Happy Mother's Day!

We never know the love of a parent until we become parents ourselves.
-Henry Ward Beecher

New 'Do

After growing my hair out for months and months, I finally cut 10+ inches to donate to Locks of Love. The organization creates hair pieces for financially disadvantaged children suffering from long-term medical hair loss.


My Willie Nelson braids


Nico checking out the shorter, blonder 'do.

Hell Run

Nic, Caton, Steph and I participated in Hell. I mean, Hell Run -- 3.45 miles and 12 obstacles, in the heat of the day with one water stop. The race lived up to its name! I felt like I was in Special Ops training.


All smiles before the race. They gave us super hero capes ... as if that was supposed to help.






My co-workers Steve and Tiffany. These two completed the Super Hell course, which was almost 8 miles. Amazing!

These photos were taken by Brightroom Photography:








The last obstacle was swimming through a stock pond. It was disgusting!




This guy was playing music on the course to keep everyone going. (Not sure if it helped or hurt.)


Crossing the finish line!

Easter 2011

The Easter Bunny came!


Digging through his loot.




Practicing one-handed t-ball in the house.


The Easter Bunny went to Nonni & PopPop's house, too. "Look! A light stick!"


The egg hunt begins! It took a few minutes for Nico to realize that there was more than one egg to find.


But, once he caught on, he had a blast. (Why, yes ... that is Elmo tagging along. Nico thought it was absolutely necessary that Elmo hunt eggs, too.)


He especially loved finding the eggs with candy inside!






"Here you go Nonnni."


Nico kept saying, "I found another one!" He was so proud.




Garrison and his baby sister Alex also hunted eggs with Nico.




Here's Nico trying to hold as many eggs as possible. Egg hunting became a competitive sport between Nico & Garrison.


"Gotcha!"


PopPop taught Nico how to hold the bat with two hands.


Mmmm ... ring pops!


Want some?




After the egg hunt, Nico and Garrison took a spin in Nico's Jeep. Nico kept telling Garrison, "Hold on tight!"




We probably should have taken family pictures BEFORE the sucker turned Nico into a Smurf.


Our attempt at a family picture ... blue face, sweat, shadows and all!
Happy Easter!

Easter Eggstravaganza

On the Saturday before Easter, our neighborhood had a egg hunt and parade at the park. It was Nico's warm-up for our real egg hunt on Sunday morning.


Waiting for the parade to begin. Nico was super excited about the fire trucks that led the parade.


He found one egg, got the candy and was done!


Heading home in the wagon.

Austin Zoo

Trisha and I took the kiddos (Nico, Carter & Gianna) to the Austin Zoo and Animal Sanctuary, which is a private, non-profit zoo that rescues animals. All of the tigers and lions were either rescued from a circus or individual who was mistreating the animals.

The Austin Zoo is perfect for little ones, as it isn't too big and you can get in and out in a few hours.


Carter and Nico watching the tigers swim. They loved the tigers! Both boys were growling like tigers.


Although the boys loved the tigers, I think their favorite animals were the snakes. Typical boys!


Feeding the goats. Notice Nico feeding the goat over the fence, not through the fence like the goat prefered. Nico was a bit skeptical of the goat's long tongue.


At the end of the day, we took a train ride through the zoo. Right now, trains are probably Nico's favorite thing (behind sticks), so when we had to get off, he threw himself on the bench in protest and started to cry.


Super mom! Trish makes it look so easy!


Beautiful birds roamed the zoo with the human visitors.

(These pictures aren't the best ... I forgot my camera and had to use my iphone.)

Camping at Garner State Park

We went to Garner State Park for our first camping trip this year, and our good friends Caton and Steph joined us for the adventure. We had so much fun, minus the flaming marshmallow I took to the eye, which resulted in 2nd degree burns on my eye lid. (For the record, I'm fine.)

Nico is in heaven when we go camping ... he has all the sticks, rocks, water and outside fun that a little boy could want.


Happy camper!


Getting ready for a bike ride to the river


Skipping stones with daddy






Walking along the beautiful Frio River


Exploring a large tree by the river


Nico telling stories at the camp site


This is Nico's angry face when I told him it was time for bath and bed.


Reading books by the camp fire




Hiking up the hills




Taking a break before heading back down


Check out the view!


Caton posing with the chair that ended up on the camp fire after the marshmallow incident.

Full story if you care to know more:

Nico was in bed, Nic was setting up the TV so we could watch a movie, Caton & Steph walked to the bathroom, so I decided to roast a marshmallow. The marshmallow caught on fire and instead of blowing out the flame, I shook the stick. (Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.) The tip of the marshmallow that was on fire flew off the stick and onto my eye lid. After briefly panicking, Nic and I went into the trailer to wash my eye and check out the damage. Meanwhile, strong winds blew the camping chair into the fire! Caton and Steph came back to a burning chair and Nic and I were no where in sight.

This mishap could have ended real badly, but luckily my eye is okay and we didn't catch Garner State Park on fire. Can you imagine?