A Weekend Adventure: Central/East Texas (Day 3)

Will and I woke up bright and early on the Monday morning of our adventure, bundled up because it was cold, and set out to the pavilion for coffee and hot cinnamon tea. We read and talked and sipped while we waited for Gene and Henry to wake up. This was the beautiful view we had of the wildlife park.  

After another hearty breakfast, we set out for another drive through the safari park. We are glad we opted to drive through again because we saw so many different animals this time around.

Ostrich

Common Wildebeest

Roan Antelope

Fallow Deer

Aoudad

Hartmann's Mountain Zebra

These were a highlight of the drive.  Their lips flapped like crazy and they just wanted us to toss food into their mouths.

Giraffe

The giraffe was another highlight. He briefly stopped at our car before moving to the car behind us, so Gene circled around and we opened the roof, and there he was, eager for munchies.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center and would gladly go back for another visit.  

Our next adventure of the day was the Polar Express, so we had a 2 1/2 hour drive from Glen Rose to Palestine.  We stopped for lunch in Waxahachie and had to check out the beautiful courthouse on the square. 

We also ran into the huge Russell Stover store in Corsicana for fudge.

We arrived with plenty of time to relax before Henry donned his Christmas pajamas and we headed out for our annual Polar Express ride. 

We have been doing the Polar Express for so many years and it is still fun and magical.

All aboard!

Henry is absolutely delighted by the train ride to the North Pole.

 Hot cocoa

And Santa handed out the bells, just like in the story.

This is a very busy time for our family, but we all needed to get away for a few days to rest, relax and explore.  The holiday season is so full of activities, but also so much fun with kids, and we are looking forward to enjoying this season in the coming weeks.  

Lately: An October Recap

October has come and gone, in a blur!  It started on the 1st with Gene's birthday and ended with a rainy Halloween. Here's a quick peek at some of what we did in October:

Happy birthday, Gene!

Gene's birthday was on a Monday, so we celebrated with a special beef tenderloin dinner on Sunday night.  It was delicious!

Our new Astros flag 

The boys got flu shots, which is always traumatic for Henry, so we treated ourselves to milkshakes from the Chocolate Bar afterwards.

The Astros made a run at the World Series again, but couldn't get past the Boston Red Sox. We wore our Astros shirts a lot, and Henry put on handcuffs and came downstairs, saying, "I got arrested for stealing second base!" Baseball humor!

We also saw our first cold front come through town.  Temps dropped 37 degrees, going from 91 to 54! Of course, we had to turn on the fire and make hot cocoa.

Speaking of heat, Henry is obsessed with the Scoville heat index, so we had to snap this photo in front of the peppers at Central Market.  I love that it's a great adventure to go to the grocery store with this kid! 

Henry really does love food. He found a spiced butternut squash soup recipe in the newspaper a few weeks ago and begged me to make it.  It was delicious -- and now it's on the menu again for this week, per Henry's request.

Our vegetable garden petered out except for our eggplants.  This was the biggest one we got all year!

Grad school life plus working full time (I started as the long-term sub in the library on October 24) has made for a busy season in our household.  We had our carpets and sofa cleaned before I started work, so I set up shop in Henry's room to keep working on school assignments.  

October also means the annual Cub Scout popcorn sales -- our last one ever!

Henry's enjoying art class so much this fall. His teacher accidentally pulled the advance art assignment and Henry drew this incredible dragon, over the course of a couple of class periods. 

It's hanging in the art school hallway now!

Another art piece -- a platypus.

We enjoyed our fall festivals -- Boo Bash at the school and Full Moon Fest at Colonial Park. Henry went with his buddy Noah to both.

We pulled out some costumes in advance of Halloween and Will was doing his homework while sporting an alien mask.  

Halloween day brought huge storms to Houston. On our way to get Will from school, a tornado warning prompted Kinkaid to shelter in place, which delayed dismissal by a good 30 minutes.  Henry and I decided to shelter in place with Pop, which was a good idea because he made us coffee!

Halloween night usually brings hordes of kids to our neighborhood, but with the storms rumbling through town, we only had nearby kids out and about.  We have so much candy left over that we need to donate!

I manned the door while Gene took the boys down the block. It was nutty -- Gene was on a work call with Australia and I was online for a class chat for my cataloging course!  Henry really wanted to wear his huge alien mask, but it can't get wet, so he opted to be a wizard instead. The skies did clear for a good two-hour trick-or-treating window, and the boys came back with enough candy to end the dreaded "candy drought." (It's a long time between Easter and Halloween and the kids are always afraid they'll run out of special treats.)

Happy fall to you all!  I hope you're enjoying leftover Halloween candy, beautiful fall weather, and warming soups.  Fall is my favorite season.