A Zoo Birthday

We are still in shock but our little Libby turned one last week. The bottles are gone, her carseat is now forward-facing and we are saddened to see the baby phase of our lives come to a close. We went to the Resolved Conference, which is a conference aimed at college-aged adults, in Palm Springs over the weekend and came back to a little girl who stands by herself and is taking a couple of steps here and there. Her official party was in Colorado City, Texas last weekend, another blog, another day, but on her birthday we traveled with all of our friends to the Los Angeles Zoo. Six moms, two of whom are pregnant, 14 children, the oldest of which is 4, and countless sippy cups and strollers were a sight to behold. We had a wonderful time and got quite a bit of sun.
We picniced and played and sang Happy Birthday...
...it was enough to wear anyone out, even the burthday girl.Our dear friends the Ottavianos and the Branners cared for our kiddos over the weekend and Emily was brave enough to take over on Monday and Tuesday while we were away. She is probably the bravest person I know because not only did she take all three of them to Walmart by herself, she took on fingerpainting! Danny was the artist for the untitled piece on the left and Jacob calls his work "Big Waves and Swordfish."

It is so good to be home and to celebrate we are leaving again in a couple of hours to go to our youth group's retreat. Erik is teaching tonight and we thought, why not all go and making a camping adventure of it? The boys are trying their hardest to sleep right now knowing that we are going to the river when they get up (Too excited to sleep Mom!) I had better go pack as there will be no patience left when the gentlemen awake...