More family fun

Phew, so I finally got done writing about our weekend with Granny B, and now I'm more than a week behind writing about last weekend with Grammy and Poppa. So I'm gonna try to keep it short and sweet before next weekend gets here (although I have dozens of pictures to post).

Grammy and Poppa got here Saturday around eleven, while Leah, Chris, and Mamaw Meador would be leaving Eldo around noon to head our way. In the meantime, the five of us went to lunch at Sammy's BBQ downtown, just up the street from Timothy's office. Alex and Grammy liked their lunch so much, they decided to "raise the roof".

After naps, Alex and Grammy shared some grapes and Alex reminded Grammy and Poppa of why they come so far to see him. Because he's so cute, I mean. Like I have to say it.

We wanted to get Alex a basketball hoop, so we headed to the Toys 'R' Us. Auntie L, Chris, and Mamaw Meador had made it to town and were waiting for us outside.

Inside, Alex found lots of things that he wanted to take home. Time for someone to start his Christmas list!

We did pick up the basketball hoop we came for, and while Timothy and I were checking out, this is what Alex was doing:

I'm not gonna lie, I did have to take a few deep breaths at the sight of Alex so "hands-on" with undoubtedly cootie-infested equipment. But he was having fun, and everyone was having fun watching him have fun, so I relaxed and went with it (after remembering that I had a bag full of antiseptic hand wipes, of course).

Oh, by the way, guess who's getting maaaarrieeeeeed? No, Mamaw isn't getting hitched (that I know of). Our little Auntie L is!!! Auntie Leah and Chris are soon to be Auntie Leah and Uncle Chris. Exciting news, huh? So we decided that their engagement was reason to celebrate, which we did by gorging ourselves at Texas Land & Cattle. First, Alex ate his dinner...

...and then he provided the post-meal entertainment.

One last picture with the happy couple before we left.

Mamaw, Grammy, and Poppa came back over to our house to hang out before Alex went to bed, and Mamaw brought these fun paddles with suction cups and a ball that sticks to them. Alex loves them and will throw the ball across the room, walk over to the ball and smack it with the paddle, then pull the ball off of the suction cups and start the process again. I think Timothy and I might like them just as much as he does, although he rarely lets us play without him.

Finally, it was time for bed. We had big plans for Sunday, so after breakfast, the gang came over and we hung out for a bit before starting our big day. When Grammy and Poppa had arrived on Saturday, they came bearing gifts - like this cool bike. It's no Gold Wing, but Alex loves it. He has perfected the art of moving backwards, but moving forward has proven to be a little trickier. For now, he just stands up and walks it around the room, which he demonstrated for all of us.

It was time to head out on the town.

Since Tim's family hadn't seen his office yet, we headed to TK for yet another grand tour. It was still nice, and Alex was still only interested in daddy's baseball.

After the tour, we ran down to the Farmer's Market, where we taste-tested just about everything there was to be tasted and picked up tomatoes, strawberries, nectarines, plums, and green beans. And all that fruit just made us hungrier for some "real" food. Like pizza. So off we went, to California Pizza Kitchen.

Alex has been getting up well before the crack o' dawn (more on that in another post), so he's been napping earlier than his usual 1 o'clock and will often fall asleep on the fly. In the ten minutes it took to get to CPK, he completely passed out.

And although that is not unusual as of late, what is unusual is that he stayed asleep through the process of unbuckling and removing him from his carseat, for the walk into the restaurant, and for the first few minutes of dinner. That almost never happens.

Luckily, our boy is a good-waker-upper and was happy to discover that he wasn't just dreaming about the smell of pizza.

As if pizza didn't blow my diet enough, we decided dessert was in order. And what better place to get dessert than Sprinkles? Oh, about that. Somehow my original post about Sprinkles fell between the cracks and I never published it. If you're interested, click here to read about Sprinkles (and pretend that I actually I posted it back when it says I did).

So anyway, we walked across the street to Sprinkles, and Grammy and Alex stopped along the way to smell...er, eat the flowers.

Then we ate cupcakes on the lawn.

Alex didn't miss out on the action, and unfortunately for Auntie L, her cupcake was the one closest to his face.

After he finished devouring Auntie Leah's cupcake, he moved on to Mamaw's.

And then we had to cut him off. We stopped in at Swoozie's (where I'm not allowed to go without supervision because I would come home with the whole store) so Vicki could pick up some party supplies, and Chris and Leah and Alex found some fun glasses that they modeled for us.

On our way out, we found something that Auntie L just had to have, in case anyone has issues with her upcoming wedding plans. Although I can't imagine anyone would have a problem with camouflage tuxedos or a cake made of Twinkies.

Mamaw, Leah, and Chris had to head back to Eldo, so we parted ways and went back home to relax with Grammy and Poppa. After dinner, Grammy and Poppa had to head back, too. Now, we're just hoping to get them all back up here soon, hopefully for some wedding dress shopping.

Monday with Granny B

Although it's been over a week now and the details are hardly fresh in my mind, here's a look at what we did while B was here last Monday.

At $8.75 a pop and free for Alex, the zoo is always a great option for when we want to do something fun and cheap. So we packed up and headed to the zoo early Monday morning, hoping to enjoy as many exhibits as possible before the heat became unbearable, forcing us to jump into the reptile pit to cool off. Supposedly the alligators don't like that. We got there around 9:30am, and again, we were the only ones that thought getting there before high noon was a good idea. Not that were complaining about having an entire zoo to ourselves. Again.

Our first stop was at the flamingos, mostly because it is directly across from the Children's Zoo and that's where we were headed. This time, a couple of feisty flamingos were arguing about something, like maybe one flamingo was talkin' smack and told another that her legs were fat, and she replied, Your legs are so fat, if you broke one, gravy would pour out, and the first one was all, Your legs are so fat that when you leave the house in heels, you come back in flip-flops, and the other one was all, Oh no you di-in't!! And then they started squawking and clawing and trying to pull each other's feathers out...You get the picture. Point is, the flamingos were much more entertaining this time, and Alex enjoyed watching his first flamingo throwdown.

Once the flamingos had calmed down, we visited the Children's Zoo. And by "we", I mean the three of us. Granny B, Alex, and I were the only ones there, not including the animals.

Alex had only been walking for a couple of days at this point, so we really didn't expect him to take off on his own in the middle of the zoo. But as soon as we got to the play area at the Children's Zoo and took him out of his stroller, he decided to make a run for it.



He almost bit it on the cement, so we were more comfortable letting him run around on the rubber mulch of the playground.

He had fun playing in a giant dinosaur egg...

...crawling through a giant caterpillar...

...and sliding with B.

After the playground, we baa'ed at the sheep.

Alex showed B the Koi fish...

...rode a horse...

...pet a rabbit and a guinea pig...

...and checked out the pond full of duck butts.

By now, it was starting to get warmer, so we left the children's area to see some of the other animals. The monkeys were much more active than at our first zoo visit, and Alex really got a kick out of watching them swing around.

The heat and the excitement finally became too much for the little guy, and as Granny B was carrying him from the tiger exhibit, he started to doze off.

Going...

Going...

Gone.

At that point, mom and I were starting to feel the heat ourselves and decided we ought to head home. Despite our best efforts to keep him asleep, Alex woke up on the car ride home, refreshed from his cat nap and ready to play.

Granny B had to leave late Tuesday morning, so we had a relaxing breakfast together before Alex and I took her to the airport. We were bummed to see her go, but we put on brave faces...at least until we drove away. Boohoo, living so far away from family stinks. But that's why we have so much fun while they're here - it needs to last until next time!