Bless the Beasts and the Children

Lawson and I went to the Zoo while his Mommy and Daddy went to the doctor to hear the heartbeat of his new brother or sister. I love music and go around humming songs that pop in my head. While we were at the Zoo this song by the Carpenters popped in my head and has stuck.

Bless the beasts and the children

For in this world they have no voice

They have no choice

Bless the beasts and the children

For the world can never be

The world they see

Light their way

When darkness surrounds them

Give them love

Let it shine all around them

Bless the beasts and the children

Give them shelter from the storm

Keep them safe

Keep them warm

Giraffes are one of my favorite animals. I think they must be Lawson's favorite but that may be because we get to feed them. This cute fellow up here is very friendly and loves to come up for a treat but you have to feed him carefully because he has a split tongue and has a hard time getting the treat. If you look closely, in the picture below, you can see that the first inch of his tongue is split right down the middle so instead of being able to reach out and get the food you have to place it on his tongue behind the split. It took Lawson three tries before he got it right.

This is Lawson doing his imitation of a Koala Bear eating bamboo.

Lawson wanted to know why music was coming out of a rock.

Sometimes it is amazing what captures a child's attention. On this trip to the Zoo it was these unusual sticky plants and the bumble bees on them.

time out to cool off

After Lawson cooled off at the Splash Pad (notice his wet head) we headed out to see the Lorikeets. Lawson has always been fascinated but very scared of the birds. As always, with young children, things can change quickly. Lawson started feeding one of the birds and it just jumped on his arm and even though he was, at first, scared he quickly warmed up to the bird and let it stay. You can see that he was excited, scared and thrilled just by the look on his face! He amazed me by talking about the pretty colors on the bird's neck feathers.

I love the Kangaroos........Lawson loves the play cave in the Kangaroo exhibit

It was soooo hot

So....Lawson cooled off with a push-up and I had a cold diet coke....yum

Oh, what a night!

Allison was baptized

The Youth Group always stays up really late on Saturday night. When midnight has come and gone and it is officially Sunday, we gather on the beach, have a devotional, do the Lord's Supper and break off into groups to talk about things that young people face today. This trip the topic was baptism. From this conversation came the request of one of our Youth Group members to be baptized. After much rejoicing, it was decided that Blake Greene would baptize Allison in the ocean. Oh, what a joyous occasion and what a memory.

Central Church of Christ Youth Group

BEACH TRIPWhat a great group of kids and beautiful too!

making fun of the girls

7 Months from Today

Courtney and Dave saw the OB doctor yesterday. Grandbaby # 5 is due February 12th 2012. When Court was pregnant with Lawson they decided not to announce until they saw the doctor and heard the heartbeat. With this baby Court has been so sick that she felt like people needed to know what was wrong. Working out of state and arranging a doctor appointment is not always easy! Dave said it was a really strong heartbeat!

I went to Birmingham and kept Lawson while Courtney and Dave went to the doctor. When Lawson and I got back to Courtney and Dave's house we were all talking about the new baby. Lawson walked by and I said "did you know that Mom went to see the doctor about the new baby today"? His eyes got ROUND, he got really excited, ran up to Courtney and practically screamed "DID IT COME OUT"! It's is going to be a long journey for him and a funny one for us!

Gotta Go Home

It is amazing how fast a week will pass when you are at the beach. I am sure it is like everything else......you get used to it and take it for granted. But for the Lawson family it goes by way too fast! Courtney and Dave left a day before the rest of the family and when Courtney told Lawson that they were leaving Friday he looked at Courtney and said "but Mom, I want to lib at da beach". Out of the mouth of babes!Pop helped the kids made a big hole with water running into it after JB3 and Lawson were about to have a little "land dispute" with our neighboring beach family kids over a huge hole!
Our EmEm is growing up!

Putt Putt....the game everybody pretends to enjoy at the beach

Well, I guess the kids really do enjoy it and that is why we pretend to enjoy it!

Already thinking about next year and where to put the new baby

Wednesday at the Beach

Or.....The Great Crab Hunt
As we were walking off the Boardwalk onto the beach to hunt crabs.....Lawson saw these 4 wheeler tracks and declared that it was going to be a great crab hunt because of the really big tracks that the crabs made in the sand!

1st catch

I am going to stop here and whine about how my aging eyes have affected my love of taking pictures. I have always loved to take pictures...just ask my kids! Though, I never could tell you what I was doing, I always played around with the lens opening to get good pictures. Back then I had good eyesight and a really steady hand. Well.....not so much any more. I use an automatic camera. Thank goodness for Kim and Dave. I think I still have a good eye for a picture but what difference does that make if you can't tell if you are in focus! So, as we were crab hunting, by the moonlight, my 35mm, set on automatic, could not pick up enough light to make a picture. I decided to go off automatic, open up the lens and see what I got. After all, I wasn't getting anything on automatic. So, this is what I got. You can tell I wasn't too steady but I thought they were kind of interesting, anyway.

We didn't find any big crabs this year...last year we didn't do a crab hunt...we were afraid of what we might step on after the oil spill. So, we were just happy we got to go crab hunting on a beach in Gulf Shores.
As we were walking up to our condo I just had to take a picture of this dragonfly. It was huge and John Brady was fascinated with it the whole week.