Daddy Hobbit and Natalie reinact Lady and the Tramp

Natalie shakes her groove thing in rainbow legwarmers.

Catching up - December pics

A mix of shots from the Shedd, in a fort, in a bucket, a couple of firsts (jello for the kids and shared bath).

Elliot's birthday

Another year, another costume party at Wicker Park. The pizza was late, the kids were crazy.

The Grandmas competed for craziest hat (and craziest Grandma). Too bad we didn't get any pics, it was a real horse race. Grandma Bonnie wore a cornucopia (really), Grandma Sue wore a jester hat more frequently seen on 8-year old boys on snowboards. Wow.

We're a little short on photos of The Flash but, we all know what that costume looks like.

More wedding pics from Daphne

Last ones from Austin

D and Valerie also like to eat food sold from RVs.

Return to Austin

After our foray to Fort Worth, we returned to Austin to regroup before flying home. We had mac and cheese and squash with Astrid and Marit.

We also had crepes and cupcakes served out of airstreams and hooked 'em horns on multiple occasions.

D and Valerie's trip to Prague was delayed by a day plus so we got the chance to see them again - Bonus!

A few more Zoo pics

Fort Worth Zoo

This was the big deal. We toured the zoo on our own for a couple of hours and then got a behind the scenes tour from Christine. To give an idea of the impression the visit made, Christine has entered the pantheon of superheroes Elliot pretends to be along with superman, spiderman, spidergirl and many others. Pretty high praise.

We touched a Burmese python and penguin. Elliot and Nat shared an enclosure with endangered turtles and got nudged by baby warthogs.

Note that EB is touching the turtles with two fingers. This was one of the rules which he now uses when playing with his plastic animals too. "Careful with the snake, Dad. Two fingers."

Fort Worth Time

We took the kids to the Paris Coffee Shop for a bit of authentic Fort Worth cuisine. Natalie ate blueberry oatmeal which got her branded a yankee. We failed to order grits for anyone which almost got us thrown out. Elliot did eat an entire serving of powdered sugar (and later the associated french toast) so apparently, he liked the place.

We also visited Chris and Ashley Baker and their brood - Christopher and Braden. Our kids are the same ages and both sets wondered who's daddy is skinnier. People have been arguing that one since the mid-1980s.

More from Texas

We went to visit Astrid Gothard on her turf. She and Nat had several baby staredowns.

Two nights in a hotel was more than enough so off we went to Geof and Christine's house in fun worth.

Contrary to what it appears, Natalie was not hung over while playing with the (useless in our hotel made of granite or something) baby monitor - she just had Schuerr eyes that morning.