The Dyess Family

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

The Beach-Take 2, Pumpkins & Home!

Yeah!!!! The last of the vacation blogs! (and this one is edited for content. that'll make sense in a few minutes.)

We went to the beach again hoping that Gibson would like it more the second time around. Success!

Somehow we convinced him to sit in the sand...

and he actually let the water get close to him. He had a good time as long as the water didn't go up to high and he wasn't thrilled about the salt taste. :)

Just a view down the beach

Here's where the editing comes in. I've actually got tons of pictures of Jason, Gibson and I playing at the beach but Jason and I think we look like a couple of beached whales. So, to spare you the nausea, you'll only see a few selected pics. :)

Gibson and me striking a pose

He couldn't get away from the water fast enough. :)

Another shot of the beach

Gibson showing off his beach hair

Another beach shot

So glad to be leaving the beach

Later that evening, we went to an all-you-can-eat fried chicken restaurant. It was basically like our all-you-can-eat catfish joints but just with fried chicken. While you were waiting to be seated, you had time to go on a hayride and pumpkin picking. So off we went.
On the hayride

(i also got pics of nana & poppy with gibson on the hayride but nana and poppy are making funny faces (and not on purpose) in all of the pics.)

Going on a pumpkin hunt....

Found one!

See.....actually I found a whole bunch!

Family pic in the Pumpkin Patch (with Gibson in mid-cough)

Next, we went inside and filled our bellies full of fried chicken, corn, mashed potatoes, green beans and last but not least cheesecake! :)

After a long day of playing at the beach and pumpkin picking, we headed home to get things together to fly back home.

Here is a view of something (or should I say someplace) we flew over on the way home.

The flights on the way back home went great and we were thrilled to be back home in Texas! (but can't wait to take another vacation next year!)

Chuck E. Cheese, Helicopters & The Back Yard

Another vacation blog...(I promise I'm getting close to the end.)

We started off the day at Chuck E. Cheese where Gibson rode the roller coaster ride. He wasn't sure what to think about it.

Gibson riding the bicycle ride thing-a-ma-jiggy. (i think that's the technical name for the ride.)

Gibson really liked all the games that Chuck E. Cheese had but he wasn't a big fan of Chuck E. Cheese himself. Oh well!

The slide was a big hit!

Next stop....the air station that was close to base!

Gibson standing in front of the helicopter

Family Picture by the helicopter

Gibson was going through withdrawals at this point from lack of ambulance. :) We couldn't not stop and let him get his own personal tour of the fire truck and ambulance. (somehow i didn't manage to get a picture of him by the ambulance. not sure how that happened.)
This was the highlight of his day!

Posing by the tank!

After a long day of visiting Chuck E. Cheese, helicopters and tanks, we finished the day playing in the yard.

Here's Poppy pulling Gibson around the yard.

Dad taking his turn

Gibson flying by the camera

All smiles!

On a mission

Final stop....the beach, pumpkin picking and home!

Battleships and Heaven on Earth!

Traveling back in time a week or two (or three?) to vacation...

We went to see the USS North Carolina or what Gibson called the "boat". I think we toured nine levels or whatever you call them on a ship. We were all exhausted by the end of the tour. Gibson was a trooper though and only got irritated towards the very end because he was starving. :(

Here's Gibson and Jason with one of the fighter planes that they had on deck.

Can you see the people of the boat taking pictures of us on the ship? (i'm easily amused.)

Jason, Gibson & I beside the big guns on the USS North Carolina

Going down!

Closing the door (it was a little heavy and he could really use some help.)

Gibson steering the ship (and he doesn't even have a license).

This is me trying to convice Gibson to stick his head through the porthole so Jason & Lisa could take a picture!

Finally!

Once we left the battleship (and fed the poor kid), we hunted for this indoor playground that we had found online. We paid $5.95 for Gibson to play at the gigantic playground that was a least the size of a gymnasium. This was the best 6 bucks we have ever spent! And the bestest (hehe!) part was he had the entire thing to himself. He had a ball! He was soooo tired by the time we left! He could barely hold his head up. We definitely got our money's worth at this stop.
(i don't have many pics here because the ones that i do have are really dark and hard to see anything. my brillant photgraphy at work again!) :(

Gibson bouncing in the bounce house! (This was right up his alley!)

Looking very devious!

Confession: Jason and I were more excited about the ball pits than Gibson was. Seriously, when's the last time you found a ball pit to play in? Jason & I had a blast. We had to convice Gibson he had a blast in the ball pit.

Although, Gibson did have a blast climbing up to the very top of the playground but only if mom or dad climbed up with him. (btw, these things are not made for grown-ups. can you tell?)

Next...Chuck E. Cheese and more!

Friday, November 2, 2007

Carving Pumpkins, Animals and Golden Boy Gibson

I'm taking a pause from the vacation blog to post a halloween blog. (at this rate, i'll still be blogging on our vacation at christmas.)

On our vacation, we took a hay ride and picked a pumpkin from a pumpkin patch. We bubble-wrapped it, packed it in our suitcase and brought it home. Silly, huh? Anyways, Jason decided to carve it up. Gibson helped by scooping out the guts.

Here are the results of Jason's carving! Pretty good huh?

I really like this picture for some reason. It screams "Little Boy" to me.

On Saturday last week, we went to the Pumpkin Festival here in Paris. We were waiting in line to ride the ponies and Gibson decided to check out the petting zoo from the outside of the fence. At first, he was just looking...

but eventually he was petting the goats! We cheated $2 from the petting zoo people. Oops!

Finally, we made it to the pony rides (which was entirely too long by the way. a few more trips around in that circle and i would've been sick!)

Gibson holding on tight!

Tuesday was the Harvest Festival at Kiddie Kollege! As you can tell, Gibson was a boxer this year! Jason called him "Golden Boy Gibson".

Gibson was enjoying sticking his fingers in the cupcake at the class party.

One of Gibson's friends made the unfortunate mistake of dressing up as Elmo. So this is a picture of Gibson chasing the poor girl around screaming "Elmo!". Bless her heart! She got poked all day long by Gibson screaming "Elmo!". What can I say? He's a big Elmo fan!

Let's get ready to rumble!!!!!!!

Showing his muscles to Ms. Tammy (sorry I cut off the top of his head. i wasn't prepared for a kodak moment.)

Gibson has been doing really well with the potty training. He'll pee-pee in the potty 8 million times a day but has a hard time with poo-poo. Here he is sporting his race car big boy underwear accessorized with sunglasses (around his waist) and my spatulas. Crazy kid!

This year Trunk or Treat totally stressed me out. (it shouldn't have but i'm a 'tad' over-reactive sometimes. i've decided to seriously take a step back and work on that.) However, we did manage to get a pretty good picture of the four of us. What makes it a good picture is that all four of us are looking AT the camera. Not towards the camera but actually AT the camera. It was a miracle! (just ignore the fact that my eyes are almost closed. i'm really good at that.)