Texas Vacation Day 3

On our 3rd day there we were going to go to the zoo, but we needed to rent an SUV and the car rental place was slow on getting it for us.  If we had gone to the zoo after we finally got the car we would have only had an hour to spend there, so we decided to go to downtown Dallas instead and see the memorial where JFK was shot.  It's called Dealey Plaza.

Not that I am a huge history buff or anything, but it was kind of cool to see the place, and see the way that they have preserved the area to keep it looking as it did the day he got shot.  So these pictures may or may not be interesting to you, but here they are!

 The "Grassy Knoll."

Ellie is a goof

 "X" Marks the spot where JFK was shot!

There was another part of the memorial across the street from the "Grassy Knoll", but there were protesters over there, screaming and yelling and praying, so we decided to not get involved . . . 

 And it was a terribly hot day

                                       

 This was breakfast that morning

 And chillin' with the boys that night in their little hangout place, whatever you want to call it. :)

Ellie wouldn't put her feet down because she was afraid Sophie would eat them.

Texas Vacation Day 1 and 2

We went to Texas back in July to visit my mom, so the kids got to take their first airplane ride!

It was so fun to go down and see where my mom and brothers live, and to just see what life is like down in Texas.  One thing's for sure, it was totally hot!!!  I'm talking 107-110 degrees the whole time!  Why did we go in July you ask?  Who knows.  We chose it!  Really it was the only time we could go, and it was only for five short days.  We wish we could have stayed longer, but maybe that just means we can go again sometime!  :)

We have a ton of pictures, so I'm breaking it down into days.  Here is day one and two!

Day 1

 At the airport getting ready to fly!

 Sorry they are blurry, but us on the airplane

 lucky for us, Levi dude fell asleep as we were taking off and slept almost the whole flight!

 hangin' out with Uncle Trevor and Sophie as soon as we got there

getting our bedroom set up

getting ready to swim and play

Then that night we went to a place called "Babes" for dinner.  It's southern cooking family style.  It was sooooo good.  Clint was so in love with it he got a shirt! :) ha!  But he went to Alabama on his mission so he had that kind of food for two years, so he was in heaven.

Day 2

So there are two "Dallas" cities.  I don't remember which one this was.  Normal Dallas or Dallas Forth Worth.  I think it was the Fort Worth one.  Either way, they had pretty cool looking buildings!  But the traffic was a different story!  I hated driving there!  

 This is the Dallas World Aquarium.  It was awesome.  I don't know how else to describe it.  The atmosphere was cool, the animals were cool, we were cool :) and the weather was cool inside compared to outside.  How can you beat that?!

 These bearded monkey's kept coming over to see Ellie

 And a sloth.  Looks pretty chill!

 This is blurry, but I thought it was so funny

 Some turtles in a huge aquarium with all sorts of huge fish!

 A little Penguin Oasis

 Then they had this tunnel that you walk through, and sharks are swimming all around you.  There were some pretty funky lookin' sharks!

 This is the shark tunnel from above.  You can see people sitting in the bottom right corner.

 Then we got to get up close to a hawk.  Look at the kids' faces! :)

It was a totally fun day!  When we were walking in to the aquarium there was a man out in the street playing a saxophone and he played "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "The Wheels on the Bus" for Ellie.  That was fun!

Levi's 1st Birthday!

Oh trust me, I know!  I am WAY behind!  Sorry!  Life is so busy lately.  For real!

BUT, Levi turned one in July!  Clear back then!  July 13th to be exact.  It was such a fun day.  A fun weekend really.  My mom visited from Texas that week so we were able to spend some time with her and my brothers.  I swear I haven't seen the boys in forever so it was nice to have them around.

They had to leave town before we had Levi's birthday party, so we decided to throw a spur of the moment party so that my mom and the boys could be there.  It was fun.  We had AMAZING Las Vegas steaks for dinner and then cake afterwards.

Then on Levi's Birthday, which was Sunday, we woke up and opened presents and went to church, and then had his originally planned birthday party that night.  We did a Bubble Guppies theme since Levi love, love, loves bubble guppies, and it turned out so stinkin' cute.

Of course, the cutest part of the day was definitely Levi.  He is just such a cute kid, and he was such a trooper at that time.  He had just burned his arm the week before, and then a couple days before his birthday he got Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease.  He and Ellie both.  But you couldn't even tell, it wasn't slowin' him down at all, which we were so grateful for.

The only thing he missed out on was the infamous "smash cake" for one-year-old's. Obviously he couldn't smash a cake because of his arm.  We thought we would have him do it at Ellie's birthday instead, but his burn was still open on her birthday, so he will get a smash cake when he turns 2!  If I remember to do it!

Thanks to all of our family and friends for celebrating Levi with us.  He is such a fun, happy kid and we are so grateful to have him as a member of our family.  We love that little Dude so much! :)

One more thing, here are his year stats for the books!

Weight: 21 lbs 5 oz     20th percentile
Height: 31.3 in.           95th percentile
Head Circumference: 19.2 in.  100th percentile

At one year Levi is still crawling, loves playing with cars, loves playing on Ellie's bed, loves to point at the airplanes flying above head, loves to bang on anything and everything, leaves a destructive path wherever he goes, is in to everything, has turned into a pretty good climber, and loves teasing his big sister.  And he some how has this fettish with eating the grout in the bathroom that is starting to come out between the tiles.  Strange kid!  Don't ask, we don't know why!  Really he just loves eating anything off of the floor, including huge spiders!  But he still has the cutest dang dimples around and we totally enjoy him. What a fun, energetic kid.  We Love You Levi!

 Chillin' with Grandma.  He was totally tired that day.

 Because he was so tired he kept acting shy.  

 Andrew, Trevor, my Uncle Kenny and Aunt Alayne, my Mom and Dave.

Great-Grandpa Lionel and Great-Grandma Tana

 And Ellie was being a ham with Grandma Trena

Then this was on his birthday at home.  He was loving his fun decorations!

 And the balloons.  He couldn't get enough!  He just kept swatting around at them.

 He got this "Animal" guy from the Muppets. :)

 And he was sad when he couldn't keep playing with animal.

 But then he was happy once more once he saw this!

 And from that point on, there was no more opening gifts.  He and Ellie went to town on the Bubble Guppies toys.  So mom had to open the rest of the presents.

 This is classic Levi.  If he doesn't get his way he throws a tantrum.

 This is his face when he gets what he wants.

 Oh yeah, it's my birthday!  I can cry if I want to and then I'll get my way! ;)

 This was his birthday cake and goodies for the party.

 Holding Great-Grandma Montag and Grandpa Offret

 Ben and Ellie eating their marshmallow pops

 Getting ready to open some gifts!

 Got some cool jammies!

 He felt so big standing here with this big box.  What could it be?!

Yay!  A little "bike" just his size!

We had some fun parties for the lucky fella!

 Then the following weekend we went to The Spaghetti Factory for his birthday dinner.

Yup, Dad had a beard. :)

 The kids got some fun balloon toys

 And Levi got his face kissed off by his aunts!

 And like I said, the week before his birthday my mom and the boys came in to town.

Ellie and Levi hangin' out with Uncle Andrew.

 My mom with her boyfriend Dave.  This was the first time we met him and he was so nice. 

Again, thank you to EVERYONE for making Levi's birthday such a fun occasion!  

We love you Levi!  Glad you had a fun first year!