Animals

I took Emma to the mall today because the zoo was going to bring some animals. Emma loves going to the zoo or anywhere she can see animals. They had a penguin, tarantula, boa constrictor, two giant turtles, a serval (a African wild cat with spots and stripes), a macaw, and a kinkajou (yeah, look it up on Wikipedia). It is hard to tell a 2 year old that "no, you can not hold the tarantula", because mama said! =)

Anna

Emma's best friend, Maddy, got a baby sister this month. Her name is Anna and she is just as adorable as Maddy. Emma is most oblivious to her. She will occasionally go up to her and "pet" her and call her "baby Anna". Otherwise I don't think she notices her or cares. Hmmm, maybe that gives me hope that she won't be jealous when she gets a new baby sister or brother. =)

Can you hold your tongue?

The girls are so silly! They are playing "who can hold their
tongue the longest before laughing so hard you let go".

Step-Cousins

We occasionally get together with my stepfather's daughter and her children, three boys. Emma thinks these boys are so goofy and enjoys seeing them.

Time to Go

We had a great time visiting my family in Arizona, not it is time to go! I wish I could have stayed longer. I will just have to make another trip back soon! Here are some last pictures of us with my dad and then we had breakfast with my grandfather.

Checkers

My dad has the biggest Doberman Pinscher I have ever seen. I really don't care for dogs and particularly other peoples dogs much, but I would trade our dog, Abby, for Checkers. Checkers is a trained therapy dog and so gentle and sweet. If he didn't weigh like 200 lbs I would probably trade Abby for him. (That is of course if they would even trade for Abby). Sitting up he stands as high as Emma does. He is just huge, but so sweet!

More swimming....

Ok, so Emma really liked going swimming today, but it was way to cold. So we let her swim in the kiddie pool with lukewarm water and she had a blast. I need to consider getting one of these for home. We just stripped Emma down naked and put her in. She loved it!

Swimming

So, we thought it would be fun to take Emma swimming. And you would think that pool would be warm enough to swim in May in Arizona. Yeah, think again. It was freezing and Emma still wanted to swim. I finally made her get out after 15 min when her skin was purple and she couldn't stop chattering!

Greatgrandparents

We all went out to dinner tonight with my father, Kim, my grandfather, and Karen. Emma of course was a cheeseball! I am so surprised that she wasn't bashful or anything. She took to everyone so well.

Horses

So my grandfather and his wife, Karen, have horses and I got to go riding while Kim watched Emma. I even convinced my dad to go with me. It was a blast. I really love to ride. I think dad tolerated it well, but I don't think he is going to go again. =)

Grannnnnnnpa, Grannnnnnpa, where are you?

We took Emma to Lowe's to shop and waste time before lunch. Emma has really caught on to saying grandpa for my dad. When he would walk off to get something she would repeat grandpa a million times. I actually thought it was cute!

Grandpa and Grandma

I thought Emma might be a little shy with my dad and his wife, Kim, since she hasn't seen them since she was 6 mo old. Turns out I was wrong. She did great, she went around the house calling "grannnndpa, grannnnnma". They got a kick out of how talkative and busy she was. Here are some pictures of her keeping them busy! They read books, colored, played with lincoln logs, and just about anything else Emma wanted to do! It was so nice to have someone else help take care of Emma instead of being the only one responsible for her. It was a nice treat!

I stayed Monday- Friday so that I could still work and not take any time off. I am so fortunate to be able to have off during the week so that I can take quick trips like this. I wish I could afford to take one every month to go see family and friends. I could travel all the time. It was stressful going through security but otherwise Emma traveled so well. She even napped and slept well at night without any problems. Although, with the time change she was getting up at 5-6 am Arizona time which is the time she usually gets up 7-8 Texas time. That was kind of a drag for me, luckily though Kim gets up at 5 am so she took care of Emma a couple of times so that I could sleep in! Oh, and I have to mention, Kim fed us all very well. I think I gained 5 lbs this week! Yeah, I could totally do this again! Hmmm, maybe in the fall. =)

Here goes nothing...

Emma is so great! She traveled so well on the airplane! I couldn't ask for anything better. I took lots of snacks, toys, and my laptop computer to play a movie. Emma didn't have a problem with flying and I didn't even have to drug her up!

Adventurous

So I decided about a month ago to be spontaneous and travel to Arizona to see my grandfather, father, and their wives. Kevin is going to be out of town on a business trip so I didn't want to sit at home alone for a week. So I am going to be adventurous tomorrow and take Emma on a plane trip all by myself!!

Keys

I was going to take Emma to our local play place where Maddy and Emma play together a lot. Well, turns out it is closed on Monday. As I was driving up I realized it was closed and Emma was expressing her excitement for going. Well, I turned the car around to go to the mall and Emma got upset. I tried to explain to her that it was closed and that I was sorry that I forgot it was closed on Mondays and we couldn't get in. Emma said "Mama, keys!" My baby is so clever. I said, "Emma, I don't have the keys but if I did I would let you in." I just thought it was so smart of her to realized we needed the keys to open the door! She is so smart.

Playdate

Here Emma met up with a couple friends again. This time we added a boy, Colton! hehehe I had some really cute pictures of Colton holding hands with all the girls but the card was corrupted and I was lucky to get these pictures.