A Baby Pilot

Friday night, we went over to Learjet and got to test out one of their flight simulators.

It was really cool! I just expected an amped up video game or something, but it was literally like we were inside an airplane, and what we could see out the windshield was so realistic!

Here's the outside of the simulator.

When we got inside, it was like we were sitting on a runway at the Wichita airport. I guess the simulator uses GoogleMaps to show realistic landscapes of wherever you want to "fly." I asked if we could go to Hawaii. :)

It was around Sutton's bedtime, so even though he looks happy in these photos, don't let him fool you.

Besides the cockpit, there were only three actual seats. But it sounded like a pressurized cabin the whole time. The motion feature wasn't working, but that's probably a good thing because Adam was doing loops and barrel rolls while I was wrangling a whiny baby.

Our baby pilot.

Adam flew us around Honolulu, Hawaii! It was really cool to see all the mountains and ocean...totally felt like we were really there.

In this photo, you can kinda see the island.

Aaaaand after this picture, it was time for bed. :)

Happy News

A non-Sutton, non-dog post, can you believe it?

My good friend Natalie got engaged last week! Hip hip hooray!

Natalie and Rachael (from KC) worked together when we all lived in Manhattan and went to K-State about 8 years ago (gasp). I met Natalie through Rachael, and we've all been great friends ever since. We don't see each other nearly as often as we should, but she's one of those friends with whom you just pick up where you left off.

Natalie's fiance Steve is moving up to Michigan next week for school, so we had to hurry and do a quick engagement session last night. Look for their full post on my photo blog, but in the mean time here's a fun photo of us during the humid, tick-filled shoot. :)

And we got to see a group of baby ducklings, their parents, and a bunch of turtles hanging out in the pond, eating bread that people were feeding them. So fun! There were dozens of turtle heads poking out of the water and about 8 baby ducks.

Missing Axl

Today would've been Axl's 5th birthday. We miss him so much around here.

Running

We've recently gotten into running.

By "we" I mean Sutton and I.

Because Adam's been doing it for awhile now. He's training for a half Ironman triathlon in October.

Crazy? I think so.

The other day, he just went out and ran 12 miles. 12 MILES!

I'm starting from scratch. Minus a month of 10-Minute Trainer workout videos that I did in March, I haven't done much exercising since baby boy came along. With his 1 year birthday coming up (sob), it's time for me to be done with the baby body.

Adam found a jogging stroller for $50 on Craigslist. A great deal, as they can be pretty pricey. The combo of the jogging stroller and this book Adam read and described to me in great detail called Born to Run (which I've started reading, very interesting), I've become convinced that I need to learn to love running.

I've always hated running.

But Adam tells me to learn to love the pain and what it's doing for my body.

So I'm trying. Doing okay so far.

This morning, Sutton and I went for a little jog. I think he likes the new stroller.

Notice how he's always holding trash of some sort? Weird kid.

It was pretty chilly when we got out there, so we came back in and bundled up.

We've also made an effort to start being a lot healthier with our eating. It's hard. Food is my downfall. I LOVE sweets and pop. But if I know I have to run in the evening, it helps me to stay on track with what I eat during the day because my run will be easier without all the crap in my body.

And here's a running plan I found...I'm not following it really, but if the method I'm using doesn't work, I may try this.

So now that I've put it out there in internet-land, I have to stick to it, right?

Camping...Kinda

We can't really count this as Sutton's first camping trip because we didn't end up spending the night in a tent. We'd planned to...but when Saturday rolled around and the temps only got into the low 60s, we decided it was just too cold for the baby. Only in Kansas can you have 101* one day, and in the same week, you have to wear layers and hats in the mid afternoon!

Scott lives out in the country and he has a pond that we've had lots of campfires at. Since this was my one weekend off til mid-June, we decided we should spend the day camping. So we loaded up in the afternoon and headed out.

Adam and Scott wanted to shoot Adam's guns right when we got there, so Sutton and I decided to have a little photo shoot. 

My empty sandwich container was keeping him quite happy.

There was a tractor out there, so Sutton spent some time sitting in the wheel.

Then he discovered dirt. He doesn't often sit in the grass/dirt without a blanket, so this was new and fun.

Then Adam stole my camera because he wanted to try to capture their targets in mid-explosion. This is a Mountain Dew bottle.

Scott shooting a watermelon.

Back to the interesting photos. Look at this cutie sitting in the tractor. He thought he was so big.

Who's that guy?

Oh, hi.

After target practice, Scott got to cooking. He's great in the kitchen, and on a campfire. Our appetizer was campfire queso.

Then the boys did a little fishin.

Sutton thought the fish was so cool. He kept sticking his fingers in its mouth. GROSS.

Then he played with some clay pigeons.

And chilled by the fire.

For dessert, Scott found this fun idea. We hollowed out oranges, put a refridgerated cinnamon roll in the orange peel, wrapped the whole thing in foil, and threw them in the fire.

While those were cooking, we ate our main course, campfire stew. SO GOOD. It had pretty much everything in it: ground beef, corn, potatoes, kale, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, garlic, jalapenos, beans and more.

This was one of our cinnamon rolls. Wasn't quite done, so we threw it back in the fire for awhile. They were yummy.

Hopefully we'll find a time this summer to actually camp and sleep outside. We want Sutton to love playing and being outdoors, gotta start 'em young!