Category Archives: adventure

The Big Sister Bucket List

1 Reply

With less than 4 weeks to go before Baby Sister will be making her appearance, we’ve been trying to squeeze in as much fun as possible lately with a certain 4 year old that is at just the right age to go do ALL! THE! FUN! THINGS!

When I was newly-ish pregnant, we started thinking of things that Rylee would like to do before baby sister was born.

{Now, I’m not the type to become a hermit once this baby is born, but I’m also not the type to go on a Target run or rafting trip with a 3 day old, ya know?}

So, with that, we developed a “Big Sister Bucket List” of sorts.

We started crossing things off our metal list back in April when we hit the beach for the weekend. Then more recently, when Rylee shot her first bow, we hit up her first Em’s Baseball Game {complete with popcorn, a soft pretzel & local ice cream in a batting helmet bowl!} and took her to see her very first movie in a theater {complete with a giant tub of popcorn w/ butter and skittles!}.

 

We’ve been having fun. {and eating a lot!}

Other things on the list include bowling – car camping – kayaking – shooting her gun for the first time. {All per the kid’s request!}

We’ve already got plans in the works for the camping and shooting her gun.

Bowling will be easy.

Now, anyone have a kayak we can borrow?

{Preferably within the next 2 weeks? HA!}

My Own Little Brave

2 Replies

Y’all have heard about the movie Brave, right? About the red headed archer? I just watched the trailer for the first time a few minutes ago. {Seriously, just watching the trailer I got that HELL YEA YOU GO GIRL! feeling.}

Last weekend among the umpteen other things we had on the agenda, we had to make time to take Rylee to shoot her first bow. And by we had to, I mean there was no ifs-ands-or buts about it. And for a very special reason.

I spent nearly 4 years working for one of the largest bow manufacturers in the world. Through my time there I met a lot of amazing people. One of which, being this guy down below, Ray Howell. He founded a 1-on-1 youth mentoring program based out of Minnesota called Kicking Bear. Over the years, Kicking Bear has grown by leaps and bounds and it is truly just an amazing program.

Anyway, even since I’ve left the bow company I’ve stayed in contact with Ray. When he was in town last summer, we had him over for dinner and at that point he said that he would love to teach Rylee how to shoot her first bow. Well I found out on Friday that he was going to be in town for only the weekend, and working an event at Cabela’s. So Saturday, between the k-9 police competition and my cousin’s graduation party we swung into Cabela’s to see Ray and Rylee got to shoot a bow for the very first time.

 The entire rest of the weekend, that was all Rylee could talk about.

Safe to say, I think she’s hooked.

In related news: I think we’re going to be knocking something off of our baby bucket list this weekend and taking Ry to see her very first movie in the theater!

Some of my favorite things!

3 Replies

Father’s Day weekend was a flat-out fantastic weekend. But I’m not here to talk about that.

I’ll get to it later.

And yes, I know it’s unlike me to go out of chronological order, and it’s killing me a little bit, but last night was just too awesome not to share right now.

{and also easier/less time consuming…just being honest here, folks.}

We took Rylee to her first baseball game.

Of course, there’s a lot of you that are probably like…neat, Kat. What’s the big deal here?

Well, here’s the thing. It was probably way.more.awesome. for me than it was for the kid.

Last night had so many of my favorite things wrapped up into one!

First of all, I love-love-LOVE baseball. I grew up going to Em’s games {our local minor league team}. I have such fun memories as a kid going to these games. Andy loves baseball. I love watching him watch a sport he loves. I mean, he’d much rather be playing than watching, but whatever. Then there’s the whole thing that baseball means summer! SUMMER!! Yay! And of course there’s the snacks…locally made ice cream served up in a “batter’s helmet” bowl. Nachos. Pepsi. Popcorn.

Ach, I just love everything about it.

Now throw in the fact that I got to go with my 2 favorite people in the world. And we had some pretty kick-ace seats {thank you Em’s for those awesome tickets!}.

It was a recipe for a great night.

For being 4 years old, and for her very first game, Ry did pretty well. She got antsy a couple of times. During the 4th inning we got up and stood in line for the ice cream and snacks, that helped break things up. Then she was occupied with eating as much popcorn as she could shove in her mouth for the next few innings. At the top of the 7th, she told us she was ready to go. We stayed to watch the Em’s bat one more time then we took off. {It was also about 9:30 PM…way past her bedtime!}

This night at the ball park was just what we needed after a stressful spot after work….the Buick died on me during my drive home last night…twice. {For the record? Figuring out your hazard lights don’t work when you actually need them is less than ideal} Andy had to meet me at my dad’s (about halfway between work and home) and then we had to get home, eat dinner and rush to the game. All the while trying to figure out next steps with this car. Blech. But like I said earlier, more on that later.

Hooray for summer!!!

I’m so H.O.T. it’s not even funny.

4 Replies

It’s true!

I’m totally HOT.

And no, I’m not talking about my looks. Because A) I’d like to think I’m a little bit more humble than that and 2) I’m just not.

I’m talking about H.O.T. AKA: High on Thrifting!

Now, I’m not even sure if this technically counts as thrifting…I’m not up on the official rules and such. But, considering I get completely overwhelmed in Old Navy’s clearance section, I’m gonna go with this.

Baby steps, people…baby steps.

A couple of weeks ago it was super warm out for this time of year and it made me realize that with a baby due at the end of July, homegirl’s gonna need some shorts come summer time. Not to mention I also realized that I had absolutely no Summer clothes for Rylee and ended up making her a pair of cut off jean shorts with a too-short pair of jeans.

And being that I’m cheap and all, I put out a call for help on facebook asking if anyone knew of any local places I could buy second hand maternity clothes.

{This is one of the many reasons I love social media}

I was told about this sale that would be happening soon…a big consignment sale that happens twice a year with all sorts of baby/kid related things…clothes! high chairs! toys! blankets! movies and books! you name it, they likely had it! And yea, even maternity clothes!

I quickly shot a text message to my girl Lindsey to see if she’d like to join me on this adventure, because I know she loves to thrift. We set a date for Saturday…half price day! And she was bringing the Starbucks!

Ok, moral of my story…I seriously scored!

Rylee’s now set for summer clothes…capris, 3 pair of shorts and a couple of tank tops. And I also found some 5T stuff for the fall. That little blazer!? I mean COME.ON. How could I pass that up? Especially considering it was only $2.50!

That little polka-dot top on the bottom left? I snagged that for baby sister. She’s way more than set for clothes, but I just couldn’t resist.

And this isn’t even all of it! I found a pair of maternity capri-slacks and a pair of shorts for me. I also found a Wiggles DVD that we’ll give to Ry for her birthday.

All in all, I got I think 15 pieces for $29!!

I’m hooked, y’all.

Watch out…next I may try the whole mouth breathing technique and brave a Good Will!