This time, we decided to skip the driving for 8+ hours with two kiddos and take a luxury we rarely experience – FLYING! But our 1.5 hr flight turned into a nightmare with a 4 hour delay and we didn’t get off the plane until close to Midnight, let alone tucked into bed til nearly 1:30 am. And any hopes of Brooke finally falling asleep on the plane were sadly never met. Rather we had a bouncing, crabby, wide-awake lil girl with all of our other bags of tricks completely exhausted at the airport. And so now, we’ve learned, driving isn’t quite so bad.
But it was STILL worth the trip and we loved our time in Dallas.
Memorial Day weekend was totally low-key, hanging out with all the family. Tanner was so excited for the PLANE, and then to see all his COUSINs, and then UNCLE KENNETH & AUSTIN, he was just beyond thrilled.
At one point he told me, “Mom, I think I have more cousins than friends!” And it’s probably true—and thankfully all of our cousins are our closest friends, and we hope it ALWAYS stays that way.
So while we did manage a few trips to our favorite places, most of the time we just stayed at home and played with cousins.
Ft. Worth Zoo
The last time I was here, I’m pretty sure I was like 5 years old. and Anthony was with me, but I only know that cause there’s pictures to prove it.
When lived in Dallas, we always took Tanner to the Dallas Zoo since it was much closer. And we were glad we went to Ft. Worth Zoo.
First up, the monkeys with brand new teeny tiny babies (which sadly, the camera didn’t capture). And one of the monkeys did something I hope to never, ever see again in my life, involving bodily discharge and eating.
And this Gorilla was just chillin out next to the kiddos – while Cassidy was apparently trying her best to imitate :)
Some of our favorites animals included the elephant chowing down on the hay
The giraffes desperately reaching for the tall tree leaves
The rhino taking a swim in the water
A Siberian tiger—a rare albino version – giving us the stare down
And this bear was hilarious – he couldn’t sit still and kept pacing back and forth
Brown bear w/ants in it’s pants
This eagle strutting his stuff – anyone that walked by, he’d flaunt his wings out and let him know he was the boss!
And these flamingos were the noisiest bunch I’ve ever seen. It’d be totally quiet, and then one would lead, and pretty soon ALL of them were squawking at the top of their lungs.
The kids enjoyed climbing up on these Kangaroos, but I enjoyed seeing the real deal. Not sure I’ve ever seen one all up-close-and-personal.
And we got to see the tail-end of a show, and then see the star turkey, again flaunting its brilliant feathers for us all to see.
We also enjoyed Texas Barnyard – petting a real armadillo – and then letting the kids run around in the play area – best part we enjoyed some quality chat time, momentarily kid-free, in air conditioning.
And Brooke enjoyed gazing at the animals as well, although she spent most of the time in the comfort of her stroller.
Every now and then, she convinced others to help her out:
Surprisingly, it was slightly overcast and the zoo had tons of shade – making it perfect day to go. We also loved having Anthony along too – usually he doesn’t get to join us on our excursions cause he’s at work.
But afterwards, we still had to stop for ice cream – where Tanner got his absolute favorite BLUE ice cream!
Perot Museum of Nature & Science
This museum was finished right after we moved, of course, but we still got a membership & LOVE to go see all the super cool, high tech displays:
Tanner’s favorite had to be racing against a T-rex with his cousin Madison:
T-Rex Race
Or posing like a T-Rex next to the real deal with his cousin Leah:
Or playing with dinosaur-sized puzzles:
But there’s way more than just dinosaurs:
There’s a cool space area where Tanner learned about the solar system:
And a decked out kids area, where Tanner loves playing with the city building blocks – and even cooked us some food over the campfire:
And this is where Brooke really had the most fun, trying to “OWN” each walk-way/bridge/play area she came across:
And while the steepness of this bridge made is designed for much older kids, there was no telling her otherwise. I wonder where she gets it from??
And she thought this draw bridge was hilarious.
She even tried to dance as she went, except of course, when I attempt to video tap her:
My brother Brendan lives in Dallas too -- so we were excited about getting to see him -- meeting up for Tex-Mex one night and Fro-Yo another. Two of our favorite foods -- with one of our favorite persons. Love it!!
And we did a million other fun things there too, but chasing after a toddler isn’t very conducive to picture taking when you only have an iPhone.
And anytime we were in the car, both kids would instantly fall asleep, even at 8:30 in the morning. Poor kids were totally sleep deprived.
Most of our trip we hung out for family, but made a few exceptions here and there.
Like church at the Lake Highlands ward.
Visiting our old neighbor Aunt Nell who was a few days shy of her 91st birthday.
Splash-park with cousins on Memorial Day – only it was overcast and freezing cold water. Oh well. We tried :)
Game night at the Petersen’s with some old friends Anthony grew up with
Park play-date in the park with some friends – if only the rain would have stayed away
Fro-yo with a favorite buddy
And even though Brynlee and Caden were in San Antonio over Memorial Day weekend – we got to hang out later in the week. And lucky for Tanner, he got a two-for-one and got extra playtime when he got to hang out ALL the next day too while mommy went to work. Grandma got sick unexpectedly and offered to watch BOTH kids. Not sure what I would do without AMAZING friends. Seriously LOVE her and these two little ones together!
And I even managed to squeeze in some work! I worked half a day in my old office and joked that I’ve never been so excited to go to work. Now that I work part-time remotely from KC for Dallas office, it’s still not quite the same and definitely miss working the people too. So a lil fun mixed with productively is always a good thing!
Anthony surprised me on my b-day with a dinner at my favorite restaurant, Chuy’s, with some of my favorite people. I was shocked he was able to pull it off without me knowing about it, but was so glad he did!!! It was so fun to get away for a night out without the kiddos and catch up with some old friends!
And even though it’s been almost a year since we’ve moved away, when we go back to visit and reconnect with family and friends – it was like we were never gone. And that’s the best part!!!
