Minnesota, Day 2 and 3

On the second and third day of our trip, Hugh had to work, so mom, Houston, and I set out to be entertained. Our first stop was Como Zoo and Amusement Park-day 2. On day 3, we went to the Minneapolis Zoo. These rides were right up Houston's alley, so we got to ride them over and over and over and over.........

Here in his own little chariot.........

and here breaking the speed of light.........

This may be my ALL time favorite of us (thanks mom) except for some newborn pictures (thanks dana). Mom took this picture of us on train. And after cropping out the ugly little blonde haired girl behind us, the lighting is perfect, the feeling was sincere, and I couldn't be happier right at that moment.

At the Minneapolis Zoo, they took you on a tractor ride to the "farm" which was Houston's favorite part I think. They were animals more recognizable to him, so we spent lots of time here petting the pigs and feeding the goats. He would get down and peer through the fences to talk to the animals....so cute.

This is another favorite one where he had climbed on the fence to get a better look. Love this kid and everything he exploring and learning right now.

Minnesota Adventures

We (mom, Houston, and I) accompanied Hugh on the road to Minnesota this year, and man, what an experience. First of all, traveling with a 1 year old when you have to get up at 4am to catch your flight is NOT a good idea. But, I must say, he was a trooper. We arrived in Minneapolis on June 10th, which was draft day. The first part of the day we stayed in the hotel room while Hugh followed the draft online. The phone rang off the hook and he got constant emails. But it was fun to watch him-he got to actually call his draft picks (7 of them!) and let them know they had been drafted. I honestly think he was as excited as them!!

Houston supplied our hotel entertainment-dancing, singing, eating, jumping, napping, dancing, singing.....you get the idea. Let's just say after a few hours, he was ready to get out of the motel and GO!

Our first stop was Rainforest Cafe in the Mall of America. He was not so crazy about the animated animals, but the food was good and we shared a Rockin' Rangutang some-or-other :)
The MOA is awesome, to put it mildly. When we walked in, we were greeted by a full size ferris wheel, log ride, and several roller coasters. The rides were amazingly quiet (the screaming people were not) but Houston was not tall enough to ride so we enjoyed just watching.

Also at the entrance is Lego Land with thousands of lego to play with-they even had a race track set up where you can build your own car. We all had a blast and it was neat to watch Houston take it all in. (Notice the JACKET in JUNE! Temps were in the 50s at night!)

More later of our zoo trips!

More summer fun with friends.....

Houston and I went to my friend Stephanie's house on Friday and met up with Holly so all the kids could play. Ella and Parker are both 3 and full of energy. It was impossible to get a picture with all the kids seated, looking at us, and smiling, so this is the best there is. They had fun playing on the swing set, in the bouncer, and in the pool. Our quiet, uneventful morning was interrupted when a 100+ pound pit bull broke through her neighbor's fence and jumped on all the kids, nearly knocking Ella down. We called the "animal po-po" as Ella called it and order was restored. We ended the morning with some PB&J sandwiches then home to take a much needed nap!

The kids sharing popcorn

Houston finally deciding the water was too cold to get in!
Some good ol' PB&J and juice boxes!

I love summer...

these pictures were taken the first official day of summer break for me and Houston. The big pool at Nana and Poppy's wasn't quite ready yet, so Houston and the cousins opted for 2 small pools and a water hose running down the slide.

You can tell Anna loved it, but Barrett thought the water was too cold and the slide was too hot!
Houston was being silly as usual. Here he is squirting himself in the face with a water gun, which is ironic because he hates getting water in his face when he's taking a bath.

Katie ready to take the plunge in her homemade water slide!

Houston took advantage of having 2 pools side by side-he slid back and forth between them.

My lil' man soaking up the sun. If only I could have his beautiful skin color!

Tree Trimming.....

is not really an accurate title. It was more like chopping down 20 trees and removing them. This story all started when Houston was trying to ride his tricycle down the sidewalk. He kept tipping over because he was running over the gumballs. We had a yard full of gumball trees-very annoying, difficult to clean up, and dangerous (people would fall because of them and Hugh was even hit between the eyes by them when mowing because they bounced off the tree trunks ..hehe). To make a long story short, the decision was made to have the trees removed and beautify the lawn.

We aren't talking scrawny trees here.....we are talking 60+ foot trees with lots of limbs and branches. Before the trees could fall, all the limbs had to be stripped off them. This is where tree-climbing Daniel came in. He would put straps around his boots with spikes in them, climb up the tree with a harness, and cut the limbs off with a chainsaw. You have to be either crazy or brave (or both) to do this.

Then he would repel down and then the whole tree would be cut down.

I love this picture because you can see the tree actually coming down. They would hit the ground and the whole earth would shake. Neighbors would sit out on their porches and in their driveways to watch it all. It was quite the adrenaline rush. After the cleanup (which I don't have a picture of), the yard looks totally different, of course. We love the end result of the smooth yard with lots of room to run and play, but we do miss some of our shade. I'm sure we will especially love it this fall when we don't have to bag 40+ bags of leaves to have our yard clean!

But like I said, it was a huge mess!

Spring planting

Houston loves spending time with his cousins, most often as Poppy and Nana's house-they have all the cool stuff like lawnmowers and 4-wheelers, a pool, a garden, a huge swing set, and lots of room to run and play. This was a Saturday afternoon in May when we all got together to plant flowers and the garden. Planting the garden always reminds me of my grandparents. We worked in their garden in the summers as early back as I have memories. We shucked corn, snapped green beans, hulled peas, picked strawberries, dug potatoes.....I hated it then, but love the memories now.

Houston and his BFF cousin, Barrett, riding on Poppy's lawnmower. I have a feeling these two will be trouble SOON.
This picture of dad could just as easily have been my grandpa-working hard to get the garden ready for planting. We planted everything that day-okra, squash, lettuce, green onions, cucumbers, cantaloupe, tomatoes, and corn. Yum!

Houston is planting flowers in his Nana's flower beds :)

Katie showing off her choice.....looks like poppies and daisies.

My brother showing Anna and Katie the "gardening ropes".

Backing up......

I haven't posted anything in a while, and I have lots of cute pictures to share, so be ready for several days of blogging fun! (That's the plan anyway!) These pictures go back to the weekend of May 10th when we took Houston to the ASU petting zoo. He loved it all. At first. Then we tried to get him to ride a horse. Not so much........

I thought it was cool you actually got to get in the cages with all the animals-hold them, pet them, have them pee on you. (Glad that didn't really happen! But I did leave with an unidentified substance from the pig stall.)
He did actually end up petting the lamb!

And he seemed to actually do okay with it.

Now for the horse ride. You can see the uncertainty building up on his face as he dons the cute riding helmet. Yeah, we couldn't even get him to SIT on the horse, let alone go for a ride on it. He stiffened out his legs and arms, not to be bent at any angle. He cried and reached for me...that poor horse was so patient. Maybe next year.

We finished the Walker day of farm fun on a wagon ride pulled by a John Deere around the ASU farm. He did love that part (the ride and seeing all the animals). They do it again in the fall, and we will definitely be there.