37 Down, 13 More to Go

** Warning - Gratuitous Kissing Scene **

While we were first dating, Jaimee and I developed a goal to kiss on the capital steps of every state capital in the US. Many people have boring goals of visiting every state or even visiting the capitals of every state. But we decided to make out goal a little bit more interesting. Olympia, WA was the first capital to recieve the honors. Not sure exactly how it started but we found ourselves making out on the front steps of the Washington State capital building. Silly things that young dating couples do. Well a few weeks later, we found ourselves in Salt Lake at the capital building. Nothing better to do than kiss on the steps, so we did. Several months later in Honolulu, HA, we found ourselves kissing again at the capital building. So, we made the goal and we've been kissing ever since. Well I'm happy to report that last week we crossed off Baton Rouge, LA and Jackson, MS. 37 capitals is 8 years is not bad. In Baton Rouge, Ryan thought that it would be great to take our picture at the capital. So we prepared to take a nice picture with us facing the camera when she informed us that we had to be kissing for the picture. These little kids really do pay attention to everything that is going on, unfortunatly. So this is the picture that my 3 year old took. Sorry about having to see us kiss but I did warn you. So if anyone is planning a trip to Pierre or Bismark, let us know so we can cross off another capital.

Family Friendly Mardi Gras Parades

So we decided to go to New Orleans for vacation since it was the most nausea-friendly place to visit on Kelly's list. I absolutely did not want to go. The place has always seemed like the craphole of crapholes to visit and completely vice ridden. Kelly, as usual, was able to talk me into going. I said I would go if he promised to build my garden when we got home. He was reluctant to go along with the idea and I could see on his face all of the different ways he was trying to weasle out of it, but finally he agreed and off we went. 

On Sunday morning we sent Jac on her way to Utah/California and the rest of us headed downtown for all the sin and glutony we could handle. We pulled up to our hotel and were pleasantly suprised to find it was pretty nice and right on the parade route. 

It took about two hours for the parade to arrive at us after the parade started.  But once it did, it was great.  It was basically an hour of alternating school bands

/dance teams and floats throwing beaded neckalaces and other stuff.  It was really amazing how many beads they threw at us.  We had to protect Ryan's head from all of the beads that came flying at her face.  It was so much fun.

Kelly took all of the loot back to the hotel and grabbed the camera while we waited for the second parade to come by.  This parade was pretty much exactly the same as the first.  Near the beginning of the parade, a nice lady on the float called Ryan and me to come closer to the float.  As we approached she kept calling over Kelly too.  As he came over, she raised the head of a stuffed animal dog for us to see.  Then she raised the whole thing and threw the dog over the side of the float for us.  

They gave us a stuffed dog that is taller than Jac and wider than our whole family. It was so much fun, but then we quickly remembered that we flew here and that there would be no way to get the dog home.  It barely even fit in the trunk of our rental car.  So we bought some bins and tore out the stuffing so that we could take the dog home in pieces.  No for the fun of putting it back together. 

 We also caught hundreds of beads, small plastic cups, other small stuffed animals, frisbees and other stuff.  Who knows what we will do with all of this junk.

Mardi Gras

Ryan's Birthday

Ryan turned three on Monday. We call her our little groundhog. It seems like yesterday that I was counting the days until I had her. Now she is a little chatterbox that is full of energy. We cherish having this little ray of sunshine brighten our days.

Ryan got to have a special lunch with Kelly and I. The lady was nice and brought ice cream and sang happy birthday. Ryan just stared her down while she sang and then smiled and was all excited after the lady left.

When we got home there was a package for Ryan from Grandma and Grandpa Kirkpatrick. Ryan was so excited and kept singing "I love my birthday, I get a present!" It took a while to open, but when she finally got it open, she found a cute little flower hat and some lipstick. Life does not get better than that. To make it even better, the lipstick was Little Mermaid lipstick and Ryan kept singing "under the sea" just those words, the whole time she was opening her present.

After that we got to make her Barbie in a cake dress birthday cake. Ryan's favorite part was licking the bowl and the frosting. The Curlee's were nice enough to let us have a family party at their house. Thank goodness for our adoptive family. They made Ryan's night perfect. She had a blast.