Halloween Fun

Let me tell you about my 2nd Halloween! I had way more fun this year.

The weekend before Halloween Mommy, Daddy, and I went to the pumpkin patch at Stone Pillar Winery, which is close to our house.

Did you know I can run?

Look at all these pumpkins!

Check out my cool gourd!

You're probably wondering what this picture is doing here....Well, that's my monkey I'm sleeping with, and I LOVE my monkey! I love my monkey so much that Mommy and Daddy thought it would be a good idea for me to BE a monkey for Halloween!

Cute, huh?

On Halloween we went over to a friend's house to hang out with some friend's from church.

It was fun playing in the backyard! (and I love my Mommy by the way!)

Hey Daddy...how come this lawn mower isn't working? I am supposed to ride on it, right?

We went trick or treating with our friends! I loved running around outside in my monkey suit! I wasn't too interested in going up to people's houses, and I didn't really care about what they were giving me, but Mommy and Daddy were excited about what I got!

Come on Daddy! There's no time for pictures!

Thanks for sharing my Halloween fun with me! I can't wait for next year.

Half Marathon 2010

On October 16th, Krzysztof, his dad, and his sister Kalina ran the Half Marathon in Kansas City. His mom walked the 5K with Brandon in the stroller. Valerie was in Santa Barbara spending time with her friend Shelley.

Here are all the athletes! You can see that the 5K wore Brandon right out!

Here are KZ's parents.

And the Half Marathon finishers.

The next day all of them went to Stone Pillar Winery, which is down the road from us in Olathe. Brandon is enjoying hanging out with his Dziadzia...

and his Cioci Kalina

Brandon loved running around the vineyard!

What a happy boy!

Kentucky Camping/Caving Trip 2010

Hi Everyone! It's Brandon here!

Let me tell you about a trip we took at the beginning of October to Kentucky! Every year my mom and dad go to General Burnside State Park in Kentucky to meet up with a big group of friends (they consider these friends more like family actually) for a camping and caving trip! This was my second year going, but it was mom's 8th time, and dad's 13th or something like that. I had a MUCH better time this year than last year! Last year I was only 3 months old. Here are some pictures:

This is my buddy Trevor. He is only 6 weeks younger than me. We got to play a lot and share toys.

See. Here I am sharing Trevor's toy. I wanted to share all of Trevor's toys. "Sharing" does mean taking whatever toy I want and playing with it as long as I want, right? It doesn't? I don't know what you are talking about.


This is the "Z Palace" as it came to be known. Mom and Dad bought a bigger tent before this trip because I tend to pack a few too many things.

You see, I really sleep better in my Pack 'N Play, so I wanted that to fit in the tent along with all my clothes, a space heater, some toys, and a little extra room to play didn't hurt either.

Here we are before going in a cave! Usually babies don't get to go caving, but this year was a little different from years past they tell me. Usually the big people go hard core spelunking where they have to use ropes and helmets, and they get really really muddy. But all of the caves were closed this year because the poor little bats in the cave system in Kentucky are getting a disease and dying, so they won't let people go in the caves in order to protect the bats. But one of the old guys who goes on the cave trip (who used to be an officer for the National Speleological Society) arranged for us to be given a tour of a cave called Salt Petre Cave that used to be commercially operated a few decades ago. It still had all the lights in it, and some movies were actually filmed in it too.

Here is Trevor with his mommy Sarah and daddy Blain ready to go in the cave.

And here is baby Tobey with his mom Stephanie.

This is Christian (Tobey's brother) with his daddy Brandon (who I am named after!)

Here we are in the cave!

And here is most of the group! Can you find me?

There is a really fun playground at the campsite. Trevor was saying, "Hey Brandon! Do you want to be my friend." Sure buddy, as long as I can play with your toys.

Here are Sarah & Trevor, Stephanie & Christian & Tobey, and Mommy and me!

Trevor and I loved the sandbox!

I loved pushing Trevor around on his truck! I'm a good driver.

We had so much fun, and I can't wait to back next year!

WFU Reunion in Texas

It's been over a month since we took this trip, but I wanted to post some pictures anyway. These pictures are from a mini college reunion I had with my Wake Forest friends. 7 of us including husbands and babies all met in Texas (which is not where our college was by the way - Wake Forest is in NC for those of you not familiar with it). My friend Mary Claire's husband's family runs a ministry in Fort Worth, TX, and they have an awesome ranch outside of the city where they do retreats and conferences. They graciously let us stay there, and we had such a great time (well most of us, as I'll explain in a minute). Many of us hadn't seen each other in a couple years (which means we hadn't met each other's babies), so it was so great to be together, and our husbands enjoyed getting to know each other better too (and they got to shoot some guns, so that makes any trip worthwhile to them).

The sad part of the weekend was that Brandon was sick the whole time! He had a fever and was just not himself at all. He did not run around and laugh like usual, so I was sad everyone didn't get to see his fun personality. He was a trooper being in a different place, though. We found out later that he had a double ear infection.

Here are the pictures:

Christie and baby Kate (5 months) - the only girl and obviously the object of affection of all 5 of the boys.

Baby Cooper (10 months) - Erin and Paul's baby

Kristen and her son Zack (almost 2 and therefore the veteran baby and leader of the pack.

Baby William (a.k.a. Tank as Krzysztof named him) - 7 months - Caroline and Brad's baby

William, Kate, Zack, Sam, Cooper, and Brandon. Clearly Kate knows she is the center of attention. Kristen, Allegra, and I went for a hike with Krzysztof down to the river from the ranch. It is so mountainous and beautiful there! Not what most people picture when they think Texas.
Here is the back porch of the ranch. We spent a lot of time hanging out back there.
Here's Cooper again! Krzysztof nick named him Curious Cooper, which has apparently stuck with his parents.
Mary Claire's husband David took KZ, Brandon, and I on a jeep ride. We all loved it!
And here is Mary Claire with baby Sam (7 months)

I can't wait to all get together again!

Goats!

There is this great farmstead in the Kansas City area called Deanna Rose. It has lots of animals for watching and petting and a really great playground. It is such a great place to take kids! When my parents were in town we went there for the first time. The best part of Deanna Rose, in my opinion, are the baby goats. They have a little area just for kids to go in and interact with the kids (because baby goat are called kids...haha)! It was so fun to see Brandon's reaction to these little guys! Here are some pictures:

They have big goats too!

Mimi & Papa's Visit September 2010

My parents came for a visit to Kansas City in September. They don't really like to relax around the house too much, so we had an event filled weekend!

The first big thing we did was go to Fort Osage in Sibley, MO. This fort was built under the direction of William Clark (of Lewis and Clark) after the Louisiana Purchase. My dad has always been particularly interested in Lewis and Clark history because Meriwether Lewis is one of his ancestors.

The Fort location is beautiful - right on the Missouri River.

They were having an event that day where people dressed in clothes from the fort's time period. It seemed that this event would be aimed at educating the public (as they do at similar historical places), but no one really talked to us, and we were one of the only people there not in costume. It was more of a time for people obsessed with history to hang out. They even had an auction where they were selling all of their old stuff to each other, but anyone could buy things. My dad actually bid and won a beer stein that was built the same year in the 30's that his mom built our family's little log cabin. It will be perfect sitting on the mantle at the cabin.

Also that weekend we went to the art fair at Westport. I love walking around this art fair because of the people watching, and the art is always interesting to talk about. There's also a good number of dogs to check out as well, and these in the picture above were the best. I have never seen dogs this big before. This picture just doesn't do it justice. They are Irish Wolf Hounds. They were used in Ireland to control the wolf population. You need to be a big dog to take down some wolves.

Here we are after walking around the Plaza.

My dad loves bubbles. If anyone goes to his office with a child or a dog, out come the bubbles. I think he might carry some in his car as well. Anyway, he's pretty particular about the type of bubbles he likes, so he ordered some of that brand to bring for Brandon. Brandon loved watching them! I love the expression on my dad's face in this picture. It's so fun to see your parents play with your child!

And I love how excited Brandon looks in this picture. He loves being with his Mimi and Papa!

The highlight of their visit was a trip to Deanna Rose, which merits it's own post, so look for that next!