African Safari

Nana on the last night of her visit.

Reese wanted me to take of picture of her posing exactly like this. We had to take this picture before she agreed to take any other pictures.

A casualty of all the rain. I saw this driving home from dropping Nana off at the airport.

Can you tell she's pooped? She fell asleep while she was using her foot to balance the back of her chair on the ground. She slept like this for about 1 hour.

We headed to San Antonio yesterday to attend Atlee's birthday. Atlee is the son of Ryan's cousin Jason, and Atlee is exactly 5 days older than Reese. The party was at Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch, so we got to see the exotic animals, feed the goats in the petting zoo and take a safari tour and feed the animals from our car. It was a ton of fun, and something I had never done either.

Reese and Garrett. This girl can find a new friend in an instant. He's a cute and very funny kid.

The gang who attended the birthday party, birthday boy Atlee standing up in the tan shirt.

Reese admiring the pretty giraffes

I really enjoyed watching these sweet giraffes.

I see baby goats in our future. If I am helping with this whole 4H/FFA thing when Reese gets older, we're going the goat route. I know I'll be the one doing most of the leg work with raising the animal, and despite my desire to have a calf of our own, I have no desire to clean up cow crap for an entire year...thus the fact that I am hoping for a goat. Smaller animal with MUCH smaller poop.

Having so much fun feeding the babies. She was not fond of feeding the adults because when she ran out of food they would try and eat her clothes. Screaming would ensue.

My not so baby anymore feeding the baby goat

These are scary. I opted not to feed them. I told Ryan if they pecked his hand off I was not going to feel bad for him. Thankfully he has still hands both intact.

The only shot of me all day. Self portrait

I love me some zebra

Up close and personal...he/she and I bonded, you can see it in the eyes

eating out of our hands

I snapped this picture right before this sweet giant put his/her head in my car. I enjoyed it, Reese on the other hand...I think she peed her pants a little. I had a great time petting the zebra, lovely creatures these things. Sadly I don't know that a zebra would be a good addition to the family, however I wish they could be.

feeding these things...I'm thinking mountain goats

And my all time favorite...the donkey. I want one so badly...I think it would make a nice touch to the backyard. I think I heard him say "Hey lady, take me home with you". I told Ryan we could both benefit from adding this handsome beast to our family, he'd have MUCH less grass to mow and I would have a pet donkey. In the words of my mother...when people would ask me "a donkey" I can reply with "my ass". I'm mature :)

Hurricane Karl...and rain!

What a week...we had a visitor this week (more on that later), Reese got a stomach bug (AGAIN) and we hit the beach one afternoon! Reese had a rough week at school. Cried the entire time she was there (both days) because she "missed her Mom". It's nice to be loved, I just wish she wouldn't cry the entire time she was at school. 5 hours people...We're hoping for a better week this week. Crazy thing is the first two weeks of school were fine..week three is when it sank in that this is more permanent than just a couple days of fun.
Reese shopping for groceries in her pj's.

with "her" Coach purse (she wishes)

We had a visitor this week. Nana braved the trek to my house, I say that loosely as it's a 30 min flight, and has been spending the week here. We hit the beach and hung out a lot at home. Sadly Reese got the stomach bug again so after 12+ hours of puking (on and off) we headed to the doctor (Nana in tow) and spent 2 hours there (mostly because it was busy). She got a shot that helped stop the vomiting and she slept from 4 p.m. until 6 the next morning. She needed it and yesterday she was on her way to being on the mend. In classic Bading family behavior...my husband was working a football game so Mommy once again got to take the vomit on all by herself. He was nice enough to sleep in Reese's room and leave her to me in our bedroom for the night as well. Thanks Ryan... :) Proof that being a stay at home Mom is a 24/7 job...with NO breaks.

After Reese was starting to feel better we started getting some rain which is a result of Hurricane Karl. He went well south of us but all that tropical moisture in the air made a MESS of rain for us. We had 4.5 inches of rain yesterday and since this morning we've had another 3 (and it's STILL pouring) Ryan is out of town for business so it's my job to deal with the rain gauge...otherwise I could care less about it.

Thank goodness we invested our money into that fabulous back patio this summer because without the handy work of our friends at Duran Concrete we would have had water in our house for sure. I am sooo glad we got that done. In fact our backyard is dealing with the onslaught of water quite nicely. Best money I ever spent.

Our street on the other hand had a hard time dealing with the rain...as the rain slows down the water recedes but once it starts back up it gets bad again.

Standing on the sidewalk in front of my house..water water everywhere

Ankle deep on the street (right off the curb) I am sure it's deeper in the middle.

Lake Clear Fork Dr.

This is the park across the street from my casa. Usually there is a two step wooden ledge around the entire thing. Right now you can barely see it.

The drainage ditch one house down from ours...notice the rapids

The park...all under water.

And this is how Reese passed her time inside. I went to the garage to get something out of my car. I think I was outside for 2.5 seconds. I came back in to be greeted by Reese...announcing that she used crayon....she in fact got the GIANT highlighter out of our desk.

So impressed with her make-up skills.