Happy Birthday Little Boy!

Wow our little Jadeyn is TWO YEARS OLD!!! We can't believe how the time has flown and how much he has become a sweet little boy! We are so blessed and lucky to have him in our lives and he's pretty dang lucky to have us for parents!!
Looking back at Jadeyn's baby pictures, he was Jadeyn from the very beginning: so inquisitive and ever in motion.

Yesterday in the car I started to tell him "the story:" two years ago tonight..... and he just stared intently at me listening to every word I was saying knowing it was all about him!!


We made Jadeyn a "Cars" cake since he is obsessed with any thing that has wheels. It turned out rather nice if I say so myself. I've never done a "character" cake before and this was a challenge. I'm sure he'll like it whatever it looks like!

To celebrate his birthday, we kept up Kevin's tradition of going to the Zoo. Jadeyn loved the Zoo before, this time, he was practically elated! We had to run to keep up with his as he ran from exhibit to exhibit turning back occasionally to shout "c'mon dad, c'mon mama!" What a cutie! His favorite of course was anything to do with fish. At times I think he was more interested in the mammal's watering holes looking for fish, than the actual animals!

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At the Zoo Jadeyn walked right up to a nesting goose and wanted to poke it! Well, he got nipped at. Afterwards we found another goose that had caution tape all around it. Guess that one was extra nippy!

Opening presents was a delight again. It was like Christmas: tear one open, play with it for 20 min, then open another one. He loved his Chick Hicks racing car, Nemo and Dori puppets, books, playing cards and especially his play tent and stomp rocket! We had some neighbor friends over to enjoy the cake.
What a wonderful day and what a special little guy!

Mischief and a Fishy Funeral

Mischief of the Week Compliments of Jadeyn:

He decided to paint the fishtank with his toothbrush! Eeeww!
Unbeknownst to me, he put our game of Pass the Pigs in the washing machine. Went through a nice hot cycle. Those pigs are sparkling clean, but the paper is pretty much shot!
While putting up crown molding in our dining room, Jadeyn was a pro at climbing all the way to the top of the ladder. He was so proud of himself.
Playing with all of this bath toys OUTSIDE of the bathtub. Each time I would tell him to keep the water in the tub, he would tell me "thank you mama," and keep playing the way he wanted to.
While we were working in the yard, Jadeyn left his juice cup unattended on the patio. It drooled out a bit of juice onto the cement and oohh, look who came to join the party!

Finally: Jadeyn got to see a proper fish funeral today. We gathered around the "porcelain express" and dropped the poor deceased fishy into the toilet bowl and said goodbye and flushed him down. Jadeyn seemed to be impressed by the whole ordeal, but the funny part was a few hours later. He was in the bathroom making all sorts of excited noises. He was waving in the toilet bowl at the water shouting "bye bye fishy" "where fishy go?" "bye bye fishy!" It was hilarious as he carried on and on about this little fish. He even asked for more fishy, as if we should take a live one out of the tank to flush as well!!

Ready for Spring!

We have spent a lot of time in the yard lately getting ready for spring. We have nine new rose plants coming at the end of March to add to our collection. We've been digging holes, moving rocks, and getting nice and dirty! Jadeyn has loved having nicer weather and has taken full advantage of the sunny days with a little bit of snow left over.
Jadeyn gets his neatness from Kevin (definitely not me!). Here he is vacuuming the snow and leaves!!

SeaWorld Adventure

SeaWorld Orlando Adventure

Our trip began on Valentine’s Day! What a treat! We landed in Orlando and made it to our hotel in time to enjoy a few hours at SeaWorld before calling it a night. As we approached the park, Jadeyn’s little feet started running and we could hardly hold him back he was so excited. Eyes full of wonder as he stared at the people, lights, white Ibis’ wandering around, the roller coaster roars and all the amazing smells that accompany an amusement park. We chose SeaWorld because, of course, Jadeyn loves anything to do with fish, but also because we knew it would be a park that he would be able to enjoy all of it, not just the kiddie section or that he would have to wait while Kevin or I rode on the big rides. We can’t wait for him to join us on the big coasters, but we have a few years (and inches to go for that to happen!).

Believe

Believe – We made it to the last show of Believe on Sunday night, an amazing performance by the beautifully HUGE Killer Whales. Incredible that such large creatures can be so graceful and gentle.

They jumped, flipped, threw their trainers into the air, waved at the crowd, splashed the crowd on cue and thoroughly entertained us.

Jadeyn was mesmerized. We couldn’t believe that he held still for the whole 30 minute performance!!! He never holds still! He oowd and aahhed with the crowd and clapped his little hands in delight. The show was great. The perfect way to start our vacation!

Later in the week we just had to see this show again! It was just as incredible, but this time there were four whales and the new one was huge! They splashed and splashed the audience and Jadeyn squealed and clapped!

Renaissance Resort at SeaWorld

We stayed at the Renaissance Hotel just across the parking lot from SeaWorld’s main entrance. We have figured out that the little extra expense of staying at the park’s hotel is easily overcome to erase rental cars, parking, stress, etc. It was a beautiful hotel. We were on the 10^th floor looking over SeaWorld, and the inside of the hotel was a giant atrium full of palm trees, sea creature looking furniture and lights, and big screen TVs which played aquarium scenes like fish, octopus, sea anemones, etc. Each time a clown fish would appear, Jadeyn would shout “Nemo!” But then, whenever a turtle would appear, he would shout “duck!” Each night, back at the hotel, we would enjoy dinner, put Jadeyn to bed and then enjoy the Olympics! Pretty exciting stuff!!

Dolphins
We went to the feeding area of the dolphin section and got to enjoy the frenzy and the competition between the dolphins for a piece of fish. We could reach in and touch them as they swam by. Its sweet to be close enough to hear their clicking and squeaking and see the expressions on their faces! So playful! We could reach in and touch them as they swam by! (Believe me, their water felt practically warm compared to the weather outside!) When we visited the underwater viewing area, a maintenance worker was sweeping near the glass. It was driving the dolphins crazy trying to get at and play with the broom!

Blue Horizons Dolphin Show

Blue Horizons was a show completely filled with dolphins! They showed off their skills and talents and wowed the crowd and us!!! Once again Jadeyn was mesmerized!! I’ve seen dolphins perform some of their tricks before, but it amazing me to think that these creatures are so intelligent and can learn such complicated tricks with their human performers. The trainers would “water ski” on their noses, be shot in the air, ride by holding on to their fins, and peacefully float on their backs next to a sweet dolphin in the same position! During part of the show, they released about 12 parrots which circled and swooped over the crowd!

Floor and Ceiling Aquarium

One of Jadeyn’s favorite sections of the park was a floor and ceiling aquarium. Beneath your feet swam mana rays, and all sorts of big fish, above your head swam tiger, leopard and a type of small hammerhead shark. As we entered this enclosed room, Jadeyn made several heads turns as he shouted “Whoa! Whoa!” over and over again with each new site that he saw! Later on when the park was busier, he had just as much fun with fellow kids crawling around on the floor aquarium. A few times he got a bit too friendly and gave a stranger an exuberant hug! It was the perfect place to play with Jadeyn while we took turns going on the big coasters!

Jadeyn has inherited a bit of each if me and Kevin’s qualities: he loves minuscule details (me) and love huge wonders (Kevin). For example, I get just as much delight from watching the flamingos and white ibis as I did from the dolphins! I point out the details and Kevin takes us to the great wonders! Jadeyn loved the flamingos! These ones were pretty bright pink too. There were the ever present amusement park squirrels to entertain him as well! White ibis were everywhere!!! Seagulls, ibis and a few wood storks were always ready to snatch away a piece of fish intended for the dolphins!

Aquatica

The only disappointment about the weather is that the water park, Acquatica was closed every day until the day we left! We were so bummed. No need to be envious of the beautiful Florida weather: we hit a record low on the night of Valentine's day!!! 35 degrees! We bundled up and enjoyed it all. But on the day we were to fly out, we slapped on our swimsuits, bought big beach towels and hit the lazy river. Luckily, the water was 84 degrees to help counter the 64 degrees outside the water. Jadeyn loved the lazy river, laying back and kicking his legs. The second lazy river was a life jacket only river that was quite speedy whipping you down the rive quite efficiently. One of the slides tunnels though a dolphin tank. Theoretically you could “swim with the dolphins” right beside you. But they were usually having too much fun to notice the humans. Commerson Dolphins coloring is just like a Killer Whale’s but in reverse. They are mostly white with black spots, but they spend most of their time swimming upside down! (sorry, no pictures of us in the collage: no one wanted to get out of the water long enough to get the camera! Brrr!)

Weather

Normally you would think that a trip to Florida would be a wonderful break from a cold Colorado winter…normally. We left with snow falling in Denver, and arrived to a record low for Valentine’s day in Florida!!! All winter has been pretty chilly for Florida, this week was no exception: highs were in the 50s, but there was also a pretty steady breeze which made it feel even colder. Nonetheless, we loved every minute of our trip, however, we didn’t sit in any splash zone!! We bundled up in our fleece jackets and didn’t miss a thing! Sad thing though, on the day we flew home, the temp was going to get to 65 and 70 next week.

(THERE ARE MORE PHOTOS OF THE TRIP ON THE NEXT PAGE!!)