On Sunday, Dylan and I said our tearful good-byes and flew to Dallas...permanently. It is a weird feeling. I still feel like we are visiting Dallas and will be going back to St. Louis in a few days. St. Louis will always have a special place in my heart. It's where Autrey went to grad school, I taught second grade, and Dylan was born. I wish he would be able to remember his first home: 382-C Woodgreen Drive, Ballwin, MO. I really wish he would remember our friends who loved us dearly, but hopefully our paths will cross and we will have a chance to see them again. That very thing happened when my high school friend, Allie Shuey Buzard, moved close to us in Chesterfield a while ago. We liked to go on walks around Creve Coeur Lake until it got dark:
We had to go visit Dr. Forseter one last time so he could see how much Dylan has grown. I will sure miss him the second time around:
Kristi is a part of our family now. It was either that or she would have kidnapped Dylan...haha. She watched him while we were packing up the apartment last Friday. When we went to go pick him up, she couldn't let him go and convinced us to let Dylan have his first sleepover. Ironically, we were sitting next to her at church and the closing hymn was "God Be With You Til We Meet Again." I'm gonna cry if I say any more...
I took this video of Dylan just chilling right before we left so I could look back and remember what he was like before we moved. He is now 7 months old and is semi-mobile. He rolls all over the place and can scoot backwards. He rolls over in his crib and prefers to sleep on his tummy, which is good for his head. He is squirmy and I have to wrestle with him when I am changing his diaper or putting clothes on. Now that he is eating solids and filling his diapers a lot more, he will graduate to size 3 diapers as soon as we run out. He gets his knees off the ground and will be crawling soon. He can sit up but is unstable, falling over when he gets excited or reaches for toys (or empty water bottles or brightly colored gift bags...why do we bother getting real toys again?). Yesterday he sucked on his toes for the first time. Dylan loves to stick out his tongue, make the motorboat sound, and squeal loudly. He is a happy little guy and is always smiling and laughing, especially when he is being tickled or being held up like an airplane. I love to walk into his room after he wakes up because he gets excited and kicks really fast like he does in the bathtub.
We had to go visit Dr. Forseter one last time so he could see how much Dylan has grown. I will sure miss him the second time around:Kristi is a part of our family now. It was either that or she would have kidnapped Dylan...haha. She watched him while we were packing up the apartment last Friday. When we went to go pick him up, she couldn't let him go and convinced us to let Dylan have his first sleepover. Ironically, we were sitting next to her at church and the closing hymn was "God Be With You Til We Meet Again." I'm gonna cry if I say any more...
I took this video of Dylan just chilling right before we left so I could look back and remember what he was like before we moved. He is now 7 months old and is semi-mobile. He rolls all over the place and can scoot backwards. He rolls over in his crib and prefers to sleep on his tummy, which is good for his head. He is squirmy and I have to wrestle with him when I am changing his diaper or putting clothes on. Now that he is eating solids and filling his diapers a lot more, he will graduate to size 3 diapers as soon as we run out. He gets his knees off the ground and will be crawling soon. He can sit up but is unstable, falling over when he gets excited or reaches for toys (or empty water bottles or brightly colored gift bags...why do we bother getting real toys again?). Yesterday he sucked on his toes for the first time. Dylan loves to stick out his tongue, make the motorboat sound, and squeal loudly. He is a happy little guy and is always smiling and laughing, especially when he is being tickled or being held up like an airplane. I love to walk into his room after he wakes up because he gets excited and kicks really fast like he does in the bathtub.Yesterday, Doug and Mona briefly stopped here at Matt's house on their way up to St. Louis. They are driving the UHaul towing the car and Autrey is in our truck as we speak. They should be here in a few hours. I am so glad I didn't have to make the drive with Dylan. He is having more fun now than he would have strapped in a car seat. Check out his pre-crawling moves:
The next chapter of our life begins...
carrots, sweet potatoes,
and prunes (diluted prune juice as well). 
Tomorrow we fly back for 2 weeks to wrap everything up in St. Louis and then will come back and call Dallas home. 
We stayed at Hotel del Coronado, which is behind us. It is an amazing hotel, even if legend says it is haunted. If you ever go and they don't have bacon as part of the complimentary breakfast, it's because Autrey cleaned them out...or it could have been the ghost:
First time at the beach (Who goes to the beach before a pool? What a life.):
Not a fan of the cold water...
...but he loved the 'beach bumbo' Autrey dug in the sand for him: 
First slide ride:
First time swinging:
Back in Houston, the camp continued this week until about 5 minutes ago when the last kid left the Duke household. It was basically a kid paradise with a bounce house,
a water slide,
and a pool, which Dylan could play in after most of the kids were out. 
