Alex loves his cousins

Here he is watching the bear show sitting on Adam's lap... Then he and Katie get closer. Look at that cute love!

yes, more zoo!

Alex gave up naps, so I don't have as much time during the day to get online and blog or play in any other way! It's a bit sad all around. But I still have zoo pictures to put up! Here are some more!

The lions were all snuggly even though it was a hot day. The paw in the right of the picture is actually the female.

They reshuffle and you can now see them both.
The elephants get really close to you! They were enjoying their day. You can see the one in the back left just got out of the mud.
Pretty giraffe!
The boys enjoy a view of the monkeys. And I'm sure the monkeys enjoyed the view of our monkeys!

Grandparents

Trying to gather the troops. Evan is about to lose it, Katie is jumping in the picture and Troy and Cater seem to have found some interesting blade of grass.

Zoo

You can see the tail of the peacock going under the fence. Troy and Alex were mesmerized by the fact that they could walk beside it. It was really neat!
Christy keeps a tight reign on Carter. At this point, we still weren't sure how the boys would handle random wildlife roaming through the zoo!

Our peacock friend!
The boys look out over the PPG Aquarium. They were just in awe!
Random penguin cleaning.
Brian and Carter make some friends.
I thought this picture was cool since you could see Daddy in the glass!

Alex just absolutely loved the fish!

More Zoo!

Evan's favorite part was the PPG Aquarium - because he could finally crawl around! He crawled over to the elevator at one point. I have no clue where he thought he was going! There is a huge stingray tank and the kids can crawl underneath and look up at the stingrays swimming above them. It is really really neat! The boys loved it! Evan crawled the loop at least 10 times. Here he is crawling beside Carter.
Brian, Carter and Alex take a break. Alex was fascinated with the souvenir cup. What can I say?
At the end of the zoo was a jeep ride! Go Diego Go!


And in case you were wondering what Evan did while everyone else rode the jeeps... He finally surrendered.

The Zoo - Final Images

I'm still gradually putting pictures of the "reunion" up on the blog. I don't want to overwhelm the grandparents with too much cuteness! Here are some zoo pics. These were at the very end. It was easily 97 degrees, which in Pittsburgh, is HUGE. We were so hot and tired. But at the end was a fabulous misting machine! I think that was the kids' favorite part! Here are Alex and Carter enjoying it!
Brian, Troy, Alex and Drew try to find the elusive alligator!
The very end. The stroller tipped back and the boys lounging, totally ready for the car and a nap. Alex was such a good boy that we got him an ice cream cone before we left.

Cousins

Attemtping to gather the cousins for a picture... l - r - Alex (Brenna), Adam (Jeff), Carter (Brian), Troy (Brian), Katie (Jeff) holding Evan (Brenna)
Another attempt...
Carter lounges while Evan tells Katie a story.

Hartzell-Tatusko clan!

We were lucky to have Brian, Christy, Troy and Carter come up from Tennessee to visit us! The boys were just having a blast. And when Troy found out that they couldn't all spend eternity together, he said, "Aww. I so sad!"

Here they are destroying Grandma's flowers! From left to right - Carter, Troy and Alex.

This picture was taken just as Troy hit the ground!
Alex pauses to make sure that everyone saw him!
Troy makes sure the flowers are properly smashed while Alex gets up for another round of flower jumping!