A Spring Break Visit

The day that Tim's parents left, my mom and Zach arrived for Z's spring break. My dad wasn't able to come due to his work schedule, but we got to see him briefly later in the week when I dropped Zach off in Orlando.

It was so nice to have my family here and Mak got spoiled with more birthday gifts. Man oh man. Lucky little girl.

It was my family's first time meeting Ginger, and of course Zach aka Dr. Dolittle was in love.

We had an awesome time eating out, getting ice cream, watching scary movies, playing outside, going bowling, playing tennis and just relaxing. Time always goes by too fast. 

I had an adorable video of Zach and Mak playing ball, with lots of belly laughs, but it disappeared off my phone and is trapped on iPhoto...which makes me sad. I'll have to figure out how to get it on here because it is too cute.

Mak really enjoyed reading with Grandma and Zach. She just kept bringing over more and more books. 

Makaela also enjoyed rocking the tiara Grandma brought her in honor of her birthday. Such a princess.

My mom had to leave Tuesday to get back to work, and as always it was sad to see her go, but we were excited that Zach was able to stay until Saturday. I love spending time with him and he is helpful too!

This family photo at McDonald's deserves a frame, no?

But for real, this one is one of my faves of these two <3

Later in the week, Makaela got her 1 year photos done (can't wait to get them and post them!) and Zach got to be the photographer's assistant, hauling props and holding up special things to block and angle the sun. After we were done with the photos, we headed to the zoo so Zach could meet the baby wolf I had told him all about.

He wanted to take that wolf home BADLY.

Zach also got up close and personal with a 12 pound snake. Yikes...

We fed animals, almost got charged by a psychotic donkey (scary!) and made friends with this fella...

And this little nugget just kicked back in her stroller, snacking on crackers. A girl needs to relax after her photo shoot, duh.

On Saturday, Zach, Mak and I headed to Orlando where we would be meeting my Dad to drop Zach off. Unfortunately, Tim couldn't join us because he got called in to fly. The drive down was great though. Zach had Makaela belly laughing in the backseat and she even snorted. It was hilarious. 

Since we got on the road early Saturday, we got to Orlando at a decent time and were able to enjoy the pool at our hotel, go out to eat and relax in our room. 

We set up Makaela's pack and play in the bathroom so she would be in a different "room" because we knew there would be no chance of her going to sleep while we were sitting right there watching TV. She went to bed okay, but did have some trouble sleeping throughout the night as I expected. Oh well, it could have been way worse.  

My dad got to our hotel early in the morning and we got to have breakfast with him but then we all had to hit the road. He just loves his little grandbaby and she loved seeing him in real life instead of on Skype :)

It is really nice living within a reasonable driving distance from family and hopefully we will all meet up again soon.

Not gonna lie though, I was TOTALLY nervous/dreading making the 6 hour drive back on Sunday by myself with Mak because there would be no one in the backseat to entertain her or hand her her pacifier 15 times, but she was a GEM. I don't know how I got so lucky. I tried to prepare for the worst and had a bag full of snacks, drinks, and toys that I could keep handing her to keep her calm, which definitely came in handy.  I'm not in any hurry to road trip solo again, but at least I know it is doable!

Oh, I must include these photos from the rainy rest-stop picnic me and Mak had on the way home.

Love that baby <3

Flight School Family Day

We've had both sides of the family in town on and off for the past week. It's been go, go, go but we've gotten to do many fun things and Makaela ate up all the extra lovin'.

Tim's family came into town first and got to be part of Family Day for Flight School. They even surprised Tim by bringing his Nana! It was wonderful to have her here to be part of such a big day.

This was back on March 14th when we got to go to the Stagefield and watch Tim fly! It was SO cool and surreal. I think it finally hit me that he is a REAL pilot.

I made Mak a puffy-paint shirt for the special occasion that said "My Daddy Can Fly!" and on the back I stuck a camo helicopter that I cut out. 

She was pretty stylish.

We spent the entire afternoon watching Tim take off, land, hover, autorotate and even got to listen to him call in over the radio from the flight tower (I'm sure I'm not using the proper lingo, haha). I put a bunch of videos at the bottom of this post for anyone who is interested!

Also, my camera battery was dead and the charger was no where to be found, so I only got some pictures on my phone. Tim's sister took a ton on her awesome camera, so as soon as we get those I'll add them to this post :)

The weather was absolutely perfect. Mak just became comfortable walking outside on cement and grass, and totally took it to the next level and was running around all over the place watching the helicopters. She ventured off on her own all day. See ya later mom. 

She stopped occasionally for a snack...

And to watch the 'copters with her cousin and her papa...

I wondered if the noise would bother her or if all the activity would scare her, but not at all! She loved pointing at the helicopters (cutest thing EVER), saying "vroom!" and following them along the fence.

It was a great weekend with family... filled with lots of delicious meals. laughs, and even a few birthday presents for baby Makaela :)

A Rug and a Cutie

This rug is verrrrrry popular in our house these days.

Ginger tries to claim the real estate first, but what she doesn't know is that Makaela has NO sense of personal space and boundaries. 

Also, very popular in our house....Christmas jammies in March (and April if they still fit). 

Our Trip to McClelland's Critters Zoo

On Saturday we took a trip to McClelland's Critters Zoo. We'd heard great things about it from other people in the area, and the weather was gorgeous so we decided to give it a shot!

Have you seen the movie We Bought a Zoo ? This place totally reminded me of that.

Mr. Mike runs the place and gives guided tours. We got to see lions, tigers, and LIGERS (I know!), bears, cougars, monkeys, camels, a ZORSE and just about any and every farm animal you could imagine.

It was really hands on. Makaela was able to feed the farm animals, and had we wanted, Mr. Mike would have put a snake around our necks. He CLAIMS they give great massages. I didn't want to find out! Most of the people around us were all about it though - more power to 'em! We preferred hanging with the camel...

Did I mention how frickin terrifying the tiger was? Turns out I'd never REALLY heard a tiger roar until this adventure, and holy crap was it scary! If I ever heard that sound in the wild...

Equally terrifying was when Mr. Mike let the grizzly bear eat a marshmallow out of his mouth. Yes. Totally serious. Lip to lip. Human and bear. Yeah, I'm just not that brave or ambitious. Good for him though.

One of the cutest critters was a little wolf pup. Don't you just want to squeeze him?

We did. 

He was only a month old and already had a bit of a bite on him, but he was just so soft and playful. I wanted to take him home for a minute. Makaela was interested in the pup, but was definitely cautious, haha.

We had a great time at the zoo and can't wait to go back again and see how Makaela responds to the animals next time!