Monkeys and Turtles and Sharks, Oh My!

In case you haven't heard, it's summertime in Dallas, Texas and it is HOT.  As of today, I think we've had something like 55 days of over 100 degree weather - uggh!  When I lived in Connecticut, I always said I preferred extreme heat to intense cold, but this weather is starting to make me question that - a few days of blizzard sounds pretty good right now....

Anyway, because the heat makes it difficult to spend too much time outside on the weekends, we've been trying to find fun toddler activities, besides the neighborhood pool.  One weekend, we decided to head to downtown Dallas to the Dallas World Aquarium.  There are tanks of swimming fish, sharks, and other maritime creatures, as you would expect from an aquarium, but all of those tanks are located in a huge tropical rainforest, where you can wander among the monkeys and birds, come face to face with a sloth, and see giant turtles wandering in the bushes nearby.

At first, I think Jack was a little intimidated by everything that was going on around him, but that quickly turned to excitement as he began to take in everything that surrounded him.  He particularly liked spotting the turtles in the bushes, watching the monkeys swing from branch to branch with nothing separating him from them, and strangely enough staring at the crocodile who was really doing nothing - I could hardly pull him away.

Here we are watching the monkeys and birds:

 

One of the coolest parts of the aquarium (in my opinion) was the shark tunnel.  They had basically carved out a tunnel under one of the aquarium pools, where you could see fish and giant sharks swimming all around you, from head to toe.  Unfortunately, Jack disagreed with me.  Just like the white tiger at the zoo, I think the sharks were a little too close for comfort, so we did a little bit of a speed walk through the shark tunnel.  This was a smaller tunnel, without sharks, so we were OK stopping to watch the fishies:

Finally, these have nothing to do with the aquarium, but what could be cuter than a toddler getting really excited while putting tupperware on his head?  For Jack, sometimes, it is truly the little things that make life fun.  Thanks Jack, for making Mommy remember to stop and enjoy those small things too!

 

Birthdays, pools, family, but no fireworks...

You know you've waited to long to write your blog when you have trouble remembering all of the details you wanted to write about.  Oh well - we had a wonderful 4th of July weekend and I'll try to remember it as best I can...

Our long weekend began on Thursday night.  A couple of days earlier, my dad celebrated his big 60th birthday so I wanted to be sure we did something special for him when they arrived.  I decorated the house with balloons, streamers and all sorts or 60th birthday paraphernalia.  We opened a nice bottle of wine, I made a couple of appetizers - dates with prosciutto and blue cheese and puff pastry bites with cream cheese and pepper jelly - not bad if I do say so myself.  For dinner, Tommy grilled a pork loin, I made sweet potatoes with pecans and blue cheese and we used Greta's homegrown tomatoes for Louisiana to make a yummy caprese salad.  We finished the night with a delicious ice cream cake.  It wasn't much, but I hope we made the day special - I love you, Dad!

We had a relaxing Friday.  Tommy had to work, and the rest of us were content to just relax.  Dad and I made a trip to the grocery store to buy the ingredients for his homemade pizzas and we all took a family outing to the homebrew/wine store so my dad could pick up some supplies.  We pulled out the sprinkler Nana gave to Jack and he really enjoyed playing in the water on a hot Texas summer day:

(trouble with a capital "T")

(trying to drink the sprinkler water was really fun!)

(drying off with Grandpa)

When it's over 100 degrees every day, there isn't too much you can do outside in Texas, but Jack loves the water, so Saturday morning we decided to take him to the neighborhood pool to swim with Grandpa.  His favorite thing to do was to stand on the shallow ledge (just a few inches deep), run to the other side of the ledge and hurl himself off into the deeper water, just testing to see if Grandpa would make it there in time to catch him.  Of course, he always did!

After the pool and naptime, we were lucky enough to get a visit from Nana, Papa, Aunt Brandi and Cousin Lincoln (Uncle Ryan was officiating a wedding out of state).  The boys had a busy afternoon.  They played in the sprinkler:

Compared belly buttons:

Chowed down on some watermelon (they may have also had some yummy Rudy's barbeque for dinner before this)

And of course needed a bath after all of the fun!

We all had a great day and you can bet Jack slept well that night!

On Sunday we ventured into Dallas to see Mom's cousin Terrie and her husband Boyd and ended the day with dinner out at Gloria's.  Jack was pretty well-behaved the whole day, other than deciding he needed to pick up everything on every table within reach at Boyd and Terrie's house.  They are probably still finding random out-of-place knick knacks that we stashed on the fireplace mantle to keep them out of his reach!
Monday was the 4th of July and, while we didn't see any fireworks, it was a big day for another reason - Jack's first trip to the movie theater!  I had planned on starting the day off with breakfast at Breadwinners, but they decided to close for the 4th of July, so we headed to another, lesser breakfast establishment - still good, but not the Breadwinners I had been craving.  After breakfast, we headed to the first morning showing of the day of Cars 2.  I know at 19 months old he was probably a little too young for a full movie, but since he loves the first Cars movie so much, I had to try.  Jack successfully sat through the 45 minutes of waiting, commercials, and previews, but decided a few minutes into the movie that he was ready to move around.  Tommy, Grandpa and I took turns walking the halls of the movie theater and bringing him back in to watch a few more minutes of the movie before he was ready to go again.  Good thing everyone else in the theater had young, restless kids as well!  He ended up falling asleep on Grandpa's lap in the aisle right as the movie ended.  Not sure he will remember much of Cars 2 until it comes out on video, but I'm still glad we went.  That afternoon, Mom and I took a shopping trip to the mall for my birthday while the boys hung out at home and made another trip to the swimming pool. 

Not exactly a traditional 4th of July with fireworks and parades, but Jack did wear a Captain America t-shirt, so I guess that counts, right?!  I'm really glad my parents came up to Dallas for the long weekend.  It had been too long since we'd seen them and we had a great visit!

Family Time in Cajun Country

For the last weekend in June, we headed south to Louisiana for a long weekend.  This visit was special for a couple of reasons.  First, most importantly, the main reason for our visit - Tommy's cousin Lindsey was getting married.  Second, it just happened that Tommy, Brandi and his 2 stepsisters, Tiffany and Emily would all be visiting at the same time.  For anyone who doesn't know, this is a very special event because it is so rare that everyone is able make it to the same place at the same time.  This was Jack's first time to meet Aunt T and Uncle Rob, and we were really looking forward to seeing everyone!

We arrived late Thursday night late, as usual - just in time to head to bed.  Friday was the day of the big wedding.  Jack looked adorable in his suit and Lindsey was a beautiful bride.  I promise we had planned to take lots of pictures, but Jack decided to throw a fit over Mommy breaking a fruit bar in half for him right before the wedding procession started, so Tommy and Jack watched the wedding from the "cry room," while I didn't trust myself to take a photo without flashing or disrupting the wedding in some other way, so there you go.  No pictures of the reception either - we had a great time seeing all of the family, and Jack and Lincoln really enjoyed spinning in circles on the dance floor until they got dizzy and fell down.  It was entertaining, I assure you!  Here's one of the only pictures I have from Friday - the cousins hanging out while the parents got ready for the wedding:

Tiffany and Rob arrived on Saturday (it was so great to finally meet Rob!) and we spent a quiet day enjoying some family time, which of course involved a trip to the barn to see all of the animals.  We fed the ducks...

And the cows, of course...

Tom and Greta's good friends Ned and Gretchen joined us for dinner and Greta made some delicious crawfish etouffee for dinner.  Tiffany and Emily made some delicious fig and prosciutto appetizers and eggplant bruschetta - yum!

 (Our little family)

 (Brandi, Ryan and cousin Lincoln)

 (Tiffany and Rob)

 (Emily and David)

(and the ones who started it all, Tom and Greta)

Our family had to head out on Sunday morning, as did Emily and David, but we wanted to take some family pictures while we had everyone together.  Momom and Popop joined us for breakfast, too, so we had all 4 generations present!  Emily has been perfecting her photography skills for the cross country RV trip she and David are taking, so she took some great pictures of everyone.  I have so many favorites, please excuse the number of photos I post here - I couldn't choose!

First, we actually got the little guys to sit still in the rocker for a few shots:

 

Then, the small family pics:

 

  

Everyone together:

Plus Momom and Popop:

And probably my favorite picture of the day - I absolutely love the personality in this photo!

We certainly don't get to be together nearly often enough, so it was so nice to have everyone together - even if only for a day or so.  Love and miss you guys!