Ryan - Winter 2007 Pictures

Trip to the Pumpkin Farm

On Saturday, Sept. 29 we took a trip to Apple Blossom Farm in Peoria, IL. I wanted Ryan to pick his own pumpkin from the patch. We got to ride on a hayrack out to the pumpking patch to find the perfect pumpkin. We had a lot of fun. It was a very warm, windy Saturday. After picking out 3 very nice looking pumpkins the tractor and hayrack came back and picked us up. Next we went to the kids play area. We all had fun going down the 85 foot slide. Ryan tried the bouncer, but was a little scared so he went down the tube slide instead. All in all we had an excellent day at the pumpkin farm.

Halloween 2007

This year for Halloween, Ryan was a John Deere tractor. He was sooo cute! I made the costume as true to life as you can with a cardboard box, John Deere lettering & decal, spray paint, hot glue, and foam board. He even had a slow moving vehicle triangle on the back with red reflector brake lights. Ryan was able to trick or treat with his Dad at Pekin Insurance and enjoy Halloween Junior High. While Trick or Treating at Great Grandpa & Grandma Bitner's house, Ryan decided he needed food instead of candy. He sat down at their table and ate a ton of elbow macaroni & spaghetti sauce. He couldn't get enough. He finished off the rest of their dinner. I can't even get him to eat this at our house. Oh well. Next year Ryan thinks he wants to be a Thomas the Tank engine or Percy. After creating the tractor costume, I think that with a few adjustments, a different color of spray paint, and a new cardboard box I could make a train.

Ryan counts to 20!

Ryan can count to 14 very well and 20 some of the time. Every time we walk upstairs we count the steps we take. We have 14 steps. He doesn't always want to perform, so this is as good as it gets!

Ryan gets a dog, Beau!

Ryan got a new puppy dog named Beau. He is a black lab puppy that we got from some friends. Beau was born on May 15, 2007. He is 4 1/2 months old. Ryan and Beau get along pretty well together. Beau's official AKC registered name is Ryan Beau Duke XV. Beau keeps track of Ryan when he is outside riding on his motorcycle. Beau loves to take walks out on the farm road with us.

Visit to Aunt Katie's House in Lexington, KY

We went to visit Aunt Katie on the weekend of August 17-19, 2007. She lives in Lexington, KY. Ryan is getting to be a well traveled little boy at 2. Late on Friday night we picked Uncle Steve up at the airport. Ryan was soooo excited to see his Aunt Katie and Uncle Steve again. On Saturday we went to the place right near where Aunt Katie works. There is a nature preserve type of place that is similar to Wildlife Prairie Park to see animals. Ryan & the rest of us had a great time. Next we enjoyed a delicious dinner at Claudia Sanders Dinner House. Claudia Sanders was the wife of Colonel Sanders. We celebrated Bob & Alice's 40th Wedding Anniversary. After lunch we drove to Louisville, KY and toured the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory. Afterwards we had to take Steve back to the airport to meet his plane. Ryan thought he needed to go on an airplane ride too. After seeing Steve off, we went to the KY State Fair. It was quite different from the IL State Fair. It was at least 80% inside at the Convention Center. Supposedly the animals were outside. I think we'll stick to the IL State Fair. We had a very enjoyable trip to Aunt Katie's hometown!

Ryan's Harley

Great Grandma & Grandpa Bitner got Ryan this really neat, battery powered Harley Davidson Motorcycle. Although he has only ridden the bike a few times, he is getting very good at driving it around the yard.

More DC Pictures

I had trouble getting the pictures to post in my last posting so here are the ones I wanted to add.



The boat ride to Mt. Vernon

Ryan @ the Jefferson Memorial

































The World War II Memorial & fountain was beautiful. Everyone was sitting around the fountain with their feet in. The signs around the fountain only prohibited wading.






All tuckered out after a long day!















Grandma & Grandpa Emme's 1st trip to the Atlantic Ocean (Ocean City, MD).

Vacation? to DC...

Well, we've been home since Thursday, there is still laundry to do and things to put away, but who is really ever in a hurry to get back on a schedule???

DC was spectacular!! The views breathtaking. Mike & I enjoyed everything we saw!!

How did Ryan do??? Not wonderful. DC is NOT a place for a 2 year old...at least not mine.

Thursday, July 12

Ryan loved the airplane ride. He did get a little board and tick off the guy in front of us, he's 2 it's not like I can keep him quiet the entire time. The guy asked us to trade seats. Yeah like that was going to happen. I would have had to take Ryan out of his car seat, he would never have gotten back in.

We finally got to DC and met up with Steve and Katie. It was so nice to see them again! We rode the Metro to the Van Dorn St. stop and then called for the hotel shuttle to come and get us. We got checked in to the hotel and settled. We then jumped on the shuttle to the Metro and road to Pentagon City (Steve's Metro Stop). The metro station is attached to a mall with a very nice food court. We ate dinner and then road the metro and got off at the station near the National Archives. It wasn't open so we just saw the outside. We walked to the national Mall (not really a shopping mall) to see the evening views of the city. Very beautiful. The Capitol and the Washington Monument look really pretty at night. We couldn't stay out past 10pm as the hotel shuttle stops picking up at the Metro station @10 min. till 10.

Friday, July 13

Boat trip to Mt. Vernon. The ride was a lot of fun for all. It included admission to Mt. Vernon. George Washington sure had a beautiful place to live even though he didn't get to live in the White House. His own house was just as fancy as the White House would later be.

Ryan wasn't feeling well when we returned to Old Town Alexandria. It was a beautiful old part of the town full of shops and restaurants. He told me his tummy hurt on the boat ride home, but I didn't think anything was up. SOOOO... Ryan and I were having a good time playing in a fountain that we didn't know was PRIVATELY owned. Anyway to make a long story short...Ryan pooped all down his legs, it was all over his clothes, shoes, etc. Mike & I used all of our baby wipes cleaning him up. Of course I didn't have an extra set of clothes. So we took our poor, pathetic looking, half naked child and went in search of a way to get back to the hotel.

The metro station was 16 blocks away and we didn't want to walk so we thought we would take the bus that was going to drop off at our METRO station....Over an hour later we finally made it to the Metro station after going every in the state of VA, even close to our hotel, but not close enough to walk. Oh well. We ordered some very nasty take out food and went to bed as we had a very BIG day ahead of us. The White House...

Ryan woke up around 11:30pm on Friday, very sick. We finally got him settled down and back to sleep. I don't think we got too much sleep, esp. after my angry encounter with the guy at the Hotel front desk at midnight. I went down in search of yogurt that they give away for free at breakfast only 7 hours away. I tried to tell the man about my sick 2 year old and how the after hours doctor number suggested we get some yogurt to help Ryan feel better, but the MAN at the front desk wouldn't listen. He told me that I needed to call 911 and they would help me out. I had to leave the front desk before I said something to get us all kicked out of the hotel in the middle of the night. I was ready to change hotels...Mike finally got me calmed down.

Saturday, July 14

The White House tour was amazing. It was a self-guided tour through part of the basement and the entire first floor. The house was Big, but for some reason I thought it that it would be bigger. Who knows. No we did see President Bush or anyone else of importance, but it was still amazing to be in the house and think about all of the past people who lived there and all of the historical things that have taken place there. Ryan was actually very well behaved during our tour! :)

We spent our afternoon touring Arlington Cemetery. That is another truly amazing place to visit. The walking about wore us out. We got to see the changing of guards and a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Sunday, July 15 - - Happy 21st Birthday, Uncle Kirk!

Today we spent the day seeing and walking and walking and walking to the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Memorial, the WWII Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Vietnam Memorial. The WWII Memorial was really neat. There was a large fountain in the middle of the HUGE area where you could stop, sit down, and put your feet into the large fountain and think about all the people who died in the war. My Grandma Bitner's brother, Virgil Martin, died during WWII, so I thought it would be nice to get some really good pictures of the memorial for her. We went back to Steve's house and got dinner. Ryan was really good today.

Monday, July 16 - - Happy 29th Birthday, Aunt Katie!

Steve rented a minivan for us to travel in to Annapolis & then on it to Ocean City, MD. For some reason, Ryan was good on the way to Annapolis, but when he got there he was a CRAB! He fussed, etc. all of the way down towards the Chesapeake Bay and all of the way back up the hill to the Subway we stopped at for lunch. I don't know what was bothering him, but he was NOT a happy camper. We got back on the road and made it to Ocean City by 2 or 3pm. Bob, Alice, Mike, & Ryan had never seen or been in the ocean. We ALL had a great time playing in the water or picking up shells. The water was quite cold for as hot as the weather had been. We ate a nice dinner along the boardwalk. We finally got the van back to the airport rental car return area with just 15min. to spare. What a long, but very enjoyable way to spend a day!

Tuesday, July 17

I hope that Ryan goes into politics some day so that I can give him a hard time for getting the 2 of us kicked out of the Supreme Court building. Yes, it happened. For some reason he didn't like the building. He was fine until we actually went into the large, supreme court courtroom. He then wouldn't stop loudly asking for his DADDY. I tried to take him to the hallway and calm him down, but that did not work. The guard in the hall told me that people worked in the building and he was disturbing them by crying and if he didn't stop we would need to leave. Of course he didn't stop so we went outside in the 92 degree heat and he continued to cry and throw a fit. I eventually took him down to the fountains out in front and let him play and drink the yucky water. He quit crying so I thought we would try to go back in. We went back through security and what happened...more crying. Everyone around me kept looking at me like I was beating him or something. He continued to cry until the rest of the Emme family finished the tour and then for at least 10 min. later after his Daddy came to the rescue.

He finally calmed down and fell asleep on our way to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. He eventually woke up and was a very well behaved 2 year old. He really enjoyed all of the planes we saw. He was also very well behaved at our last stop the National Archives.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Today we went to the Capitol Building. We were able to get a Senate tour, thanks to Jay Briney & Clair Dickhut(Senator Durbin's Office). We got to see the Senate Debates in full swing. We also got to see the House Debates, thanks to Mike & Sarah(Rep. Ray LaHood's Office). Ryan was worn out from the lack of being able to run around/walk around so we decided to go back to the hotel for the evening. We were able to go to the pool for a little while to relax. It was a nice way to end our vacation.

Thursday, July 19, 2007 - - Happy 27th Birthday, Uncle Steve!

Today we got up bright and early and ready to leave the hotel by taxi with all of our luggage, but the stupid taxi company did NOT send the minivan taxi as they had promised. We were 15min. late leaving, but were still able to see Katie at the airport before she had to leave. We also got to see Steve again. THANKS, Uncle Steve for a wonderful, well planned, awesome tour of your new hometown, Washington, DC. We can't wait to come back again, w/o Ryan, to visit and see the sights we weren't able to get in.