Arboretum

Oh glorious day! My car has returned, as of yesterday afternoon, and the AIR WORKS!!! Hooray!!! And, what's more, it means S and LM have left on their happy way to work and school and I have time to sit here in my PJs and write a blog post! So here goes!

I have several groups of photos to share with you from the Dallas Arboretum of late. Here is a first stab. We went one Monday morning with my friend Jennifer and her Mom and girls to check out the Chihuly exhibit and take a few photos of the kiddos. Here are some of my favorites:

I always love a smiling photo of the boy, of course!


There's Evelyn. Of course LM likes Evelyn - she's OLDER.
You have met Evelyn here before, of course.


And will you LOOK at Lauren!
She has grown too!


Of course, I took photos of plants too...


And here are the two sisters together!


Then, there was the Chihuly exhibit! Beautiful!


Almost as beautiful as the kids, but not quite!


More Chihuly


The Little Man, chillin'


Mama and her girls.


"C'mon Mom!"


This one is called "the sun"


Lauren looks worried here.
I don't think there was any need for worry!


Closest thing to a pose I was going to get out of this boy.


Ahh, there's a smile out of Lauren!
So sweet!


Three generations.


Snapped this one while I was trying to take one of the girls.
He sat down nearby and played along.


Another Chihuly piece.
One of my favorites.

It was a fun morning. We went back recently with S to look at the exhibit on a hot, hot afternoon. I'll post those sometime soon. What do you have planned for the weekend? Big Max, LM's buddy, turns two this weekend, so we'll head to their house for a party. Then, not much else. Just maybe getting some things cleaned out at the house. I hope your weekend is a good one, whatever you're up to. 

See you soon.

Dallas Zoo

We went to the Dallas Zoo last week with LM's Dallas cousins. He loved the "animals!" as he likes to say, and has been talking about them ever since, but I think he also really liked spending time with the other kids.

LM wanted to ride in Aunt Kim's wagon pretty much all day.

Our stroller was old news.

Kim bought some of the most expensive lettuce on the planet and the kids fed the giraffes.

This gorilla was so funny with his big toothy smile.

We rode the Monorail, too.

The kids really enjoyed the children's area, though, at the end of our visit.

Where they could get WET!

I brought LM another set of clothes, but when we got to the water, he insisted on taking off his sandals AND his shirt. So, I guess I could have just brought another pair of shorts. Ha.

Oh, that is SOOO his Daddy's silly face. 

Then on the way out, we hopped on the carousel.

As usual, LM looks thrilled.

This girl smiled a lot, though!

So did this one!

Let's check - nope, still no smile!

In his defense, he was crazy tired. He fell asleep in the parking lot before I ever got the vehicle into drive. He was worn out, big time. It was a good day.

No, seriously, it was good. 

See you soon.

Max

Well, dear friends, I have been a picture taking fool lately. I have TONS of photos to share with you. Why, you say, then, haven't you blogged every day? Well, dear friends, there are two reasons for this. At least two. Ahem. First, I am taking an online class to learn how to use Adobe Lightroom. At first, I wasn't so sure. But now I'm all in love and it's wonderful. And, remember when I told you I had waited for YEARS to try shooting in RAW? Yeah, well, I should have done it YEARS ago. It's amazing how much control you can have over the image in RAW. I LURVE it. I do! Anyway, I've been spending time on that class instead of blogging.

Second, my car has been in the shop for a week. It is 11 years old but hasn't even cracked the 100K mileage marker. And, suddenly, when it's over 80 degrees, about 20 minutes into your drive, the air conditioning stops working. They can't figure out why...so we have been with one car for a week and counting. This means I have not gotten my downtime in the mornings after S and LM leave for work and school and before I go to work. This is prime blogging time, people, and I miss it. It's also prime "momma keeps her sanity" time, and for that reason, we should all miss it. Ha. And, on the car, I want to keep driving it for a while longer. I HATE buying a hugely depreciating asset. I HATE car payments, and I don't like any of it one bit. But, sister, as my good friend Amanda pointed out, if there isn't air conditioning, you might as well not have wheels in Texas. So, if they can't fix it, I guess I'm a gonna have to face up to the fact that I might need a new vehicle. Groan. Sigh. Ugh. Yuck!

OK, so on to a little blog post - LM's best buddy these days is his friend Max. When I pick LM up from school each day, we recount his day. As in, I'll start mentioning things I know he did, and he repeats what I say, with a little embellishment along the way. One such embellishment that happens almost every day is when I ask him about going outside. He says, "Max!". He and Max love to play together. So, Max's Mummy (and she is a Mummy, from Ireland) and I arranged a Sunday play date for them to get together at the park. We met at a lovely park where I had never been and the boys had a blast. I didn't take many photos, as I was visiting with Max's Mummy the whole time, but here are a couple.

There they are, hot boys on the playground.

LM was skeptical of our request for a smile.

Max is clearly not so jaded.

Time for some water!

Max has an older sister, Eva

And then they were OFF!

And then...recognize this little girl?

We're standing there, talking, while the children played, and then our nephew Andrew walked by. I said, "Hi!" He said, "Hi!" and kept on walking. Randomly, Brooke and Michael had stopped by the exact same park! I also ran into a former work colleague, there with her family. It was old home week! After the play date, we went to a nearby restaurant with Brooke and Michael, where Kim and Mark met us and we all had lunch.It was a fun morning all around.

See you soon!