Fearless Pool Boy

 Two weeks ago we couldn't get the kid IN the water, much less get him to enjoy the water.
And now we have this....

 He stands at the edge and without hesitation, jumps, or rather walks in.

 He's not afraid of the water anymore.
And he loves wearing is orange frog float.
Yes, there ARE orange frogs.
We saw some last week at the aquarium exhibit.

 He leaps with glee and just trusts that you will catch him!
Even if you don't, he still comes up smiling and laughing!

 His favorite part of the pool was running, jumping, and kicking back to the steps to repeat that cycle.
We met a friend at the pool this year at the beach.
She had a green frog float, but called her's a monster.
She was precious little girl with cute braids.
Her little brother's name was Walker and he had something called Williams Syndrome.
I was so impressed with the mom's open attitude and I really enjoyed talking with her.

Our babies swam together for 3 hours that morning and they were just precious!

This little guy made me really happy that he was so kind to his new friends!
He used his good manners and was very friendly.

Pool day with Princess

She wasn't a huge fan of the pool. 
But I'm pretty sure it was because being in the pool meant she was in her float and that no one was holding her...

 And she was all like, "Meh.  These mean people love meeeeeee, but they won't hold meeeeeeeeee!" So she proceeded to throw a royal hiss fit. 

 Daryk offered to style her hair, and being that she's MY child, we all know she loved that.

  Until she realized that he was doing this.

 And then she cried. 
A lot.

 Clearly she thought it was just as bad as I did.  

Bless her.

 And then she thought,

 "Hey, I'll just chill in this float and play with this dinosaur car thing and annoy my brother a lot."

 And then she got over it. 

 The end.

He leaves me speechless.

 Pawpaw brought him an airplane on Father's Day.
Hayes hadn't been feeling well, and this day was a stretch for him.
Poor kid has had one heck of a summer with sicknesses.
Plural. 
As in the whole month of June, sick.
Summer sicknesses are misery for all involved.

 But you would NEVER know that this kid is miserable.
He has a face that radiates joy.
His giggles could melt anyone's heart.

 He's just so tickled that he can't stop laughing!

 Look, he pretends to be shy.
Hilarious.

 I love his chubby hands.
I love his dimples too.
I am so sad he's growing up.

 Simply put, he's TOO big for his britches.

Yeehaw+Buzz=BFF

 You know, just playing with my YeeHaw Buzz in the buff.

 Surveying the toys.

 Extremely intense toy to toy dialogue.

 Still sporting the shiner... and now Mr Potato Head has joined the party.

These two are his favorites.
Hours are devoted to the toting around of these two.

He spends millions of minutes with them playing together.

They are best friends.

They are probably his best friends.

He tends to carry them everywhere.

They are currently with him in the bed.

One on either side.

Just goes to show you...

I should have written it down right then, but I didn't. 
I can only remember that my baby girl busted her lip somehow...
I have no idea how it happened.

  I hate it when I cannot remember things that I deem important. 
Clearly, I have plenty of photos of it. 

 Just no recollection of how it actually happened. 

She's not too bothered by the puffy lip. 
And she probably got it climbing all through those chairs she's standing in now. 

We went to the Zoo in June. It was busy.

 Waiting patiently for the line to go away so we can get into the Zoo.

The orangutan family snoozing in their hammock.

The red panda bear, who is alarmingly tiny compared to a typical panda bear.

Exiting the Zoo. 
I went DOWN the hill with the double stroller towards the zoo,
and then UP the hill wasn't NEARLY as much fun.
I'm sure my calorie burn was good though.
I pushed a 30 lbs stroller with 60 lbs of kid in it!

 Watching the gorillas play.

 Chatting with the gorillas.

 Over across the way at Meerkat Manor.
Or Timon's house as he said...

 He loved them all and found a NEW love for The Lion King after this trip.

I could have watched the gorillas walk around all day long.
They reminded me so much of Libby James and her crawling...

 A beautiful male Silverback gorilla.

 The giraffe family.

I would sufficiently say that Hayes enjoyed his trip to the zoo.

Hayes has asked EVERY SINGLE TIME we have gotten in the car since this zoo trip if we were going back to see the eeee mals at the zoo. 
I'm so ready to take the trip again. 
Maybe in the fall when the weather in Ga calms down again. 
The 100+ temps are NOT zoo friendly! 

I'm hoping we can go visit Yellow River Game Ranch sometime soon!

Horn

Toilet paper holder thingy...

Doubles as a horn...

He was playing us a song!