Sprinkler Park and Uncle Gene's visit

We recently discovered a hidden gem in Collierville, TN! The city park there is incredible they have walking trails around a fishing pond, HUGE playground and a water park for kids (and adults). It's about 45 minutes from our house but it's totally free and we've been twice already. If you live in the Memphis area you must visit, it's usually crowded with birthday parties and play dates but very fun. We went with Camden's cousin Walker one night and then again last weekend with our friends Christie and Sienna (14 months old). Camden wasn't as gunghoe as Sienna (she has water day every week at daycare) but still played pretty hard.

Also in the last few weeks we had a visit from Trey's Uncle Gene from Dallas. Camden will refer to him as "Uncle Uncle Gene" because great uncle gene doesn't quite fit! While here we had a great time visiting and cooked out at Trey's parents house for an early birthday celebration for Gene. He got Camden a late bday present which was very "green"- literally! He got his own tree! We planted the Magnolia at Grandma Jo Jo's house since they will be at their house for longer than Trey and I hopefully will be at ours! Pray we get more action on the house we have had a couple of calls, but nothing serious. I am placing a craiglist ad today so maybe that will generate more interest! We are busy and having lots of fun. Looking forward to the fall for football season, fall festivals, the fair, a trip to Florida etc. I cannot wait! Stay tuned...

Camden with some new friends at Little Gym! He loves going and is now a seasoned flipper of the "bird" group! Tracy and I at Wicked at the Orpheum a few weeks ago. It was awesome!!

Zoo pictures

In front of the elephant who gave birth later that day to a healthy 200 pounder!!
Cam pointing out his favorite lions
riding the carousel and getting a snack (doesn't he look big??!)
At the Northwest Passage exhibit
Looking at the polar bear
The polar bear was putting on a show and swimming up to the window for us!
Hey, who are you??
The Camster and mommy
Mr. Ed
Chasing a chicken around the farm exhibit

Here are the promised pictures from the zoo. We had too much fun! Camden was so funny growling at every animal and trying to chase some of them.

Professional Pics from 1st bday & zoo

Kim of Ramblin Rose Photography sent me the pictures she took from Camden's birthday party this past week. They turned out so great! This was the final installment of his "watch me grow" package and it couldn't have been better! She got some great ones especially of him eating the cake and some wonderful family shots. She is so talented and has captured some wonderful moments in our life. My house looks like a gallery of her work :) To look at the full shoot go to ramblinrosephotography.com click enter site, proofing login, then type in Lunsford.




Trey had off the monday after the 4th off so we decided to take advantage of the cloudy day to make our first zoo trip with Camden. He fell asleep on the way there and slept for about 30 minutes into the zoo but we woke him up to see the giraffes. He loved all the animals and started growling at every animal he saw! He especially loved the train ride and the farm animals where he got up close and personal with a chicken and a horse! It was so fun and Trey and I had just as great of a time as he did. The zoo was much better than I had remembered. Looking forward to more and more of these fun little excursions... (check back for pictures)
New developments, Camden now is walking everywhere (almost running), he has 9 teeth (even some molars!), he loves tennis shoes, has started pitching little fits when he doesn't get his way (like throwing his head back and arching that back until he is almost upside down!), will "march" when we say "march, march march!!", dances to music, pushes trucks and cars around just like a little boy, loves playing in the sand and in water, likes to pick up rocks and throw them, does an indian "pow wow" with his hand and mouth, drinking whole milk exclusively from a sippy cup, eats anything we do loves grilled cheese, oranges,mashed potatoes, bananas, quesadillas, peas....I could go on and on but will spare you!

Family Vaca & Mommy/ Daddy Vaca!

So since Cam's bday party it's been a whirl of travel packing/unpacking working and more travel! The week after Camden's bday we left with my mom and sister and went to St. Louis! We left early and were to sikeston, MO by 10 AM and HAD to go to the famous Lambert's home of the 'throwed rolls' (don't know why they don't call it 'thrown' rolls but whatever). Of course it didn't open until 10:30 so we killed time in this great metropolis HA! None of us were very hungry but loved the rolls and food it was all delicious.
Then off to St. Louis. We only got pulled over once, but camden is a great ticket diverter and the cop asked Trey if 'they had those white signs w/ the black lettering on them in MS (speed limit signs) and we all laughed & he let us off!
We toured the Anheuser Busch Brewery (Camden loved the clydesdales), checked into hotel, CeCe went to the botanic gardens, then trey went to a Cardinals game and Tracy & I took off to a Dave Matthews concert...and that was just the first day!! Thurs, we went to Chicago and checked into our hotel rooms. We waited until last minute to book the rooms but a friend suggested we look on hotwire.com and we got the best deal! We got 2 rooms at the palmer house downtown (4 stars) for $80/night each! We couldn't find 1 room for less than $160 on other sites!
It was perfect we went sightseeing, shopping, ate deep dish pizza.




The next AM we went for breakfast at Yolk and it was fabulous, walked around the city some more and then CeCe took Camden for naptime back to the hotel and the rest of us went to Wrigleyville for a Cubs game. It was pouring rain once we got off of the subway so the game was on rain delay we of course bought our cubbie gear!

The game was so fun and Tracy and I ended up playing "pass the cup" with a couple of other fans in the stands (you put $1 in a cup per batter and then if they don't get a double or better you keep passing to the next person if they do get a double or better you keep the $$!) and I won! It was fun, then we rode the subway back met up with mom and the Camster and headed off for a boat tour which was not what we hoped for 5 minutes w/in leaving port it began pouring! We spent the remainder of the tour huddled under the roofed part of the boat and not seeing many sights or hearing a work the tourguide said.

The rest of the trip went great alot of great pizza, a awesome double decker tour which was so fun, great shopping and a good farewell dinner at a 'mob owned' italian restaurant. All in all it was a wonderful trip and everyone had a good time. Camden was a champ in the car playing with alot of his new bday toys.
Then last weekend Trey and I went to Spring River in Hardy, AR with our good friends Debra and Brent and Kelley and Luke. We had a cabin on the river and cooked out and canoed the river all day Saturday.
It was so fun visiting with friends although Trey and I were not the "novice" rafters we had hoped for we fell out twice which was pretty scary. We will probably stick to the sidelines the next time we go to any river activities! Camden stayed with CeCe & Galdegah (that is what Walker calls my dad) Friday night and she took him to Little Gym and then JoJo and Grandad's Saturday night. He did great and we missed him so much. That was the longest we ever have been away from him! It was fun but we are still recooping from all the traveling. God is so good to allow us the ability and resources to be able to do such fun things!

Little Gym and Camden's First Birthday!!

After little gym...pooped!!
So we have had a very busy couple of weeks. I have picked up a lot of extra shifts the past few weeks to make extra money for our vacation and gearing up for Camden's bday party! Also, CC enrolled Cam and Walker in little gym classes. Camden is in the birds class and Walker is in another class. We've gone the past 2 saturdays and he loves it! He climbs, places with the bells and is learning to to a forward roll. The entire class he just smiled with his mouth wide open! He's our little gymnast. Then Sunday we celebrated our baby's first birthday!! It is unbelievable to me that we are at this milestone already, it truly seems like yesterday that we were anxiously awaiting his arrival in the delivery room. Camden's actual birthday was on saturday and started with Trey and I singing happy birthday to him when he woke up then we had breakfast at the Lunsfords since his aunt Leigh Anne and Great Grandma Charlene were in town from Texas for his birthday! I pulled Cam Cam aside and I told him the story of his birthday and how wonderful it was to hear his first sweet little cry and he just grinned while I was telling him softly in his ear and then imitated me when I told him what his cry sounded like! It was hilarious. Then the big party Sunday was better than expected. We got really nervous b/c Friday and sunday bad storms hit our area and a ton of people were without power which as a blessing neither us or the lunsfords lost any electricity! We had a luau themed party complete with grass skirts, kabobs, leis, pineapples and limbo. It was so fun. Alot of camden's buddies came and he got some amazing gifts even though we asked everyone not to bring gifts! He is completely spoiled! His cake was sooo cute a lady made it to look like a hawaiian waterfall complete with a hula girl on top and his "smash cake" was a little tiki hut with a surfboard cookie on top. She also made flip flop and surfboard iced cookies. Everything was amazing and I think everyone had fun. Kim Miller the photographer came to do Camden's final shoot from his one year package and those pics should be ready in a few weeks and I will post them when I get the link. We went to the Dr. today for his 1 year checkup & vaccines and I pointed out what I thought was a heat rash on Camden's midsection and the Dr. diagnosed him with rosceola! So no shots for now and we are just to put cortisone cream on it for the itch and benadryl if we think he is fussy b/c of the rash. She said it is most likely at the end and should be too contagious at this point but to stay home for a few days and no going to Mrs. Billie Jo's house :( So I took off tonight and Trey is taking a half day tomoroow and We are so excited about our vacation on Wednesday to St. Louis and then Chicago!! Pray for a safe trip and good weather and Camden's rosceola clears up soon.