The Pavlovich Family: Mr. Lobster and Shrimp

My brother Tom and his son came for a week long visit on the 14th of November. We met them at the airport with a sign that read: Mr. Lobster and Shrimp. It was Alex's idea so I made him hold the sign. We got some weird looks while waiting but it made for a really good laugh when Tom showed up. 'Tommy the Lobster' is the nickname Alex gave Tom awhile back given his natural inability to tan and since TJ is just like his Daddy, well, it seemed to fit. Oh! And I really wanted to have a picture of the boys with the sign but Alex left the camera at home. I was totally bummed out about that one.

We were a little concerned that the dog may be a little much for TJ so we brought out the kennel again. Turns out that TJ enjoyed playing in the cage more than anything. He would climb in and out every few minutes returning with another item that was necessary for cozy living. In the end he had 2 pillows, a blanket, a stuffed animal, and eventually some snacks. He would lock himself in and pretend he was safe from the "dragon". Of course, he wanted everyone else to join him too. Here were are: Aunt Mandy, TJ, and David snuggly hanging out in the kennel.

Apparently eating breakfast (and an occasional snack) in a dog kennel is the coolest thing.

David keeping watch. Interestingly enough, Davey never ate any of TJ's food, no matter how long it was hanging out unattended.

Story time! Stories are so much fun! I get to practice on Alex every so often when I come across another kids book he's never heard of like Where the Wild Things Are or The Velveteen Rabbit. If I remember correctly, this is Dr. Suess' Oh the Places You'll Go!. My favorite of the night was Children Make Terrible Pets by Peter Brown.

By the second day, Davey had become TJ's protector. He followed him around everywhere probably because he was waiting for some kind of scrap of food but mostly out of curiosity. One night when TJ and I were reading some books, Tom suddenly appeared in the doorway. In a flash of light, Davey was standing on top of the bed between us and the door growling at the sudden stranger. We all started laughing and Davey calmed down when he realized it was Tom. I think Davey liked having a "pet" in which to share his bed.

So we're all sitting around watching "The Last Airbender" at like 11 o'clock at night and Tommy starts taking pictures of the two of us. I'm sure it was a cute moment but TJ and I were less than amused. Not to mention that the kid was super tired to begin with.

There was lots of coloring of Dora, most of which we sent to Grandma Harris. Davey developed a particular "taste" for Crayola crayons which subsequently lead to an endless supply of new crayons and frequent dog scolding and carpet vacuuming.

Tommy and TJ waiting for everyone else to finish getting ready.

For my birthday we went to the Sedgwick County Zoo. We got really lucky that the weather was nice. I was pretty impressed with the zoo. There were all kinds of things to see like penguins that float around like ducks, Bengal Tigers that are as tall as me! (truly amazing!), buffalo, elephants, giraffes, black swans, lots of gorillas, and so much more. Here we are at the black bear area. It seemed like a good place for a family picture.

After the zoo we headed to the East side of town for dinner at P.F. Chang's and then for two games of bowling. Did you know that Alex and I have NEVER been bowling together. We're both so bad at it that we've never wanted to go, I guess. My first score was like 76 and Alex's was 51. Yikes! TJ did better than we did. The second game was much better. I almost broke 100 and had 3 strikes total while Alex suddenly looked like a Pro-Bowler. TJ held out as long as he could for so much activity without a nap. At one point he was making Bowling Angels with the little girl next to us. The angels picture didn't turn out but this is one of my favorites.