State Fair - Year Two

Claire made her second trip to the State Fair in Dallas last weekend. (To see pictures from our first trip, click here.) Robert and I love the Fair and are glad we're able to share it with Claire. We left San Antonio Thursday evening and stayed in Fort Worth with Robert's grandparents. On Friday we were able to take the Trinity Railway Express from FW to Dallas and then take the DART rail directly to Fair Park. It took a little longer than driving, but we didn't have to deal with traffic or parking - plus Claire was able to move around a little. We all enjoyed the train - Claire got excited looking out the window and just squealed with delight at everything passing by.


Once we got to the Fair, we made our usual rounds:

Auto Show

Said "Hi" to Big Tex


Fletcher's Corny Dogs

Picture with the lion

(Lion - Then & Now)

Relaxing in the Food & Fiber Pavilion

Petting area

Nap in the stroller

See you next year, Big Tex!

New Blog

You may have noticed a new link in my sidebar. I've realized lately that there are a lot of topics I'd like to blog about, but I want to keep our main blog focused on our family. I was inspired by one of my favorite bloggers, Laura C, to create a separate blog for things of interest me - TV, books, photography, crafty projects, and other random thoughts. Cute pictures of Claire will still be found here on our family blog. :)

More from Ma & Bob's visit

I realized that I never finished posting photos from Ma & Bob's visit a couple of weeks ago.

Claire's aunt Carol (Robert's sister) and soon-to-be uncle Jeremy were in Austin for a wedding and were able to spend an afternoon with us while Ma and Bob were here. We cooked fajitas & corn on the grill and had homemade black bean salsa - one of our favorite meals. Claire had so much fun playing with them!



She also enjoyed reading stories with Ma - Claire still loves her books.

Since their visit was close to my birthday, Ma and Bob brought me a terrific red devils food cake, and Claire got her very own cupcake. She wasn't sure about the first bite, but after a taste she gobbled it up.

We ended the day as usual with bathtime where Claire showed off her arranging skills. She loves to line up her bath toys on the edge of the tub before knocking them all down.

Glad you were able to visit - we had a fun time!

Phone Photo Friday

Laura C started doing "Phone Photo Friday" several weeks ago and invited others to play along. This is the most recent photo on my iPhone, taken in the car last weekend. Once again, Claire was cramming peanut butter crackers in as quickly as I would allow. So ladylike. :)

Little Helper

I left the broom out the other day, and when Claire found it, she showed us that she knows exactly how it should be used. Now if she'd just figure out the dustpan...

Gruene

Robert's grandparents are visiting us this weekend, and we had a full day today. We began with breakfast at Texas Farm to Table in the Pearl Brewery complex, a visit to the farmer's market, home for Claire's nap, and then a short trip to Gruene for lunch at the Gristmill (love their beef tenderloin sandwiches and chicken fried steak!) and a little shopping. I finally remembered to bring my camera and got some pictures in Gruene.

Pretty eyes

Love these two shots of Claire being silly with her Daddy!

This is the new face she started making this week - so funny!

Helping with the check - I am a little frightened by how interested she is in wallets and credit cards.

Daddy's cap makes a good arm rest.

One of her favorite spots

Hiding

One of Claire's favorite little games right now is her own version of hide & seek. It usually involves running over to a small space, like between the fireplace & entertainment center or between her crib and the wall and either facing the wall or slowly backing in...


Then she quietly stands very still while we act like we don't know where she is. We'll walk around the room saying "Where's Claire? Have you seen Claire? I don't know where she went!"

This goes on until she can't stand it anymore and either comes out or starts giggling. She usually dissolves into peals of laughter when we "find" her, although this time she was a little surprised by the camera.

I love her little game - I'm going to be sad when this phase ends.

Playing in the rain

After Sea World on Saturday, we were pleasantly surprised by a light rain (we are currently in one of the worst droughts in San Antonio history). Claire was pretty amused by the little drops of water falling on her head.



Then she got interested in the water coming out of the gutters and pranced over for a closer look.

Her daddy helped her examine it.

Hopefully it won't be long before rain doesn't seem completely foreign to her!

Sea World

On Saturday we made our first trip to Sea World! Since it's so close, we decided to go ahead and get annual passes, and it was nice to not feel like we had to cram everything in on this visit. We focused primarily on seeing the animals. First we went to the aquarium.


Claire liked looking at all of the different fish and kept pointing them out to us.

Next we went to the dolphin and beluga whale show. I was surprised at how closely she followed the action, but the most enjoyable part for her was eating her peanut butter crackers.

I didn't even have to look down to know when she was ready for another one - she made it very clear. Note the expression of pure glee on her face as I pull another cracker out of the wrapper.

You can also see the blur as she snatches the cracker out of my hand.

I think we could've saved quite a bit of money and just given her a package of crackers. But then, we wouldn't have seen the sea lions and seals. Claire was totally enthralled, leaning over the railing and point at different sea lions.

A couple came over to watch her, too.

We were all tired and hot by that point, so we made our last stop of the day to see the penguins.

At the gift shop we found a stuffed penguin about Claire's size - she was a little freaked out by it.

We're looking forward to going back soon to enjoy the water park and see Shamu!

PB&J

Claire LOVES peanut butter & jelly sandwiches - we're so glad that she's not allergic! She can hardly contain herself when she sees us pick up a jar of peanut butter. On this night, she was really hamming it up and divebombing the sandwich to take big bites. Sometimes we can let her feed herself, but she was attacking this one so voraciously that we were having to control how much she put in her mouth at a time.

Big bites!

So good

More please!

All done

Spotted

Something in our backyard...

ready to ATTACK!

We are so happy that we're finally having temperatures under 100 degrees and are able to spend some time outside. Claire hasn't been able to use her swing much this summer, and she was so excited when we pulled it out. Hopefully we've about seen the last of the triple digit days and can enjoy out backyard!