SEA WORLD - DAY 2

After sleeping in and enjoying a huge breakfast made by Papaw, we were ready for day 2 at Sea World.

THANK YOU to the sweet mom of 3 who stopped and asked if she could take a picture of the 3 of us! :)

"yaaaay Shamu!"

Guess what our first stop was...AGAIN! :)

just as exciting the 2nd time

Next stop...ELMO!!!!! Colby LOVED watching the life-size Elmo and friends perform.

Since we had seen all of the shows that we really wanted to see, we decided to head to the dolphin cove and Shark tank. LOOK WHAT WE BOUGHT! :)

This was definitely a highlight of the trip- feeding the dolphins!!

And our final stop was the sting rays/coral reef/shark tank. We got there just in time to watch the divers feed the sting rays- very cool!

By the end of the sting ray feeding, Colby was more than ready for lunch and a nap.

I'm so excited that we got "fun passes" to the park that are good until the end of 2011. I'm hoping we can sneak in another Sea World weekend this fall when the weather cools off. I can't wait!!!!! :)

SEA WORLD - DAY 1

Move over Bob the Builder, Thomas the Train and Wonderpets! Colby has a new love- SHAMU!!
I have been wanting to take Colby to Seaworld for a long time. I knew this summer would be a good time to go because he'd still be in a stroller, but would really love seeing all of the animals. When I found out I could get a FREE pass for being a Texas teacher and that Colby could get in free, I decided we HAD to find a weekend to go!!!

Travis has a class on Saturday mornings this summer, but we decided we could go on Saturday afternoon, then stay with my grandparents in D'Hanis and go back Sunday morning. 2 half days would probably work better than one full day anyway.

It all worked out perfectly. Colby and I went to Jenna Mae's 2nd birthday party while Travis went to class, and then we were off to San Antonio! Colby got a 45 minute cat nap and was in a GREAT mood all afternoon despite the 107 degree temperature.

Our first stop was...of course...SHAMU!!! We'd been talking up Shamu for days and I don't even think Colby knew who Shamu was, but he wanted to see him!

It was love at first sight!!

Next up was the Azul dolphin show

of course he loved that too

The last show we went to on Day 1 was the Sea Lion show. It was super cute....my favorite part was when one of the sea lions "dressed up" like Elmo. :)

Colby loved clapping for all of the animals

and hugging his new best friend, Shamu...thank you daddy for buying him one!!!

awww.....we really loved the huge walrus too!!

heading to our last stop of the day...the penguins!

Colby was way more interested in how the moving walkway worked than actually watching the penguins, but that was ok. :)

We headed out of the park and made our way to D'Hanis just in time for dinner with Mamaw and Papaw. Needless to say, we all CRASHED early and slept late. We were ready for Day 2!! :)

BUSY

If you would have asked me a few years ago (well, even last year) what I like to do in the summertime, I'd tell you NOTHING. I really enjoy doing nothing. I love waking up, drinking coffee, watching the today show, eating breakfast, catching up on the blog, taking LONG naps, shopping, and cooking dinner for Trav. That's IT. Some may call it lazy...haha...but I just like to relax and do nothing. Full calendars stress me out and I don't do well with schedules.

The first summer after Colby was born, I didn't have time to do anything other than take care of him (I know you mommies of 2 and 3 babies are laughing at that, but think back to your first...haha). I didn't have to worry about a full schedule on the calendar, because just wrapping my mind around having a newborn baby was enough.

Last summer, I did try to do some fun things with Colby, but he had just started walking and was still taking 2 LONG naps each day, so it was still really hard for us to do too many fun things. It was easier to stay close to home.

THIS SUMMER HAS ALREADY CHANGED MY LIFE! I realize that I was gone for the first week of it, and we're only 2 weeks in, but Colby and I have been SOOOOOOOO BUSY and I love it! We've done something fun every single day, and it has been great! Colby is down to one nap a day, and it's pretty flexible. I can lay him down anytime between 11 and 2 and he'll sleep for about 2 hours (sometimes more and sometimes a little less) so we have ALL morning to do fun things. We've had friends come over, we've gone to the splash pad, we've had swim lessons, we checked out books from the library, we went to open gym, and we swam at the country club pool....all in one week! We have some awesome friends in Temple, and I'm so thankful to have a job with summers off so I can be a "stay-at-home-mommy" for a few months of the year with some of them. The "terrible twos" can be challenging to say the least, but I think 2 is also my favorite age so far!!! Colby is so FUN!

playing with his number puzzle from Melissa (zero is the only number that he consistantly knows what the number looks like, but we're working on it!)

we're loving our extra time with daddy!!!

checking out the library...we checked out our first three books and have read them every day...this will definitely be a weekly trip

Wildflower pool lunchtime with Mason Man

swim lesson #2 (don't let this picture deceive you....Colby screamed for the last 20 minutes...I'm hoping Trav can be back on swim lesson duty for the last 2 lessons. The funny thing is that Colby woke up the next morning asking to go see Miss Charmaine....I just do not understand this child sometimes)

Friday, after daddy's last day of 3rd year orientation, he and some of his buddies decided to have a homerun derby. Colby and I went to check it out for a little while, but didn't get to see daddy bat because it was way past our naptime. :)

5 years!

Today I've been married to my BEST FRIEND for 5 years! Although we've been together for over 11 years, our wedding day really marked the end of our long-distance relationship and the beginning of our forever together. I'm so lucky to call this man my husband. He's an amazing daddy, friend, doctor, role-model, student, counselor, and leader of our family. It takes alot of determination and motivation to drop everything you've worked for and do what you REALLY want to do. I know that going to medical school was far from the easiest thing to do, and I admire him for taking that leap. I LOVE YOU TRAVIS!!!!

June 17th, 2006

1 year anniversary- Destin, Florida!!

2 year anniversary- Fredricksburg, Tx

3 year anniversary- Austin, Tx

4 year anniversary- Lake Travis (Austin), Tx

5 years- Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

Can't wait to see the next 5 anniversary pictures! :)

It's not good-bye...just see ya next year!

Wednesday night we had a surprise going away party for the Stahls. In about one more week they'll be leaving for Dan's ortho-trauma felowship in TAMPA, FLORIDA! We're so excited for this adventure for them- definitely sad to see them leave, but it's so nice to know they'll be back before we know it!

Sally, me and Kayla

These girls are AWESOME!!!

What a crew! It just won't be the same without the Stahls, but I'm sure we'll pick up right where we left off when they get back.

Swimming Lesson #1 = Success!

Tuesday night was our first swim lesson at the Blue Dolphin indoor pool. I really had no idea what to expect, but wanted to sign Colby up since he spends so much time by the pool at Nona and Pappy's house.

When we got there I knew it was either going to be great or it would be a nightmare meltdown since it was something new and different. To my surprise, Colby jumped right in to Miss Charmaine before daddy could even get his shoes off. She warmed him up to the water and held him as he kicked around for a few minutes. They dunked him under a few times and worked alot on trying to get him to lay flat on his back. She explained that the goal for these lessons isn't to teach him to swim. He's still really too young for that and his muscles aren't ready, but he IS old enough to be able to float on his back and make his way to the side if he ever fell in. She wants him to be comfortable with the water and to get in the habit of flipping over to his back after he goes under in case he was ever in an emergency situation.

Thank you Miss Charmaine (Colby calls her Miss Chana)- we'll see you again Thursday night!!!!

Colby was such a champ- he didn't LOVE being on his back, but he DID love kicking his feet. (Oh...did I mention that there was a kid at the other end of the pool who SCREAMED at the top of his lungs during our entire lesson?!???? I just knew that he was going to SCARE Colby, but he was having too much fun to realize what was going on.)

YAY- still smiling :)

Daddy stopped to get Colby some ice cream for doing such a GREAT JOB!!