We went on a DATE!

This is slightly old news, but Keith & I finally got to go on a date over Memorial Day weekend. It was a last-minute decision, and it worked out great. My sister Deb lives about 10 minutes from a movie theater, and she was willing to babysit on short notice.


Keith & I drove to Schererville with Alex, had dinner (free birthday burger for Keith at Red Robin), then went to Deb's house to feed Alex. After the baby had a full belly, we headed to the theater and saw Prince Caspian.



Honestly, I never once worried about Alex. Wow! I did think about him halfway through the movie, and I knew I'd be glad to have him back in my arms. Aunt Deb was a GREAT babysitter...and Alex was a well-behaved boy, she says. :)



It sure was nice to do something with just Keith & me. It's been a while!


No pics from our date or from the babysitting, but here are some recent random photos:



This is where Alex "rides" when I do laundry. He's usually all smiles for this little ride to the bedroom.
Way up high in Grandpa's arms
Derek held Alex for the first time. He was nervous, but he did just fine! :)
Kyle & Alex at Danny and Ali's wedding (the first wedding/reception for Alex)
Grandma & Alex at Danny and Ali's wedding

Jessica looks so pretty. Or should I say...Jessica Annette Is Purdy ;)

Below, Danny & Ali and the Duncan family

Even the bestest of babies can't always be happy, right? Just a random "I'm crying" picture taken at home on a boring day ;)

Alex's First Trip

Where do I begin? Keith had meetings in St. Louis on Wednesday and Thursday, so he worked from home on Tuesday morning, and then we headed out in the afternoon. Why not take advantage of travelling when it's paid for by US Steel? Gas & mileage, Keith's food, and two nights of hotel were free to us. We had to pay for my food, parking in St. Louis, and the other two nights of hotel stay. Not bad for a 5 day vacation.

Alex's first long car ride went all right. Not great, but good enough. He slept for 2 hours, we took a break to feed him and randomly wandered a Walmart to give him some "awake time", he cried for about 45 minutes when we got back in the car, and then slept the rest of the way.

He did GREAT sleeping in the hotel at night. Yay! I was so worried he'd wake our hotel neighbors, but he was an excellent sleeper!


Alex & I hung out at the hotel while Keith was at work, then we randomly explored St. Louis with a little help from the GPS, visited a cloth diaper store to check out some diapers in person rather than online, and found a Christian bookstore to buy Keith a birthday present. GPS is accurate, but sometimes scary...it doesn't know good neighborhoods/bad neighborhoods. Yikes! Oh well - all's well that ends well!

After Keith finished work on Thursday, we went to St. Louis, walked in the park, visited the Western Expansion museum under the Arch, and had dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. Alex got sleepy at the Spaghetti Factory, but he didn't want to sleep with so much activity around him...so he screamed. As soon as we left the restaurant, he fell asleep on Daddy's shoulder. Most of the city trip was fun; we could have lived without the screaming, but that's life with a baby, right? :)




Daddy's not strangling him, I promise! But this was Alex's less-than-cheerful face in Spaghetti Factory. Here he is after we left:

On Friday, we spent the day at St. Louis Zoo. GREAT day! The animals were fun, the baby was excellent, and the weather was perfect! We couldn't have had a nicer day! :) Alex was fascinated by the animals, and he took short naps in his stroller when he got sleepy.


Daddy took this cool butterfly picture! I love it! (By the way, thanks to Mama, the Butterfly Garden now has one less butterfly...I checked our clothes on the way out, but one little stowaway snuck out in the stroller. Oops!)



These penguins were soooo cool! Penguins are always fun, but these guys were putting on quite the show! They were speed-swimming through the water, then jumping out of the water right in front of us and splashing us. Alex was giggling whenever he got splashed with water.
No need for a zoom lens - this bird landed right in front of us!
After leaving the zoo, we stopped at Mommy's favorite on vacation: SONIC!!!!! Half price slushies during "Happy Hour"...yum! We soooo need a Sonic in NW Indiana!




Can you guess what color Keith's slushy was? LOL! (oops, the picture is a little dark)



Friday was also Keith's birthday...Happy 35th, Keith! Keith made me promise not to get him any gift other than the GPS, so Alex bought Daddy a new CD at Family Bookstore! I narrowed it to two CDs, and Alex picked which one we bought! ;)


We enjoyed the hotel pool on Thursday & Friday night. Alex loved the water. He just kicked back and relaxed in his floaty or in our arms.

Saturday morning was spent at the St. Louis Science Center. That's a pretty cool place...and it's FREE! (So is the zoo, by the way...St. Louis has lots of free stuff to do!) We left at lunchtime, but I think we could have easily spent the whole day there.


You can stand on a bridge over the expressway & use radar to check the speeds of the cars! How cool is that?! I'm cutting the details short so we don't bore everyone, but this was a great first trip with Alex. The next trip is comin' up soon... my niece Danielle's high school graduation party is next weekend in Baraboo, WI. The whole family is staying in a waterpark resort in the Dells for 2 nights. I'm looking forward to it, especially since I know Alex can handle the travel and enjoys the water *Ü*

By the way, Jen Schaap...do you recall this hairdryer? It's at the Holiday Inn in Collinsville, IL. We once used it to reheat pizza on a crazy weekend road trip! Remember that? LOL! What memories! That was 10 years ago...man, times flies! I don't think they've changed anything at that hotel since we were last there! ;)

Off to St. Louis

Not much time to post, just letting everyone know (if you don't already...) that we're going to St. Louis this week. Keith has a business trip, and Alex & I are going along for the ride. We're staying 2 extra days to have a mini-vacation. (Hey, the gas & mileage and two nights of hotel stay are paid for...why not?)

Lots of pics to post when I get home...Oh, and our boy is ROLLING both ways now! :)

Over the River and Through the Woods...

...to Grandmother's House We Go!

After the river and the woods, there's also the expressway & Torrence Avenue...but that doesn't really fit very well into the song lyrics! ;)

Keith went to Canada on a business trip this week. We took advantage of Daddy's time away, and Alex & I spent a few days with Grandma & Grandpa Schurman. He slept amazing well in the pack n' play at their house. Here are a few pics of our adventures at their house.


This is a toy that belonged to Emma. She doesn't really care for it now that she's 9 (can't imagine why...), so it's become Alex's toy. He reached for Goofy every time the carousel goes around. Just Goofy.
Alex & Aunt Donna played together on the floor while we watched the American Idol finale. (Go David Cook!)
Do you like his new bracelet?
Hangin' out with Emma. I promise he was happier than the picture suggests!
I think Grandpa wanted to feed him the whole waffle. He only got away with the Cool Whip...
TWO doggies? Yay! Alex love dogs, and he was thrilled to have two of them running around.

Hey, I have FEET!

Look who discovered his feet *Ü*

(That photo looks like a funny angle, but that's how I was standing when I took the pic.)

Recalculating...

If you own a GPS, you've heard that word more than a few times! ;)

Keith's birthday is coming up soon, and he's been wanting a GPS. Bass Pro Shops had them on sale last weekend. We decided to get one as Keith's b-day/Father's Day gift. (Now he can use his Father's Day gift to navigate us to my Mother's Day Gift. Hee hee!)

When Keith goes on business, he's always trying to navigate his way around a strange city. Well, Pittsburgh isn't strange anymore, but Pittsburgh is tricky! The roads are on different levels. On a map, they appear to connect. In reality, you'll be driving along on one road, and the road you want to turn on is a zillion feet below you! Last time Keith was there, he called me and asked me to look up some directions for him on Mapquest because he couldn't get back to his hotel. Hopefully the GPS will make his next trip a little easier.

Grandma & Papa came along (drove, actually) with us, and after purchasing the GPS, we headed up to New Buffalo, MI to eat at Redemak's. I haven't been there in years. We used to go there in high school. (Uh, did you know that, Mom & Dad? My friends & I would say we were going out for dinner. We did. In Michigan.)

So Alex had his first trip to Michigan...all 60 minutes of it! ;)

By the way, don't try to stop at a grocery store with the GPS still going. All those turns in the parking lot make the GPS lady (Suzy, according to Keith) really angry. ;) "RECALCULATING!!!!!!!"

I'm Not Big Enough...Yet.

Last week Saturday, we went to Donna and Greg's house in Lansing. They were putting a new roof on the house, and Keith was helping. Of course, Alex wasn't big enough to get up there with the guys. He hung out inside with Mama, Grandma, and Emma. (Aunt Donna was at work.)

Here's Daddy...nice angle, huh? HA! That's my dad & Greg's dad in the background.

My friend Sara, who I worked with in Wisconsin, came to visit in the afternoon. I haven't seen her in FOREVER! She tried to visit shortly after Alex was born, but I didn't get the message. So...we finally got together because she was in the area for her sister's college graduation. We'll have to get up there & spend time with her this summer. Road trip for Mama & Alex! :)

The guys were pretty worn out by the end of the day, but the roof was lookin' pretty good!

Here's my nephew Derek...he was closest to the edge of the roof, so I was able to get a better picture. He worked hard! :)

LOTS more posts to come! We've been gone this week & haven't had a chance to update...