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This year Nathan changed his mind about what he wanted to be for Halloween about as much as the weather changed. We finally narrowed it down to two finalists: Bumblebee and Boba Fett. He wore his Bumblebee costume to his preschool party and was Boba Fett for Halloween proper.

Today, Sam took Nathan to the Wild Animal Park. He had a great time seeing all of the animals. They went on the Wgasa Bushline Railway and saw cheetahs, giraffes, and hippos. He also had a fun time in the petting zoo as you can see.

Today, Sam took Nathan to Bates Nut Farm to get a pumpkin for Halloween. While they were there he also got to go on a pony ride, to on a hay ride, wander through a hay bale maze, and pet the farm animals. I think the pumpkin was just an excuse to do all of that other fun stuff!

I can’t believe it’s been four years already. Time sure flies. On Thursday, Nathan opened his gift from Grama and Papa: light-up sneakers! He looooves them. On the Friday before his birthday, we woke up early (as usual) and opened presents from Daddy straight away! Among the gifts were underwear, pajamas, bionicles, and star wars action figures, but the crown jewel was the transformers scooter. Later that night, we had birthday dinner with Mimi and G along with Yee, Jami, and Hammy at The Old Spaghetti Factory.

On his birthday (proper), we had a transformers-themed party over at PlayWerx with a bunch of his friends. All the kids had a great time on the climbing structure and eating pirate booty, pizza, and birthday cake.

We closed the day out by opening presents at home. Not a bad haul for a 4-year old!

Nathan and I decided it was high-time that we visited the Lauritzen clan in Texas, so we booked our flights, packed our water gear, and headed off to the Great State for a week. It was 100F or higher the entire duration of our stay, so it was a good thing that Grama and Papa had a pool at their hotel. I think we swam in the pool just about every day, except the day we went to Schlitterbahn, that is! It was Nathan’s second trip to the best water park in the world. He had a great time playing with his cousin, Sydnee. Heck, he even took a ride on the Master Blaster with me!

Back at Erik and Dara’s house, Nathan was introduced to the movie The Iron Giant, which he loved, as well as Mario Kart Racing for the Wii (he totally wants that game for Christmas!). He and Sydnee also took some time out to tickle Papa; always a fun diversion!

Grama and Papa were kind enough to babysit one night so the adults could go out for some fun. Erik, Dara, and I went to the Alamo Draft House to see District 9. The next night we all hooked up with Anna and her kids (two at the time) for a little Tex-Mex pre-birthday dinner for Nathan.

As always, we had a great time and can’t wait to visit again, though next time maybe we’ll pick a cooler month!

Nathan’s new nanny, Sam, fell into some really nice Padres tickets (as you can see from the pictures below) so I agreed to let her take him on a little field trip to Petco to see his second game ever. Looks like they had a good time at the ballpark to me!