Just Fun!

No real theme of this post, just fun pics of our little man over the past couple of weeks. Last week he had some pictures taken at the Picture People and they turned out great! Below is a picture I took of my favorite one! They were having a cutest baby contest at the time, so Luke was entered with the pictures taken from that session. How could he not win with those cheeks! =) Here he is pushing Daddy's mower. He thought he was a pretty cool guy. And there goes the mower down the driveway with Luke looking on confused. Just so sweet. We were hanging out at Isabelle's house and usually Luke pushes her around in her walker. Well Miss Isabelle is now starting to explore things on her own and doesn't need any help from this guy. Luke decided instead he would just hop on and enjoy the ride. They did this for about 10 minutes all over the house. Too funny! Luke is really starting to understand everything. He just learned the word shoe and has been trying to put mine on. Here he is trying on my flip flop. He actually did get it on his foot and was able to walk around the house. Again, he thought he was pretty cool. =) Luke goes nonstop from the moment he gets up to the moment he goes to bed. Here is a rare moment when I caught him "taking a break". Exhausting isn't it. We have let Luke's hair grow a little longer since we discovered that he has curls. No one in my family has curly hair, so this is definitely a trait from Brian's side.

One last picture from our trip to the pool yesterday. Luke finally left his sunglasses on. Love it!

Costa Rica

Brian and I have been so blessed to go ontwo amazing vacations this year. I already posted about Hawaii and now here are some pictures from Costa Rica. We had the best time and the trip was full of adventure and amazing sights. Brian and I have been together for over 12 years (yes, i know that is a long time!), and have never been on an official vacation with his family. So, needless to say, this was a special trip. We went to 2 places in Costa Rica. The first was the Arenal Volcano area. Here we are in front of the volcano at a pit stop during the drive there. Our hotel was actually at the base of the volcano and was absolutely beautiful. Here is what we looked at while having coffee in the morning. You could actually see steam coming from the top.

The first full day there, we took an all day tour. This tour started with hanging bridges that went all throughout the rain forest. We saw all kinds of amazing animals, butterflies and flowers.

Here is a picture of a poison dart frog that the guide pointed out for us. I swear those guides could find anything. It would have been very easy to walk around and not see a thing because everything was so hidden.

After the hanging bridges, we took a hike to this amazing waterfall. We then took a hike around the volcano and learned all about its history. Costa Rica is very humid, so we were all drenched in sweat most of the time. After the long day of hiking we were dropped off at the hot springs. This place was amazing and so relaxing! This picture is blurry because there was so much steam. Absolutely loved it! The next day we decided to go zip lining. I am pretty sure zip lining was made famous in Costa Rica, and boy did they know what they were doing! It was amazing. We basically went up the volcano and zip lined all the way down. The views were unbeatable. While hiking to the first zip, the guide pointed out this viper just hanging out. Pretty crazy! In the afternoon we went on a river float where we were suppose to see crocodiles and monkeys. We saw a ton of monkeys, but I was very disappointed not to see any crocs. My disappointment didn't last long because the next day on our drive to the second location, the driver stopped at a river known for crocs. They were everywhere!

Our next destination was the town of Jaco. It is on the Pacific coast and was recommended to us by a friend. Well... lets just say we were very disappointed in the hotel, beach, people offering us drugs on the side of the road, dirty sheets, etc...so we decided to change to a new hotel a few miles away. We did have to stay one night at this gross hotel (longest night of my life!), but now it is a funny story to laugh about. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures to share. At the time I wasn't thinking that I wanted to remember what it looked like. =)

After the "longest night of my life", we went to Manuel Antonio National Park. It is suppose to have the best beaches and amazing wildlife and we were not disappointed! Here is just a taste of what we saw.

Notice the baby on the mom's back. Sloth While taking a break on the beach, Brian's dad decided he would enjoy a little snack. Well it wasn't too long before these little guys snatched his granola bar right out of his hands. He didn't even know what hit him. Too funny!

Here is one of those little guys in action sifting through someones back pack. Yes they can open zippers!

Here is the beach with all the monkeys. Notice Brian and Jeff in the right hand corner. Here we are at the end of the park tour, next to the "turtle rock". After the park tour we headed back to our new hotel, (Thank goodness!), and it was wonderful. We spent the last day relaxing on the beach, playing cards and sitting by the pool. Overall it was an amazing vacation with wonderful memories. Thanks to Brian's parents for taking us along! Oh and this is a record...the first post without a Luke picture! I promise Luke will go back to being the star in the next post. =)

We're Back...

...from Costa Rica! Brian and I went on vacation with his family for his sister's 30th birthday. We had so much fun and I have a ton of great pics that I will post later. This trip involved a lot of adventure activities and we opted not to take Luke. It was so hard to leave him for a whole week, but he had the best time at Tula and Pop's, and everything went very smoothly. Thanks Tula and Pop for taking such good care of him. Ok now for some Luke pictures! Here he is right before Brian and I left for the airport. He had just woken up and it was so hard to leave this little face behind. Here is a picture that Tula sent me while we were in Costa Rica. Luke was loving an afternoon rain shower on the driveway.

We went to Austin before the big trip and here he is just enjoying Memaw and Pepaw's backyard.

Luke is now old enough for a big boy carseat. He loves facing forward and obviously is very comfortable. This is on our way back from Austin. Hank looks pretty comfortable as well.

I just love this!

Luke learned some new tricks while we were away. He can tell you what a doggie says, "Woo Woo". He can point to his nose. He will shake his finger at Ernie when we are telling Ernie "no". He will shake his head "no" when he knows he is not suppose to touch something. He also learned to "jump". Well he actually just bends his knees when you tell him to jump, but it is pretty darn cute.

Before we left on the trip, he learned to blow his nose. He saw me doing it one day and then went and grabbed some toilet paper off the roll and copied what I was doing. He now does this all the time and seems pretty proud of himself.

Oh and he will use any cloth he can find. Brian caught him getting into the dishrag drawer. He then nicely put it back in the drawer after he was finished. Don't worry we got it back out. =)

Luke also really likes to hug. This is his Bunny Bear. He sleeps with it and loves to give him hugs.

He couldn't resist giving his friend, Ellie, a hug either. =) She's not too sure about this...

This past week we tried our hand at crayons. I thought maybe he was too young, but saw on my friend Jocelyn's blog that her 1 year old was able to color, so we thought we would give it a try. This activity was suppose to take up some time, but unfortunately it lasted all of 5 minutes! Dang that boy doesn't stay focused for long. =) He did have fun though.

His masterpiece.