We got to meet with some friends at the Dallas Zoo. These were our friends in college that moved to Dallas a month after we left - great timing!!! Alas, super fun to meet again, especially since Andy and Pete semi-work together. They opened a new part of the Dallas Zoo that we haven't seen before (as well as raising the price, going to 50% reciprocity and raising parking prices...), so the kids had to climb on the elephant statues!
In front of the African Savannah watching the giraffes: Emily (3), Arabella (almost 2), Joey (almost 7), Annie (
almost 5), Ben (almost 7), Jon (close to 5). The kids were so cute, constantly asking each other's names and who they were supposed to be friends with. Joey finally resorted to calling Ben 'dude,' which Ben transferred back to Joey. It was pretty funny! However, another cute little girl (Arabella) helped convince Ben how much fun another sister would be!
Our favorite part of the Dallas Zoo - feeding the birds! We've done this in at least 5 other zoos and it is never as fun as in Dallas where the birds are unafraid to land on you...or try to open your backpack and take things out, as one bird did to me!
Shellie and Arabella walked in. The birds saw the food and went immediately to land on her head. Arabella did NOT like this! It was such a cute moment...
On our way back home, we stopped in Nashville for a few hours. They have an AWESOME
play place for the kids to run around - definitely the highlight of this zoo! We also saw a bird show that was pretty cool.
Snow cones were another perk! Especially because Ben and Emily didn't want to finish theirs, so I got them. I LOVE
SNOW CONES!!!
Riding the
carousel. Since I'm pregnant and get sick easier, lucky Andy got to ride with the girls!!!
We also stopped at our favorite Children's Museum in Dayton, Ohio. The kids love it there, and I only got a few pictures because we were BUSY the entire 5 1/2 hours! This time we watched 2 little planetarium shows also that added to the thrill of the museum.
She looked super-cute when it was all dried, but I forgot to get an after picture! We are just all so glad that it is finally growing!!!
Grandpa had knee surgery while we were there, but Ben still convinced him to play tennis. It was hot, and they came in for a few water breaks but kept going back out to play 'real' tennis more!
Those intense faces!!!
The kids all like running down the street to the alley and back while we time them. Emily will just keep running over and over until we tell her she has to stop - as most nights we did this it was at least 97 degrees!
Annie developed a great love for the monkey bars. She finally mastered them, after practicing over and over. This piccture was about 30 seconds before she had a blister pop in the middle of her hand. It was quite traumatic for her (and for us to listen to) and is still visible on her palm 3 weeks later. She still continues to look for the bars at each park we got to. Way to go, Annie!
Annie also had some time to scrapbook with Grandma and made a cute babybook of herself, since her slacker mom hasn't made her one! She had a great time and makes her pages simple yet so cute!
We had a fabulous time and weren't completely ready to leave - except Ben who was sick of being so hot. Thanks Mom and Mike for the wonderful hospitality. I've tried not to remember all the perks (having a personal grocery shopper, a dish-doer, a child entertainer, a laudnry-folder, and a putter-to-bed person) of staying back at 'home' again because it really just makes my life now so much harder! Although, we are sure glad to have Dad back; we missed him too!
