Daddy or Zookeeper??

Happy Father's Day to all you Daddies out there!! What a blessing it is for Justin and I to celebrate his continued journey into fatherhood knowing that our own celebration is just a small part of the HUGE heritage left on both sides of our families. Caden has some big shoes to fill because he comes from TWO lines of VERY strong, Godly men! Thank you, Paps and Albi for all you have done for Justin and I and our families and now what you are doing for Caden! I have no doubt Caden WILL fill your shoes someday because he will have you to lead him there! Thank you to the moon and back!! We love you Paps and Albi!

Okay... so now... are you ready for our weekend recap, Daddy-style?!

Saturday morning, The Chade, Justin and I headed to Waco for the day to visit Nana and Paps. And unlike so many of our visits where the boys spend the day playing golf and the girls and Chade make their own fun, the BOYS actually PLAYED with us! Justin was SUPER excited to pass up his golf game in order to go to the Cameron Park Zoo with Caden for the first time. In fact, this is the first time Justin got to go with Caden to the zoo at all and this was Caden's 4th trip! He was excited to check out all of the...

LIONS...
AND TIGERS...

AND BEARS...

OH MY!!!

The Cameron Park Zoo, if you've never been... is ONE OF A KIND and I mean that in the BEST way possible! It was so amazingly nice and clean. The exhibits were very viewer-visitor-friendly and the zoo is just a pretty place! Lots of trees and shade... even a fun kiddie area for the Chade to run around and stretch his legs!

The kiddie area was complete with a water-feature (which Daddy didn't want Caden to have ANY part of) and a tree-house with a COOL slide! Caden looks like a long, lost boy up in his tree house... waiting for Tinkerbell to sprinkle her fairy dust on him so he can fly back down...


We tried the BIG BOY slide and he did great... Nana helping him in the middle and Paps ready for the catch at the bottom. The camera lady was a bit distracted by the excitement and didn't manage to click it until the end! Oops! :)

I have to say... my boys... well, they are just the two most handsome things ever to have graced that Cameron Park Zoo... I mean come on!! Look at 'em!!

Caden was a very active zoo visitor...running, red-cheeked from place to place. And because the child has zero margins we had to slow him down a few times... placing him in the BOB to cool off for a bit before we let him tear up the zoo grounds again!

There were so many neat little spots for the kids to "interact" with the animals... this little cave gave Caden and Justin (a very flexible Justin, I might add) a nice view of Miss Annie the Alligator...

And her desperate need for a mani/pedi!! Goodness gracious!! Those things are rough lookin'! Girlfriend needs a nail file... Amen?!

At the sea otter exhibit, Caden tried to get up the courage to slide down the under water tunnel slide, BUT when we got to the top he was very decidedly NOT up for it! With a HUGE shake of the head "no" we were clear that it was not time to tackle that slide quite yet...

Probably one of the Cox-Fam favorites were the giraffes... they were spectacular and the viewing area was awesome! I felt like we were up close and personal! It was really great... and of course they are LARGE enough for Caden to spot with ease... he stood in that corner longer than he stood anywhere all day! He liked the giraffes SO much that his Nana and Paps spoiled him to a toy giraffe and an elephant on the way out... and a giraffe t-shirt! So not only will he get to carry his new friend around everywhere he goes, he can also sport him on his shirt... LUCKY boy!

Look at this face... so sweet!!

And as Daddy and Paps agreed, these next guys are SERIOUS animals!!

Agreed?!

The boys were contemplating life as a rhino...

They make me feel so SMALL, Caden says...

Well, son ... it's not about the size of a man that counts, it's all about the size of his...

HEART! The size of his heart...

...you gutter brained peeps... I know where y'all were headed! I'm ashamed!! Ha! :)

Back at the zoo...

Caden and Nana were making the LION roar!!! And roar... and roar again...

It was a FANTASTIC trip to the zoo... even in the sweltering Waco heat and humidity we all had a GREAT time, and the most important person (The Chade) had the BEST time! When we got home last night he sat up in bed for a while and told his "room friends" ALL about his day at the zoo. There were Lions, and Tigers, and Bears...

OH MY, they said!!

That's right, Oh my! What a fun day! Thanks Nana and Paps for a trip to the zoo! We'll be back for round two soon!

Today, we were pretty much business as usual... church, lunch, nap... BUT somewhere in between all of that we stopped and bought Caden a new pair of kicks. His Nikes were a bit small when we put them on yesterday so we went to Academy and bumped him up a few sizes and bought him a new pair of big boy shoes... what do you think?!

To be honest I think Justin likes them WAY more than Caden. It was more of a present to Justin than Caden for sure! He thinks he is NOW the coolest dude ever... of course we all know he thought that before... BUT whatever! Now it's official I guess! It's all in the shoes!

Tonight, we let Daddy pick his favorite dinner spot for a Father's Day celebration! Justin thought Gloria's would be the perfect spot... a fav of all of ours... and of course it was a HIT! Caden couldn't even look up from his food to smile for the camera...

MY BOYS... big-blue-eyed Cox Boys!! What a pair!!

And look... MOMMY made it too!!

SO after dinner... the Chade... well, he was MESSY!!

So the question became...

Is our sweet, wonderful, world's best father really more of a DADDY or a ZOOKEEPER??!!

We'll let you be the judge...

Happy Father's Day!!