national geographic...sort of

this was mom's attempt at wildlife photography...i told her not to give up her day job...look out serengeti here we come!

week 39...in tejas

ahhh, this is the mimaw i remember...

she had all kinds of goodies for me...a bookshelf full of books (and a matching rocking chair mom didn't get a picture of)...i felt like a kid in a......bookstore...

look ma, no hands!

mom and dad went by to have dinner with their friends uncle e and aunt d (AKA ernest and deshondra) and their daughter juliet. i was alseep and didn't make the trip...much to aunt d's dismay. so i made a special trip out to see them the next day. juliet was getting ready for her first gymnastics class...

...she was inspired by the olympics...i think she could pass for a chinese gymnast...whaddaya think?

i think she was going over her routine and trying to get into the zone, so mom and i didn't disturb her...(btw, thanks for letting me borrow a onesie...a non-pink one)

mom, mimaw, and i took a road trip all the way to paris...texas that is. we went to see mom's mom's mom AKA mamaw...(that's a lotta moms)

we had visitors while we were there... mimaw's brother (uncle jerry) and his wife (aunt claudia...don't know how she escaped the pictures), and one of their daughters (terry) and her 2 daughters (jazmine on the left and jozlyn on the right)...

i must be pretty heavy...i'm making that vein on uncle jerry's forehead pop out...don't hurt yourself unc...

mom was trying to figure out how to work the timer on the camera before we got back on the road to round rock the next day...

she figured it out, but talk about a close-up...

grandpa jack serves on the board of directors of the central texas children's home...

we got a chance to attend their annual fundraiser at the local wildlife refuge...

i got a chance to see where the deer and the antelope play...and the emus

and the zebras...

and bison (i think the one on the left is using the potty, please excuse him, )...mommy also took a cool video i'll post too...

there was a really pretty tree with lights all over it...

looks like it would be fun for climbing...

or a nice backdrop for pix with mom...stay tuned for more pix from the lone star state...

week 38

so we had a whirlwind week this week...we returned from oregon sunday and are preparing to head to texas saturday...this is mom's latest contraption...dad calls it 'baby jail'...

it's not so bad...i really like these foam squares with my abc's and numbers (at least that what mom says they are...i'll take her word for it)...i like it even better when mom gets in here with me

here's mom showing me how to rock a baseball cap...

do i pull the front down low or the back?

here's me and mom hanging out in the front yard...i took the letter "B" outside with me...i was hoping that 'b' would ward off any other bees...don't laugh...it worked...

here's me and dad on the kitchen floor...he's teaching me the finer points of our waffle maker...

...or at least the drip pan

speaking of waffles...dad made pancakes for breakfast saturday morning (yes the same day we were flying to texas)...

they looked so good...and i was oggling them so intently that mom felt sorry for me and gave me some...

i loved them! i gobbled them up and asked for more...

well, perhaps that wasn't such a great idea. when i woke up from my nap and mom changed me, hives started to appear before our very eyes... :o(

momma called the dr. and the dr. said...no more pancakes before going to bed...just kidding, the nurse said to give me benadryl...thank heavens for benadryl...the itching was UNBEARABLE! what caused my reaction? eggs, wheat, milk, something else, who knows? stay tuned to our allergy watch...

the hives went away and i did just fine. our flight was delayed a bit, but we made it to austin safely, and here's me trying to place this woman...i know her from somewhere...her voice sounds so familiar...oh yeah, it's mimaw!

and uncle juju and his new wife aunt larrisha came over to welcome us to texas...what did i just say? new wife??? yeah, they snuck one in on all of us...'kids' these days...stay tuned for pix from texas...

portland pix

here are some pix from my trip to the city of roses...AKA portland...the greenest city in the country...in more ways than one (ask mom about the airport toilets when you see her)...

the warm summers and rainy winters make the climate ideal for growing roses...like these mom and i are posing under at the international rose test garden. i have never seen so many roses (that's not saying much, but neither had mom...over 500 varieties)...so many colors...they were soooo beautiful!!!

here's me being silly in the hotel room. no, i wasn't trying out for a baby version of flashdance...i had on my baby legs mom bought me so i don't rough up my knees...i'm gettin' pretty speedy with this whole crawling thing...

the little boy who plays with me in the mirror followed us to portland...who told him he could come?

i took my first streetcar ride...and it was free. way to go portland for making downtown mass transit free...i told you they were very green...

we took a trip to china town...this is me in a store called "the monkey & the rat" doing my impersonation of sleeping buddha (i would've shown my belly but it was a little chilly that morning)

here's a picture of a peaceful scene at the chinese gardens...serenity now!

here's a pic of the tea house on the grounds...no tea for me.

mom also took me to the portland zoo...betcha didn't know bears could do the macarena (me too)...

i tried to get this one to try it too, but he wasn't trying to be a dancin' bear...

i saw sheep (is that a bowling ball? who knew?)

and goats...

and sea lions that were waaaay bigger in person than they look on t.v.

and penguins that were really stinky...they recently had a new baby elephant born but she was under wraps so we didn't get to see her. but i saw one of the big elephants, monkeys, lots of sea creatures and many other things i can't quite spell or pronounce yet.

our hotel was on the waterfront, just across from the williamette river (that's pronounced will-am-met...i know, didn't make sense to me either, but when in portland...). portland was full of exciting things to do and see, like this concert by the portland philharmonic on the waterfront...there were lots and lots of people who brought their picnic baskets and blankets to hang out and enjoy some good music and lots of fireworks.

do these two look familiar? we got a chance to see noah and his mom mrs. mindy. she and mom are classmates at school but they now live in portland. it was good to catch up with one of my old friends.


dad was in training sessions all week so he didn't get a chance to experience all the cool things mom and i did, but saturday we had several hours to kill before our flight left, so we all set out to explore downtown portland. this man was so cool...he painted himself and his clothes silver and stood very very still...he really looked like a mannequin...until you put money in his bucket, then he pulled out some clear glass ball and did some pretty neat juggling tricks with them...what will portland show us next?

we heard music so we followed it to pioneer park and saw "steet praise"...lots of different christian artists sharing one stage...all to uplift and glorify God...can i get an amen?

so we walked a little further and got a little turned around...we heard music again and thought we were back to pioneer park...to our surprise this was no street praise but we had stumbled upon "juice jam"...

juice jam was filled with hip hop and breakin' (sorry no turbo or ozone) and yes, they even had fresh juice...you wild and crazy oregonians.

so we walked a little further and entered the pearl district portland's premier live/work/play neighborhood. and what should we find...more music and an arts and crafts fair spanning 3 city blocks..."art in the pearl"...here are a couple funky elephants mom got a shot of...

and the coolest stick horse i've ever seen.

as you can tell, we had a blast in portland and were really impressed with all there was to see and do...i'll have to put it on my list of places to visit again.



i also took my first red-eye back home...i pretty much slept all the way. we had a quick layover in denver...picked up some ladies who had been at the DNC, who witnessed history first hand...and then on home to philly.

i've got my last trip of the summer tomorrow...i'm GTT...that's "gone to texas"...i'll tell you all about my adventures meeting mom's side of the family...until next time...