Buzz the Monkey

Once our girls trip was over, I headed back to Austin to have a little visit with my parents.  Stephen was out of town for work all week, so it was the perfect time.  We had so much fun, playing with cousins, swimming, playing with Gigi and Papi, and getting some loving from his favorite lab, Lexi.  These trips are always too short, but I'm so thankful we're able to do it.  

The reason I'm so late in posting all of these fun things is that when I tried to leave Austin my car died.  And by died I mean "STOP ENGINE NOW!" warnings going off and my car being towed to the dealership.  The story is a lot longer and more complex, but let's just say I rented a car and made it home 8 hours after I intended to.  My car is still in Austin being worked on.  Crazy stuff.  

Now, back to the fun.  My brother Jeremy and his wife Lindsay had to leave town on Monday to attend her grandfather's funeral.  With them they took Ally (their 4-week old), but left the older kiddos with my parents.  That meant that all three cousins were "living" together for a little while.  They did so good, and napped when they were supposed to.  It was fun. 

Monday morning they woke up and headed to the park with Gigi.

But on the way they heard Papi's truck and turned around.  These kids love riding in the back of Papi's truck...

They played and had lunch, then went down for their naps.  What Knox and I didn't know was that Gigi had promised Mackenzie that she could get a dog at Build-A-Bear.  She had already decided to name him "Copper," and Conner was excited to get one, too.  Since we'd never done it, we decided to join in on the fun!

(we had a stop in Nordstrom's because Gigi ran into an old neighbor.  These boys laughing at each other kills me...love it!)

He picked out a monkey and was adding the heart here.  They ask you to do all of these things with it, like "rub it on your ear so your monkey can hear you well."  Knox took it all so seriously!

Mackenzie was so excited to finally have Copper in her possession!

If you've never been to Build-A-Bear, it's nuts.  You pick out, stuff, and love on your new pet...but there's HUNDREDS of accessories and outfits to pick out as well.  They are all optional, but once your kid sees them it's kind of imperative you follow through.  I gave Knox two choices:  A Texas Rangers monkey or Buzz Lightyear monkey...he went with Buzz.

There were so many things to play with, though, that Buzz kind of took a backseat for a while.

Poor Buzz monkey. 

All was right with the world once we put him in his house and headed home.  

We had so much fun...but this will be our only "buzz monkey" for a long time.