Last Days in the States!

Last weekend I got to go to College Station to see some friends:

We went to the A&M vs. OSU football game, and while the first half was pretty miserable (we were at 0-17 at halftime), the second half was pretty great, since we came back to win 24-23. I'll be honest, though, I don't have high hopes for the rest of the season. My Aggies just haven't been impressing me much lately. But we had a great time hanging out:

Since coming back from College Station, I've been working on packing A LOT (it's hard to pack for 2 years in just 3 bags!) and hanging out with my family. Vivian, my niece, has a new obsession with bows:


I tried to put some other pictures on here to better display her bow collection, but I can't get the formatting right, so this one will have to do.

Every time Vivian wakes up in the morning or from her nap, finishes her bath, loses her bow, or basically anytime she's not wearing one, she wants a bow. She's only 18 months so she can't quite talk yet, but she does have a few words, her favorite of which is "bow." However when she says it, it's more like "bou." Every time we're in her room she sees her bow collection hanging from her closet door and immediately her finger points towards the bows and she says, "bou? bou? bou?" over and over until I put one in her hair. After I put it in she says, "dah dou!" which means "thank you!" While the words are nowhere close to being phonetically correct, her inflection is perfect. It's funny how much you notice about yourself based what children pick up on. When I'm talking to Vivian, I always say "thank you!" with the same inflection. Most adults use this inflection when talking to children, but I never really thought about it much until I heard Vivian say "dah dou!" and I knew exactly what she was saying based soley on the way she said it. Garrett is the same. He's only 3 1/2, but he's picked up on the way adults talk to babies. When he's being sweet to Vivian he'll take on a higher pitched soft tone and say, "Here you go Vivi!" "There there, it's okay" or "Do you want this Vivi?" It's pretty much the cutest thing ever when he starts rubbing her back and talking sweetly to her.

Tomorrow we're planning on going to the zoo. Let me tell you - I am OBSESSED with zoos. And aquariums. Not just any aquarium, though. It has to be a cool one. Like the one in Monterrey, CA. It's amazing. I went there a few times as a child and I still remember the glow in the dark fish and the petting zoo where I got to pet a manta ray. When my mom and sister and I took a trip to California a few summers ago, the first place I wanted to go was the San Diego zoo. As a kid my family took a lot of road trips, and on a few of those road trips I was able to convince my dad to stop at some of the major zoos and aquariums along the way. There was one aquarium in Alabama that was pretty cool. My ideal date would be a trip to the zoo or aquarium (boys, take note). When I get married, my husband needs to enjoy this as well (or at least pretend he does), because I plan on getting a season pass to the nearest zoo, and zoos are no fun if you go alone. Needless to say, I'm pretty excited about the zoos and aquariums in Europe. They've got pandas at the zoo in Madrid and Vienna. Yay! I'm super excited!

Also, my sweet Mommy decided to purchase a winter coat for me as a going away present. Here's a link to my pretty new jacket. It's way cute, and even cuter on me. =) Thank you Mommy!

Have a happy Panda day!