Big Cedar

I feel like every time I am about to get caught up with the blog, things happen and then I fall even more behind. So, I am back to playing catch-up.

The weekend of May 7th we took a family vacation with my parents to Big Cedar Lodge at Table Rock Lake. The resort was beautiful and we had pretty good weather. It was a little cool, but at least it didn't rain on us.





Kinley is getting so independent and wants to walk everywhere by herself these days. She loved all the bridges at the lodge.



Kinley wasn't used to all the hills and did fall a couple of times on her walks, but for the most part she did really well and had a great time exploring her new environment.

There was lots of fun stuff for Kinley to do at the lodge. One of the first things we did was take her horse back riding.



Kinley wasn't too sure about this, but we gave it a try anyway.



She did great petting her horse.







But not so great when it came to actually riding the horse.



She was happy again once we let her run around on her own. At least she tried something new and cheers up quickly after it is over!



The lodge also had a little turtle pond with tons of turtles. Here is Kinley getting her chance to see the turtles with grandma.



Later on that weekend we rented a pontoon boat and hit the lake. Kinley is such a water baby. At the back of the boat helping grandpa drive.



Hanging out with grandma at the front of the boat and enjoying the view.



It was a little chilly on the boat, so we tried to hang out on the front of the boat where the sun was. Luckily we put sunscreen on Kinley's face, but since I was just trying to warm up in the sun (not tan) I didn't even think about putting sunscreen on me. Bad move. My pale skin was not used to any amount of sun and I got burned. Oh well, at least it was near the end of the trip anyway. Lesson learned.

Even with her sunscreen, Kinley ended up hurting worse than me after the boat ride. While we were on the boat Kinley took a spill and gave herself a pretty good fat lip. We were able to get her all cleaned up, gave her some ibuprofen and iced her lip. She was a trooper and daddy knew just how to make her feel better, Phineas and Ferb on the ipod until she fell asleep and took a nap on daddy's lap.



Overall a fun weekend. It is always nice to get away, even if it is just for a long weekend.

Boo Croup

I can't believe I forgot to mention that a few days before we left for Texas Kinley got sick for the very first time since she came home from the hospital. She has had a couple of minor colds, but this was the first time we actually had to take her to the doctor because she was sick.

Kinley had been running a temperature around 100-102 for a couple of days. We didn't think much of it, and just gave her Tylenol and Motrin to help. After a couple days of having a fever Kinley started to get a really bad cough. The cough was so bad that she even threw up a couple of times. You could just tell that she felt horrible. She was really fussy and didn't want to eat or drink anything. Kevin and I felt so bad for her that we basically let he have a few free days where she could eat her favorite foods and watch more Phineas and Ferb than we usually let her watch.

Once the cough got to where it caused her to vomit a couple of times, and since she had a fever for several days we gave in and took her to her doctor. Dr. S. took one look at Kinley, listened to her breathe and told us she had croup. He also did a strep test to rule out that possibility, but it came back negative. Just croup.

Croup is a viral infection that may or may not be accompanied by a fever. There is a characteristic cough and swelling of the upper respiratory track. It does not affect the lungs however, which is good news for Kinley. Dr. S. prescribed a 3 day course of steroids to help with the swelling of her upper respiratory track, but since it is a viral infection antibiotics would not help. We were told to keep giving Tylenol and Motrin for her fever. Dr. S. said croup usually lasts for about a week and since he saw her on day 3 of her fever she was about halfway through already. He said that she should be fine for our trip to Texas and that there was no need to cancel any plans. That was good news.

Sure enough after a couple more days Kinley started to get better which was great news for everyone. I think Kevin and I took Kinley's illness harder than she did. It was just heartbreaking to see her feel so bad. I know that we have been very lucky Kinley has been as healthy as she has been since coming home from the hospital, but that doesn't seem to be very comforting when you are dealing with a sick child at that moment. I guess I should be happy that all she had was croup, a fairly common childhood illness that any kid could get.

Back to Texas

On April 22nd we packed up the car and headed back to Texas for another long weekend. The trip was planned around a baby shower for a good friend and sorority sister of mine. It just so happens that she married a friend and fellow TCU baseball teammate of Kevin. We stayed with them the last time we went down to Texas and we were able to stay with them again this time which worked out really well. They are expecting a baby boy this June and we wish them nothing but the best!

Each time we travel to Texas we always try to get back to visit the TCU Campus at least once. Last time we were there during football season and were able to catch a game. This time it was baseball season and we were able to go watch them play Friday night. TCU recently got a brand new baseball stadium which we saw for the first time on this trip. It was such a nice stadium! There was a picnic and grilling area out near right field that you could reserve, a little hill that looked over the first base line that kids would slide down while sitting on flattened cardboard boxes, and another area on the third base line with some more tables you could rent. They also host parties for kids. While we were there a little boy was having a birthday party and during one of the breaks between innings the kids at the party were allowed to run the bases. It was more like a minor league game than a college game. It was really fun to be back on campus and see the new field. Kinley did pretty well sitting through most of the game. She ate some nachos, Dippin Dots ice cream and towards the 5th or 6th inning she was getting a little restless, so Dad let her watch some Phineas and Ferb on his iPod. We ended up leaving around the 8th inning, but only because it was past Kinley's bedtime and we still had an hour drive back to the house. Here are some pics of the new baseball stadium at TCU. Pretty impressive.




Saturday morning we thought we would take Kinley to the Fort Worth Zoo. I was hoping that she would be interested in the animals, but the zoo was set up so that it was too hard for Kinley to see anything while in her stroller. We tried letting Kinley out of her stroller, but then she just wanted to run anywhere and everywhere. Kinley didn't seem to care about the animals one way or another. It didn't turn out how I imagined, but we still had a good time. Unfortunately this is the only picture I got of Kinley at the zoo, and you can't really even tell it was taken at the zoo, but oh well.


Later on that day we took Kinley to the park in the neighborhood where we were staying. She had a blast going down the slides and exploring all the new playground equipment. The weather was so nice while we were in Texas that we tried to spend as much time outside as possible. Kinley loves being outside right now!






We must have worn Kinley out on Saturday because she slept in really late on Sunday. While I was at the baby shower Kinley stayed home and rested with the guys. Sunday was pretty uneventful and then it was back home on Monday so I could get back to work. We always have a great time whenever we travel to Texas. Too bad it is an 8 hour drive or we would go more often.

Fairy Tale Village & Crown Center

Towards the end of March Kevin and I took Kinley to Fairy Tale Village at Crown Center. Fairy Tale Village was a free exhibit for kids that we thought Kinley would enjoy. There were castles, bridges, forests and other fairy tale themed sets that the kids could play in. Kinley must have been overwhelmed by it all because she was not very interested in the exhibit. We did get a few pics though.

By far Kinley's favorite thing at Fairy Tale Village was this bridge. She just kept going over...


And back.


Here is Kinley crossing the bridge to get into the castle. You can't tell by the picture, but all Kinley did was go on the bridge, she was not interested in going into the castle.


Here is Kinley going into the 3 Little Pigs' House.


And here is Kinley making a dash for the exit.


After Fairy Tale Village we headed to the Crayola Store.




Kinley had a lot of fun in this store. She colored on the easel,

at the craft table,


and ran around the store to see what else she could find.


She found a colorful wheel of crayons.


She also found a coloring kit she thought she had to have.


Next we let Kinley work up her appetite by letting her run through the glass skyways downtown.


"Keep up Dad, quit taking so many pictures of me."


After all that it was time for lunch! Grandma Beamer, Grandpa Melcher and Aunt Kate all work near Crown Center, so we were able to meet them for lunch. We ate in the Crown Room at Hallmark. Hallmark has a really good cafeteria and by this time we were all hungry. The pics from lunch didn't turn out great, but here we all are eating lunch together. What a fun day!


We went back to Fairy Tale Village a few weeks later with Chase and his family, but sadly we didn't take any pics that time. Kinley enjoyed the exhibit a little more the second time around. I guess she just needed a warm up trip first.