Lincoln Reconnects with Old Friends, and Makes New Ones

We had quite the busy weekend this week.  On Saturday evening Lincoln got to reconnect with some old pals at a birthday party (he managed not to "help" open presents), and on Sunday he got his first visit to Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead, a petting zoo in Overland Park.  We had a lot of fun even though our car thermometer showed 94 degrees when we left at 11:30 in the morning.

Of course,  a petting zoo would not be complete without goats.  Our first stop was by the full size goats.  The goat in this photo was tall enough to reach over the fence and give Lincoln a "kiss" while Scott was holding him. 
Later we got to go inside a pen of smaller goats for some "hands on" feeding.  The goats loved Lincoln, even when he wasn't holding any food.  They started swarming him the minute we entered the pen, prompting Lincoln to announce later that the goats were "mean".  No permanent damage, though - and Lincoln did manage to feed a couple (although in this photo he's not holding any food).

Deanna Rose also has dairy cows.  Inside the barn you can see real-life calves and a huge cow.  Lincoln showed minimal interest in the real cow, though, and went straight towards the fake cow with the fake udder that kids could "milk".

All in all it was  a fun morning, and we look forward to coming back - hopefully when it's not quite so hot!

Happy birthday, Dr. Hauner!

One more year has flown by. Happy birthday, Linda. We hope you had a great day.

More Travel Adventures

As promised, here are some more photos from our South Dakota trip. No trip to SD would be complete without a visit to the World Famous Corn Palace. You can't really tell in the photo, but the corn palace is decorated in...Corn! Naturally-colored maize is used to create the murals on the outer walls.

And what do you do at a Corn Palace? Why, get your photo taken as an ear of corn! The inside of the "palace" is actually an auditorium that houses a big souvenir shop during the day.

At the house, Lincoln had lots of fun stuff to do, like digging in the dirt with daddy.

He also learned a new "swinging" technique. Unfortunately we didn't get any photos of Lincoln at the pool, but he had lots of fun playing with my cousin Chase.

Finally on the trip home Scott and Lincoln got a photo op at a strategically placed tractor. Climbing on a tractor is a great way to break up a looooong drive.  

4th of July Fun

This year We took a 4th of July road trip to South Dakota to Linda's aunt and uncle's house. Linda's aunts, uncles, and cousins came from all over the country for the weekend, and it was great seeing everyone.

We were nervous about the nearly 10 hour trip, but Lincoln did very well in the car. Each way he needed a couple of hours of his new TV obsession (The Little Einsteins) to keep him pacified, but overall it was an easy drive. We'll post pictures of our "scenic stops" in the next post.

We stayed for 3 nights and had a great time. Jerry and Irene have a great house that overlooks the Missouri river. It has a small indoor swimming pool and comes with all the great lake toys - boat, jet ski, etc. We could have stayed an entire week and not gotten bored.

Here are some pictures from the trip...and yes, that is a picture of a turkey being deep-fried in the driveway (this is America, right?).

Look who's 2!!

Today is Lincoln's birthday, and he is officially a 2-year-old! In honor of his birthday, I thought I would share this picture of Lincoln using one of his birthday presents. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Hauner he has his very own vacuum cleaner now (it's a Dyson with real cyclone action!) In this picture he's helping Scott clean up the family room. If you're having trouble seeing him, it's because he's wearing his super cool camo pjs that Joni gave him.

Happy Birthday, Lincoln (a little early)

Lincoln's official birthday isn't until Monday, but he got to celebrate twice in the weeks leading up to the big day. Once with my parents once with Linda's parents.

Here are a few pictures from the last party. This year Lincoln got to blow out his own candles and open his own presents. He was much more involved then last year.

Although Lincoln is a year older he still lost his shirt before the party ended (hopefully this trend ends before his college years). He made it through the cake with his shirt on but it disappeared before presents got opened.

Happy Birthday, Everett (better late then never)

Everett (Lincoln's cousin) had his first birthday last weekend. Linda's parents were in town, and there was a big party for Everett on Saturday. Lincoln had a great time playing with all the new toys, and Everett was a good sport and did a great job sharing.

Here are a couple pictures from the party.

Go, Dad. Go!

This week my Dad is riding in the Bicycle Ride Across Nebraska (BRAN). He'll be peddling nearly 500 miles in 7 days. We need to wish him and his butt the best of luck.

I found this blog that is being updated by someone also on the ride, so it should be a good place for daily updates.

Here's picture Mom took while Dad was testing his camping setup before the start.

One of life's little lessons...

Typically as we take Lincoln through his bedtime routine (bath, reading, etc.), he says random stuff that he remembers from earlier in the day. Well, today he remembered an important bit of knowledge I had shared with him this morning - "It's not dog poop, it's mud".

This morning, after a big rain storm, we were surveying the yard, flowers, etc. Lincoln stepped in some mud and said "it's dog poop." I'm not sure why he thinks he knows what dog poop is, but he thought he had stepped in some. As a wise father, I explained that "it's not dog poop, it's mud."

I guess that stuck with him because it popped out of his mouth tonight before bed. I thought it was pretty funny and laughed, so he, being a show-off, continued saying "it's not dog poop, it's mud" over and over until he went to sleep.


To finish off, here's a mostly unrelated picture from June 3, 2006. Can you believe that was two years ago? It's gone by fast.

Jiggle Jam!!

Yesterday the family celebrated Memorial Day weekend by spending the morning planting flowers and spending the afternoon at the first annual Jiggle Jam. Jiggle Jam is a 2-day music festival for kids - and while we spent some time enjoying the music, we also spent a lot of time enjoying the vendors, the food, and the fountain.

One of the "activity tents" had boats that kids could decorate and then float in little "lakes". Lincoln did a great job of decorating his boat, don't you think?

Of course, no summer event is complete without ice cream. I ordered a double cone of Sheridans thinking that we could all share. Lincoln is a true Hauner, though, and promptly confiscated the cone for himself.

Luckily Lincoln is learning to share, and as long as you ask him nicely he will let you take a bite of "his" cone.

We spent some time listening to the "Justin Roberts & the Not Ready for Naptime Players" (I highly recommend them if you are sick of kid's music), and then stopped by the Crown Center fountain for some water fun (no illegal fun here - the "fountain" is meant to be played in). We actually went by the fountain several times, but Lincoln was a little too wary of the water to actually get close. This photo shows the closest that he was willing to get to one of the water spouts. Soon after this photo was taken he was splashed by another kid and he decided he was done with the fountain.

A Word from the Wise

Lincoln has taken a renewed interest in books this week.  He is no longer content to sit quietly and listen to stories, but adamantly declares when it is "his turn" to read.  His favorite book to read to us is "Bear Hunt", which has an exciting ending involving....a bear.  Scott was able to catch one of his readings on film the other night.  Unfortunately, as you will see in the clip, his ability to turn pages has not quite caught up to his enthusiasm for reading.

Photographic Evidence

While I don't quite feel like a "doctor" yet, it's starting to sink in.  Yesterday was my graduation and "hooding".  There were five of us getting our Ph.Ds yesterday, and we were each accompanied by our advisor during the ceremony.  I carried my hood over my arm until I arrived on stage when my advisor, Mat Forstater (standing behind me) put it on me.  The other gentleman in the photo is the head of the School of Graduate Studies.  My dissertation title was "Poverty and the World Bank:  An examination of Economic Development Theory and Practice".

After the "hooding" I shook my Mat's hand and managed not to cry.  Here you can really see the hood.  There's a dark blue velvet lining that represents the doctor of philosophy (the "D" in Ph.D), and the yellow and blue chevrons are UMKC's colors.  Both the robe and hood were rentals so I didn't get to keep them :( .  If I decide to go into academia then I'll probably end up buying a set.
My parents, sister, and (of course!) Scott came to the ceremony.  I couldn't have done this without Scott's wonderful support all these years.  
Lincoln didn't attend the ceremony but he got to enjoy some cake that night.

A running post...

I ran the Lincoln Marathon today (I actually only did the 1/2 marathon), and we spent the weekend with Linda's parents.  It was a good race, a good weekend, and Lincoln got his second straight I-get-to-be-spoiled-by-Grandpa-and-Grandma weekend.  Everyone was happy.

I've run the 1/2 marathon in Lincoln for three years, and my times have not varied by more than 45 seconds in total.  After 13.1 miles of running, I can't believe I'm so consistent.

Here are some pictures from the weekend.  As you can see, we also squeezed in some time at the park, and Lincoln went down the slide all by himself (with Mom watching of course).

Linda's been so defensive lately...

So, in case you didn't know, Linda has been working on her PhD in Economics for about 8 years.

That journey ends today because...

Linda successfully defended her dissertation!!

She's now officially a "doctor".  She has to file some paperwork and it's all over.  What a relief.

We're very happy for her and proud of her.

Lincoln's First Run

Last weekend the Hauner/King clan participated in the Trolley Run. Scott, Tracy, Mike, Joni's brother Neil, and I all ran the regular Trolley run. Lincoln has "run" the the race last two years with me, but this year he entered on his own and did the Kid's Trolley Run. They even gave him a number! The "adult" race is 4 miles, but luckily they didn't make Lincoln run that far. Prior to the race, I gave him some advice on how to pace himself.

As you can see, he got a great start.  Even though it was cold that morning, he was a trooper and ran really fast.  It helped that he "carb loaded" prior to the race by eating an entire lemon poppyseed muffin.
At the finish line they gave him a blue ribbon.  Okay, this isn't *his* finish line, but it's a good photo!  His actual run was actually about 10 yards total.
I think that everyone that ran were happy with their finish times.  Hopefully this is the first of many Trolley Runs for Lincoln.

Day Labor

Scott had a lot of yard work to do this weekend, so he decided to hire some day labor to help out. As you can see, the guy we hired spent most of his day lazing by the tree with his "broken" mower.

Later the guy "supervised" while Scott mowed the side yard.

Check out Lincoln's awesome sun cap - Scott bought that for him last week. We had a great weekend with lots of nice weather. Later this week we'll post some photos from our yard.

This one's for the ladies

It's been awhile since our last post.  We've been busy with things.  Nothing special...just the day-to-day stuff that keeps you busy.  We're learning about the various plants/flowers that are coming up in our yard (we had no idea what Spring had in store for us because everything was dormant when we moved in).  We're also getting ready for the Trolley Run (Lincoln too) at the end of April.

Anyway, since it's been awhile, here's a quick picture to keep Lincoln's fan club occupied for a few days.  I'm not sure if a double-wide is in Lincoln's future, but lately, he loves to roam the house shirtless.

Easter Recap (Part 2)

Here are some more photos from our Easter adventure at Grandma and Grandpa King's.  Lincoln spent some time bonding with "the boys" out in the wilderness (actually, this is right in front of the house).  What is difficult to see in the photo is the massive dropoff into a ravine directly behind them... 

Lincoln also spent some time with grandma playing with the magnetic letters on the fridge...

To prove that she can be just as "exciting" as the boys, though, Grandma also helped Lincoln test-ride a 4-wheeler at Scott's uncle's house on Easter (note the cool sunglasses from "great aunt" Janice).

Of course, we can't forget the "money shot" from Easter!  Lincoln was a little confused during the Loup City Easter-Egg Hunt ("you *want* me to pick stuff off the ground and eat it?"), but he managed to find some eggs for his basket.

Easter Recap (Part 1)

We're finally getting around to posting photos from our Easter trip to Nebraska.  This first stage of the trip takes us to Linda's parents and then on to my Grandpa's.

Linda's Mom has a daycare and Lincoln was the hit of the party on Friday.  All the kids would swarm around him and want him to play with them.  Lincoln will have to get used to being popular...he probably won't be able to avoid it later in life.

At my Grandpa's house, Lincoln and Grandpa got to spend some quality time playing "This Little Piggy".  Also, Lincoln and his cousin Austyn got to hang out for a little while.

Waiting for an Easter post?

We've taken a bunch of pictures over our Easter holiday in Nebraska, but Lincoln would like us to wait until he finishes his delicious Burger King chocolate milkshake before we post them...

He'd also like us to remind you that chocolate milkshakes are reeeeaaaallly thick so it may take a while (but we're having lots of fun!!)