It's the Great Pumpkin Village!

One great thing about working for the federal government is getting off on all the federal holidays, especially the ones that the rest of the world doesn't get off.  Since Daddy had to work on Columbus Day Jack and I had to find a fun way to amuse ourselves until he got home.

We decided to celebrate fall with a trip to the Pumpkin Village at the Dallas Arboretum.  Apparently the rest of Dallas that was off on Columbus Day decided to do the same thing, but we still had fun despite the crowds.

Follow me, there's lots to see!

How did pumpkins get up in a tree?

BIG!

COLORS!

TALL!

Funny shapes!

Climb!

They spit!

We're ready for the Great Pumpkin now!

Howdy, folks!

Of course, no October in Texas is complete without a trip to the State Fair.  We made our first family trip to the Fair as new Texans.  It was a cool, cloudy day but it made for great Fair weather.  Jack was totally fascinated by everything - the people, the lights, the sounds, the animals, the food (corny dogs were not really his thing but the frozen banana dipped in chocolate was a hit!), and Big Tex, of course!

 Every time we got within eyesight of Big Tex, Jack would start to point and say "Tex!"  If you didn't turn and look, he would turn your head for you.  Then, after you'd taken a good look, he'd say "BIG!"  In fact, he still does it whenever he sees pictures of Big Tex.  Clearly, he was impressed.

He was also a fan of the kids animal area.  He loved the giraffe.

Then we tried to take him over to the petting area where you could pet cows, goats, sheep, etc.  Let's just say he was NOT impressed by petting the cow's nose.  In fact, after that he spent the rest of the time in the petting zoo on Daddy's shoulders and he was not coming down for anything! Take my word on that.  He did have fun looking at all the animals from on high, though.

The dog agility show was a little more his speed.  He was impressed with the jumping and flips the dogs did.  He gave them lots of "woof, woof, yeah!"'s from the stands.

The car show was a big hit, too.  He "beep,beep"ed his way through the whole building.

Hang on, Big Tex, we'll be back to see you next year!

Where the Wild Things Are

Jack has become fascinated by animals lately.  To celebrate my birthday we took a family trip to the Ft. Worth Zoo.  It was a beautiful, not-too-hot September Saturday and we had a great time!

Jack spent 95% of the day on Daddy's shoulders.  You can see better that way. ;-)   And Daddy is such a good sport he didn't mind two little grubby toddler hands clutching his cheekbones all day.

Pete and Repeat, as my mother would say.

 LOOK!

Jack could watch the animals ALL day long.  Even though it was a warm day, almost all of them were out and moving.  We  even got up close and personal with a few of them.

Sic 'em!

 

Of course, after all that we needed a snack to keep us going so we tried some cotton candy.  Jack was a little skeptical at first, but he decided it was OK after all.

We even managed to squeeze in a family picture.  Don't ask me why we decided to do it in front of Boot Hill in the Wild West area.  I've been asking that question ever since we got home and I still haven't come up with a good answer.

Despite the sugar rush from the cotton candy, when we headed home this happened before we even left the parking lot.

 

What have we been up to?

We've been moving, that's what!

It's a LONG story but we relocated over the summer when Parker started a new job.  Since my last post we've done lots of packing, then loading, then moving, then unloading, then unpacking.  Now, I'm glad to say we're settled (if not completely unpacked) in our new home in . . . TEXAS!

Needless to say, the moving part was not so fun.  But we did manage to squeeze in some fun times and a few milestones over the summer anyway.
Here's a quick peek at the fun parts of our summer.

First we visited Mammaw and Papaw and got to do lots of fun things like ride on tractors and look at cows.

We survived Jack's first haircut from a real barber.  He did great for his first time.  The second visit a month or two later was a different story.  We do NOT want to recall that visit for posterity in pictures/video.  In fact, I've tried to block it from memory entirely.

We celebrated 19 months old with a trip to McDonald's!

We got to go swimming with Papa several times.

20 months old and hamming it up for the camera.

Jack's favorite new food of the summer is definitely donuts!

My big boy is 21 months old now!

We had a great summer getting settled in to our new home in Texas.  It was a lot of work getting here but it was worth it.  We've even explored the big city some in the last few months so more pictures are coming!