Lotza Goin On: Cars and Car Time, Tyler the Toolman; NASCAR Colby Joe

Lots going on in the Vaughn household since my last post. So bear with me, this could be a long one... and I shouldn't get any complaints since I've heard so many complaints that I haven't kept my blog up-to-date !! HA

Over the last weekend in October, I was able to drive out to Littlefield (my hometown) with Colby. The rest of the family stayed back so Tyler wouldn't have to miss 2 days of school. It was a fun "road trip" for Colby and I. We left that Thursday afternoon and arrived in Littlefield about 10:15. The two of us enjoyed some Dairy Queen ice cream on the way down and some movies as well. But it was fun to arrive and see Nana and Papa waiting up for us. Colby was excited to see them. It's great fun for me to see how my boys look forward to seeing their grandparents. And it's great that they have a memory of their "grandparent's house" whether that's in Littlefield (my parents) or Midland (Kendra's parents). Can't wait for Brady to get a true memory of those 2 places now that he's getting older.

Part of the reason we were going on this trip is my twin brother, Randy, was in town from Benin, West Africa. He had flown in the Tuesday night before we left and then flew to Littlefield the day before we left to meet up with 2 of his kids, Tori and Timo who were already staying with Nana and Papa. And they needed a ride back which we were glad to provide. Anyway, back to our trip.

(By the way, many of the pictures from this trip are on our digital camera that has now been shipped off for repair so sorry about that.)

Friday morning, we stayed around Littlefield for the day. I went with Colby and Timo out to the farm where my Dad does such hard work with the cattle and taking care of Granny (his mother). It was fun for Colby to feed the donkeys while driving around with Papa. I think this is where Colby and Timo began their weekend bond. They had such a good time - it was fun to watch them. Tori stayed back to attend "school" with Nana (the best teacher in the world!) and Garyn (my oldest brother's youngest daughter) who was off school that day. Randy stayed back as well to work on Tori's BD cake since we were celebrating her BD that weekend.

Later that afternoon, Colby, Timo, Garyn, Tori, Randy and I went to the Littlefield High School football pep rally. That was alot of fun for all of us. Even though it was in a new gym (from when I was in school), it did bring back alot of memories for me playing football in high school. Some of the same songs being played by the band, the same format of the pep rally, etc. It was fun. At the end, Randy and I caught up with our high school English teacher who is still teaching. It was a fun bit of time going down memory lane with her as well.

After the pep rally, we prepared for my oldest brother's family to come over from Lubbock. Gary, Toni, Laura and Hailey came over right before dinner. Before dinner, we got to spend time playing NASCAR out in the front yard with Nana and Papa's coolest new toy: the battery-operated car !! As you can see below, Colby absolutely loved it !! He's a big fan of these things but seemed to really enjoy his time that day.



On Saturday, we went to a ranch in Lubbock for Tori's BD party. There were horse rides for the kids, a hayride (that did wonders for my allergies!!) and included a party right there in the barn. My cousin Amy and her 2 kids and my aunt Ann came as well so we all had a great time. I think Tori (the cowgirl queen!) had a fabulous time. It was the perfect party for her. Randy also did a great job with the horse cake as usual. I wouldn't expect any less. The rest of the day was spent hanging out at Gary and Toni's, watching football and having some good family time together.

Sunday was spent in Lubbock for church (Colby and Timo had a blast going to class together), lunch at Burger King (hey, that's what sounded good to Randy who had just been in Africa a week before so that was his treat!) and the rest of the evening back in Littlefield preparing for our trip home. The drive home on Monday was very fun for me because I'd been looking forward to some good "twin talk" with my brother. It was a great 6 hour conversation that you just don't get when someone lives in another continent. What a great weekend it was!!!

So now we get to "this" weekend (it's almost over now!) and this was something I had been looking forward to as well. Now that I had done the whole "road trip" with Colby, I wanted something fun that Tyler and I could do together - just the 2 of us. And since Tyler was so into Handy Manny from Playhouse Disney, I knew he'd enjoy working with tools of his own. So we took a trip to Home Depot for one of their "Kids Workshops" that are done the first Saturday of each month. We arrived about 10 minutes before 9:00 and I told Tyler that he was going to have to ask someone where to go since he was a big boy. And it was so cute watching him with confidence going up to a Home Depot employee and saying "uh, excuse me, where is the kid's workshop, please?" After we started to follow the directions that we were given, I could hear the employees say "well, that was just too cute." I agreed. Tyler was VERY excited and couldn't contain himself. We had to wait til 9:00 for it to start and he was very patient as Daddy did some other shopping. But soon, he said, "Dad, maybe we should find the workshop" so I knew it was time. The project this month was making a picture frame that hinged together. Admittedly, they said this was one of their toughest projects because of all the small little parts. However, I was SO incredibly proud of Tyler who was diligent and patient (for the most part) as he followed directions and worked his way through the project. I did help a little bit but this was definitely a "Daddy, I wanna do it all by myself" kind of day. He was so cute as you can see from the pictures below. Very proud of his final product. And I have to thank Home Depot for helping us get through the Halloween phase since they provided us some Christmas stickers for the frame. Tyler LOVES Christmas and this was just the ticket for him that morning.




















After we finished the project, we continued shopping. I showed Tyler what I wanted for my birthday or Christmas (HA) and even bought him his very own safety goggles and work gloves. He was loving this trip!! I think he's a Home Depot fan for life !!

So that's the latest from Smooth Johnny's world. Brady is doing great too!! I don't have any great pictures of him but he's just so cute, no photo would do him justice. November is a fun month for all of us as we prepare for the holiday season: November 7th - Cars DVD comes out!!; November 8th - my birthday; November 16th - Kendra's BD; and then there are several family members BD in this month as well. So Happy Birthday Randy, Tori, Aunt Moni and Hailey.

NOTE: I just had to update the blog to include my twin brother's BD !! Sorry Randy - guess I wasn't filling the twin power to think about you!! ;-)

Until then, only 50 more shopping days til Christmas !! Ho Ho Ho !!!

God bless you all,
SJ