Sunday, September 22, 2013

We're going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo!

Jared's company always does a fall party for the families of the employees at the Technical Center (where Jared works) and the Distribution Center.  It's always very fun, but this year they went all out! We got free tickets to the zoo, free parking, free lunch, party games, zoo bucks, and a private wildlife show.
 Lunch was from Dickey's - yum.  Paul chose this hat because "It was like a jungle, and the zoo is like the jungle mom."
 They had carnival games, face painting, and caricature artists all for free in the area we had lunch.  Paul made two balls on this game.  Woot!
 You may notice in this picture the "helper" is standing quite a distance away.  Paul was throwing the balls in the general direction of the basket, (with his tongue out) but they were a little wild!
Paul being a flamingo - on one foot was easy, trying to tuck his head in not as much. 
 This super awesome scary looking animal - and the one in the tank too!
 During the wildlife show, they let some of the kids come touch this baby crocodile tail.
 No matter where my boy is, if there is another boy of approximately the same size, and there is a toy of one kind or another, he will play.  Usually for 20 minutes, and never ask his name.  I love this!
 Jared won $50 zoo bucks during the raffle, which brought his total up to $70.  Yay!
 Paul was the only kid on the carousel and he spent about half the time trying to figure out the gears etc...
 My boy loves to learn...
 Paul's school mascot is the Jaguar, so we chased the Jaguar around his enclosure until we were able to get both in one shot.
 Paul's highlight of the day was snagging the first row on the train. We went twice, and although I wish it was more like the Hogle Zoo that has animals on the ride.  It was nice at the end of the day to ride to the entrance, rather than walk!
After the zoo, we stopped at a place called Noodle BTH and had dinner.  Paul really wanted to use chopsticks, but couldn't get them to work the right way.  So, he invented his own way.
We came home exhausted but happy.  It was a really fun day and I am so thankful Jared works for a great company!

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

I'm Horrified....

 A BEAUTIFUL view from our tent on the shores of Grapevine Lake.  The 12 hours we were there were mostly disastrous, but I still think we were glad we went. We got there fairly late, by the time we got our tent set up, ate dinner, etc it was dark.  We took a walk by flashlight, and as Paul said, "I've seen like 20 spiders, and I'm horrified!"  So we went back to the tent and watched the last Gaylord Texan fireworks show of the summer, and then spent a lot of time laying there in the sweltering heat.
We were up at sunrise to walk along the beach.  Can't wait for cooler weather to camp!