San Antonio

Auntie Hodder (Heather) was in San Antonio for the week, so we made the drive out there to visit her.  Finley did great on both drives there, which was fantastic considering she had just finished a road trip to Fort Worth.  The way home she napped for nearly the entire ride.  If I hadn't stopped for gas, I am guessing she would have slept the entire way.
We went to La Cantera for lunch and stopped at Neiman Marcus for one of their famous chocolate chip cookies.  They were so yummy.  Finley and I shared one, but she ate the majority of it.  The ones in the store us mini chocolate chips, so I am going to try the recipe again.

Heather's dad was kind enough to babysit a sleeping Finley so that Heather and I could go out and meet some of her girlfriends.  We had a delicious dinner at Alamo Cafe and then headed over to Kona Grill for margaritas on the patio.  We also got a nice peek at the fireworks from Six Flags next door.  Too bad Finley was sleeping and missed the big show.

We had some yummy barbecue with Heather, her dad and her grandmother.  Finley did great and ate a ton of fried okra, as long as she doesn't see the green part, she is good with eating it.  I had a slice of lemon meringue pie, which Finley was sort of good with, but then Auntie Hodder got her a cookie and she was so much happier.  What is it with this girl and her cookies?  She is a cookie monster for sure!

We cannot wait to see Heather again, she is waiting for a new baby of her own and when he decides to arrive, we will head up to Vail to visit the new family!

Snack Time

Aren't Finley and Madeleine the cutest?  And this was Finley's third plate of food, she loves her grapes and cantaloupes.

Lois

Lois is the Corpse Flower at the Cockrell Butterfly Center at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.  The museum is open 24 hours a day waiting for her to bloom.  We checked her out this morning and she is spectacular.  We will definitely visit again once she is in full bloom.

The Butterfly Center exhibit areas have changed since Clifton and I were married there over 5 years ago.  The exhibits are much more interactive and kid friendly.  Finley loved playing there.  We visited for 1 1/2 hours, which is saying a lot when you have a very active toddler with you.

Notice that Finley is wearing her flower dress and ladybug hair clip in honor of Lois.

Finley loved playing with the exhibits, even the roach dome

Playing with the beautiful butterflies

Finley was a little wary of all the flying butterflies, she wanted to hold hands the whole time we were there

The lovely waterfall

Finley loved the honeybee play area

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!