Who needs a tub??

Tonight, after dinner we decided to take Evan for a walk. A real walk. No stroller. He faired well and we only had to carry him 1/3 of the way. He held our hand 1/3 of the time he walked.

A quick 15 minute stroll became a 30-45 minute walk. Evan asks "what's that?" and points to everything. We reply "white clouds, blue sky, bird, trees, green grass, etc" Evan responds with the inquisitve "Oh?!" like "oh, I see". It was truly one of those moments where you realize he's growing so fast and our world is finally becoming his world. We will cherish every second of that walk!

Josh, our next-door neighbor, was outside and Evan ran to him to discuss what he saw on our walk. Evan ran through the puddles at the end of the driveway to get to Josh and they sat down. Then he began to innocently splash....it was so cute...the two of them in deep thought kicking the water...so I ran inside to get the camera. I snapped a couple pictures of them, and next thing, Evan is swimming in the puddles and the neighbors have all come outside to watch. All you hear is laughter! He continues to carry on, of course showing off and loving the attention. Alex went to run his real bath inside. We stripped him down outside so not to drip inside the house...he through a fit and wanted back in the puddles. We couldn't resist the priceless opportunity....so Evan bathed in the puddles...

Only in July in Minnesota is this possible!!!

(Note: Once we made it inside, Evan received a real bath in a real tub !)

Our Mini-Vacation to St. Paul

It was truly the fun getaway we'd hoped it would be. As you can see, we had just as much fun being silly in our hotel...just the three of us.

Alex has been travelling quite a bit lately and last weekend we decided to meet Daddy in St. Paul for a fun-filled family getaway. Alex had been in Chaska, Minnesota for a meeting all week. We stayed at the Embassy Suites which was right downtown, St. Paul. Surrounded by tall buildings, it was a good feeling to be in a big city. Our suite was perfect...we had a living room separate from the bedroom so we could put Evan down and still watch tv and talk.

We ventured to the Children's Museum on Friday afternoon. It is a great museum for kids of all ages. There is an exhibit called "Our World" where kids can play dress up. There's a post office, doctor's office, grocery store, and even a bus you can drive! Evan loved the "HABITOT" exhibit. It was a room for babies and toddlers to crawl, walk and climb around. The room was set up like a forest with trees, caves, logs, bridges and more. There were mirrors and many stuffed animals that were in their habitat! To mommy's demise, Evan LOVED the spider web! He climbed up the ramp and played with the stuffed arachnid. We then checked out the EarthWorld exhibit where animals were scattered throughout a much bigger forest and you could move clouds and create a thunderstorm. We played in the running brook and saw some REAL amphibians.

After eating dinner outside with all the city buildings towering over us, we enjoyed a cocktail at the hotel. Evan embraced a new friend who brought him some crackers. It's good to know that our son uses his manners in public and shares!! We must be doing something right!!

Saturday, we strolled down Grand Avenue. 27 blocks of restaurants and boutiques. It happened to be Paws on Grand, and every breed of canines imaginable were sharing the sidewalks. Our favorite was a Husky/Standard Schnauzer mix dressed in a bumble-bee costume. We forgot to photograph him, but in Alex's words, he looked like an "Ewok". After a nice nap, we woke up to tornado warnings on tv and decided to eat dinner at the hotel. Jeff, Beth and the girls stopped by on their way to the airport. It was a last minute thing, and was perfect to spend a few minutes saying goodbye to our best friends who now live in San Fran. They were excited to get home, after Beth and the girls had been visiting family and friends throughout Minnesota & Wisconsin since the end of June!!

Como Zoo was our last adventure in St. Paul. Evan and I were excited to show Daddy the wonderful park that we visited earlier in the month. This time we watched Sparky the Seal performance. It was so hot we undressed Evan and shared a popsicle before heading home to Austin.

What a wonderful weekend we had, just the three of us!!

Our Little Man

I just can't believe what a big boy Evan is becoming. The photo above shows off Evan's new 'do. I went to Rochester for my haircut on Wednesday, and Alex took Evan to get his haircut too. He's was already in bed when I got home, so this was my cutie on Thursday morning!

I thought I'd share these recent photos as he is always reminding us to brush teeth after his bath. He insists on doing it himself.

Happy 4th of July!!

No small American town is complete without the town parade on the 4th of July! Actually the SpamTown Freedom Fest begins on July 3rd. They hold a children's costume parade, and have a carnival and music events in the park and lots of food vendors. I volunteered this year and worked one of the booths while Kallie took Evan around. Then yesterday we met up with friends for the Grand Parade. Evan had a blast! He was dancing, clapping, and chasing the candy that was thrown into the crowds. Evan splashed around with Avari at Holly and Jeff's house and attended another BBQ and pool with neighbors and watched the city fireworks from the yard and our own firework show in the cul-de-sac! This truly was an All-American day!!! What fun we had!! Can't wait for next year!

Arriving in style!

Saying hello to Jill (our next door neighbor) Watching the flag go by with Josh



A mini version of Alex!!

Sharing his lollipop with EVERYONE! It was his first lollipop ever and was very proud of it!

Just chillin'

A man and his best friend! Meet Oliver Larson (our neighbor's yorkie-poo!) whom Evan adores and looks for every time we go outside. Evan calls him "Ol-Va"

My annual cheeseburger cupcakes!

Put Me in the Zoo

We've had many visitors this summer already and so we took the kids to visit the zoo. Beth and Jeff were in town with Addison (5mo) and Sydney (22 mo). Evan loved playing with Syd and adored the baby. They were pretty tired after taking the red eye from San Francisco and everyone's clocks were off. But we did manage to enjoy lots of laughs and created some memories when Beth and I took the kids to the Como Zoo and Park in St. Paul. (better yet this zoo asks for $2 donations!!) The butterfly exhibit was fantastic and Evan loved walking around and watching the butterflies zip by his face. (plus it was nice and cool inside the greenhouse).

Looking for the butterflies

Then it was off to see the animals! Evan especially loved watch the seals swim around inside the aquarium. He was at eye level with the water and he would duck down to watch them swim and then they played peek a boo with him. They would pop up out of the water every time in front of Evan!! He just laughed!! The penguin exhibit was similar! We also saw lions, tigers, flamingos, giraffes, buffalo, tortoises, ducks, gorillas, zebras and so many more!!

So engaged!! This was such a joy to watch him get so excited!

We watched all kinds of monkeys and orangutans jump around and play. He was fascinated! We enjoyed a slice of pizza and traveled back to Austin without Beth and the girls as they were off on to the next part of their month journey to visit family in Wisconsin. We sure hope they stop back through!! We missed them . Evan and I can't wait to take Daddy to the zoo. It's been awhile since he's visited his hometown !! HAHA!

Evan goofing off at lunch. Definitely ALL BOY!!

More photos from the weekend with Jeff, Beth, Syndey and Addison

Evan and Sydney dancing for us!

Playing with Addison

Splashing around with Syd

So sweet!!