Off to the Mountains!

It's August in Texas. You know what that means, don't you? Over 100* temps, no rain, and for some reason this year, Saharan Dust! That's right, Saharan Dust. Some big ass storm over the Sahara has up and migrated across the pond and landed right, smack dab in the middle of Texas! Cuz we need MORE dust! So right on queue, we are packing up and heading to the cabin! YAY! Linda and Woody have spent the last week and a half there and reported temps in the upper 50's-mid 70's! It makes me sigh just thinking about it! And they've had rain! I can almost smell the damp pine needles! Needless to say, I will be sans internet for the week, but do not fret! I will come back with lots of pics and stories of our adventures! I will also catch up a bit as this week was SO ridiculously busy, I didn't even have a chance to blog about our anniversary! And it's 19 years this year, so that's a BIG deal! Stay tuned and check in sometime after the 20th to see what's going on in the World of Woodall! :)

Ft. Worth/Wichita Falls--Part Two

After a nice visit with Max and Cheryl, we hopped in the car and headed back to downtown Ft. Worth to visit the Ft. Worth Botanical Garden.  I could tell from the quirky, little pond outside the visitor's center that we were in for a treat!

We opted to check out the "Rainforest Garden" first.  It was warm and misty and full of crazy, viney plants.  The kids LOVED this part!

We saw plants with amazing roots...

And vibrant colors!

Ainsley found a plant that had leaves bigger than her head!!!

We made our way out into the main garden, it was lovely!  However, it seemed to me that the loveliest things in the garden were my children!

Well, I suppose this water lily was pretty nice too!  ;)

Once we had our fill of the traditional garden, we headed over to the Japanese Garden which was HUGE!  Japanese gardens definitely aren't as colorful as the more traditional garden, but they are SO peaceful.  I love them!

The koi pond was a BIG hit!

They, of course, had to master the stepping stones!  Ainsley was pretty scared at first (and technically so was I with her wearing that sweet , white, ruffle-y shirt) but she did great and didn't even fall in once!

We had to get the obligatory pic on a bridge!

And then I managed to get a really nice one of the kids!  I know... more kid pics, but what can I say?  They are just SO cute!

And leave it my kids to completely disrupt the calm, peaceful vibe of this beautiful garden!  ;)

After we explored every bit of the Japanese Garden, we headed to the little cafe and had a nice lunch, well, as nice as a lunch can be with a picky, whiny girl!  At least the boy was happy with his Reuben!

There was still a lot of garden to see, but we had to move along as I had promised to take the kids to the Museum of Science and History and we needed to get through it before rush hour!  Thankfully, the museum was just down the road and was easy to find.

Ian was not entirely enthused with this particular museum, and I have to agree with him, it was definitely geared toward the younger crowd (not to mention the fact that it was overrun with hordes of school kids).

Ian spent most of his time in a room where they had blowers and vacuums and books and books on how to make paper airplanes and hovercrafts made out of plastic cups.  Ainsley, on the other hand, opted for more artsy fartsy stuff.  She made a giant Lite-Brite picture.

And doodled under a black light!

Then she discovered a room with infinite amounts of paper, crayons, chalk, pastels, you name it.  And she was happy.

I would show you a picture of the boy, but as it turns out, 9 year-old boys are quite elusive!  We enjoyed the 4-D theater, at least until the part that it sprayed water in my face and all over my camera!  They should warn people to stow them away!  Luckily the lens cap was on, so no harm, no foul, but it WAS a surprise!

The dino room was pretty lame except for one thing.  Their main dinosaur on display was something called a Pawpawsaurus campbelli. 

It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside as "Paw Paw" is what I called my dear grandfather!  It was just one of those unexpected, little things that made me think of him and smile.  I sure miss him!

After we had our fill of the museum, it was time to pack up and head to Wichita Falls to see my mom.  It was a mellow drive, traffic wasn't too bad getting out of Ft. Worth and the scenery was pleasant.  Wish I could say the same for Wichita Falls!!  Stay tuned for our adventures there!

Ft. Worth/Wichita Falls--Part One

Early in October, my mom was going to be in Wichita Falls, TX for the Boot and Saddlemakers Round-Up.  So I decided this would be a nice opportunity for the kids to see their Grammy.  And then I realized, HEY, it would also be a great time to visit Uncle Max and Aunt Cheryl!  So I packed up the kids for a few fun-filled days in northern Texas!

First stop on the way into town was the Ft. Worth Zoo!  The kids have been begging to go to the zoo for months, but call me crazy, going to the zoo when it's 105*F just sounds like a HORRIBLE idea!  But hey, it was only going to be in the low 90's for this trip!  Luckily for us, the Ft. Worth Zoo is very shady and even though it was in the 90's it was totally bearable.

 We saw giraffes and gorillas and of course elephants!  My kids LOVE the elephants!

We got totally sucked into feeding the parakeets!  Can you stand they charge $1 for a little popsicle stick that they dip in honey and then birdseed?  Oy!  But I suppose it was worth it, the kids had a blast feeding the little birds!

They got to pet a Honduran Milksnake!

And we saw the biggest damn salamander I've ever seen!

Get a load of the size of that thing!  That is an adult standing next to the aquarium!!

A little somebody ALWAYS has to get her picture taken on the komodo dragon statue!

We saw all the animals, rode the train and of course stopped at the gift shop for a prize!  I don't know which is cuter, the stuffed animals or the kids?!?!?

Of course we hit the road just in time for rush hour!  It took us a bit to get to Max and Cheryl's but we were greeted with a lovely dinner, good company and a little dog that a certain little someone immediately fell in love with!

Poor Skylar!  He was carried, hugged, lugged, toted, patted, chased and generally adored by my little Piggy and bless his little heart, he was a REALLY good sport about the whole thing!  We had a nice evening visiting and catching up and then it was off to bed !  Cheryl was up early cooking waffles for us!  The kids hung out on the back deck with Uncle Max enjoying the birds and the cool morning air.  Ian treated Max and Cheryl to a couple of his ukulele songs.  I think they enjoyed "Runaway" the best!

We all decided that we need to make an effort to see each other more often!  The kids adore Max and Cheryl (and of course Skylar!).  I could just shoot myself though for not snapping a pic of the kids with Max and Cheryl.  That's what happens when you're all flustered trying to get the car packed up for the next leg of the trip!

Birthday at the Beach!

Yes, I'm still totally behind!  But I'm starting to catch up!!!  Yea ME!

So we had a nice little Happy Birthday Ainsley/Happy Father's Day BBQ the Sunday before her actual birthday, but we decided that the big, huge party with all the kids and party favors was just too much for Mommy to take on this year.  Alternative?  Take the kids to the coast!  Ainsley has never seen the ocean and Ian hasn't seen it since he was less than 2.  Needless to say, both kids were pretty excited about the trip!  So we packed up the car and took off for Padre Island the morning of her birthday.

The first afternoon wasn't much to write home about.  We arrived a bit early to check into the hotel, so we drove around the island a bit, trying to get the lay of the land.  We chanced upon a pier and paid (yes PAID) to walk out on it.  It had been storming the night before so the ocean was wild and all churned up, but the kids were enamored by the sea gulls and the fishermen and the smell of the heavy, salty air.  So we took a little walk on the beach, their first time with their toes in the sand!  They LOVED it!  But it started to rain pretty hard and we headed to the hotel for check-in and to get some dinner.  Dinner turned out to be a big disappointment, but I railed on that enough on the other blog, so I won't get into it here.  Just remember to never go to Doc's.  There, I said it, moving on.

The next morning, Ian and I headed to Malaquite Beach to see what it was all about.  Since it is a national park, you had to pay to get in, but oh was it worth!  The beach was clean, the facilities were nice, the rangers were informative and the biggest thing?  There were hardly any other people!!!!  I admit it, I'm not a fan of people and I do my best to avoid them when I can!

Here is what we found...

 Just beautiful!  And of course, the boy had to test the waters!

We fell in love with the laughing gulls,

and decided to report back to Daddy and Ainsley.  I packed up a nice little picnic lunch (pesto tortellini, thank you very much) and we headed back with the entire family to Malachite Beach.  We proceeded to have a WONDERFUL day!

Someone wanted to build sandcastles, so... we attempted to build sandcastles!

We got a little ways into the project when a certain birthday girl decided that sandcastles were much too labor intensive and she would rather go play in the water.

 

After a quick dip, she ran back to tell me how awesome the ocean was and flashed me that beautiful smile!  She's so awesome and maybe a little bit cute! 

All the while, Daddy had the boy in the water testing out his boogie boarding skills.

  He caught a good wave,

and did a victory dance!

 

After that it was over.  I couldn't get that kid out of the water to save my life!  He did this for FOUR hours!  What a happy, happy boy!

So although Daddy would not agree to be buried in the sand, he did concede to carrying the Piggy out to the deeper water where he jumped with her and held her up in the waves.  She thought this was the coolest thing ever!

She sure loves her Daddy!

I tried the whole boogie boarding thing, discovered how exhausting it was and decided I was a bit to water-logged to continue, so I headed to the shore to make my own sand sculpture.  Since Ian and I had talked to the rangers about the sea turtle release program (which sadly we didn't get to see), I decided to make a sea turtle!  I had a blast!  And it turned out pretty good!  Here is a pic of the Piggy next to it, just as a size reference.

After all of the boogie boarding, wave jumping, sand sculpting and just insane amounts of super duper beach fun, we finally had our fill!  As much fun as the beach is, there is only so much sun, sand and salt water a body can endure in one day!  So we showered, packed up the car and headed into town to find a Sonic or something to refresh ourselves!  Once refreshed, we decided to head up the island over to Port Aransas where we heard there were dolphins in the bay.  And guess what?  There were!  Here's the Monkey patiently waiting to see one.

And he was rewarded for his patience!  Dolphins!

There were several adults, but we also saw BABIES!  They were so cute!  Less than 3 ft. long and VERY fast!  They were playing and splashing and jumping around.  Sadly, they were just too stinkin' fast for my point and click camera.  We really enjoyed just hanging out on the pier watching them.  And as a side note, while we were still at the beach, Brady had informed me that he had seen a strange brown and white thing in the water.  Not a jellyfish but something weird that kind of undulated through the water, looking rather like female genitalia!  I couldn't think of anything, other than maybe some sort of sea slug, but I didn't put much thought into it.  As it turns out, while we were standing on the pier looking at the dolphins, one of those things went floating by.  Brady was like, "THERE'S ONE OF THOSE THINGS!"  I got a pretty good look at it and decided it had to be some sort of mollusk.  When we got back to the hotel, I did some research and discovered it was something called a "sea hare" which is common in the shallower waters of the gulf around seaweed.  So, biology lesson of the day!  Yea!

Ian and I both shared a deep love of the pelicans.  They are just cool!  On our way back to the car, one landed on a lamp post, so we got a good up close look.  REALLY glad it didn't poop on us!

The next day had us at the Texas State Aquarium in Corpus Christi.  I always love the view of this bridge from the aquarium.

The kids loved the underwater dolphin exhibit!  I think they made a new friend!

The biggest excitement of the day was watching the staff trying to corral a Harris hawk that decided she didn't want to be in her enclosure anymore!

She stayed just out of reach, taunting her handlers and the bald eagle that happens to live in the enclosure that she's perched on in this photo!  All of the "Bird of Prey" shows had to be cancelled that day because of her antics.  And as far as we know, she had still not been captured by the time we left.  I am assuming she eventually came down when she got hungry!

We got to pet sting rays!

And as if this wasn't all cool enough, this aquarium has a great little splash pad for everyone to cool off!  I don't think the kids enjoyed this particular attraction AT ALL!  ;)

 

We had hoped to visit the U.S.S. Lexington that day as well, but 100 degree heat and low fundage prevented us from doing it.  I couldn't resist snapping a quick shot on our way out of the aquarium though.  We'll catch that bad boy on the next trip!

We headed back to the island for a little bit of souvenir shopping.  Can't take the kids someplace without at least getting a t-shirt!  For some reason, almost every shop on Padre Island has a large menacing shark at the front door.  We, of course, had to take a pic!

And hey look, it's ME!  Finally a pic that proves I was actually there!  Later that evening we took in a Corpus Christi Hooks game.  I was amazed at how many seagulls were flying around the ballpark.  It made me wonder if they ever get smacked by fly balls.  Eek!  Luckily we witnessed no such thing!  We took our sleepy bunch back to the hotel, hoping to get an early start on the beach the next morning as it would be our last day.  Sadly, Mother Nature had other plans.  We woke up to pouring rain.  Grrrr.  But hey, we can't complain too much.  Corpus has been suffering from this drought as badly as the rest of us.  The ranger at Malaquite Beach had stated that many of the birds had moved on because there was just so little fresh water available.  We packed up the car in pouring rain and headed on back home.  We did, however, have to pull off the road once because really who could resist getting a picture of this...

GHOSTBUSTERS!

We had a great time and I learned that my girl is just like her Mama!  Beach bunny all the way!  You never saw such a happy Piggy as a Piggy at the beach!  Wish we lived a little closer to one.  When we brought Ian to the coast for the first time, not to long  after we moved to Texas, I was heartbroken.  We went to Port Aransas and it was nothing but a huge line of rednecks in big dualie pick-ups lined up ON the beach with umbrellas and coolers full of beer.  The trucks, the crowds, the trash, it sucked!  Such a hard thing for a girl who had enjoyed several years of pristine Oregon and Washington beaches.  So I was not the most optimistic about our little trip to the beach, but I was pleasantly surprised!  Malachite Beach was beautiful, the wildlife was great and I absolutely look forward to taking the family back!