@ the beach with gwanma

galveston was beautiful. there was a nice breeze and the water was delightfully warm, much warmer than last time.

lucy enjoyed this trip so much more:

she stayed in the water just about the whole time. she would watch the waves come and jump/fall into them. the video clip speaks for itself:

sorry it's so long, lucy was just so cute. note her little fan club and her claps after a wave splashes her. it took hazel longer to warm up to getting wet:

but eventually, she took a leaf out of lucy's book:
understandably, lucy was exhausted by the end of the afternoon:

cheeses is coming!

today, we all went to galveston. we had a lovely time, i'll post about that tomorrow. after playing in the sun for a couple hours, we went to eat at the mosquito café. the food was delish, it was very neat and clean inside, the workers were friendly: but it wasn't the most enjoyable experience. we arrived there literally just before 'dinner time' when it was just about empty. we ordered and sat at a table, hazel was in a highchair and lucy in her car seat next to grant's chair. both girls were wiggly and lucy, not having napped more than 15 minutes, was grumpy. while we were waiting for our food, a middle aged woman came to the table next to us, saw lucy on the floor, made a slight grimace and sat down. i would like to repeat that nearly every table in the place was empty and she chose to sit right next too us. through out our stay, lucy repeatedly squeaked/squealed/screamed to make her displeasure known. we were uncomfortable enough, as any parent would be, but this woman constantly showered us with dirty looks. it was pretty unbelievable. we all vented about it in the car and wished we had had 'words' with the woman or had someone brave enough, like jewel, there to do it for us. we are laughing about it now but it made dinner slightly uncomfortable. on a funnier note: we ordered hazel grilled cheese sandwich and while we were waiting for it to arrive, hazel kept saying, in a very loud and excited two year old voice, "cheeses is coming!!" there you have it, folks. from the mouths of babes....

@ the zoo & on the train with 'gwanma' II

after we came out of the zoo, we wanted to ride on the hermann park train. hazel has been wanting to do this for a long time. we finally told her that when grandma was here we'd go ride the train. so for the past week or longer, hazel has been constantly asking, "should we go pick up gwanma and go wide the twain!?" we got tickets and waited in line:

and waited:and waited some more:until finally:'a train! a train! a train! a train!' hazel was bursting with joy:

we were happy too:

my beautiful girls:

some scenes from the train:

the sam houston monument.

the 'heart of the park' in hermann park.

and a building that has a name....i just don't know it. it's by grant's bus stop at school. it was a nice long ride:

maybe a little too long for some of us:

it was a very fun ride and hazel, and the rest of us, loved every moment of it.

@ the zoo & on the train with 'gwanma'

hazel has always been a happy kid, but the last couple of days, she's been glowing. today, we took grandma to the zoo and as usual i have an abundance of pictures. grant has started taking some of the pictures so that i'll actually be the subject in them. once again, if you didn't read this post by mckenna, do it. it's good for getting a better perspective. anyway, since i have so many pictures, i'm splitting today into two possibly three posts. aren't you readers excited? i'm not planning on explaining much in this post, just things i haven't thoroughly discussed before. if this leaves you confused and disoriented, click here and browse through past zoo posts. here we go:

hazel was by gwanma's side as much as she could be.

i may have said before, i don't like many insects. this dislike extends to reptiles. today, since grant was with us, of course we had to visit the reptile house. so i decided to make my audience suffer with me:

these frogs weren't too bad. they were just fat and slimy, but a pretty color.

none of the other creatures had any redeeming qualities.

this is a baby komodo dragon. i read on the sign under their diet, that they eat smaller komodo dragons, so this explains why they separated this little guy from the full grown one in the outside cage. it was kind of scary to see hazel this close to such big snakes, knowing they would eat her if that glass wasn't there. but she was happy to look at them. this next picture is decieving. that snake in the water was huge:

next, i have a clip of a python (maybe) moving around. it was pretty freaky.

i hope you enjoyed that.

we ended it on a happier, less anxiety-promoting animal, box turtles. but i enjoy, and prefer, the 'normal' variety of zoo animals:

we also rode on the carousel. grant tried to take pictures but most turned out blurry. here's one good one:

hazel got to ride her 'giraffe-y'. lucy was on a zebra. she started out enjoying the ride but part way through dissolved into tears. i'm not sure why. here's a clip:

to be continued......

kisses from grandma

these pictures were just too precious to leave until morning:

@ the park with 'gwanma'

grant's mom has come to visit and we're all so excited about it. hazel has been counting down the days and finally yesterday, she got to see where the airplanes live and found grandma waiting for her. it's been so sweet to see that their bond is still there and just as strong as before. the thing that made me most sad when we moved, was the thought that hazel would forget our family and be uncomfortable around them. but that was not the case. she wasn't shy or scared, but talkative and bossy, in a cute way.

today we took grandma to our park:

and hazel showed her how she can blow bubbles.

hazel's latest thing is playing in the dirt. she gets covered:

she also chased the squirrels. one in particular was 'playing' with her. i thought that i had captured it all in these next two pictures, but apparently i wasn't fast enough to get the squirrel in. it was going around the tree trunk ahead of hazel and hazel kept going around and around trying to see it:

lucy eventually got to swing and i wish i had wiped down the swing before i put her in it:

she does this in her high chair, she sucks on the tray. must be a teething thing. speaking of teeth.......number 2 popped through yesterday, in honor of grandma coming. i'm loving watching lucy bond with grandma. there was no nervousness here either. lucy gave her a couple of looks at first and then cuddled the ottoman (which she happened to be standing by). i think she dedicated that cuddle to grandma. we're all so happy to have our sweet mother-in-law/grandma/mom here!