Hooray for Little Rock!

That title should really say "Hooray for Caterpillar Sending Uncle Nate and Aunt Krista to Little Rock So We Can See Them Way More Often Because We Miss Them and They're Awesome!" But that seemed a little wordy to me. :)

Krista was on spring break this last week and was able to come spend a few days of it with us here in Dallas. This was a huge blessing for two reasons. #1: We love her. #2: This was one of Russ's busiest/most-stressful/most-sleep-deprived/craziest weeks this semester. So it was very nice for Garrett and I to have a distraction to keep US busy and not thinking how we missed spending time with Daddy. We went shopping for wedding dresses (for our baby brother's upcoming nuptials) and played outside a lot. It was nice to just relax and spend time together, not trying to cram in a bunch of outings. So here are a few pics of our fun times together.

Using G's new yard tools

"I'll do it myself!"

Playing with Aunt Krista...this happened a LOT. :)

Randomness

It's not Wednesday, so I won't go completely wordless but pretty close. Here are some fun pictures. :)

Who doesn't love Cheetos? (And the Rangers!)

Painting on the patio

Getting "cleaned up" after painting on the patio. He loves being sprayed with the hose!

Just a regular day of play in the backyard.

I just love this picture. You can see his handsome smile and eyelashes on his cheeks.

Garrett's attempt at a self-picture. Not too bad for a 2 year-old.

Tub art. :) Garrett got some tub crayons from his BFF Ashley for his birthday and now he draws all through his bath time. This is just one sample of his work.

Dallas Zoo

A couple of days after enjoying the aquarium in Houston, we caught up with Jason, Corrie and Kaylie for a trip to the Dallas Zoo. Even though we've lived here for nearly 2 years, this was our first visit! Garrett is finally at an age where he enjoys the exhibits and thinks the animals are funny. Plus, he can now imitate so many of their sounds--my favorite being the monkey. Ooh ooh ah ah! :) If anyone local sees this post and hasn't been to the zoo since they added the Wilds of Africa...GO!! And go early. We discovered that the animals are most active and interactive right after the zoo opens and they've been fed. We got quite the show from a young gorilla who loved entertaining us. As always, it was fun to see Garrett and Kaylie together. She likes to show him how to do things and lead him places, which works out well since he loves to be shown how to do things and being led places. :) We're working on teaching him how to say Kaylie but it may be awhile. He's still perfecting the name Lucy!

At the very first exhibit we came to...I think they were called Mandrils (??) but to me they are all called Rafiki after the one from the Lion King. :)

A lot of time was spent with the kiddos in Kaylie's wagon, but the rest of the time we walked. Sometimes hand in hand. So cute!

Our attempt at a family picture. With a 2 year old. Ha!

This guy was cracking us up! He would roll around and throw himself at the window. One of the zookeepers said that he loooves an audience. You could tell!

Riding the monorail. Garrett loves to say Choo Choo and even though this "train" didn't have a whistle, we Choo Choo'd anyways.

Another cute hand-holding picture. Sorry for the booty shot Corrie, but I forgot to crop us out of it and now I'm too lazy to do so. :) 

Our little Nemo-fanatic hung out at the giant Koi pond for quite awhile. He tried to drag Kaylie closer but she isn't such a fan of the big fish. Once they both started to dig in the dirt instead of watching the fish we decided it was time to move on.

Get her, Garrett!!

Goat feeding time! Our little man is so brave, he walked right up like he's been feeding goats his whole life and gave them one piece of food right after the other. Goats love him. Yodel-lay-heee-hoooooooo!!

Quick Trip to Houston

Since this week is Spring Break for Russ, we decided to make a visit to Grammy and Grandad (and Aunt Hillary!) in Houston. It was fun seeing Garrett chase after the dogs and watch him go up and down...and up and down...and up and down...the stairs. :) He's really mastered them! We had planned to go to the rodeo that was in town but a massive storm kept us inside and we opted for the Downtown Aquarium instead. The restaurant was so cool! You can watch the big fish and sting rays swimming while you eat. The little man loved seeing the fish but mostly wanted to get down and RUN in the actual aquarium. And he loved saying Choo Choo while we rode the train through the shark exhibit. We wrapped it all up with a trip to the neighborhood park in the morning before heading back home. Thanks for a fun weekend!

Reading up on the latest baseball stats so he can draft with Aunt Hillary and his Daddy.

At the aquarium looking at a ray of some kind with Grammy.

A blurry picture, but you can see how the fish tank goes up and over our heads.

Ah, yes, I see now. :)

Turtles!

Checking out the rays from underneath.

He's thinking about touching it...not sure if he actually did.

On the train--Choo Choo!!

Enjoying a clown cone from Baskin Robbins. Yum.

Gotta do the slide, especially when you can get your Daddy to go down too!

Wordless Wednesday