TUCKER GRADUATED!

I can't believe that 2 years have flown by since Tucker started the Oral Def Program. He has made leaps and bounds since he first got on that school bus at the age of 3. When he started school he was still using a lot of jargon and non-sense words. By the age of 4 he was able to make whole sentences. Now at the age of 5 you would never even know that he is hearing impaired. I owe it all to his school and his wonderful teachers.

Sorry for the wait for pictures from the graduation and I warn you that they were taken with my point and shoot. I tried my best to find my Nikon before we left, but I had hidden it from the Stanley Steamer guys last week. I guess I hid it a little too well...Jeff did find it that afternoon in the buffet. What? I know!

For some unknown reason my videos wont load today. So I will try again tomorrow!

1-2-3 STRIKES YOUR OUT

I know it has been awhile since I posted on here. I started a new job 2 weeks ago and it is running me ragged! So I am going to have to blog between cleaning, working, playing, and following The NieNie Dialogs.

This past weekend we took Tucker to his first baseball game with his new friend Gavin. We had excellent seats. Even still, baseball can only hold a 4 and 5 year old's attention but for so long.

Before the game started, Tucker's Tae Kwon Do School performed. It was amazing. There had to be 200 kids and teens out on the field. Tucker was enthralled and I think Gavin will be signing up for Tae Kwon Do really soon.

Here are the boys and their Gieco Lizard Fan

This is the competition team lined up preparing for some really cool fighting

Check out all of those kids

This guy is a maniac! He has too many competition awards to count

Tucker getting his very first autograph-Thanks Buster T. Bison!

And when they had enough, we went to spend some time walking around the diamond and came upon a wheel to spin for a prize. You know they loved that!

That's it for this week. A few prayer requests for you this week. Please continue to pray for my Grandma who is now at a rehab facility to rebuild her strength. Also, please pray for the family of Travis who is Nate and Dar's friend who was in a horrible traffic accident. Prayer is a wonderful thing! God Bless!

MOVE OVER DIAN FOSSEY...

Okay, just admit that you may not have known who Dian Fossey is. Don't you remember the movie Gorillas in the Mist? Well, today we went to the zoo. It was raining on and off so we knew that there wasn't going to be too many people there. I must say that this was the most amazing trip to the zoo that I have ever witnessed. I was even brought to tears at one point. I am not kidding people. I don't know if the rain perked up all of the animals or what, but they were all out and ready to put on a show.

It started when we walked into the zoo and overheard a man speaking over at the elephant exhibit. It just so happened that it was the very first interactive elephant show ever and they were doing it for us and asking for feedback. So it was a pretty long show.

We came across the polar bear exhibit which is one of Tucker's favorites. And look at how cute the polar bear is. He almost looks like you could snuggle with him. Well, we better not.

Then after consulting our handy dandy zoo map, we realized that it was Giraffe feeding time. And for $1.00 you can feed the giraffe a cracker. We thought for sure that Carter was too young to feed the giraffes, but surprisingly he wasn't. And you should've seen both of the boys faces as the giraffes tongue came out of its mouth to take the cracker from them.

After the giraffe feeding we were off to see the tigers which we heard were swimming. As soon as we got over to them, they started playing and ran all over the place playing like kittens. By the time I got out my camera, they actually stood by the ledge and I swear to you they were actually posing for pictures.

Then it was off to the Gorilla Exhibit. Now, those who know me know that the Gorillas are my absolute favorite!!! I have always been enamored with these beautiful creatures. They are so human and it really showed today.

DISCLAIMER: I DID NOT HAVE MY NIKON TODAY!!! THESE PICTURES WERE COMPLETELY MESSED UP WITH MY OLD POINT AND SHOOT. IT'S GOOD TO HAVE HANDY, BUT THE PICTURES INSIDE ARE HORRIBLE!!!

I was hanging out with Tucker taking this picture...

when I see the female gorilla make a beeline for the next window over. I hear Jeff say "Courtney-get OVER here!" So Tucker and I ran over to find the most touching site ever.

The female gorilla had ran over to see Carter who was perched in the window watching the gorillas. She would not leave his side. They were kissing each other through the window and she was stroking the glass by his face. It was so moving. I actually had tears in my eyes. He was loving it. He was giggling and playing with her. If he moved to the other side of the window, so did she. The duo drew quite a crowd. It was AMAZING!!!

Though they pail in comparison to the gorillas, the sea lions were also out and about today. It happened to be feeding time. So they were all over the place.