Dallas Aquarium

Lee drove into town April 3rd to pick up Grammy after her 3 week visit. On the last Saturday of their visit we went to the Dallas Aquarium for Wesley's birthday. Instead of taking two cars all the way into Dallas we decided to try the Trinity Railway Express (commuter train) that runs between Fort Worth and Dallas. The train was pretty cool and cleaner than I expected except for the bottle of mad dog 20/20 grape red wine. Overall the ride was uneventful, but much better than driving all the way into downtown Dallas. After getting off the train, we hopped on the light rail for one stop and ate lunch at Chipotle. This was the largest Chipotle I have ever been in, and I have been in a lot of Chipotles. The odd thing was it did not have its own bathroom. Instead, you had to ask for a key and go down to the basement. After lunch we walked to the Aquarium. The Aquarium was pretty cool, not as big as Baltimore's but still very nice. There were lots of colorful birds and a rainforest atmosphere throughout. It does beat the Baltimore Aquarium for the sloth. At Baltimore you had to search far and wide for the sloth, in Dallas they had two trees for it to roam around and it was very easy to watch him. In the large tank there were lots of very large water turtles swimming around. Wesley loved to watch them swim and he kept pointing at them. After the Aquarium we walked to Founder's Park where there is a very old cabin with no plaque...how are we supposed to know how old it is? After Founder's Park we walked to Dealey Plaza and saw the grassy knoll and book depository. (You may giggle here if you are reminded of a joke). Next we walked to a restaurant near the train station to cool off and wait for the train.

Grammy and Kylee on the train.

Lee and Kaleb on the train.



Larry and Wesley on the train.

Grammy and Wesley checking out the rainforest.

Turtles!

More Turtles.

Shark
More shark.

Mary, Larry and Wesley.

Mary, Wesley and turtles.

Kaleb, Kylee and Grammy.

glowing jellyfish.

Turtle souviner.

Founder's Park

Resting.

At the train station family photo.

Four generations Bryce Family

Four generations Mary family.

Happy Birthday Wesley!

Happy Birthday Wesley!

Wesley celebrated his first birthday with his family. Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa N, Bryce, Carmen, Kaleb and Kylee and Great Grandma N were all present. Since Wesley's first real word was turtle we had a turtle themed cake. After dinner we opened presents and watched Wesley try and eat a cupcake. He did not dive in rather he just played with it and shared with the puppies on the floor. Wesley's favorite gifts were the stacking cups, the Little People Farm that makes farm animal nosies, and 2 books, Mr. Brown Says Moo and Which Dinosaur.

Daddy hanging the Happy Birthday sign.

Mom and Dad Making decorating the cake.
The turtle cake.

Opening presents...this one is from Leah and Taryn - Yay Dinosaur squirties.

Little People train set.

Cake time. I did make the mistake of not pushing the cake far enough away. Wesley got a fist full of the back of the cake before we lit it and sang Happy Birthday.

Blowing out the candle...thank you daddy for the help!

Yum...cake.

Diaper Bag #3

So I'm on my third diaper bag. The first one, the green one, was awesome and lasted about 5 months until the zipper broke :-( The second one, the brown one, lasted about 6 months until the inner lining completely ripped apart. So now I'm one my third diaper bag and if this one rips or brakes it is all my fault because I gave up on mass produced bags and made my own!

This was my first attempted at a zipper and I'm happy to report that the zipper works and looks pretty good especially for a first attempt and the fact that my sewing mentor hates zippers and was very very little help (no offense mom). I also have the pattern for a smaller bag so if anyone is interested in buying one I can make one custom to any pattern you want. My pattern choice was determined by the precut sale bin.

There are two outside open pockets and four large inside pockets with a small pocket along the narrow side and a pen pocket...I got a little carried away with the pockets, but I use them all!

Trip to Arizona

Wesley took his first trip to Arizona March 12-15 to pick up Grammy for a three week stay in Texas and to meet all of the Northrups. The 16 hour drive wasn't too bad. We ended up watching the first season of the muppets and he loved it.

Proof of Arizona, oh how I don't miss the zero landscaping.


DeeAnne and Doug were very gracious to open their house for a meet Wesley party.
Here are some family photos that were taken (love the real mountain in the background). Most of them were downloaded in a higher resolution so feel free to copy any of the photos.

All of the siblings, DeeAnne, Keith, Sandy, Lee and Tim.

The siblings and grandma, Lee DeeAnne, Keith, Virginia, Sandy, and Tim.

The girls, Lee, Sandy, Brooke, DeeAnne, Virginia, and Mary

The whole family (that was present), Brooke, Doug, Michael, DeeAnne, Keith, Virginia, Katy, Sandy, Curta, Terry, Lee, Mary Wesley, and Tim

Anne also came to the party to see Wesley, even though she saw him at Thanksgiving and will be seeing him again this April at Richard's wedding. It's hard to pass up an opportunity to see the baby boy!

Welsey on the steps of Chandler High School.

Did you know Fraggle rock is real? It is in New Mexico 6 miles west of Lordsburg. Photo borrowed from http://www.visceralcycling.com/blog/.

Our short visit was very nice and we can't wait to see everyone again.

Hail, No!

It hailed yesterday (30 March 2009) bombing the cars and garden. There are a few dents on the cars, but the garden looks just fine.


The sound of hail.

The size of hail.

Water? spout.

Hail beads.

Hood Magazine

Larry and I were featured in the Winter 2009 edition of the Hood Magazine. I kind of laughed when I read through the feature since Larry and I both put together the quotes and wrote the parts that weren't quoted. We are pretty much the same except that Wesley is bigger and Larry no longer works for the publishing company.

I realize that you can't read the article from the picture so if you are interested, it is online at http://www.hood.edu/alum/magazine.cfm click on Winter 2009.

Grandpa's Bad Influence

Wesley loves to ride in his Tonka Truck push toy. Grandpa was the first one to put him in it and push him across the living room. He loves it so much that he tries to get in when no one is watching. Today we converted the toy to a sit on position. We have to keep the truck locked up otherwise he tries to climb and stand on it.