Payton spent most of her life avoiding sports of all kind so we are beyond excited that she's interested in sporty things now. Today was another volleyball game and her team did the best we've ever seen and won both games. Here's a quick video of Payton serving.
Afterward, Payton decided to try the rock-climbing wall.
Scaling the "Easy" section...
Then trying the "Medium" section...
Andy's oldest brother, David, and David's wife, Liz, had a baby girl last night. Her name is Althea (hopefully the spelling is right) and she is the 9th grandchild born on Andy's side. #10 is due in May and in April, my brother is expecting a baby so we should have one a month for the next couple of months.
Baby Althea...
I've been online for over 12 years and very much a part of Net culture and knowing what's going on online. We watched a show on VH1 on Friday called "40 Greatest Internet Superstars." I guessed that I would know about half of them and it ended up being exactly half. See how many you recognize.
http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/the_greatest/115766/episode_featured_copy.jhtml
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This movie comes out in May but this trailer just came out. Not sure if you're excited about it but these are huge at our house and in many houses w/older kids. What's not to love about Johnny Depp?
Payton has been asking to get a website for awhile and we finally agreed since it's a site that's very kid friendly. You can visit her site here.
Our neighborhood has had a lot of people moving away recently including the houses on either side of us. On one side, the neighbors have been moved in for several months but on the other side, the house had been for sale for around 9 months or so. That house just recently sold so we have brand new neighbors there.
Two doors down and about 50 feet away is where Hunter, Marcy and Aubry lived for nearly 7 years. The girls have come and gone to each other's homes usually a few times a week and they've had lots and lots of sleepovers. It was fun for Marcy and I too because we would take walks, borrow ingredients to cook with, chat while working in the yard, or just walk over to each other's home when we would go out. But they are building a very nice home about 1/2 hour away and put their house on the market. They were very fortunate to sell it w/in about two weeks so they have now moved out of their home and into a nearby apartment. It's a little odd not to have them there anymore but just Friday, we all went out to eat and Aubry stayed over so it won't stop us from doing things together. Their house construction is coming along nicely and can be seen at Marcy's blog.
Payton's Spring Break was last week and we had some big ideas on what we wanted to do. We ran into some issues because first of all, we sleep too late. Blake routinely wakes up at "eleventy 9" (11:09) or so, I get up shortly after and then Payton gets up around 1 on her days off. That doesn't leave much time to go to places in Dallas or anywhere that requires a drive. Secondly, places are VERY busy during Spring Break and cost extra which kept us from doing some things. Here's what we did manage to do...
Monday - Payton invited a friend over and played DDR. Her friends get mad because Blake is so much better than they are. He practices a lot with us so not a big shock but still embarrassing for them. Payton then went w/her friend to watch her karate class.
Tuesday - Payton attended a Safe Sitter class from 9-3:30 which teaches the safety of babysitting including the Heimlich Maneuver, how to handle various ages of children, etc. She says that she learned a lot during the day and I snapped a couple of pics of the ceremony held at the end of the day.
Wednesday - We went to the mall because Payton wanted to get her hair trimmed (and the salon she goes to is at the mall) and to eat Panda Express. While she did that, Blake led me around the mall and we ended up in the play area for a bit. I realized on the way out that the sign says the maximum height is 42" so he's technically too tall to be in there now.
Thursday - Although we still got up late this day, we decided to go ahead and drive to the Dallas World Aquarium. They had extended hours during Spring Break so we figured we would probably have plenty of time to get through it before it closed. When we arrived, the line to get in the building was wrapped around the block so we stood for about 30 minutes just to be able to buy the ticket.
Payton holding Blake in line (didn't last long as he's gotten pretty heavy)...
Once we got in, it was basically OK but obviously packed. Much like me, Blake's not really into observing animals so it was hard to tour with him. He also isn't a big fan of crowded places, much like Andy. I think he would have done better on an uncrowded day for sure. We did manage to see some neat things and here are some pics.
Friday - I don't even remember what we did for sure during the day but Payton and I went with Marcy and Aubry to eat at Pirahna's for dinner which is always yummy. I just wish it wasn't so expensive!
That's Dance Dance Revolution to the uninitiated. We have spent much of our free time the past 6 weeks playing DDR on our Playstation. When we first started, we thought we'd never be able to advance to some of the tougher levels but we're now up to the 3rd level and doing much better than we ever expected. Our setup before we start to play is that we have to have two box fans running, our ceiling fan on, bottles of water nearby and towels to wipe off the sweat. I never thought it would be so exhausting or so fun but the good news is that I've lost some weight by playing a silly video game! I'm not sure if Andy has but the cardio workout can't hurt.
We still aren't quite as good as this kid but we're close. This kid is 5 and he gets almost perfect scores every time!
On Saturday, March 10, Payton had her second volleyball game of the season w/her new YMCA team. The team they were up against was touted as being very, very good and it is true that they have some girls who serve overhand and some good players. Even though we did lose both matches, the girls did well and it wasn't a blowout. Some pics from the game...
(Payton's team is the dark red color)
Andy has every other Friday off of work as I have mentioned before and it's so nice to be able to do things with him on those days. On Friday, March 9, we went to the duck pond at Trinity Park. Blake loved it and we had lots of fun with the ducks and other birds there. We went equipped w/a loaf of bread, of course, to bribe the birds to get closer to us for some pics!
The train coming by...
The birds fighting over the piece of bread that we threw...
I haven't posted in a couple of weeks so it's time to get caught up! I think I just got into kind of a lazy funk but it's amazing what the time change can do. More light = happier Shannon. So here we go....
