A whole lotta stuff crammed into one big Mother's Day weekend. Hal and I had planned to take a trip to OKC for maternity pictures with our favorite Miss Mandy. Without even taking a second thought I had decided that Riley would be exempt from this trip for pictures....#1 being that he is only subject to one photo shoot per year and #2 being that I wanted some extra special girly pictures with my Hallie girl since I didn't take maternity pictures while pregnant with her. I was looking forward to these plans but knew I'd need backup. Backup as in someone to chase Hallie and sweat and stress and run. Aunt B to the rescue! And she did all three of those things for me. Ok, maybe I joined her in the sweating and the stressing. But I couldn't have ran even if I'd tried. So that was her job. Ha! I had suggested we just make a weekend out of our trip and spend the night on Friday. Sister was excited about that plan and so was I......what better thing to do than spend Mother's Day weekend with your sister and daughter if you can't be with your momma?
We picked up Aunt B at her house on our way to the city, ate lunch first and then did some speed shopping before we hurried to our hotel to check in so we could change for pictures. Time suddenly went into warp speed mode and we were racing down to the car to get downtown to the studio. According to my calculations we had just enough time to make it on time. Well, ya see, it's been a few years since I've had to deal with major traffic jams on a daily basis so I sort of forgot to factor that in. But in my defense it was the middle of the afternoon and not a regularly congested area.....it was an auto accident that held us up in standstill traffic. When we pulled into the studio an entire HOUR late I was already ready to throw in the towel. I never really had a pregnant glow but whatever pregnant aura I may have had was probably masked by frustration and stress. Stress was brought on by the fact that Hallie had fallen asleep in her carseat while sitting in traffic. If you know Hallie then you realize how big of a risk you run by waking her up. ESPECIALLY to take pictures. Folks, let me tell ya....it just wasn't pretty. Not at all. Well she was pretty....but her attitude wasn't. And then she was tear-stained pretty once the waterworks kicked in. As I stated above....Aunt B to the rescue. Mandy is a multitude of things.....an example of great patience in stressful situations, a saint for putting up with crazy kiddos like mine and a genius because she somehow ALWAYS ends up getting plenty of great shots that make me happy. When people ask me why I drive all the way to see her........THAT'S WHY! Oh yeah, and the fact that she's just an awesome friend and a downright hilarious person to be around. Luckily the clients coming after us were in the same traffic and everything worked out for us to get in our full 90 minute shoot (PTL!!) and we even snuck in Hallie's four year pictures as well as some sister pictures with Aunt B!
These pictures are precious to me (even if I'm not thrilled with the outfit I ended up choosing) and I can't wait to hang one on the wall. Here are a few of my favorites from our evening....
These next five are going in a frame to put in Bella's room....
We were so worn out after we left downtown that we quickly agreed on takeout and relaxing back at the hotel. Three girls, three homebodies. We were all happy with that plan! We picked up Chipotle and some dessert from Cheesecake Factory. Hal wasted no time digging in....
But first things first....
And someone else was excited that someone was with us to help me (someone) push the stroller in the heat. Lol!
Pink elephant was the lucky recipient of a trip inside the zoo. She must be pretty special to be hand selected by Hal out of the 1,394 animals she brought in the car with her. Our first stop was naturally the Children's Zoo area...our favorite spot!
We started off innocently getting our feet wet in the shallow water....
And then we started running over to where the action was....
And before long we were soaking wet and shrieking with delight....
After Hal played for quite some time in the water we walked on over to the bird exhibit after buying some nectar to feed them. My previous trip inside these beautiful creatures' domain ended with me washing poop out of my hair. This time around was much more pleasant and Hal had a blast!
Aunt B...the bird whisperer
I mean seriously....how cute is this!?!?
Her excitement would've been worth another poop on the head ;)
The heat was bearing down on us so we chose to cool off for a bit inside and grabbed a drink of water.....
Hal had one thing on her mind at that point. No, not a nap. Ha! I wish! She was dreaming of seeing the elephants....so off we trekked! Mr. Hippo entertained us along the way...
Finally at the elephants! She gave some pretty entertaining commentary about them eating. She's also been balancing on one leg and pretending to reach up with her trunk ever since we went to the zoo.
We LOVE elephants!
The gorillas were highly entertaining...picking their noses and making some other interesting gestures that I'm glad my sweet girl doesn't understand yet. Oh my!
Silly girl talked us into another play sesh at the water area. We happily obliged...especially since there was shade and seating for Aunt B and I. I haven't mentioned yet that we were both dying in the heat at this point. Part of me wished I could go run around with Hallie in the water. She was certainly having a good ol' time...
She reluctantly agreed to leave the kid's area and we admired the flamingos on our way out....
Oh wait, one last trip down the slide with momma....
Ahhhhh. That's me sighing with relief after we got settled back in the car. A few minutes of full blast cold air in our faces and we were ready to head to lunch. PF Changs was an easy choice. Well actually we were headed somewhere else when I suddenly darted into Changs parking lot....subconscious decision I guess...and it was a good one. ;) Hallie tried out her skills with baby chopsticks....
Gonna take a lifetime of practice
We had a fun (and delicious) lunch and topped it off with a stop at GiGi's cupcakes. Heaven on earth that place is. Hallie admired her pretty purple cupcake in the car right before she devoured the icing and handed me the cake part. ;0
That Sunday was Mother's Day and an extra special one at that. My last Mother's Day with just one little girl to love on....and my very first homemade Mother's Day gift from Hallie. She made this at Free Spirit and of course it made me cry just seeing the excitement in her eyes as she watched me open it....
She also gave me this after church.....
Guess I'll keep on buyin' those muffins ;)
The weather was beautiful that day so we took some mommy/daughter pictures on the porch when we got home from church. This guy suddenly wasn't feeling camera shy anymore....
It's incredible to me how God can love us enough to bless us with the gift of bearing and raising and loving children. It's simply indescribable.
We took naps that day. :) Enough said. Well wait, I guess I can't forget the part about how Riley and Hallie surprised me with a massagegift certificate and helped me plant some flowers outside. By helped I mean pranced around in a bikini. Hallie did that part. Not Riley. ;)
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