Our Christmas started out as happy as ever. Jon was very excited to see a stocking full of gifts, and evidence of Santa's visit!

Jon had asked Santa for 2 things. An rc truck, and red socks like Speed Racer. One down!

Jon took a break from opening presents to play his Leapster. I had found an inexpensive used one to replace the highly worn out one Grandma Glee got him last year. Plus, Santa brought 2 new games that needed to be tested out!

One of about 4 pairs of pj's that I got!
Tearing into a present from Grandma & Papa Smith.
Checking out the new GPS his parents sent us. (It is totally and completely wicked cool!)
Helping Jon get to his new set of Legos.
Gotta stop to try them out!
Jon had gotten a Speed Racer steering wheel. He was pretty much playing with it all day.
Gotta stop for a kiss!
Jon did the truck he was wanting. Daddy found it for him! We took it outside before it started raining to really give it a good testing out.

Whether he had control, or Daddy did, this is a great toy!
As the day wore on, we kept getting graver and graver news from Charlie's family. It got to the point that we knew he had to fly out right away to be with his dad and mom. It was hard to keep happy faces for Jon. We each had our moments where we just had to step away to allow ourselves to grieve over what we knew was coming.

Charlie took a moment to play with Jon by pulling out his old accordian.

I wish I could end this post on a happy note. That's just not going to be possible this time. Charlie brought a Christmas ornament for his parents with a message from Jonster. When he heard his youngest grandson say "Merry Christmas Papa", Jon smiled.
We've lost a wonderful person, and he is going to be greatly missed. Charlie was there with his dad, holding his hand when he passed.

We love you Jon Bud Andersen.

Last weekend, Jon & I came across a sign that said "Breakfast with Santa". I couldn't resist taking Jon. He loved it!
He was quite intent on telling Santa about his 2 top things that he wants. A remote control truck and red socks like Speed Racer. (Red socks for boys are amazingly hard to find. Luckily, Gymboree had exactly what "Santa" was looking for!)

Afterward, Santa gave Jon a book. He read the book about 4 or 5 times that day. There could have been no better gift from Santa. Much better than the cheesey activity book he gives at the mall.
Snow...Houston style
Yes, it officially snowed yesterday. Jon was so excited to have snow falling on him! Never mind that it melted before he could actually see it! It had rained all day, so we were lucky to even have this much stick to anything.

There's more of it on the mailbox roof than the house roof!

There were areas that got a few inches. The East side had all the freeways closed for most of the morning.

We had a really fun Thanksgiving! Since it was a 4 day weekend, we had decided to camping. We went to Dinosaur Valley State Park. It's between Waco & Fort Worth.

It was a long drive getting there, but Jon kept himself busy with his Leapster for most of the 5 hour drive. I noticed that he naturally takes frequent breaks to look up and around. I complimented him on that, because it's much easier on the eyes.

Jon & Daddy had to climb to get to the perfect spot.

The state park is known for it's dinosaur foot prints. The best preserved prints are under water most of the time. Apparently, exposure to air makes them deteriorate quickly.

Jon found a long stick that he thought was the perfect walking stick!

It was... for Daddy! Luckily, Daddy found a scaled down walking stick for Jon.

We went for a walk on this path we saw. It didn't go anywhere, so we ended up turning around. It sure was beautiful, though.

At the end of the weekend, I told Charlie that my favorite part of the camping trip was this walk to "nowhere"! Jon found some huge acorn type nuts.

These statues were made for the World Fair sometime in the 60's. They were given to the park in 1970.

Daddy had to help Jon jump across the rocks to keep him from falling in the water.
We went to another footprint site there at the park. It's amazing how clear this print is! I did think that they would be bigger.

Jon was in a jumping kind of mood!
He was jumping up every step!



We went for another walk, and came across some dear.

This was taken as the sun is going down.

A night time walk with the Tonka Truck. That truck has gone on every single camping trip!

That night, we roasted marshmallows! Jon ate some, but not those that were roasted.

Snuggle time!

Saturday morning, we headed over to Fossil Rim Wildlife Center. It's a huge drive through park. They only allow each car to buy 1 bag of food, to keep the animals from getting too much.

This was taken at the rest stop in the middle. We stopped for lunch, and finally got a picture with all 3 of us. I couldn't figure out the self timer on the new camera, so we used the old one for this. (First thing I did when we got home was to look up the self timer instructions!)

These 2 pictures are of the overlook at the cafe, which is where the one of all of us is taken.

Back on the road. Spotted this baby laying in the grass.

Ever feel like you have a giraffe sticking it's tongue out at you?

That was one big zebra coming at us! She was wanting some food!

Jon was "helping" Daddy drive the entire time.

This is what happens when you run out of food!

Jon was still telling us about the zebra licking Mommy's window!

This is the baby giraffe. It came over to see if we had any food.

We didn't.

Just before climbing in the car to go home, I took this picture of Jon with his new friend. He found this friend at the gift shop. His name is Silly Giraffe. It's super cute to see Jon sleeping with it!