Dustin's Second Father's Day

For Dustin's second Father's Day, I planned a day of fun. We went to the Witte Museum in San Antonio......where they had dinosaurs!

The guys loved it. My dad, Dustin, Southern, and I went all over the musuem. We went through the moving dinosaur exhibit as soon as we got there. Then we saw art, stuffed animals, rocks, dresses, mummies, Native American tools, early Texan furniture, and more.

We also explored outside. They have a path to the river, a pioneer village, and a science tree house (that was 4 stories tall). The video below shows just a little bit of the fun that was had in the tree house. This part was geared toward children, but as you can see, children of all ages enjoy it!

And of course we had to walk through the dinosaurs one last time before leaving the museum. In the video below, you can see just how life-like they look. Some kids were afraid of them, and one little girl had a screaming fit until her mom took her outside. We didn't know how Southern would react, and he was a little worried at first, but in no time he was growling right back at them.

Happy Father's Day to an awesome dad! :)

House Re-modeling

As always, we are working on projects around the house. We have done so much in the 2+ years we have lived here, but there's more to go. Our latest project was upgrading our light in the kitchen. Dustin also took the time to center it over the island.

Southern loves trying to help out. He enjoys digging through Daddy's tool box and finding some good things to play with. He also likes to watch Daddy work...We've got just about everything done downstairs that we want to attempt right now (eventually we'd like to put up a backsplash, do some tile work, and maybe paint), but we're still working upstairs. We've got 2 ceiling fans and 1 light to install as well as cabinet knobs in the bathrooms. And we're in the process of clearing out the computer room. I moved the bookcases out into the movie room this past weekend. We'd like to have an extra bedroom soon...

A Bass Pro shopping experience

We drove over to San Antonio yesterday afternoon to celebrate Carly's birthday with her. On the way, we got a little side-tracked...


No, they're not really on a pier at a lake - it's just a backdrop! But we had you fooled, huh?


We stopped by Bass Pro Shops. They are having a "summer camp" experience for kids during certain days this week, and we just happened to be by on one of those days. Most of the activities were for older kids - target shooting video games, soft dart arrows for bow shooting, a fish identification class, etc. But they also were making s'mores outside, and eating is an activity my son can definitely participate in, so Southern got to enjoy a gooey graham cracker. Yum!
He also enjoyed riding around in the buggy looking at everything. He liked all the neat merchandise, but what really caught his attention were all of the animals. He pointed them out to us and even tried to tell us what he saw. We got the "d" sound for deer (when he saw any deer or African species with horns), "du" for duck (any bird he saw), "do" for dog (when he spotted a coyote), and "t" for cat (when he saw the lions). And of course Dustin found another big-ticket item to add to his wish list...

14 Months Old

At almost 14 months old, Southern is quite a handful.

He not only walks, he runs. He loves to play in the backyard and will get out every ball, frisbee, golf club, etc. he owns each day. We try to spend time outside daily. We keep a big deck box on our back porch full of his outdoor toys, and he loves to rummage through it. There is also a box of rocks that he plays with out there. He likes to collect leaves, pick tomatoes off of our tomato plant, and point out birds and planes flying overhead.

As for his eating habits, he wants to try everything. He is a veggie lover. He can scarf down peas, green beans, and lima beans faster than you can serve them to him. He likes bananas and can eat a whole one on his own. He is also a lover of pasta and bread (who isn't?) and can go to town munching on popcorn in front of a good movie. He does not care for oranges just yet. He also doesn't like eggs (unless they are cooked with sausage) or potatoes much.

He loves to give hugs and kisses. He likes to be chased around the house. He loves to go through the kitchen cabinets, and he loves bath night. His favorite toys are his 4-wheeler, dinosaurs, blocks, and stuffed animals. He still never tires of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See. He is now able to climb up on the couch in our movie room by himself. And he loves to throw.

He has been sleeping through the night, and for the most part, getting 9-11 hours of sleep each night. He does fight me at nap time some days, but as long as he's sleeping at night, I'm happy!

My 2nd Mother's Day

I spent my second Mother's Day with the two most important people in the world to me - my husband and my son. Dustin and Southern treated me to an afternoon of fun at the Botanical Gardens in San Antonio. I loved it. We slept in that Sunday, and then loaded up the car with water and snacks and hit the road. We had lunch at my favorite Chinese place here in New Braunfels. Southern loves their sweet and sour chicken just as much as I do :) After eating, we headed on down I-35.

The gardens were beautiful!
I defiantly would love to go back sometime. Dustin, Southern, and I spent hours strolling around looking at all the pretty flowers and plants. They had a lot of native Texas stuff, and we learned so much!Southern was in his stroller for the most part (we let him crawl around at the end for awhile before getting back in the car) but we made sure he was able to get up close and personal with the plant life.The weather was perfect for the majority of our trip. It was slightly breezy and cloudy, but the sun did make an appearance for a little while. Southern and I donned our sun hats during that part.My favorite stretch of the place was the "East Texas Piney Woods" section. We stayed there longer than any other part. I could have stayed there all day! It was amazing to think that we were still in downtown San Antonio...It was situated around a lake. The views were incredible.And of course Southern got to hang out with some ducks. All in all, it was a perfect afternoon. What a great Mother's Day!

And not only did I have a fun Mother's Day celebration that day, we were blessed in having one the previous day as well! :)

My mom and Josh spent the night with us Friday, and Saturday afternoon we drove over to Gruene for a tea party!

The guys made fun of us for a little while but the food was excellent, and you were able to have iced tea if you wished, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been for them. We were served three courses and had our pick of any tea, cold or hot. Dustin and my mom got iced blueberry tea, I got a pot of decaf raspberry vanilla hot tea, and Josh had plain ol' iced tea. We started off with a plate of sandwiches - chicken salad, tuna salad, cucumber slices with cheese spread, and shrimp with melted provolone along with fresh fruit. Our second course consisted of apricot and walnut scones with three delicacies - raspberry preserves, whipped cream, and lemon curd. Our last course was the deserts course - a chocolate covered strawberry, a lemony-cheesecake-type of pie, and a shortbread cookie. It was all so delicious and definitely an experience to remember.

Another Beach Trip

Dustin, Southern, and I enjoyed another trip to Port A this past weekend. Traveling can get a bit crazy when you add a one-year-old to the mix. I had wanted to leave as soon as Dustin got home from work so I had all of our stuff packed and ready to go. But when Dustin got home from work, he wanted to relax for a little while, change clothes and shower, and then finish packing the rest of his "essentials" - fishing gear, artificial bait, fishing poles, etc. Southern had yet to have a nap for the day since I figured he would just sleep on the way there. And we were getting started later than I had wanted. Needless to say, Southern and I were both a little cranky by that time. To top it all off, somehow during those last few minutes at the house, Southern managed to take off one of his flip flops and hide it somewhere. I searched everywhere while the guys waited in the car but couldn't find it (we still have yet to see it!) so we just headed off without it.

At last, we were on the road! Dustin and Southern napped for a bit while I drove. We had decided to stop to eat supper whenever Southern woke up and started fussing. That put us in Skidmore, TX. Now we knew every town between here and the coast has a Dairy Queen so we figured we'd just stop at one of those. But across the street from the DQ in Skidmore was an old wooden building with a sign for All You Can Eat Catfish on Friday nights. Yum! The Chisolm Trail Cafe was great. We got a trip to the salad bar, soup, a side of potatoes, and all the catfish we could handle. Dustin, Southern, and I were in heaven. We were stuffed when we finally left there. After a little playing around in the gravel parking lot, we got back in the car and continued our drive. We made it to Port A around 10:30 or 11pm. Our late arrival threw off Southern's sleeping schedule (we are still trying to get back) but at least we had made it.

The next day Dustin and Parker had good intentions of working on homework. (They both have finals this week.) Parker got in some good studying time, but Dustin was finding it very hard to concentrate. He finally abandoned the idea of working on vacation and we all loaded up in the car for a visit to the birding center. Dustin and Parker had fun identifying birds with their binoculars while Carly and I took turns carrying Southern around. We saw many birds and even a croc! We then drove around looking at houses and along the beach while Southern napped in the car. We played hearts when we got back to the house. Then we got changed and packed up for the beach. Dustin and Carly rode the waves in a huge double tube while Parker, Southern, and I played in the sand. All that beach fun worked up our appetites so we then headed to a restaurant for supper.

The car windows had all fogged up from the salty air and humidity, and it was very hard to see when Parker drove us into town. We stopped at Moby Dick's and all piled out of the car. We were told there was a 30-min wait but Southern was very hungry and getting cranky so we couldn't wait that long. I decided we should just find another place within walking distance as Southern fights being strapped into his car seat when he gets in one of those moods. So we walked a block down, crossed an intersection, and walked through a parking lot to get to another restaurant. Along the way, we heard a strange guy yelling as he drove by. We didn't pay much attention since a lot of the beach people are strange and just kept walking. When we got to The Seafood and Spaghetti Works, we met up with Parker and learned that he had been the one driving by and yelling! haha. The windows were still so fogged up and he had to drive with his head sticking out of the driver's side window!! We had a surprisingly good supper. The place looked a little questionable inside but the food was wonderful and we got to help ourselves to the soup and salad bar. We hit the pool upon our return and played another game that night.

The next day was spent packing up and cleaning the place. We ate, played another round of cards, and then loaded up the car. We walked around the marina one last time and took a few pictures before getting in the car. We made our way back home through Yoakum and did our usual visits. Our stop at Poppy and DeDe's was quick as she had a fever so we just stayed in the driveway and said hi to Poppy. Then we stopped at Dustin's granny's for a bit. We ate supper with my dad then visited my Hahn grandparents for a little while. Our last stop of the night was at Dustin's uncle's house in Gonzales. Aunt Cain has been taking chemo for the past couple of months and has been too weak to really get out and do anything so we wanted to stop by so she could see Southern. We hung out there for a little while and talked while watching Southern play. One of their cats had just had a litter less than a week old so we got to see the baby kitties. They were so cute and Southern was very gentle with them. We left there at almost 10pm and finally were headed home. Whew! It was a fun but exhausting trip.

At the Park

We've been having such beautiful weather lately. And what better way to celebrate than a trip to the park?Southern and I went to Landa Park yesterday to play. We met up with my friend and her son. Here are Aidan and Southern driving the firetruck.Southern also met a new friend at the park. A little Mexican girl was sweet on him :) Her daddy was talking to her in Spanish, and I could only make out 'hola' and 'baby' but apparently she wanted to talk to Southern and he was encouraging her to do so. She and Southern held hands as they drove. And they would periodically look at each other and grin. So cute!