Favorite Things

We'll take a quick intermission to mention some of Aiden's favorite things while at Nana and Papa Bob's besides all of the fun activities. He has loved playing in the upstairs game room with all of the really cool games, puzzles, and toys.

But most of all he has loved the cats. If ever he disappears, and we don't hear him, we know that he has headed off to see the cats.

Who may not be as thrilled to see him as he is to see them!

Orr Family Farms

So after a mostly uneventful Monday of flying into OKC (Aiden did great on the flight and enjoyed watching the gears and hydraulics moving the flaps on the wing our window looked out at) and just hanging out a Nana and Papa Bob's we decided to fill our Tuesday with some adventures. Nana, Tay, Aiden and I started the day out at Orr Family Farms. It is a working horse training facility outside of OKC which has also added a family/kid friendly farm activity area. It was very clean, not too crowded, and had a lot of fun things for Aiden to do.


He really enjoyed learning how to milk a cow. Can you see the concentration?

The farm also had a section with some very large jump pillows. They were basically an inflated trampoline which we all enjoyed jumping on, including my cute wife!

There were lots of things for Aiden to ride on at the farm. We opted for the fake horse instead of paying for a pony ride, which turned out to be money well saved because he didn't seem very interested in the horses.

He enjoyed riding the big red truck during his lunch break. You may notice the cheeks puffed full of peanut butter sandwich!

He had a lot of fun on the old fashioned Merry-Go-Round.

But, his favorite was definitely the train ride. You can't beat a Thomas look alike and getting to sit with Mommy and Nana.

The conductor even let him get in and blow the whistle!

We ended the day with the "hay ride" which was really just riding in a trailer being pulled by a big tractor out to the pumpkin patch where we all got to pick out a pumpkin.

I was happy that Aiden chose one that I could carry rather than this one.

We had a great time, and then headed home for the rest of the awesome activities for the day.

Oklahoma Trip

Early on in the summer Nana and Papa Bob called us and asked that we come and visit since it had been too long since they had last seen us (read: Aiden). We had a busy summer planned out, and the thought of long days out in the heat didn't sound that fun, so we postponed the trip to this past week. That turned out to be a great idea, because we have had some great weather, and have really enjoyed ourselves.

We've been in Oklahoma since Monday, and will head home early Saturday. The break from work has been wonderful, and Tay and I have been able to have a couple of date nights while being here. It has also been a lot of fun to see Aiden bond with his grandparents.

Anyways, the next couple of posts will be about our trip and the fun activities we have had.

July 4th!

Well, a month late isn't too bad, right? I am falling behind in my blogging responsibilities. Thankfully, Tay has been able to keep things going for the past couple of months while I have been working so much. Thank you, sweetie.

Anyways, we spent the 4th of July in Granbury with the Sullivans, and we had a great time. We drove up on Thursday, and came back home on Monday the 5th. We filled our time with boating, fishing, bar-b-que, shopping, outings, relaxing, time with family, and while Aiden took naps, I finished off season 3 of Burn Notice. It was a very nice trip. Below are the highlights.

On the 4th we went into downtown Granbury for their Independence Day Parade. It was fun to experience a small town parade again complete with the local high school sport teams and band, all of the local organizations, the police and fire dept, and local veterans. We definitely have much to be grateful for to be Americans. Aiden especially enjoyed that all of the floats and marching participants threw candy. I think that he got close to what he got at Halloween last year.

After the parade, we went and visited a local attraction. We actually met the owner/operator of the Tolar Windmill Farm and Bed and Breakfast at the parade. Luckily, Chuck didn't mind that we were Aggies, and convinced us that we should go. Aiden loves anything mechanical, and he also loves doing anything out in the open where he can run and do whatever he wants, so he definitely had fun running around and exploring this place.

The next day was actually Sunday the 4th, so after church it was time to wait for the big fireworks show over the lake. We had the best seats in town in the Sullivan's back yard, and the waiting was made all the better with the bar-b-que and our own fireworks.

I learned two lessons though. 1) sparkler thermite falling between your toes hurts real bad, and 2) there is only so much flag waiving and sparkler time that can keep Aiden occupied before he gets bored waiting for the fireworks show to begin (can't you tell from the picture below? lol)

In the end, it was a fun trip that we will probably do again next year. Some of the other fun activities were Aiden's first attempt at fishing. He didn't catch anything this time around, but I was heartened to see that he did seem to enjoy this activity. I had a great time staying up until 2 am fishing with Tyler one night, and we actually did catch some.

It is also always fun to see the two cousins hanging out with each other. I think that they were watching Tarzan here.

Lastly, Aiden was enthralled with Aunt Sheena's iPhone. He loved all of the fun little kid games. We are now that much closer to convincing Tay to get one!

It was a great holiday, and I hope that everyone enjoys the pictures.

Cool Birthday Gift

Tay got me a special car rental for a day for my birthday. It was supposed to be one of my dream cars, a BMW M5, but the rental agency's only one was in an accident this past weekend and was unavailable. So, I was upgraded to a Maserati. Sweet!

The little guy enjoyed it too!

I was, however, strangely fine with getting back into the truck. It was a little stressful driving around a car that was worth almost as much as my house.

Revenge Of The Egg

About two years ago Tay had an incident with an egg in our microwave (for the full story read http://shantasilver.blogspot.com/2008/03/tay-story-with-pictures.html ). Ever since then the sensor that told the microwave that the door was closed never quite worked right. For a long while we could push it closed really tight, fool the microwave into thinking that it was closed, and then let it work. As time went on the let it work part didn't. Lately we've had to hold the door closed the entire time. Not too inconvenient when nuking a hot dog for Aiden for 25 seconds, but pretty ridiculous when trying to make baked potatoes.

So, the old one got replaced this weekend, and I am feeling pretty handy for doing it all myself. There were a few moments when I agreed with the directions that said you should do it with two people, but a few choice words and some perseverance, and all is done. I forgot to take a before picture, but here is a during:


And here is the after:

Your Crystal Ball Ain't So Crystal Clear

A Thank You & A Thumbing Of The Nose

Over the past 6 years I have almost daily parked the truck in unmonitored Park & Ride parking lots throughout NE Houston and in random surface lots downtown, sometimes even overnight. On Wednesday morning I had to do a continuing education test, and parked the truck in the Greenspoint area for 3 hours. So, either my luck ran out, or Greenspoint really is that bad. My radio had been stolen when I got back to the truck. This occurred sometime between 7:30 and 10:30 in the morning near a busy street, so it is not like it would have been easy.

However, I must say that whoever pulled this off was a very courteous professional. They left my jacket, bag, and even the pocket change I keep in the cup holder untouched. This being the 2nd time the radio has been stolen, and also considering the other theft incidences with the truck (4 stolen hubcap covers in Dallas, and 1 stolen tail light assembly in Kingwood), I can honestly say I was most impressed by how tidy and undamaged everything was left this time.

Now, having said that, I can say that whoever did this, while having skills, is a real DOLT. Dude, you took an 8 year old radio that only worked about 2/3 of time anyway. You see, the connections on the removable face plate were wearing out, so frequently whenever buttons were pushed nothing would happen. Try fencing that, genius! LOL

I will mostly miss having a clock and the pirated copy of Jay Z's most recent CD that was in the CD player. Which leaves me wondering if this was irony, karma, coincidence....

1940's Christmas Party

Our friends threw a 1940's themed Christmas party on the evening of the 26th, complete with everyone dressed up, 40's music, 40's movie trivia, charades, food, IBC Root Beer. mocktinis, and Cracker Jacks. Tay and I had a great time, and Aiden was received a good report from the babysitter. It was a nice evening.