Kayla turned 4 a couple of days ago!!  That little girl is growing up way too fast.  Now that she is 4 and a big girl, she's starting out sleeping in her own room in her own bed (yay!).  It usually doesn't last all night, but I'm thankful for the extra bed space.

We have a few photos from before vacation to catch up on.  I mentioned that Kayla moved rooms at preschool here she is on her first day in the Rainbow Room!  She is super excited to be with new friends and new teachers.  She even has a best friend named Madelyn.

Here are a few shots of her having fun at preschool.  : )

Kayla loves this bike/scooter.  On the rare occasion when I pick her up, she's always riding it around.

This was the first year Kayla actually enjoyed playing in the leaves.  Here she is buried with her friend from Colin's daycare.

Kayla still goes to storytime at the library most Tuesdays.  Colin will start going in a couple of weeks for toddlertime!  Here she is helping wear all the hats for the book they were reading.  She's definitely a favorite at the library when we go.  Everyone knows her since we take her often and she goes every week with school too!

After we got back from vacation, we had an early Halloween at the trailer!  Colin had a choice between a monkey (too small) or Max from Where the Wild Things Are (too big), so he ended going as a farmer since I just so happened to dress him up in a plaid shirt and overalls.  It was probably a good thing since he was NOT happy about having to wear the Max costume.

Kayla had a choice between Dora, a butterfly, or a princess.  Her pick was the princess and lucky for her, Colin was not wearing his crown.  That'd a girl for having two buckets for candy!

We had a great time driving around on the golf cart going from trailer to trailer to get candy and visit.  Colin was a trooper and had a blast since he is a huge fan of golf cart rides.  He also got quite a bit of candy from Kayla even though she did all the hard work for him!

Colin's probably had a bit too much candy at this point!

And so has Kayla!

Aww....sweet baby Colin.

Crazy baby Colin!!!

Although, seriously, this kid is always trying to ham it up and get people to laugh.  He does a pretty good job at it too.  He has perfected the look that Kayla used to do at this age.  He hasn't been good with pictures lately so I hope to post 'the look' soon.  And he's become quite the dancer.  His over-the-top cute personality makes up for other personality: clingy, fussy, and temper-tantrum-thrower.  At least when he's throwing a tantrum he has learned to lower his head slowly to the ground when on a hard floor instead of just flinging himself to the ground.  : )

Vacation, Part 4

After getting to Wind Cave National Park, we took an auto tour of the park.  It was getting late, so Kayla and Colin were put into PJs before heading out.  We drove through (literally!) a herd of bison, and Colin was quite intrigued.  Of course Kayla and Colin barked at them for attention.  And Kayla was all, "Look at the babies!!!"

We couldn't go to Wind Cave NP without checking out the actual Wind Cave itself.  We knew going into it, that it was going to be risky with two youngsters, one who it too independent for his own good and cries when things don't go his way and the other who gets very scared in dark places.  But we ventured in anyways and overall, Kayla and Colin did pretty well.  Here's Kayla exploring with her flashlight.

Colin as predicted, did not want to be picked up at all during the tour and insisted on walking and going down the stairs himself.  We stayed towards the back of the group and let Colin lead his own way.

"Here I go Mom!"

After Wind Cave, we started our drive home through Custer State Park.  Custer is known for two things: the buffalo round-ups (we missed it by 2 days!!) and their roaming pack of friendly burros.

Unfortunately, Colin slept through the whole thing, and at the time, he was way overdue for a nap, so we didn't wake him up.  I still regret that to this day because he would have loved these guys.  Looks like we're just going to have to come back.  : )  The white one was our favorite so Kayla gave her a carrot.

And of course, the babies!

Also on our way home, we drove through the Badlands.  Colin was getting very anxious to get out of the car, and the only thing that cheered him up was me poking the camera above the chair and taking his picture saying "CHEEEEEEESE!"

And one last picture on the second to last day of vacation...our car.  Just to show how incredibly filled it is with toys and snacks and drinks and who knows what and yes, Colin is sitting on a towel because his diaper failed.  We're very thankful he waited until almost the last day to do that.