Audrey and Nathan Clements

I think USA is my favorite because it's simple and familiar. However, Nordic Countries is getting up there because it's meant for three (Darlene likes to play with us when she's over) and I'm getting better at it. Nathan generally beats me at USA. He analyzed where the more populated cities are in reference to destinations.

On Saturday, we went to a Pumpkin Patch. There was a little playground that Hailey rushed to before we even paid. She's a funny little girl and acts scared of slides when mom and dad are around. Today she went up the stairs herself and down the big, closed in, windy slide without any hesitations.

There was a good amount of animals around. There were goats, bunnies, a donkey, two llamas, and three horses. This girl were bring out different animals (she had a bunny earlier) to advertise (they were selling them). My kids love animals and the way they feel.

The stroller was originally meant to carry Robert around but ended up just holding all our things.

When Hailey saw the horses, she got very excited. I wasn't sure whether she would really be okay on the big horse, so before we got tickets for her to ride them, we set her up on top. She was so happy and didn't want to get down. Originally, Kyle was just going to walk beside her, but the people running it decided that it would be best if he rode with her. That was a smart choice because Hailey looked scared when the horse started moving. (I fell off a horse when I was young, so I was nervous about Hailey doing the same thing)
Next was Robert's turn to sit on the horse. He was very happy and started to bounce up and down when he got on.
Then we went on a tractor ride to the pumpkin patch.
This is Grampa with Robert, trying to find another pumpkin. We ended up finding three medium sized pumpkins. However, before we actually left and paid for them we switched to smaller pumpkins that was in bins. It turns out that that was the better choice since we ended up with pie pumpkins instead of jack-o-lanterns.

This trip was a lot of fun and wore Robert out. He's so cute when he's sleeping.

Robert started crawling on Sunday. I saw it happen in the corner of eye and was very excited. I called Nate right away and he yelled at me for not getting a video of it. So he are cute videos of Robert's attempts at crawling.

In this video Hailey is sitting on my lap (she loves looking through the camera) and is helping me encourage Robert to move.

For awhile, he's been able to get on his knees and try to get on his toes to move forward. Finally, he is moving his arms. This doesn't always allow him to move since he doesn't have his arms and legs working together. They are more like four independent objects, but he'll get the hang of it soon.

This was an interesting animal to look at. I'm not sure what it is anymore. I think it started with a Z.

Dad and Hailey are looking at the 15ft waterfall.

Here's Robert enjoying the zoo.

Of course, no trip is without their little complications. Hailey had exploded out of her diaper, so mom and dad went to the car to get her new pants while I feed Robert. Thankfully, we were close to the entrance and the building we went into was a little play center.

After our short break, we went to the Aquarium.

This turtle is from the shark tunnel. "One highlight of the Scott Aquarium is an underwater stroll on the ocean floor. Visitors will wind their way through an oval-shaped, 70-foot long, zig-zag acrylic tunnel that takes them past coral heads, canyons and caves. This tunnel, at the bottom of a 17 foot deep exhibit, allows visitors the experience of being on the ocean floor with large sharks and rays swimming past them on two sides and overhead." (website)

Hailey had a fun time swinging on the bars whenever she found some. I thought it was funny that the next picture I took was of the monkey swinging.

We briefly walked by the monkeys outside but didn't go in the Orangutan Forest because we wanted to see the big cats.

Robert was a very happy boy for the most part. He's teething right now to get his top teeth.

We finished up with the desert dome. I was surprised to see all the different animals in this section and how open they made it feel even though you're still in a building. It had a lot of twists and turns to section off the different types of deserts.

Hailey's trying to swing on the railing, while I'm trying to point out the roadrunner to her.

The bottom part of the building had the Kingdoms of the Night exhibit. A neat part about this was the swamp. "The world's largest indoor swamp is located under the Namibian sand dune of the Desert Dome . Experience the 160,000 gallon, 1/4 acre mysterious swamp with a floating boardwalk. It features a Trapper's Cabin, a beaver lodge, cypress trees, and 30 swamp animal species in barrier free habitats." (website) Since everything was dim and there were crocodiles around you, it felt very freaky. The last thing I was thinking about was taking pictures. Also Robert was pretty hungry by this time and needed to be held.

So, one last thing that made this area neat was the White Alligator. There were no signs about it (since the lights were dim we probably wouldn't be able to read them even if they were there) but since I recently went to Hoogle Zoo with my sister, I knew what it was. The difference between a white alligator and an albino alligator is that white alligators have blue eyes and are very strong. Albinos have red eyes and are weaker. Here's a story about them.

It seems like it's been a while since I blogged. So here are random pictures for our random updates.
Let's start with Robert. He will not eat from a spoon for mommy!!! So, cereal only works out if Nathan or Darlene feeds him. I went to the doctor's on Monday because he has extreme dry skin on his back and had little sores forming. He weights 16 lbs and 3 oz. Hailey was 15 lbs and 13 oz at a year. Since I was curious I quickly weighed Hailey at the office too. She is currently 21 lbs and 13 oz but she had all her clothes on so she's a little less.

Also, with Robert is very close to crawling. He can get on his hands and knees by himself and rock back and forth. Generally he just goes backwards and in circles. When he goes forward, he gets on his knees, jumps forward and lands on his tummy, then he gets back on his hands and knees again. It's a slow process so he just gives up and cries.

So, for fun I put hair pretties in Hailey's hair. I'm so surprised and happy about how it turned out.