Wednesday, March 16, 2011

A Zoo Trip

Spring Break in the Golden house is usually a week to get stuff done around the house. We usually clean out the garage and get ready for "storm" season. This year though we decided to take a little trip to Abilene to the zoo.

Rhealee had her 2 year check-up on Monday morning, so we packed the car and headed to Lubbock for that. After getting all her measurements (she is 35" long 90%, 24lbs 25%) we made a few stops in Lubbock then hit the road for Abilene.

Everybody traveled very well!!! This was a huge accomplishment for the Golden's.
Rhealee slept most of the way!! This is a good thing, she is not usually the best traveler. Taryn watched a movie and then talked, and talked, and talked. We played a couple of games, and she did the typical "are we there yet?" She was really excited and couldn't wait to get to the hotel. We had been counting down the days on our calendar at home.

Cory of course was our driver. I am so glad I have him, I really don't like driving long distance. I will do it, but I would rather be in the passenger seat with a good book, a diet coke and my pillow.
We made it from Lubbock to Abilene without any stops! This was a record for Taryn not having a break down and needing to stop and go the bathroom when there was absolutely no place to go.
We got into town a little before 4, got checked in and changed into our swimsuits. Yeah! not!!! I was so not ready for it to be swimsuit season! But I put one on for my girls!

We swam and relaxed in the hot tub for about an hour and half before deciding we were hungry and ready to go find some supper. Taryn did not want to get out. She wanted one of us to go get something and bring it back, so that she could keep swimming. She was doing so well in the water. We will have to get her swim lessons this summer. She is such a little water bug, but she had no interest in the hot tub. She doesn't like hot water (even at bath time).
Rhealee is my child with no fear. It only took her a couple of minutes to figure out she could get around without one of us holding onto her. She was jumping off the side of the pool in no time. She also liked the hot tub. It took her a minute to get use to the temperature, but then she was all about going from one to the the other. No wonder the little fart is so skinny. She never stops moving. She would go right up to anybody in the pool and jump towards them. She is very trusting.
After we got them out of the pool we went and had a supper at TaMolly's. It was a pretty good Mexican food restaurant. We made a quick stop at Target for some batteries, then we were back at the hotel, putting our swimsuits back on and getting in the water. We stayed in the pool almost another hour, before it started getting kind of rowdy with older kids. We literally had to drag the girls back up to the room crying. Once we got them bathed though, it didn't take them long to go to sleep.
Everyone slept until almost 9 the Tuesday morning!!! I love hotel sleeping, dark curtains, comfy beds and an air conditioner set to freezing (and I don't have to pay the bill). After breakfast, we headed the the ZOO!!!

It was a cool morning, luckily we all had jackets in the car. Well, Taryn didn't but she was able to put on one of Rhealee's jackets and then Aunt Kami had an extra one.

This is the face we got from Rhealee several times. She loved the zoo. She loved seeing all the animals. She especially loved the giraffes. She got so stinkin' excited while feeding them. She would jump up and down and say "more, more!" Then she would slap her leg and say "mere, mere!" She is still telling us about the giraffe touching her hand with it's tongue when trying to get the cracker. Oh this child cracks us up!! She called all the big cat's "Meows! or Big Meows!" This had us rolling.

The giraffe's were probably my favorite also. They were so much fun to watch!


Taryn was in a sour mood, most of the time we were at the zoo. She had fallen in the hotel room and hit her eye. It looks bad and I guess it made her feel bad also. She really did not want to have her picture taken at all. I wanted to take a picture in front of my favorite animal, the zebra!!!

The sun finally started coming out when we were getting ready to leave. I was able to get one good picture of the girls together. I love the look on Rhealee's face, this is a typical face we see everyday!
Thanks to my wonderful sister, we actually got a family picture. After the zoo we headed to Red Robin for some lunch before hitting the road home!
It was a short trip, but it was a fun trip. We will spend the rest of spring break cleaning and being lazy.
Hope everyone is having a good Spring Break. We are and are already planning our next mini-vacation!!


1 comment:

SkinnyMeg said...

Fun!! The last time I went to the Dallas zoo I sat in traffic for an hour at the exit trying to get in! No way was I braving it for spring break :) We did go to the Arboretum twice, the weather is awesome here. I love the family picture, you have a very beautiful family!