Back to the Zoo for Father's Day

For Father's Day Philip requested a family trip to the zoo. You don't have to ask us twice! And while looking through these photos, I realized we don't have a single photo of Philip at the zoo...I promise he was there. He was just behind the lens the entire day.

Our first stop was to feed the giraffes. No matter how many times Cooper has done this, he squeals with excitement each time that long giraffe tongue reaches out for the lettuce Cooper is holding. I hear over and over, "You see that?! See that?!" Coop talks in such a sweet voice to the giraffes and says sweet things to them. I love that he still shows such genuine love and compassion for animals.

I promise Philip didn't only take pictures of Coop and me feeding giraffes. He also got some really beautiful pictures of several of the animals we saw.

Another successful Team Lamb trip to the zoo!

Animals on a Plane

Coop and his animals flew on an airplane today. Cooper was the pilot and flew everyone to the beach, of course. Cooper even picked out their clothes and got them all dressed before boarding their flight.

Coop's picture of Mommy.

My Flight Privileges Have Landed

Two years ago today I walked away from my dream job with an amazing company, filled with amazing friends, precious memories, and of course, benefits that you just couldn't beat. SWA was my home away from home; my second family. But, all the memories and fun, silly, crazy times (oh yeah, and career enjoyment...) I had, I wouldn't trade a single thing to be there instead of where I am now. I left when Cooper was 10 months old, and here I am, two years later, with an almost three-year-old running around and nine and a half weeks away from having another little boy. I am so incredibly grateful to be able to stay home and be a part of Cooper's day, every day. I'm thankful to Philip for working so hard to enable us to live like this. For the most part, I feel like I'm able to be the mom I want to be; the wife I want to be; and the person I want to be. I just couldn't juggle all of those things while working full-time. I know a lot of people who do it beautifully. I just wasn't one of them.

I've been thinking so much about this today because today my flight benefits officially expire. No more jumping on flights last minute. No more hopping over to Austin or Baltimore to visit family at the drop of a hat. I'm actually going to have to purchase plane tickets or drive on I-35. What?! How does a "normal" person fly these days? I feel like we took advantage as best as we could of the flight privileges for the last seven years. We've been to Colorado, Washington, Virginia, Florida, Arizona, California, Washington DC, Utah, New York, Nevada, Georgia, Tennessee, Louisiana, plus all over Texas...and several of those places we've been NUMEROUS times.

So, while today is a little sad for me, I'm happy knowing that at 9:00 this morning, my almost three-year-old little monkey and I went for a walk. At 11:00 a.m., we sat in the playroom and pretended to be trashmen and construction workers, building block towers and giggling together. At 12:30 p.m. we had a lunch date together. At 2:00, I laid in bed with him and read him books, then we both fell asleep.

It makes my heart happy knowing I have the privilege of doing those things every single day with not only Cooper, but with both of my boys in the coming months. And for that, I am grateful.

Off to the Zoo

Before the weather got too hot, which now seems like FOREVER ago, Coop and I headed to the zoo for the morning. It ended up being a great day to go because it was before school was out and there were a few showers in the area, so we basically had the zoo to ourselves. Poppi called us with frequent weather updates and luckily the zoo didn't get a drop of rain!
Coop brought Gus along for the zoo trip. He was excited to show Gus how we feed the giraffes.
Our first stop was feeding the giraffes! This was our first trip to the zoo in several months and I loved seeing how Coop remembered exactly how to feed the giraffes and squealed with excitement as those long tongues reached for the lettuce right out of his little hands.

After checking out the elephants and lions, we headed over to see the Ooh-Oohs. The zoo recently acquired two new male gorillas, so Coop and I were excited to see them. It was neat to see two gorillas in the same enclosure, but they weren't nearly as large as the older male that we usually see.
Coop was excited to see the Ooh-Ooh statues and quickly ran over to them to give a big hug and kiss.

It totally reminded me of this picture taken from a visit to the zoo last summer!

Coop kept asking me to go see snakes, which he's never shown any interest in before, so we headed to the completely other end of the zoo. (Yea, maybe it took us 40 minutes to walk over there because someone had to stop and look at every nook, cranny, crevice, hole, and cage we passed. But, hey, we had no better place to be, so I just enjoyed watching him explore.) Once there, he loved finding the different snakes and lizards in all the cages. I kept hearing, "Whoa! Look this one! You see that green one?! Wow!"

What a fun, fun day I had with my favorite little monkey!

May 2011

It's Hot Out There

When it's 105+ degrees outside, you have no other choice than to sit and splash in your baby pool and to ride around like a naked jay bird in your wagon.

No Place I'd Rather Be

Tonight I was putting Cooper to bed, and we had turned out the lights. I was laying there rubbing his back and I could tell he was pretty tired because he was quiet (usually he is quite chatting before falling asleep), but out of nowhere he said, "I want Daddy come lay down with me." After getting Philip, all three of us laid in Cooper's bed, in the dark. We talked about what we were all going to dream about...Cooper was going to dream about Drake; Mommy about the beach; Daddy about airplanes; and Baby Brother about playing outside with Cooper. Then, we just laid there quietly. And I caught myself thinking there is no place I'd rather be than right here, in this tiny little twin-sized bed with my three most amazing boys in the world.

Weekend Getaway

Last weekend, Philip and I were able to escape for a few days. We talked and talked about where to go...somewhere in California? North Carolina? Florida? Austin? After much discussion, we realized that all we really wanted to do was to relax, read, hang out, and be lazy. So we ended up at The Four Seasons for a little "staycation." It was perfect and exactly what we needed.

Cooper had a great weekend with Gammi and Poppi, filled with lots of swimming, playing, baking and a trip to the fire station!
And, we lucked out because there was a super fancy birthday party taking place at the resort one night we were there and just they happened to shoot off fireworks right in front of our villa. We sat on our balcony after dinner and couldn't have had a better seat for the show!

Baby Brother liked being in the sun, too. :)

Singing, Playing, Running and Jumping in the Rain

64 degrees...pouring the rain... Nothing stopped this little guy from running, jumping, and playing in the rain!
We had just gotten home from swim lessons when it really started coming down. I have the cutest videos on my phone of Cooper running from one side of the carport to the other saying, "Look! It's raining over here, too!" His amazement that the rain was not just in one spot was fabulous. Discovering that rain comes down covering large areas. Who would have thought it was such a eye-opening discovery? Love seeing that through Cooper's eyes.

5.11.2011