Surviving the Love Chariot and now a Big Boy Bed!

So I survived the camping trip after all! The Love Chariot wasn't actually all that bad! It's sort of a long story as to why we decided to give this lovely camper it's name.... really, it's not that complicated....you just have to see it and you'll understand why! It's a beauty! It's lovely appearance aside, it did it's job, in that it gave me a private place to pee, a warm shower at night and a comfortable place to sleep! Grayson had a blast hanging out with his cousins and exploring all there is that nature has to offer! We had some great meals at Buddy's camp, did a little fishing, saw some deer, elk and wild turkey's and just had fun relaxing and soaking in the 70-80 degree weather!


So this is our camp and the "love chariot!"

Cousins Reagan and Lauren with Blaine and Grayson out fishing!

I caught a picture of a butterfly!

Grayson followed his four year old cousin Reagan around everywhere! They spoke the same language! It was too cute!

Chasers!!

Playing ball with Daddy!

So after 11 hours in the car on the way home and 7 loads of laundry later though, I was more than ready to say goodbye to our vacationing and SO HAPPY to have a normal shower and sleep in my own bed!

And speaking of beds, we are now on our 4th night in a row of putting Grayson to bed in his new room. Yes, he is officially out of the crib now and sleeping in his "big boy bed!" Although he loves his new room and his new bed, it hasn't been the easiest transition. We now have to deal with a "toddler on the loose" when he wakes at night, and putting him down for bed & naps has gone from a pretty simple routine 20 minutes to taking at least an hour or more now. After reading him a few books, we pretty much have to lay in there next to his bed and rub his back until he falls asleep. Sounds so easy, but when dealing with a restless, tossing, turning, kicking two year old, it often takes what seems like forever to wind him down! We recently put a baby gate up in his doorway, which keeps him from running into our room all the time, so now he just stands there and says, "mommy, come out now?" until I get out of bed to him to put him back down. All in all, I'd say it's going pretty well though, as he seems to have already forgotten about his crib and his old room.

Here are a couple videos shot last night of Grayson getting ready for bed. I had to cut them into two videos to make them short enough to upload them onto the blog.

Hope everyone is doing well and having a great week!

SUMMER VACATIONS!

So it’s a little after 4am and we are now on our way to the White Mountains for our camping trip. We left the house at 2am so that Grayson would hopefully sleep for maybe ½ the trip, but so far he’s been awake on and off. It’s going to be a LONG drive! We just got back late Saturday from our vacation to Laguna and Washington. We both worked Monday & Tuesday and are off again now until Sunday to spend some time up in he mountains. While I look forward to the scenery and cooler weather, I’m a little hesitant about the whole “camping” thing, especially with a two year old. Ok, granted, we are staying in a camper trailer that has a toilet and water, but it’s still camping to me!!

We had an awesome time in Washington visiting my Aunt Lizzie and her family. I will post some pictures from the trip below. The weather was awesome and the country was beautiful. We got to take a day trip up to Mt. St. Helen, which was an incredible site. We also made a trip out to the Oregon coast and enjoyed a great lunch and shopping at a farmer’s market in a cute little town called Astoria. Grayson got to ride one of their family horses and had a blast playing with Page & John. Blaine also took a trail ride with Lizzie & Paige and did a little fishing with Mike. We had a wonderful time and thank the Hause family for all their hospitality!

Paige showing Grayson around!

Mount St. Helen in the background.

Travel buddies!

Little cowboy!

Grayson meeting his Aunt Lizzie!

John turns 8!! Happy Birthday!

Laguna was relaxing and fun as always, although we missed having the McBurgorris’! We spent some time at the beach, took the ferry over to Newport for an evening and also took Grayson to Knott’s Berry Farm for the 1st time! We wavered on taking him, being that he isn’t even 2 yet, but we were so glad we did. He was actually tall enough to ride most of the rides (“all by self!”) in the Camp Snoopy area. I thought for sure he’d be too timid or scared to go on his own, but he was all over it! His expressions on some of the rides were just priceless. He sort of had this drunken (“I think I might throw up!”) smiley grin on his face on a few of them; although, thankfully he never got sick. I think he may be a little like his mama after all, in terms of loving roller coasters and any thrill ride! He loved Snoopy and really enjoyed watching the cowboys in the gun show. Of course, he had a few small meltdowns, but all in all, I was really impressed with how well he did, especially being that we were there from the time it opened until about 7:30.

Too much fun on the Merry Go Round in Newport!

On the ferry ride to Newport.

Giving Snoopy loves!

Driving his very own "BIG TRUCK!"

This is that "drunkn' smurk face!"



Below are just a few random pictures taken earlier in July.

Grayson can hate me for this one later, but I thought it was too cute!

Sportn' a mohawk!

First time bowling! They actually had shoes in his size! Too cute!

Future baseball player/ fashionista!!!

So now we’re off to enjoy the last of our vacation time and then back to reality next week! And then in only a few weeks, our little monkey will be turning two!! Hope everyone is doing well!

Summer is flying by!

Just a few updates here. For starters, Ramsey Morris has officially caved in and joined the Facebook world, or as Kim put it.... "the Dark Side!" So now, I not only have this blog to keep up with, but I have to keep up with what all "my friends" are doing in the facebook world as well!! Balancing that with work, keeping up with all the cooking and cleaning & then taking care of a crazy 2 year old, I don't know how I'm going to manage! I mean, how do you guys do it?! All kidding aside, I am glad I joined and it will be yet another fun way to stay in touch friends, family and even some people that I haven't talked to in years.

So below are some pictures from the past few weekends. We had a wonderful 4th of July in Laguna. My mom & Sandi hosted the 1st Annual "Handerson/Hollenmorrisbach Family Reunion!" A little longer and harder to say than the McBurgorris, right?! Great food, fun and beach time was had by all.

Sharing a moment with his Aunt Kimmie!

Breaking poor Papa's back!


Playing football with Uncle Ryan

Last weekend, Blaine's dad "Buddy," and Blaine took him on his first camp-out to Lake Cuymaca up by Julian. After reading Michaela and Dustin's blog with Landon's first camping experience, I have to admit, I was sort of happy this was a "boys trip only!" Grayson has never slept anywhere other than a crib or a pack n'play, so I was curious to see how this whole tent thing would work out. Much to my surprise, Blaine said he had an awesome time, only waking a couple times in the night to say "mommy hold you!" Other than that, I don't think he missed me much! Between getting to drive Daddy's truck, fishing, roasting marshmellows and all to explore in the outdoors, he was a "happy camper!" Although they were only gone for one night, I think I missed him a little more than he missed me! However, I was really happy "the boys" (yes, even Chasers!) had a great camp out, and I in return, got to enjoy a well-needed day of R&R, did a little shopping & even got a pedicure!

Roasting a marshmellow in his jammies before bed!

Fishing with Buddy.

Wanting to carry his own world-famous Julian pie! "My do it" he would say!

Below are a couple pictures of Molly & Grayson from a month ago or so that I finally uploaded from my old camera. Their first official movie date (although Molly was SO over it after 15 minutes!!!). And the other is a picture taken at the Aquatic Center a while back.

"Let's hold hands!"

"White boy, you need some sunscreen!"

For whatever reason, these rain boots seem to be Grayson's favorite pair of shoes lately and are often the cause for a temper tantrum (that is if I insist he where something else!). This particular day, we weren't going anywhere so I was just fine with what he picked out!

In less than two weeks, we are headed to Laguna for some more beach time and then off to Kalama, Washington so see my Aunt Lizzie and her family. We are really looking forward to getting out of this dreadful heat and spending some time with family we don't get to see too often. After that, we may be taking another small trip to the white mountains and then before we know it, we will be celebrating Grayson's 2nd Birthday! Time is racing by way too quickly! Although that is fine by me for now because these are the Dog Days of Yuma and that means cooler weather ahead!

Hope everyone's doing well. And thanks Becca for your tips with posting pictures with the whole cut/paste in html. Made this one A LOT quicker & easier!

BIG BROTHER!

Now if that doesn't look like a proud face, I don't know what does!

So I think it's safe to let the cat out of the bag and officially let everyone know that Grayson is going to become a big brother this December! We've known for quite some time now, but wanted to wait a little while before sharing the news with everyone......although I am sure most of the people reading this blog already know anyhow! I am almost 4 months along and feeling pretty good now. I think the worst of the nausia and fatigue is behind me now. We have decided to keep the sex of the baby a surprise like we did with Grayson and are not going to find out. We are so excited to give Grayson a baby brother or sister and can't wait for December to get here! With so much planned this summer; however, I know it is going to go by so fast.

We have been super busy here in the Morris household. We have taken a couple trips over to southern California ....one for Memorial Day weekend to take Grayson to the beach and also his first trip to the Zoo (which he so enjoyed!), and the weekend after that to watch Papa complete his first Marathon at 61! He did awesome! Finished in a little over 5 hours with an almost-broken nose (that's another story!!), and looked amazing at the finish, walking 2 miles back to the hotel with us afterwards! I am so proud of you Dad!

A few pics from Memorial Day weekend in Laguna....

They have polar bears at the San Diego Zoo now & this was by far our favorite part! Grayson really enjoyed watching the "BIG bear" dance in the water!

A few pics from the marathon weekend in San Diego....

Last two weekends we stayed in and have been doing several projects around the house. With another baby on the way, we have been working on making the den into a "big boy" room for Grayson, the guest room into a den/guest room and have decided to leave the nursery as is, since everything is in good shape and can work for a little boy or a little girl. My parents have been a huge help with the process....my mom with her sewing and decorating ideas and my Dad is the ultimate MacGyver/handy man! We bought Grayson a toddler bed and are doing a sports theme. It has turned out so cute! His new room has a walk-in closet, (which I still need to clean out) but we thought it would be fun to make that a little play house/closet since it is quite roomy. He already gets a kick out of taking you in his "payhouse," then closing the door and giggling. The other day he took my Dad in the play house and Papa came out wearing the magic mullet and some silly hat! Who knows what else I have stashed in that closet!

Here's a picture of Grayson's new room so far, which used to be our den. We still have a few things to hang on the wall. I just painted big block letters today to spell out his name. You get the idea though.


Grayson has quite the social schedule this summer! Just started swimming lessons this week. Unfortunately it's at 10am, so I can only take him on my days off, but thanks to Grammy, he gets to go the other days as well. He is absolutely loving it so far and is a total fish in the water! I've also signed him up for the Harkins kids summer movie program, which shows older movies every Thursday am. I took him to his first movie last Thursday with Becca & Molly. We saw Ice Age. To my surprise, he did awesome and was so into it. He lasted for over an hour, which was way longer than I had expected! We also got into this reading program for kids under 2 called Baby Time at the library, which is also on Thursdays, so we may have to alternate movies and reading every other Thursday. For not even being two, I can only imagine how hectic life is going to get once he's old enough to start playing sports, join summer camps and other fun activities. Throw another little Morris maniac in the picture and my head starts to spin just thinking about it!

Well, that's all for now.....and I am sure I still forgot several things. Most importantly, Grayson is going to be the BEST big brother ever and we couldn't be more excited!

......And he will always be our Numero Uno!!