This morning, I woke up around 3 a.m. and just could not get back to sleep. Around 4:30 I went ahead and got up and started getting ready to drive to Kansas City to visit Grandma and Grandpa. At exactly 5 a.m. I put a fresh diaper on Alli and stuffed her into the back seat of the car and headed out into the rain. I was hoping Alli would go back to sleep for the drive because she usually wakes up around 7 am. Of course, things never go according to plan now do they? The bad news is that she did not go back to sleep and simultaneously I had a hell of a time staying awake. The good news is that she was relatively well behaved and only fussed slightly as we passed the illuminated golden arches that prompted her to exclaim “Eeb-eyes” (French Fries). Also good was driving out of the rain a quarter of the way through the trip. When we arrived at Grandma and Grandpas, the sun was up and the weather was quite pleasant. Alli looked at the house and happily declared “Grandpa”.

Once inside, I wanted to either swill down large quantities of coffee or go to bed and sleep for days, but I stuck to the original plan and as soon as Alli was settle in, I headed out the door for a 7 mile run. Much to my joy, my feet felt no pain as I jogged by all the super friendly dog walkers in Lee's Summit Missouri. Part way through my run I was really wishing for a public restroom to pop up and much to my amazement, I did spot a Johnny-on-the-spot tucked behind a small wooden fence. I now believe in miracles!

Please note that Grandma and Alli were making animal noises.

After my run, I finally enjoyed copious amounts of coffee and felt a whole lot better. Alli was not in bad shape considering she had gotten up 2 hours earlier than usual. We had a great morning enjoying Grandma and Grandpa’s company. We also ventured next door to see the new, one week old, Burwell baby boy.

He is just beautiful.

After her nap, we dressed Alli up and went over to Asher’s house for his 2nd birthday party. He is 4 days older than Alli; born on September 29th, 2007. Asher’s Grandma and Grandma Rae are first cousins so that makes Asher and Alli 3rd cousins???


Check this out……..
Tanya, Asher’s mom, made him a birthday cake that looked like a lawn mower!!
Even had grass made of licorice with gummy worms in it.


Alli’s favorite toy at the party was this wooden tool kit. She thoroughly enjoyed putting the bolts through the holes. I think she may have gotten the “engineer” gene from my family.


At exactly 7 p.m. I stuffed Alli in the back of the car again and drove east towards home. Again I was exhausted and struggled to stay awake, but at least this time it was still light out for most of the drive. Alli dozed off about half way back and the drive went by fast. We arrived home at exactly 9 o’clock and I went right to bed.