"May I go high, please?"

Last Saturday morning we spent some time at the park. Noelle loves to swing. We swang, went down a slide, swang, walked across the bridge, swang, played with the wood chips, swang, looked at prairie dogs, and then went home. There were other requests to swing, but we only indulged her 4 times. We didn't want to be the swing hogs.

Here is Noelle waiving and saying, "Bye, bye. I love you prairie dogs!"

Happy Birthday Jack!

Last Friday Noelle went to a friend's birthday party. He is two! Noelle sang happy birthday to Jack over and over and over in the car...to and from the party. She had a great time.

Guilty As Charged

Go ahead and lock me up. I did it. I broke the law, Federal law that is. This evening I saw a few ants in our kitchen, so I retrieved my trusty Raid Ant & Roach Killer (with an outdoor fresh scent). Before using the product I wisely read the directions and warning labels. That's when I saw this:

"It is a violation of Federal law to use this product in a manner inconsistent with its labeling."

Before reading this I had fully planned on shaking the can before using it as well as holding the can 12 inches away from my target as specified in the directions, but then it dawned on me. If I refuse to follow these directions, I am in direct violation of Federal law. I'm not really sure what that means, but I bet it's not good. So I did it. I intentionally sprayed ants from 6 inches away, and I didn't even shake the can before spraying. I don't know what will end up happening to me, but at least I had fun being a rebel.

A little bit wet

Last summer Noelle loved swimming, but this year it has taken some major coaxing to get her in a pool. I'm not sure what caused this, but it obviously isn't that she doesn't like getting wet. She discovered with Mi-ma that playing with the water hose is lots of fun.

Zoo Time

When we were in Carrollton a couple of weeks ago, we took a trip to the Fort Worth zoo (which is just a small step above the Abilene zoo). Noelle had a great time. Thanks for taking us Mi-ma!

I asked an employee how much this pig weighed. Would anyone like to take a guess?

We're Back

We just got back yesterday after having been gone for almost two weeks. We spent some time with Sarah's family in Carrollton, went to the Fort Worth zoo, went to Chris' cousin's high school graduation in McKinney, then left Noelle with Chris' parents in Waco while we spent a few days on the beach in Cozumel. This was the longest that we had been away from Noelle, but I think it was harder on us than it was on her. She had a great time with Gram and Baba and never missed a beat.

Sarah outside our room

Chris showing off his big muscles

Though it's hard to believe, Chris has never gone to a tanning salon.

We spent lots of time snorkeling and got to see many colorful fish. We even saw a 3-foot barracuda but chose not to get close enough to take a picture.

You might not be able to tell from the picture, but these are the two rival flamingo gangs about to throw down.

Here is one of the dozens of iguanas we saw around the island.

The Yucky Police

We hear this at almost every meal:

Then she doesn't want to eat anything else until she sees you deposit the offending object in the trash. Most of the time Noelle is right...there is a stem on a raisin, or a peel on a piece of fruit, or an end on a green bean. Apparently her food has to not only taste good, but look perfect, too! At this point she doesn't eat a lot of what we eat (due to allergies), so at least I'm not taking all of her yucky comments personally.

Anyway, I thought you might think it was cute/funny. It was for me the first few times. Now...not so much.