It's a Boy!

Two weekends ago, we found out that Carrie and Chris are having a boy! Mom, Charlotte, and I went to Austin to visit and do some shopping for the baby. They had their sonogram Friday morning as we were driving, and she didn't tell us what the baby was until we got there! The suspense was killing us! But now we know, and we are so happy for them!  On Friday afternoon, we went to several stores to buy some cute baby boy things and then we relaxed at home and talked about how she was going to decorate the nursery.

On Saturday, we got a ton of shopping in! We went to Hobby Lobby first where Mom bought us some cute fall decorations and then we had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. Carrie got Charlotte dressed and even fixed her hair...

I love her little curls!

Here we are at lunch.

And Charlotte slept through the whole thing!

After Hobby Lobby and lunch, we went to Gymboree and Janie and Jack where Carrie got so many cute things for the baby. Plus we went glider shopping and she found the perfect one! We were so happy because we were so productive that day! So we decided to reward ourselves with a pedicure! I was a little nervous about having Charlotte with us, but she just sat on Mama's lap the whole time. I don't know how relaxed mom was, but I was in Heaven!

Carrie and I both got flowers. I've never had one painted on before, but I love it!

Charlotte loves her baby dolls! I brought several of hers for her to play with, but Auntie Carrie happened to have this one that she used for her "White Trash" party with her friends :) The doll is as big as Charlotte and she LOVED it!

Here are a few of the outfits Carrie got and a frame. The picture in the frame is of the baby looking straight at you.

And these are the Halloween pajamas Carrie got for Charlotte. She got some for Nathan too that are black with bones and an orange tie around the neck...so cute! Mom was trying to show Charlotte how to be "scary"

And here is Otis. The past few times that Charlotte has been around Otis and Daisy, she's been a little scared of them, but during this trip, she really warmed up to them! What's not to love?

We had such a good weekend! Now I can't wait to hold our sweet baby boy!

Dino Valley State Park

After driving through the safari park, we drove a few miles up to The Dinosaur Valley State Park. There are actual fossilized dinosaur footprints here as well as areas for hiking, swimming, fishing, and picnicking. Most of the tracks were made by a two legged meat eating dinosaur called an Acrocanthosaurus. The other tracks were made by a Pleurocolues which is a huge 4 legged plant eating dinosaur similar to a brontosaurus. The tracks here in the park are 110 million years old, and they have even found bones from these dinosaurs too!

At the entrance to the park, there are two fiberglass models; a 70-foot Apatosaurus and a 45-foot Tyrannosaurus Rex. They were built, under commission of the Sinclair Oil Company,  for the New York World's Fair Dinosaur Exhibit of 1964 - 1965.

These dinosaurs are models at the exit of the safari park...

And these are the World's Fair Dinosaurs



In these next pictures, Wayne and Nathan, are pretending like the T-Rex is chasing them :)

Take 1

Take 2

Take 3

Run Nathan!

Before going to look for the tracks, we stopped at the visitor center for Nathan to pick out a souvenir. And he found a dinosaur that he really liked and didn't have in his collection. And, it turned out to be one of the ones that made the tracks! He got the Acrocanthosaurus.

We had to go on a hike down to the river bed to see the tracks. Nathan LOVED this part. He said he felt like he was in Jurassic Park!

Here's the footprint!

After looking at the tracks for a while, we walked back up the trail and let Nathan lead us down some more trails. Along the way, he kept saying that he found more fossils and was very excited about it! There were fossils all over the place! They may have just looked like rocks and pebbles to us, but Nathan could tell they were really dinosaur bones and teeth :)

After our big adventure, Nathan was one tired little boy. We stopped to get some ice cream right outside of the park, and he didn't even finish it. We had such a good time! And our little paleontologist slept the whole way home!