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

Wordless Wednesday Once Again

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Videos Galore

We have a number of cute videos to post so I decided to just dump them all in one big extravaganza. :)

Russ and I were playing a game of table tennis on the wii a couple of weeks ago and Garrett HAD to "play" too. He really thought he was kicking our tails!

Attempt #1 at taking a video clip of Garrett enjoying his birthday present.

Attempt #2 went a lot better.

And finally, here he is horsing around with his new couch.

2 Years Old!!!

I cannot believe that Russ and I are the parents of a 2 year old child. Technically, we could stop calling him a toddler and start calling him a preschooler. Whoa. And anyone around him for more than a few minutes can tell that he is, indeed, two years old. :) He fussed at me big-time today when I made him hand over the dishwashing soap to be purchased at Walmart. For real. But overall we have a sweet, snuggly boy who loves to sit in a lap and watch Diego or read a book. We had a nice day at home on his birthday (and almost his entire birthday week, thanks to ice and snow). He opened his presents from us--a new Rangers hat and a flip-out couch with Elmo and friends on it. And later that night he got another present...strep throat. :) At least that's what the Dr discovered when we took him in the next morning after a rough rough rough first night of being 2 years old. Things started looking up again when his Aunt Krista and Uncle Nate arrived from Little Rock. He was still not feeling the greatest but had enough energy to attack a birthday present they brought and open it without permission. Ha! And by Sunday (Super Bowl Day!) he was back to his normal self--thank you Lord for antibiotics!!! So despite the illness and some rocky patches, he had a fantastic birthday weekend and extra attention from our guests. With no further ado...here are the 100s of pictures I took. (I did actually have over 100 pictures on the camera but several were taken by Garrett himself because he's figured out how to turn it on and off and click an occasional picture of the wall or my leg. Not really worth posting, trust me.)

He loves his flip-out couch but it makes his hair so static-filled!

The new Rangers hat. He picked it out himself!

Sticker time with Daddy.

Balloons and extended Aunt Krista time...what could be better?

Oh, and throw in the Super Bowl with the Packers beating the stinky Steelers too! Yay!!

Snacking on his couch. Ahhh...this is the life. :)