Trip to Atlanta

We have had a big week, it was Luke's first plane trip!! Vic had a work conference in Atlanta this week, so Luke and I tagged along for fun. We had a great time and it was nice to get away and see some fun new things. Luke did really well on the trip, even on the returning flight that ended up being a 6 hour trip on the plane instead of 2! (thanks to thunderstorms in houston that prevented us from landing and rerouted our trip - exactly what I had feared most!!) Even though Daddy was working, we still had lots of time to see him and we are glad he took us with him! Here are some pictures from the week.

Luke waiting for the airplane

On the airplane with the Handy Manny video ready to go!

We went to the Georgia Aquarium and it was fantastic! Luke's favorite was seeing this thing, we couldn't drag him away from it after the picture :-)

Luke touching the stingrays, we had a hard time keeping him from jumping in with them!

Worn out after the aquarium with his new friend (the fish)

My personal favorite outing in Atlanta was to the World of Coca Cola!! I love coke and it was super fun to see how it is made, the highlight of the tour was tasting all sorts of coke drinks from around the world. Luke enjoyed it too!!

Oops, was I not supposed to let him try the alcoholic ones??? Just kidding :-)

These pictures are from the children's museum in Atlanta, Luke enjoyed "fishing" and also playing in the sandboxes.

Our hotel overlooked the Centennial Park, which I think was built for the olympics when they were held in Atlanta. They were several playgrounds that Luke had lots of fun on.

Luke's favorite thing in all of Atlanta was the fountain in the shape of the olympic rings. The fountain has shows at certain times of the day and here is Luke watching the show with Daddy.

Luke is thinking about going in.....

He's getting close!!

And he's in!!!

Poor Luke, he went inside the rings of water when they weren't shooting water, I don't think he realized when they all came on that he would be stuck inside!!! He eventually got out when the water went down again, but it was very entertaining :-)

Rodeo

We took Luke to the rodeo last week and we all had a great time. I am not sure which Luke enjoyed more....the food (especially the funnel cake!) or the animals! Luke absolutely loves to pet animals, so the petting zoo was definitely the biggest hit. He wasn't very impressed with the other animals, especially the ones that just were laying around inside fenced areas, he likes to be able to chase them! Luke did pretty well considering it was at night, we got to watch a little of the actual rodeo and left before the concert, but was also had fun hanging out with the friends we went with (and thank you to them for the free tickets they gave us!). I am really glad we took Luke, here are a few pictures :-)

Luke pointing out the baby chicks to Daddy

Luke was really excited to pet the rabbit and this thing (guinea pig/hamster??), which by the way, none of these animals will ever be coming to our house!!

Luke loved to pet this poor animal's ear because when he did, the ear started twitching and Luke thought it was hilarious, I have never seen him laugh so hard! :-)

Luke loves to give hugs....We don't think the animals enjoyed the hugs as much as Luke did though :-)

Zoo trip

Last saturday, the young adult sunday school classes at our church made a trip to the zoo. We actually hadn't been in a while and we had lots of fun. Luke has really been into making animal sounds lately, so it was fun to see the real animals! His favorite animal and sound to make is the elephant, it is too cute :-) Here are a couple pictures from the day...

You can't really tell from the picture, but Luke is actually crawling in a tunnel that goes through the water. I was surprised he went through, and once he did, he just wanted to keep going again!

Trinity tried to keep Luke in line, but notice Luke seems more intestested in the stick in his other hand!

Luke and Trinity looking at the meerkats :-)

Luke is going to be a ......

Big Brother!!! I am not sure how excited Luke is (actually he has no clue), but we hope he will be excited when the baby comes. I am 12 weeks along and due September 18th and we are very excited to add another child to the family!

We told our families a few weeks ago and here are some of my favorite quotes from my brothers regarding the situation: (actually these are all from Andy, Matthew's comment wasn't blog appropriate!)

"But you just got un-pregnant!"

"I am still trying to get used to one nephew, and he can't even say my name yet"

"I can't wait to make fun of you again for getting fat and eating all my food"

"Can you try to have this baby on a saturday?"

Peekaboo

Luke has always loved to play peek-a-boo and now he loves to try to hide and surprise us (I forsee many many games of hide-and-go seek in our future!). He hides behind doors, walls, curtains, etc. and then pops out and says "boo!". It is a game we play every day and it's always adorable! Here was yesterday's version....

Where's Luke??

I think I see him!

"Boo!!!"

Need window screens

I thought I would open up the windows in the living room this afternoon because Luke loves looking outside and the weather was warm. It has been a while since I have opened the windows and apparently the last time was before Luke was so mobile. I unfortunately neglected to see that these windows don't have screens on them, so as soon as I opened them, where did Luke go? Out the window of course! I had to run out the front door to catch him, then I let him come back in and do it again so I could get a picture. Then, when I lowered the windows so he couldn't get out, he got his head stuck! When he realized that wouldn't work, he tried to back out of them and got his legs stuck. We won't be opening the windows again any time soon.

Maybe mom won't notice me!

(should I be worried about Luke trying to sneak out when he is a teenager?)

See ya!

19 month update

Things have been a little slow lately, hence my lack of blogging. Luke came down with a nasty virus about a week and a half ago, which the doctor said was not the flu, but"flu-like" and that Luke looked worse than the kids he had seen with the flu, poor boy! It took a whole week for him to return to his normal self during which he was doing lots of cartoon watching. Fortunately, Luke is back to his active self, thank goodness, I was afraid Luke was turning into a cartoon junkie! Luke turned 19 months old last week, so I thought I would give an update on what he is doing these days. The main change I have seen in the last month or so has been his vocabulary, he went from saying about 5 words to about 20 in a flash. Some of my most recent favorites are "cookie", "cracker", (can you tell Luke likes to eat?) and "bubbles". He still loves playing with all of his toys and really loves to go outside. Here are some pictures of him playing :-)

One of Luke's very favorite activities.....leaf collecting! He can spend hours picking up leaves! Who needs a swingset in the backyard when you have leaves?

Luke has definitely decided he is getting too old for his highchair and eats most of his meals at his own little table. He does pretty well, but I think he likes the freedom to eat, play, then eat and play, etc.....

Luke still loves cooking in his kitchen!

And he also loves his power wheels, and an added bonus - it has a compartment to keep snacks in!