Fun in Tyler

Before Will's appointment in Dallas, we spent a few days with my parents in East Texas. (I figure as long as I'm travelling east, I might as well keep going!)

They have a beautiful new firestation in their neighborhood so we took the firemen some cookies & explored it.

Will asked if he could drive in the street - they said no.

They did turn on the flashing lights which he loved!

They also gave him a new fire hat for his collection.

Will loves to lay in the sun. Sometimes, after his nap, we head outside for a snack and he will just lay on the sidewalk for the longest time. He did it at the zoo the other day too. I have no idea where he gets his love of laying in the sun.

Will discovered at the zoo that if you throw something into the giraffe pond (like your mom's lens cap to her nice camera), then you get to meet a real life zookeeper. He begged the zookeeper to let him help him & climb over the wall but since there are not just giraffes but elephants, zebras, & lions in this particular exhibit, they said no. In fact, the zookeeper had to wait until all the animals were put away that night to retrieve the lens cap. It was an exciting adventure.

Oh, I wish we had a zoo out here on the frontier!

He was braver this time and enjoyed feeding the birds all by himself.

In Dallas, before Will's appointment, he went to the Scottish Rite park with Lovie to play & have a picnic lunch while I enjoyed a lunch with a college roommate. It was so fun to not take a little potty in my potty bag to a restaurant! (It's the little things. :))

Laura, whom I was meeting, surprised me and brought along another college roommate, Shae! I haven't seen Shae since she had her baby, Smith! It was so so so fun to get to have a girls lunch & visit & laugh together. I especially loved holding sweet Smith (he's 4 months but is huge isn't he!) He makes adorable and hilarious expressions and he smelled so nice. Just a beautiful baby!

(Laura has a little girl, Caroline, but she was at MDO.)

Will tried to give Smith kisses but Smith was clearly getting hungry.

At my parents' house, Will discovered that in his bathroom, he can climb all by himself up to the sink and turn on the water. It was apparently quite entertaining to make his own drink of water. This kept him very busy.

Growing up, there were lots of kids on our street & I have so many memories of playing outside every single day with the neigborhood kids while our moms sat on on of the porches and visited and drank lemonade (or maybe diet cokes or margaritas - I don't really know. :) )

My parents still live on that street though in a different house. There are lots of kids are the street and Will is now building relationships with them when we visit. I loved hanging out in the front yard every evening with various kids and visiting with their moms.

2 little six year old girls have a weekly "Bible study" in which for some reason they have choosen my parents' yard for their meetings. They bring a quilt but, incidentally, no Bibles. Apparently they also do lots of fellowship.
Will played baseball with them and learned to steal bases.

Charlotte & Kate read Will a story. He just loves them.

One day, it snowed all day long! Will enjoyed some hot cocoa for breakfast.

I have no idea why there is a starfish on his tray. He eats weird foods but has not yet tried a starfish.

On a rainy day, we went with some neighbor kids (Beau is Will's age & Bella is 4) to the Discovery Science Place. It's an awesome kid's museum!

Will enjoyed digging for dino bones.

They posed for a brief moment.

Will directed Beau on flying the airplane. We heard lots of shouts of "LAND!"

He loved the earthquake cave & pirate ship but I forgot to take pictures there! The earthquake cave gave me a headache!

And he especially enjoyed helping his Cookie make cookies every day.