A Childs Confidence

For most of Devon's life she has been a bit timid, shy, and at times afraid to try something that seems risky. The last couple of weeks she has been riding her bike without training wheels. Something we have tried a few other times in the past but we ended up putting the training wheels back on because she was too scared.

This time though was quite different, because she fell often and this usually leads to a sense of "I can't do it." However, it didn't stop her this time. If anything, it made her more determined to succeed, which was also something new for us to see. The only other thing she has persisted at has been reading (remember the 90 books this summer?).

Actually, now that I think about it, this has been Devon's summer of confidence. She showed zero fear about being in the big pool, putting her head under water, and learning to swim (with arm floaties). She has conquered riding a two-wheeler. And yesterday when we were exploring the UT campus, she decided she was going to climb high into a tree. And this was an awesome tree, it had a very long branch that reached the ground. She took her shoes off and I showed her how to hug the branch with her legs. After this, she was skooting her way up the tree, until she got to a point where a couldn't reach her any more.

So far, one of my favorite things about being a parent has been showing my kids the things I love; dinosaurs, nature walks, hiking, biking, reading, classic childrens novels, showing acts of kindness to strangers (which can ONLY be taught by modeling, saying be kind to strangers doesn't do the act justice. Do you know how many women I have helped push their cars off the street into parking lots? I've lost count.) and having them soak it up like the little sponges they are.

Seeing Devon suddenly become this confident, adventure seeking kid is bringing more joy than I could have ever imagined. This seems to be just a peek at the person she will become some day, and that is pretty amazing.

Motorcycle Lesson #1

Well, I'm not sure why Chris woke up this morning wanting to teach me about the motorcylce and how to ride it, but he did. Maybe it's because I went ahead and agreed for him to buy his dream mountain bike yesterday.

So we went out to the little parking lot by our neighborhood pool and first he was just showing me how to sit on the bike and then set it down and get off.

Then two trucks came into the parking. Repair men working on the gate and security cameras. Uhg. I wasn't really wanting an audience. But I continued. Next I got to turn the bike on. Ooooooo. That was fun.

Eventually I worked up to putting the bike in first gear and walkng it around the parking lot. Then I started riding with my feet in the air and making figure eights in the parking lot. My audience was impressed and cheered me on. Finally I got the guts to ride with my feet on the steps. At this point, Chris called his parents. He was getting a bit nervous (about the safety of his bike.)

Then Chris told me I was ready for 2nd gear. Inside I was shaking my head no vigorously! But I went ahead. I soon realized the small parking lot was not ideal for learning how to change gears.

I put on my really big, big girl pants and rode out into the neighborhood. After the first circle, I rode back to Chris and was very giggly. Then I went back on the street and practiced changing gears more. This is when I made it up to 35! Woah! It was pretty intense.

Then I rode back to our house and gave Chris a heart attack by riding staight into the garage. Apparently he thought I was going to crash into a wall or the car. Silly husband.

Today was pretty awesome. I believe we will practice more tomorrow, which means hello 3rd gear.

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I Heart Photography

If you haven't noticed already with the massive amount of pictures I take of my kids, I love taking pictures. The two main things I love to photograph are my kids and the outdoors. Now I don't love it in a " I want to do this as a career way," just as a hobby.

I will admit that I prefer to take pictures of the kids outside because using sunlight makes the best pictures, in my opinion. Using a flash is definitely not easy for me. I feel like there is more opportunity for blurring pictures when I take them indoors. And thus, my amateurness comes out. I really have no idea what I'm doing. I've never taken a photography class or even read a book about it (shocking!). I've just tried lots of things and stuck with what works whether I understand why it works or not.

This Tuesday I'm going to see a friend's band play and I am definitely going to climb out of my comfort zone and experiment with my camera at the show. For whatever reason, I get shy about using my camera in front of friends because I have a digital SLR (low grade of course) and people automatically assume that someone with a "fancy camera" knows what they are doing. Silly huh?

Looking at some pictures I took at the park this past week there were a few that I impressed myself with, but understand I am easily impressed......

Looking at this picture I think, "Good job Michelle, that was a really good angle and there is not a big shadow on his face. And good timing with his expression." But then I also keep in mind that my kids are very photogenic and sometimes I feel like that is cheating.

Once again my little Matthew is too adorable and made taking this picture very easy. But I'll pat myself on the back for good timing because he isn't still for long.

This one I took using a technique I stole from someone who I consider to be the bestest photographer I will ever know. I wasn't even looking through the camera. I just angled it below her with her looking down on it and literally got lucky. I mean the odds of me aiming the camera to have Devon centered are phenomenal. This will probably never happen to me again. Bummer.

Now, speaking of the bestest photographer I will ever know, Suzanne Countryman. Let's look at the greatness she creates. Prepare to be stricken with awe.

Isn't that the shizel?

Victory Over the Evil Wasps

So I noticed about a week ago that wasps were forming a nest in the middle of my tomato bushes. No Bueno!! I have two silly fears, flying, stinging insects and arachnids (scorpions and spiders). Although, I am becoming more accepting of spiders because they eat bugs that would eat my veggie plants, but not in the house.

I've been thinking and thinking about how to get rid of the wasps without spraying poison on my tomato plants. During all this thinking I was secretly hoping Chris would "take care of them" with a stick or something, but that never happened. So today I put on my big girl pants. And a heavy jacket. And Chris's motorcycle helmet. And his motorcycle gloves. (You can stop laughing now.) I went out to the tomato plants with our tree clippers (I'm sure there's a better name for those), which extend pretty long, and I started cutting the branch the nest was on. The I trimmed the branch to where I could pull the nest quickly and without hurting the rest of the plants.

This whole process took about 10 minutes because I would snip a branch and jump back because the wasps got upset. Then I would snip again and jump back, sometimes swinging the clippers for protection. I'm grateful Chris was really into the book he was reading or else I know he would have taken pictures or recorded video on his phone. Sorry guys.

Finally, everything was trimmed and ready to be pulled out. Even with all my "gear" on I wouldn't move the nest. I was still too hesitant. So I started knocking the plants and shooed away the wasps. Then I moved the nest and destroyed it. One came back and was looking for it, but I was able to coerce it to fly away from the plants so I could spray it with wasp spray.

So this is the story of my victorious defeat of the evil wasps. Hooray!

Summer Reading

Summer is here and while we are having lots of fun in the sun, we are also keeping up our school skills. Devon likes to write in a journal everyday practicing writing, spelling and grammar. And of course we read everyday.

This summer we are taking advantage of two different reading incentive programs. The first is Half Priced Books Feed Your Brain program. All we do is keep a log of how much time Devon spends reading. If Devon reads for at least 15 minutes a day, five days a week, then she gets a $3 gift card from the store. She gets to do this every week until the middle of July.

The second program is from the Austin Library. This one is a bit different than what my library did when I was a kid. When I was a kid you read a book then you took a short quiz on the book and if you passed then you got credit for reading the book and you got different things for reading different amounts of books. The Austin program says, the kid gets to make a goal of how many books they think they can read during the summer. When they reach their goal, they bring the log back to the library and they get to pick out a new book to keep.

When I asked Devon how many books she wanted to read this summer, I suggested 30. Apparently that wasn't good enough. She said she wants to read 90! So I wrote down 90 books on her log. I know she can do it, I just think it is funny that she chose that amount. The librarian was really impressed. Now reading 90 beginning reader books is different than reading 90 novels, but we'll cross that road when we get there.

Matthew also gets to participate in the program because if I make a goal to read him a certain amount of books and meet the goal, then he gets to pick out a book too.

The First of Many

Trips to the pool that is!


Devon has been begging, and begging, and begging to go to the pool for the last couple of weeks and today we finally made a trip. I'm a big wuss and I won't take the kids to the pool without Chris. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, Devon can't swim yet. So I don't feel like I could keep Devon and Matthew from drowning at the same time. And the second reason is that people like to drive from who knows where to use our pool. I don't like that. It's a community pool. Meaning the people who live in our neighborhood pay a home owners association fee to get the key to use our pool. When strangers drive out here and hop the fence or beg people who already hopped the fence to let them in it irritates the fire out of me. I don't trust strangers around my kids. Call me over protective, I don't care.

Devon is finally tall enough to stand in the big pool at the shallow end (3ft). So today she got used to hopping in the water and then I taught her how to doggy paddle and kick. She hasn't combined the two together yet, but I bet it won't be long until she does and then maybe I would be comfortable taking them to the pool in the mornings on the days Chris works. We'll see.

I Mean It This Time

Yowzers!! Has it really been seven months since my last blog? Well, that seems like a long enough sabbatical to me.

Of course, it is the news irritating me that prompted this revival. I'm sure you heard about the new study that has come out linking levels of pesticide in children's urine with ADHD. And if you know me well, then you expected this blog.

First of all, I am by no means any kind of expert on ADHD. I don't know a lick about behavioral psychology. But I did take two statistics classes in college and there is where some of my disgruntledness (I'm sure I made that word up) is coming from.

With that said, the first thing I want to know is who funded this study. There have been instances where industries or organizations have had a special interest in research improving their status in the world. So that is always the first thing I ponder.

Also, I think it is very misleading for this connection to be made when even the news clearly states according to the study that this was not a 100% of the time situation. Knowing that in research this is rare, I still think that if these results were so grand why not give us some numbers? In my ethical bubble, I don't believe it is appropriate to point your finger at a particular variable and say "You are the reason for this!", when there are obviously more pieces to the puzzle.

In my eyes, there are various contributing factors in ADHD. Some may be genetic, which is way beyond my lingo. But mostly I believe it is not just something ingested (but obviously it can factor in, I'm not countering that), but the parental (or lack of) environment that kids are sometimes brought up in. Being raised in front of the tv screen seems like a big one to me.

My logic says, "hmmm this wasn't a big deal fifty years ago, what has changed?" Yes, our diet has changed, not just in the way our food is grown but also the way it is made available (which is the nicest way I can say processed). We are less physically active, and the way we spend our time has changed quite a bit too.

Now I am slowly on my way to being a health nut, emphasis on the slowly. So I completely agree that pesticides (AND processed foods) are a significant factor to many disorders and even diseases. All this is to say, ADHD is complex just like any other disorder. Rarely is there one factor to point your finger at. Always look at research critically. Just because they are doctors and specialists doesn't mean you don't get to think for yourself about these issues. And that is my mean beef with this.

Looks Like We Need an Update

Sheesh. I haven't posted a blog since before school started. Bad Michelle. So I'll make it up to you and add a few pics of the kids and you will forgive me.

Well, Devon is loving kindergarten. Although she asked me a few weeks into school why they were doing the same work they did in Pre-K. I had to tell her that some kids may not have gone to Pre-K and need to catch up and the teacher wants to refresh everyone's memory.

About five weeks into the school year, the school has two days where there is early dismissal and they leave the afternoons open for parent/teacher conferences. I really like that the school does that. You get a one on one with the teacher and you see how your kid is doing. Well, when I went I got to sit in a tiny kindergarten chair in the hall and wait for my turn. I was out there for about 20 minutes (the parent before went a little over her time, but no biggie) but I felt like I was waiting for the principle or something. It was a very odd sensation.

When I did get to see the teacher. She told me that she was very pleased with Devon and told me her strong points are that she is a fast learner, an eager learner and gets along very well with all her classmates. Not bad huh? But then she got to the "concerns list." There was only one thing in that column and it was that Devon is "too shy and quiet" when talking to the teacher. Apparently her teacher has to ask her to speak up often. But she said that is also common for kids who are the first born girl.

It was real strange when Devon went back to school. Matthew only noticed she wasn't there when it was nap time. He was so used to hugging her before nap he would cry, stretching his arms out for his sister who wasn't there. Poor guy. But he has gotten used to it now. And oddly enough as soon as Devon started school Matthew started talking more. It seems not having big sister there to talk for him gave him a little push to speak up.

I've gone back to working at the church nursery during the ESL classes again. It's twice a week now, so it's twice the fun. This service is available to the students of the ESL classes who have kids. It's a bit challenging when we get a new kid because about 90% of the time they don't speak or understand English, AND they have never been away from their parents before. Talk about a scary experience for the kid! But we do our best to comfort them, and after many weeks they feel comfortable. Let's put a big emphasis on MANY WEEKS.

And finally, I am taking a class at our church that will last about 7 months called Disciple. I had many of my friends tell me about it and they all said it was a bit challenging because you go through most of the bible in that whole time. I was really excited to take on this challenge. But it's not quite what I was hoping for, but I am really enjoying it and learning a lot.

So as promised, here are some new pics of the kiddos. :)

I know I post a lot of pictures with the two of them sitting in this little car, but they play in it so often and this time Devon was wearing Chris's hat. I couldn't resist.

Hear Matthew wanted me to help him put on his backpack. He had filled it with books. So I asked him if he was going to school like Devon he actually said "Yes." It was really cute. He's such a silly boy.

California Day Four (Last Day)

On Monday we really slept in. We planned to go to downtown LA after lunch and see the LaBrea tar pits and the Hollywood walk of fame. Super tourist day basically. :) Then off to the Metro Rail back to the airport, and then home. At midnight. Texas time.

When we finally find the tar pits, I get really excited, this is some really awesomely cool stuff. Although I didn't really care for the smell. I loved how they had statues in the tar that were molded from bones that were actually excavated in the area. We even got to see the pit bubble. Big woah! Ok, my not so inner nerd is starting to show. I'll tone it down a bit.

After walking around the one big pit, we wondered over to the museum and had a look inside. It wasn't too huge inside, but they had a ton (haha get it mammoths. ton. sorry.) of skeletons, and that really surprised me. It was really informative, but I'll just show a few pictures and spare the "boring details." But one of my favorite parts I didn't photograph. They had part of their lab out in the museum and through thick glass we could see scientists cleaning off fossils that had be found in the back where they are still excavating. Oh so fascinating. I was born for tedious science work!

After browsing the museum we learned that there were places in the back where we could see them excavating. Oooooh!!
So after the pits, we headed over to Hollywood. At first when we were walking along the stars, I wasn't impressed. I didn't recognize any names. But eventually as we got closer to the chinese theatre we saw some big names.

Then we came to an area with look-a-likes everywhere. All trying to make a buck of course. I had to stop and get a quick pick with one of my favorite movie icons, Napoleon Dynamite. He stayed in character pretty well. It was his idea to do the "yessssssss" thing. Clever guy. :)

And then we saw the chinese theatre with all the foot prints and autographs in concrete, didn't take any pictures though. Doh!
And then before we left, we saw Michael Jacksons star. Of course it was the most popular in terms of having a mob of people surround it to take pictures and maybe mourn.

Then it was off to the Metro Rail! Which we got on just in time for five o'clock traffic. Fun! I did really enjoy the light rail system. It was very convienent for us, and was super easy to navigate even for out of towners. We get to the airport and get through much faster this time. Hooray! And even had time to eat over priced Burger King for dinner.

We got back to Austin a little before midnight and when Chris tried to call some of his police pals to give us a ride, there happened to be a SWAT call. I was like, "Come on. On a Monday night." So we ended up taking a cab to the East Substation and drove home to a very lonely Xander. Then shortly hit the hay.

California Day Three

We planned day three a tad more, to fit two adventures. And we even planned to wake up "early" so we could leave at 9:00. Our first destination was Raging Waters, which is a big water park. And once again, we had free tickets thanks to Tina's awesome hook-ups from Clear Channel.

Here is a picture of us driving up to the park. Of course I didn't bring my camera in, so this is the only photo I have.

I hadn't been to a water park in about eight years. We stayed for about four hours and then decided that was enough heat and sun. Plus, we were ready for lunch, which was in the car. We packed a picnic lunch to save some money. And it was a good thing too because we looked at the price of food as we were leaving and a slice of pizza and a soda cost, $9!! Highway robbery!

Once we left the water park we headed out to Santa Monica, aka The Pacific Ocean! Now I've seen the Gulf a few times and have even been to beaches in Florida, but non of those compared to the Pacific. It was crisp blue color, and of course there were mountains around too, adding to the awesomeness.

When we got to Santa Monica we drove down the PCH, Pacific Coast Highway. We saw lots of over priced beach houses and hotels, tons of people and even a Ferrari. You know you're in Cali when you see a Ferrari.

Also, about half of the stretch of the highway we drove was along steep cliffs. I suppose people are too busy looking at the ocean to notice if a rock fell on your car, unless it was a big one.

So once we find a place to park, and start walking around we see what was a type of "muscle beach," at least that what's I'm calling it because all you could do it work out and show off like these guys.
We walked over to the pier and had a look around. It was so neat. There were shops, rides, and street shows. Oh and lets not forget the freggin' OCEAN!

So I'm going to get it over with and tell you about being dragged, and yes the man did drag me, into "performing" with some break dancers during a street show. They were funny, and very talented, but they also picked the whitest looking people in the audience to pick on. It was awesome. Humiliating, but in an awesome way.

Now I'll admit I was a weeny and didn't go into the ocean. I was already in dry clothes and didn't really feel like getting wet again. Chris and Jon went in for about half an hour or so and Tina and I took pictures and hung out.

And so eventually the sun started to go down and it was time to go back to the apartment. That night we Had In-N-Out Burger for dinner, thanks to the marvelous suggestion by Gypsy. It was super yummy. We went back to the house and relaxed for the rest of the night.

California Day Two

Boy it sure was different waking up on my own instead of to Devon or Matthew. But since California time is two hours earlier than Texas. I had to have woke up at 5:00am Cali time, because it was still pretty dark outside. I just stayed in bed and dozed for a while until everyone else got up.

On the agenda for Saturday was Universal Studios! I was really excited about this. Since Tina works at Clear Channel she was able to get us all free tickets, which normally cost a little over $60 each. Yikes! Three cheers for Tina!! And it was only about a 25 minute drive from their place. Oh and have I mentioned they live pretty darn close to a mountain. I was incredible!

Everywhere we went there were mountains visible. I was in heaven. I love mountains! I just never really thought about the topography of Cali. Having all those mountains around makes the tectonic threat pretty obvious though. I was slightly worried about the .000000000999 percent chance that an earthquake could happen the few days we were there. So basically this means my thought process was,

"Woah. Mountains. Sweet. They're huge. We're surrounded by them. It

took thousands and thousands and thousands of years of tectonic activity

to create them. Wait. Tectonic activity? That means earthquakes. Oh man.

I didn't even think about earthquakes. Dang."

And then my worrying was over. Such a simple mind. I know. But here are some pictures of the mountains.

This was just up the road from there apartment. I don't know if I would ever go inside if there were a mountain right outside my house.

Yep. There were mountains by the ocean. Gorgeous! But technically we went to the beach Sunday. So this is a sneak peak.

So on to Universal! I didn't take my camera because they don't allow them on the rides and I don't trust people enough to leave it in a cubby hole while I'm on a 3-10 minute ride. Paranoid. I know. But it was awesome. First you go into a place called Universal City. There are tons of shops and big name restaurants. It seemed like they were going for a time square/Las Vegas look. Cool stuff.

After that you go into the actual park. We rode on the new Simpsons ride, which Chris said was his favorite. We also did The Mummy ride, which was an indoor roller coaster in complete darkness. Scary. Then of course was my personal favorite, the Jurassic Park ride! Let's see. I can't remember some of the other things we did. Uhg. And it's only been a week.

We also took a tram tour of the lots where they film tv shows and movies. It was really neat. The tour combined entertainment sections and also real sets. For instance, we drove down the actual Wisteria Lane (spelling?) from Desperate Housewives. I don't watch the show, but it was interesting the see how they just built there own neighborhood in the middle of rows and rows of studios.

We were able to get our hands stamped to go back out to Universal City and had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. Those are always fun. But pricey! We stayed at the park all day. It was awesome. Not once did I have to change a diaper or read "But Not the Hippopotamus" a million times. I had real conversations without interruptions. I could make decisions without worrying how they would impact a one year old and five year old. It was nice. But I still missed them. :)

California Day One

We've been back for almost a week now. I'd better blog now before I forgot what happened. ;)

Well, first off, we dropped the kids off on Thursday afternoon, meeting Chris's parents halfway to their house. It's a four hour drive total. We met at a McDonalds and the plan was to eat and let the kids play on the playground, but of course it was raining. One of the three days it rained this summer! We load up everything in Pop's car and move the car seats over. Then came the hard part, saying good-bye. The trick was to be sincere but not too sappy to where Matthew would get upset. Meaning I couldn't show how sad I really was, because I knew I would miss them. So I had to be tough. I did a good job because the kids left smiling and that was the important part.

We drive back to Austin. Now our plan was scheduled to leave at 7:40am on Friday morning. Instead of paying $25 a day to park at the airport, we park at the East Substatin, Chris's work. Seemed like a good secure place to park, within the large gates and surrounded by police cars. You can't beat that!

We wake up at 5:15 on Friday morning, get ready real quick, and drive to the East Sub. From there we walked a few blocks to a bus stop for the airport flyer, due at 6:28am. We cleverly packed everything in backpacks to make this easier.

As we are approaching the bus stop I realize I don't have any change for the bus and I wasn't sure if they took 20s. So Chris dashes across the street to a Sonic to get change. He ran back across the street just before the bus was pulling up. What a trooper! The bus gets us to the airport in ten minutes. Shocking. I know.

We go into the airport thinking, "yeah, we're here an hour early that should be fine this early in the morning." Then we see the lines to check in baggage. UHG! I was feeling panicky. An airport employee told us we had to go to a specific (and LONG) line to check in Chris's gun. It takes half an hour to get to the counter and it turns out we actually could have gone through any line. Grrr. So we pay for the bag and then fill out some paper work for Chris's gun. While there I nervously say, "We can make to the terminal by 7:40 right?" The lady then tells us the most amazing news, the flight was delayed by 35 minutes. Talk about relief. So we go over to where they really check the gun and then we were off to go to our terminal.

We wait in another line to take off our shoes and put everything through the x-ray machine. When we get out of that line it was 7:32am. If our flight had not been delayed we would have had eight minutes to get to the gate and board before it left. But luckily, we we're stressing any more.

We board on the plane. And arrive in sunny California where it was 74 degrees at 9:15am. Awesome weather! We collect our bags and hop on a shuttle bus to the Metro Rail. I was really impressed with the rails there. It took us an hour to get from the airport to Passadina, where Jon and Tina live.

We meet up with Jon and Tina and then we were off to Chinatown! We had lunch at Foo Chow, which was used in the movie Rush Hour. You may have heard of it. But we weren't that impressed with their food. Then we walked around, taking tons of pictures of course. It seemed pretty empty. And I was expecting more outdoor vendors, but maybe it's different on the weekends.

Then we headed back to get some groceries, because lucky me was getting cooking lessons from Jon, who buy the way is almost done with culinary school at the Le Courdon Blue. You know we're Emiril went. Yep. Jon's that good. :)

He showed me how to make mac and cheese, the real way. I've tried twice and both times I ruined the sauce and we had to eat buttered elbow macaroni. And Chris said he wanted quiche, so I got to learn out to make that from scratch too. Both were actually pretty simple, I just learn cooking techniques better hands on. We had sooooooo much cheese though! It was great.

Honest Abe, I mean Devon

Today was a day for one of our bi-monthly trips to Costco. I love it! But that's not the point of this short story. As we're heading toward the check-out counters, with a very grumpy Matthew, I see a display for kids vitamins, of course in jumbo bottles. Instead of just grabbing the one I know I'll end up buying, I compare all the different kinds (it's a sickness, I can't just pass by the other options there could be a better deal). And after a few minutes I hand Devon the bottle that I knew I was probably going to get.

Devon holds it and points to the bears for Matthew saying, "Bear. Matthew can you say bear?" She's cute and helpful, huh? So I load up all our goodies onto the conveyor tables and check out super quick as usual. When they push my basket to me Devon stops me with a very serious voice saying. "Stop. They didn't let me pay for my vitamins." She's been big on buying things herself lately. I turn to ask the cashier to ring it up real quick, but she had already scanned half a dozen things from the lady behind me in line. I told you, these people are quick.

I really didn't want to go back to the end of a line. So I go to a manager who is conveniently near me and tell him what happened and asked if he could ring it up for me. He was very happy to help so we go to an empty register and pay for it. While I'm swiping my debit card he turns to Devon and says, "Are those your vitamins?" She replied, "Yes. The lady didn't scan them and I forgot my money, so my Mom is really nice and is buying them for me."HAHA! Then he tells her, "That was a very honest thing to do. Just like honest Abe." And here's the best part, she told him, "You know, his real name is Abraham," in a very as a matter of fact voice. We both just laughed. He told her, "You sure are a smart kid," and we left.

I would have been so embarrassed if we had left the store and not payed for them. I just wasn't paying as close attention when putting my things up. Next time I'll know to check the kids laps when checking out. As for Miss Know It All, I can only hope she keeps up the confidence, but needs a little work on respect to adults. Luckily the manager wasn't offended.

Side story. As I was loading the car, I witnessed two cars back out into each other. One car was very calm and sincere, the other had a very grumpy lady who insisted on calling the police. When I had put everything up and the kids were loaded, I went to tell her they would be waiting in the parking lot a while for a police officer to show up, for maybe even two or three hours. But she cut me off at "Excuse me." She started yelling at me that I would need to "wait a damn minute for the police to get there," before she would move her car. I just laughed and turned around. Her car wasn't really blocking mine, but if she's going to be snippy, then too bad for her. We left for home.

Dino Park or Great Scott We Finally Made It!

Alas, a wonderful day came on Tuesday that was cloudy and perfect to spend a couple of hours in Bastrop, at The Dinosaur Park. I know it sounds odd that a cloudy day would be a perfect day, but with it being the norm this summer for the temperatures to hang out nicely above 100, clouds make it less burdensome. It was a 30 minute drive for us, but with the back seat full of books, the kids didn't really notice. Sneaky. I know.

When I pull into the driveway for the dinosaur park there were three small PrimeRose buses, which is a daycare out here. I was a little bummed, but then I noticed that they must have all come about 15 minutes apart because they were separated pretty well in small groups. Not too bad. The first place you walk in is the gift shop, which of course is bursting with dinosaurs in every corner. I about lost it. It was incredible. I might have to remember this place for Christmas presents for little man. Devon had to drag me past all the shelves of dinosaurs so we could pay to get into the park.

The park really consists of two parts. One is a 1/2 mile trail where you see the dinosaur sculptures and the other has a playground, picnic tables and a dino-dig area to dig for dinosaur "fossils." When we headed over to the trail to start the tour, we had a clipboard with scavenger hunt clues. I wasn't sure if Devon would get what a scavenger hunt was, but of course she found everything but one, and I couldn't even find it. It just gives us a reason to go back another day.

So here are the pictures I know you are dying to see. :)

Here are the kids with a Stegoceras. Once Matthew saw this he started squealing "di-di!" Too cute! And then as we walked on he was eagerly looking around the woods for more "di-di's." It really is a great place, as you walk through the trails it gives you the feeling of being on a dinosaur safari.

This is the kids with one of the most recognizable dinosaurs, the Triceratops. These statues are built to scale, so seeing just how big these creatures were is incredible. Or I'm just a big dino-dork.


Along the trail there were a couple of statues for photo opportunities and interaction. This is the kids with a baby Apatosaurus. After playing with this dinosaur Matthew didn't want to keep going. He wanted to stay and play with it. It took a little convincing, but finally I said "I see more dinosaurs" and he got back in. :) More sneakiness. I should write a book called, The Sneaky Mom.
Here are the kids with my personal childhood favorite, the Stegosaurus. It was huge!

I know the kids aren't in this picture, but you can't ignore the T-Rex. He is actually placed along the trail to where you go around a corner and BAM! there is a T-Rex. Very clever Dinosaur Park.
After the T-Rex, was its' nest with a baby T-Rex. The kids loved climbing all over it.


After finishing the trail, we had some lunch and the kids played on the playground and in the dig pit. But before we left, because dark rain clouds were headed our way, I snagged some pictures of the kids playing with this random T-Rex head. It thought it was awesome that there was a place in the back to climb in the mouth. Super funny.

Overall, this is a really neat park. If we are ever to win the lottery I would donate lots of money to this park. This is the only dinosaur park I have ever heard of. Oh and I forgot to mention most of the dinosaurs at the park, have been found in Texas. I thought that was cool. Of course I didn't show them all. I wouldn't want to spoil all the fun.