Hurricane - induced Road Trip

Well, it has been too long since I've posted, but we have been busy! Since we were without power for about a week following the hurricane, we decided to take a little road trip to Dallas, Oklahoma, and Amarillo. We had a great time!

First, the three of us headed off to Dallas to spend the wekend with Michael and Karri.
Lincoln LOVED these fur pillows that they had in their living room

On Saturday afternoon we met up with our dear friends Shane and Abbie Melton, and sweet little Macie Melton (who is 4 months older than Lincoln.) It was so fun to catch up, and to get the kiddos together - I think Lincoln was a little smitten with Macie (what guy wouldn't love a girl in a pink Tony Romo jersey?) but he especially liked playing with Macie's toys, which are apparently MUCH cooler than the toys he owns. Who knows, maybe if they go to ACU they'll be friends one day. And actually, we'd be totally fine with going ahead and arranging a marriage...)

And now for the birthday celebration...sortof. So much for all of my planning for a big 1st party and an outdoor brunch. (Which was to occur the day of the hurricane...in our wreck of a backyard, with no fence. Needless to say, it was canceled. Sadly, I didn't get to try and make one of those 3-D basketball cakes (which, if you know me, I was really excited about; I had already read the directions like 20 times) and unfortunately, our plans of celebrating with all of the grandparents, and great-grandparents, and friends also didn't happen. Lots of flights had to be canceled and plans were changed at the last minute--which turned out to be the smart move.) So, maybe for his second birthday. It was fun to celebrate with "Uncle" Mikey and "Aunt" Karri (because 2nd-cousin Michael doesn't really have a good ring to it) a week later. Perhaps I can save the sports-themed party favors for next year...will a ridiculous amount of brunch food last that long?? We have enough muffin mix to last a year. Anyway, I digress...here is the chronicle of Linc's first cupcake experience.

READY...SET....

GO!

"Hmm...what do I do with this?? It's squishy!"

"Wait...I can EAT IT!"

" Look at me, they said I looked like a smurf--wait, what'a smurf? Is that one of those OLD cartoons my mom and dad watched? So passe'...everyone knows Baby Einstein the thing these days..."

"I really don't see the big deal - it's just icing. Why do mom and dad insist on pictures of EVERYTHING??"

"No, I don't need a bath!!"

What I didn't think about is that the blue dye in the icing stained everything. It left stains on the floor, his skin, his nails, his hair, ...even after exfoliating his sweet baby skin with bath and body works exfoliator, his little knee caps were a tinge of light blue for about a week. Sorry about the mess, Karri and Mikey.

Seriously, mom, exfoliation is totally unnecessary...blue is totally in right now."

Then came a few presents. "A toy that makes animal noises! My favorite thing!" This birthday thing is all right.."

After Dallas, Andrew had to fly to Miami for work (poor him :) so Lincoln and I drove to Ardmore, OK to visit my grandparents for the afternoon. Lincoln enjoyed hanging out on their front porch, and I know my Nonny and Papa loved spending some time with him. (It was funny to see how much Linc enjoyed playing on the porch and swinging on the swing; my brother and I used to do that for hours when we were little and would visit my grandparents.)

After our quick trip to Oklahoma, we continued driving to my parent's house. They had a great time hanging out and playing with Lincoln. We "re-celebrated" his birthday and took Linc to the Amarillo zoo. My mom, in true former-preschool teacher and preschool minister fashion, has the BEST toys...which Lincoln loved playing with all week. He also loved trying to snuggle with their dog, Yukon (who I think Lincoln equated with one of his stuffed animals. Thankfully, Yukon was okay with it.)

Our afternoon at the zoo was great. Because the zoo is TINY, the fences are very close-up, letting you get VERY close to the animals, like the Lion (below.) But the funniest part was that Linc, as he was looking at the lion, pointed to him and confidently said "DOG." Then, he also declared that the longhorn, donkey, and bear were also all "dogs"...this shows me that we may need to work on his animal recognition skills. But at least he didn't call them "mom."

And, to top off our trip, we got to hang out with my dear friend Leann and precious Jaida Grace (who is 4 months older than Lincoln. As I type this, I realize that Lincoln met lots of little ladies on this roadtrip!) It is so much fun that Lea and I got to have children at about the same time - a very cool blessing. While we were hanging out we kept laughing, as our conversation now centers on "mommy things" like"developmental milestones" and "how to balance a career and motherhood" - topics we never expected to get to discuss with each other! Watching Jaida made me excited for all of the neat things Linc may start doing over the coming months...but also made me realize life is about to get much busier!