Way Back Wednesday: Ryker (15-18 Months)

This was his first time in the ocean.  I took him to Panama City Beach with my mom, Aunt Diane, and Uncle Brian.  He was such a wonderful baby on that trip and we had an amazing time!

Riding the carousel at the outdoor mall in PCB that we frequented at night for dinner and shopping.

Hanging out poolside.

He still loves getting tossed around by Daddy.

Pumpkin Patch!

That was such a fun day!

The hay mound was probably his favorite part.  That, and the pony ride. ;-)

I know there are a lot from that day, but we were all particularly photogenic that day!

Carrying his own pumpkin.

Wearing Nonno's glasses

Daddy had to work on Halloween so we snapped this before we headed out for trick or treating.

Swinging with Papaw.

Nana and Papaw with their favorite frog.

Grandma Sheepie laughing at my silly boy.

Ready for the main event with Ashlyn and Carter as his fellow trick or treaters. Ashlyn was Little Bo Beep.  Her dog (a West Highland Terrier) was her sheep...too cute!

Playing the piano at Grandma Thacker's after trick or treating.

I think he was due for a haircut at this point!

No worries, we had it done the next day.  He held perfectly still and was a very good boy!

Having lunch with Nana and McAlister's

He had a thing with Nonno's glasses for a while.

Go Colts!

We used to vacuum my dog's hair all the time and Ryker was all up in my business while I was trying to vacuum the furniture one day.  I thought I'd see if he liked it and he LOVED it!  For the longest time he would run up every time we got the vacuum out.  He still asks us to do it sometimes.

It did some hilarious stuff to his hair!

Who needs a gym when you have Ryker?!?

Christmas at the Zoo

Christmas Pictures...he was not cooperative during this session at all!

This was the official one we sent out.

That look kills me..he still makes that face all the time!

Kisses for Mommy...love it!

This was my favorite one of just him.

Christmas Eve...playing in his new tent with Nonna

Christmas morning...he did NOT want to get up!

Kisses for Nana

This still cracks me up.  If you know my mother at all, you would know that she would only do this for Ryker.  If I tried this as a kid she would've had a conniption.

Singing and dancing with Ruby and Audrey :-)

Beach Day

We slept in a bit after our exhausting day in city.  We didn't get back to the room until almost 11:00 the night before and we were all tired. After breakfast we got ready for the beach.  I have to say I was very impressed with the beach.  I've never been to the shores of Lake Michigan and didn't know quite what to expect.  The small strip on base was very clean and reminded me a lot of Florida's coastline.  The sand was clean and pretty.  The water was the same blue and very clean just with less waves.  The water was freezing which we expected but it didn't stop Ryker!  The beach wasn't crowded at all and we enjoyed the space.  Ryker did make a few friends and played with them.  He is such a beach baby.  Camden on the other hand is still a bit young for it.  He was tired and ready for a nap but was not about to miss anything.  I couldn't put him down because he would just eat sand.  So, I basically sat there with him in my lap people watching.  I really wanted to read, but I guess the days of relaxing on the beach are gone (or a long way off).  I didn't take any pictures in the morning but we were there for over 3 1/2 hours before grabbing some lunch and heading back in for showers and naps.  They both went down easily today and Robert and I took naps too.  We decided to stay on base for dinner which turned out to be great.  We had some delicious calamari (which Ryker loved) and fish and then headed back to the beach for a nice walk. 

I just stuck Cam in the Moby this time and it was better for all of us.  I eventually turned him facing out which he liked even more.  It's the first time I've tried it like that, but it worked great!

Probably my newest favorite picture.  This one is definitely frame-worthy!  (Side Note: Check out how blond Cam's hair is getting!)

Me and both my boys hanging on the beach.  What a fantastic way to end our trip.

We headed home the next morning and aside from two separate times Ryker had to pee in a cup and we missed our turn off to the Indiana Toll Road (oops!) it was pretty uneventful.  It was fun and if we do it again we have definitely learned some of what not to do!  It's always great to spend time together as a family away from all the distractions of everyday normal life.

Day 2

Camden was still on Indy time which is an hour later and he was up pretty early.  We got dressed and ready and headed down to the lobby for a quick breakfast.  Robert had to get a parking pass at the Visitor's Center and then we were planning on catching the 9:35 train into downtown Chicago.  Breakfast was craziness and Ryker spilled grapefruit juice all over him after I'd literally taken one bite of my food.  I left Cam with Robert and took Ryker back up to the room to change (again).  He ended up needing to poop too so we sat and dealt with that while I hand-washed yet another set of clothes in the bathroom sink.  I tend to overpack for the kids for just in case situations.  I had 2 outfits per day and 2 pairs of pajamas packed for Ryker.  I had already put 2 spare outfits in the diaper bag to take downtown.  We were literally down to one pair of shorts and a shirt that he'd already worn but was still clean to wear.  After all that we went down to finish our breakfasts and Robert took off to get the parking pass.  He picked us back up and we rushed to the train station only to see it pulling away as we parked.  AGGHHHH!!!!  The next train didn't leave for almost 2 more hours.  Robert thought we had to buy tickets ahead of time and the booth at the station was closed so we drove around looking for a CVS that would sell them.  Enter the unreliable GPS on Robert's phone....disaster!  We finally found a lady who told us we could just buy them on the train.  We decided to go back to base and buy some Subway to take on the train with us and eat on the way so we wouldn't have to worry about finding something for lunch as soon as we got there.  We got back to the station in plenty of time and finally boarded the train.

Stud Muffin waiting on the train.  Yes, that is his soccer medal.  He wore it pretty much constantly the entire week and weekend.

This was his idea.  Some of the fellow passengers were getting a kick out of him already.

On the train watching the world whiz by and thinking it was the coolest thing ever.  He said, "Riding trains is so much fun!"  I said, "I know, Sheldon." ;-)

Daddy and Cam started out across the aisle from us.

He was seriously in heaven and was so good for the entire ride.  It was an hour long so I was pretty impressed.

Daddy with his boys...so sweet!

(You'll notice Cam has a paci in in a lot of these pictures...he started this high pitched scream when he's excited this weekend and we were trying to prevent him from disturbing everyone else around us)

After the surprisingly pleasant train ride we were in for another dose of disaster.  Robert had mapped out our trip the night before.  We had planned on walking a bit to another train station to take that line down to Museum Campus where the Shedd Aquarium is.  However, we couldn't find the train station.  After walking around forever trying to find it we decided we might as well just walk to the aquarium.  Mind you it was 97 degrees and we were both wearing flip flops and it was a 2 mile walk.  Yeah, not fun.  We were all sweating and my calves were killing me by the time we got there.  We finally arrived to find the line up the steps was a 1 1/2-2 hour wait.  Thankfully, someone told us we could get in the special needs line since we had a stroller.  Yay!  We moved around to that line and it was only 1/2 hour long.  We sat baking in the sun and drinking every bit of water I had packed in the cooler and buying more.  Eventually, I took the boys inside to go to the bathroom and get them out of the sun.  The place we entered was the basement and it was still hotter than you-know-what.  After what felt like an eternity we had our tickets and headed up the elevator to the main floor where there was air conditioning!  Robert and I didn't care if we ever left that place at that point.  It was super busy and Ryker wanted to run around to see everything so we had to split up quite often. We finally found an area where there were local fish that wasn't as busy and had some kid-friendly activities that kept Ryker in one area for a while.  Robert and I popped a squat and rested. 

Waiting in line.  Ryker enjoyed this statue.

Finally insdie and checking out the duck.

They had some of these fish live in the tanks....they were monstrous!

This camping set-up kept him entertained for quite a while.

Then they brought a snake out and told us all about him.  Ryker was one of the first kids to sit down and the last one to get up.  He asked (well, he made me ask for him) several questions and was very interested in the snake.

Rowing a canoe.

This kid loves having his picture taken.

Seriously adorable!

We refilled our many water bottles and headed back outside.  Thankfully, the temperature had dropped a bit and there was a nice breeze.  We were much happier!  We walked to the Metra station and took it up to the Miracle Mile and walked around and did some shopping while the boys slept in the stroller.  We ate a quick dinner at Burrito Beach which was very good and had an ice cream treat at Baskin Robbins.  We knew we'd missed the 6:30 train so we walked around and took our time enjoying the city before walking to mile back to the train station we started at this morning. 

Hanging with Daddy by the River Walk

We took a break and watched the boats go by and Ryker had fun running around and playing.  I thought this was a pretty cool picture.  His hair cracks me up.

He loved watching the big tourist boats go by.  He waved down at them and a bunch of the passengers waved back which he thought was pretty cool.

They let us board the train early and we sat and soaked up the AC once again.  Ryker was content to watch Max and Ruby on the Kindle but Camden was all over the place.  Tons of sailors were out on leave and were on the train with us.  One young sailor and his girlfriend were sitting behind us.  Camden kept pulling himself up to look at them and would smile and talk and bounce around.  They of course thought he was funny which only encouraged him more.  If they would quit paying attention to him he would yell and start in again.  He is such a little attention whore!  Little Stinker was definitely a handful!

So, overall, Day 2 started off bad but by the time we got inside the Shedd it had turned the corner.  Thankfully, that was the turning point for the trip and it really started to look up from there! :-)