Floating the Brazos

"I think we should float the Brazos!" Dusty had been saying that for over a month, so finally he and David decided to do it. They took a small, inflatable raft and a cooler of beer to float the Brazos River. It was hot, and it took forever. But they had fun! The river wasn't moving very fast, so the kids and I went to pick them up at a bridge further north than where they had left Dusty's car.

Lily's Chair

If Dylan gets down from his highchair before Lily is finished eating, he always goes to her chair to see what he can get his hands on!

Queen of the Kitchen

Lily received this adorable apron as a gift today (thank you Great Grandma Brown!). It says "queen of the kitchen in training." How cute! She was very excited to try it out.

Sweet Corn

There's just something cute about a little kid eating corn on the cob! I didn't let Dylan eat it from the cob, although I'm confident he would be fully capable of it - ever since his top two teeth came in, he's been chomping on my shoulder and everything else his mouth touches. Including his crib, which now has grooves and gouges where he's been chewing on it. So like I said, I'm sure Dylan would have handled corn on the cob just fine... He probably would have taken a chunk right out of the cob itself!

Naptime

I guess it's naptime... Dylan fell asleep in his highchair, and Lily brought him her blanket. What a sweet big sister!

Bedtime Story

We always read books at bedtime, and we've gotten into the habit of reading one of Dylan's board books first so he can have his own special storytime where he's allowed to pull or chew on the pages and get all excited. Then he goes to bed and Lily can have one of her longer stories with paper pages. Sometimes Lily wants to sit in the chair during Dylan's storytime too, but Dylan always pulls her hair, smushes her, smacks her in the face, and generally makes it impossible for Lily to listen to the story because he gets so riled up. It's so funny for us to watch because you'd think she just wouldn't want to sit there anymore, but she loves books so much that she puts up with Dylan's antics and still enjoys the special snuggle time with us.

Ringling Brothers Circus

We went to Barnum & Bailey's Ringling Brothers Circus today, to see the "Greatest Show on Earth!"  Lily and Dylan both loved the show, and we enjoyed seeing the animals at the Animal Open House beforehand.  It was really fun!

Video - Lily Pedaling Tricycle

Tricycle

Lily has been having fun with her tricycle this summer.

Pulling Up to Standing

Dylan has been pulling up to standing all the time lately. It seems like he can reach practically everything now!

Dylan Learning to Sit Down

I took this video when Dylan was first learning to sit back down after he had been standing. The video is so funny because he's trying to sit but just isn't sure how to do it without falling. It wasn't long after this video, though, before he figured out that he can just plop down on his bottom. Also in this video, he's just starting to move his feet while he's holding onto something. So I guess this was the very beginning of him learning to cruise along the furniture. Now he can walk all around the coffee table and go from holding one piece of furniture to switch to another, like the chairs in the kitchen. This video is from July 21st, though, and he hadn't figured all that out yet (I'm writing this on August 14th).

Happy Birthday to Mommy

For my birthday dessert, Dusty and Lily baked me a decadent chocolate cake... Watching them together in the kitchen was almost as great as eating the cake itself!  Lily loves to help in the kitchen, but she doesn't often make things with Daddy, so this was really cute to watch.  The cake was so delicious!  I took a picture of it with the flowers Dusty got me a couple days earlier, just because.  And there's also a picture of Lily putting canned icing on her already-frosted cake - it was kind of a consolation for not having any candles for the birthday cake.  She had asked about candles when we were at the store earlier in the day, but I told her we had some at home.  It turned out that we did NOT have any candles for the cake, and she was really disappointed.  I wasn't disappointed though - I don't think I could blow out that many candles anymore!

Thank you Dusty, I had a great birthday!

Baby Artist

Lily was finished, and we were washing her hands. Dylan saw an opportunity to get his hands on a paintbrush! Notice the lovely artwork on the floor... Good thing the paint just wipes right off the tile!

Home Again

We made it home from vacation, and we spent the next day doing laundry and getting back into the swing of things. Dylan started climbing the stairs and on top of boxes and suitcases, getting into all sorts of things. I was taking a few pictures of him, and he and Lily both wanted to see the camera and the pictures I was taking. So I ended up with some really close-up pictures. Funny!

Heading Home

Here are a few more pictures from the hotel, this time with Uncle Mike and Grandpa Scott. Grandma Jenny was there too, but she must have been the one taking the pictures this time!  While they were in Omaha with us we went to the zoo as you saw in another post, and we spent some time at Coco Key.  We also went to see Toy Story 3 in 3d, which was a very cute movie that Lily loved.  She kept her 3d glasses on the entire time!

It was time to head home on Saturday.  We drove a little more than halfway and stayed at the Hampton Inn in Norman, Oklahoma for the night before arriving home on Sunday, July 11th.  The kids did great in the car on the way home... This time Dylan was tired enough from vacation that even though he slept most of Saturday during the car ride, he still slept all night too!  We had a fantastic visit with family, and we got to do lots of fun things on our vacation.  It was great!

A Second Visit to the Henry Doorly Zoo

On Thursday we made a second trip to the Henry Doorly Zoo, this time with Grandpa Scott, Grandma Jenny, and Uncle Mike.  We spent the whole day at the zoo, seeing nearly all of the exhibits.  We rode the train and the sky lift, and we all really enjoyed the Lied Jungle exhibit.  We were excited to see a baby sea lion and a baby gorilla, and we got a great view of the rhinoceros.