We’ve come to the last post in this somewhat epic spring vacation blog posting extravaganza. While I’ll be publishing them one-a-day over the next weeks, I’ve written all 12 in one day. A day that involved me sitting on the sofa for about 12 hours. I’m nursing my sore throat and my woozy head. Step, strep, be gone!
But you’re reading this sometime in May, and hopefully we are all healthy again.
This was my second visit to the Dallas World Aquarium. My first was with Bryan back in December 2009 (post and photos here). On Thursday morning, we packed up our things at Kirk and Sue’s house and took our rental car (a very snazzy red Chevy Cruze) to the train station where we caught the DART downtown. The kids really enjoyed being on the train. What an adventure! When we got to the aquarium, Sylvia wanted to see the sloth and Andrew wanted to see the toucans.
Here’s the sleepy sloth.
And here they got to feed the toucans blueberries!
Unfortunately, the stopping of the blueberry feeding resulted in a 20 minute tantrum from my dear daughter.
Eventually, I walked away and photographed this giant otter.
Andrew helped her recover (holding her face in his hands and trying to make her laugh). And off we headed to check out more wildlife. Here, the kids are checking out some big lizards.
This aquarium is incredible. It’s as much a zoo as an aquarium, and I love how their exhibits have you wander through ecosystems. Makes it feel like you’re in the jungle as the birds fly over head.
My favorite creature of the trip was this octopus, who was swimming/crawling across the tank. Seeing all those suckers work in harmony was really quite stunning!
Due to more tantruming, we made a quick exit from the aquarium and caught the train back up to Plano. From there, we drove up to Frisco, where we got to see Melanie’s Curves in its new location.
Andrew was having a blast using the stretching apparatus as a jungle gym.
Here’s Mel at her Curves!
The kids wanted to have lunch at Indian Buffet, so Melanie directed us to one nearby. After stuffing ourselves (is it possible to not stuff one’s self at an Indian Buffet?), we headed over to a great playground before we needed to zip back to the airport to return the rental car and catch our 5:30pm flight.
The kids got some good pre-traveling running around time.
More importantly, we all got a little more play-with-Melanie time!
The kids sure did like this tire swing!
The rental car got returned without a hitch, but our flights were delayed. It looked somewhat unlikely that we’d make our connection in Chicago, but we did! The flight out of Chicago was actually delayed for an hour or so, but the kids did wonderfully. They played London Bridges and Ring Around the Rosie and a little small-space tag. Andrew read to Sylvia, we dolled out the candy from Kirk and Sue, and everyone stayed happy.
And when we got home, Bryan and Terry met us at the airport! It felt so nice to be home again:) Sylvia’s bag had a rather fatal mishap in the valet check, but nothing besides the bag itself was damaged.
What a lot of great visiting! The kitties are happy to have me home again. And I’m so glad to have all these photos and memories of my trip. Thanks to Granny and Grandad for taking the kids for the week so I could play! Glad to be back home with my husband and kiddos again:)