Pumpkin Hunt

This weekend Travis and I thought it would be fun to take Braeden out on a pumpkin hunt. We had originally planned to go to Young's Dairy Farm to find the perfect pumpkin. Luckily Friday night we decided to check out what time they would close only to find out that they stopped allowing pumpkin hunting on Oct. 14th. Dang it! We checked out a couple of other places online and finally decided to make the journey out to Brumbaugh Fruit Farm.

Here is a picture of my two little monsters at the farm.

The boys favorite part of the trip was to go down the giant slide. I think they went down about 40 times.

See how much fun they are having. They were both too afraid to do it by themselves so Braeden sat on Travis's lap.

Braeden finally decided that Travis was ready to go down by himself. Braeden came down first to show Travis that it was ok.

"See Travis, I told you it wasn't scary!"

After going down the slide the boys raced off to the corn maze leaving me in the dust.

I finally caught up with them and Braeden did hold still long enough to snap a quick picture with me.

After successfully completing the corn maze we hopped aboard the hay ride and headed back toward the front of the farm.

"Who's ready for a hay fight?"

"I'm gonna get ya!"

"Take that!"

The winner is...Braeden!!!!

As you may have noticed there are not any pictures of a pumpkin hunt. That is because there was not a single pumpkin left in the fields to pick. They did have a couple when you first came up to the farm but they were like ten bucks. Are ya kidding me? We will just pumpkin hunt in the Meijer produce department. Although we left without a pumpkin the boys did have an excellent time.

Birthday Boy

Here he is.....the birthday boy!

Thursday Oct. 16th was my little honey bunches of oats 32nd birthday. I know I should have posted something that day to inform everyone that it was a super special day but I was busy getting everything together for his birthday supper. By getting everything together I mean getting my hair done, making dinner, making cupcakes and doing the dishes about 20 times that night. Last night we got together at his sister's house to have another little birthday celebration. We started off with some pimp chips and dip as prepared by Travis's brother-in-law Bobby. As you can tell it was a hit with both Big and Little Travis.

Even the little ones were chowing down on the chips.

After chips and dip we had an enchilada dinner which was AWESOME as well. The cake followed shortly thereafter. Braeden thought that Travis might need some help with the tea lights so he was happy to lend a helping hand.

By the end of the night we were basically stuffed and Braeden was refusing to leave so I think all in all it was a good night. The birthday boy made out pretty well in the gift department so hopefully turning another year older wasn't too much of a downer. So I will say once again...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETIE!

Skin Cancer

In July while in for a check up with my doctor I pointed out that it seemed a mole on my leg had changed in color a little and wanted to know if I should be concerned. My doctor said that the area looked a little dry but because of the size of it she wanted to send me to a plastic surgeon to have it removed. My first appointment was on Aug. 29th where Dr. Chami went over the size and color with me and advised me that he would remove it because it had been increasing in size. About a week later I was in the office having the mole removed and chillin' on my behind while my darling Travis took care of me. That surgery had been on Tuesday Sept. 9th and on Friday of that week I received a call from Dr. Chami's office asking me to come in. I knew that it wasn't a good sign if he was calling me in soooo soon after the surgery since I already had a followup appointment for two weeks later. Travis met me at the doctor's office where I was told that the mole that was removed was a malignant melanoma. The good news was that we caught it very early in the first stage and the area around the mole was cleared. Although it seems that they got it all with the first surgery I would have to go back in to have more of the area removed to be safe, taking all tissue and fat down to the muscle. Surgery was scheduled for Oct. 9th and everything went very well. I have had a lot more pain with this surgery but Travis has been a huge help taking care of my every need. I was also lucky to be able to have people to watch Braeden while I am recovering. He went to Grandma Taylor's house on Wednesday night and Donna picked him up Thursday and will keep him until Sunday. I am feeling a lot better today and hopefully all will be well with the tissue that was removed and I will be done with all these surgeries. Here are some of the pictures from my cancer removal journey.

The mole that needed to be removed. I know my leg is blindingly white but I never wear shorts. I feel that if you have legs this white it is your responsibility to prevent blindness of others by wearing pants.

This is the scar and bruise after my first surgery.

Here is the same scar after the stitches were removed.

Here is the aftermath of the most recent surgery. I thought my leg would have a large dent in it but it really isn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Obama National Anthem

Now that is funny stuff!

Our Trip To The Wilds

Back in August we went on a little trip to Cumberland, Ohio to take in all the wonders that THE WILDS has to offer. I had never been before and thought that it would be pretty sweet riding around watching the animals as they roam around as they please. The first part of the trip takes you around and basically explains what they do and how they came about. (I am not going to get into all that because I have a million other things to post about.) In the first section we were able to see a few different animals but the ones we were able to get closest to were the giraffes and Przewalski wild horses.

Just after we saw those animals the bus stops and allows to to walk down to a dock. While at the dock we were able to feed these CRAZY catfish. Braeden absolutely loved it.

Here are those catfish going nuts over the food we were tossing to them.

As you can see from the picture below the animals can get very close to the buses that drive by. The down side of this is that there is a chance that you could pay to check these animals out but may never get to see them.

Once the giraffe finally decided to let our bus pass we were taken down the road to the wetlands section of the park. There really weren't any animals to check out but there were a million different plants.

After walking around at the wetlands Braeden took a short rest and then, since we had plenty of time before our bus came, decided to mess around with Travis.

"HAHA I caught you Travis!"

He can't stop laughing.

Do you think he is having a good time?

After the wetlands it is off to the mid-sized carnivore conservation center where we were able to see the African wild dogs and cheetahs. Here is a picture of Braeden with his serious face on in front of the wild dogs.

They also had a snack bar at this point of the trip where Braeden was able to flirt with one of the girls who works there.

On our way out of the mid-sized carnivore center Braeden had to hide behind a sign because the cheetah was thinking he may be a good afternoon snack. Actually he is hiding just to be silly but the cheetah was keeping a good eye on him as we walked back to the bus.

The trip ended with the animals of the grasslands. Here the animals were trying to hide out so the pictures were taken from pretty far away but because of our awesome camera still came out sweet.

Here are the Scimitar-horned oryx.

The southern white rhino refused to come close for a picture.

The zebra did sneak up to check us out but didn't want to get too close either.

Braeden was beat by the end of the trip and passed out on my lap while on the bus. Hopefully next time he will be able to fight off the sleep monster until the ride home.

Fall School Pictures

Travis And Braeden Playing Around

About a month ago Travis took Braeden out to see some old World War II airplanes. The planes were flown into the Dayton Wright Brothers Airport for people to tour and if you wanted to pay a pretty penny you could take a ride. Braeden had a blast going through the airplanes as Travis tried to navigate through with a camcorder in one hand and the Nikon around his neck. Here are a few of the pictures from their outing.

B-17 Bomber

B-24 Bomber

Braeden walking through the bomb bay of the B-24.

Braeden chillin' next to the B-24.

Time to check out the other plane.

Climbing through the B-17.

Hang on tight Braeden!

B-17 nose art.

Braeden the radio operator.

Braeden is "smiling" next to the P-51 Mustang.

Where's Braeden? Can you find him?

Braeden felt that the wheels needed a little help holding the plane up.

That is one OLD car!

Braeden and the 1911 Wright Flyer.