Friday, April 16, 2010

Meeting Braiden!

So I am excited to say that I have finally had the opportunity to meet Braiden!!  I was very jealous when Cort got to go down to Jacksonville to meet him, but I knew they would also be visiting here soon.  Dave, Liz and Braiden are staying with us and came in last night.  I was super-bummed to have Open House, but happy when I realized I only got home about a half an hour before they got here.  Braiden is super-cute and super-chubby, and totally reminds me of Mia as a baby.  I have to say after holding Braiden, I am pretty sure he outweighs Cole!  :)

Dave and Liz were super-gracious and watched the kids while I worked this morning (went in the a.m. instead for an institute day) and it sounds like all the kids did great together.  We are so enjoying having them here and looking to seeing everyone on Sunday when all the families and kids come over.  Here are a couple of quick pics from today, I know Dave and Liz have more, but I tried to snap a couple.

Dave, Braiden and Mia (Braiden and Mia are clearly not interested in paying attention to me!)
Braiden checking out the deck
A sad attempt at a picture of all 3 kids (this was the best of about 10 pictures if you can believe that!)
Braiden is such a sweet cherub!
On the move-he is quick!

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Spring Break Days 4 & 5--Arboretum

Look at me go!  I'm on a blogging roll and making up for lost time! :)

Thursday we took it easy, hung around the house, picked up a bit and were generally a bit lazy. Friday the forecast was calling for a great day so we decided to go to the Arboretum and Chama Gaucha for lunch.  We had already had lunch plans with my mom and sister, but were excited when my mom agreed to join us at the Arboretum as well.  After hanging out in the Children's Garden and checking out one of the new Steelroots sculptures, we headed over to Chama Guacha and had an AWESOME lunch.  It is one of those Brazilian restaurants where they have an amazing salad bar and tons of good meat-right up my alley!  :)  This has truly been an awesome Spring Break and makes me very excited for the summer! 

Cole and Cort taking a quick break
Pretty Flower
I really need to get one of these for my house
Mia
One of the sculptures
Cort and Cole-he LOVED sliding down
(this was before we all saw the sign that said no climbing on the sculptures)

LOVE this one of Mia and Grammy
Grammy and Cole

Spring Break Day 3--Brookfield Zoo

Wednesday we decided to visit the Brookfield Zoo since it was going to be such a beautiful day.  We got there right when it opened and while we got in to park right away, we still had to wait at the gates about 10 minutes to get in. I have never seen it so crazy there.  The good news is that the zoo is big so once we were in it didn't seem too bad.  The great thing about the zoo is that you can go over and over and it always seems like there are new things to see. 

Here are some pics...

These camels made me laugh for some reason
A terribly overexposed picture of Cort, Cole and the Tiger
Not sure who was having a better time, Mia or the goat....
Cole, Mia and a swarm of kids brushing the goats
Cole
Petting a chick
Ava petting the chick

Whenever Cole sees something soft, he immediately starts sucking his thumb.  We made sure to get hand sanitizer after this! :)

Cole sat in his stroller forever just chewing on this apple.