Botanical gardens X 2

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That was Cole's contribution to this post:)

When we travelled with Russell to Fort Worth in the past we could stay at the hotel and play or make "field trips" to Target but now that Cole is older, boredom sets in fast.  We were going to be leaving at 11:30 that morning but the zoo and museum didn't open until 10 so I was kinda in a pickle of what to do.  Thankfully our friends recommended going back to the botanical gardens and visiting the Japanese Tea Garden that had already closed the previous day when we went.  I figured we could burn at least an hour there but was surprised that we were there for almost 2!  We thankfully beat the school field trips and were there with only a few other people.  It was beautiful and feeding fish was so much fun!  We will definitely go back there in the future!

 Posing for the camera

One of many lovely waterfalls

The awesome and hungry fish 

Chasing the thieving squirrels who like fish food 

 Serenity

Such a handsome little booger! :)

Fort Worth trip

Russell had a 2 day training in Fort Worth a few weeks ago so Cole and I decided to tag along for a mini family vacay.  The first afternoon we went swimming (which was rather cold!) and visited the botanical garden.  I thought there was going to be a playground there but there was only this fake log to climb in and out of but we still had fun looking at the plants, squirrels and huge turtles in a pond.  Plus we got to touch a giant frog's bottom and everyone knows that's what makes or breaks a vacation!  The next morning when Russell went to class, Cole and I met a friend of ours with her little boy at the zoo.  Dear Waco Zoo, you are nice but Fort Worth Zoo kicks your butt (plus they have more shade).  Besides seeing tons of awesome animals, we also had our first train ride and first carousel ride with Mama only getting minor motion sickness (when did I get so old?!).  Cole also made a new friend and tells everyone that he went to the zoo with Kyle.  I hope we get to visit with them again soon! 

Easter 2012

 I love Easter primarily for remembering Christ's sacrifice but would be lying if I didn't also include the material things like Cadbury eggs and Easter clothing (working in a church nursery is a great place to see all the littles decked out in their Easter outfits!).  And even though I'm no longer little, I always feel the urge to buy myself a new dress:)  We spent Easter weekend this year with both our families on Saturday as Russell and I both had to work on Sunday.  Cole was a little more excited about hunting eggs this year over last year but wanted to sit down and get the money out of the first egg and not much else!  He's still not a big candy fan so more chocolate for Mama the money eggs were really fun (I do offer him dairy free candy choices and he says "yuck" and "spicy" but he has started to like gummy worms). 

Sitting still for a brief second with the great grandparents (my Mom-ma and Pop-pa) 

Playing outside with cousin 

Smiling with our Easter goodies 

"Where did the Easter bunny go?" 

Acutally hunting eggs!! 

Wow, the best picture of them together.  I don't think I will be opening my professional photography studio anytime soon!

Randomness

Here are some random shots from the last few months:

Helping fold socks aka pretending to be a bird

Sleeping in aka pretending to be Peter Pan

Finally stopping to pose for the camera aka pretending to look just like Dada

Painting with our feet aka pretending Mama's kitchen floor is clean

Gone fishing

This is catch up post number one of I don't know....When Cole was born, one of Russell's friends got him a spiderman fishing pole that finally got the dust knocked off of it in April.  Since then, we have already lost 2 hookless lures in the tank (he will proudly tell you that his red fish is in the bottom of Pop-pa's tank) and have practiced casting in the front yard a bazillion times. This time cousin even went with us but hasn't quite grabbed the obsession yet.  Mama unfortuanately is a poor fisherwoman (hence Dada in the picture giving the lesson) but I like his technique of smacking the water to I guess knock a fish out.  That's probably the only way I would get one!

Bluebonnets 2012

I'm really excited to finally have some good bluebonnet pictures!  The first year the flowers were so trampled by the time we went and then it started raining 5 minutes after we started taking pictures.  Last year there were hardly any flowers but this year so many beautiful areas!!  I am eternally grateful to the lady at the gatehouse who told Cole there was a playground in the park because he cooperated and posed for us so he could go play afterwards:)  The only thing I would change is going earlier or later in the day so it wouldn't be so bright and we could get some pictures sans sunglasses even though he is one cool cat with them!

Country Day

Now that the weather is nicer, we have been living outside.  Well, we eat and sleep inside, much to someones dismay but most of the rest of the time we are in the backyard, front yard, park, on a walk, on our bike, or in the country.  Like I said before, we like to see and feed cows when we are in the country just from a distance so these close encounters are little scary!  This time we also brought a kite with us and the boy got to fly a kite for the first time.  The wind was perfect (not puny and not too strong either) and he really did a good job holding on (we were afraid he was going to let go and it was going to "end up in the next county" as Pop-pa put it!).  I think we'll need to buy another one for someone else before our next trip:)  What better way to end a fun morning than with lunch and a popsicle at Dairy Queen?!