Memoral Day Staycation

As friends headed out of town to lakehouses or to visit family, we decided to have a fun filled weekend and plan our first Staycation! I prayed for good weather and we got it! After a run to our favorite donut shop on Saturday morning, we loaded up and headed to the Fort Worth Zoo. We met Ella and Audrey's best friends, Madelyn and Harper over there and had a great time seeing the animals. Ella's favorite was again the flamingo which John quickly asked me "Who likes flamingos?" It seems Ella does!

This was Ella's mood as we made our way to the first exhibit. It looked like it may be a LONG day! But....it just lasted a few minutes and then fun began!!
Riding a little elephant before we got to see the real thing!

Audrey petting the tiger...okay, there was a piece of glass between, but it's still pretty close!

Shaking hands with a little kangaroo.

Audrey was so happy!! She loved being able to see things this time (versus being stuck in her stroller). We could barely keep up with her!

Best friends, Ella and Madelyn, enjoying their carousel ride.

Big enough to get her own horse...she was loving it!

On Sunday, we headed to church, enjoyed a delicious lunch and got some good naps in before we headed over to our friends, the Berthelots for dinner. Ella and Jack who are just 6 months apart had a blast playing together and Ella got to play with Jack's stomp rockets and boy did she have fun! We could barely drag her away from it to eat dinner. We had a great time catching up with them and seeing their new home.

Monday morning we got up bright and early and headed down with the Blakes to the Children's Museum in Fair Park. It was the first time I had been down there since I have had my own kids and I was so impressed with all the fun things preschool age kids could do there. The girls loved basically having the place to ourselves for the most part and getting to experiment with a variety of activities. Plenty to keep them occupied...even though Ella still gravitated towards the house with the baby dolls in it!

They had a fire truck for the kids to climb on and fireman costumes to dress up in.

Going down the slide.

Climbing through the tunnels of what was supposed to be an ant hill.

Audrey and Lincoln taking a horseback ride while Ella chaperoned.

Aren't I just the cutest?

The kids got to dig for dinosaur bones. Ella was on the look out for Rexy (aka T-Rex).

As lunch time approached, the kids were done and everyone was getting hungry. Rather than eat the overpriced hamburgers/hotdogs at the museum, the Aggies in the group got to relive the glory days and enjoy Freebirds on the way home. John even suggested it, so I know he is really an Aggie at heart.

To wrap up a fun filled weekend, John decided to get the swimming pool out and after naptime, we all hung out in the backyard playing and enjoying the perfect weather. John grilled a great dinner and we celebrated a great weekend together as a family.

Despite the water being freezing, Ella could have stayed in the pool all day!!

What better way to welcome summer than with a slice of watermelon?

Audrey cruising around on Ella's Dora car. We were so impressed because it took Ella forever to learn how to push the button down and keep it down for it to go. Audrey picked it up right away and was driving all over the back yard. I'm thinking she is a genius.

Out of my way!

We had a perfect weekend. There was very little talk about work, very few timeouts, and lots of hugs and smiles. We made some great memories this weekend and I really enjoyed being able to just have fun as a family and with our friends. I'm so thankful for the great weather, the good food, the dear friends, and most importantly our family.