Fourth of July Weekend

We went up to Gram and Grandpa's house for the Fourth of July. My main motivation to get us out of town is that their town is strict about fireworks. And since Autumn still has an aversion to fireworks ("I heard the fireworks, so I cried.") I figured we should be away from the house.

On Saturday the 3rd we went out to dinner and then to the lookout at the airport. There was a storm rolling in so it was very windy.

July 2010 - Airport from Deb on Vimeo.

On the 4th we met up with my friend Tracy and her daughters at a local church playground. Unfortunately it was very hot inside. And of course, the higher you climbed, the worse it got. I stayed on the ground and I was miserable. We tried to tolerate it, but ended up going to a McDonald's to play instead.





You can see on the photo below that Autumn is glistening with sweat.



We left on Monday the 5th and stopped at the McDonald's in Waco that everyone else stops at as well. Here she is waiting for Daddy to come back with food.





And then ICE CREAM!



Also, the 4th of July marks 10 years together for Richard and I. We went bowling and ate pizza to celebrate.

Wildlife Park

In honor of Richard's birthday we drove up to DFW to go to a wildlife park. It was really cool and everyone loved it.





Once we were in the park we put Autumn's car seat in the back and let her move around freely.







Here we are eating lunch halfway through the tour. This was just before we saw the zebras and the giraffes.









It was so awesome to feed this guy. What a rush. I had a palm full of food and his mouth just took all the food almost at once. I'd tell Richard, "Give me more!" and he'd put more food in my other hand.





Autumn wasn't scared of this guy at all. I was really impressed. I can't remember if she touched him or not, but she was just thrilled to be so close to him.



This was just an awesome experience and we went on a day that wasn't scorching so we really lucked out. We will definitely be going back, hopefully next year.

Easter Weekend

Gram and Grandpa came down for the Easter weekend. On Friday we decorated eggs for the Easter Bunny. It was Autumn's first time and she seemed to enjoy it.



Here is her fake smile, but she really was having fun.





On Saturday we were doing a little prep work for the next day's meal and Mom had turned on a stove top burner. However, she turned on the wrong one and almost set this box of cake mix on fire. It was pretty smoky in the kitchen.



Saturday night I wasn't feeling well and ended up going to the emergency room, and then was admitted for the night. I didn't come home until after lunch, so my Mom was the host to G.G. and Grandpa who came over to spend Easter with the family. It was a really big bummer, but Autumn was happy to be surrounded by both sets of grandparents.

Autumn and Grandpa going for a walk.



Three generations!

Spring Break, Part 3

SNOW? During Spring Break? The first day of Spring was March 20, and sometime in the early morning of Sunday, the 21st, it snowed!

Spring Break 2010, Part 2

One of the main reasons we went up to Grapevine during Spring Break was to go to the Fort Worth Botanic Garden to see the butterflies. We went to see Butterflies in the Garden. During these certain months they release a large number of butterflies each day. We got there in the mid-morning and had to wait in line until it was our appointed time. Walking in you had to pass under this huge blower that dispenses humid air. IT WAS SO GROSS! And it was loud, so Autumn was sort of thrown out of sorts for a bit. And there were lots of people so she just didn't know what to think. The whole habitat was really humid, so I was uncomfortable. Luckily, Dad took my purse, and Mom took Autumn. That way I could take pictures of Autumn and I wasn't as uncomfortable in the humidity because I wasn't carrying my purse. We stayed in there for about 20 min but it was really crowded so we had to wait for the people to get their fill and leave. Once it had calmed down a bit we could look around better. Unfortunately, Autumn got buzzed by a few large butterflies and she didn't like that. She did enjoy the butterflies from afar, though.











After the butterfly exhibit, we went outside to look at the gardens.







She had a lot of fun running around on the grass and looking at the different flowers.

Spring Break 2010

Autumn and I drove up to see Gram and Grandpa for Autumn's Spring Break. My parents had just had a tree cut down from the front yard, so Autumn wanted to play on it.

The itsy bitsy spider crawled up the water spout

Down came the rain and washed the spider OUT!



Out came the sun and dried up all the rain!

Cold Ducks!

The next day we went to feed the ducks with Gram and Grandpa. It was much COLDER then we thought it was going to be.

This duck had this bright blue stripe that I'd never seen before.

Cold and WINDY!

Back home to play in the backyard

Jan 2010 - Windy, Cold Ducks from Deb on Vimeo.