Long Weekend = Long Post. But You Already Knew That, Didn't You

Oh, man. I need a vacation from my 3 day weekend. Matt had his annual guy trip to the Indy 500 which left me home alone with the kids for 3 days. Lucky for me my parents were around to lend a hand but I was stupid and used that free time cleaning my house (including my bedroom) and doing laundry. 

What an idiot!

Two weekends ago Matt and I went to Dallas to celebrate little Amanda's baptism and the plan was to take the kids up on Saturday and go to the Ft. Worth Zoo. Unfortunately it rained all day on Saturday so we scrapped that plan and went to Dallas early on Sunday instead. No zoo. Avery was a good sport about it, though. So when my mom suggested we take the kids to the San Antonio Zoo on Saturday morning, I thought it was a great idea. 

Then she said we'd leave around 8:30 and my enthusiasm started to fade. ugh. But we managed to get up and out the door early on Saturday and headed down to SA. It was hot. By 11am it was already well into the 90s with almost 100% humidity and no wind. It was like walking through a wet sponge. There is no amount of tank top/shorts combination that can keep you cool in that kind of weather. We were all feeling it, and unfortunately for us, so were the animals. 

There were some interesting sights at the zoo. Here are a few of my observations:
Why would you bring a dog to the zoo? Was she trying to scare this dog into thinking that it could spend the rest of its days behind a fence with hundreds of strangers gawking at it all day? And, why does she have the dog wrapped in a baby blanket? I think what we have here is a woman with issues. 

 
The other thing I noticed as I looked around the zoo was all of the cowboy (or in this case, cowgirl) hats. Every other person was wearing one, which is how you know you are in Texas. In case you needed that reminder. Because we are 4 hours from the nearest border (which is Mexico, not another US state) so we most definitely know we're in Texas. But I digress....

Here are the kids when we got to the zoo. So much hope. So much optimism. So naive. 

This is Jack taking a closer look at the fish. Fish! How exotic! Good thing we went all the way to the zoo, paid $30 to get in and braved the heat so that the kids could get a good look at some damn fish.  We want to see some real animals! How about some zebras? Or lions? Or elephants! Where are those...
...looking the other way. And it stayed that way the entire time we were standing there. We never got a look at the elephant's face. No trunk shots. No cute Dumbo ears. Just elephant ass. Glad we strolled up that hill and then down the really narrow passage with our strollers to see such a sight.

The other animals were all laying around in the shade or inside the exhibit rather than out where we could see them because it was so! damn! hot. We did get to see some monkeys poop and a giraffe walking around but otherwise they were some of the laziest animals I have ever met.

Both kids slept the entire way home, which was nice, and it was clear they had a good time. Jack had a lot of energy to expend before bedtime so it was a good thing that he was at Grammie's house and not mine! 

On Sunday we went to Sunday School and then Avery came right home and took a nap immediately (very uncharacteristic) because she was excited to go to a Round Rock Express ball game that afternoon. (please don't call it a baseball game. It is a BALL game. Just ask Avery....)

At the baseball game, my parents gave Avery the following food: cotton candy, candied pecans, funnel cake and a snow cone. Clearly my parents hate me because when they brought her back to me she was bouncing off the walls. Luckily she only had a bite or two of each thing and spilled most of everything so she didn't have a stomach ache. When I asked her what she liked most about the ball game she said, "the music." ha!

That night we made dirt cake that we shared with some neighbors. 

 
Here is Avery posing with the dirt cake before we ate it. She was pretty impressed with herself. 

On Monday Avery went for a bike ride with my neighbor and his daughter. He pulled them in the bike trailer while he was on a light version of his regular morning ride. At first Avery didn't understand why she couldn't ride her own bike but when our neighbor came over to show her the trailer she was definitely excited! She was fascinated by his bike helmet and biker shorts. It was hilarious to see her face. I think she thought he was some kind of super hero. 

We spent the rest of the day on Monday playing outside in the pool and cooking out at my parent's house. Here are some shots of that. 

She refuses to just smile for a picture. She'll regret that one day when we are putting her slide show together for her wedding and she looks like a fool in every shot. It will be then that I will say, "I told you so!"
Jack was doing a great job pushing the toys around the back yard. These trunks are sized 12-18 months and my 14 month old boy is spilling out of them. This will be the last time he wears them, which is too bad because it was also the first time he wore them. I got them on sale at the end of last summer and I guess I forgot that he is a big boy and will continue to be a big boy. 
Avery was cute holding jack and going down the slide into the pool together. 
This is Jack eating some watermelon and blowing me kisses. 
And this is when we knew the day was over. It took me literally 3 minutes to put him to bed last night. 

Matt got home from his trip last night and must have thought he was in the wrong house when he went into our bedroom and it was totally clean. I give it 5 days before it is messed up again. It will be at least that long before Matt's suitcase is unpacked and back in the garage.