SF Zoo with Auntie

We were lucky enough to have my sister as a guest for the past week. The boys and I got lots of quality bonding time and auntie got to change her first poopie diaper. Win/win for everyone ;)

We decided to spend a gloomy day at the zoo and it wound up being perfect because all the animals were out and about. The hippo put on quite a show for us, playing outside of the water for a bit before splashing back in and showing off his giant teeth. All the flamingos had eggs, which was really cool to see. Declan got super excited about the ostrich and kept yelling and pointing excitedly as the ostrich came right up to the fence, apparently equally curious about this screaming little being. Ez seemed to like the gorillas best, even calling his brother over and saying, "Look Deckles! It's gorillas!" 

After we visited all the animals we stopped by the playground and stayed until closing time. We had to drag Ez away and he and Declan immediately fell asleep for the entire car ride home. 

Between the two of us we got tons of photos, but the really amazing close up shots are all my sister's. I can't get over the quality of that bald eagle photo. Such a majestic bird.

Our Weekend: Saying Goodbye & The Fair

On Friday night we had dinner with Joe's mom and her husband. We hadn't seen them since before our trip up north, so Declan was like a completely new baby, all alert and chubby. 

We fit in some more family time on Saturday afternoon at my aunt's house. Pizza, margaritas, tag, and cars = something for everyone. 

On Sunday we braved the heat and went to the last day of the OC Fair. One of my summer bucket list items was to get a caricature done at the fair, but sadly the OC fair doesn't do caricatures like the LA one. And the LA fair doesn't open till September, after we move. So I convinced Joe we'll just have to go get one drawn at Disneyland before we go. Darn!

One cool thing about the OC Fair is that Robert Marble had a booth, and I've been obsessed with his animal paintings ever since I saw one on Storage Wars. Such a cool coincidence. We bought two as early housewarming gifts to ourselves.

Declan and Ez pretty much alternated napping the whole time we were there, so we called it a day after a few hours (and a donut sundae).

Back home we got to work packing up all our stuff. It's kinda crazy how many boxes are devoted just to pictures, books, and DVDs. Five boxes packed and we haven't even started on the kitchen or bedrooms. For as much as I move (14 homes in 14 years!), I've never moved this far, where EVERYTHING has to be packed up and on the moving truck all at once. Usually I can go back and forth and take the fragile stuff myself. So wish us luck! This is our lives for the rest of the week: 

The Declan Tour

We're home! After two weeks of couch surfing and hotel hopping, we're looking forward to a day or two of staying in one place and not doing much of anything. To put it all in perspective, Declan has spent a third of his life away from home. And he changed so much in those two weeks. From squishy oblivious sleepy little newborn to alert, smily, cooing chubby little baby. Pretty crazy, huh? He saw so many new faces and met all kinds of family and friends who love him so much already. He is one lucky boy. And I'm one lucky mama to have all these hands ready to take over Declan duties so I can get a few things done (namely, eating a complete meal with two hands - pure luxury!). I know I sound like a broken record, but having all that help was just so amazing and I feel like I can't say thank you enough.

This is gonna be a short post because I don't have the brain power for much more, but here are a few of my favorite snaps of Declan meeting a handful of my favorite people. (He actually met even more people, but I didn't always remember to snap a pic.)