Fossil Rim

We went to Fossil Rim a few weeks ago to check out some wildlife. Ethan loved it. Caleb was bored with it. It was pretty cool but I was hoping for some more exciting animals besides every species of deer you could imagine. We drove in the park for about an hour then ate lunch and hit the gift shop, then drove the remaining hour. The giraffe was definitely the most excitement of the day!

The usual picture. Ethan and I smiling while Caleb tries to escape.

Ethan loved throwing the food out the window. We couldn't hand feed any animal except for the giraffe (those were the rules) although I don't think the deer were too scary to feed.

We told Ethan these were reindeer. I think he was suprised that they weren't living in the snow.

Caleb looked out the window every now and then. He was pretty content just to sit there but I felt guilty so I let him out for a while so he could see better.

Can you tell how enthralled he was in the wildlife? I think he was teaching himself how to twiddle his thumbs.

Then he had to check out all the buttons in the car.

This picture doesn't do this hill justice. It was very steep! There were a couple of these. It reminded me of driving "the road to Hana" in Maui.

Yep, the window was closed on the zebras...they like to bite.

This was the halfway stop. There was a restaurant and a little gift shop. Would've been a cute picture if Ethan's eyes were open but it was so bright! Check out that scenery...beautiful.

Look at that giraffe's neck! His tongue stretched all the way up to the branches to pull off the leaves. We had to coherce him to come to the car.

That's Ethan's hand touching him. He was a little scared but he saw me feeding Mr. Giraffe and decided that he wouldn't bite. So cool!

Random weird deer type animals.

"I am so over this trip." That school bus is what he picked out from the gift shop. Had nothing to do with animals but it was only $3 and kept him entertained!

Another random pointy horned deer type animal.

These dinosaurs were at the entrance of the park. There is a place you can go down the street that has these. I think it was called Dino Land or something. We had to get a blanket out of the car to put on him because the surface was so hot! We may have to check out Dino Land another time.

Those things were huge! Ethan loved them.

It's Ethan!

Oh where to begin with Ethan?! He has matured so much since he turned 4. Or maybe it just seems that way since my comparison is Caleb. :-) He is my little helper. He wants to be involved in everything we do and wants to go everywhere with us. He's been in a little separation anxiety phase for the last few months. If I'm dropping him off at my mom's he wants to know where I'm going, how long I'll be gone, and if I'm coming back to pick him up. He cries a lot of the time when I leave but is fine within a minute or two. He used to could care less when I came or went. Weird.

He really blossomed at school this year. He has so many little friends that I can't keep up. Every time I dropped him off or picked him up there would be kids in the parking lot yelling his name. He'd say hi and always know who they were and which class they were in. His teacher said he was really well behaved and really excelled in math. Guess he got that from Daddy because it certainly wasn't from me!

He has so many cute sayings. I wish I could remember them all. He doesn't really stutter anymore. I guess his brain was just learning so many new things his mouth couldn't keep up! He has trouble with tenses right now. Like when he's looking for something he'll say, "I just haved it." Or he'll say, "I think someone tooked it." I think it's cute. I know that will all sort out once he's back in school. He really misses school and is ready to go back.

He is still really into superheros. Mainly Spiderman and Batman. I think he has most of the action figures. I need to get him some more costumes. He still wears his Spiderman one from Halloween but the zipper is broken and won't go up. He'll put it on complete with mask and gloves and sneak around the corner and scare the heck out of me. He also does this Spiderman crawl with it on. It's pretty cool.

He still loves to dance. If he hears music, no matter where we are, he will start dancing. He even dances everytime my cell phone rings. It is just some guitar song that came with the phone. We went to the mall today and he would stop outside every store we passed with music and start dancing. Pretty funny but it slowed me down because I had to keep turning around and tell him to stop dancing and keep walking.

This is him "swimming". He refuses to let us teach him how to swim because he claims that he already knows how. But trust me, he doesn't...at all. We tried swim lessons last year but decided to skip it this year and teach him ourselves. He has such a fear of anyone taking him out in the middle of the water but I don't know why. We plan on spending a lot of time at my parent's pool this summer to work on his skills.

Hey, who wouldn't like this set up? No wonder he wants to go to Nana and Papa's all the time!

He LOVES to help Papa cook the mashed potatoes. And he's always available to be the "taster".

He loves to drive this car at my parent's house. It's pretty cool. On cold or rainy days, my mom will put it in the garage and he'll drive around for a long time.

Here he is with his cousin, my nephew, Blaine. He is obsessed with him. I guess they are so chummy because they are the only boys (besides Caleb but he's a little too small to be cool yet).

Sporting their hats together. Whatever Blaine does, Ethan does. You hear that Blaine? You better be a good example to my little angel!

He loves to go to see "the baseball" and to see "Hamilton" play. Although I'm still not sure if he knows who Josh Hamilton is. I think he thinks he is the mascot! But, we sure have fun taking him to see the Rangers (minus little Caleb). He's already fired up to go to the new football stadium and so are we! Everytime we drive by it he wants to know if it's done yet.

He sure loves his brother. He comforts him when he cries...unless he is the cause then he is nowhere to be found! I'll find Caleb screaming and Ethan hiding. When I ask him what happened his answer is always "he bonked his head". Even when there is nothing near that he could've bonked his head on. He does a good job of making him laugh and keeping him entertained when I need him to...especially in the car. He's a great big brother!

He loves to help me cook...especially when it's spaghetti (one of his favorites). He wants to stir it and put in the sauce.

Of course he wants to taste it and see if it's ready.

If you look close you'll see the new sandwich he invented. It's white bread, no crust, lettuce, and ranch dressing. It's a "salad sandwich". At least there is lettuce involved!

He is still very picky about what he eats. Here's the basic list: bologna, mac & cheese, chips, spaghetti (red or cheesy), pizza, salad, occassionally chicken strips, french fries, onion rings, waffles, pancakes. That's about it. I can't really say much because I was, and still am, a picky eater. In this picture, he was eating a piece of bologna and said, "Look! It's Batman!" Pretty cool.

He likes to dress up in Daddy's clothes. I was really impressed with this shirt. He did all the buttons by himself!

This was at a family gathering at my parent's house. I looked over and Ethan was just singing quietly to himself. It's some song he made up. Pretty cute.

San Antonio!

This past weekend we went to San Antonio with our good friends Mike and Traci and their kiddos Colton and Carson. Ethan had been waiting for weeks for this trip. He loves staying in hotels and Mondo picked a great one for us! We stayed at the Hyatt Wild Oak Ranch just minutes away from Sea World. He couldn't have picked a better place! We stayed in a 2 bedroom suite with two full kitchens. It has a lazy river with a real sandy beach, separate indoor/outdoor pool, firepits for smores, a playground, a volleyball court, the list is endless!

We left on Saturday morning and got there in the early afternoon. We went straight to the pool and lazy river for a couple of hours, ordered pizza, then the kids were off to bed.

On Sunday we went to Sea World for the day. We were there for about two hours when Ethan started to not look so good. He was dragging and saying his head was hurting. He was whiney and wouldn't eat, just laid his head on the table. We ditched Mike and Traci and took the kids for a spin in the car. Ethan passed out before we even got out of the parking lot. He woke up about an hour and a half later and was a new child. We picked him up some food and went back to Sea World until it closed. It was super hot but they had so much fun!

Monday was our last day. We checked out in the morning then spent the rest of the day at the lazy river/beach since the kids loved it so much. Ethan actually cried when we left the hotel because he didn't want to go home. He wanted to stay at the hotel "forever". We didn't get home until 9pm. The last two hours of the car ride was a little rough with Caleb. He was tired and wanted out of the car seat and he sure let us know it! But, we all survived and are making plans to go back again with Mike and Traci...but we might skip Sea World if we can talk the boys out of it.

This was on the way there. They were so cute holding hands. That's Mondo's mom in the background. She hitched a ride with us and stayed with her sister for the weekend.

This was actually at Mondo's dad's hotel. We stopped there first to see him. This is where we stayed last year and Ethan remembered it. He saw the Shamu painted on the elevator and said, "See, I told you! Shamu is at this hotel!"

The entrance to the hotel. They had some great landscaping!

This is right by where you check in. It's called the Icehouse. It's an acutal store for just about anything you might need that you forgot. But, you'll pay about double for it. We paid $2 for a stick of butter...1 stick!

Here's the master bathroom. There was a shower on one side and the toilet on the other. Ethan was scaling it like Spiderman...there's a surpise! Ethan said we could all take a bath together and listed Mike, Traci, Colton, Carson, Mondo, and me. I had a little difficulty expaining why that wasn't a good idea. :-)

Here is one of the kitchens. It is awesome to have a full kitchen when you're travelling with kids! We cooked breakfast and dinner there.

Here is little Caleb walking into the water at the pool. I thought the floaties would be a good idea but I still couldn't let him go. He'd either go face first or go backwards. We'll have to work on that. But he loves the water!

Here he is at the "beach" at the lazy river. He kept trying to climb on these chairs and stand up but his feet would fall through the cracks and he'd get mad.

Ethan borrowed Colton's floatie. He loved that thing! We ended up buying him one so he wouldn't use Colton's the whole time. But, Colton can swim so he didn't really need it.

Ahh....the lazy river. Caleb LOVED it! And I loved the fact that it gave me a break from chasing him!

Ethan even got brave enough to try it. There were parts where he could actually stand up so it wasn't too deep. Of course, he didn't let go of his kung fu grip on daddy!

Caleb was checking out all of the sand toys. He was covered in it! He put it in his hair just like he does with his food.

So cute.

He had fun playing with Mondo's hat. He thought he was pretty cute...and he was right.

We put the three oldest boys in the tub the first night. All Caleb wanted to do was play with the faucet and drink the water.

This was an attempt to get a pic of their mohawks. But they were too wild and crazy to be still!

Ahh, all cleaned up and ready for bed. I was suprised they actually slept together all night. It was there first sleep over...sort of.

(Ok, this isn't where I wanted this picture but it doesn't want to move for some reason!) This is Pete the possum. He came by our room both nights when we were eating outside. Mike got really close to him! I reminded him that when I was a junior zookeeper I learned that possums have 50 razor sharp teeth! He didn't seem to mind.

Yahoo, we got to meet Shamu right when we entered the gates! Ethan was pumped!

Here they are waiting for Shamu.

If I want a pic of me and my kid I have to do it myself! Uh, could our skin tone be any different?!

Still waiting for Shamu!

This is an attempt to get Caleb in the shot. Can you tell he doesn't enjoy being held down? Mondo said he looked like Droopy Dog...I definitely see the resemblance!

Finally...Shamu! Caleb got excited and was pointing at him. That lasted for about half the show then he was over it.

Poor little critter. This was when he had a headache and we had to leave. He was so exhausted!

We're back! Mondo rode this little rollercoasted with Ethan. Look close and you can see Mondo with the black shirt and sunglasses.

This picture turned out really cute. This was outside the stinky penguins. Seriously, this is a million dollar business. You'd think they would figure out a way to control the smell!

We know how to keep him entertained....

Ethan feeding the dolphins. So cool!

It looks like he was touching him but he actually wasn't. His little arms were too short.

One tired boy!

Colton and Ethan watching a movie together.

Enjoying a nice hot dog outside. They were so good!

I LOVE this picture! That is Ethan's new Shamu hat. You'd be shocked to know that he didn't get a stuffed animal at Sea World. We talked him into a hat!

Making smores. He just roasted the marshmellow for me since he's not that into sweets. I know, what kind of four year old is he?!

There were so many places for photo ops! This was our last morning there and we were on our way to the pool.

He is such a good little model. He'll sit and smile wherever we tell him to! Now Caleb on the other hand....

Cheesing it up by the fountain.

This was our last day. That's Caleb asleep on me. He fell asleep while we were floating. We put Ethan's hat on him and covered him with a towel so he wouldn't fry. No, I'm not hot...just a little burned. But I saved my legs this time!

What a little stud muffin!

What beautiful scenery!

That's me and Caleb at the very back on the left.

There we are!

He had a little trouble walking against the current.

These water squirters are the best invention ever! Ethan and Colton played with these for hours!

Our family photo right before we left for home. Back to reality. :-(