And the fun continues!

The weather was so beautiful Christmas week that on Friday we decided to go to Busch Gardens for just a few hours to see some animals. And good thing we did it all last week because now it is COLD! I know, most of you are up to your necks in snow so we don't have much to complain about, but we hit record lows this week! And when you're thermostat is set to "cold," that first night when it hits 20, the heat doesn't kick on and it gets cold! We've had to dig around and find all the warm things we have which only includes like two pairs of sweats for Mikey so he's had to be very clean in them. (I do find watching the news a little funny as they talk about the weather and all these warnings about the wind chill factor making it so cold and worrying about people. I mean it's cold and they have crops to worry about, but it's not like anyone's going to die from this kind of cold! They get quite dramtic about it and it's funny.)

Look! A zebra pulling a sleigh!

Swimming after Christmas

Well we actually tried to go swimming on Christmas day. It was a gorgeous day and since there is often no one working at the clubhouse we thought it would still be open for those with keys. After getting Mikey all excited about it, we got there and it was closed. But luckily the weather held up for the rest of the week so we went the next day and he loved it.
There were these little girls swimming when we got there and they wouldn't leave Mikey alone! (See the kids starting to swarm in the first picture?) Honestly, we thought they were a little annoying after awhile, but they were throwing him his ball and he loves little girls (I know, should I start worrying now?) so he loved it.
It was actually a little chilly because there was a slight wind, but Mikey seemed to love it as much as ever!

In fact, after drying off, he wanted to go back in! So he and daddy did for a bit while mama warmed up in the sun on the patio chairs. :)

Christmas morning!

Mikey doesn't always have the sweet bedhead hair going on that he did Christmas morning. It was the best I'd ever seen it. He does, on the other hand, sleep with more and more stuffed animals every night and in the morning hands you each one to hold before you can pick him up. It can end up being quite an armful.
The stocking

Mikey was very good at opening presents and almost always had his cute little tongue sticking out while doing it.

I just had to display again, the awesomeness of his hair.

The problem came after a few presents were opened when he started running off to play with them. It ended up taking awhile to open them all. In fact, we finally just left 3 or 4 for later. The next day he found them and promptly wanted to open them.

Calling Grandma and Grandpa Bastian to thank them for his cool phone

He loves books so those were great presents

The tongue again

After awhile he started becoming more and more interested in the camera so finally I let him take some pictures. Not too bad for 20 months!

Before.

(Note that we counted our presents and in that pile there were about 6 or 7 for us combined, the rest were all for Mikey. Spoiled kid! :) Thanks to everyone who sent him gifts, he had a wonderful time opening them and we had a wonderful time watching.)



After.

Sending presents

We tried to send the most wonderful present to Mimi and Bampa....

But they just didn't all fit. Maybe next year.