And so it begins...

Anyone who knows us knows that we are all about the off-road sports. It's honestly what drew Jonathan and I close to one another almost 20 years ago and is something we have always done until we had kids. I knew our boat wouldn't be the only motorized sport we did after kids and that the itch for riding would hit Jonathan sooner or later. I was hoping it would be a little later when the kids were older, but it has hit. He has spent the past week going from go-carts to dirt bikes to four wheelers searching for Katelynn's first set of wheels. Now, I know some of you are about to panic. No worries- our little girl is not jumping on this and riding it just yet. If you remember my post from a few days ago, it took her this long to warm up to our tractor and be okay with the noise. She won't get near the four wheeler when it's running , and mommy also isn't a bit comfortable yet with her being on anything gas powered at this point (at least not without one of us on it too). Jonathan will spend plenty of time though working on this in the garage and "spiffing" it up, which I swear is half the fun of riding for him- getting to work on them and make them "cool".

This is Katelynn's new set of wheels. I can't even believe they make a four wheeler this tiny. I was shocked when he showed it to me. I hit the max weight limit on it, but I rode it since I'm the only one who can. It took a push to get me moving since I max it out, but it runs!

This is a bad picture- bad lighting, bad subject, etc but I wanted you to get an idea of how tiny this bike is!
Jonathan also purchased a dirt bike with training wheels this week in addition to the four wheeler. Katelynn will be able to ride the four wheeler way before the dirt bike as it is much bigger, but it's another "project" for Jonathan to work on and it's also something we can ride her around on in a while before she starts riding herself. This four wheeler is so tiny that I think it'll have to sit for quite some time before it gets ridden around the yard since it's too small for us to drive her on it with us. He didn't tell me about the dirt bike though. I walked outside the other day and Katelynn said, "Mommy, Daddy bought me a motorcycle!!" She was all grins and I was about to have a heart attack, but yes, he did buy her a "motorcycle."

Our 2.5 year old growing girl!

It hit me today that my little girl is already past her half-year birthday and I never even noticed it flew by! She is officially 2.5 years old now and way closer to three than I want to think about. Her personality is starting to shine through, and she is so much fun! I think it's truly about time to freeze life right here and enjoy her being younger than 3 years old for a few years! :)

It's looking more like summer!

We have some friends visiting from Georgia and decided to head to a park in Salisbury for the day. We had never been before, and it was a pretty neat park. They had a train ride, paddle boats, a mini-zoo, petting zoo, huge kid's playground, carousel, mini-golf, and more! We didn't even get to do everything because there was so many activities, and it was in the 90's today. We all left the park exhausted from the sun and feeling quite sticky from getting super hot, but we still had a great time!

(I may have some better pictures to post from my friend's camera when I get her pictures. Justin was in a lifejacket on the paddleboat for all of 2 minutes before deciding he was not having it so I didn't get any good pictures with my camera, but I know Jenn has some I can share when I get them from her!)

Katelynn at the petting zoo. Three seconds before I snapped this, there was a goat sticking his head out next to Katelynn. I just wasn't fast enough getting my camera on!

Daddy and Justin- trying to keep Justin from getting too much sun! He's too little to wear sunscreen so it's a challenge!
Katelynn LOVES riding the "horses"!

A New Toy!

We have just started pulling out some of the older baby toys. Today was Justin's first day in the exersaucer. He doesn't totally have the hang of it yet, but he was very interested in looking at the toys! I bet it won't be long before it's his favorite toy!

Overcoming the fear

Katelynn made some MAJOR progress today- MAJOR.. or at least it is around here. Jonathan has been dying to have her ride the lawnmower with him forever and she has been scared to death of it. We have tried time and time again to get her to drive it or get comfortable with it, but she just hasn't warmed up to it. This year she started letting him pull her wagon behind it and had no issues with it then, but yet the minute she wasn't in the comfort of her wagon, she was screaming and crying about it being scary. Just today Jonathan came around from the backyard and Katelynn started running toward me screaming and crying. He shut it off and we started telling her it was just like the "tractors" that are at Home Depot that she always jumps on. We finally got her to get on it without it running and turn the steering wheel. Then gradually we started suggesting she drive it around. It took A LOT of convincing and a compromise of her wearing Jonathan's earmuffs to drown out some of the noise. She also wanted mommy to ride with her at first... I think she knows how crazy Daddy can get at off-roading :). After a few circles around the yard, the girl was hooked! She mowed the entire lawn with Daddy and then kept asking to ride it some more. She went inside the house tonight upset that she didn't get another ride.

Family Dinner

We have a new dinner routine at our house. Justin has started to join us for dinner sitting in his hand-me-down highchair. He looks so teeny-tiny in it, but he loves sitting in it and being part of the table!

Drying the slides

We are still working on completely our swingset in the backyard. The other day I washed the slides off since they were beyond dirty. After getting them soaked, Katelynn dryed them off by cruising down them on a towel. She thought it was the best activity mommy had ever come up with!