Brady's birthday celebration - Fun at the zoo!

On Brady's birthday, we woke up and had a little birthday breakfast then headed to the zoo for some birthday fun. Brady talked about seeing the elephants all morning long so we headed there as soon as we got to the zoo. There was a cute little baby elephant and a biiiig daddy elephant. Brady was very impressed with the elephants. 

The big hit of the day, though, was feeding the giraffes. He looooved this. He has been acting like a giraffe and eating 'giraffe food' (lettuce) since then. 

 We were so happy Nana and Grumps were able to come to the zoo with us. I think they enjoyed it just as much as Brady did!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Happy birthday to Blake. We love you!

Happy Birthday, Daddy-o!

Brady's birthday celebration - Emi & Poppy

Wow! I have a lot to blog about! We had a really busy and fun week last week celebrating Brady's 2nd birthday, starting with a weekend visit from Emi and Poppy. That was followed up by a visit from Nana and Grumps, a trip to the zoo, a 2-year doctor visit and his first dental checkup. More to come on all those, but for now, here are pictures of Brady celebrating his birthday with E&P:

Brady is very into music lately and loves playing Poppy's guitar when we go to Milam. Well, as any good grandparent does when their grandkids are into something, they went and bought him his own guitar. And boy does he LOVE it! He is obsessed. He plays it all the time and even sings and dances with it. He loves to watch the guitar player at our church on Sunday mornings and when we get home he goes straight for his guitar and tries to imitate our band guy! It is precious.

Brady also loves tractors right now. One of his favorite things to do in the country is ride Poppy's "green twactwah", and now he has is own green tractor to push around!

And just because I thought this picture captures these two perfectly...

Oh, and a video of Brady singing his own birthday song. He writes his own music, by the way :)

Weekly pictures

Blake has been traveling quite a bit lately and I regularly send him pictures to keep him posted on what's going on back home. Brady and I like to take selfies to send to Daddy when we're missing him!

Kisses for Dad!

How old does he look? Waaah!

Driving the ice cream truck at the mall. He loves this truck.

Lunchtime with Drew. We found this really cool deli that has a fun kids play area in the back of the restaurant. Perfect for letting moms have a nice relaxing lunch while the kids play!

Having his nightly tea with me. We have a ritual of laying in bed together after bath time and reading or watching a Mickey Mouse episode before bed. I usually drink my sleepy tea during this time and Brady always wants a drink. Well, a couple nights ago I made him his own cup of 'tea' and he gulped it down. He felt so special. So I did it again the next night and we ended up with tea all over our bed. No more bedtime tea, I guess!

Brady walking Dad to his classroom. 

Family Vacation - WaterColor, FL

We took our first big family vacation together a couple weeks ago to WaterColor, FL. WaterColor is a small town right next to Seaside. Both towns are just picture perfect... the most beautiful houses line up along brick streets and there are kids everywhere and people riding bikes and walking to the beach and playing outside... it is just dreamy! We just fell in love with this little town and never imagined we'd have so much fun there!

This was in front of the little theater in the town square. We spent lots of time here having breakfast and dinner and watching plays and concerts on the stage. 

Having a donut before our flight takes off!

When we got there we suited up and headed down to the beach. There were lots of families there but not so many that it was over-crowded. The water was clear and beautiful and Brady loved being in the ocean!

The place we stayed was called WaterColor Inn. It was beautiful; it had several pools and was right on the beach. We were all in a room together so Brady had his very own pull-out couch/bed to sleep on. Great, right?!

WRONG! He ended up sleeping with us (and I use the term 'sleeping' lightly here). Bedtime was interesting to say the least. He was just so excited to be in the same room as us and had a hard time winding down. We all had to go to bed at the same time and even then it took a couple hours before we all fell asleep. I thought it was so much fun having all my little family in one big bed but I'm very thankful he has his own bed at home. :)

Blake took this picture one night when he was awakened with a big kick to the ribs. Brady owned the bed.

At night we took walks on the beach and one night hunted for crabs. We found a little group of young kids that had buckets and nets and joined their hunt. Brady LOVED the little crabs and really got a kick out of seeing them shimmy across the sand.

One one of our bike rides we saw some kids fishing over a bridge so we went to see what they were catching. Brady was intrigued by the fish and even got to hold one of them. The fisherkids were excited to see Brady so excited; I think it is so sweet when young kids are so good with him!

We spent several hours each afternoon in the hotel pool that was closest to our room. We ate lunch there one day and let Brady swim around. There were lots of kids to play with at this pool!

The place we stayed offered free canoe/paddleboard/kayak rides to all of its' guests each day. Blake and I loved our daily kayak rides. Brady kept saying he wanted to 'coo-noo'.

My cute boys!

One day after kayaking Brady found a couple random kids laying down outside watching their ipads and he just went and plopped down with them and started watching! Pretty funny.

When we were out riding bikes one night we came across this fun little candy store. It was a pregnant girl's dream! They had every kind of candy you can imagine.

And outside the candy store we found this:

Brady's mode of transportation for the vacation... he loved it! The whole vacation he was saying 'RIDE TWO BI-ICKLES!'

And just some random pictures from the week:

Determined not to look at me and smile. :)

We can't wait to go back!!