Brek's 1st Birthday

Brek turned 1!

On his actual birthday, we took him to the zoo for the first time. 

Here he is all ready to get on the road.

It was definitely a lot for Brek to take in. He was in full observation mode for the few hours we were there. We thought the monkeys were very entertaining.

We also really enjoyed the Mommy and Baby Elephant, as well as the rhinos.

 Although you can't tell from these pictures, Brek LOVED the crocodiles. Seriously. Once he acknowledged they were there, he was literally trying to climb out of Joe's arms and into the cage. We thought it was pretty funny, especially since he hadn't noticed an animal behind glass up to that point.

 Speaking of pointing, that was Brek's new skill he learned for his special day. 

He loved pointing at the animals.

We thought the tigers were totally awesome.

This one is enjoying lunch.

This one got pretty close to us; very exciting!

Just a fun posing picture with Mommy.

 We also really liked the giraffes. We even got to see one of them get their nails filed.

Daddy had to say "Hello!"

It's blurry, but Brek's pointing at them. So cute!

 A couple more animals we saw:

Then Grandma treated us to a carousel ride. Here we are in line, waiting for our turn. Brek was in deep observation mode at this point, which means he didn't show any emotion.

This one is our computer backdrop. Brek gets so excited each time he sees it.

Family photo

Proof that Grandma Jensen came with us.

 We also couldn't resist getting Brek a souvenir - so we got him a sucker with a tiger on it.

Brek also loved the swirling world in water at the zoo entrance.

We let Brek play in the water for a while before we left to go home. There were some other kids playing and splashing around, so Brek started splashing too. Then, one of the little boys turned to his younger sister and exclaimed, "Get the brown guy!" We still can't help but laugh about it.

When we got home, Brek received a birthday card from Grandpa and Grandma Great (my maternal grandparents.) He still loves playing with the card because it plays a Winnie the Pooh song.

Later, Brek received his first ever hair cut. Unfortunately, the camera battery died, so I missed being able to document it. I did keep a bag of the hair. And we had a party with cousins the next day, so you'll see the hair cut results in the next post.

Happy Birthday little man! It's been a fun and exciting year!