Buongiorno

Salutations from sunny Palm Springs, California. What a trip I'm having friends! The weather has been great (a bit windy the first couple days, but perfect since then) and we've been having lots of fun in the sun. Papa Steve has been busy with his fancy camera, so we'll have lots of pictures to share with you later. For now, I'll tide you over with some pictures from my camera...

Here I am in my modified capris. Mom and Dad had me dressed for Minnesota weather and we stepped off the plane onto the tarmac to find I was quite overdressed. Mom rolled my pants up to hold me over until she could get me somewhere to change me. I actually had to go change for two reasons. 1) The weather. 2) I got a little airsick during our landing and barfed all over myself and Mom. Oops. It was all over my t-shirt-that's why I have my sweatshirt on.

Notice the footwear-NEW CROCS! My feet have grown too large for the ones I got last summer, so when Mom and Dad saw that the Denver airport had a setup of THREE Croc kiosks and realized we had two hours to kill, well they did what any parents would do: they went shopping. Didn't I pick out some super cute Crocs?!?!




Yesterday morning we went out to breakfast. Grandma helped me stay busy and happy by building cream container towers. She's creative that Grandma!





Grandma and Papa also did some airport shopping. They got me this cute t-shirt when they got here to Palm Springs:



Today I helped Grandma pick grapefruit off the tree in her yard. We got a whole bunch!! Then I got to come inside and share one with her. My favorite part is when Grandma squeezes the rind into my spoon so I can drink the juice. Yummy!

Tonight we went out to dinner at Mom and Dad's favorite restaurant in Palm Springs. It's called Kalura Trattoria and they make absolutely positively fantabulous Italian food. I tried a little of everything and liked it all! And for about the 10th time this week, I ate salad. I just love the stuff! Everybody is very impressed with me when I eat salad.

Papa and I took a break to pose for this picture. (Papa had to take a hiatus from our vacation to go to Minnesota and Wisconsin for some business doings from Tuesday until today and I'm really glad to have him back.)

Well people, it's been another long, busy day here on my vaca, so I better go get some shuteye. Tomorrow is (sniffle sniffle) my last full day here so I'll be busy getting in as much fun as I can.

Arrivederci!
Taylor

Bon Voyage!

I'm so excited I can barely see straight! Tomorrow I get to get on an airplane (some might know that particular vehicle better as an "eem") and fly to Palm Springs, California! If it's anything like I remember from last year, it's going to be superdedupercalifragilisticfun! We've been busy packing this week and still have some work to do. Hopefully we'll be ready when Papa Taxi Driver (that'll be Papa Bob's handle tomorrow) comes at 6:00 AM.

In other news...

Last week I started a new ECFE class. It's called Toddlertime. That's right-I am officially a toddler by my school's standards now. I got to paint and I even got to wear a really silly paint shirt. Mom said it reminded her of when she was a little girl and would have to bring one of Dad's old dress shirts to school for a paint shirt. She says it was part of the functionality of the thing, but I just don't quite understand why Mom put it on my backwards...

Last weekend Mom and I were Hockey Widows while Daddy was away watching the boys high school state hockey tournament. Mom and I got to go out to eat at a bowling alley on Friday with Grandma and Papa and their good friends Rich and Carol Hetland. There was an arcade there that I found to be quite entertaining. I gave everyone quite a scare when I snuck out the restaurant door and ran down there all by myself. All the adults were running around looking for me-Carol even went through the kitchen! But Mommy found me down with all the flashing lights and ringing bells. I was happy as a clam and didn't know quite what all the fuss was. Mom says she hopes I understand someday how dangerous and scary it really was.

After dinner I talked Mom into swinging through the Dairy Queen drive thru for a little frozen treat. Ice cream is the bomb! I had a little trouble with the execution of the project, but I got 'er done...

The next picture is purely for your enjoyment. Daddy caught this super cute moment:

Last Sunday we got to go out to celebrate Aunt Jenni's birthday. We went to Dave and Buster's. Woopeedoopeedoo! More flashing lights and dinging machines!!! I had so much fun I about peed my pants. Wait...I think I did do that...but it's all good-I'm still in the diapers. After we ate, the nice server brought Aunt Jenni a birthday treat. She was nice enough to let me and the cousins eat it. YUM!

When you play games at Dave and Buster's, the machines spit tickets out. If you get enough tickets, you can buy prizes in a store. Since I'm just a little kid that really doesn't know the difference, my tickets got donated to Megan and Nate. The adults also donated all of their tickets to the cause so they got some nice loot out of the deal.

On St. Patrick's Dad we had pork chops that were cooked on the grill. (That's because we had a Spring Weather Sneak Preview this week.) I'm not sure it was a traditional Irish dinner, but it sure was good. In fact, the chops were so good I grabbed Mommy's bone to clean it off:

Well I do suppose I'd better go get some shuteye. That 6:00 AM wake up call is going to come early tomorrow.

I'll try to get some information out to you during my vacation. Take care people!

Monk

Seriously, March Already?!?!

Spring break is just around the corner and I decided to try on my newest new swimsuit the other day. I thought Dad's big ol' leather boots would be the perfect accessory. What d'ya think?!?!



This weekend I got to go see my cousin Nate play his first and only hockey game of the season. (At his level it's more about drills and practice than actual games.) It was lots of fun. He spent a lot of time on the ice-literally, ALL of his body-on the ice. He has a flare for the dramatics. Aunt Jenni says that if the hockey doesn't work out there's always theater or stunt work.

After the game, Grandma Jan and Papa Bob took us all out to breakfast at Jersey's. I had lots of fun being a stinky little terror monster running away from the table. I tried to go upstairs a couple times but Mom kept saying, "Sorry, you're not with the band, you can't go up there."

Here's me cheezin it up for the camera with my cousins.

Short and sweet this week people. Just like me!

Taylor

P.S. I've got a great video to share, but we all know how Blogger feels about my videos. Head over to my flickr site to check it out.

Dog Girl, Pony Tails and the Cookie Store

I would like to begin this post with a disclaimer. My parents have never ever let me eat in the bathroom (though I did try to bring a banana with me to the potty yesterday). Nor have they ever made me eat out of a dish on the floor like a dog.

With that said, here is how my mom found me in the bathroom the other day:

I did it all myself. Found a dish for me and a dish for the dog, and set it all up on the bathroom floor. What can I say? It's a nice bathroom. You'd want to eat in there too.

In big hair news this weekend, I now have enough hair for full pony tails. How cute!!!! Mom was pretty excited and even went all Pageant Mom on my and sprayed me with hairspray.

This weekend we went shopping. A lot. To a lot of furniture stores. (My favorite is HOM where you can eat a cookie if you're a good shopper.) The mission: a big girl bed for yours truly! Our mission was accomplished today on the second trip of the weekend to HOM. (Yep, I got cookies two days in a row. It's shameless!) My captains bed will be arriving some time in April. Mom and Dad would really like to make the transition before that, so they brought home the mattress and I might get to start sleeping on that after our Spring Break trip to California. Should be interesting to see how THAT switch plays out...

Another neat thing about ALL of the furniture stores is the cool trucks they have for kids to drive around in. Mom and Dad wish every store in the world had these since I actually have an attention span for sitting in it.

That's all I've got today folks. Take it easy and keep warm out there!

Tater Bugger