Hearts, mountains, & Cannons

cookie decorating with Gramma

Ben and I just wrapped up a week of fantastic Cannon-family visits. Last weekend my brother, Matt, and his wife, Sandy, came to visit. Saturday was chilly and rainy, so we went to San Antonio's new aquarium. We especially enjoyed the parts where (for an extra fee) you can feed the animals. We fed the (tiny) sharks, the tropical fish, the goldfish, the lizards, and a tortoise. The very best part is petting the sting rays, though.

about to dig in!

His Royal Ben-ness, being carried around the zoo

Then on Sunday, we went on what Sandy calls "a real Matt adventure": heading off for a climb that we thought would last a few hours, but really took the better part of the day. We went to Enchanted Rock, but instead of just climbing the big dome mountain, Matt had found a really pretty and interesting climb between the two domes and around the back of the big dome. Ben walked/climbed most of the first leg of the hike, which Sandy's Fitbit said was 22 stories! (Matt carried him most of the way back.) He and Sandy sport-climbed up the mostly-sheer face of the mountain (with ropes and harnesses, etc.).  Those two are pretty amazing and daring!

enjoying the decorations with Uncle Greg

Montessori-inspired heart activity

Ben and I stayed at the bottom while they climbed, and he jumped in and out of puddles and helped me build "houses for Eeyore" out of twigs. It's funny, for all the rocks Ben climbed over and the steep slopes he mastered, what actually ended up making him trip and fall (and skin his elbow) was a tree root on perfectly flat ground... and then that same elbow met with a cactus on our way out of the canyon. Poor little buddy. He hardly cried at all, though, and I think he has an accurate understanding of "cactus" now!

climbing "The Big Hill" at Memorial Park with Uncle Greg

here there be dragons w/Grandpa

Matt and Sandy had to go back to Houston late Sunday, but Ben got more Cannon family time on Wednesday evening, when he and I flew to El Paso to visit my parents and brother, Greg. (Clay had to go out of town for work.) We spent a lot of our time puttering around my parent's backyard, playing with toys, and eating my dad's incredible cooking. We also had an (early) Valentine's Day party complete with all sorts of heart-shaped activity fun, decorations, and Ben's first cookie-cutting & decorating participation. Once he discovered the true nature of icing (it's delicious-ness), he had a hard time moving from one sticky cookie to the next, but we all had fun anyway.

feeding the tortoise

garden fun w/ Grandpa

We also went to Memorial Park (my favorite childhood park), where Ben pretended to feed the large tortoise play-structure with leaves from inside the "troll cave" (that's what Ben called the area under a near-by bridge). The EP Zoo was a our final activity; and even though Ben tried to insist he be carried most of the time, it was a still a lot of fun.

I'm afraid my meager company won't be enough for Ben this week! :)

Matt & Sandy examining the next climb w/Ben as their guide

hiking, hiking, hiking!

feeding the goldfish at the Aquarium

petting a stingray at the Aquarium

And a little Mama-bragging from last week:

Ben pointed to the stop sign on my t-shirt and said "hex-gon"