This past week has been so nice getting to spend it mostly at home and not having the rush of everyday life. Yes, I am ready for the kids to go back to school and to get back into our routine, but I'm not going to lie that it is so nice to not have to rush every morning to get everyone out the door as we are always on the go. That is what I miss the most now that I am working part-time and the kids are in school. Tired of the go, go, go! Since Christmas I have only left the house one day to run errands as the other days we did something as a family. Jason was off on Monday after Christmas and then on Tuesday he only worked until about 1:30pm. When he got home we took the kids to the movies to see The Muppets. I thought it was a cute movie but Jason was disappointed as he doesn't like the musical aspect of movies...which is the kid's favorite part! On Wednesday Jason was off of work again and we continued organizing stuff around the house and in the kid's garage hanging stuff up and setting it up and then I ran some errands. He was off again on Thursday and we planned a fun day doing stuff away from the house. We began the day by heading to the zoo as we had not been there since May. The weather was perfect and it wasn't too crowded as we got there around 10am (it was super crowded by the time we left). All of the animals were out bathing in the sun or playing like little kids. This time around we enjoyed the elephants the most as we waited around after all of their baths for the zookeepers to let them out in the yard. We watched as they let them out, fed Tupelo bread, and watched Tupelo and Baylor play together as they were fighting over a hole that one of them dug in the ground. The kids thought it was so funny as they shoved each other back and forth and also as Tupelo rubbed his itchy foot and back along the fence. Tupelo and Baylor are about 15 and 20 months old respectively. It was the most feisty I have ever seen the elephants. We also checked out the meerkats, lions, tigers, bears, wild dogs, jaguars, chimps, giraffes (we didn't feed them this time around due to the line as we decided to eat lunch at the African Forest instead), and of course rode the carousel, an all time favorite. Lastly we stopped to see the Komodo dragon and then the monkey exhibit. They were all very active too as they were all out and playfully chasing each other. One of the female orangutans was pretty darn cute as we watched her eat and then proceed to cover herself up with her blanket eliciting giggles out of the kids again. It was a rather entertaining zoo trip this time around!
We left the zoo and drove over to the butterfly exhibit and luckily we were able to find a parking spot in the parking garage as it was a zoo everywhere. Inside it was not crowded at all. The kids really liked the butterflies this time around as they were everywhere as soon as we walked into the sauna....it was so hot and steamy in there. Both kids wanted a butterfly to land on them and Landon was gentle and patient enough that one crawled onto his hands from a bench. He was so excited and proud. Emerson kept telling him,"Butterflies are nice, they don't bite!" as she wanted to hold one badly too. So, we let it crawl onto her hand but for some reason it would eventually fly away and find Landon again. He loved that!
After we left the butterflies we headed towards home as Jason and I had a doctor appointments and Jason needed to take his show truck to the shop as it was acting funny when he went to load it into the trailer. Before that we stopped off at Menchies for some frozen yogurt. Yum!! Of course Emerson just wanted a bowl of mini m&m's with no yogurt. She is just not an ice cream eater anymore at all. After running around on our side of town we headed back downtown as we had tickets to the Rockets opening night game against the Spurs. The kids had fun but we could tell Landon wasn't feeling well (that post coming up soon) and we left after halftime. The kids enjoyed the sights and sounds and of course Emerson enjoyed her nachos as she could live off of sweets and cheese alone. Landon did watch the whole game and cheered each time we scored a basket as it was a good game. A group from the show X Factor that finished in 11th place, The Stereo Hogzz, sang the national anthem and during halftime. The kids also liked the halftime performances and those during the timeouts but Landon kept saying he was tired and wanted to go home and Emerson was being a wiggle worm probably driving the people crazy around us as it was all mainly adults as we were in the club section. It was a fun outing and a good game though!
Zoo-
The many faces of Emerson, Miss Camera Hog!
My little monkeys
Butterfly exhibit-
There were so many butterflies that they were hitting us in the head
God's amazing creations! So beautiful!
Rockets game-
