Saturday was Mimi's birthday. We had originally planned to head to Austin Monday morning for a little post celebration since Chance had weekend baseball obligations, but earlier in the week Chance came up to me in a desperate panic..........Mom, we HAVE to be there for Mimi's birthday, and we HAVE to arrive at her door unannounced, WITH BALLOONS. So we scratched the baseball practices, loaded the car and headed to Austin Saturday morning to arrive at Mimi's house WITH BALLOONS, "unannounced"
Mimi's a bit like me: Doesn't really like surprises, and likes to have her house clean for guests.
Next thought in that mind of yours is "Stacey? Clean house for guests? Have you been to her house lately?"
Let's just say I WISH I could have a clean house for guests.
But back to the story. So, to spare Mimi the stress of us seeing how messy her bathroom really gets, and to selfishly ensure us clean sheets, I spilled the beans and we arrived at her door "unannounced" with her pretending not to know we were coming. Mimi can put on such a fake act, I have to wonder if she often does it to me. Chance believed the whole thing. And somehow Ryan never clued in cause a couple days later he was asking me if Mimi was surprised to see us at her door step. He's been working way too many hours to get anything straight, so we'll give that one to him.
Saturday we had Mimi birthday celebrations over at Uncle Drew and Aunt Andrea's house, with some mandatory tree climbing and walking in this great nature preserve behind their house.
Sunday my cold worsened and took my voice with it, Brooks was struck with a 102.5 fever and basically the rest of the week was down hill from there with regards to our health, putting a blow to any chance of us seeing my grandparents or doing anything worthwhile. I do have to say it was nice to be in the care of the Mims!
We did get to see Umpa, Lisa and Matthew which is always nice. The boys enjoyed some good game playing on the balcony:
And later some wrestling on the bed which enabled me for a good shot:
Later in the week, I finally said enough was enough with the darn sickness and so we loaded the boys in the car and checked out the Austin Zoo. It was so reminiscent of our beloved Knies Kinderzoo at the other side of Lake Zurich. So small, so manageable in several hours. Only thing different was that you'd never see this in Switzerland, and these guys weren't playing dress up. I was chasing them about like a crazy paparazzi, trying to get a shot of these creatures I'm still trying to get used to. Yee ha.
Other interesting creatures at the zoo included a pair of turkeys:
Another pair of turkeys:
Some giant turtles that actually moved way faster than expecting. One stuck it's head all the way thru the fence and immediately thought that was a lost finger waiting to happen.
Clearly my thinking didn't carry me over to the pigpen, where Brooks proceeds to stick his fingers thru the fence and almost gets his hand taken off. I should have seen the sign.
We went for a little spin on the Zoo train. Anti-climatic for the boy who went to school on REAL trains for the last 4 years, but pretty darn exciting for the little man who loves CHOO CHOO's.
Back at Hotel Mimi, we soaked up the sun and hunted bugs
Chance was so excited to have Drew and Andrea come over that he spent several hours arranging the backyard in to a perfect game haven.
He even created a sign to attract his guests:
