Out of Africa!

A couple of weekends ago, Shawn, J and I along with Grandma and Grandpa G headed over to the Out of Africa Wildlife Park which is in Camp Verde. We had a buy one adult ticket, get one free...and Jeremiah's already free, so we figured why not! It was so much fun.

Unfortunately, I didn't bring the extra camera battery and ours died while we were there, so I only have a few pictures.

J & Daddy on the bus..a little warm. (it was "only" 97 outside)


Stinky giraffe who got up close and personal with our bus (we got to feed him later, too!!)


These zebras were not afraid at all.


I mean, not afraid at all!! I was trying to plan out how exactly I'd protect Jeremiah if a crazy zebra boarded our bus. They're not nice like horses, I hope you know!


We also saw...(not up close and personal, thank you very much!) lions...


Tigers...(we actually saw them being fed raw meat by a worker...yikes)


And bears!


These are grizzly bear cubs wrestling.


Here is a grey wolf being fed raw meat. He acted so much like a dog I'm not sure if I'd be afraid of him if I saw him in the wild. (he whined, scratched at his cage, etc when he saw the lady coming with the bucket)


And just for fun..I found this hat at the dollar store. I call it J's "pimp hat" yes, that's awful, I know, but what else could you call it?


I told him to "smile" - yikes.

Official Announcement.

Horrible MS Paint job? Yes. Cheesy? Yes. But it gets the job done, right? You can't imagine how hard it is to find a "Big Brother" shirt in any size smaller than a 3T.

Okay, for real: We are expecting baby #2!! We are thrilled beyond words and feel so incredibly blessed. I had my 12 week appointment this morning (yay for leaving the first trimester) and was able to hear our little bean's heartbeat. Beautiful - I have also had an ultrasound, around 8 weeks but for some reason our scanner isn't working so I can't post the picture here. I'm sure my brilliant husband can figure it out, though. Otherwise we'll be having another one in about 6 or 7 weeks to find out if we are pink or blue.

Okay, details, probably more than you need! I found out on July 19th, which was also the last day of Shawn's CFP exam. I took the home pregnancy test while Shawn was taking the test, figuring that if it was positive, I wouldn't be able to tell him and therefore distract him from the big test. Honestly, though, I wasn't expecting a positive at all, so when it showed up, I was shocked, scared, thrilled, excited, laughing, crying, all at the same time. I've wanted to tell most all of you in person...but it's hard to bring up. "So, Holly, how is Asha doing in Pre-school? Oh, and by the way I'm pregnant." I just didn't know how to do it being awkward.

More details: Due date is March 27th, 2009 (according to my Dr's office - it was June 27th, 2007 with J and they were pretty accurate, I would say!) If this baby is as punctual as his/her older brother, then they will be exactly 21 months apart. I'm doing okay, "morning sickness" is my 24 hour companion it seems, and I have lots of headaches as well as being tired constantly. Emotionally, I'm kind of a wreck, I'll cry at the drop of a hat, a ball, a block, a sippy cup - whatever. I waiver between "How am I going to love another baby as much as I love J?" and "What am I going to do if this baby is just like J?" and "How in the world am I going to handle TWO of them???"

Since we gave J a nickname in the womb (that had nothing to do with his 'real' name), I decided it was only fair to nickname this one, too. He/She shall be called "Baby B" from now on.

Friday night and Saturday - our last day :-(

So this recap has taken me nearly two weeks. Gosh I need to get on the ball!!

Friday night Shawn and I went back to Branson Landing after J was in bed. Karen and Dan were nice enough to let us out for yet another date night! It was so nice outside - I was expecting mosquitoes but I don't think I was bit once!

FIRE!! You don't really need the sound for this video - a cover band was playing but I wanted you to see the sheer wicked-awesomeness of the flaming water show!


We didn't go in, but I had to get a pic of the "Bud Store" - all Budweiser stuff. Reminded me of home... :-) (except replace "Bud" with "Miller")


After grabbing some nachos at a fancy Mexican restaurant on the waterfront (and only a slightly embarassing incident involving my poor Spanish language skills), we walked back along the lake to our car. The mist was a bit creepy!


Every morning we'd all cuddle in bed once J woke up. This is how Shawn looks when he first wakes up!


That's better!


This is inside (long title here) "The Shepard of the Hills Inspiration Tower" - it's quite beautiful. J and I stayed inside while Shawn and the kids went to the outside observation deck - um, no thanks!


Looking down...again, no thanks!!


Alec and Krystal dutifully posing.


He. Never. Stops. Moving. (unless he's sleeping, but even then he twitches a lot)


Safely back on the ground - J's thinking: "What's up with that dog??"


The kids walking.


We did a little shopping afterwards then headed home to pack up - we had to leave Branson around 530am to get to the Springfield airport and drop off the rental car for our 845am flight.

They had a great play area right by our gate just for ones J's size. He loved it.


And finally, on the ground in Phoenix - glad to be home but sad to be back in the oppressive heat. Thanks for traveling with us!

Branson, the final days

Sorry for slacking off!!

Friday morning, Shawn, J, and I had 'antique' or old time photos done. Here are the ones we bought:


This picture of J is so cute I just want to squeeze him every time I look at it!!


After that we went to Branson Landing , this cute outdoor mall along the waterfront. It was so nice!


Having lunch.


J really wanted the lemon from my water so I let him have it. Silly boy!


The "water/fire" show along the lake. If it's one thing Americans love, it's water and fire shooting out of things!! (there will be a video later!)


A pic of everyone!


More to come later...

Day 3 & 4

I'm going to try and condense the trip so we can get back to life in real-time! Life has still been silly and a little bit crazy around the Roland house.

Day 3 - The Cave and Date Night

J & Karen & Alec

Sweet! Caves. (Guess what we found out? Jeremiah is not a fan of caves, especially ones that are completely vertical and you can only go up and down wet steps in. I wish they would have warned us beforehand, we would not have gone.)

Before the cave tour - happy family.

No, I'm not including pics in the cave, I took a few and they're not that great. It was a good tour, if you don't include the screaming baby part.

The crew eating lunch at "Michal's Family Resturant." Very interesting - when you're from the west coast, you forget that a lot of the country still allows smoking indoors. Icky.

We had spaghetti for dinner - it was great!! (thanks Dan!)

Date Night - taking a train to the top of a mini-golf course


Shawn with the airplane, of course.


Afterwards we got frozen custard (duh, you have to!!), and I added up our scores. We TIED!! Ugh.

I took this video for the sound - those of us from 'back east' may appreciate it. I call it.."Branson at Night."


Day 4 - Hiking!

I think we chose the most humid day to do a group hike. We were all really sweaty by the end of it, but J had great time picking flowers and playing in the dirt again.


"Are we done yet?"


Later, while the crew was back on the lake trying their hands at water skiing, we drove around and found an Amish store. We had to take Shawn's pic in front of the horse and buggy. (He gets teased at work for his "Amish" beard LOL)


Before we picked up the crew from their boating adventures, we found this park with all these trees. J had a great time running through them.



Notice the scraped up knees? He didn't seem to mind falling and getting hurt - surprise!

Branson Day 2

Footie Jammers


Someone thought it would be a good idea to leave the garbage out the night before. Ooops!!


Morning at the playground - I'm pretty sure he mistook this huge chipmunk for our dog, Prince. He usually hugs him that way.


The cute bridge leading into the condo development.


While the crew went jet-skiing, the three of us headed out for a little hike at an observation area we found while cruising around. The weather was perfect and for some reason being surrounded by all these trees made me very homesick for Wisconsin.

Pictures really don't do the view justice - it's all trees and rolling hills out there, so beautiful and so green.


Look at them trees!


Take a picture in front of them!


J loved walking along the path and picking up (and sometimes eating) rocks. And dirt. He is really an outdoors kid. (made me very excited for winter here in Az!)


That night after dinner, we all headed out for frozen custard, a treat that you don't find here in Phoenix. J had his first taste of it:


And more tastes of it...(see his hands? he's signing 'more,' he's also learned the sign for 'please' and that it will almost always get him what he wants. yikes)


J and his new BFF, Alec (13). Alec was really great with him. It was sweet.
I think I know a few people who could fill the manager position, right?


I made them turn around - Alec looks like this in all his pictures - almost no smiles. But he's a happy guy.