Bayou Wildlife Park

Okay, we have been wanting to take a trip to the Wildlife Park. So we chose our day and even though there was a chance of rain, we were determined. As we pull up to gates the sky is dark with the clouds drizzling on us yet our determination still supassed our logic (that is not uncommon in our household). We pay and start driving down the road to park. We had no idea the animals would be blocking us from driving down the road and sticking their heads right in the window. As the llama comes up, Ben is frantically yelling, "hurry, put up the windows it is going to spit on us." Surprisingly the kids did not adhere to his commands. Following the llama comes the very friendly ostrich, once again head in the window. I am imagining it pecking the life out of my children. McKinna is feeding it, but Bodin is not crazy about the whole thing. We felt like we were in the Jurassic park movie with the dinosaurs coming right up to the car and checking us out.





Now, we finally get to our parking spot and walk over where the kids feed some of the deers while we wait for the tram to take us around the park. We did have to wait for the rain to let up before we could go. (Again, we perservere through the storm.)


We finally make it off on the tram. Now this is a metal cage that we are sitting in while there was lightning and thunder all around us and we were driving through all of these trees. At one point a branch off of one of the trees broke due to the weight of the water, but we kept going. It added to the ambience of the whole experience. I don't think my kids will ever forget this experience. And we did get to see and feed a lot of interesting animals.






After all the fun we went and ate at the BEST Mexican Food restaurant, La Brisa. Our waiter was great and made McKade this napkin hat.

Kemah Boardwalk

The Kemah Boardwalk is about 5 minutes from our house. We went down and took the kids for a ride on the ferris wheel. Ben and Jim took the boys and played some arcade games and Danielle and I took the girls to a Christmas store, Thomas Kinkade store, and the candy shop. It was fun to go on a night when it was not too crowded. Of course, it was drizzling on us.

Playing at Galveston

We headed to the beach in the rain. We went to Murdoch's shop. The store is split in two sides with a patio beach side. The wind was so strong going between the shops we literally felt like we were going to be blown away.




We them played under the pier for a bit.

Then we moved out into the weather. The kids had a good time, but were freezing by the time we got back into the car.

Moody Gardens

We went to the Moody Gardens Aquarium with Jim and Danielle. It is in Galveston. We saw some interesting ocean creatures.








I need one of these at home for my kiddos...and husband


About this point McKade gave us the sign that he was getting bored.

As you leave the Aquarium they have this quote on the wall.

Galveston

Jim and Danielle came to visit us and while they were here we spent some time in Galveston. I love Galveston. I enjoy the old-time feel of it, I like to be surrounded by the ocean, and you can always find something down there to do. Here is a little of what we did...




See what I mean by the houses. I could drive around all day just looking at these cool houses.
We toured one house. It is called the Bishop's House. It was amazing to see how advanced the building was when this house was built. Everything is more advanced if you are rich:) As we toured I could just imagine what it would have been like to have the servants catering to this family. Beautiful, beautiful house.


One thing that is hard to see is the destruction that Galveston suffered from Ike. You will find Ike water lines around Galveston. You can also see the damage done to this hotel. I find it interesting that I heard so much about Hurricane Katrina and Louisiana and so little about Ike here in Texas.

Dinner & a movie

Our HOA hosted a dinner and a movie/pool swim night. As we loaded up the car I started freaking out thinking of how many people were gonna be there and how they were all going to annoy the heck out of me (Ben). To my surprise not too many people showed up leaving plenty of pizza and space to watch the movie. The pizza was really good and HUGE!! This is definitely a party pizza.




The movie shown was "Diary of a Wimpy Kid." If you haven't seen it, it is actually pretty funny and the kids enjoyed it. They spread out their blankets on the tennis court, laid down with their friend, and watched the entire movie which ended around 1030 pm.



All in all it was a good night, especially since it was free!! We were very surprised an HOA would provide the entertainment they did that night.