wet n' wild

yesterday, we spent the day at wet n' wild waterpark in greensboro. a special thanks to grandma vicky (danny's mom), for getting us passes, and taking us out there. we had a lot of fun!

i think this photo is hilarious! that's vicky helping malcolm down the slide, and alanna catching him, haha! he loved it.

alanna is a wonderful big sister

vicky packed an awesome lil' picnic for lunch

we'd been there about 5 hours, when these dark clouds started rolling in.

malcolm fell asleep on me, while we were in the wave pool, and he stayed asleep in his lifejacket for about an hour. we even went in the cyclone zone, and he never stirred. we both napped for a bit on our beach chair.


we hoped that the storm would pass, but it didn't, and they had to close down the park. here is happy harbor... not very happy without any kids in it.



how creepy is this octopus?! malcolm liked swinging in it.


alanna and vicky after a long day of sunning and swimming.

i'm pretty okay with the fact that i am heavily tattooed. i've had most of them for over 6 years, so i'm used to the stares and questions etc. but going to a water park, and spending the day in a bikini, in public, is a lot more exposure than usual for me. i was pleasantly surprised by how many compliments i received! i even had a dad point out my eric carle leg to his young son, who walked around me to see it all. so rad! malcolm got lots of compliments too, about how cute he was. and about his swim trunks, which are pretty dang awesome.

we were issued rainchecks because of the inclement weather, so we will be able to go back again for another full day of fun! that's great, since alanna didn't get to go on a lot of the slides, and malcolm only played in one half of the kids area. wet n' wild... see you soon

tomorrow!

sooo stoked!!

our saturday

video i shot at the show

makes me smile every time i watch it!

awesome weekend

this past weekend was great. alanna went to danny's mom and dad's house on thursday, and stayed overnight until saturday afternoon. she loves spending the night there. and she got to eat all kinds of junk food, including two pints of purely decadent (until she was sick, haha). on friday evening, danny, malcolm and i drove to greensboro (about an hour and a half away), for a first friday art exhibit featuring our friend garrett. we had dinner at boba house, with a few of danny's friends - which included paul, his wife haley, and their two cute kids. their son jai, is 3 months older than malcolm, and it was cute to see them together. they weren't very interested in each other, i think they are still at the stage where they play better side by side, rather than together. it will be cute when they are both a bit older.



this is the piece that garrett painted. it was huge. that is garrett over there on the left. he is an amazing artist!

malcolm was getting his chalk on. he had lots of fun running around and looking at stuff/people. he does really well in crowds. this makes me happy, since we will be going to disneyland for 6 days soon

on saturday night, garrett stayed with our kids (he lives in our basement apartment, and he's nice enough to stay with them every so often. plus they both love him), while danny and i went to see de la soul perform live in carrboro. it was fantastic! i've seen them once before, years ago, in salt lake city, but this time was so much better. we both really enjoyed it. the people watching was pretty out of hand too. we got home really late, and my ears were ringing. i'm getting too old for that loud of music, haha (this was the best photo i got)

early sunday morning, a loud thump woke me up. at first i thought it was a large thunderclap (we've had tons of crazy thunderstorms this summer), but it wasn't raining out. and then i thought maybe alanna or malcolm had fallen out of bed? nope. so i went back to sleep. alanna got up to feed and take lucky dog out, and then she woke me up to let me know that our neighbor's tree had fallen down on her house! that's what i had heard. it was a really tall tree. what a shame. luckily it didn't really cause much damage to her house. the tree crew was here all day cutting it down. we watched them from the yard and the bedroom window for a while. they will be back tomorrow to remove the other half that is still standing. here's the view of it from our back yard before they arrived.

we also went and bought a new jogging stroller for malcolm on sunday. danny likes to run a lot, and malcolm usually cries when he leaves the house. so now he can go with him for a ride. it is a really nice stroller. we should have bought it months ago. we all went down to the greenway by our house, and alanna and i rode our bikes while danny and malcolm ran. it was great. we went almost 5 miles. i haven't been on my bike since way before i had malcolm. we will be doing that much more often now. next time i will take my camera.

classes

that's gonna be alanna (the one in the air), haha!

today we got alanna's class schedule in the mail. she will be starting 7th grade on the 25th of this month. just before 6th grade ended, we were told that the boundaries had changed, and that she would have to attend a new middle school for 7th grade. we tried to request a transfer, but were denied twice. so she registered for the new school late, and turned in her electives form later than the other students. she was worried that she wouldn't get any of the classes she wanted. but her schedule looks great. here is what she got:

• language arts - required
• pottery
• fencing
• german 1 (don't forget your roots!)
• seventh grade science - required
• pre-algebra - required
• painting
• web design 1
• social studies - required

pretty sweet classes if you ask me!

cans

malcolm was very serious about stacking up these cans today

i love when he has this reaction, "i don't know what happened?"

damn, i love this baby

the greenway

the weather out here has been pretty gross lately. it's really hot and humid (yuck). and it's been raining a lot as well. typical july/august weather in nc. so we haven't been going for our nightly stroll much these past few weeks. i feel bad keeping malcolm inside so much. he definitely gets a bit of cabin fever. but this evening, the weather was nice out, so we went for a stroll along the greenway. raleigh has an awesome paved trail system, that weaves its way all over the city. there is 63 miles of paved walking/running/riding paths to explore. and it runs right near our house, which is a plus. this is one thing i actually do love about the city in which we currently reside.

this little guy crossed our path, so alanna caught him and moved him to the grass

we found this vine hanging from the top of a really tall tree, it made a perfect swing

alanna had fun swinging on it,

malcolm loved laughing at her


one of many bridges we crossed


and i'm not sure what type of tree this flower grows on, but it smells amazing! it's all over our neighborhood too, and when you walk under it, it's almost like you've just walked into a bath & body works store. it smells so sweet and fragrant, just like perfume. i love it!

my "toddler"

malcolm may be growing up... but he's still my lil' cuddle bug!

he still likes to ride in the sling while i vacuum, and he usually falls asleep when he does. i miss all the naps we shared when he was teeny tiny. so lately, on the off chance that i do get to cuddle him while he's asleep, i cherish every single minute of it.