Tuesday, a day with the Animals…at the Houston Zoo

And, we’re off! Here we go on the Hermann Park Conservatory Train! We were first in line for tickets and the first riders on the train. I was insistent that we arrive early to the zoo if we were going to go at all over spring break. From what I hear, the number of people that go to the zoo on a spring break day is 20 times the number on a regular day. So, we were kind of crazy to tackle the zoo on this day. But, I’ve been called worse. So, we arrived in the parking lot around 9:30am and we were good to go.

 First stop, the elephants. There are two new els!

 And, there they are. My beautiful family and a giant elephant. Awesome! This moment was just before the first fit of the day.

 Here’s Trinity enjoying a very expensive lunch. Hopefully most of the cost goes to protect endangered species and care for the zoo animals. It’s for a good cause. 🙂

 Leeland’s very first carousel ride. Could he be any happier…..or any cuter!?!?

 Momma and Trinity! What a beautiful, fun day we had at the Houston Zoo, Spring Break 2011.

Bakri and Elizabeth- The Flashlight

Bakri stayed the night with my parents last night. And my mom emailed me this story this morning. I thought it was so cute, that I didn’t want to forget it and I’m sharing it with you.
When Bakri went to bed last night he asked my mom to get the flashlight- she needs it to get around in the dark. 🙂 Anyway, she must have named it once and so he asked “what’s the flashlight’s name?” and my mom couldn’t remember. This is the rest of the story as told by Bakri’s Grandmother:

“Bakri is still asleep. He went to sleep right after we went to bed. Bekah, he is so smart. I let him point the flashlight on the ceiling after I went in there. It actually looks like a face of a woman when it projects. Anyway, I told you I couldn’t remember the name I gave the “flashlight lady” so as he was shining the light on the ceiling he said “Elizabeth” “Elizabeth the Queen”. That’s it! I called her Queen Elizabeth and he called her Elizabeth the Queen. I said “Bakri, you are so smart”. He smiled and said “Thank you”. He is so precious.”

Our visit to the Fire Station 16

This week we made a special visit to our local Houston Fire Station- Station 16. One of the firetrucks from our station was in an accident with a truck from another station on Monday. It was really scary. All of our firemen are doing well, but some of the others suffered broken bones and a woman riding a bicycle is still in the hospital. Please pray for all of them and their families. To show our support and care for them, we made chocolate chip cookies. I explained to the boys (it a simple way) what had happened and Bakri, especially was very interested in helping to make the cookies and was eager to deliver them to the firestation. We made a couple dozen for the firemen and extras for us. They were very excited to receive the cookies and let the boys explore the station and the firetruck. Here is a photo of the boys with one of the firemen.

Maddux checking out the pole.
So, I have to share this funny story about Maddux. To put it in perspective- it is perfectly acceptable kid talk, but not something I would normally write on my blog.
I had shared with the boys about the firemen and the firetrucks being involved in an accident. I thought I explained things without too much detail, but so that they could understand it simply. The morning we were going to head over to the station Maddux looks at me and says “The firemen pee-peed on himself.” I was like, “huh?” ….wait for it…. oh!- The firemen had an accident!- I get it! So, then I explained what an accident is. But, seriously, I don’t think I have laughed that much about something in a long time. It was really cute!

Bakri and Maddux really enjoyed our visit to the firestation.

Bakri at the firestation.