Exploring South Central Kansas

That's what we've been up to lately!  We have driven to a bunch of small towns around Wichita and in Wichita checking out the parks and swimming pools.  We found some cool places, new places to ride our bikes and hang out as a family, without spending a lot of money (except in gas, of course!).  The winners are.... For parks, the award goes to ours right here in Valley!  There were lots of fun places but the one we usually go to in Valley has three different areas to play one for 2-5 year olds, another for 5-7 year olds, and finally an area for 7-12 year olds.  As much as I try to direct Jaxson to the 2-5 year old playground, every single time he makes a bee-line towards the 5-7 year old area.  He loves that playground, lots of tunnels, rock walls, tornado slides and a big splash park which has been wonderful on these hot afternoons.  There is also a big pond stocked with fish which makes for a fun family adventure in the evenings.  For swimming pools, the award goes to Sedgwick, which is between here and Newton, about 5 miles north of where we live.  The pool was built in 2008 and is HUGE, there's also a splash area, and a tornado slide.  And it's only $1.50 for us each to get in, can't beat that!  We went last night to the family swim time from 7:00-9:00 and had so much fun.  We went to the zoo four times in the last seven days, we still love that place.  We get so much out of our zoo membership, Jaxson loves the animals and packing a cooler with treats for our picnics.  There is always something new going on at the zoo, the animal shows, etc. so it always stays interesting and different.  Also, we only spend a couple hours at the most so only get through part of it then we see a different part another day.  Jaxson's favorite right now are the penguins.  He goes between those and the elephants, giraffes, zebras (he calls them zweebras, so stinking cute!), and lions (linons!).  We fed the giraffes yesterday.  Tonight we have swim lessons.  I haven't ran in five days, that's the longest stretch since starting around Christmas, we have just been so busy exploring and Jason's been home on vacation, and Jaxson's bedtime has been later as a result of all of our fun.  I wouldn't trade all our fun though for anything! 

 So many babies at the zoo!  This cute chimp, and there is also a baby orangutan, giraffe, and lion.

Big decision made in our house this week...we put off baby #2 for another year.  I'm sad, it brings me to tears most days, it was a pretty one-sided decision :) but I do see why Jason feels the way he does, it's just hard to let go of wanting them to be closer in age.  And a biggie for me, they have to be born between March-May because it kills me to think of taking a 6 week old newborn to daycare. :( So here we go on the list of "To Do's" before we do!  An addition!  Ashley's working on drawing up our plans, we will hopefully get the contract set for the construction to begin late summer, early fall.  We're more than doubling our square footage to the south.  Adding a family/play room, two bedrooms, an office, and a master suite.  We will for sure never need more space!  Our kitchen and dining room will be as you walk in the front door, fireplace will be moved to the family room in the addition.  Kitchen will be opened up and an island will be added where the current pantry, fridge, couch are located.  Of course the loan amount we are getting will probably only cover the exterior construction and master suite, the rest will be concrete and stud walls we will finish ourselves as we can paycheck by paycheck (may be completed in 10 years, ha!).  But it's what we enjoy doing so it will be a fun family project to work on.  On goes life, another almost 2 years to spoil our one-and-only!  Boy has he been a handful lately, listening is NOT his strongest quality these days! He has lost over half a pound, back under 30 pounds, because he is so very busy.  I cut his hair, even shorter than last time, I used the half-inch guard, it is short but very cute and so much cooler.  He is no longer a "bubba" because he's getting so skinny!  Potty training has regressed slightly.  He insisted on wearing big boy undies to bed and he did great for three weeks and then all of a sudden last week he only woke us up twice to go in the middle of the night, the other nights he had accidents and just kept right on sleeping in it! :S So back to pullups for bed time, I should have known that was too good to be true. :) We started rewarding for dry nights but haven't made it a really big deal since he's still so young.  He's still doing very well during the day and for naps, hasn't had an accident in a very long time.  Next big task will be taking on that thumb he is so very attached to!