An update from Last Year

Happy New Year!!!!  2009 came and went faster than expected.  This time last year, I had no idea I would be pregnant and have a baby boy before the year's end.  Ahhh...but this post isn't about last year or about this year.  I am so far behind and I have so many things to write about and show you.  I'm pretty sure I won't get to them though.  Want a sneak peak anyway....my possible future posts have to do with
~camels
~pizza cupcakes
~neices and nephews
~weddings
~organization
~and the crazy life as a family of 5

For now anyway, I'll share a few pictures from our very adventurous trip to the zoo last week.

Jeremy was blessed to be given last week off of work, and remarkably...he was only called a few times by his customers, so it was a real unexpected vacation.  We stayed in town because his sister and her family were down, and Justin came down for a few days too.  However, after everyone left, we had some serious plans for work and for play.  We worked very hard  on catching up around the house, finishing garage organization, laundry, getting rid of un-used decorations and clothes and so forth. And, we decided to take one day totally away and go to Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo.

We've been there before, but only Nicole remembers.  This time, Hannah was in on the fun too.  Next time, maybe Nathan will remember the trip. Soooo....here it goes......

It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive to the zoo.  The ride up was great, Nathan fell asleep soon into the trip, as did Hannah.  Nathan actually stayed asleep until just after lunch!  Unbelievable considering he doesn't like the car seat much (you'll hear about that later!)  The zoo was very busy, which made the crazyness seem all the more crazy!  After dealing with potty breaks, snacks, drinks, and begging for more snacks and drinks, there wasn't a lot of time for animals watching.  Actually...there was.

Hannah and Nicole both got to feed a giraffe.  We have a funny video of the video trying to lick Hannah (twice!) and it totally freaking her (me) out.  I can't get it on here though:-(

Nicole got to ride a camel (I whisked Hannah away so we wouldn't have a "that's not fair" meltdown). 

We found a pretty little place to take pictures of the girls. However, we couldn't get them to smile at the same time. 

So, we tried again...we said, "Nicole smile"

and again....this time we said, "Nicole, show us your teeth." So she did...and Hannah stuck out her tongue

and again...

and again.....

Nope, we couldn't get a good one.  Oh well.