The Dallas Zoo

Generally, I tend to ascribe to the belief that Houston is better than Dallas in every single way, what Houstonian wouldn't?  That being said, we went in with low expectations for the Dallas Zoo, everyone told us the Fort Worth Zoo was the one to go to.  I can only imagine what the Fort Worth Zoo is like because the Dallas Zoo is sensational.  We chose the Dallas Zoo because they accept our Houston Zoo membership card (Fort Worth Zoo does not) and it was more convenient for the drive home to Houston.  We met up with my friend Neon and her sweet son Noah as well as Shawn and his son Grayson.  Grayson's mom is due in less than a month, so she wisely stayed home and skipped the heat!

Ready for some zoo fun

Did that goat eat Finley's hat?

These shots just crack me up...everyone has such a cute look on their face and Finley just looks hot and miserable.

Monorail!

Lunch with the lions

Grayson and Finley were more interested in his Toy Story book than the Cheetah right in front of them

How Bout Dem O's?

Finley got to see a fantastic game for her first ever Baltimore Orioles game.  The Orioles defeated the Texas Rangers 6 to 1, winning their third game of the four game series.  They also went on to sweep the Rangers on Sunday afternoon.  It is always a good things when the last place Orioles can pull out a sweep against a first place team.  Go O's!

Finley had her first ever hot dog with a bun and all at the game.  She picked most of the bun off and mainly at the hot dog.  She was a definite fan.  It was really warm, even after the sun went down.  Finley took a couple inning break to "walk walk walk" with Clifton, letting me enjoy the game and savor the Orioles' win.

It was a long, hot day, but a whole lot of fun.  Even though we got back to the hotel well after Finley's bed time, she still insisted having a bed time story read to her.  She had fallen asleep almost instantly when we loaded her in the carseat after the game, but she was bright eyed once we got back to our room.  Luckily, it didn't take her long to wind down.

Fort Worth Stockyards

On Saturday, we met up with Clifton's friends Shawn and Jennifer with their son Grayson at the Fort Worth Stockyards.  Jennifer is due in less than a month with a little brother or sister for Grayson.  We are so excited for them!

We started the morning with a mini-carousel ride, as soon as Shawn inserted the quarter, Finley wanted "down".  Oh my, my, my...see that ticker above about Disneyworld?  Her ride fear is ever increasing, which does not bode well.

After the botched carousel attempt, Grayson and his dad checked out the Stockyard Maze, while we sent Miss Finley to jail. She looks a little too happy to be locked up.

Then it was onto the pony rides and again we heard "down".  She has enjoyed the pony rides in the past, so once again I have no clue where her fear came from.  Grayson did great on the pony, Bullseye.  Since she had such fun in jail, who would have thought that fun things like pony rides and carousels would be enjoyable for her?

At 11:30 am, they heard the cattle down the main drag at the Stockyards.  It is fun to watch all the longhorns shuffle on by with the cowboys guiding them.  We hit up Riscky's Stekahouse afterwards for a tasty Texas lunch.
 

Of course, what is Finley's favorite way to end her big day at the Fort Worth Stockyards?  Blue Bell ice cream!

Road Trip

Finley, Clifton and I headed up to Fort Worth/Dallas this weekend to watch the Baltimore Orioles play the Texas Rangers.  Finley has been on a few Texas road trips so far, to both San Antonio (Visit One and Visit Two) and Plano.

We stopped in Madisonville on the way up north and on the way back home.  We all needed a snack to make the road trip pass.  Madisonville is a good stopping point for the drive and a good place to switch drivers, if you are lucky enough to have company on the trip.

On the way to Fort Worth we stopped for Dairy Queen where Finley and her daddy shared a Blizzard.

On the way home we stopped at McDonald's for sundaes and a McFlurry, which is very similar to a Blizzard.  Finley has been to this McD's before on our trip home from Plano.  I spilled a Coke all over the floor last time we were there, hope they don't remember me.  While we were there, they ran out of ice cream.  Thank goodness we made it in time!

Finley did great on both trips.  She took a good nap each way and was reasonably content being in her carseat for such a long time.  On the way to Fort Worth, we hit a rainstorm, which really slowed things down.  This was complicated by the fact that everyone in the car was hungry for dinner!

Finley and I are hitting the road again tomorrow morning to visit Auntie Hodder in San Antonio.  I am sure she cannot wait...

The Downtown Aquarium

Since Clifton was off on Monday, we decided to head over to the Downtown Aquarium for some fish and fishy fun rides.  This wasn't Finley's first visit, we had been once before with playgroup.  We once again used the BOGO coupon and we were ready for unlimited rides.

We got there right when it opened and did all the rides once. Finley loves the Shark Voyage Train, she was unsure about the carousel this time and seemed to be okay on the Ferris Wheel as long as she was in her daddy's lap.

I am concerned about her minor fears on the carousel this visit. That does not bode well for our DisneyWorld trip in a couple of months. Hopefully her joy for the rides will return in time for DisneyWorld. Most of the Disney rides are more like the Shark Voyage train, which she loved, so I hope that is the case in Disney.

Just like always, Finley's favorite thing to do was run run run. She did really enjoy the white tigers, she is such an animal lover. Isn't her fish dress the cutest? I think she has nearly every outfit from the Gymboree fish collection, it is so adorable.

Game!

Finley loves to play Ms. PacMan.  She refers to it as "Game".  She moves Ms. PacMan all around and usually is able to eat one power pellet before the ghosts get her.  We usually play two player and sometimes we work together playing one player.  Finley can get pretty controlling if we share, so we don't make it very far.  Her favorite part of "Game" is to watch "The Chase".

Hopefully, Finley will be good at Ms. Pac Man, like her daddy is.  I am terrible at it, which is good for now since Finley's attention span for actually playing "game" isn't very long at all.  She grows bored pretty quickly, but it is a good distraction for a bit.

I wonder what video games will be like during her adolesence.  I can only imagine how high tech things will be when she can actually play a video game for real.  I remember being blown away by how amazing Super Mario Brothers was compared to Colecovision.   Since her first video game was Mariokart for the Wii...remember this?

Mini Galleria

This morning we had playgroup at the fantastic new play area at the Houston Galleria. It is a mini Galleria for the kids to climb and play. The whole area is made of a soft, anti-bacterial product and the kids had a blast climbing all around. Finley's favorite spot was to be on top of Neiman Marcus, that's my girl.For all the local moms, I highly recommend this play area.  The only negative is that there is no gate, so kids can wander out if you don't have your eye on them.  I hope they install one similar to the one at the play area at Memorial City Mall.  The mom's had sort of made a barrier by lining up strollers, so it is obviously something that is needed. 

There was a great car play area in the mini-parking lot areas.  Finley was disappointed that none of the car doors opened.  She tried every door countless times and got frustrated that she couldn't drive off in her new ride.

It is on the second floor, right across from Borders.  We never hit this area of the Galleria, so I was clueless about its existence.  Thank goodness our playgroup introduced us, it is a great way to break up shopping with Finley.  We stopped by Janie and Jack to return a hat that didn't fit and to scope out the sale after our playtime. 

Instead of just having to avoid the heat this summer, we have also been having to avoid the rain.  It is raining again today, but we parked in the parking garage and were able to stay dry the whole time.  I am ready for this rain to stop.

A Finley Sized Chair

I found a fantastic chair on Amazon (one of my most favorite places to shop) for Finley.  It was reasonably priced, no tax and ships for free.  I had considered getting her the Pottery Barn Kids Anywhere Chair, but this chair will last her longer and the leatherette makes it so easy to clean.  Not to mention it is the same price~
Finley loves her chair.  She climbs up in it with her bear, blanket and a bag of chips to sit back, relax and watch some Sesame Street.  Ah, the life of a toddler.

We had playgroup at our house today and Finley had a complete meltdown by the end.  She was being very posessive of her toys, especially her stroller and baby Stella.  Anything that her friends played with, that became the toy she had to have.  Didn't matter if it was her pig, her blocks, Little People, whatever.  It got to the point that distraction wasn't even an option because whatever I would distract the other kids with, she had to have next.  I know she was frustrated and so was I.  Learning to share is hard, poor little Finley Bug.