given access a real microphone and drum set, where she presented The Katherine Show.  This kid loves to perform, and having a real working microphone only made her ham it up even more.





We were back home in time for a Valentine's Day snow day, but that didn't stop us from having Valentine's lunch at our favorite pizza place.  Because our lives are a bit unconventional these days, we had a simple Valentine's Day.

I can't believe we're a month away from Katherine turning 3.  The party planning is already in full swing and everyone is super excited!  Perhaps there will be another production of The Katherine Show at her birthday party.

As soon as we arrived in Florida, we checked into our condo and got dressed for the beach.  Katherine's first impression of the beach was complete amazement, although (spoiler alert) the beach experience that Disney depicted wasn't exactly accurate.  Initially, she loved loved the sand between her toes but wasn't sure about the constant uncontrollable motion of the water.  In fact, over the next couple of days she spent her time going back and forth from the sand to the pool.  Jason was a real trooper (pun intended) with taking her to the pool while I stayed on the beach. 

Hello there, dear readers.

I feel like it's been a while, although I've probably gone longer than this in between posts.  It just feels like it's been a long time because we've been jet car-setting for the past ten days.

We just got back from Katherine's first official vacation, where we traveled to Florida's "emerald coast."  It was our first trip by ourselves (just the 3 of us), and Katherine's first trip to the beach.  She had been studying up on the topic by watching Teen Beach Movie and Teen Beach Movie 2, and was convinced she would surf and dance and sing on the beach just like the main characters in the movie (at least she's stepped up off of Frozen for the moment).  Our trip was full of fun, unexpected characters, and lots and lots of sand.

Did anyone get in the ocean?  Was there surfing/dancing/singing on the beach?  Did someone poop their pants in the car, twice?  Did someone try to party all night on more than one occasion?  I'm ready to give you all of the details:

We left St. Louis at the conclusion of Katherine's gymnastics class on Friday (like, literally left town right when class was over), with a lunch stop in Cape Girardeau on our way to Kennett.  We stayed the night with Jason's parents Friday night, and Saturday we decided to drive down to Mississippi to break the trip up a little more.

So, off we went on Saturday.  Katherine had been complaining of tummy trouble Saturday morning, but refused to sit still long enough to focus on her "job."  I guess riding in the car loosened her up because about 30 minutes into the trip, we heard a few muffled sounds from the back seat followed by an unpleasant smell.  When we asked, Katherine proudly announced that she had pooped.  We stopped off in a sketchy interstate town in Arkansas so that I could change Katherine's diaper.  Unfortunately, she had filled her diaper and then some.  Poop everywhere.  All over her, her clothes, luckily not her carseat.  I changed/cleaned her on a towel in the front seat of the car because I wasn't able to get her inside without getting it everywhere.  An entire package of wipes later, I had her cleaned up.  We managed to locate her suitcase in the backseat just enough for me to grab her a random outfit.  I threw her soiled clothes in a plastic bag (that luckily I had packed for just an occasion), and proceeded to get her dressed.  As I was placing her in her carseat, I noticed her clean clothes now had smears of it on her.
"Her clothes have poop on them again!  Where is this coming from?!" I said to Jason, who had been helping with the clean-up efforts.  We inspected her.  No sign of where the mysterious extra poop was coming from.  I looked down to see that....yep.  It was coming from me.  My shirt had poop all down it.  I guess in my haste to get her cleaned up, I had gotten myself poopified.  My suitcase was not coming out of the car without completely unloading the whole thing so I decided to go to the gas station bathroom to clean up.  Yep.  No soap in the bathroom.  Anywhere.  I mean, I can't.  Whatever.  So, I pretty much bathed myself in a bottle of hand santizer and off we went.  Again.

We made it to Jackson, Mississippi where we were going to stay for the night.  As we got Katherine out of the car to eat dinner, we noticed that she had pooped again.  And again, had destroyed her clothes.  I already had dried poop on my shirt so, what the hell.  I paraded myself and Katherine through the McAlister's Deli dining room to the bathroom, where we again cleaned up and changed clothes (but not before I ran out of wipes).


After dinner, we headed to our hotel for the night.   Katherine was stoked about her first hotel stay and couldn't get enough of the elevator rides.  She also enjoyed the hotel pool, where she floated and jumped until almost 10:00 p.m. when she was forced out by her mean parents resulting in a two-year-old fit fest.  She also refused to go to sleep and proceeded to jump and climb in her make-shift pack-n-play bed.  She was wound up and nothing was bringing her down.  At a little after 11:00 p.m. we got her out of her bed and put her in ours to keep her calm, which worked because after about five minutes in our bed, she went right to sleep.  So another first for Katherine, getting to sleep with mommy and daddy.

The next morning, we were at it again after a quick breakfast in bed.  We made our way south through Mississippi and Alabama while Katherine watched Despicable Me's 1 and 2 over and over again.  It's been so long since I drove through the south, that I forgot how much I miss it.  I miss the small towns and the friendly southern accents.

We arrived in Florida in just enough time to check-in to our condo and get dressed for the beach.

And....that's where I'll stop for now.  Tune in for Part 2 where I'll answer the question of "How many people from St. Louis can we meet in one condo?"

Katherine and I are fresh off of a road trip to Arkansas with my mom to see my grandmothers.  It's always a long trip, but the strong storms and heavy downpours made it that much longer.  I always love getting see my grandmothers and my Aunt Rita, and now Katherine loves seeing them too.  While we were there Katherine performed two "shows" a day, determined to entertain anyone who would pay attention.  She colored princess pictures with my Aunt Rita and played catch with my Granny Lu.  She hid my Granny Dorothy's domino collection in random spots around her house and also noticed the striking resemblance between her Uncle Zach and my Uncle Joey.  One morning, my mom and I took her out to Jacksonport State Park, where she played and threw rocks into the river.  It's almost like a mini-vacation.  Almost.  










I often forget about the extreme humidity and mosquitoes that reside in Arkansas.  My hair did some crazy things while we were there and Katherine added to her bug bite collection on her legs, which made my Granny Dorothy have anxiety.  I'm always ready leave when I'm visiting my grandmothers, but sad once I've left.  I'm already ready to plan another trip to see them.  Maybe we should fly next time.  And go in the winter.

Jason and I got married 8 years ago today.  I can't believe how time seems to have flown by, considering we've technically been together for 14 years.  Here's a quick rundown of our life together:

We first met on New Year's Eve in 2000 through mutual friends at a party.  He was a college sophomore baseball player and I was a junior in high school.  I know.  We had attended the same high school for one year together, but had never met.  You could say we ran in different circles.  After our first meeting, we spent the next 5 months getting to know each other long distance.  We made it official in May of 2001.  Jason moved back to town and I started my senior year of high school.

{In 2001.  We look like babies.}

When I graduated from high school, I moved to Springfield to attend college and Jason followed shortly after.  In 2004, Jason started a new job that lead him to St. Louis.

{Engagement photos 2006}

On New Year's Eve 2005, Jason proposed in front of the Arch.

{Right after Jason proposed.}

In 2006, I graduated college and planned a wedding.  We got married in January of 2007 and honeymooned in Cancun.

{Our wedding day 2007}

{Honeymoon 2007}

We've had our ups and downs in the last 8 years.  Our best "up" was definitely the birth of our daughter, Katherine.  

{With baby Katherine 2013}

Jason is a great husband and an amazing dad.  I couldn't have asked for anything better.

{2014}

Katherine and I are settling back in after a very quick (and tiring) trip to Arkansas for our annual family reunion.  We are both exhausted after about 10 hours in the car, and visiting with lots of family.

Despite it being the end of September, the temperature hovered around 90 degrees all weekend and the mosquito trucks were still driving around spraying.  The day ended with Katherine stripped down to her diaper, enjoying 3 (yes 3) slices of US Pizza, before an early bedtime.

{Katherine's favorite person all weekend was my mom's cousin Connie.}

{A family photo from my Great-Aunt Rita's birthday party.}

{Katherine enjoying the country life.}

{Watching the chickens.}

Even though the trip down to Arkansas is always exhausting, it's always worth it to see family members that we don't get to see very often throughout the year.  I'm sure Jason missed us while we were away, but I think the US Pizza we brought him more than made up for our absence.