Why Kids Are Great

Quick updates:

Logan has his first loose tooth and he's REALLY excited about it. I thought we'd have these little baby teeth forever. The big one is already poking thru behind it.

Last week I was trying to text my friend Jodi and auto correct was messing up all over the place... I tried text to talk and that was worse... after I had some coffee I tried again and realized Kendal had turned down the accuracy settings on auto correct and changed everything to Spanish.

I saw a squirrel fall out a a tree then look around to see if anyone was watching.. I said "I saw that" and he ran off. I don't like squirrels. When I worked at the phone company in Kalamazoo, MI, I pulled into my spot and there was one standing there shaking his little squirrely fist at me. So I honked at him and he threw a nut at me. I have no sympathy for ass hole rodents.

Loopy told me on Friday that he walked under a rainbow to jump on is mighty unicorn steed and rode it to his car on the way out of work at 5 today. I think this new job thing is going to work out.

"Granpa and Grandpa are here!"

Well, that's what Kendal calls them anyway. Living far away from our parents can be hard. Sometimes I am jealous of my friends who have family living in town to watch their kids or come for dinner every once in a while. I guess when they live far away it makes us appreciate it more when they come to visit. This weekend my mom and dad were in town. The kids both LOVE when Grandma and Grandpa come to town.

Probably the BEST part of having them here (for the kids anyway) is going to swim in the hot tub at the Marriott. Its too cold in the big pool but the hot tub is just right. I'm ok with it because Kendal just floats from one end to the other and Logan is content throwing a little ball back and forth. After getting everyone dressed we headed to Houligans for some dinner. Usually in the first couple hours of grandparents in town its obvious who the 'favorite' will be for the duration of their stay. Last time it was Grandma, this time Kendal attached herself to Grandpa. Logan followed suit.

Why don't we go here more often? Everyone LOVES Houligans.

Sunday we decided to head up to St. Augustine. One of my favorite restaurants is on St. George St. I think its called Florida Cracker Cafe. They have a great kids menu, outside seating, gator tail, and the most amazing avocado salad ever. It has lettuce, whole sliced avocado, maters, and then some sort of dressing created by God himself. Well, something like that. Anyway, YUM. (it could only be better if they added bacon)

To waste time before the most delicious meal ever created we played around at the store next door. No idea what its called but they sold shells, alligator head, turtle shells and ridiculous hats and sunglasses. Me and the kids did some modeling for you.

I don't think that lady thought we were funny.

We hung out at the playground for a couple hours after that. I did't take any pictures but Grandma did, I'll steal those then they get posted on fb.

There is a little preserve area between the Ocean and the Intercoastal on the way home from St. Augustine and we stopped there to feed about 50 turtles and some very pushy fish. The alligator isn't there anymore.. at least he didn't come say hello.

So excited...

Save some for the turtles...

Grandma throwing bread at Logan.

Sometimes he wanders off.
This is now considered 'hiking'.

Taking pictures of taking pictures
A Syf family tradition.

Ready?

tada!

Monday morning Loopy was excited to go to work (WHAT?) and work on a couple bugs he's been fixing. I took Logan to school and me and Kendal went for breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa. Stopping at the beach of coarse, cause its RIGHT there. This is also now declared a hike since it involes being near nature.

Buddies.

Nothing much to report for the rest of the time they were here. I was able to go vote while they stayed home with K. Other than that there was a lot of hanging out at the house and relaxing. I am glad people feel like they CAN come here and just sit and chill. We did go to Lake Mary to see where Loopy works. The building is big and shiny. The lobby is big and has a balcony. We saw a couple of his co-workers coming out and they were friendly and smiling. It seems to happen a lot there.

We are the Knights who saaaay "Ni!!"

Logan was in a wicked grumpy mood after school on Tuesday. Once we fed him he was alright.. That's nothing new. We went to Tilted Kilt for dinner. That was GOOD, and the hot chicks are scantily clad with makes for interesting dinner conversation with my kids and parents. Kendal liked that there were suits of armor around, just like Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which is her movie choice of the week.

That's all for now folks.

October was brutal.

I'm ready to move forward and enjoy the new things that life has to offer. Don't get me wrong, I had a lot to be thankful for and some really great things happened this month. Everything just got off to a rocky start and it left me distracted and run down. Lets get caught up and put it behind us!

Sunday

I got up earlier than usual and went out for coffee with Jessie and Michelle. They both work at Logan's school and I don't get to see them as much as I'd like to. We had some catching up to do! I was in a bit of a mood but made the best of it over coffee and lunch.

When I got home everyone was playing some Beatles Rockband and relaxing.

Loopy pursing his "New music career"
Kendal makes a pretty good guitarist..

We also went to a local farm to get pumpkins and enjoy some fall festivities. That cheered me up quite a bit. I took lots of pictures. Of coarse they had farm animals..

A little hay bale maze that the kids tried to rearrange and a big corn maze that we thankfully didn't get lost in.

And some other random games.. like Prime the Pump to Race the Ducks

And a giant sand box filled with corn.

Chillin' out and making corn angels...

Hay rides and well... more hay. I'm glad I'm not deathly allergic to it anymore!!

No, no..

Line starts HERE!

Monday

It's no secret that I am not at all a morning person. I overslept on my first day taking Logan to school. Oops. He slept in too. After 20 min of telling him he has to get up and dressed even though he was 'too tired to wear pants' we stumbled out the door. Loopy got to his first day on time, so that's what matters.

Loopy's new job is going well. He is struggling to get accustomed to doing only one thing at a time. He is constantly checking for emails that aren't there, expecting to have more tasks ect. But these are good things and he's adjusting really well. Its good to have him home on time and in a good mood. He can't stop smiling and its great. Monday night he was going to head to band practice down in Edgewater but changed his plans to be home for pumpkin carving with the kids even though I told him its no bid deal. I love that he wants to spend time with the family again.

Faces drawn and ready to carve!

Logan thought scooping was great.

Kendal got naked and sat on the table.

All done!!

Later that night I was sitting outside and he came to sit with me and tell me all about his first day. It was pretty chilly out (thanks to Hurricane Sandy) and he brought the warm Care Bear blanket.

Happy to be texting Scott from his own phone!

There have already been quite a few moments where he had to stop and let the sanity sink in. He was worried about catching on and producing fast enough but I am pretty sure that's not going to be a problem!

Tuesday

Me and Kendal got Logan to school on time and came home to snuggle on the couch for a while. She's not a morning person either. Maybe worse than me. Eventually she got up to play computer games and I put on the news to see how the Northeast was holding up. Its scary to see how weather can bring a whole region to its knees in one day! I was showing Logan the map and explaining what was going on later that afternoon. He pointed out Michigan:

Logan: Looks like they're getting a hurricane

Me: They are, they haven't ever had one before and don't quite know what to do.

Logan: They need to stay in their house, get one tent, then one more tent, and cover your house with a thick layer of steel.

Me: And that will keep them safe?

Logan: Mmmhmm.

Me: What do they do because they don't have any power?

Logan: Use candles.

Here is an awesome shot from my friend Mark Parren of the high tide in lake Michigan.

Wednesday, HALLOWEEN!

Logan woke me up right about the time we were supposed to be leaving for school. At least he was up and dressed. They were having a party at school and he was all decked out in his astronaut costume and ready to roll. We almost made it on time. Almost. Loopy decided the night before he was going to be Phantom of the Opera and I should be Christine. So after our morning coffee I tried to get Kendal to come shopping with me.

Me: Time to get some shopping done

Kendal: Oh, lets go.

Me: We should get you dressed first

Kendal: No, I'm good like this. I need a hair clippy though

Me: You are naked.

Kendal: I'm ready like this.

Me: its pretty cold.. and you're naked.

Kendal: I have a hair clippy....

Eventually I convinced her to take a shower and get dressed and we went searching for the perfect Opera gown. Yeah, that doesn't exist in this town. So we had lunch at Steak N Shake instead.

Her hair is getting so long!

Proud of her new jacket.

After we picked up Logan me and Kendal both took a glorious 2 hour nap while Logan played games on the computer. Loopy got out of work a little early so he would be home in time to go trick or treating with us.I still had to wake Kendal up, She was one tired monster!

In the past we've done what Floridians call Trunk or Treat. This is where about 50 cars park, open their trunks (sometimes decorate them) and everyoone lines up to get candy. Its good for really little kids.. but mine have LOTS of energy so we found a big gated community that opens its doors to hundreds of people. We gave them the choice and they chose houses. It took all of one house for Kendal to realize the goal is to get as much candy as possible. They all got complements on costumes. I went as mom. Lots of people tried to get Loopy to sing for them. When an entire neighborhood gets in the spirit there are parties at every other house. We had a blast. As soon as we got there and started our rounds I realized my camera batteries were dead so we had to use Loopy's phone. Sorry for the blurry.