Happy Birthday to Nathan!

I just can't seem to do a post without pictures, but this time there are only a few. How you can you talk about a birthday without sharing pictures?

We had a fun day celebrating Nathan's birthday. McKay and I took balloons to Nathan at work. McKay LOVED the balloons and couldn't stop laughing as they bounced off each other as we walked into the office. Nathan brought the balloons home, and in my attempt to get McKay to laugh with them again, I popped all of them but the foil one (didn't pay attention to how close they were to the ceiling fan). He still loves the one that's left!

McKay had so much fun helping open the presents. This is his first-ever present-opening experience:

I am so grateful for Nathan, and for the magnificent husband and father that he is!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NATHAN!!!!

1/200th of a Century

My baby is six months old today! He is growing so fast and is so fun to play with. His new favorite game is "Peek-a-boo," he sits up by himself, he rolls and rolls, and he pulls himself forward by grabbing the carpet. We think tooth #2 is soon to appear. We love him so much and wonder how we ever survived without him!

Here is how his six-month photo shoot at home went (his outfit says I Love My Mummy):

Last Trip Pictures (I can't promise!)

We visited a pumpkin patch just down the road from Suzanne's house. We found the outing to be another great photo-op.

Sea World

We rode many of the rides at Sea World. My favorite ride that day was Journey to Atlantis with my sister and not quite 3 1/2 year old niece, Abi. Abi insisted she wanted to go on the ride (she barely met the height requirement). She was so brave! Here we are on the front row:

Feeding the dolphins---McKay looks like he's ready to jump in (on the left):

If you look closely in this picture, it looks like McKay is actually holding the fish out for the dolphin to eat:

McKay met a horse for the first time (a very pretty Clydesdale):

I love when I can get a picture of a dolphin or whale mid-jump:

McKay was mesmerized by the Shamu show:

The Zoo, The Alamo and The Riverwalk (All in one day!)

No comments:

Corpus Christi

Having never been on board an aircraft carrier before, I wasn't sure what to expect. I remember Nathan talking about a tour he had of one when he was on his mission in France, and I've seen plenty on T.V. and in movies, but I still couldn't believe how big the ship was.

I was also surprised at how small the crew's sleeping quarters were. (The picture isn't so great, but you can see the tiny bed boxes behind Nathan.)

Nathan's favorite part of the ship was the flight deck. Our camera batteries died before we made it up to the top and our other family members with cameras were watching a movie about a fighter pilot, but we were at least able to get a picture in front of this airplane:

After our tour of the USS Lexington, we spent some time on the beach so McKay could experience the ocean for the first time. I'm glad we were able to use my sister's camera for these pictures:

Gruene, TX and More

We spent a few hours strolling down the streets and through the stores of this cute little town. Gruene Hall is the oldest dance hall in Texas and is where George Strait got his start. Somehow I ended up not getting a picture of the actual hall, but we got a picture of us standing just to the side of it.

This is how my ten-month-old niece, Elena, "hangs out" in her stroller:

She is a little shy and likes to pull her headband down over her eyes so she can see out a little, but so no one can see her. Several people we passed kept stopping to let us know her headband had "fallen" over her eyes. So cute!

One of my favorite things about Gruene---a charming old mansion that has been converted into a B&B:

Men and babies:

After being out in the humid heat for a few hours, we decided it was time to spend some time in the air-conditioned shopping outlets. My brother-in-law, Lee, discovered this grotesque spider in the bushes nearby:

This is a Texas Yellow Garden Spider. An article on the internet states, "There is hardly a yard in South Texas in summer that does not possess one or several garden spiders, often called the "black-and-yellow garden spider." I don't think we'll be moving there. Sorry, Suzanne!

I need to end this post with a cute picture. Here are two little cousins loving to be together:

Baby's First Flight

Waiting for take off....at 6:00 am

McKay and Daddy checking out the plane and the busy people below during our layover in Denver.

Just trying to take it all in.

McKay did really well on all of our flights. I was pretty anxious and worried about how he would handle it. Again, all my worry was for naught. He was a great passenger and was even given his first set of wings by a flight attendant.

Toothless No More

McKay's first tooth finally made it's appearance last week, the day before we left for Texas. It's been fun to watch more and more of it appear. I wonder when the second one will show!?!?

Texas

A cute welcome sign my sister and nieces made.

We returned home late last night from a fabulous trip to San Antonio to visit my sister, Suzanne, and her family. They were gracious enough to let us and my parents stay for 9 days/8 nights. The time went by way too fast! We had a great time and were kept very busy visiting the nearby attractions. The first night there we ate yummy food at a down home Texas BBQ restaurant, Rudy's. The next day we took a stroll through the quaint German town, Gruene. On Sunday, we took a drive to the Gulf of Mexico and toured a decommissioned aircraft carrier, the USS Lexington, in Corpus Christi. Parts of the movie Pearl Harbor were filmed there. On Monday, we went to the San Antonio zoo, toured the Alamo and took our first walk along the Riverwalk. (I will add more comments about these places when I post the pictures.) We shopped and worked on a few projects during the week and returned to the Riverwalk on Thursday night for a riverboat cruise. On Friday, we went to Sea World. While I like Sea World in San Diego, I have to say that it is better in San Antonio. (Isn't everything bigger and better in Texas?) We rode a few roller coasters there. They had "Jack's Frightmare Forest," which was pretty good as far as "spook alleys" go with a frightening chainsaw ending. There were spooky clowns, werewolves and zombies walking around Sea World that totally creeped me out.

I've considered making a slideshow out of the 900+ pictures we have (between our camera, my parents' and my sister's), but I don't have the patience to even load 1/10th of them and I'm not sure anyone has the patience to view them. So each day, for the next few days, I'll be posting a few of the best ones.

My sisters who live in Las Vegas made the trip so much easier for us by dropping us off and picking us up from the airport. They rock! (All my sisters do.) THANK YOU, THANK YOU and THANK YOU!!!