San Antonio Zoo

We decided some family time was much needed, so we headed over to the San Antonio Zoo. It was a perfect day for this adventure. Mason was so excited and understood where we were going. I love it! We arrive at the zoo and begin our explorations. We got there a little after 10am so many of the animals were still sleeping or hiding out. We tried the bears first but no luck. We made our way around and came across this little pond where you could feed the ducks and fish. We let Mason give it a try-dad had to help but it was cute to watch. Mason loves the water and all day he would see water and want to explore it. This was just pond 1 of many ponds during the day.

We continued on and saw lots of monkeys, a komono dragon, birds, and finally came to the elephants. One of the elephants was very close to the gate so you could really see him. We spent a good 15 minutes watching the elephants. Mason loves elephants! After the elephants we continued on in the Africa themed exhibits and eventually came to the rhinos. This is next to the rhino exhibit-trying to get Mason to stop for a photo was not easy! He was just too excited.

We finished the African part, which included cheetahs, lots more birds and some fun cages to walk through. Down the hill was an atrium you could walk through with parrots, etc. Robert and Mason went inside while Autumn and I hung out. As soon as you walk in the handler gave Robert a bird, which stayed on his shoulder the entire walk through. So cool!!

Mason did not want to leave, so they ended up walking the atrium again and the second time Robert got handed over several birds from a lady who didn't want them on her anymore. He also got the nectar to feed them. Robert got Mason to feed the birds very briefly. Mason was a little scared but did it very quickly-yeah for fast shutter speeds! I loved watching this moment, I think it was probably my favorite of the day.

Autumn and I just hung out while the boys explored the atrium. Autumn had a great day too and loved seeing everything. Bless her heart she fought taking a nap until the very end.

We eventually made our way over the the toddler area, which is a whole area catering to the little ones. We spent a good 30 minutes in this area, letting Mason watch the fishes and playing in the campground and walkways. We also checked out their beachfront spot which had huge tortoises (real ones!) that you could see. One actually moved for us before we left. The one Mason sat on was fake :)

On our way out we tried the bears one last time and the brown bear was awake and walking around. Mason kept saying he wanted to see the bear but the kiddos were tired and we had to leave. Mason told the bear "bye bye brown bear see you later."
On the way out, I got my family picture.

A pic with my sweet babies.

Overall it was such a great day and I am so glad we did this!

*I should note we made this a full day by doing dinner later and then Robert had the idea to try a new ice cream place. It reminded me of when my college guy friends (gotta love Mando and Andy) took me and two other girls out for "Italian." This ice cream place was in the back of some neighborhood down a dead end street. It was really just someones house. Needless to say those GPS search engines are not always right!

The letter H and a cage

As previously reported, Autumn is a mobile baby who can crawl wherever she likes. Recently she discovered the gate at the kitchen, and likes to pull herself up and "rattle the cage" so to speak. Its actually very cute to watch and I happened to have my camera out and got a few pics of her in action.

Let me in!!!

What do you have there mommy??

Mason is working on his ABCs and on Tuesday we practiced writing letters on his white board. Well, mommy wrote most of them and Mason just drew. However, some of the times I could get Mason to hold my hand while I made the letter so he could start to feel how the letter goes. After we did the letter H, Mason did one all by himself!!! Now, it was not the prettiest H ever but I think it was a darn good one for his first time. The picture below is not the letter H he made. I did not have my camera out yet and after I got out the camera out Mason would not repeat. It just happens to be a great shot of Mason smiling for me.


Shhh! I am concentrating....

Cheese!

Autumn is Mobile!

I am very excited to report Autumn is crawling! She started, supposedly, while I was at girls night on Thursday but I didn't see it until the following day. It is so cute to watch her and I even got some on video. Go Autumn!

Mason, Autumn and I met my mom for lunch today up in Georgetown and we had a wonderful time with her. We even ventured over to Ikea and on our way out Mason scored an ice cream cone. Mason loves seeing his Nana. Oh, we decided to try to call my mom something besides grandma so we can tell the two grandmas apart. Still trying to make it stick-and I am talking about me! Autumn wanted so bad to get on the ground and show off her new skills but there was just no good place to try it.

Lauren Do It

It seems like everyday Mason says or does something super funny. This morning is no exception. I fed the kids breakfast and we were just finishing up when Lauren got here this morning. I was cleaning up from breakfast and asked Mason if he could throw something away for me. Mason's response? "Lauren do it." Again, another moment where I wish we had a camera rolling in the background...

All you can do is laugh :)

Party and Sunglasses

Yesterday, we went to Reagan's birthday party at locomotion (one of those jumpy places). Mason loves those places and had a blast. Thankfully several of our friends were there too as Robert had to work and it was just me and the kiddos. Even Autumn had fun playing in the toddler area.

This morning, Mason did a very cute thing. I was in the kitchen making breakfast and Mason came running in with his sunglasses on and laughing up a storm. I couldn't help but laugh, and wished I had a camera running to capture that bright and innocent face at that exact moment. It just reminded me of what a great personality Mason has.

As I write this quick note to capture these moments, the kiddos are playing in the living room and I can hear Mason talking to Autumn. It's a nice moment :)

Happy New Year 2011!

This past new years, we rung in 2011 at home. Robert got a few sparklers and other little fireworks to try out. It was super cold so we didn't stay outside much, but we did let Mason try a few sparklers. He thought they were very cool! We shot one of the pyramids Robert got as well, and Mason was super excited about those.
On a side note, mom was crashed out by 10:30 and Mason stayed up until about 10:45. Pretty sad...

Cheetos Please!

I have no pictures from this, but its such a funny story and I want to document it for later. This happened probably two months ago. I gave Mason a time out for hitting Autumn, and sent him to his room. Mason was very quiet so I went to check on him. I discovered Mason sitting on his floor with his Elmo mailbox next to him. The mailbox was full of cheetos and Mason was snacking away. Mason was clever enough to hide cheetos in his mailbox from the last time I gave him cheetos, and saved them for a raily day.
You are a smart one, Mason!
Love, Mommy