San Antonio Zoo

Some pictures from our trip to the San Antonio Zoo:

Dawson and kids laughing at the silly monkey that was running and jumping around.

Pointing at the Jaguar.

The boys up in tree house observatory.

Checking out the giant hippo.

Looking at all the colorful fish.

Dawson peeking through a little window in the aquarium.

Dawson the caterpillar.

Now he's a butterfly.

Walking over the lillypads to the children's zoo area.

Looking at more fish in the children's zoo caves.

Brady exploring the caves and tunnels.

Brady really enjoyed this washing machine. He stood there for a good 15 minutes turning the knobs, bopping up and down, and talking.

Waving.

Brady watching as Dawson makes the bugs move by holding a magnet under the table.

Children's Museum Pictures

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Entertaining Brady

Dawson will frequently entertain Brady when we are driving in the car. He'll talk silly to Brady and Brady will just crack up. It's so cute! (You can see Brady smiling in the mirror.)

Silly Boys

A video of Dawson and Brady playing together. They are so silly and so sweet. I love that they love each other so much!

Playing at the Hotel

On our mini vacation to San Antonio, we were fortunate enough to stay in a suite at La Quinta. It had a separate bedroom, which was very handy when it was time for Brady to take a nap or the boys to go to bed. And the living room area was huge with lots of room for the boys to play. We loved it!!

Dawson playing with some of his cars.

Brady playing with some toys on the floor.

Brady really liked this light-up ABC board. He especially liked sliding around the room on it.

Being silly under the sofa bed.

Ball Exhibit

The San Antonio Children's Museum created a great new ball exhibit. There are vacuum chutes, belts, obstacle courses, blowers, and bulls eyes for the balls. The most exciting feature is the big collection where the balls are carried, which periodically opens up and spills the balls on anyone standing below - so fun!

Waiting for the balls to drop on them.

Laughing as the balls rain down on them.

More balls coming down.

Brady handing a ball to a little girl.

Brady really enjoyed all the balls - chasing after them, grabbing them, and then showing them to everyone.

Dawson turning the wheel to make the belt carry the balls up to the big collection bin.

Turning a wheel which shoots balls up to the bulls eye.

Video of Ball Drop

A short clip of the balls dropping down on Dawson and the other kids. Dawson is the excited kid in the red shirt.

Happy Father's Day!!

Dawson and Brady want to wish their Daddy a very happy Father's Day and thank him for being such a wonderful dad!!

Father's Day Gifts

This is what Randy woke up to this morning:

The "best dad hands down" poster idea came from a shirt we saw at the store. Dawson's hand prints turned out very well, but I obviously had a hard time getting Brady's hand prints.

Dawson loves wrapping and decorating presents. He used markers, stamps, stickers, and even painted a box for Randy. The painted box is my favorite!! Those are flowers with green grass and a blue sky - so beautiful! Dawson also made some Father's Day crafts this year - a tie with pieces of construction paper glued on, bookmark with a poem and fingerprints, and a cup he decorated and assembled at library story hour.

First Steps

Brady has taken his first steps!!! Several times this past week when he was standing on his own, he took one or two steps toward something before grabbing it. He's walked toward us, taken a couple of steps to get to a toy, and the other day at Barnes & Noble he took 3 steps before dropping down to crawl. It's an amazing sight to see our little guy beginning to walk!! I'll try to get a video soon.

Slip-N-Slide Video

A cute video of Dawson sliding on the slip-n-slide and Brady "talking."

Slip-N-Slide

This is our first year to have a Slip-N-Slide. Both boys enjoyed playing with it. Brady liked crawling all over it and splashing in the puddles, and Dawson had a blast running on it and attempting to slide all the way to the end.

Dawson running and about to drop down and slide.

Sliding on the inflatable board.

Commando crawling under the sprinklers.

Both boys crawling under the sprinklers.

Brady having fun in the sprinklers.

Just hanging out in the water.

Sweet, Happy Dawson

Dawson being silly.

Such a happy boy.

Precious!

Sweet, Happy Brady

Happily shaking and playing with a stuffed animal.

Smiling sweetly up at Anna.

Coming Over

Brady trying to figure out how to get over to me.

Funny Glasses

Dawson wearing his big, funny glasses he got at the Dollar Store.

Friends At Our House

We recently had our friends Cameron and Anna over for a few hours while their mom and dad were busily packing and moving. Dawson was thrilled to have friends over and all the kids had fun playing together.

Get ready, get set, go! All lined up on their "vehicles" outside.

Dawson and Cameron blowing bubbles while Anna looks on.

Brady was so excited when he saw Anna playing with a ball. She was nice enough to bring it over to show him.

Swinging!

Playing in the fort.

Brady checking out Anna's coloring.

Playing a game of Whack-A-Mole.

Jumping on the bed!! Something that's not permitted at Cameron and Anna's house (and probably most houses), so it was a special treat for them to get to jump on Dawson's bed.

Three little kids jumping on the bed . . . no one fell off and bumped their head.

Dawson has accumulated many stuffed animals. He and Anna enjoyed having me bury them in the animals and later had fun playing with all of them.

They were pretending to be detectives and were all set with their magnifying glass and cool light.

Anna found what they were searching for - a light-up bunny.