Vernon Volumes text

Vernon Volumes text

Friday, April 29, 2011

The fort/cave



Daddy always loved making forts out of couch cushions and the other day while playing with Connor we decided to make a fort. Connor loved going inside and shutting the door. It was just the right size for him to sit up straight and peek out through the peep-hole. Daddy was pretty crunched. Somewhere along the line Connor decided that it was a cave and we were bears and that was pretty fun until we bumped the cushions the wrong way and it all caved in.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Pro shots are online!



On 4/20/2011 we went to Moments and Memories to have Connor's 4 year shots, Paige's 1 year shots and our family pictures done. As usual, the session went great and our kids did a great job. The photos are online at the link below, the password is vernon

http://jfrechin.photobiz.com/cart/event_login.cfm?eventID=712549

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Mr. and Mrs. Michael Sutanto


Andrea's cousin, Lindsey, got married yesterday at the Hobbs Building in the West Bottoms area of KC. It was great to get together with the Herrick family and there were a total of 35 of us. It's a big group when we all get together.

We were all dressed up so got a few pictures together!







The Rudolph boys were looking snazzy.


Alli was definitely the best dancer and she showed Paigie Pie some of her best moves.


Drew tried to dance with her as well.


Both kids got some good dancing lessons from family.



Alli requested the "Cupid Shuffle" and everyone had fun dancing along. Amanda carried Connor's 35 pounds throughout the dance and Connor liked it a lot.

We watched the video the next morning as we were uploading it to Youtube, and Connor kept looking for himself in the video. Later, we heard him singing the song along with his interpretation of the lyrics. "Bok bok sillypants, sillypants"



The kids were super tired by the end of the evening. Uncle Ryan snuggled little Mama and she fell asleep.

Connor was really interested in the dancing, but wanted to be held the entire night and didn't want to dance much on his own. Eventually Grandpa Garry held him and he fell asleep.


Andrea managed to catch a quick picture with the new bride before the end of the night.


Congrats Michael and Lindsey!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Paige's Pretty Pink Princess Cozy Coupe



Great Grandma and Great Grandpa got Paige a cute cozy coupe car for her birthday. Although her birthday's not for another week, we thought she'd enjoy playing with just this new toy for a while. Since it's still yucky outside and since the car is new and clean, we set it up inside for now and she and Connor have really enjoyed playing with it.

Connor likes to push little sister.




Paige loved working on the door and practicing getting in and out. She probably did it 20-30 times. Just would crawl in, close the door, open the door, climb out, close the door, open the door, crawl in, etc.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Happy birthday Andrea!


Mommy's birthday is today and Connor was wondering where her party was. Mommy explained that when you get older you don't end up making as big of a deal about your birthday as when you're little. I think Connor was disappointed we didn't have a big party and lots of cake. We did get her some pretty flowers, Connor made her a card with her picture and the word "MOM", and we got her a dozen chocolate strawberries.

Connor and Daddy just sang Mommy "Happy Birthday" and we're winding down the day. Hopefully Mommy had a nice birthday this year! We love you!!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

April birthdays in Odessa



We went to Odessa today to celebrate Andrea's and Garry's birthdays for April. Grandma Genie fixed a feast as usual. We've always loved the lasagna and Connor tried it and loved it too, he had two helpings.

After lunch, we hid Easter eggs and the kids hunted them down. Grandma Genie also helped all the kids paint and decorate a bunch of real eggs, it was Connor's first time doing it and he made one for everyone in his family.



Hunting for Easter eggs.






Great times, thanks Grandma Genie!

Allison and Paige in the bath


Allison and Drew stayed over last night and Allison decided she wanted to play in the tub with Paige. Neither really needed a bath, it was just a good excuse to play in the water.

Logan's birthday party at Worlds of Fun



Saturday was Logan's birthday party and Connor went with his buddy to celebrate. They ate pizza beforehand and then went to Worlds of Fun for opening day. Rachel (Logan's mom) took a number of pictures of the kids on the rides and said that they had a lot of fun. Connor stayed up very late and was exhausted when he came home. He had a great time and from all accounts was a good listener and a good buddy.






Thanks Rachel and Happy Birthday Logan!

Daddy's half marathon


I ran in the Olathe half marathon, sponsored by Garmin, yesterday. It was at the Garmin world headquarters and was in a pretty nice area and was fairly flat. The weather was unfortunately uncooperative. It was about 37 degrees when the race started and the winds were 20mph and gusting to 35mph. Not ideal by any stretch of the imagination. By the end of the race, I literally could not feel my hands. I had to look closely at them while I was trying to pry open a cup of yogurt to make sure I had my fingernails in the right place.

The race went well, and I enjoyed the race atmosphere and all the structure of the run. I completed the race in approximately 1 hour 55 minutes. Quite a bit faster than I normally run, definitely faster than I'd run a full marathon. (official time: 1:54:47)

I'd like to do a full marathon sometime this year, so it was a good opportunity to figure out how everything works and make sure I'm prepared for future races. I made a few mistakes on the race and learned more than I'd expected. I figured it wouldn't be much different from a normal day I go out and do a long run, but there were a lot of little things I learned from the race.

1) Bring gloves and a hat for cold days
2) Bring my own Goo. I didn't think it'd be necessary at all for a 13.1 mile run, but at the halfway point they handed some out and I wish I'd had more.
3) Eat the Goo before drinking water/Gatorade. I drank my cup of Gatorade, then as I was running I ate the Goo, which subsequently dried my mouth out. My mouth tasted horrible and I was thirsty for the next mile or so until the next water station.
4) Bring bandaids. I taped my nipples beforehand, but almost forgot, so it'd be great to make sure I've got spare bandaids. (FYI - on a long run the friction of your shirt on your chest will cause nipple bleeding)
5) Don't cut your hand. I somehow managed to cut my hand right before the race. It wasn't a bad cut or deep or anything, but apparently when you're constantly swinging your arm it pumps a lot of blood in to your hands and my cut did not stop bleeding the entire race. Kind of disgusting. Another reason why a couple extra bandaids wouldn't be bad to have on hand.

I didn't get any pictures during the race, but did see that there were some photographers out taking pics. The pic at the beginning of the post is the photo I ordered.

A quick pic of the hand after the race. Most of the blood dripped off, but it was still a disgusting mess.

Paige on the steps and walking


Paige really wants to explore the house lately and if we don't block off the steps she's almost certainly going to try and climb them. You have to watch her really closely. We let her practice sometimes, and she actually climbs them pretty well unless she gets distracted. She gets in trouble on the steps when she decides to turn around.

Paige gets up the steps in this video with a little help from big brother.


She's also really walking on her own now. She can push herself to her feet from a sitting position without having to grab on to anything and she'll take up to five or six steps on her own.

Getting ready!


Very determined face.


Paige walks in this video. It's also neat to see her squat down and then stand back up without grabbing on to anything.


Paige's reward!!

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Western Missouri Soccer League



Connor had his second practice with the Western Missouri Soccer League group last night. The first was last week and Grandma Genie took him, so it was the first time we all went together.

The practice area is pretty huge and the little kids have their own mini sized soccer field to practice on. He's not participating in any actual games yet, they're still doing drills and play based practice.

Overall, we didn't think it was nearly as well run as his indoor Dynomites soccer, but Connor was a great listener and did well.

For next week, we realized we need to get him some tall socks or something to go over the shin guards. We aren't too familiar with soccer and didn't realize that was necessary.




The kids doing a game where they chase each other and grab the jerseys.


Paige came too to cheer big brother on. She was fine in the stroller for a while, but eventually decided she wanted to get out.



She was an absolute mess within a few minutes. She decided that the grass, and especially the yellow dandelions, looked delicious and was trying to stuff everything in her mouth. Andrea thought to plug her mouth with a pacifier, which kept everything out of her mouth, however she still had a "Pavlov's dog" reaction to the grass and was drooling like crazy as she played with it. She also had a runny nose from her allergies. All this combined to make a terrifyingly messy baby.


Connor had a good time for the most part. We're looking forwards to taking him to more soccer practices this year!

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Western Caribbean Cruise with the Vernons



This past week, Andrea and I went on a cruise with the Vernon extended family. We sailed on the Carnival Legend out of Tampa and went on a 7 night Western Caribbean cruise to Grand Cayman, Cozumel Mexico, Belize and Isla Roatan Honduras. We enjoyed spending time with everyone and the cruise gave us a great opportunity to reconnect, relax and recharge for the year.

Hanging out on the boat.


Us at dinner.


Alex and his girlfriend Laura.


Alice and Rick.

Abby and Chris.

At Grand Cayman everyone else went to see the stingrays, which we'd done before, so we just went to Tiki beach and relaxed. We ate chicken quesadillas and drank a few Miami Vices.


At Cozumel, Shawn's parents went with us to try SNUBA.

We sat through a fairly detailed and intimidating orientation class and then got in the shallow water to try on all the gear. It was a little overwhelming. SNUBA is essentially like SCUBA, however instead of wearing the air tanks they are floating on the surface in little boats. The air tubes are super long and you just pull the little boat along as you go.


Here we are about 10 to 15 feet down. It was surprising how fast the water pressure went up as you went down. Every 2 feet or so, you'd have to hold your nose and blow hard to equalize the pressure in your ears. Andrea actually didn't have much trouble at all with the ear pressure, but Shawn struggled as we got down past 15 feet. Our guide told us that we went down 21 feet at the deepest. Andrea was likely a bit nervous about losing the respirator and was chomping down on it hard. Her jaw hurt for days.

Our guide Ivan was very helpful and pointed out all kinds of cool things underwater.
After our adventure we enjoyed some guacamole, nacho chips and Miami Vices!

At Belize, we didn't get off the boat. We'd been there recently and weren't interested in cave tubing again, which is what everyone else did. We stayed on the boat, worked out, and relaxed.

At Isla Roatan we rode the "Magic Beach Chair" from the pier to a nearby beach and had a great time playing in the ocean a few hours. We wish this stop had been a longer one.