The Mac Kinnon Family

This morning Mac looked at the calendar, saw where my birthday was marked earlier this month and asked me if it was my birthday again today. I politely explained I was not ready for another birthday just yet since I'm not ready to be another year older. He told me he's ready to be 4. I asked him if he remembers when his birthday is, with my help he said January 12th. Then proceeded to tell me when I'm four I will wipe my own bottom. I chuckled, it's humorous the random things he comes up with.

Mac has been asking for a week now to go play miniature golf. We pass by a neat facility regularly which sparked his interest. He is so cute when he wakes up in the morning and asks if he can play miniature golf today. I couldn't resist this morning, with it being John's first day back to work I thought it would be fun for the kids and I to do. It was HOT out but we had fun. Mac doesn't get the concept of the game, but he enjoys trying to hit the ball in the hole. This facility had a pirate theme with lots of cool things to see such as a waterfall and fish in the little creek, which Mac thought was the best. We didn't keep score and I lost my ball around the 9th hole and Mac lost one in the weeds, but fun was had by all. Emily hung out and enjoyed watching us!

John and I have been exploring activities for Mac to do. We wanted to try something new and thought we would see if he was interested in karate (Taekwondo). We observed a class last week and thought it was great. They teach them so much, not only the skill of karate but incorporate respect, discipline and life skills. After the observation Mac was interested but didn't seem too enthusiastic about it. We talked about it and decided he may not be ready for this yet and we would wait as it requires a 6 month commitment. The next day I spoke with one of the instructors and expressed our concerns. He offered to give Mac 2 free personal lessons to see if he got into it. We asked Mac to try it and if he didn't like it he didn't have to do it, it was up to him. The first lesson was Monday, Mac got interested very quickly. About 10 minutes into the lesson he stops and says "Mommy I like it". After class he was so excited about it and wanted to do more. His secon...

After several weeks of eating at Mac's Nemo table we graduated to a real table today. John and I had such a tough time finding the perfect table, while it was a pain in rear to wait, it was worth taking the time to find the right table. We love it, it looks like it was meant to be there! We all ate dinner at the table tonight, it felt so good! Emily loves to not only eat her food but wear it too!

Mac sometimes enjoys making some wierd combos with his food, today was quite gross. He mixed sour cream from his potato in with his applesauce. I asked him not to do it as it wouldn't taste good. He proceeded to mix it, ate a big bite and said Mmmmm....it's good. A few bites later he said it again. Guess kids taste buds aren't tainted yet!

I decided to take a break from all the moving stuff today and took the kids to the park. In my search for parks in the area I came accross one called kid burg, so I figured it would be fun. I was right, it was a great park full of fun stuff from tire swings, zip lines, and huge slides. Mac learned quickly that tires get very HOT in Virginia in the summer. A fun time was had by all!

Amity has been working really hard on getting the house in order.  The corner you see in the pictures is the kids play area.  It was a play area for boxes just a few days ago.  Emily's room is done also thanks to Grandma Jan and Amity's hard work.  We will get pictures of it on the blog tomorrow.  Mac loves having his own area of the living room and Amity read him books in the bean bag tonight before bed.

Mac was a really good boy yesterday with John while they ran errands all day. John let him get a "special" which was some starbursts. John had promised him he could have one after dinner, but he forgot until Mac was already in bed, after he had brushed his teeth. Mac cried and cried that he wanted one, so John told him that he could have 2 tomorrow, this seem to pacify him. Mac woke up this morning and walked into our bedroom and the first words out of his mouth were, I'm going downstairs and going to get two pieces of candy, then I can have one after breakfast. After John and I chuckled we told him he could have his two but no more after that. It's amazing how he never forgets.......... at least what's important to him!

So yesterday we were furniture shopping all day and the kids did really great.  It was about 9 pm as we returned from Richmond, VA that Emily finally started getting fed up.  As Amity was reaching behind her seat to hold Emily's hand and taking a drink of her water at the same time Mac asked for a drink of his milk.  Amity told him that she only had one hand and that he would have to wait a minute.   Some time later Mac asked for his milk again and as Amity handed it to him she said "use both hands" and he quickly replied "I only have one hand available".  

I unpacked a box today of boa's and beads, Emily thought these were the greatest. What a little Diva!

This morning as I was putting away another box of stuff which seems to be endless, Mac was showing Emily how to use one of the baby toys. It was quite sweet to see the two of them playing together. Emily thinks Mac is the cat's meow, I hope it stays this way! Mac also enjoyed a little water play today since we had a heat index of 104 degrees today and yes, LOTS of humidity. I do miss the bay area.......

John and I have been searching for days to find some sort of structure for Harley to have shade when he is out during the day. John was going to build him a house, but then it became complicated. Then we decided to try a "XL Giant dog Igloo, of course Harley didn't go in it. Yesterday during our shopping adventure we found a kids playhouse at Sam's club that we thought would be perfect. John picked it up today and spent 5 hours putting it together, Harley seems to like it! Isn't he living the life, he's got his own house!

Our shopping trip yesterday was fairly successful. We found a couch, 2 recliners and John got the TV today. We struck out on the dining room table, this is how we are dining these days. Emily's got the best seat in the house, only she is allowed to eat with her feet on the table! I bet Rachel never thought we would get so much use out of the Nemo table! THANKS RACH!

Here are a couple "before" pictures. Today we are doing some big shopping and hopefully when the dust settles we have a couch, chairs, kitchen table and flat screen TV. We have a good idea of what we want so it should go smooth. We will put after pictures up when we are done.

Mac's latest thing since we've arrived in Williamsburg is he keeps saying, I want to buy a horse. I asked him where he would keep it, he says, "In the back yard". I don't know why he has started this, but it's very cute. Of course he won't be getting a horse, but I told him maybe a swing set! We are still knee deep in boxes but it's moving along. We are off to look for a couch tomorrow! Hopefully we'll get some new pics up soon.

We have been so busy the past two days we haven't had time to turn on the computer. We received all of our stuff yesterday and it went pretty smooth with the exception of a few dings and scratches and the fact they lost the hardware to put together Mac's bed and Emily's crib, rendering them useless. John was able to rig something for Mac but poor Emily is still stuck in teh Pack and Play until we figure out what to do! It was so nice to sleep in our new house last night. We have alot of work ahead of us but everyone is excited about getting everything together. Off to unpack boxes!

Today we did some painting. The home is painted perfectly, but the room that will be Emily's was dark red and tan, it was great colors for an office but not a baby's room. So we hurried around last night to pick a design for Emily's room so this morning we were able to go to home depot and pick out a paint color. We got 2 coats of primer on it today and we'll finish it. When I say we, I mean primarily John and Jimmy. I started it today, but they came in and took over which was fine, they are more skilled then I am in this area. We'll post some pics once the room is all done. After a long day of household stuff we went back to the camper and cooked a nice dinner, Jimmy and John took the boys to the pool for some R & R, Emily was too exhausted!

We arrived safe and sound in Williamsburg on Saturday. Mac drove with Jim and Jan so we were able to cut a little time from our drive. We left West Virginia at 7:30 am and arrived in Williamsburg at 3:30. We set up the camper at the campground and headed to our new digs. I was so excited to not only see our new home, but for John to see it as well since he has only viewed it from pictures. For this trip we completed it with 4050 miles, whew! John was pleased with the home and we both began quickly assessing what we needed to do before our belongings get delivered on Tuesday. We got to meet the neighbors next door, they are a really nice family with 3 kids, one of which is a little boy Mac's age and a newborn girl, 2 weeks old. It will be a busy couple of days ahead, we are looking forward to getting settled. This journey was good, neither John or I were maxed out and ready to get to Williamsburg, we were excited. The trip was better than we could have imagined and are so th...

Well it was a long day driving for a great reason. We met up with Mom, Jimmy and Brian tonight and the boys went fishing. They caught a bunch of fish and had a great time. Both boys went back to sleep at the hotel and will drive the last day with Jim and Mom. Amity and I will be leaving for Williamsburg early in the morning. Our goal is to be to our new house by 5:00 pm. We should have internet from here on out so stay tuned for further blogs. John

Mac has a new interest, lightning bugs. They weren't around us in California, we started seeing them several days ago, Mac was fascinated by them. He is enjoying catching them, he keeps wanting to keep them in the camper! As it was getting dark while we were walking around Purdue he was trying to catch them.

Yahoo, to our surprise we have internet tonight. We had a good easy morning, we stayed at a nice KOA last night which had a little stream. John and Mac went fishing this morning, Mac was in seventh heaven. We rolled into West Lafayette, Indiana to visit both of our Alma Mater, Purdue. We took the opportunity to shop for some Purdue gear, walk around campus and have a nice dinner. We also were able to find John's brick at Ross Aide Football Stadium. The boys took a silly picture with the brick. We also went by the vet school where I worked and spent many hours! The campus is as beautiful as we remember, with lots of building going on. We both have an itch for more schooling now! Off to meet Jim, Jan and Brian tomorrow in West Virginia. They are driving my car from California, they have seen some pretty cool sights as well! We believe we may have internet tomorrow! We have a long day ahead, 400 miles, we'll see how well we survive!

We changed our itinerary and decided to drive an extra hour yesterday, we drove around 360 miles and ended up in Utica Illinois. We found a campground that has a pool and Internet. We pulled in around 7:30 last evening, John took Mac to the pool right away to help him burn off some energy. Mac had a great time. Both kids are way out of their routines, it's going to be challenging when we get settled into our new house and try to get them back into a routine! Yesterday as we were driving across Iowa we noticed every rest stop had a full array of vending machines and wireless Internet access. Who would have thunk that wireless Internet would one day be available at rest stops (Iowa has been the only state so far we've seen this). It's scary and exciting to think where we'll be in 10 years! Were off to Lafayette Indiana to visit Purdue next. Were not sure if we'll have Internet or not, it may be Saturday night or Sunday before our next blog! We are getting exci...

While camping along the Missouri River Mac and I decided to throw a line in the water. He has been itching to go fishing since our stay in Yellowstone. I grabbed the only tackle I had which was a couple lures and one bobber and hook. Since we had no bait I grabbed a slice of cheese from the camper and we were off. Mac is funny, he will cast out and just sit down. When asked what he is doing he says "waiting for the fish to eat". If he gets no bites he says "the fish must be playing". This was confirmed by all the fish jumping in the river. It only took a minute and the bobber disappeared . It must have been a big old catfish because it grabbed that cheese and headed for deep water. After a few seconds the line broke and when it did the bobber came floating up and was no long attached to anything. Mac was pretty shaken by the whole thing and said "get the bobber Daddy". I was not about to jump into the Missouri River for a bobber even if it was our l...