Galveston with Grampy and Nana

We had a great family vacation to Galveston with Randy's family in late May. We were there for 3 days over Memorial Day weekend and Zoё had the time of her life. We went to the beach almost every day that we were there and the highlight of the trip for Zoё was spending the entire day with Nana Betty and Grampy at Schlitterbahn water park. Randy and I fudged her height just a little bit so that she could ride the big kid rides. She kept telling the water slides to go faster, so I'm thinking that we have a little dare devil on our hands. There were a few 7 year old boys that came off of the water slides crying and then there is my 2 1/2 year old daughter laughing in the face of fear (and I was with the little boys, those rides are really fast and kind of scary). We also went to The Rain Forest Cafe and Zoё loved the monkeys but she wasn't a huge fan of the fake thunder storm (she kept insisting that she needed her "ungrella" - that's umbrella for those of you that don't speak Zoё). She loved playing at the beach with Grampy and Daddy building sand castles with her "Cindagrella" bucket (Grampy also looked nice carrying the pink bucket down the beach!). It was a great vacation and we can't wait to do it again next summer!

Grapevine Arts Festival

Randy and I took Zoё to the Grapevine Main Street Arts Festival in early May for a day of fun in the sun. Sometimes we forget that 101 degrees might not be as fun as it seems when you are inside of your air conditioned house. Needless to say, we stayed just long enough to spend just enough of Zoё's college fund on tickets for the roller coaster and the saddest little pony ride that I've ever seen, she had a blast never-the-less. She's such an easy going kid, that as long as she's busy, she's good to go. The festival is very kid friendly, as they have a shaded area set up with a stage for puppet shows, sand boxes and Zoё's favorite - the bounce house. They also had a white tiger habitat, which was a bit concerning at first, until I saw that the tigers were both behind many levels of bars and that they too, were suffering from heat stroke which seemed to render them unable to even think about eating a toddler.

All Of The Cousins

So here are all of Zoë's cousins (Christopher is the oldest, Kaleb is the middle cutie and Zander is the newest addition). Zoë loves holding baby Zander and wonders why we don't have one for her to hold all of the time. I told her that she will have to share her toys if we have another baby live with us, and to that she replies, "it's okay mama, I just be the only baby". Great, my uterus thanks you for that! We love babies, but we love not being pregnant even more :)

Taste of Addison (AKA Rides, Rides, Rides)

We took Zoë to the Taste of Addison, a food and craft festival, that of course had the million dollar midway. I truly can't believe that it costs 6 bucks to ride a "roller coaster" that goes around in a little circle twice and then it's over. But hey, when you pay with tickets, everything "seems" like a bargain! Zoë played with her friend Caiden and Caiden's Mommy, Samantha, and I played at the margarita tent (which is why you don't see me on any of the rides). I find that I can handle carnival rides on occasion, this, not being one of those occasions.

Mother's Day 2008

This mother's day was such a great day (well it turned into mother's day weekend, which rocked)! We spent Saturday with Mamaw, Uncle Ben, Aunt Cindy,Nana and De and Zoё had such a great time. We played near the pool, fed the ducks in a pond nearby, opened presents and ate a delicious lunch that Aunt Cindy prepared. We followed that by going over to Uncle Steve and Aunt Brenda's house and celebrated again with Mimi, Steve, Brenda, Jason, Ashley, Cale, Adam, Sharee, Lexi, Nana and De. The picture of the two girls pushing their baby dolls was a challenging shot, because take one toddler and multiply it, and suddenly you quickly understand the term "shock and awe". Zoё and her "cousin" Lexi are such cute girls that it's not hard to take their pictures all day long.

The Park - If Only We Could Live There...

This girl has more energy in her little finger then Randy and I collectively have in our entire bodies, thus, we spend a lot of time at the park. This particular trip was the day before mother's day and if you notice the red spot underneath her nose, that would be some of that energy coupled with her God-given clumsiness that ended up as a spill on the sidewalk while pushing her "baby" in the stroller at mach speed. She loves to play, play, play as these pictures show. She is also a big fan of climbing and posing in her "superstar" pose. Molly Shannon transcends generations.

Zoë and Caiden!!! The Wonder Twins

So this is Caiden and he is Zoë's best friend. They have been going to "school" together ever since they were 8 weeks old. Caiden likes the younger ladies, as he is about a month older then her. They are currently experiencing a bit of separation anxiety because Caiden has moved up to the next classroom and Zoë has about three weeks until she moves. This was the weekend that Caiden's little brother Chase made his debut and so he stayed with us while Mom and Dad were busy figuring out being parents of two boys (I like to joke that the baby came out swinging, and that is why Caiden's face is all roughed up - but in actuality, Caiden took a tumble on the playground). Whenever we have both of them, everyone always says "your twins are so cute". I can only take credit for one...

Nothing's Better Than Mamaw!!!

We went towards the middle of April to see Mamaw in Denison, TX (or the big D as most of you know it as). It was such a fun day for Zoë!! We played in Mamaw's backyard, ate a delicious lunch (Zoë loves Mamaw's green beans, because Mamaw puts sugar on everything), went and looked at the bluebonnets out by Lake Texoma, went to look at the Denison Dam and just loved on Mamaw a lot. Three generations of fabulousness...now that's a good Sunday :)

Rock and Roll (and Corny Dogs)!!

Every year, Randy and I go down to Deep Ellum in downtown Dallas to enjoy the Deep Ellum Arts Festival. It is a really fun event filled with art, music, great food and my favorite activity - people watching! We thought it might be a bit early to immerse Zoë in "so much culture", but she took to it like a champ...they even had a huge area for her to find her inner artist (well, as much as an artist as you can be with sidewalk chalk). She had the best time, and especially enjoyed the largest corny dog known to mankind. I think it put her in a food coma for 24 hours, because the next day, she was not hungry at all. We met our friends Melissa, Xavier and their little boy Alec at the festival, and Alec and Zoë had their first car date... :)

Will she be a veterinarian???

So this child officially loves the Zoo. This is probably her 258th trip in the last year. She is a huge animal lover and can do a great monkey impression if I do say so myself. This trip was as much fun for Randy as it was for her, because he got to play with his new camera...I've never seen so many pictures of the ground before in my life! I guess the ground is a bit more static then a two year old.

Happy 2nd Birthday Zoë!!

So we are starting this blog from Zoë' s 2nd Birthday forward...so many fun things are happening this year already, and this was the beginning of it all...her 2nd birthday party at "The Little Gym". Of course, she's in her favorite color - PINK!!! She wants everything pink, pink popsicles, pink clothes, pink milk...it's her second favorite thing to Dora. This birthday party was filled with family, friends (her two best friends, Caiden and Ava are in this picture) and of course Dora and Boots...for those of you who aren't familiar with Dora and her best friend, (who is a monkey) boots, consider yourselves lucky because I promise once those songs get stuck in your head, there is no getting them out. She had about 30 people at her birthday party and she was very excited to celebrate in style. Well "on we grow" through year two...join us, it's going to be fun.