The Campbells: May 2009

Our Trip to Sea World

Even though Keith was working that day, I decided to take advantage of my friend Nyra's invitation to go to Sea World with her, her little girl Eva, and her brother and little girl Sophia, especially since I realized that the price for Avery's admission would go from free to $45 once she turned three the next week. It was a bit rough handling the two girls on my own, and would have loved to have Keith there to share in the day's memories, but the trip was without a doubt worth it.

We started off at a dolphin show filled with synchronized swimmers and divers. Avery seemed to be in a bit of a daze trying to take it all in at first:

But after watching the swimmers' movements for a little while, she started to move around and get in to the music:

And the next thing I know, Avery is in full swing- dancing, emulating, and pretending to be a sychronized swimming dancer herself. Always the actress, never the audience:

She continued practicing her new-learned dance moves in the penguin house exhibit:

And then it was on the best part of the hot day for Avery and Eva- some fun time at the Sea World Water Park:

Avery continued to practice her new dance moves in the kiddie pool:

And then reverted to her way of floating in the water for a little relaxation time:

And then she moved on to her next favorite passtime- following around the older kids. She selected this little boy to follow around despite the looks he gave to her that seemed to say "Who are you and how do I get you to go away?"

And she ended pool time emulating Eva's favorite activity- a little R & R on the turtle float:

Addie, as usual, enjoyed the entire day sitting back and observing the going-ons:

Mixed in with a few power naps:

We had to entice the girls out of the pool with the promise of french fries and apple juice. Luckily they adhered and Avery, Eva, and Sophia had a great time playing "Ring Around the Rosies" while we ate:

Avery then decided to burn what energy she had left playing chase with Eva:

We ended the day watching the Shamu show:

Great Minds Observe Alike:

Great Minds Observe Alike:

Even after the long day in the sun, the two girls stayed in great moods as we finally called it a day and headed back to our cars:

Dr. Tom's Graduation

My brother-in-law, Tom, graduated from the UT dental program in San Antonio. I was glad we got to go to the ceremony, followed by a private dinner party at Papasito's with them, since they moved back to Utah to stay with his sister's family the following week while planning their final move to Seatlle. It was a bit disappointing that they moved away from San Antonio just as we finally moved closer to them in Austin.

Keith couldn't come since he was tasking advantage of a free plane ticket to San Diego for a P.A. convention and spending the weekend with his brother and dad.

It was a long day, but well worth it. Avery definitely enjoys any time with her cousins, Aunt Angela and Uncle Scott, and my parents, Papa and Nana.

I always thought it was hard getting a decent family picture with Avery and Addie both looking at the camera and smiling. I had no idea how easy I had it until watching this family photo session:

And take note of my mismatched brown flip flops- I was in such a hurry to get the kids out of the car and not slow down everyone getting inside, that I didn't even notice until halfway through the ceremony that I had forgotten to change into my black wedges before getting out of the car. Oh, the little things you appreciate about your husbands when their not around- one of them being the privilege to keep up with your own personal grooming and not just the kids' appearances!

Without Keith around, I was definitely glad Papa willingly took sole responsibility of Addie during the ceremony and photo-taking aftermath:

Avery made a few attempts to girlie pout Angela into giving up Tom's congrats bouquet:

When the flower attempts failed, she moved on to wooing her cousins for some of their noise makers:

And once she succeeded, she held on tight to the noise makers the entire rest of the trip including the car ride home:

Her cousin, Payden, refused to cooperate in the family photo session, but at the restaurant, she was posing like she'd been born taking modelling lessons:

A bittersweet goodbye hug from her oldest cousin Shelby:

And of course, dear Aunt Rachel. With her having two older girls on top of a girl Avery's age and a boy Addie's age, I was definitely glad to have one more time to have our usuall chit chats-sharing the joys and pains of motherhood while our children run wild in the background:

Addie's Moment to Shine

Quiet little Addie tends to get lost in the limelight sometimes with her older sister's larger than life personality, but I did get to have a fun photo session of her doing what she finds the most fun- rolling around on her Great Grandma Cunningham's quilts while playing with her feet and the quilted bunny that Lee Lee's close friend handmade for her:

Out and About

Despite getting sick and Keith flying out to San Diego the last few weeks of the month, we had plenty of fun times out and about for the month.

FREDDIE'S SING-A-LONG-

I found a great restaurant with an outdoor patio that has a couple come and perform a kid's sing-a-long show every Tuesday night. Avery was one of the first kids to jump on the dance floor when they started playing:

But, as always, Avery found it difficult to follow the rules. This was her, "I'm sad- are you sure I can only have two stuffed animals at a time?" look:

And while it may look like she's enjoying reaching out for the bubbles in this picture, she actually just followed around the performer, begging her to give up the fancy bubble blowing toy:

She decided to take a bit of a breather during the "Put the Animal on Your Head" song:

"THE PIER" AT LAKE TRAVIS-

We also found a cool little restuarant on a pier off of Travis Lake. Although the place was still closed when we got there, Avery had fun feeding the ducks and the fish, and we definitely plan to come back for one of the restuarant's live music shows:

The Typical Addie Shot- always content sitting and taking it all in:

THE AUSTIN MUSEUM AND NATURE CENTER-

Thanks to my sister, we found out about a small nature center with a pretend dinosaur diggining pit down in Zilker Park. Avery was a bit hesitant to go through the cave portion of the first exhibit:

But then thought over the pros and cons of going through the cave:

And decided we should definitely press on:

Avery was insistent on stopping at each of the mini-zoo habitats and having Keith help her find the animal:

And the Typical Addie Shot:

Once we got to the dinosaur pit to "dig for dinosaur bones," Avery decided to bark out orders for Keith to dig in the hot sun while keeping herslef cool in the shade:

But she eventually decided that perhaps helping dig was more fun:

And afterwards, we headed a few minutes down the road to sit out on the patio at Freddie's for a bite to eat while Avery got a chance to burn a little more energy:

And the Typical Addie Shot- I overhear people comment sometimes on how sad she looks when we're out and about, but she really just seems to enjoy taking it all in a state of mellow content:

LIBERTY PARK-

I stumbled across a little playground right off of Brushy Creek near the library. Avery enjoyed picking out books at the library, but she was definitely thrilled to stop off here afterwards for some more physical activity:

THE RANDOM FESTIVAL-

There's also tons of fun kid festivals going on during the weekends. I took the girls to a nearby street festival on a particularly cool and breezy day. Avery's favorite part was definitely the bouncy thingamajig:

But she also thoroughly enjoyed the music tent:

Luckily I didn't bring much cash with me, so that this face couldn't dupe me into spending any money once we ran out of free activities to do:

THE BRUSHY CREEK TRAILS-

There's a huge trail that winds around Brushy Creek for about ten miles. Our original plan was to trek to the water park area, but that was a bit farther down than we realized, so we settled for stopping at a small playground before heading back: