The Midwest, Sweet Potato Pie, and The Zoo

I don't think I posted pictures from Iowa on the personal blog. Cruz and I had such a great time!

Cruz and his buddy Max played so well together!!!

Des Moines is the capital of Iowa. The capital building is beautiful!

The City of Des Moines - looks a little like Austin

Susan caught this moment of me and Cruz. I love it!

The other day I had some really big sweet potatoes and the kids don't really like smushed sweet potatoes (crazy kids!) so I decided to make sweet potato pie. I had a really great kitchen helper!

Kai being my helper in the kitchen. He was very careful!

And I spent a good portion of the day yesterday packing. And playing with my new Nikon. The low light capabilities are AMAZING. I loved getting this image of Cruz. He has a sweet little cleft chin that shows when he smiles or makes silly faces.

Today was quite a wonderful, totally awesome day. Since I had a wedding last night, Peter took the night off, which meant that he could wake up and spend Sunday morning with us. To celebrate this momentous occasion, we decided a Sunday breakfast out on the town was in order. We picked up Pops and headed to Moonshine in downtown for an amazing Sunday Brunch Buffet. It was AMAZING. And we sat in a part of the restaurant that was built in the 1860's. It was BEAUTIFUL. The kids were extremely well behaved and the waiter's name was Ryan so he loved talking to Ryenne. It was awesome.

Then we took the kids to the Austin Zoo. We saw animals, fed some deer and llamas and rode on a train. Cruz and Kai walked mostly and it was so lovely outside. Truly a wonderful family day out. I wish we had more family days out like this. It was such a treat to have Peter off on a Sunday!

See the tiger back there? RAWR!

Ryenne loved the tortoises.

Feeding the deer

Feeding the llama

Cruz loved it!

The Dagupion Ohana in front of a giant chicken!

I had a lovely photo shoot tonight and came home to steak for dinner - Thanks Pops! Lovely, lovely day!!!