My side of the duel

I see that Lori has thrown down the blogging gauntlet, and I feel like I must respond. I would have earlier, but other aspects of Friday night had me too distracted.

Such as this...

And this...

And oh dear god this...

But okay, Lori, here's the duel from my perspective. I particularly like the exotic palm plant sprouting from your head. SABOR!!!

Hope you're happy.

Makin' music

Jaime's house is a good place to do that. And this morning, after being treated to frittata and biscuits this morning, Lexi and I got a chance to jam. Special thanks to Opps for the pics.

Look, Jaime, she wore it!

Now we're cookin'

Back from vacation

We got home from our Texas trip late on Monday, and I was amazed by how well Lexi did on her never-ending vehicular journey.

On our final day in Texas, we went to the aquarium in Corpus Christi. Lexi was largely unimpressed, but I did get a couple of cool pics.

To her, a shark is just like a crocodile -- another pest to be overcome while following the map to save Benny the Bull with sticky tape at the gooey geyser.

It's good to be back.

To the beach...

On Sunday, we left San Antonio and drove two hours to Corpus Christi/Padre Island. Lexi's been wanting to see the beach, and this was her big chance.

The rental car doesn't have a DVD player like Lexi's van, but she made do.

At the hotel, Lexi decided she wanted to sleep in a big girl bed and napped on the fold-out couch. This is our first non-crib sleeping event ever.

After the nap, it was beach time. Lexi was a little unsure at first, but she warmed up faster than the gulf in November.


Step one: Build sand castles.

Step two: Test the water. I foolishly assumed it'd be too cold on Nov. 4 to get in the water and didn't pack any swimwear. Bad move.

Again, we made do. We called these clothes our Kansas Wetsuits. They'll never dry before the flight tomorrow.

SENSITIVE MATERIAL XXXX SENSITIVE MATERIAL XXX

On another matter... The reason the concept of hotels works, in my opinion, is that the nice maid comes in and wipes away any evidence that anyone has ever used the room before you. If you had to know, for example, that the bed you were using was last occupied by a horny college student or a pervy old man, well, you might not sleep quite as soundly.

That's why we were as sorry as we were amused to find this behind the fold-out couch our poor toddler is now snoozing upon. Sorry, folks, it was just the case. No DVD.

Censored for your viewing pleasure...

Dancing queen

Tonight was the big wedding in Texas. And by big, I do mean big. There were probably 400 people there, and Uncle David spared no expense.

Here is Lexi, about one hour before she discovered her inner...

DANCING QUEEN!

The girl did. Not. Stop.

Go Lexi! It's your birthday!

Okay, maybe not, but look at those feet go -- would you?

No doubt about it. We're raising a party girl.

A model passenger

I was a little nervous about how Lexi was going to do on the flight to San Antonio. And even more nervous after she got very little sleep last night. (We got to OKC late and she woke up early.)

No need to worry, though. She was a model passenger, even insisting that we use our "SEAT BELTS! SO WE CAN BE SAFE!" Thanks for that one, Dora.

This isn't her first plane trip, but it is the first one where she's aware she's on a plane.

She was a tad confused by the clouds out the window, and she was very concerned about how we were going to get out of the plane.

But we arrived safely, and then met up with Aunt Katy, Uncle Ron and Uncle Marc for lunch by the Riverwalk.

As you might infer from this photo, naptime was much appreciated and is still gong on as I type this. More fun and Mexican food planned for tonight.