Paperboy

Bryson loves to play with the newspaper. His favorite thing is for me to spread out a couple of pages and at first he sits on them and wiggles his legs around like crazy to wrinkle them up and make the crinkle sounds. Next, he loves to show off his muscles by ripping the paper into pieces. Then, he tests me by bringing the small pieces to his mouth while watching me so that I can tell him "no". Today while he played, I tried to make him one of those sailor hats. I vaguely remember making them as a kid maybe in kindergarten. Well I know there is a certain way you fold them where you don't have to use any glue and they stay together. Apparently I am too old to remember that way so I got out my glue stick. It looked more like a dunce cap than a sailor cap but he still looked cute. It was so hard to get a picture of him; he kept taking it off his head. That boy hates hats and shoes!

Bry pics

This is our favorite age that Bryson has been at so far. He has such a funny personality. We can tell he is going to have quite the sense of humor. He gives the funniest faces and he knows he's funny too. It's hard to catch the funny faces sometimes on camera because they are quick but here are a few cute pictures. Cori thinks its strange that he chews on his top lip instead of his bottom lip but he only has teeth on the bottom, so it just makes sense.

How cute his hair is with it's curls and natural "swirl" on back.

Bryson has always eaten baby food, cereal, homemade baby food, Gerber puffs, snacks, etc. He loves the snacks and puffs because he can feed himself but I don't like the sugar in them. So we decided since he has a couple of teeth now we would see if he wanted some diced food (peaches, peas and carrots) so that he can feed himself those. Well it was hilarious! He started with the peaches and would barely touch them and then make a weird face and pull his hand away. He did this several times. I guess he had never felt anything so slimy. It took him a long time before he decided he would pick one up and try to eat it. This was even more funny because they kept slipping out of his fingers. Here is a picture explaining how he felt about the situation.

While we were starting our trek back from Orlando to Texas, I was trying to get a picture of Bryson's tooth while we were driving (Aaron was actually driving, ha, ha). He was smiling at me from the seat so here was my perfect opportunity and finally after many attempts, success! Isn't he cute? You can see his first tooth that came in and the second one that is on it's way. He really was a great traveler for the whole trip; I was so proud of him. Cori did a wonderful job as big sister for the few times when he did fuss. We will always remember this fabulous time.

Epcot

I love this picture of Cori!

This day was spent exploring Epcot. Finding Nemo was so fun for Bryson! He loved watching all the characters and pretty colors; then afterward he enjoyed looking at the different fish in the tanks. Us big kids rode the fast rides and had a blast. I set Bryson down on one of those play areas where the fountains shoot up and suprise you. He kept watching in awe and waiting for the water to come back. I tried as I might to catch a picture with Cori's camera of the water coming up but I don't know the trick to timing them. This was the day of the shuttle launch and of course it was right next to us! We happened to be walking back out to the Epcot parking lot to our car and Cori shot these pictures.

Cori's friend Jordan gave her a lamb stuffed animal right before we left for Orlando. This lamb is named Bolby. We often took pictures of Bolby on his adventure along with us in Orlando. Here is a couple of his exciting times.

Picture Page

June 6th was spent at Disney World's Adventureland. We spent some of our time playing video games and virtual reality and going on small rides and a lot of the day walking around touring Downtown Disney's shops. It was a relaxing day. The Lego exhibits were extraordinary! Here's a picture of Cori from that day.
The next day was spent at Cocoa Beach. It was Bryson's first time at a beach and Cori's first time on the Atlantic side of the country. Cori enjoyed collecting shells with me and making videos on the cell phone to send to her friends in Texas. Bryson enjoyed feeling the waves crash at his toes and of course he wanted to eat the sand.

Birthday wishes

Another day in Orlando and another year for me. How did we celebrate? A relaxing break from Disney World and a trip to the mall. We went to Ron Jon's where I bought a dress for myself and to Steve and Barry's to get Brycee some new outfits. Aaron and Cori bought me a strawberry cake and strawberry ice cream........my favorites! The entertainment for the night was provided by crawl races with Cori and Bryson.

Magic Kingdom!

Today we spent the whole day in the Magic Kingdom theme park at Disney World. It was so fun and so hot! Our first stop was for this photo opportunity in front of the castle. Notice how Bryson still has his shirt on. Halfway through the day we took it off and he was just in his overalls. It was so hot and he was so cute!

The first ride we rode was the Pirates of the Caribbean. Bryson even rode and loved this. We could tell he recognized the chickens and dogs that were part of this adventure. He sees those same types of animals on his Einstein videos. He loved watching all the characters move and enjoyed the ride in the boat.

We stayed until the park closed and I think we rode all the rides except Space Mountain. We were going to do that at the end of the night but it had a long line and I think Cori was a little scared so we skipped it. Of course we had to watch the traditional fireworks at 10:00 as well. They were beautiful.

I loved all the birds, ducks and animals that were around and obviously so used to people that they did not seem to mind us all occupying their space. Here is a heron who stood still for me to take a picture of him, how handsome he is.
Bryson went on his first carousel ride while his sister held onto him. He was in total awe all day just looking at all of the pretty colors, the characters and all the people around him.

One of my favorite attractions at the theme parks were the 3D shows. I have only seen a couple before, like Spy Kids (which really didn't work for me) but the shows at Disney are really good. Everyone was reaching out trying to touch the images in front of them and you could feel the wind blow or the rain fall. They were really fun to attend. Bryson liked to try to chew the 3D glasses but I managed to get a shot of him and Daddy before he did too much damage.What was the longest line we stood in? Was it to wait for a ride? No, it was to meet Mickey! I really wanted a picture of the kids with Mickey so Cori, Bryson and I waited in the forever long line to meet him. Well, after waiting for a very long time and holding my patient baby we were finally only about 5 people away when Bryson decided it was naptime. He won't remember meeting Mickey but I have pictures to prove it. Cori was so nice to hold her brother for their pictures together.

This is Bryson toward the end of the day. I have so many pictures of Bryson chewing on straps. He is so silly. He loves straps: straps on the highchair, grocery cart, car seat, mom's purse, dad's cargo pants, mom's shirts, shoelaces, bumper pads, seat cushions, you name it, he chews them or at least the ones I let him.

Cori was really excited and wanted to race her dad in the racecars. After getting through the line, she discovered that each racecar had it's own rail that it stayed on and you could not bump into anyone around you. She was bummed but they still had a good time. Cori sewing at Minnie's house...

The end of the day and we are all wore out!

We finally settled into the resort at Orlando on Saturday evening. How nice it was to get somewhere where we would stay for awhile and unpack all our things. The resort was very tropical, of course being in that area of Florida. There were two bedrooms and two baths which is always nice with a teenager girl in the family. We made ourselves at home unpacking all our goodies and then went grocery shopping. We found a Publix grocery store, I had heard of these before. This was our first time going and I really liked it there. Nothing can compare to our HEBs of course but we loved the customer service at this store. Whenever you bought deli meats or cheeses, they gave you the first slice first to taste. The neatest thing was that they wheeled out your cart and insisted on loading groceries into your car and you could not help at all or offer any money. Everyone there was very friendly and we were very impressed. We then vegged out for the evening with a movie. Today we went swimming at the pool and relaxed more to save our energy for our big Disney day tomorrow.

Bryson's Gerber puffs are so much better at hotels than at home.

We visited New Orleans and then left to stay the night in Tallahassee. It was so sad to still see all of the damaged homes and buildings in the New Orleans area. The downtown atmosphere and people were just as we remembered them and I am sure it will be a time Cori will never forget. It is such a different world there; what a personality that city has. We stopped at Target in Tallahassee to get some grub to cook. We were tired of fast food. I will never forget this night. Aaron picked out buffalo chicken tenders but we didn't think to get any oil or anything so he tried to cook them on the stove in a skillet (because I said they would be soggy in the microwave) and our whole hotel suite was filled with smoke. I was so afraid the fire alarm was going to trigger and the sprinklers would come on in the room or even the whole hotel. That would have not been funny at the time but eventually would be. I opened all the windows and we seemed to escape any catastrophes. Cori manage a chicken pot pie ok with her sore teeth; she bravely was moving up the culinary chain.

More mirrors to look at in Tallahassee.

Road Trip

At this moment, I am sitting in the car typing while we are on our way from Baton Rouge to New Orleans. As most of you know, we are on our Disney World trip. I really wanted to make sure we stop in New Orleans on the way to Orlando. Cori had donated a good sum of money to the victims of Katrina and we want to show her the city. We are planning on showing her Bourbon street, of course, and the French Quarter area. It has been a long time since either Aaron or I have been here. Last time I was here, I had bought a hat from Margaritaville and Aaron and I had just started dating. He had “borrowed” my hat and I had to marry him to try and get it back, which didn’t work. The hat has seen better days so we are hoping to get another, maybe this time I’ll actually get to wear it.
Here is a picture of Bryson checking out the mirror in our hotel room. He had such a good time smiling at the baby looking back at him.

Yesterday was our longest driving day and Bry started to get fussy. He had woken up and wanted to crawl around and he was stuck in that mean car seat. Luckily I had thought at the last minute to bring one of the DVD players and we popped in an Einstein video and it worked so well! Cori sang and clapped along with him and he was happy. She is such a good, big sister. What stinks is that I cannot sit in the backseat and help or even talk. If he sees me or hears me, it’s all over, he will start crying and reaching for me. It’s better he think I am not around I guess. We are just now driving over the forever long bridge getting into New Orleans, the water is already so high. One thing that I quickly remembered about this area last night is the fishy smell in the air, eww! Cori is wanting to eat some alligator again like she did on our Shreveport trip. I think we may have to do that on our way back, she cannot chew it right now. Poor baby.

Is this the Riverwalk?

No, its the inside of the hotel. It really was gorgeous.

There are koi in the ponds, waterfalls and many beautiful, tropical plants.

This is what it looked like from our floor.

What a great backdrop for some early morning pictures. It's so hard to get a teenager to smile this early.

OK, so it's hard to get a baby to smile this early also.