A Couple of Hams

As soon as Cameron comes home from work, its all about daddy!! They are so funny together. They laugh and run around and Xander insists that Cameron either toss him around or make him dizzy in the chair. I love watching them - it makes me smile. I am so blessed to have an amazing husband that is also a fabulous dad! Here's to my two cheese balls....... SMILE!

Meeting Tasha

Xander and I got to meet Lolo's new baby girl, Tasha. She is such a sweet baby! Xander kept trying to give her things to play with and hugs. She did a lot of sleeping. Xander and Ela got to play on the playset after a walk. It was nice to visit for the day. Wish we lived closer.

Loche Harrison

The rains have not been kind to our poor little duplex and we have been on the brink of flooding each time it rains- which has been even worse since we have been pummeled all week long by one crazy storm after another. Our drainage system cannot work properly and keep up with the down pour so the water floods up and over the concrete porch and threatens to ruin our stuff. We already replaced our patio roofing so we had no major leaks but the winds were so strong that our neighbors roofing [which was old and nasty] is now floating peacefully in our Loche. Our roofing almost came off as well! So I'm out there in the pouring rain and hurricane force winds trying to put a huge piece of plywood on the roof..... I'm not quite tall enough and it is sooo windy that I kept getting knocked over. I finally got it up there to help save our new roofing. Whew! To make matters worse, the condo's behind us drain right into our yard, since their property is 2 feet higher than ours. [sad face]. So each time it rains we are gutter-less to help divert the run off to a "safer" place.... and so it continues.

Below- a picture of the patio [which is about 3-4 inches higher than our dirt..... the little weed that is "floating" is on the edge of the dirt/patio....
Even with sand bags we couldn't do much. The run off from the roof was just too much in addition to the onslaught of rain pouring from the sky.... I even dug a ditch and tried to

divert the water into a gopher hole, which initially worked.. but alas.... got too full and apparently no where to drain.

Zoo Day Today!

Today was the first zoo day of the year. We are planning to make the best of our year passes and hope to have many people join us throughout the year. Today Julia and her girls hung out and we headed straight for the giraffes. They are so close you can practically touch them. It was cool.


Have you ever tried to drink like this? What a pain.. It made me uncomfortable to watch the giraffe bend down and drink. I love seeing them though, they are so beautiful and graceful. The Gorillas were out sunning themselves and a few even came up to the window, but I didn't get very good pictures of them. The baby was so funny! It was running and jumping on almost every gorilla and running around. I love it when the animals are active.

Our little climber. He tries to climb everything he possibly can, I can even see the wheels turning sometimes when he is trying to figure out how to get higher.

Xander and Abby were more interested in putting leaves into the water and watching them flow down the water fall than look at the birds in the aviary... that's my boy!

AHH what a cutie! I can't believe we got them to stand still for a minute!

Xander and mommy.. I had to grab him for this picture, he was having way too much fun with the leaves and water. Here are a few of the birds we saw in the aviary. It was so peaceful and serene. I could have stayed in there for hours. And I think the kids would have been fine with that!

THE PANDAS WERE MOVING!!! This was the first time in a year that I have seen them move! They are normally up in a tree hanging out. This one was eating when we first came in then decided to walk around. It was very crowded and hard to maneuver with the stroller since people didn't keep the flow of the line.. but I got a panda pic! I can't wait for the 5 mth old panda to be out soon!

Xander and his friends on the elephants. The statues look real in the photos, but are metal and soo fun to climb on.

Elephant Odyssey - A quick picture before the kids continued to run around. I love this place! There is so much room to let the kids run and play, and so much to see.

Updating the Blog

This weekend I decided enough was enough! I really needed to update the blog and get it ready for printing. Boy was I reeaaalllyyy behind! I think I stopped updating it in the summer! I take pictures almost every day and something is going on almost every week that is note worthy, so I am definitely behind! I thought I only had a few to do but I realized I have closer to 30 entries.. then there is the task of organizing our photos in the computer. Looks like I got side tracked. But I love the memories I have when I look at them and hope I can do justice in my blog entries. My goal is to be updated by the end of January and be on top of things this year :) Here's to a fresh new year and more memories!

Tobi and Xander

Xander LOVES his Tobi kitty and takes every opportunity to pet him, or use him as a pillow. Tobi is a pretty easy going cat and takes it most of the time :)

Your Master Chess Player Here

Cameron loves to play chess and I've been wanting to learn how to play [even though it bores to me to tears sometimes]. But lately I've been on a kick of learning how to play and he was excited [surprised] that I wanted to play. The first time we played I won :) Then after that I just got frustrated but we do plan to play throughout the upcoming weeks. I still can't believe [I got lucky] and beat Cameron, I think he was too busy helping me move my little horsey thingy! Hahaa.. love ya babe! :D