Headed Home

We wrapped up our Houston trip with breakfast at the hotel...

Yes, the waffles are shaped like TEXAS!!  All waffles should be shaped like Texas.

I thought I had taken more family pictures, but those most be on other people's cameras.  Oops!  I promise we did get to see lots of family!  Here's Hayes hanging out with Gavin, my cousin's son.

Both of the boys were a little sleepy on the way to the airport.  Here's Grant sucking his two fingers while holding Mr. T:

And here's Hayes sucking his thumb while holding Stripes:

Good thing our carry-ons still fit:

And we don't have any pictures from the flight, but Hayes did manage to scream himself to sleep once again.  Fortunately, by this point he was getting used to sleeping on us, so he didn't have to scream quite as long.  We're sure the people one row in front of us who were in first class were glad about that! :)

Houston Zoo

Saturday morning we headed into downtown Houston to meet up with my friend Jennifer, who I've known since kindergarten, and her daughter Sydney at the Houston Zoo.  One of the many cool things at this zoo was a tunnel that allowed the kids to crawl through an aquarium.  We could have happily spent all day in just this one building (which also had a room of teeny tiny monkeys....oh how I want a teeny tiny monkey of my very own now).

Unlike our North Carolina Zoo, no need for binoculars to see the elephants at this zoo!

Sydney and Grant weren't too sure about each other at first, but they started to warm up to each other over a shared love of goat brushing, which Sydney was happy to teach Grant how to do.

After a shared stroller ride which included Sydney rejecting Grant's attempt to hold her hand in favor of attempting to give him a kiss, the two were inseparable and spent the rest of the time running through the zoo holding hands:

Love this family shot!  Notice Hayes sleeping in Kyle's arms.  Kyle worked hard to accomplish that, and if you're keeping count, we're now at 2 out of 3 days on this trip where Hayes had to fall asleep on one of us in order to nap.

And here we are with our kids who are almost as old as Jennifer and I were when we first met!  Crazy!

We couldn't leave without a picture with the rhino:

(We bought Grant's hoodie at the zoo, because I forgot to pack a jacket for him, and it was a pretty chilly day.  He insisted on keeping the hood up the whole time, and continued to wear it up the rest of the day...including during his nap.)

Grant's Wedding Moves

My cousin Tammy's wedding started at 7pm Central, a time when Grant is almost always sound asleep, but we knew there would be lots of other kids at the wedding, so we decided to bring him and see how it went.  (Hayes was sound asleep a couple hours before the wedding started.)  Fortunately, there was a candy bar set up, so Grant candied his way through the ceremony.

And then afterwards he had a fantastic time dancing with the other kids...

Pretty sure he would have danced all night long if we'd let him!

Playing at the Mall

We needed a little activity for Friday morning, so we headed over to the Woodlands Mall, which had a great play area, fun play car area, and a huge carousel.

Notice that we started on the sleigh for the carousel ride...

And part way through, Grant decided he was finally ready to ride one of the moving horses!  Hooray!

Hayes wasn't about to be left behind, so Migi brought him over to ride a horse, too.

Houston-Bound

We packed up the boys and headed to Houston for my cousin's wedding.
At RDU Airport:

Confirming that our carry-ons would fit:

The only way to fly with toddlers:

It took a lot of screaming, but we finally got Hayes to fall asleep on the plane.  After that I was too scared to move, so we stayed in the same position long enough for me to get his ear print on my arm:

Would you believe that that little sleepy guy hates flying?

The Big O-N-E for Hayes!

I just posted Grant's day in the life, so now here's a day in the life of a birthday boy.  Where did the time go and how is my little baby already one?!

Hayes may have only started walking a week ago, but now he's strolling around the house drinking bottles like a one year old:

Grant had the day off from school, so we went to music class at our local library to celebrate.  Hayes, just like his big brother, had no interest in participating, but the two had a grand time playing all over the room during the class.

After lunch and nap time, we hit up Target, and the boys loved riding in the Big Brothers Cart before going to Chick Fil A to play:

Played a bit with Daddy before dinner:

Crammed in our ONE YEAR photo shoot:

Gotta be quick!

Ate one of Hayes' favorite dishes (slow cooker chicken curry; not pictured here, but just imagine Hayes covered in brown), then had a birthday cupcake:

...devoured the entire thing in about a minute:

Opened a gift picked out just for him by big brother Grant:

And then snuck back over to the high chair to snag some cupcake crumbs:

Then stayed up an hour later than usual (as expected after all that cupcake) playing and playing...then fell asleep.  A good day to turn one!