Addilyn the Entertainer

More fun, less sun

Hello again all of our adoring fans. This week has been a good one, with lots of fun and just slightly less sun than last week's adventures. On Friday night, our church had its first ever Adult Fun Night. We took Addilyn to someone's house to play with all the other kids while the adults got to play at Main Event (which is kind of like a Dave and Busters with bowling). We spent the first half of our evening bowling. I (Erin) actually managed to break 100 and have 2 strikes in a row (if you've ever seen me bowl, you will know that this was quite the feat). Tyler also did quite well, so well in fact that he snagged a trophy and a Chili's gift certificate for having the highest overall score. Way to go, Tyler!! After bowling, we ran amok in the arcade for an hour. We tried out "Dance, Dance Revolution" for the first time (which had to be pretty hilarious to watch because neither of us had any idea what we were doing) and played a whole lot of air hockey. Tyler even earned himself a nasty blister from all his air hockey playing. It was definitely a very fun night.

This week, in reading about the history of Houston, I heard tell of a historic section in downtown that was supposed to be pretty cool. With that as our goal we set out for Houston and another Saturday 'O Fun. We started out by heading to REI to see if we could find a water bottle holder for Tyler's bike and maybe another shirt or two for him (and to just explore because it's a pretty fun store!). After walking away from there emptyhanded but content nonetheless, we made the short trip to the Galleria to walk and escape the heat. While there we visited our favorite Borders and bought an exercise DVD (lets hope I use this one) and Boston's debut album. We also wandered aimlessly and "enjoyed" the crowds; it was so busy this weekend! As we meandered, Tyler tried to get Addilyn to throw a dime in the fountain from the second story. As you can tell, she didn't quite get it to the fountain but she seemed to enjoy the throw all the same.
When we were sufficiently cool, we set out for downtown and Old Market Square. During the car ride, Addilyn fell asleep and upon ariving, Tyler (the stud) was actually able to transfer her to her stroller without walking her. Here he smiles at the conquest.Houston has a light rail that runs through downtown. Here is a very fun fountain area that it runs directly through. Cool, huh?!
Tyler was checking out how the fountains worked.
As you can tell from my flushed face, it was still a bit warm at 6:00 in the evening, but we enjoyed our stroll through downtown anyway.
After our stroll we headed to dinner to take advantage of the gift certificate Tyler won on Friday. Tyler noticed his Chili's gift certificate was also good Macaroni Grill (which we adore). Good eye, Tyler, good eye!
These last four pictures are just fun pictures that were taken throughout the week. This first one displays "Addilyn, the Drooly." Addilyn is working on her third molar and has been drooling like crazy in the process.

This one is just cute!
Giant baby. Ahhh!!
This is "Addilyn, the Destroyinator." Here she is doing what she loves best and destroying something (namely ripping the paper covering off the powdered milk box).
Anyway, that's about it for our week. Join us next time as we review this coming weekend and Brian & Cheryl's visit (they get here on Thursday evening). It should be fun!

Fun in the sun

As Addilyn mentioned in her last post, most of Tyler's family is on vacation. Tyler is uber-bummed that we don't get to go on a vacation this summer so to help him through this difficult time, we took a mini-vacation on Saturday to Galveston. While we have been to Galveston a few times already, this time was extra special because we brought our bikes along so we could ride the Seawall and fully enjoy the Galveston area. It was really a lot of fun (except for when Addilyn got mad because the sun was in her eyes and wouldn't stop screaming (if she would wear her sunglasses or hat for more than 3 seconds at a time we wouldn't have this issue but I digress)). We started at the north end of the Seawall and took a leisurely ride for about 4.5 miles where we finally stopped for refreshments at Sonic. This first picture is of Addilyn as we cooled off and drank our slushes at Sonic.

After we were sufficiently cool, we headed back out and on to the beach. We had never swam in this section of Galveston (we normally go out of town toward a residential section where you can drive your car right out on the beach) so it was an all-around new experience. It was a little busier but was also a little cleaner than our usual spot . This is a picture of the three of us after our swim as we were getting ready to head back. (If you look closely you'll see Addilyn enjoying a stolen swig of one of our slushes.)

Pushing our bikes (riding was completely out of the question) through the sand was pretty difficult so kudos to Tyler for getting both his bike and the trailer back up the hill to the Seawall without incident (I was certainly impressed). Tyler spent the entire afternoon without his shirt and was rewarded with a nasty burn on his back. While he still won't peel or anything, he certainly has been uncomfortable for the last couple of nights.

On our way back to the car, Addilyn really seemed to enjoy the ride (we're not sure how we could have forgotten to give her the keys to play with on the first ride but it really did make all the difference on the way back). Toward the end of our ride, she conked out. This is a video of Tyler trying to awaken her so we could pack up and leave.

After an eventful day on Saturday, we were looking forward to a relaxing Sunday. After church (and our first time helping them pack up after the service), the 3 of us enjoyed an incredibly lazy afternoon with naps all around. With no small group in the evening we took the opportunity to go play disc golf and take a walk with Addilyn. She really seemed to like having the run of the park.

Here is a picture of Daddy entertaining Addilyn before bed with her puppet friend.

This is a video of Addilyn playing with her puppet friend.

Well, I guess that's about it for us. We'll talk to you all again real soon.

Is there anybody out there?

Good evening everybody. Addilyn here again. I know I haven't written in a while but I've immersed myself in Texas culture so that I may function better down here and I've just lately remembered how to use a computer. Life's been pretty good for my cohorts and me. Maybe a little dull lately; the most exciting thing we've done recently would be the softball game we played with our church, but more on that later. Actually no, lets start with that. Last Friday night our church (http://onelife.tv/) hosted a softball game. It was rather impressive, our little church had enough people for two teams. It was fun, we ate some BBQ, I didn't eat much, I hate hot dogs. After the meal the grown ups, and some kids, hit the field and tried to hit some balls. Daddy went to his usual (apparently, years ago he played softball semi-regularly for a couple months a year) position as shortstop. He then got kicked back to left field, which as everyone knows is the glory spot. Long story short, he caught four fly balls, one diving-ish, and was awarded MVP. His team ended up winning 4-3 and three of their runs were from the first inning. His accolades included a sweet trophy and an itunes gift card. Naturally this elated him and so this week he spent time he could of been playing with me finding and downloading songs. It wasn't all bad though, I like dancing to some of them. Here are some of my favorite newly begotten songs: Eagles - Those Shoes, James Gang - Funk 49, Stevie Nicks - Edge of Seventeen (Momma makes fun of Daddy for buying that song), Nirvana - You know You're Right, Dave Matthews - Gravedigger, Don McLean - American Pie & The Who - Bargain. If you don't recognize any of those songs I suggest you check them out. They're pretty fantastical. Following the pattern of music the next day we trouped off to Borders, our favorite respite from the heat. They were having a 40% music sale for members and since we are members we felt it was our patriotic duty to help boost the economy, which certainly isn't suffering from a recession, right? So Momma and Daddy each chose a CD. We left the store with "The Yes Album" by Yes, "Stand Up" by Dave Matthews Band, & the book Personal Penguin by Sandra Boynton. Guess who chose which. Then we wandered about an area called "the village" for a while. It was pretty fun, but hot. Later that evening on the way home we stopped and Daddy tried to play some disc golf. I say tried because he didn't do that well and the course was rather difficult to maneuver. It was a good day all in all. Sunday we went to church, came home, napped and went to small group. Also a good day. This week has gone quickly. It's Thursday today. As usual I'm astounding the parents with my quick, dry wit, insatiable appetite (sans green things), and my overall amazingly talented self. I can mimic up to almost a dozen creatures, if you catch me at the right time and place. I very much like to say "Where did it go?" and am finding ebonical ways of saying it in one syllable; I think this method will really catch on and I'll revamp the whole English language into mono-syllabic screeches.

If you're stuck thinking, "Man alive I can't believe how awesome those last two weeks were for the Johnson's. I bet they're glad they moved to Houston." You'd be right for the most part, but check out our pre-moving plans for the two weeks after July 4th. Oh wait you probably can't, cause from what I hear, half of the people who read this are on a vacation.

I apologize for that last paragraph. I had to stop for a drink refreshment and diaper change and my slightly bitter father just had to get his blurb in. So that about wraps (or if you read this with rhythm, raps) it up for me.

Until next time,

Addilyn Elise

Where Did It Go?

Fourth of July and such...

Look it's Erin Buttersworth

Can you find Addilyn's tuft of hair?
Pre-Fireworks
Post Fireworks
I'm teaching her to drum on her stomach
Now for the drum-off

Hello, it's 3:10 and we aren't going to Yuma, I don't even know where Yuma is. But at 4:00 we are going to our small group so perhaps that will suffice. The long weekend was good to us. Friday we didn't do much for most of the day. It rained quite a bit at our apartment, so to escape we went North into town to watch the fireworks. The show was touted as the largest land based fireworks show in the nation so I was excited. We parked about a mile and a half away from where we ended up sitting. We just kinda followed the crowd. Then we sat on a grassy knoll in the middle of a park for about 1.5 hours before the show started. The show was quite good and Addilyn really liked it, see videos below. My only complaint was that the show lasted only about 15 minutes. It was quite huge but I was hoping for a longer show. The next morning we slept in a bit. I went to the gym to do some Tae Kwon Do with a dude who used to go to K-State and now works for NASA as well, he's been out of TKD for about 4 years and so I'm helping him get up to snuff again. Later I changed oil in the Mazda in our parking lot, that's fun. Then in the evening we watched "Batman Begins" in anticipation for "The Dark Knight" which hits theatres on July 18 and which we will likely see two weekends later when my parents are down to watch Addilyn. I'm pretty stoked. Erin said that if we become billionaires then I could become a Batman type superhero, I'm currently accepting donations, but don't tell anyone. So that brings us to today. I just played a round of Disc Golf with a dude from California. I won by one stroke. We have a decent little course near us. It was fun. Now I'm going to have to go and wake up the ladies so we can get ready for small group. We're having hamburgers. Mmmmmm

Moley, Moley, Moley

We are back with another update on all things Johnson (Houston division). Things have been a lot quieter around the apartment the last week and a half. We've done a lot of sleeping and generally catching up. This past weekend was the laziest weekend on record (at least recently). On Friday night we enjoyed a nice drive through downtown, a wonderful dinner at Buca Di Beppo's, and a peaceful walk through midtown. On Saturday, we did a whole lot of nothing. We slept in and laid around most of the morning. In the evening we ventured out to buy me (Erin) some jewelry making supplies (as that is my latest attempt at a hobby). On Sunday we attended church and a newcomer's lunch and then took a glorious nap. It was really quite wonderful.

Addilyn has had a busy week. Mostly she's been polishing her walking skills. She's getting pretty good and with the exception of distraction and changes of terrain, she gets along quite well. When she's not be toddling around, she's been sleeping or crying. For all this fussiness she's pushed through 2 new teeth already this week, one of them a molar. That should get you all caught up.

Now for the pictures:
Here is Addilyn modelling her Daddy's shirt. So graceful and lovely.

She drummed with spoons on the table at Buca's. It was really quite entertaining and made our relatively short wait for food even shorter. Tyler caught this artist shot during one of her "interludes of racket."
Again Addilyn models, this time a lovely new hairstyle. While we still haven't cut it, she is finally allowing me to style it a bit (if I'm quick). This is our latest attempt and it reminds me a lot of Boo from the movie Monsters, Inc.
And this shot is just cute.
And in keeping with a winning format, here are a couple of videos for your amusement. The first is Addilyn as she "shakes her thing." Again Addilyn shows us that some Johnsons can dance (apparently just not Tyler or me). The second illustrates Addilyn's improving walking skills. I call it, "Walking with Sock."