New furniture

We're committed! After months of shopping, we've actually ordered new furniture. No, not from a garage sale or a scratch and dent store. No, not unfinished pieces that would take me a month to finish. No project pieces this time!!! We have, for the first time ever, shopped for exactly what we want and special ordered it. (We did, however, do some serious shopping around to get the best price once we settled on the line.) Yes, cheapskate Erin actually consented to springing for new stuff!

In two or three weeks, we should receive a king sized bed, two nightstands, a tall chest, dresser and mirror.

We're very excited. We chose the American Drew Edinboro line, which is beautiful, very well constructed furniture (dovetails joints, dustcovers, wood drawer slides, solid wood drawer sides, etc.). It has beautiful crotch mahogany veneers over hardwoods. And, lest you think these projects are winding down -- it's now time to shop for a king sized mattress (and bedding, curtains, a ceiling fan, bathroom fixtures, etc., etc., etc.)!

Also, after living in our guest room for five weeks, we finally moved back into our bedroom and boy, are we glad to be home! The guest room is very nice, don't get me wrong, but we had emptied the entire content of our master closet in there as well and thing were just too chaotic. We'll be very happy to have all of this wrapped up before the baby arrives! That's been the big motivation to do these projects this summer. Hey, the old roof can last us a little while longer.

Backyard Fun and (Threatening) Sun

Ever since our trip to Myrtle Beach, one of Brooke's favorite things in the world is a baby pool. (It even ranks up there with Choo Choo [Thomas], Baby Choo Choo [the train at the zoo], babies [dolls], and Babies! [Brooke's friends]).

I've discovered some peace and quiet in our own backyard. Set up the baby pool and just add water (a.k.a., "juice," in Brookese). I'm working on this post in the backyard now, with the laptop on the picnic table watching Brooke pour water from cup to cup and wash her baby. Yesterday her friend Grace came over and the girls filled cups with "coffee" and played happily while I sat in the shade and read a magazine. This is a good thing, indeed!

Here's an example of how Brooke has mastered the "Cheese!"-y smile for the camera. The funny thing is, that half of the time she doesn't even bother to look at the camera when she smiles and says "Cheese." She also has started cheesing even when the camera isn't around. Sometimes -- particularly at the dinner table -- she'll throw her head back, start squealing and being silly. I usually take that as a clue that she wants to participate in the conversation more.


Unfortunately... we have an axe looming over our backyard shade. Last year we were informed that the power company was planning to remove about half of the trees on the hill in our backyard. We protested, nothing ever came of it, and that was that. Brad has met with them this week, though, and not only are they back, but they say they need to remove ALL of the trees on the hill. We are NOT happy, especially since most of them obviously pose no threat to the power lines. They say that a new law has been passed, though, that subjects them to large fines if they don't remove all trees over 15' tall within 50' of the middle of the lines -- which for us, means all of our trees all the way up to our back door. If anyone has any advice on how to save our trees (and our shade and privacy), please let us know!

Who would have thought?

Wonders never cease! Being born to a family of three girls from a mother who is one of four girls, and only having a daughter and a niece born to our generation, the shocker of the year is that we are expecting a boy!!!

As many of you know, Brad and I had a LOT of discussion over whether or not to find out this time. When we were expecting Brooke, I wanted to know and he didn't. Apparently I did too good of a job convincing him last time because when I wanted to keep this one a suprise, he absolutely wanted to find out! In the end, I figured that if he wanted to know, he had the right to. So at the sonogram, I asked the doctor to write it down and fold it up. I gave him the folded-up paper for his birthday a few weeks ago, and amazingly, by his own choice, he even kept it safe and didn't look for weeks! It may have had something to do with my request to be in the room with him when he opened it....

Over those weeks, I realized that it would be a lot more fun for both of us if he wasn't trying to hide it from me and the world. I also didn't want to put him in the position of me being mad at him if he slipped to me or someone else. So Saturday night we were out on a date and opened the paper. Talk about suspense! It's like opening a fortune cookie that you know is TRUE and will determine a course for the rest of your life!

Even though I suspected it was a boy (from a few of the pregnancy factors), when we read "male" on the paper I was in absolute shock for the rest of the night! (Remember, boys are very rare in our family, as are mixed-gender siblings.)

We are keeping the name quiet until he arrives, though, so don't bother asking unless you want a very unsatisfactory answer. You know me -- I like to keep my options open!

Yay, Baby Brooke!!!

Potty training is going extremely well! Miss Brooke has only been wearing panties and has kept them dry for FIVE days!!! My approach was making the switch quick and intense. No pull-ups for us. For the first two days everything in our house revolved around her learning to use the potty. Here's a picture of her "practicing" while watching a potty-themed video. Notice how even the little potty needs a step stool!

She's kept herself dry since Friday afternoon, and we've had lots of outings (including to the zoo, church, the lake, and lots of shopping and errand-running). She's consistently telling me when she has to pee, so I'm only prompting her before we leave the house. I'm so proud of her... and the fun part is seeing how proud she is of herself! She loves to say, "Yay, Baby Brooke!!!" (Even with all of the big-girl talk lately, she still wants to be a baby. Of course, all children under the age of 8 are babies in her language.) The jellybeans are a big incentive, too!

Speaking of babies, it's been cute to see Brooke helping her babies go potty. She loves to take off their clothes, help them walk up the step stools, go, wipe, and wash their hands. With her new step stool, she's tall enough now to give her baby a bath (a very fun and messy project!). The biggest problem with it is that our sink doesn't have a overflow drain, so I have to constantly monitor the water level. That, and she seems to want to wash the baby all of the time, especially when I want us to eat lunch or go somewhere!




I still put her in a diaper at night and for her nap. (She's still in a crib, which doesn't give her any other options if she has to go.) However, she's been keeping her diaper dry during most naps (a very sudden change) and even for a night or two.

(For those who don't want potty details, skip this paragraph.) We still have to clear the #2 hurdle, but I'm hoping that a few more days will help her figure that out. I've offered to put her back in a diaper so that she can do that business, but she doesn't want that, either. I'll give it a little more time and then come up with a strategy if it doesn't work itself out. I've read that it's pretty common for kids to master either one function or the other first. She's doing so well staying dry that I'm okay if this aspect takes a little longer. Fortunately it doesn't happen very often!

The part I didn't plan on is how much time this all takes! Brooke loves to go potty and wash her hands. She'll do it two or three times in a row sometimes. I need to adjust my schedule to allow for all of that. (It's starting to become a stalling technique, too, so I have to discourage that.)

On another note, we've done a lot of gardening this week. She loves digging with the trowel, finding worms, and pushing dirt back in the holes. She's also very good about making sure that all of the plants have "juice" (water). We've planted tomatoes and annual herbs, re-potted houseplants and outdoor flowers, and relocated some ferns. Yesterday we bought okra, squash, and grape tomatoes and will have another planting session today or tomorrow.

It's Potty Time!

We had a wonderful weekend in Arkansas for Amy and Neal's beautiful wedding. We'll do a more detailed post on that great weekend soon.


As I've been promising Brooke, though, now that Amy is married, it's time to get her big girl panties! (I wasn't about to try to travel with a newly toilet trained toddler.) She's been waiting eagerly for about six weeks, ever since we bought an Elmo toilet seat insert at Wal-Mart. I haven't let her play with it one bit, promising that she'll be big enough to get it when she gets her big girl panties. We've talked about Elmo and her big girl panties nearly every day and she is very excited about both. (We'll see how excited she is about actually learning this skill tomorrow.)


Two nights ago we were at Lowe's and spied more seat inserts; I let her pick out a second one for her bathroom. (Katie will be proud to know that she wanted Bob the Builder over Dora and the other options!) Today we had a big shopping trip to Target and let her pick out new panties, step stools to reach the toilets and the sinks, special drinks for tomorrow, and fresh bottles of Lysol and carpet cleaner. (She really wanted Thomas the Tank Engine underwear, but they don't make those in girl panties. I was going to let her wear the boys' briefs because she loves Thomas so much, but they didn't have them in her size. All of you who think I might screw this kid up by starting her out in boy's underwear will breathe a sigh of relief, I'm sure. Fortunately, she was happy to have Curious George panties as a second-runner up! No Tinkerbell or Disney princesses for this girl!) We also checked out lots of potty books and a video from the library.


So tomorrow's the big day! Say a prayer for us! We're trying the get-it-over-and-done-with method, with lots of praise and treats for dry panties and productive visits to the potty. Hopefully she'll figure out that wet panties are no fun and will choose to keep them dry.

Her bear will also learn how to use the potty tomorrow, too. Hope he likes jellybeans!

Happy Birthday, Brad!

Yesterday was Brad's 34th birthday, which makes him older than Jesus! (We won't say what that makes many of you out there!) Yes, sir, there are advantages to being the youngest sibling and marrying an older guy! Just think, your gift to me is helping me always feel young!

Kidding aside, Brad is a super special guy and we're very happy for the chance to celebrate him. He had a great day: his new smartphone arrived (a phone/pocket PC/camera combo), he got a sleek little new digital camera and lots of nice cards and well wishes, we enjoyed some good ribs and key lime pie, watched Lost's season finale... and other people were in our house doing "his" nasty job of smoothing our bedroom and bathroom ceilings! Thanks to everyone for your thoughtfulness in remembering him.

One of the biggest challenges of Brad's birthday was coping with Brooke's disappointment that it wasn't her birthday! All week long, when we were shopping for his presents, Brooke kept insisting that she should be shopping for her! But, it did help that we all got to wear party hats last night.


Yes, we actually hired painters, painful as it has been to us DIYers. All week three amigos have been smoothing ceilings, taking down our hideous 1991 wallpaper, patching, priming and painting. The contractors brought their own problems and reminded us why we usually do it ourselves. My experiences hiring various painters over this past year have taught me that my standards for quality work are much higher than a lot of professionals'. Tomorrow their supervisor is either coming himself or sending someone else to come finish the job properly. He stopped by tonight and agreed with us that the job has a lot of clean-up and touch-ups still left undone. So, hopefully the problems will at least be resolved soon. The good news is that the ugly wallpaper and ceiling popcorn is GONE!

I'm very glad that we're going through all of this mess and disruption now instead of after the second baby comes!

Here's the hideous before picture. I'll post pics of the rooms' progress when they're further along.


In the meantime, here are some of Brooke playing at the zoo's park on our last visit to tide you over.

IT'S A... !!!

I had my first appointment with my new OB practice today and surprisingly, it turned out to be "The Big One" with the 20 week sonogram! I was very sorry that Brad couldn't be there, but it was nice that they rearranged their schedule for me. Apparently, now is the preferred time for that. I'm within a week of the official halfway point. The due date is still October 9, but we do suspect it will be earlier (more on that below).

The baby is doing great! (It's kicking as I write this.) I got to see it put its fingers in its mouth and pedal its legs a bit. As you can see, it struck a nice profile for us! (Hint: You can click on the picture to see a larger view.)

This baby is on the big side, measuring a week and a half ahead of schedule, which is quite a change from little Miss Brooke who was so small that we got extra sonograms. (Maybe I'm eating more ice cream this time around?) The doctor said that second babies are typically a little bit bigger. My weight gain (13.5 lbs.) is great.

I was very relieved that the doctor made a big note about how quickly Brooke came. Hopefully we'll be more prepared if we have another quick delivery (since second babies tend to come faster than the first) and we just might even have time for an epidural with this one! She said we'll probably look at scheduling an induction and do the same prep work that kicked off my last labor without the Pitocin (the induction drug) and see if that works again. That way my odds of delivering in a GA 400 gridlock would be greatly reduced. I was just glad to see that she took Brooke's lightning fast arrival very seriously and is planning accordingly.

Of course, the most exciting part of the midway sonogram is getting to find out the sex of the baby! Brad has wanted to find out, but I haven't this time (which is reversed from Brooke's pregnancy). So...

It's a baby!!! Hey, Brad wasn't there and we hadn't planned on the sonogram today; thus, we hadn't finalized the decision. I didn't find out. Sorry! I know you're all disappointed, but hey, that will just make the news of the arrival all the more exciting. The suspense will just have to continue to build!

That's okay with me. Forget wanting a boy or a girl. I just want a baby, which I'm sure this one is!

Beach Babe

Yes, we're long overdue for a post. We've had a crazy month: I've been sick with colds (twice!), we were in KY for a week (thank you, Katie, for the great post on your blog where I was negligent), I completed a pen and ink portrait and then we were in Myrtle Beach for a week!



Our trip to the beach was fabulous in nearly every way. Brad was there on business and Brooke and I just tagged along. Of course, that meant that we didn't have the luxury of Brad's company for most of the week, but it was a very nice trip that we wouldn't have taken otherwise. We did pay for an upgrade to a condo from a hotel room, and after some problems at check-in, we were blessed with an even nicer one than we had reserved! It was a large, 2 bedroom, 2 bath apartment with a full kitchen, washer and dryer, living room, and screened in breakfast patio overlooking a small lake that was only 20 feet away! In other words, it was heaven!

We were even visited by a nice family of ducks during breakfast a couple of mornings.


I LOVE going to the beach with a 2 year old!!! Brooke had a wonderful time playing in the baby pools and on the beach. Every morning we enjoyed both, came back for a bath, had lunch on the patio and then -- joy of joys -- Brooke took a three hour nap and gave me glorious down time when I didn't have to be cleaning!!! I indulged in Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" all week and discovered a new favorite book. I LOVE the new movie with Keira Knightly and was absolutely enthralled by the novel.

At night, we'd go out for dinner with Brad and go for a walk or short play session on the beach.


Brooke's favorite part of the week were the baby pools. We stayed at the big Hilton complex and so we had access to all of the amenities -- including four baby pools and a water park. Her new favorite phrases are "Splash babies!" and "Down!", describing a huge bucket at the top of the play structure in the water park that would fill every few minutes and splash down over everything with much fanfare.


This was her first time at a beach. She loved the sand, shells, and playing with her beach toys. She didn't like the ocean at all, though, and was even upset when we'd walk along the beach at night and her stroller wheels would get wet. She had no problem, though, sending Mommy and Daddy out to fill her buckets with water! On the fourth day, though, I did find a little tidal pool and she really enjoyed playing in the "baby pool" that the ocean had made! It's all in the terminology!


As you can see, she loved filling her buckets with sand:


She sported some Pippi-Longstocking-esque braids for the pool:


And she even stayed still enough to try her first french braids!


Here she is in her very stylish hat from Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville:


Thanks to my diligence with the SPF 50, there were no burns and even no tan lines on my fair-skinned self and baby! (I do actually have a nice tan, though, thanks to a bottle of self-tanner.)

So, a fun time was had by all! I'm all for Brad getting more work in Myrtle Beach. Thank you, Supportsoft!

Adventures in Myrtle Beach

Hi Everyone,

It has been an eventful week so far, and it is only Monday night!

Yesterday my flight from Lexington was delayed almost 2 hrs due to weather. As you may have noticed, it was also rather windy. The plane from Lexington to Atlanta is the smallest of commercial jets (the Embrasier 145). 1 seat on the left – then the aisle – then 2 seats on the right. Quite a small plane. Small jet + high winds = exciting takeoffs and landings! We bucked like a bronco up out of Lexington, then back down again into Atlanta. Fortunately my connecting flight to Myrtle Beach was running a bit late and I was able to make it. We had to walk outside from the plane to the terminal and nearly got blown away. Winds, some rain, and cold!

Hartsfield Terminal D was a madhouse due to all of the cancellations up north. Packed solid with people. Our departure gate was serving 4 outbound flights at the same time, and the PA system didn’t work. The Delta agent stood up in a chair and yelled “DELTA 6161 TO MYRTLE BEACH BOARDING NOW. FORGET ZONES – JUST GET ON THE PLANE!” Down the stairs and back outside onto the tarmac again – get blown away again – and up into the even smaller turboPROP plane. They were in a big hurry – “let’s go, let’s go!” And then we sat there. For about an hour. It was a bit tedious but not a horrible experience. Thank goodness for my video iPod.

We finally get airborne – bucking and bumping again. Note: Noise cancelling headphones work GREAT on a turboprop plane! Smooth flight – until we start descending into Myrtle Beach. The male flight attendant said over the intercom “buckle up – this could be exciting”. Just what you want to hear from the flight crew. The closest comparison to that descent that I can make is Space Mountain at Disney World. The plane rotates through all 3 axis’s at the same time. Some ladies were gripping their husbands arms, other people held the arms of the seats like a vise. Others of us laughed at the drops and twists to let off the tension. I put both hands over my head like a roller coaster and went “weeeeeeeee” and made the old lady next to me crack up. The flight attendant saw it and said over the intercom “Sometimes we are more fun than Disney World” and the plane IMMEDIATELY twisted and gyrated in response.

Bouncy descents are nothing new, but usually when you are with 50 ft of the ground it will smoooooooth out and settle onto the runway.

Not this flight.

We are 10 feet off the deck and it’s still twisting. GULP. The rear wheels touch down and the nose of the plane goes RIIIIIIGHT. The pilot did a great job and got all 3 sets of wheels on the ground and it is STILL trying to twist and sway. Not until we slowed down to something like 40MPH did it finally calm down.

After 2 bouncy take-offs and 2 bouncy landings my head was pretty woozy. But we got there safe and sound, and only an hour and a half late.

My buddy Duane – who logged 200,000 flight miles last year – said “That was the worst landing I can EVER remember!”

We got our rental cars and headed to the hotel. The wind was really trying to blow our cars off the road. I had plans to go for a beach run when I got to the hotel, but that was pointless. Probably would have gotten blown out to sea.

Staggered into the Hilton and checked in. Safe at last. Time to relax and get dinner. Get to bed early for the big day on Monday. Yeah right.

I’m in my room for 5 mins – just enough time to take off my coat and call Erin to say “I’m here”. Hung up the phone and “BEEEP-BEEEP-BEEEEP-ATTENTION-ATTENTION-THIS IS AN EMERGENCY-A FIRE HAS BEEN REPORTED IN THE BUILDING. EVACUATE DOWN THE NEAREST STAIRS IMMEDIATELY. BEEEP-BEEEP-BEEEEP”

Darn. Fire alarm. Grab the coat and computer bag, climb down the 10 flights of stairs and back out into the wind and now, cold. An hour later and the Horry County Fire Department has declared the building safe. The wind set off the fire alarm. Back up to the 10th floor. Finally order dinner. It’s going to be delayed because of the fire drill AND because the delivery boy got stuck in the elevator and is now AFRAID of the elevator, and doesn’t want to make his deliveries (they actually told me this). So much for an early evening.

Interesting note: The wind blew 2 feet of water out of the hotel pool.

Up early for the 30 min drive to the client, and am there at 7:30AM. My 8:15 presentation went great (had an audience of 30) and the afternoon presentation (a different one) did too. Thanks for the many prayers – they really helped!

Got back to the hotel after work and finally went for my beach run. The wind was better but still amazingly strong. Lots of people braved the stinging sand and were out for walks. Some (foolishly in my opinion) had their little kids out there too. I headed down the beach into the wind for 15 mins and wore myself out. Then turned around for the 15 min return expecting a tailwind and – what? How can there be a headwind this way too??? I returned to the hotel exhausted and (literally) windburned but gratified. It looks like I have a slight sunburn but I believe it is due to the wind and sand.

Got some dinner and headed to the local chapter of Bible Study Fellowship (BSF). A new friend named Ken said “I flew out last week and started to come back yesterday, but I was scared of flying in that wind so I waited until this afternoon to return.” Smart man.

Now to shower, iron a shirt, go to bed and do it all over again tomorrow. Thanks again for the prayers. There is less pressure the rest of this week, but still a lot of tough work to do.

Baby, it's cold outside!

I thought I'd let everyone know how highly we think of all of the nice plants Dad and Pat have given us! For three nights, we lovingly put "babas" (blankets) on all of the blooming plants around our house. We've developed quite a collection of azaleas, hydrangeas, ferns, lilacs, hostas, etc., mostly thanks to Dad and Pat's generosity on their visits.

Brooke had a great time taking care of the plants like she does her babies, making sure that each one had a blanket and telling them "shoo shoo shoo" (her words for sleep). Even more fun was yelling "up!" -- telling them to wake up! As with all toddler's timing for pretend sleep, though, she wanted them to wake up right away. I had to convince her to let them sleep through the night and that we'd wake them up in the morning.


The best part for her was the last morning, when it was finally time to take all of the blankets in for good. I laid out a big dropcloth and piled blankets on top so that I could drag them into the garage. At first she had fun helping me pull, but quickly realized that riding with the blankets would be even better! She said "choo choo!" all the way and was sad when we pulled into the station. We're all looking forward to warmer nights ahead! Fortunately, today the weather really seems to have turned a corner and it's sunny and beautiful again.

On a related note, last night during bathtime, Brooke lined up all of her cups and shampoo bottles along the edge of the tub and said "choo choo!" and then moved them from one end to the other and back again. She'd apparently made a train!

Brooke's first camping trip

How do you have a cheap night of family fun? Camping, of course!

Last Friday afternoon, Brad and I were looking for something fun and unusual to do as a family. I suggested camping! Brad was skeptical. Throw together a camping trip in less than an hour? (After we'd hosted an Easter party that morning, too!) Besides, it was darn cold outside. Oh, ye of little faith!



Braving the cold, wind, rain, and wild beasts, we set up camp in the family room! Brad pitched the tent and built a fire in the fireplace. We set up sleeping bags, sang camp songs, roasted marshmallows, and read "Curious George Goes Camping" by flashlight. It was lots of fun. When we first told Brooke that we were going camping, she held her nose -- she was referring to George getting sprayed by a skunk on his camping trip! I had to break the news to her that we wouldn't have skunks on our trip, although I know of three black cats who would have loved the tent!


Getting a two year old to sleep in a tent, however, was not quite so amusing. Brooke liked the idea so much that she didn't want to go to sleep and miss out on the fun. She kept wiggling, kicking us, standing up to play with the tent and pulling on the zippers. Finally I threatened that I would go sleep on the couch if she didn't go to sleep. She kept up her shenanigans and I followed through on the threat, which she did NOT like. When she kept fussing, I told her that she needed to go to sleep right then or I would go put her in her crib. She believed me and finally went to sleep -- perpendicular to Brad, and kicked him all night! She actually slept there all night and woke up at her usual time.



It was the first of what we hope to be many fun nights of family camping. Next step, the backyard!

Happy Easter!

I hope that everyone had a very Happy Easter. We enjoyed it very much. We decided to start the celebration with a party for our friends on Friday morning. We invited friends (Brooke's and ours) over for snacks, coloring, stories, an Easter egg hunt for the kids, and also a devotion on the resurrection for the adults. It was a lot of fun. I've decided to look for ways to emphasize Easter for our family, as it is the most important holiday of our faith. Having a party was one way to show Brooke that Easter is a big deal, which was the main reason I wanted to do it.



On Sunday, Brooke had a great time with her Easter basket that the, er, Easter Bunny brought for her. She loves her new gifts: a new baby complete with a little carrier, a numbers puzzle, yellow Play-Do (Elizabeth isn't the only one who loves yellow!), Thomas the Tank Engine stickers and some Sunkist fruit snacks, her new favorite treat.

After church, we had a great time visiting with Brad's parents and grandparents, David, and his girlfriend Regan.



When we came home, Brooke discovered that plastic grass makes great hair!



And a nice birds' nest, too.



Finally, here are some comparison pictures from the past three Easters:





Hard to believe that next Easter we'll have a three year old and a five month old!

We Belong in the Zoo!

Your suspicions are confirmed. The Hobbses now officially belong in the zoo!

We joined Zoo Atlanta less than two weeks ago and have been three times already! Brooke absolutely loves it. Yeah, those animals are alright, but the REAL attraction is the "Baby Choo Choo," a little train runs through the zoo. Brooke is quite smitten. For those of you who haven't heard, her new love is Thomas the Tank Engine and anything having to do with trains -- especially riding trains -- is pure magic. Now, if I ask her if she'd like a treat, her eyes light up and she says ever so hopefully "Baby Choo Choo?!?" (Mind you, I was about to offer her fruit snacks or something that was much grander before this new possibility entered her mind.) She would go every day if it were up to her and communicates this quite clearly!

Zoo Atlanta really is a very nice zoo and has a fantastic area for preschoolers, which includes the train, a carousel, playground, and petting zoo. Thanks to years of the Counts' membership, this is one attraction that I know better than most native Atlantans! (Including Brad, hahaha...)

Brooke loves taking care of the animals in the petting zoo, armed with a brush on each hand. As everything is all about quantity for Brooke, she feels compelled to brush every goat, sheep and pig (even the ones hiding out under the feeding trough)!



We upgraded our membership to include one free guest and Nancy as our nanny. That means that Nancy can take Brooke without us and that anyone can get in free with one of us. We've already taken Karen and her two kids, Garrett and Zoe. As you can see, Garrett and Brooke had lots of fun riding in Garrett's wagon together.



We also met Scott and Nancy there as a rendezvous point on Tuesday after her weekend with them. We brought Brooke's friend, Grace, who just became a big sister and needed some big girl time out of the house! Grace has been talking about it ever since.



So let us know if you're itching to see some elephants, a baby panda, and ride a little train. I'm sure we'll be headed there often over the next year.