Your First Movie Theater Experience!!!

Daddy and I took you to the movie last week to see Winnie the Pooh!  You were so excited about going, but we didn't know what to expect once you got in there because being quiet and/or still is not your specialty!  Wow, you surprised us!  You sat there almost the entire movie and you were fairly quiet other than squealing with excitement.  You LOVED it! You got tired near the end and crawled up in my lap.  That's probably because your popcorn and sprite were gone!  We will definitely go see another one soon!!!

Happy Birthday Ben, Seger, Duke and Rayner

A few weeks ago, we went to Meridian to celebrate Ben, Seger, Duke and Rayner's birthdays.  Aunt Dene was pretty smart and celebrated all the birthdays at one time.  We swam, ate and played with their new puppies.  You always have such a great time when you are with your cousins!!!

First Annual Simons VIP Gathering in Gatlinburg

We left early one Friday morning in July to go to Gatlinburg to meet other families with the 16p Chromosome Disorder.  Your Julz and Gran went with us and Mommy is so thankful!  It was a long drive for a short weekend, but was definitely worth it to meet all of the other families!  When we got there, we met Amy, Brian, Molly and Nancy for dinner.  We all went to Hard Rock Cafe!  After dinner, we strolled through Gatlinburg and of course you found something you just couldn't live without at the moment!!!

Who goes to Gatlinburg without buying a pink blow up monkey?!?!
We went down to the conference center later that night to meet some other families!  These are some of the cute 16P kiddos we met that night!

The next morning, we went to breakfast at McDonald's and then headed back to the hotel for lunch and a seminar with Dr. Chung!

 

A group of 16P Moms that made this gathering possible!!!

 

The Simons VIP team that were able to attend!!!

 

16P Kiddos!

After the meeting, we went with a few other families to the indoor water park!  You had a blast!!!  I was glad to do something fun for you since we had been in that meeting in the hotel all day!

You LOVED the lazy river!!!

 

And the slides were fun too!

You got to play with Brian and McKayla a little while we were there too!!!

We had such a great time at the waterpark playing and visiting with new friends!!!
That night, we walked to dinner and then had an early night in the bed!

The next morning, we went to the Gatlinburg Park to meet and play with the other 16P families!!!  We didn't get to stay long because we had such a long drive ahead of us!  We did stay long enough for Mommy, Gran and Julz to chat with some other Mom's and for you to play with your new friends!!!

 Love this picture of you and Brian and this one of Mommy and her new sweet friend, Amy (Brian's Mommy)!!!

We had such a wonderful time in Gatlinburg and are so thankful that we got to meet all of these awesome new families that are struggling with similar issues, but more than that, are blessed with such special and amazing kiddos!!! 
On our way home from Gatlinburg, we stopped in Birmingham and ate dinner with Aunt Keri and her sister, Kristin.  It was so good to see them and catch up.  I guess I was tired of taking pictures by this point because I didn't take a single one with them!  Oh well, maybe next time!!!  Thank you Keri and Kristin for meeting us!!!
And a SPECIAL THANK YOU to Julz and Gran for going with us to Gatlinburg!  We couldn't have done it without them!  They were so much help and you couldn't have been happier being with them! 

Happy Birthday Hank!!!

We celebrated Hank's birthday at his house swimming and sliding with a Super Mario Bros. Party!!!  Ea and Chad rented a big slide!  You did not want to slide at all.  I was kind of glad though that you were expressing a little fear of something.  Because you have always been fearless which scares me a little!  You did try to climb the stairs once, but some of the kids fell that were ahead of you and slid back on you and that was it, you were done.  You were content to swing and eat watermelon!!!

Until Daddy got there....   He made you slide because he knew once you did it, you would love it! At first, you were not too happy about it!

Once you got to the top, you were still a little unsure, well maybe a lot unsure by the grip you have on your Daddy's leg!

So you and Daddy sat up there for a long time and watched everybody else go down.  You started to think it might be a good idea!!!

Then I think you decided it looked like fun!!!

 

So off you went... with Daddy of course!!!

And by the smile on your face, I think you enjoyed it!!!

But you didn't want to do it again!!!  You were ready for cupcakes!  You are now on both the gluten and casein free diet, so Mommy had to make you special cupcakes to take to the party!  This was my first time ever to make cupcakes.  I am just not a cook!  But the things I will do for you!!! ;)  You ate every bit of your GFCF cupcake and wanted more so I think they were a hit with you, and that is all that matters to me!

Happy Birthday Hank!  We love you!!!

Cousin Fun!!

Aunt Cam Cam, Gabe and Neely came to Mississippi and you had so much fun spending time with them.  We swam, ate, played and boated!  Such a great weekend!  Sure do wish they lived closer!!!

Happy Independence Day!!

We headed to the river for the 4th of July weekend.  Gran and Gramp had just gotten back from Disney World and you were excited to see them and excited to see what Gran brought you!

A beautiful Rapunzel wig was your souvenir. You had a great time swimming with Madeline and Colin the next day!

Your daddy even decided to go for a swim in the baby pool!  I think he ran Colin and Madeline out!

 

After nap, we played outside for a little while until it was time to watch the fireworks!

You even got to pick a little blueberries!  Of course you did more eating than picking!!!

That night, we went with Uncle Harry, Aunt Linda, Jaime, Stephen, Colin, Madeline, Gran and Gramp to watch the fireworks on the river.  We went in Uncle Harry's pontoon boat!  There was quite a wait before the fireworks started and you, Colin and Madeline got a little restless, but you can't tell it in these pictures!!!

Finally, it was time for the fireworks!!!

The next day, your Moore cousins came and you had so much fun playing with them.  Gramp took y'all out in the boat and to swim in the river, but I didn't take my camera so there are no pictures of all that redneck fun!

That afternoon we left and went to the Segrest's to grill, fish, and play!  I did take my camera, but was having such a good time, I only managed to take one picture!  But it is one of my favorites ever of you and Camp!  Khaki and Mommy were in the kitchen talking and Chad came in and said y'all have got to come see this!  Of course I ran and got my camera.  You and Camp were sitting at their little table and he was teaching you the colors of the umbrella!  It melted my heart!  Camp has really started looking out for you these days!  Love those Segrest's so much!!!

NEW ORLEANS

We went to New Orleans with Daddy because he had a work convention.  We went a day early so that we could take you to the zoo.  You were so excited when you got to ride the trolley to the zoo from our hotel. 

Where we got off the trolley, it was still a LONG walk to the zoo.  And it was HOT!  You got to ride in the stroller though so you were fine!  Finally, we are here!!!

First stop.... the flamingo's!

Then, a little photo opportunity!!!

 And of course, we couldn't go to the zoo without riding the carousel!

We persuaded you to get off the carousel with the splash pad.  The New Orleans zoo has a great splash pad with water slides.  So once you saw that, you were more than happy to leave the carousel.  We decided Daddy would get wet with you because I didn't bring a swimsuit and he could just slide in his shorts.  Y'all had so much fun sliding and I had so much fun watching you and taking lots of pictures!!!

 I think the zoo and splash pad tired you out because you fell fast asleep on the trolley ride back to the hotel!

We went back to the hotel and changed for dinner.  We walked to the House of Blues!

We sat outside and you had the best time dancing!!!  After dinner, we walked to the French Quarter and took a horse and buggy tour of the city!  You and Mommy really enjoyed this!  You loved riding behind the horse and I loved seeing all the beautiful buildings!  Daddy just enjoyed being entertained by our driver!

After our horse and buggy ride, we walked back to the hotel.  We walked down Bourbon Street when it was almost dark!  Hope you didn't get too much of an education on our walk back! :)

One thing you did get was your very first peach daiquiri.  You wanted a big grenade cup to put it in and the nice little man at the door gave you one!  You thought you were something with your big drink and long straw!!!

The next morning, you and Mommy slept late while Daddy went to work at his convention.  When Daddy got done, we went for a late breakfast to Cafe Du Monde!  By the way, while we were on our trip, we let you get off your casein free diet so you could enjoy some beignets.  I couldn't deprive you of beignets while we were in New Orleans!

 First time at Cafe Du Monde!!!

I think you enjoyed them!!!

After we got finished with breakfast, we walked to the aquarium. It wasn't quite time for the aquarium to open so we had a little photo shoot by the river!

 You kept trying to pull your dress off because you wanted to get in!  You were saying "awa" and signing please! 

Then the aquarium opened and I think you were excited as soon as we got in there!  I love the excitement on your face in this picture!!!

Your favorite thing about the aquarium was feeding the birds!  We bought feeding sticks and you got to hold them and feed the birds!  They would land on your hands and you would get so tickled!  I LOVED watching you!  And I think Daddy liked doing this about as much as you!!!

 Can you tell how excited you were?!?!

Another thing you kept wanting to go back to were these white alligators!  You kept crawling up to the glass and giving them kisses!

When we left the aquarium, we went to eat lunch.  As we were walking to the restaurant, you fell asleep on your daddy's shoulder.  He loved it because you will never fall asleep on him.  But for some reason on this trip, you fell asleep on your daddy a lot!

After lunch, Daddy had to go work at the convention so you and I went shopping!!!  We took the trolley because that is all you wanted to do since we rode it the day before to the zoo!

We shopped at the Riverwalk and had the best time (when you weren't throwing a fit because you couldn't have everything you saw!)  You got a pair of Crocs with an Ariel, Strawberry Shortcake and Dora Jibbitz on them thanks to your Julz and Pops!  You also got a t-shirt at Gap with a kitty cat on it that you carried around with you most of the rest of the day saying "MEOW."  And last but not least, this lovely mask!

And since we were at the Riverwalk, I had to take advantage of the excellent photo opportunities!

 We got caught in the rain on the way back and you loved it!  You danced in the rain all the way down Canal Street!!!
When we got back, we went to Daddy's convention to eat!  You kept yourself quite busy while we were there trying to stay balanced!!!

 

You love beads and there was definitely not a shortage in New Orleans!!!

 

The next morning we went to breakfast with Daddy and then you and Mommy headed to City Park!  Oh if I had only known what I was getting myself into!!!  We took the trolley that I thought would take us right to the park.  And it did, but I did not realize that Story Land was quite a hike from where the trolley dropped us off!  Not to mention it was 109 degrees in the New Orleans humidity!!!  Thankfully, there were lots of things to entertain you along the way like this dog structure in the Sculpture Garden that we walked all the way through!

Finally, we made it to Story Land and you were so excited when you saw Humpty Dumpty!!!

This was the neatest little park and was definitely worth the walk there!  I wasn't sure it was going to be worth the walk back, but I refused to think about that and just enjoy your excitement in the park!

And then it was time to start our long walk back to the trolley stop!  It was really close to lunch and there wasn't anything to eat anywhere around there.  The walk back was horrible.  You wanted me to carry you.  You were so hot!  I kept pouring water over your head from our water bottle.  But we finally made it, and the trolley did not come for 30 minutes!  I thought I was going to cry and you were already crying!  Look at your red face in this picture!  This was after you stopped crying and decided to go play under a tree while we waited!

We made it back to the hotel and met Daddy for lunch!  Then you and Mommy went back to the room and took a long nap!  And now all I have to do is look back at the smiles on your face in all these pictures and that is all I remember about that day - the excitement on your little face everytime you saw something new at StoryLand!

We walked to the French Quarter late that afternoon and went to the French Market.  Then we had dinner and headed back!  I think our adventure that morning wore us out!  We needed to go to bed early!!!  But I did manage to get a few pictures!!!

The next morning we woke up and went to breakfast one last time at Cafe Du Monde before we had to leave!  I wanted so bad to get a caricature drawn of you in the French Quarter, but we were never there when the vendors were there.  Maybe next time!

We had such a great time in New Orleans!  Thank you Daddy for taking us to work with you!!!! :)