Elizabeth-1, Andy-1 (Part 2)

Mr. Turtle, why are you so slow??  That was the main question asked at the Austin Zoo on Sunday.  (Sorry this is a couple days late, but I remembered everything!!!)  The Austin Zoo is made up of all rescued animals.  Sadly you can tell the ones that were abused and mistreated.  But it was nice to see they were taken care of and loved for their next part in life! 

Laila was in ahhh with all the animals they had!!  But it was miss Lainie Lou that fell in love with the turtle and the rooster!!  Every time she saw the turtle she would scream with excitement!  The turtle didn't seem to phased as he kept moving along at about 1 mph.  But at one point, they were both looking eachother, probably wondering the same thing, who are you!!  The rooster however did not feel the same as Lainie, as it kept running away every time she got near!!  They also had a petting zoo where you could feed the goats, deer and pigs!  Lainie had no problems putting her hand in with the food!  Laila however was a little hesitant and had us give her share to the animals.  Either way all parties were happy in the end!!  We ended up going to the zoo at 10am to avoid the heat!!  Which we were happy we did, since it was already in the high 90's by the time we left!!  Uhhhgggg!!!  This heat is hard to get used to!!

After the zoo we ended up going back to the hotel (my pick, just had to remind you all! :) ) and had lunch, got refreshed and then headed out for our land/water tour of Austin.  This was a great way to learn about the city!  Andy, Laila, Lainie and I boarded the duck boat/bus, along with our duck noise makers!!  The young girl infront of Laila probably wished they never handed those out!!  Laila didn't stop making duck noises the entire time!!  The bus driver however, loved her enthusiasm!!!  The tour was soooo good that both girls fell asleep in our arms half way through the trip!  That almost never happends!!!  Lets just say we didn't tip the boat, but made sure the tip our tour guide!! :)  We ended the evening with visiting the state capital.  What an amazing looking building from afar and close up!  As we went inside, we had to go through the metal detectors.  Laila was following the rules as she gave the officer her duck whistle as she entered the detector!  She passed!!  We all did!!  After  the capital we went back to the hotel to go swimming and bed!!  It was a good day!!!

I'm sure you are all wondering what Andy did to even out the score??  After we got back to the hotel from the zoo, a man pulled up to our car, got out and visited with Andy.  I couldn't tell what they were talking about, but it made my stomach drop!?  Did we cut someone off, were we doing something wrong???  After the man left in his car, I asked Andy what that was all about.  Andy said the man and his wife were on their way to his father-in-laws funeral, his wife was 4 months pregnant and all their credit cards were denied.  They had no way of getting anywhere since they were running out of gas.  So the kind person Andy is gave them some money.  Most people would not do this, I would be one of them at times, but Andy showed me as well as his little girls, that there is still kindness in people!  We will never know if this money was used for what the man said, but Andy's huge heart didn't judge!  Good things happen to good people in the end!

P.S. a little video of Laila at the zoo!!  EN

Elizabeth-1, Andy-0 (Part 1)

Andy, Laila, Lainie and I are on another family vacation!  This will be a three part post due to all the excitement we will be having!  Really, it's so i don't forget anything that happened each day! :)  Today we headed to Austin, TX!  After the four hour car ride, we finally made it.  Along the way, we made a quick pit stop at a highway flea market!  It was an interesting stop, but will pass on the 99 degree, dust filled flea market next time!!  Plus, it was hard to manover around with a 2 1/2 year old, walking in Sleeping Beauty high heals and trying to touch everything!  Ice cream was a must after all that!  Next to the flea market was gas station who had just that!  While on a mission to get our treats, an older gentleman walked up to Laila (she was wearing her high heals, a dress and her movie star sunglasses) and told her she was purrrrtier than a picture and called her Miss Hollywood!  Laila was sooo happy, it made her day!! I could tell this was going to be a good trip!

 Arriving into Austin, our next mission was to find a hotel.  Yep, we didn't book a hotel!  The last vacation we booked, we ended up spending to much time getting to and from the hotel.  So we decided to wait until we got to Austin to check out the area!  Being the mom I am, i took it upon myself to look up a couple hotels before we left, just in case!  So glad I did, because we could of been driving around looking for hours!  An exact 2 hours was spent looking, with nothing avaliable or to expensive!!  If only a certain someone, who i won't name :) would of taken  my advice and went to the hotels on my list!  Hmmm, where are we sleeping tonight????  At one of my picks!!  Elizabeth-1, Andy-0!  After getting settled into our hotel, we went to check out The University of Texas!  Who knows, maybe one of the girls will go here someday!!  So we had to take their picture infront of the campus!!!  Someday if they do decide to go here, we will have a picture of when they were little!!

 After driving around the quiet campus, checking out the huge stadium, we decided to go downtown to take on the crowd and food!  Now the crowd was not 1-2 years of age!  More like 21 and ready to party!  Andy and I thought to ourselves, we can't be that old, but our little ones reminded us that we were!  Those were the days!! :)  Throughout our walk we passed many interesting bars!  One sign outside a bar read, "Dogs are welcomed, but kids must be leashed" guess we couldn't go in there!!  We did end up finding a wonderful Mexican restaurant!!  The girls sat so nice and actually ate everything!!  Laila must of been happy, as she kept jumping up and down in the booth!  It will be interesting how everything will look in 16 years if they do decide to go to school here!  

After supper, we had to have our sweets!!  We passed a sign earlier that read fried ice cream!  Anyone who knows Andy, knows he LOVES the Taco Shops fried ice cream in Fargo, ND!  So we were on a mission to tickle our taste buds with a great treat!  Sadly, we were not impressed!  The fried ice cream was the size of a medium egg and hardly fried.  How much you ask was this amazing ice cream!  $5.00 for one!  Ouch!!  Taco Shop, we miss you!  After our spendy sweet treat, we made our way back to the car and headed back to the hotel!  What a day!  But a fun day!!  Sunday, we plan on going to the zoo and on a duck tour ride around the city!  Til then!!!  EN

P.S. the high for today in Austin, TX was 101 degrees!  Our car therm. read 111!!  Crazy!!  Not sure if we are cut out for this temp.!!!

Fried gator anyone??!!

When you see or hear to word Delacroix's (a seafood restaurant), you think wow that sounds amazing!  I had my hesitations since I am not a big seafood eater, but hey it was worth a shot!  We have to try everything while we are here at least!  So a bunch of us decided to venture out, since we had been hearing great reviews on Delacroix's fried gator!  Yep, that's right, fried gator!  Right away i just shook my head and said, I hope they have cheeseburgers!!  But who knows!!

Five of us adults and three little ones pulled up into a parking lot that looked as if we were in the market to fill up our vehicles?  It looked like a gas station!  What we didn't know was, Delacroix's turned an old gas station into their restaurant!  How different and unique!  Entering the facility, i still had my hesitations to try this amazing gator we kept hearing about from the guys!  After sitting down, looking through a menu, Andy quickly ordered us a batch of fried gator to try!  I must say the picture to the right is my reaction to the gator being chewy!  I was not used to this, but the taste was not horrible.  It was different and worth trying, but I don't plan on ordering fried gator in the near future!

As I was eating this fried gator, all I could think about was the show Swamp People!  These guys go out and hunt for gators for people like us who want to eat/ try this special meat.  Well I just want the gators to know out there, i'm not going to be eating them any time soon!  Everyone else agreed with the meat having a chewy side to it, but actually liked it!  They are more than welcomed to have my share any day!  The picture to the left, is of Andy and Laila sitting infront of the menu!  You can see the lovely gator and frog leggs etc.  Laila and Lainie did not try the gator, but also had a cheeseburger and fries.  Laila didn't look to impressed when we offered!!  Lainie only having two teeth (more on on their way!), we didn't think this chewy gator would work to well!  I do have to say the cheeseburger i had was wonderful!!  So I always say, never judge a book by its cover.  This is so true for this restaurant!  The food was wonderful, the building was very creative and the experience was one we will remember!!  Good food and good company in Nacogdoches, TX! 

These boots are made for walkin!

Adventure was in the air yesterday morning as we packed up and headed to Tyler, TX!  If I only knew what was ahead of us for the rest of the day/evening!!  Nacogdoches, TX is known for being the oldest town in TX.  Though it is a nice, old town, there are not many stores to choose from!  We had decided to head to Tyler, which is about 70 miles from Nacogdoches where all the stores were!  Kohls, Marshalls, Ross, Toys R' us and Babies R' us and more!!  I could go on!  Target was great, but Kohls was amazing!  Not only did Andy get two pairs of shorts, but a shirt and sandles!!  I wish I had as much luck as this guy in finding stuff!  Plus he did it in record time!  As I stood in ahhh that he had accomplished this so fast, he looked at me like it was nothing!  His response to my look was, what, it's not that hard, just pick out what you want!  Ha, if it was that easy!  Anyways with not to much success for myself, the girls both got two new outfits!  Of course right away this morning the first words out of Laila's mouth was, I want to wear my new dress!  Total girl!  After Kohls, we were off to the boot store.  I've never seen a guy sooo happy walking out of a boot store with boots in hand!  After showing me his new cowboy boots, I must admit I was a bit jelous.  No worries, I will get boots soon!! 

Before heading back to Naco, we were going to make a quick stop at a bar (used to be a strip club) for a co-workers going away party!  On a different note, it's sad to meet some really nice people and then have to say goodbye so quickly due to field assignment changes!!!  Of course we had to say our goodbyes, so we ventured in after we got the ok that the girls could go in!!  Laila and Lainie can now check that off their list of places they've been!  The girls did not go into the bar, but a nice fenced in backyard that the barbacue was being held at.  After visiting and letting the girls run off energy in the yard, we decided to head home!  Oh wait, we couldn't leave yet!  Not because we wanted to stay longer, but because ELIZABETH locked the keys (the only keys we have) in the Yukon!!  Ahhhhhh!  Andy's response was, "If i would of done this, you know how mad at me you would of been!  You would be yelling at me right about now!" ok he may be right, but now is not the time to remind me of my lovely behavior!!  We found a locksmith who would open our lock for $30.00!  What a deal, but it wouldn't have to be a deal if i remembered to not lock them in the car!!  Anyways the guy pulled up, got out a key and jiggled it back n forth in the lock and what do you know, it worked!  Crazy and a bit scary this worked, but thank goodness!!  By this time it was 9pm and way past the girls bedtime!!  Finally back on the road, we made it home safe and sound!  What an adventure!!  P.s. you may be wondering what the bar looked like?  It looked like a normal bar in TX, but the three large polls that started from the top of the ceiling and ended on the floor gave away that it was a little different than other bars!!  I guess they didn't want to take away everything after it became just a bar! 

Sway to the rhythm of love!

Happy Anniversary, Happy Mother's Day, so many happy things to be thankful for!  It has been awhile since my last post.  I've had writers block and have yet to recover from it!  I will start with Andy and I celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary on Friday!!  Out of the 11 years together, 5 years of being married to this guy has been great!!  Earlier in the week, Andy informed me there was a package that needed to be picked up from our apartment office.  You could tell his cover was blown, but it had to be done since he wouldn't get there in time to pick it up!  Personal Memories label, hmmmm sounds like a anniversary gift to me!  Laila of course kept asking me to open this box of mystery.  I explained to her that Andy gave me strict rules to not open it!  You can imagine how hard it was for this 2 1/2 year old to hold back from opening this box!  On Friday, Andy finally let me see what he worked so hard on! :)  It was a cubed picture frame with our names and the message, grow old with me carved in the wood on the top.  Andy - 10 bonus points! 

I'm sure you are all wondering what I gave Andy!  We all know how much Andy loves his beer!  So i figured what better way to say I love you than to sign him up for the beer of the month club!  The only thing is I signed him up for one month!!  Haha, one month is like a tease!  But he will get 12 beers for the month of May from distributors throughout the US.  If he likes this, I will sign him up for more!  He of course loved it!  So I will give myself a 10 too!!  Our friend/Andy's co-worker John was our babysitter for the night and did an AWESOME job!!  We spent the rest of our evening going out to dinner and having a couple beverages to end the night!!   

Happy Mother's Day!!!  I do believe us momma's have the hardest job, but very rewarding!!  After waking up at 10:30am, yes that late!  I awoke to a little voice holding a envelope that was colored on, saying Happy Mother's Day Mom!  As i walked into the living room i noticed a table full of plants!  I love flowers don't get me wrong, but I love plants!!  You can continue to enjoy them for a long time!!  Laila happily pointed out the one she picked out for me!  Lainie was just her usual happy self!  A great day with my little ladies!  We also are so thankful for all the mother's that have made a difference in our lives, our daughter's and friends lives!!  Thank you!!  I leave you with some pictures of my best accomplishments!!

~ Happy Mother's Day!!! ~

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