Cameron Park Zoo

I love to ride up on Daddy's shoulders! Look at the tigers behind me!

My little gorilla



The guys in front of the bald eagles. The female was missing and eye and the male was missing a chunk of his wing. Since bald eagles are the national emblem they cant be placed in a zoo unless injured. Michael read that on the information plaq by the cage...it was interesting because Michael was angry at first that the ealges were given such a small enclosure. Then we read why and felt better. These birds wouldn't survive on their own in the wild.

Busy little man!

This past Saturday we decided to hit up the zoo in Waco rather than try to tile the kitchen (he'll get to it eventually). It was a well-deserved break for Michael who has tiled both bathrooms and the foyer (and they all look fabulous)! It was pretty crowded at the zoo, we called it the "stroller parade" because it was baby/toddler central. So we fit right in with Gabers. He was more interested in watching the ppl/children walk by him than actually looking at the animals. We want to take he back when he starts walking because the zoo has all kinds of kid stations for them to climb and run on. I had to restrain Michael from going down the slide himself :)

Grams & Gramps Pilon should recognize this teepee. Remember last visit? Gabe was 4 weeks old, freshly casted and slept through the whole visit! Ahh those were the days. My mom predicted we'd come back with Michael....We actually had a warmer day end of Feb when I went with my parents than with Michael. Crazy Texas weather!

Irish cream pie

Totally delish. And surprisingly nutrish (only 3 tbsp of sugar)! If you're lucky/ come visit, i'll prob make this for you!

Bragworthy

When you're a new mom, inevitably you're going to meet those other moms who LOVE to brag about their baby's achievements. I was warned. And they are out there..I'm sure you know who i'm talking about. Their baby does everything first...rolling over, crawling, walking...etc. Well great. I'm here to brag about my baby..who, by the way, is way better than any other baby out there!

What brought this on? you might ask. Well i had saved Gabe's first set of casts (to fix his club feet) and I brought them out to show Michael and it dawned on me how amazing Gabe is. He may not be a "high speed" baby in terms of gross motor (rolling, crawling, walking..) but he is the most friendly, tolerant baby i know. For example, at 3 weeks old when he was first casted, he barley cried. The doc. and tech were amazed. They said most babies almost blow out their ear drums! One dose of baby Tylenol and he was set. Usually babies are casted immediately after delivery...so they just have the casts on from day 1 virtually. Gabe had to adjust a little bit later. He also never cried when they had to be sawed off weekly (for 4 weeks). Then he was un-phased by the little plastic braces he had to wear. Only woke up a few times in the night when he was switched to the ghastly denis brown bar brace (looks like a medieval torture device).

He has been in the to new mexico and back twice. To new york and back twice. That's about 3500 miles in the car. with two dogs. and no dvd player. Would you want to do that with an infant? He'll eat on the go. He gave up formula and the bottle without a fight. He smiles at EVERYONE! No separation anxiety or mommy issues. He'll let anyone hold him, watch him, play with him. He's amazing! And he grew 12 inches in his first year and gained 22 lbs! Not to shabby for a mini-hulk.

Plus...he's just the cutest thing ever. Have you seen those glorious blue eyes? Also, he's a sharp little bugger. Tries to copy everything we do and takes in everything! here's the proof of his adorableness :)

The roses were from Michaels. He's a keeper :)

Bosque Del Apatche

So on our return home from New Mex we decided to take an alternative route and head south first and visit the Bosque...a gorgeous wetlands full of migratory birds. It was a great stop, albeit this new route was an 18 hr day in the car versus 12. Therefore i think we'll take the usual way from now on. No matter, we saw tons of pretty birds: sand hill cranes, snow geese (made me think of the notebook), bald eagles,golden eagles, a quail, bluebirds and all kinds of ducks. Very interesting place! The birds were torturing the poor dogs who wanted to hunt them very badly.

Vacay: Part II- Brian & Christina's Wedding Extravaganza!

On Thurs. Feb 18th, Gabe, Michael & i packed up the truck again to head straight north to Colorado Springs for Brian's wedding! We left at 0630 (which impressed certain in-laws of mine :) and made it up to the Cheyenne Mtn. resort by early afternoon. The weekend was jam-packed with tons of visiting, eating, drinking... etc. Lots of family flew in who had never met Gabe before. And let me tell you, aside from the bride & groom, he totally stole the show! He was friendly to everyone, being his usual charming self. We had a great time with everyone. I agreed with Aunt Carolyn that Michael should be on the cover of GQ, seriously who looks that good in a suit? :)

The groom looked dashing and the bride beautiful, and freshly fallen snow gave them the perfect setting for a lovely winter wedding. The bride even hooked up Michael and i with a babysitter allowing us to thoroughly enjoy the wedding/reception! We are totally jealous of their dancing moves and plan to learn to two-step via u-tube as soon as my cowboy boots come in. Anywho enjoy the pics! Colorado springs is so gorgeous, Michael is seriously hoping we could be posted there next. Cross your fingers!

Vacation: Part I

Gramps & Grammy


View up in the santa fe mtns.

our lil' amazing travelin' baby!

Snow in the texas wind farms

Michael, Gabe, Bella, Winsty & I all packed up and hit the road for New Mex on feb 11th at 0645!! We left in pouring rain which switched to ice and snow for most of the drive of texas. Yes, tehas does get snow, who knew? Once we crossed the boarder into NM the weather cleared and was nice and sunny. We made it to Mike's parents by that evening and relaxed the next day, trying to recover from 14 hrs in the car. Yes, 700 miles to just to get to the next state. Texas is HUGE!!!

On Saturday (after a delish brunch whipped up by Mary) Mike & I left Gabriel in the capable eager hands of his grandparents and headed Santa Fe for a romantic childless valentine's weekend getaway (keyword = childless)! It was a blast! Ahh i've missed the days of sleeping in! Michael had reserved us a room in the El Dorado on the top floor...very swank! So we enjoyed perusing the plaza, checking out entirely too expensive pieces of art, bought some turquoise...soaked in the rooftop jacuzzi and enjoyed complimentary champagne and choc-covered strawberries. Oh we also had a couples massage sesh. SO great! The next morning we snow-shoed up in the santa fe mtns in a gorgeous aspen grove! I got to test out my new snow shoes (thanks honey!) and Michael enjoyed being in the outdoors. We had a fabulous dinner at Rio Chamas (a legit steak place recommended by the local knife salesman) on Valentine's Day and then went to see the movie Valentine's Day. we thought it was cute. Michael liked it more than Dear john, so i guess that's good. I'll report on Brian & Christina's wedding next update. For now, I'm gonna go relax with my hubby (yay! so excited i can say that now!) and watch some DVR action.

This is Cafe Pasquals. Apparently it's all the rage. WE didn't understand the menu and were seated so close to our neighbors that we left. And had a delish meal at the Blue Corn Cafe. I guess were not enlightened enough to eat at Pasquals or something.

Snow shoeing in the aspen grove!

PTSD- Post Traumatic Spending Disorder

A year of living in the dessert daydreaming about what we (he) can spend our (his) hard earned savings ended in this!! A Ford F150 xlt chrome edition truck. And a really nice cell phone. I guess we can now officially claim to be Texans with our big honkin' truck! I think Nulkie may have chosen this color to bring out the blue in his eyes...or Gabe's! Anywho, it's totally awesome and were are verryyy excited about it.

As i'm blogging Michael is giving Gabe his nightime milk and reading him a bedtime story. It is soooo great having Daddy around! Finally being an actual geographic family is completely wonderful!! I'll leave you with these pics of Daddy and Gabe with our new purchase :)

BEST DAY EVER!!!