Aquarium Adventure

Last week, when we had Max's side of the family in town, we all decided to be adventurous and go to the Dallas Aquarium.  And I do mean adventurous - it's hard to get our act together to take baby anywhere, let alone somewhere as exciting as the aquarium!

William was a trooper! (And I've never needed to carry a purse so big before!)

Everyone's saying hi to the monkeys.

Looking at the sting rays - and Max refuses to smile for a picture ;)

William got tired of the stroller. This is my view of him in his sling!

After the aquarium, we ate a very late lunch at the Spaghetti Warehouse. I would have taken pictures, but I was too busy stuffing my face with pasta alfredo!

All in all, it was worth the hassle to get out there and do something fun! I need to schedule more adventures soon!

Around

I'm using my camera more than I ever have before these days! I recently dressed William in some actual clothes instead of the usual onesies - then I was like: "Quick, take a picture before he grows out of it or pees/poops/spits up on it!!"

Anyways, we're doing lots of lazy hanging out around here. Thought I'd share some links I'm sure you'll enjoy as much as I did:

- I'm dying to make these chickpea salad wraps!

- Which profession drinks the most coffee? Is yours on here?

- DIY: Spray painted color block shoes

- What a great way to preserve summer memories! Map Cork Board with Shell Pushpins

- I loved this article from an up-and-coming daddy blogger: Achieving Happy

Three Lifesavers

One of my new mama friends asked me what product(s) I couldn't live without. It was a good question and it got me thinking. Below, my top three picks:

No Drought dry shampoo from Lush

With my hands full with baby, I just can't realistically wash my hair every day. This dry shampoo has been a quick fix that WORKS!  I'm sure it will be even more important to me once I go back to work.

Fisher Price Newborn Rock 'n Play Sleeper

This is what William sleeps in. Forget the pretty bassinets, this thing has been a lifesaver!! The incline is so perfect. It's so easy to rock, and the best part is - when he kicks around and gets fussy, he rocks it himself and can put himself back to sleep!!

Nescafe Clasico Decaf

I've decided against drinking any caffeine while breast feeding. But! I still miss my morning cup of coffee. This instant stuff tastes like the real thing. I can almost convince myself I'm more awake (almost....)

So... what in your life can you not live without? Do share!

Thwarted!

Here I am, thinking I'm so organized... but my best attempt has been thwarted!

You see, I have a basket with all of baby William's washcloths and hooded towels. Now that our guest bathroom is once again available (we had our parents with us for the last seven weeks!) I thought I'd keep the baby tub and the towel basket in there.

But! I forgot about our pets, who are usually up to no good:

As you can see, Mrs. Hufflepuff removed the top few towels and made herself comfortable! Grrr.....

Tickle Me Tuesday, 77th edition

Welcome to the latest edition of Tickle Me Tuesdays, where we all share what's been tickling our fancy

If you'd like to participate (and you know you do!!), here are the rules:
  

1. Write a short post with anywhere from one to five items that have been tickling your fancy recently. Please include pictures and links :)

2. Make sure to link back to the party in your blog post (you can grab the button or include a text link)

3. Come back here and link up your blog post!  

4. Visit some other links and HAVE FUN!

Polka Dot Blue Bird from Hart Stringz

Glasses Rubber Stamp from Talk to the Sun

Wood Felt Bow French Barrette from Loft Full of Goodies

Now it's your turn! What's been tickling your fancy lately?

<a href="http://yesteachercrafts.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s92/french_mk/tickle.jpg" /></a>

Ten Year Celebration

Friday we celebrated our ten year wedding anniversary in our typical, low-key kind of way: we went out for lunch at a new Thai place in town.

It's in a strip mall and easy to pass by without noticing at all. It's pretty tiny inside, but we loved the food! I even got Max to let me take a picture:

(William was well behaved and slept contentedly through our date.) Max and I split a mango bubble tea. It was the first time I'd ever had one and it was delicious!!

This may not have been the travel adventure we had been planning for this anniversary, but it was definitely a fun adventure just being out of the house!

Ten Years and a Love Story

Today is our TEN YEAR wedding anniversary! We got married at the ripe old age of 20, and it was the best decision I've ever made!

I thought I'd share our love story in honor of this momentous occasion:

I met my husband, Max, for the first time during freshman orientation in college.

We were going around in a circle, introducing ourselves and saying where we were from. This was a tricky question for me since my family started out in California, but moved to France when I was seven. And then, to make things even more complicated, I attended a boarding school in Germany for high school.

So when it came around to my turn, I said, "California, France, and Germany," and that's how I made the nerdiest first impression with my future husband.

I didn't see much of him after that, even though we lived in the same dorm. We started hanging out rather randomly in April of that year. I sat next to him at a dorm picnic and asked him, by way of an ice breaker, if he was Canadian. He wasn't.

Our relationship really kicked off on my birthday, when we got into an impromptu cake fight, chasing each other, laughing, and getting frosting everywhere.

Shortly after that, our first year of college had ended, and I flew back to Germany to spend the summer with my family. Max and I emailed each other back and forth during that time, and checking my inbox was the absolute highlight of my day.

I half-jokingly invited him to come over and visit with me and my family. You know, because it's not like Michigan and Germany share a border or anything. To my utter surprise, he did! One day during his two week trip, we toured the World War 1 trenches, and it was there that we "officially" started dating. August 10th, 2001.

We held hands. We cuddled. We hugged. But we didn't kiss.

I had told him right off the bat that I wasn't ready to kiss him yet. (Truthfully I had never kissed anyone before, and the idea was terrifying!) He was a trooper about it!

As the months progressed, we knew we were meant for each other, and we knew we wanted to get married soon. We decided to save our first kiss for the altar.

We were married on August 10th, 2002, precisely one year after we started dating. (I like to tell people it's because we're organized, but actually it was just a coincidence!) By this time, I was more than ready to kiss him :).

So there we were, standing at the altar: his dad and my dad (both pastors) up at the front, conducting the ceremony. It occurred to me right before dad said: "You may kiss the bride" that I was going to have my very first kiss ever right in front of all of these people!

I leaned in for the kiss. I thought it was going to be a huge, romantic moment in my life. And it was! But at the time I can only remember thinking: "Gee, this is wet!" He likes to say that I wouldn't let go of him when he tried to pull away... but that's his side of the story!

I'm glad we saved our first kiss (I can hold this over my daughter's head someday...). I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, though. We were lucky in that we had a short engagement. But it definitely made our story special, and I believe that it deepened our relationship. Ten years and we're still going strong!