Mother's Day Re-Do + Jam-Packed Weekend

On actual Mother's Day, all three of us were under the weather, so we just went into survival mode to get through the day.  We postponed our planned activities to this past weekend :)  Our tradition has been to go to the zoo on Mother's Day (we even kept this going when we were in New Orleans a couple of years ago!).  So, Saturday morning we headed off to the Zoo!  We had perfect timing and got to see LOTS of animals in action and a few animals we hadn't seen in our last few visits.  Jackson always is excited to head to the zoo, and he had a great time :)

The otters were fantastically playful, and Jackson LOVES getting right up to the window to watch their tricks.  He was more than happy to pose with the statue of them!

 And to give them hugs :)

 Watching the elephants.  The elephant area at the zoo is really nice, and the elephants were being pretty funny!

 My wish has finally come true: whenever Jackson saw an animal statue, he ASKED to take a picture with it!  YES!

 The pandas haven't ever been out when we've taken Jackson to the zoo, but Saturday they were!  You can see one just to the right of Josh's head :)

 Checking on the lions.  Now that Jackson has seen "The Lion King," we were able to tell him that the meerkats in the small mammal house were just like Timon!  He didn't seem that impressed :(  Jackson's new favorite animal was the clouded leopard.  He begged to go back to see him a second time before we left--that wasn't quite as impressive since he was just sleeping in a tree, but that's ok!

We came home from the zoo and Jackson took a nice, long nap!  When Jackson woke up, he had friends to play with right away!  Mary Jo, Mark, James, and Bobby came over to play and have dinner.  These boys were SO excited to see each other!  

What better to play with for two friends than trains, cars, trucks, and more cars?

 Bobby found a seat just his size!

 It was a gorgeous evening, so we ate outside!  Jackson and James got to be the cool kids and sit by themselves.

 Silly faces!

 A little time with the pirate table before it was time say, "Goodbye!"

I can't believe I didn't get any pictures from the rest of the weekend :(  Sunday I redeemed one of my coupons for 24-hours off duty!  I didn't plan super-well though, and I wasn't quite sure what to do with myself.  I did sleep in a bit and go to the grocery store by myself.  LOL  Josh and Jackson took a fun walk in the woods and had lots of fun playing :)  After Jackson's nap we headed to a couple furniture stores in search of new couches!  We think we may have settled on a set...  We also went to Qdoba for dinner to round out our re-do of Mother's Day the day before--it was DELICIOUS!!!

Monday was wild and crazy!  We started the day off bright and early with a check-up at the doctor (everything looks and sounds great!).  We had a few moments at home before the Bascoms arrived.  Josh and David left to go golfing with Stuart and Rick, and Sarah and I loaded all three kids in the van to make a run to Michael's and then Chik-fil-a for lunch :)  Everyone did technically nap, but it was not a great nap for anyone :(  We did have a few moments to sit down during naptime and learn how to make ADORABLE hair bows from Rachel!!!  Obviously, we won't be needing those accessories HERE, but I thought it would be fun to learn how to make them and give them as gifts!  We DO have plenty of little girls in our life!  We had invited the Sacbibits and Rooneys to come over for dinner once the guys were done golfing.  In the span of about 15 minutes Sarah packed her gear and kids up to be ready to go as soon as the guys got back, Karen, Kiera, and Owen arrived, Rachel and all three of her kids were leaving to go back to their house (only to come back a bit later to join us for dinner!), and the guys showed up!  It was quite challenging to keep track of who was coming and going--phew!  I think everyone had a great time--the kids definitely did :)  Josh grilled some delicious burgers and hot dogs, and then we had lots of yummy sides to go with everything!  Unfortunately, it rained ALL day (including during golf), so we had to stay inside for eating and playing, but it was still a good time.   After everyone left, Josh and I were chatting and realized neither of us could believe our doctor appointment had been the same day--LOL!  Phew!

The Smiths and The Conners Take on DC!

We headed out about 10:00 Friday morning for our first stop: The National Zoo!  The guys drove Katie and Nick's van with the three big kids.  Katie and I drove in our car with Caleb--the sweet boy was so excited to have a quiet car to nap in ;)  We found good parking and off we went in search of animals!

 Josh and Jackson checking out the elephants

Caleb and Katie :)

 Jackson riding the frog...

Paige riding the frog...

And, Lexi riding the frog!

 My sweet boys :)

From the Zoo we drove to park by the Jefferson Memorial and got ready for some walking!  We started by walking through the FDR Memorial.  The kids LOVED all of the waterfalls!

Nick was a trooper and gave shoulder rides to give all of his kids a break from the stroller/walking.  Caleb made quite a game out of squirming around!

 It was our first visit to the new Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial!

Katie, Paige, Lexi, Nick, and Caleb in front of Indiana's sign at the WWII Memorial

 Next time we see each other, there will be one more little guy added to this picture!!!

 Nick and Paige were sitting by the fountain, and that was adorable!  Then, Katie sat down with Lexi and Caleb to join them, and it was a gorgeous, adorable picture...until we realized in the car that the shutter hadn't opened on their camera :(  I feel so guilty that our picture turned out like this!

 Just like when I was pregnant with Jackson, I made it up ALL of the stairs at the Lincoln Memorial!  It really wasn't so bad ;)  Jackson loves jumping over/down from ANYTHING!  He was SUPER excited to jump down all the stairs at the various memorials we visited :)

We had made the conscious decision to skip naps so we could spend as much time in the city as possible.  The kids did AWESOME!  Sure, we probably went through two whole bags of Goldfish and lots of other snacks, but they were really troopers.  Katie and Nick brought their double stroller and we had ours, so we had a spot for everyone to ride.  They were really pretty happy to ride wherever there was a seat.  There were a few times we made everyone ride, but we really tried to let them get out and run around whenever we could.  It had not occurred to me that we would be sitting in rush hour traffic on 95 on our way back home, so the guys put on a movie in the van for the bigger kids.  Apparently this wasn't necessary to keep the peace since Lexi and Jackson were quickly in the above poses :)  Traffic wasn't too bad, and we all got home around 7 to enjoy pizza for dinner...

 ...and some movie time for the kids :)  

We calculated that we walked about 10 miles during the day!!!  GO US :)

Post-Birthday Zoo Trip!!!

 The day after Jackson's party was his actual birthday this year.  To be honest, we had a pretty low-key day--we hung around the house, opened presents, went out for a special Happy Meal lunch, napped, played outside, and went to the Yanceys' house for dinner.  This low-key day was necessary because the Birthday Boy Party Animal was awake from 1:30am-4:30am the night of his party!!!  We have NEVER had a night like that!  I'm pretty sure he had a tummy ache from all of the M&Ms he MUST have consumed...  He spent some time in our bed and some time just being unhappy in his crib :(  He finally fell back asleep, but he was a little on the touchy side all day Sunday...

On Monday, Susie and I decided to take the kids to the Zoo while the guys played golf.  Jackson LOVES the Zoo!  But, I think he gets SO excited about an upcoming trip there that he wastes energy.  The last few times he have gone, he has melted down WAY before I would expect him to.  It's so weird!  This time was probably still a bit of recovery from his party...  We had a really fun time, though, and the weather was GORGEOUS :)

 Following the elephant footprints on the way to visit them!

 It was a day of VERY silly smiles :D

 Doesn't Jackson look like such a big KID???

 HUGS!

 Not the best picture of Jackson, but none of him were that great, so I picked the best one of me ;)

I must say that this was my first time visiting the Zoo without Josh, and I think I did pretty well navigating us around...

We're Going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo...

Jackson was SO excited when I woke him up Sunday morning and told him we were going to the zoo!!! We had sung a song at storytime that started out, "I'm going to the zoo, zoo, zoo. How 'bout you, you, you? You can come too, too, too." Jackson started singing that before we left--it was so cute! We left early since it was supposed to heat up later in the day, and we had a great time :)  Jackson kept changing his mind as to what he asked for: giraffes, elephants, lions, tigers, panda bears, monkeys, turtles, etc.  He was pretty much excited to see anything we stopped to see!

Look familiar? We took a very similar picture right around Jackson's 1st birthday :)

Daddy and Jackson watching the elephants eat and play

Checking out some birds

LOVE these guys :)

Not the best picture, but that's ok!

Jackson LOVED following the elephant footprints leading to the elephant viewing area!

Happy Mother's Birthday Mommy!

I decided to combine the posts for my birthday (May 4th) and Mother's Day (May 8th) since they were so close this year. Also, Jackson combined the two greetings on Mother's Day, which I think is adorable! Josh took the day off on my birthday, and we had such a nice day! We went out to lunch at Firehuose Subs, then we drove to the new house and let Jackson nap there while we hung a few window treatments and Josh built our new entertainment stand. We then went out to dinner with the Buerstattes at Red Robin, which was delicious as always! Beforehand, Brandi took some pictures of us and the kids at the new house:

On Mother's Day, we loaded up in the Buerstatte's Pilot and headed to the National Zoo!  It had been WAY too long since we'd been there, and Jackson had a great time!  He LOVED riding in the wagon with KK, and he really liked checking out the animals.  The highlights were the prairie dogs, lions, tigers, monkeys, and the giant turtle! 

The daddies on wagon duty :)

Checking out the "doggies" (aka prairie dogs)

Family photo: Smiths on Mother's Day 2011

Brandi's first Mother's Day with two children :)

Old friends with kids now...  how fast the past almost 10 years have gone...

After coming home for naps, we met back up for dinner at Panera--what a lovely end to a fun day!