Wild Animal Park June 2011

Earlier this summer while visiting my family, we went to the Wild Animal Park.
They've since renamed it and made lots of upgrades to the place, but to me, it will always be the Wild Animal Park!

The tram ride is SO awesome!
They made it a lot nicer and you can see the animals so much better while you're out on safari!

Family picture in front of the elephants.  We have to tickle Mason to make him smile for pictures. :)

Mason looooved the petting zoo!
He walked right up to all the big animals to pet them and wasn't even scared.
We were pleasantly surprised.

Classic picture on the rhino!

Mason's most favorite thing by far, though, was the lorikeet exhibit.  It's a large, caged enclosure you walk into that's filled with colorful lorikeets that land on you.  You can buy little cups of nectar (for a pretty penny of course) and the birds land on you as they drink the nectar.  Mason really likes birds and was excited that they landed on him even though he seems stunned in the video.  We just laughed. :) I think he was afraid that if he moved the bird would fly away off of him.  And he wasn't thrilled about the flapping by his face at the end.  But he didn't want to leave, it was so much fun.  P.S. When these birds poop on you, it's clear poop.  So it's not AS gross as normal....and they have very nice washing stations upon exiting complete with soap and paper towels. :)

More petting zoo.  He wasn't even afraid to walk up to these full size deer all by himself.

Marcos and I in front of the beautiful landscape and big hot air balloon.
  We had such a great time!

Cousins at the Playground

Haircut

It is tradition in the Duran family for Grandpa Louie to give the grandsons haircuts.  He's great at it and very practiced, because he cut the hair of Marcos and all his brothers growing up.  And last Fall it was Mason's turn! (These pictures are from November when Mason still had a round baby face.  ::sigh::  He already looks so much older!)

The "before" curls that melt Grandma Elizabeth's heart.  

Pre-haircut conversation with a lady I didn't know:

LADY:  "OH!  Your baby is SO cute!  Is it a boy or a girl?"

ME:  (already annoyed)  "He's a boy."

LADY:  "Oh wow, look at those curls!  You'd think he's a girl with those darling curls."

ME:  "Mmm, thanks, but he's a boy."  (feeling spunky now)  "Ya know, he IS wearing ALL blue."

LADY:  (not phased)  "Girls wear blue, too.  And his blue eyes are SO pretty you'd think he's a girl!"

ME:  (???.....confusion giving way to defeat)  "Uh....thanks."  

He was such a good boy and didn't even cry!

Brushing the hair off

So nice and trim!  Thanks Grandpa Louie!  (Can't you see the family resemblance? .....No?  ......Neither can we. :)   

P.S.  He's had a few haircuts since this one, and within a few weeks, his cute curls come back. :)

Mason's 1st Birthday!

 I can't believe my baby is 1 already!  It's one of those things where it feels like just yesterday and like forever ago at the same time.  We were so happy to have so much family present at Mason's party...including both sets of Grandparents!  It was so fun to have a little family party...thank you to all who were able to attend!

"Mason" opening presents.

 

He got lots of really fun gifts that he loves and plays with all the time!

 

 

Then came the cake and the Happy Birthday song....

...and the poor little guy didn't know how to handle all the attention.

 (Don't worry Mason, it's hard for all of us!)

 While Mason recovered from being celebrated, Tracy took the liberty of blowing out the candle (way to go Trace).

 He got a lot happier when we gave him some cheesecake.  He's not one to dive right into new things, so he decided the best tactic would be to poke around a bit to test it out.

 It seemed safe enough, so then he daintily poked some pieces until they stuck to his finger and finally ate some.

 He took his cake eating quite seriously while relishing in the new, rich flavor.

 "Oh man....this is SO GOOD.  Why have I not eaten this before?!"

Happy Birthday little man.  We love you so much!

Napa: Week 1

Well, we live in Napa now, and so far we really like it (despite the major con of being too far from family!).  But it is so beautiful here....so lush and green with trees everywhere.  And the weather is heavenly and reminds me of San Diego weather.  It's nice, because there are grape vineyards reminiscent of Marcos' hometown of Fresno, and rolling hills that remind me of my hometown of San Marcos.

Today we visited Napa's premuim outlet mall, which is a lovely outdoor mall with lots of high-end shopping outlets....not that I shop at any of these places regularly, but it was really fun to walk around the nice mall.  I did like the Gap outlet, though, and if I had money I'd take advantage of their awesome deals.  We even saw tour buses that take loads of tourists to this outlet mall.  It was a lovely place to window shop and walk Mason in his stroller, and it's less than 10 minutes away from us.

 Our apartment complex has a really nice little playground we take Mason to, and he loves it!  He really likes this wall of rolling wheels.

And this spinning knob thing that barely qualifies as a toy but that kept him entertained for about 15 minutes.

Sliding with Mommy!

Peek-a-boo!

Sliding with Aunt Tracy!

Sliding with Daddy!

Monkeying around on the monkey bars.  Such a fun playground...and it's so nice that it takes us like 2 minutes to walk there.  Looking forward to many fun times here!

4th of July 2010

To celebrate the 4th this year, we drove up on the 3rd to Shaver Lake to watch fireworks with Marcos' family.  How cute are we with our matching 4th of July shirts?!

Marcos' family hands out glow sticks to all the kids right before it gets dark, which is super fun for them and I think a smart way to keep track of kids in the dark.  Mason liked playing with one for a while.

But I soon replaced it with another toy, cuz he would totally chew right through that glow stick.  Bad news.  I like his "duck lips" while studying his toy.

Then came the fireworks!  It was really cool to watch the fireworks with the reflections off of the lake.  What was even more impressive was the resounding BOOM that echoed and rumbled through the mountains with each display. 

It was so much fun, and Mason wasn't even afraid of the fireworks like he is with other loud things (i.e. the blender, vacuum, etc).  He sat and watched intently the whole time.  I was so happy and had a great time!