Tuesday, July 29, 2008

The Jump Around

Noah and I went to The Jump Around this morning with Maddie and Reyna. It is a huge room full of blow-up air castles, slides and obstacle courses. As you can already guess, Noah had a blast. He ran from air castle to air castle climbing, jumping and completely enjoying himself. He is just pure joy, and it shows all over his face!
Do you think he was having fun?!
Noah and Maddie - ready, set, go!
one of the obstacle courses

making his way to the slide



face first everytime - it's more fun that way!

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Life Group Cook-Out

Kristi & Webb hosted our Life Group get-together this week. We had a delicious cook-out, and the kids played their hearts out in the swimming pools. It was so much fun to visit with everyone and watch our sweet children play together. Marco and I are so blessed to have such a wonderful group of friends to share our life with. They are truly an answered prayer, and we thoroughly enjoy spending time with them.

Mr. Happy

Bella & the boys

Maddie & Noah chillin' in the swing & enjoying some yummy goldfish


How 'bout some sugar?

the cutie-patootie gang

my sweet and silly friend Rosalynn

Nick and Mr. Cutie-Pie (who is now mobile!)

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Lots of Love


My two favorite guys


I love my little man!

Marco's Business Trip to Canada

Fairmont at Banff Springs
Marco was wined, dined and given a tour of
Calgary and Banff, Alberta while he was in Canada.
He was able to see the truly beautiful landscape of mountains,
lakes & trees.
The weather was perfect in the upper 60's and low 70's
the entire time he was there.
Lake Moraine
A giant glacier in the Canadian Rocky Mountains
Row River in Calgary,
which is created by snow and ice melt from the glacier pictured above

The Olympic Village ski jumps from the 1988 Olympics


Monday, July 21, 2008

Puppy Love




"Ro Ro" & "Oocey", as Noah calls them, like to lay under our dining room table. Noah enjoys sitting under there with them so he can love on them. Lucy and Romeo are such good dogs and so tolerant of toddler love.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Hanks Family Reunion

We all had a great time at our family reunion. Noah was quick to make friends with everyone. He was on hug duty as soon as we arrived. He went around the entire room giving every single person a hug, and some cuties even got two! Even though everyone there was family, most everyone there was a stranger to him b/c we only see them once a year. Even so, Noah had no problem loving on all of them and engaging their playful side.



Noah with his cousins Cassandra & Cassara


Noah with his "Aunt Crazy"

Aunt Revis & Noah



playing peek-a-boo with Aunt Glo



Noah and Daddy



Cousin Dylan and Noah



Noah and Kenley drawing on the table with chalk

Noah playing with his Cousin Brice


Grandmommy and Noah



"Aunt Crazy" giving us a twirling demonstration at the famous family auction



Noah spraying Granddaddy with a water gun



Noah loves to jump into the pool





Noah and Granddaddy



It sure is exhausting entertaining our family all day!

Friday, July 18, 2008

Cameron Park Zoo



Noah with the "mingos"

After our visit to the mall, we headed to the Cameron Park Zoo. It was beautiful and huge compared to the Abilene Zoo. I took the stroller, of course, but even though it was huge and an incredibly hot day, Noah walked the entire way without ever wanting me to hold him.
I can remember my Dad telling about a family trip to Carlsbad Caverns. I was young (probably about the same age as Noah), and my dad carried me the entire way through the caverns because I didn't want to walk. He swore we'd never go back again. I think of that often and am amazed how Noah LOVES to walk (or run) everywhere. He is always on the go!

You're on Candid Camera!

After our "bear hunt," we headed to the Richland Mall where Noah played on the playground for awhile. He soon noticed a large flat screen TV located in the playground area. I'll let you watch the video below to see what fun he had. He was pretty amused by it.


Thursday, July 17, 2008

Going on a Bear Hunt

Noah and I tagged along on Daddy's business trip to the Hillsboro/Waco area. Marco bought a GPS for our car so we would be sure and have it before our trip. Here's a little background info. I am used to driving in Abilene and completely comfortable driving in Abilene, but the thought of driving somewhere I'm not familiar with just about gives me an anxiety attack. I would NEVER drive to the metroplex by myself or anywhere else I'd never been before. When I found out that Marco was working in Laguna Park (a blip on the map) and I would have to drive back and forth by myself to Hillsboro and Waco which were both about 30 minutes away from Laguna park in different directions, I almost cried. I can just see myself lost in the middle of nowhere or ending up two states away and not having a clue how to get back. With this in mind, Marco convinced me that we needed to buy the GPS do-hicky for our car. I wasn't all that excited at first (I'm not easily impressed), but I now officially love it. I now have road trip freedom! It is amazing what that little talking box can do. I was a "Road Trip Momma" this week. Noah and I hit the road and went wherever we wanted to while Daddy was working.


Baylor University


One morning Marco had to be at the jobsite in Laguna Park at 6:20 a.m. Laguna Park was 30 minutes away from our hotel in Hillsboro. There is nothing to do in Laguna Park, and we already did everything in Hillsboro the day before. So, I had planned on taking Noah to Waco that day. Waco is another 30-40 minutes away from Laguna Park. So, we drop Daddy off at work at 6:20 and then head to Waco. We arrived around 7:00 a.m. Noah and I had a nice breakfast together at IHOP to pass the time. At 8:00 were were finished and ready to do something, but what do you do at 8:00 in the morning when you have nowhere to go (remember our hotel was in Hillsboro)? The mall, stores and zoo don't open until much later. So, I look around and see Baylor University. I've never been there, but I remembered reading somewhere that Baylor had 2 real live bear mascots that live on campus and are a popular attraction. So, I decide that would be a great place to take Noah since we have nowhere else to go (it rained the day before so we couldn't go to the park). I get Noah all excited about going to see the bears and we take off in that direction. Now, I had not gotten lost at all before then because of my handy little GPS, but I don't know exactly where the bears are, so I can't exactly plug in their address. I go looking for these bears and find myself on a wild goose chase. I drove around and drove around forever going in every entrance I could find without any luck. I asked for directions 3 times to where these bears were but each time came away with a list of 10 turns, etc. that I had to make. All the while, trying to explain to Noah that the bears were hiding from Mommy because he kept asking "where da bears go?" Amazingly, after what I swear was about 30 minutes, we find the bears "home." Noah and I park, and head over to see the bears. We're all excited, come up with camera in hand and . . . no bears! Apparently the bears were still snoozing in the back or something because they had not been released into the viewing area. Oh no! We'd been on a bear hunt for an eternity. I'd gotten Noah all pumped up about it, and no bears. So, what's a girl to do? I take a look around and see the "Baylor Bookstore." I definately know how to shop, so we headed that way.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Mr. Gatti's

We went to Mr. Gatti's with our life group

this past Sunday and had a lot of fun!


Noah and his friend Maddie

riding the carousel with Maddie



Astronaut Noah



choo-choo!


Noah and Daddy



These last few pictures are of Noah playing a game designed like skeet ball, but you throw the ball instead. Marco and I laughed so hard at all his faces. He is so animated and dramatic! I don't know where he gets that from! :)