Random catch up and Vacation!

In my last post, I mentioned we had been to our first fall festival, but I failed to mention that the kids went on their first pony ride! When Collin saw the ponies, he immediately knew he wanted to go. I wasn't going to let Katelyn at first. I figured it would be a waste of money because she would just scream and cry. Then I remembered she is fearless and gave it a shot. She didn't even hesitate!
Collin and Katelyn have developed quite the sibling rivalry, so pictures like this make me smile more than ever lately. (I swear, if I hear the word "mine" one more time...and Kate is so much worse about it than Collin! She will just go grab one of his toys, give him a sly grin, yell "mine", and take off running.)This year, for our anniversary (7 years!), we went to Las Vegas. No surprise there, but this time it was all for pleasure, no business! (I'm lucky enough to get to tag along every January for the Sports Licensing and Tailgate show). Katelyn didn't understand, but she definitely thought she was going!
While that picture might make you feel sad for her, I assure you they had a blast with Nanna, Gumpy, Aunt Kandace, Mimi, Auntie Joy, and Virgil. I am so thankful to have such a wonderful family who always look forward to getting to spend time with the kids. It's so nice to be able to get away so that we can have "grown up" vacations. I'm a better mommy when I come home that's for sure. So thanks everyone! And special thanks to Auntie Joy for always sharing pictures with me while we're gone. So here are a few pics of only a fraction of all the fun they had! (Not pictured included plenty of backyard fun at Nanna's, more eating out than we do in a month around here, a football game, fishing, and movie night with Auntie Joy and Virgil).

Chuck-E-Cheese!
Katelyn playing skee-ball :)Dairy Queen!
So I'm awful about taking pictures if I don't have my good camera. I managed to get a few of where we stayed:
and some of Stevie Nicks (special thanks to Mike who took me to see her when we could have seen Jimmy Buffett the same night). She was great!We also saw the Blue Man Group (which I really don't recommend...should have done Phantom or Jersey Boys). I was literally falling asleep at one point. I really wasn't ever able to switch to the time zone for some reason so probably not only because of the show :)

Since we go to Vegas every year, you would think we would be bored, but there is always something new to do. We are already planning things for January that we didn't get around to doing this trip.

While we were gone, Katelyn had her second ear infection since having her tubes placed last December. Oddly enough, the first was in January when we were in Vegas! So I had never actually experienced what it's like for her to have an infection with the tubes. This one is still going on. Oh. My. Grossness.

The one positive is that I discovered that I can put her hair in full blown pig tails (not the tiny ones with her bangs I was making before). I had to get her hair away from those ears. I wanted to take some cute pictures of her little ringlets, but that darn ear drainage showed up in every one of them! I'm not a huge fan of black and white, but I edited one of them and it turned out pretty cute!
How long are ear infections with tubes supposed to last anyway?? We've been on drops for over 7 days! Hoping to make it without yet another trip to the pediatrician...