Gators & Ducks

The girls have discovered that Miles loves their toy ducks. They think it's hilarious to watch him chase after them. Today, I was looking through the toy bin that I keep toys that are too old for him and found this!

Thanks Omi!!

For those of you who remember, Omi also bought those ducks for Lia when she was 16 months old. She has a great eye for cool toys I'd say! :) Lia might have a better hang of how they work as compared to Miles, but hey. He's trying.

ELEVEN

Miles is 11 months TODAY! Yall should be proud I actually posted on time. :P

I've been excitedly planning his birthday party, but I don't think the fact that he'll be one in just a few short weeks has really sunk in. Time flies yall....flies.

To see all of his month pics, click HERE!

Things are so fun around here. Miles is EVERYWHERE. I feel like he's done a lot this month.
- Walking full time as of 6/3/2018
- Can sign "more", "all done" and "milk". "More" is new and "all done" has some...variations...(haha), but he's doing SO well! Can't wait for him to pick up more signs.

*More*

- He's putting his head in/on things and snuggling with them
- Squeaks, grunts and sighs while walking around the house like he's having a conversation with himself. The inflections aren't quite there, but he's definitely chatty
- Has discovered his room and thinks it's pretty fun in there
- Still sucks on the edges of his snuggie at night
- Moved into 18mo Carters pjs and 12-18mo in clothes
- He likes to carry things when he walks. A toy, burp cloth, mom's bra...anything. lol
- The "swoosh swoosh clap clap" (crawling diaper vs. hands on the floor) has turned into a "clap clap clap squeeeeaaak grunt clap clap" (clap = feet on the floor)
- His curls are crazy :)

- Got new shoes and is still trying to figure them out
- New sound:  "thsk" like he's working on the T sound with a little lisp. No Mama yet...
- Current fav books:  Where's Spot, Pat the Zoo, Brown Bear and Doggie in the Window
- Kisses! (ie:  opens his mouth and slobbers all over whatever he is "kissing")
- He raises his arms when he wants to be picked up and reaches for people that he wants to go to
- LOVES drawstrings
- Has 5 teeth (Edited as of 6/25)

Behind the Scenes:  We put my phone with a video of him IN the basket so he'd be interested. Our hope? He'd crawl inside. Didn't work out that way, but still super cute

Omg - love this!

Such a silly, happy, smiley, easy going and perfect little boy :)

Trips on Trips on Trips

When it comes to trips, it's been a busy few months for Stephen and me. Unfortunately, none of them were with each other. We are planning a family trip in August, so I'm pumped about that! Having a baby does make going out of town a little harder.

Any hoo! Just wanted to update everyone on the happenings of these "mini-vacations". I already did a separate post about the trip Becky and I took to San Diego. But, I'll start this one off with Todd and Stephen's guy's trip to Tahoe. You know - because it had to be "even"  :P

TAHOE
The guys left late on a Wednesday night and stayed in Reno for the night before driving to Tahoe.

Apparently there was what they called a "furry convention" going on...

Trip Advisor:  "Sir, we had to switch your hotel. But don't worry. This one is MUCH better."
Stephen:  "What? Ok, but how is it better?"
Trip Advisor:  "THIS hotel will pretty much do whatever you want them to. They are known to cater to their guests."
Stephen:  "Ok... so...if I asked for a photo of Chuck Norris on my pillow, they'd do it?"
Trip Advisor:  "Consider it done"

After some furries, gambling, talking their way into the VIP lounge and of course, Chuck Norris, they were off to Tahoe.

Pano of the condo's dock area

View from Grammie's condo

You may be wondering, why Tahoe? Well, 1. it's gorgeous, 2. we have a condo there and 3. the fishing is apparently amazing. The guys chartered a boat to take them out at 5AM (they say this is when the fish are most active) and show them the ropes when it comes to fishing the "big fish."

This place kills, skins and filets the fish right on the boat so you can take them home and cook them up! Pretty cool.

Along with the charter, they also scheduled a time to learn to fly fish - something I don't think either of them had done before so they were excited. It's a good look I'd say  :P

Some R&R, cool fishing excursions, good drinks and fun times - I'd say they'll be planning another trip.

INDIE 500

Stephen's uncle Ricky goes to the Indianapolis 500 almost every year. This has been on Stephen's bucket list for years, and now he's finally able to check it off! It was a late add-on to the year of trips, but Stephen jumped on the opportunity. With Miles being way more stable these days, being on my own with him is much easier.

It was a quick trip, but a good one. Stephen was able to attend the vintage race right before the actual race where they show off all the old, cool lookin cars. 

Look at this little guy!

Now, on to the main attraction!!

Haha! Heads up Ricky

He got to see Kelly Clarkson sing the national anthem - so jealous!

NEW ORLEANS
Not but a couple days later, I left for New Orleans for my annual Girls Trip. There are five of us from high school and we've been getting together once a year since we graduated college. It all started in NYC to visit Connie and Laura and evolved to visiting each person in their local town. From there, Chicago to see Lindsey, then Austin to see me and well, Jen was living in Plano at the time - not the best location to visit. A little been there, done that.

So, we decided the next trip would be a destination Girls Trip. We skipped a year because of Miles, but decided this year, our destination would be New Orleans! The PERFECT place for ex-band nerds.  :)

Lindsey came to Austin early to visit her sister and we planned to fly to NOLA together. When we got there, we explored the area a little, had lunch - complete with an open carry of our beverage on the streets (such a cool NOLA rule!) - and ended up settling in the pool while we waited for everyone to arrive.

Lindsey meeting Miles before we left!

Our Air B&B backyard - so pretty!

NOLA has pick-up street bands all over the place. So cool!

Once everyone got there, we had some time to catch up, had dinner and ended the night with some drinks on Bourbon street. We weren't out too late because we had planned a swamp tour early the next morning. I had heard about this and was so excited to see the gators!

This is the type of boat we were on - a huge fan boat. We had to wear ear protection because it was so loud.

We were almost done with the tour and our guide whipped out this little guy from a cooler. His name was Dollar and everyone on the boat got to hold him. So cute!

Apparently gators love marshmallows. The guides call it "Swamp crack" - HA!

After the gator tour, we headed back and hit up Jackson square. The place of interest? Cafe Du Monde for NOLA's famous beignets. YUM! But, Jackson square is pretty cool in and of itself - street entertainers, artists, the market and plenty of people watching.

I wish I had grabbed a photo, but there was a live statue laying on the street. He was all painted gold and laying there suuuuper still. All I could think was "Shit, I bet that guy must be hot." Didn't even think of grabbing my camera. 

After lunch, we were heading back and got caught in a "traditional" NOLA rain storm. HUGE rain drops and what felt like waves of water in random shifts. It would stop, then come back in a torrential down pour. There was no avoiding it...

We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out at the house before getting ready to spend the evening on Frenchman's Street.

The next day, we got up and went to brunch at Court of Two Sisters (known for their jazz brunch) and walked the streets of New Orleans. The amount of music is insane. I loved it. 

Lindsey had to leave early because her and Ben were closing on their house the next morning. Definitely didn't want to miss that! But, the rest of us had dinner at a place called Cochon (known for their amazing meat). It was delicious! We ended the evening at a place called W.I.N.O. Wine on tap people - my kind of place.

We missed Lindsey, but I think she was glad to be home.

Needless to say, I was happy to be home too. I missed this munchkin - who BTW - went from walking just a couple steps to saying sayonara to crawling while I was gone.

I think this has been my longest post to date...whew!