Moody Gardens!

Grams and PaPa are still in town... yay! And we all packed up and drove to Galveston yesterday for a little Moody Gardens action. And by "a little" I mean a 14 hour day from start to finish!!! The kids were A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, and everyone enjoyed every second of it. They bought us a year long membership, so we are definitely going back this summer- and maybe to the Festival of Lights at Christmas! :) And MAYBE a certain someone's 3rd birthday party??

We kicked the day off with the Dinosaur exhibit. Ada loooves Dinosaurs (see her stegosaurus in her hands?)- she was a little iffy about it all at first-
... but by the end of it was totally into them all! She said later on that night that this was her favorite part of the day.

PaPa gave my back a break and carried the 15 pound baby around in the papoose nearly all day! Dax loved it- he's already passed out 15 minutes in-

Roar!

Next came the Bones exhibit. Ada colored a skeleton, and for some strange reason pretended to take bites out of it. When asked what her skeleton tastes like, she said "It tastes like vitamins!" That girl cracks me up!!!

On to the aquarium. Dax loooooved this one! (12 weeks old)

"Take my picture. NO! DON'T TAKE MY PICTURE!" The words of my Ada. PaPa shared Dax for a split second with Grams-

Family picture in the shark diving cage! Ahhhhhh!

Daddy and Dax-

Lunch time- too excited to eat much.

On to Dora the Explorer 4D!!!!!! It was a 3D movie with smells, sprays of water, and wind! It was intense- just the way Ada likes it.

Rainforest- happy boy!!!!!

Family picture- Ada is looking for monkeys.

Palm Beach waterpark!!!! What a blast!

Wave pool-

Faux beach- much nicer than the real Galveston beach.

We were disgusting and exhausted when we finally made it home- and slept like rocks last night!

Summerrrrrrrrrrrrr! :)

Summer is so awesome! Casey took the day off of work today, and we walked up to the pool for the first time this summer...

Walking home-

Ada was so pooped, she passed out wrestling gators in her room!

Brave Face

Dax in the papoose. Ada in the jogging stroller (in a fairy dress). Murphy on his retractable leash. Me with my brace face on:

*Thank you random neighbor for documenting my gallant effort!*

Thank you Lord,

For giving me a little girl that it is IMPOSSIBLE to stay mad at for more than 2 minutes because she's so darn cute, sweet, and funny!
Amen

While I was taking the pictures of her destroyed room, she kept grinning and saying "CHEEEEEEEZE!" And after I let her out of her room, she asked for her favorite snack (a heart sandwhich and berries), and is watching Monsters, Inc and giggling her head off... telling me how happy she is. I love her to pieces, and will NOT be putting her down for a nap tomorrow (or ever again)!

Dear Lord,

Please help me resist the urge to give my 2 year old away to a loving home.
Amen.

Ada plays hard at naptime, but *used* to crash and sleep like a rock after about an hour of playing. Lately, however, she's been keeping busy and staying awake for hours. It's been hit or miss if she even actually falls asleep. This is how I found her room after 3 hours of "napping" today. A wreck. Toys disassembled. Moved. Things much too far above her reach moved and played with. I thought I had done an excellent job of toddler-proofing this room, and it had proven perfect up until today. I was so mad at her- I took all of her toys out and left her in there. It's now been 3.5 hours and I'll let her out soon. Just need a few more minutes. It's been a hair-pulling type of day.

She even climbed on her bookshelf and peeled off half of a wall decal. I spent an entire day on this wall of circle decals making it perfect. Whoda-thunk that a 2 year old would have the desire to inspect it, discover it's "stickers," and peel it off???
To top it off she re-applied them on her bookshelf.

Here's to tomorrow (and the rest of the summer) improving!!!! :/

Minutiae

Well, I'm the champion documentarian of life's minutiae. Birds in the garden. Pictures of Dax staring at me with the exact same expression that I posted the day before. Ada's random phrases. A garage sale. But when it comes to blogging about the major stuff, I stink! I even stink about getting good photos of it all. I guess it's just all too exciting to deal with taking the camera out. So this post encompasses SEVERAL huge things that have been going on that I have hardly taken any pictures of!

First- some minutiae. Ada was being a devil with her crayons (carpet, walls, and furniture- all tagged within 24 hours). So she got grounded from coloring for 1 week. The following decoupage was our artistic outlet to get us through until we can get the crayons back out!

OK, on to the major events. Grams and PaPa are visiting from Dubai! They brought loads of gifts over and got to meet Dax for the first time. We have several fun things planned throughout their visit, so I'll *try* to get a post or two in about those. :)
Casey's THIRTIETH BIRTHDAY was on Wednesday! We had a huge party at the house, and I took maybe 5 pictures. But I did get a few shots of the set up, so here are those with the few party photos, too:
Ada dictated the message for his cookie cake that we got him on his actual birthday mid-week-

My work BFF Caitlin (and Ada's BFF's mommy)-

John in his 70s track suit ready for some competitive beer pong:

Brent Schilhab with his man purse:

Me and MiMi-

This is how I found the poor Mario pinata when I woke up the next day-

There were so many other awesome people that came to celebrate Casey's old age that I wish I had gotten a picture of- his parents and sister and Uncle Luis, MorMor, Uncle Drew, all of his work friends, several of his old roomies, etc. Shame on me. Oh well- what can you do!?

Speaking of MorMor- she took 2.5 weeks out of her life and came to stay with us and watch Dax while I went back to work for my short stint. I didn't take one picture of she and Dax while she was here. :( They had a great time, and I cannot express my appreciate for her enough! LOVE YOU MORMOR!

AND Murphy's back!!!! He's now an outside dog and enjoying himself. Except when Ada tries to "play" with him... then he's a little nervous.

And last... it's SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!