nay nay and papa's visit

Nay Nay and Papa's visit to Texas was two-fold: half babysitting, half fun.  But my Mom assures me that the babysitting was lots of fun :) When Kevin and I decided that we were, in fact, going on the Nauvoo trip again, we asked my parents to come and watch the kids. The trip was 4 days, but they came a few days beforehand, and stayed a week after so that we had plenty of time to spend together. 

Within an hour of bringing them home from the airport, the Barbies were out and they were all playing.  My mom is the best at imaginative play with my kids, and they love the attention she gives them. 

Not long after, they were sword-fighting with Papa and sneaking up to scare him.

I don't think we did much on Saturday besides hanging out at home, but Sunday was church, of course.  As we were picking out Brooke's clothes on Saturday night, she asked Nay Nay what SHE was going to wear to church.  Once she saw Nay Nay's dress, she picked out something to match.  It was all too cute :)

Kevin and my Dad had to drive separately to go drop off a Certifit truck for the manager coming to cover the store, so I stopped and took pictures of these two cuties by the sunflowers.  Kevin doesn't always appreciate my love for pictures and creative picture opportunities, but since he wasn't with us, I figured I should take the opportunity and stop at a random spot along the road.

I'm sure glad we did because I love these pics!

Sunday afternoon was spent packing and preparing, so my parents kept the kids entertained.  We left early Monday morning (previous post), so the next four days were spent caring for my littles.  We were able to check in a few times, and all seemed to be going well :) Their days were spent swimming, playing, reading, and hanging out.

When we arrived home, we were both exhausted!  Kevin slept a ton on Friday, and we decided to keep the day low-key.  Nay Nay had ordered a few games for our family (Sleeping Queens and Sushi Go), and they were both big hits.  Brooke and Colby are at such fun ages where we can play actual strategy games with them! (We've been playing them a ton ever since.)

Kevin and I had a little Kroger date with Colby to get ready for a big family meal on Sunday.

The guys then worked on preparing the brisket, which has become kind of a new tradition.  The brisket they smoked at Christmas was delicious, and this one was even better!

Another Sunday with my parents :)

I am so grateful for my parents and the love they show to my family every single day.  Even though we live far away, they stay up to date on everything that is happening with my family and pray for our specific needs daily.  They truly are the best!

I'm also grateful for a wonderful extended family :) The Peacocks came for dinner, as well as Jerry and Bev.  The kids all played beautifully for hours, which allowed us adults to just sit around and chat.

We ended the evening with some park time, and the weather was surprisingly pleasant.  I ADORE this picture of the cousins and have loved watching them this summer. Their friendships are blossoming and they've been able to all play and have fun together, despite the age differences and the gender gap, haha.

Monday we decided to hit up Hawaiian Falls, but Dad stayed home :(  His walking has become really labored, and since a lot of walking is required at a water park, we figured it was best if he stayed behind. As we walked up to the park, I was reminded of our visit there last summer.  It was a week after our miscarriage and the D & C, and I was emotionally struggling.  I was using one of those water bags for my phone, and despite testing it beforehand, my phone was damaged by the water and I lost a month's worth of pictures.  To an already emotional person, this was devastating.  We had taken so many cute pictures at the Hawaiian Falls Luau, but they were all lost.  So, I made sure we took more pictures this time!

Love this one with Mom in the background.  She is seriously so fun and went on tons of slides with us.

It was great day in the sun and the kids were especially excited to show Nay Nay all the new slides they ride now :)

The next day we were able to do something that I have been SO eager to do!!  We drove out to Fossil Rim Nature Preserve in Glen Rose, TX.  I'd seen pictures of this place and I knew my kids would love it.  Basically, its like a drive-through zoo, but you can roll your window down and feed the animals along the way.  We hadn't made it out there yet because it's pretty expensive on the weekend and I figured it would be insanely busy.  I also hesitated taking the kids by myself during the week in case something weird happened with the animals trying to stick their head in the back windows or something. So having my parents here during the week seemed like the perfect opportunity!  (And it required no walking for my Dad.)

At the entrance of the park, they also had these cool dinosaur statues as an advertisement for the Dinosaur Valley park a few miles away.  Since Colby LOVES dinosaurs, we decided to stop for a picture.  But here's the embarrassing part!  I didn't realize that these were right by the exit to the park, so I just pulled my car over there, stopped in the middle of the street, and was taking pictures.  I took probably a minute taking pictures, then turned to get back into the car when I realized that there were like 4 cars lined up behind me waiting to get out.  Oops!  It was super embarrassing and I was rushing my kids into the car like nobody's business, haha. (At least I got the cute pictures, right?)

At the ticket booth, we purchased a bag of animal feed, and Mom was the official animal guide with our pamphlet showing all the species of animals at the preserve. 

I let the kids unbuckle, and they went back and forth, depending on where the animals were.  It was such a cool experience to see these animals up close and personal.

I loved the beautiful coats on these axis deer.  And the fact that this one was sticking his tongue out!

We were instructed to drop the pellets near your car and allow the animals to eat them off the ground, but of course, Dad didn't listen.  He fed them from his hand, which was pretty disgusting in my opinion, haha.  I don't like animals licking my fingers, so I just dropped the food pellets to the ground.   They had warned us about the ostriches and cautioned us to either roll up the window when we saw one, or be READY to roll up the window.  Within 5 minutes of being on the trail, one began approaching our vehicle and of course my Dad had his hand out the window to feed it.  Luckily, he had the good sense to quickly begin rolling up the window, but the ostrich still tried to stick his head in our car.  I have a pretty funny video of that moment, haha. 

The highlight for most of us were the Grevy's zebras!  I mean, just look at this one...

I had never seen a zebra so close before and they were downright beautiful! I took this picture as the zebra stood right next to my car window.  It seriously doesn't get cooler than that!  Everything about it was exquisite. Grevy's zebras are the only ones that don't have stripes on their bellies, so I learned something new. 

As one of the zebras approached me, I planned on dropping the food but he opened his mouth right near my hand so I sort of tossed the food into its mouth.  The experience just kept getting cooler!  And then, the zebra moved back to Brooke's window and as it stood there, she reached out and touched it on the head between the eyes.  She was giddy about touching a zebra, and I was so glad that she had that cool experience.  And that it didn't end badly, like with it trying to bite her or something.  I think she just saw an opportunity and took it, and although it made me a little nervous, I was just so happy to see her so elated. (I took this picture as she was telling me about it and wanting to send Kevin a video of what had just happened.)

Check out this guy's horns...

I would highly recommend this experience to anyone who likes an adventure :)  I loved being able to drive through the park at my own pace, see tons of animals, and have some unique experiences along the way.  It was also really cool to share the experience with my parents.

At the halfway point, they have a children's area with more animals. The kids  brushed the goats, and Colby kept brushing this one's goatee.

As we continued on our way, we saw lots more animals.  The Addax, Gazelle, Aoudad, Arabian Oryx, Blackbuck, Wildebeest, Emu, European Red Deer, Fallow Deer, Gemsbok, Greater Kudu, Hartmann's Mountain Zebra, Mountain Bongo, Nigerian Dwarf Goat, Sable, Southern Black Rhino (in an enclosure), Waterbuck, Wild Turkey, and Cheetah (also in an enclosure). 

We were all a little disappointed in the giraffes because they wanted nothing to do with the food we were offering, but they were still really beautiful to look at :)  Colby stood out the sunroof yelling, 'Do you want some of our food?"  and they just stared at him, haha. 

As we left the park, we stopped to take a few pictures at the entrance sign.  But this time, I pulled off to the side as to not block the path for others!

It was a busy day, and an even busier evening as we prepared a quick dinner (chef salad and french read) before heading to Kevin's softball game! Extra tokens meant that we hit up the snack bar for popcorn :)  Colby decided that he NEEDED to wear his glasses to the game, and he was looking mighty adorable.

Brooke got her Parry fix, and I adore this picture that Miss Rachel sent me. 

Surprisingly, we had beautiful weather that evening, which made the whole outing that much more enjoyable.  My parents really enjoyed watching Kevin play, and I know he loves when his family is there to watch. He lives for these sweet moments with our littles...

We managed to pack in so many fun things, but Colby reminded us every day that we STILL hadn't gone to play tennis!  So, we made it happen, but boy were we sweaty.

Luckily, we were playing at Clayton Chandler, which also has a great splash pad for the kids.  Mom and I got our feet in the water as well in an attempt to cool down, and the kids were perfectly content to run wild and free.

We ended the day at Yogurtland for a yummy treat, and it was definitely a sweet way to end the afternoon of fun. 

This brings us all the way to Thursday and I was getting sad that my parents were leaving bright and early the next morning!  The only thing left on our list of things to do was visit the new playground at Brooke's school, Anna May Daulton Elementary.  I had to turn in our Proof of Residency as well, so we killed two birds with one stone. 

The new playground was a blast, and I think we'll always remember our first visit there with Nay Nay and Papa. 

Something to remember:  Colby brought this pink ball to the courts for another game, but since he could throw it a lot higher than his basketball, he began trying to make a basket with it.  He was having difficulty at first, but I encouraged him to keep trying and he wouldn't give up until he made it!  I loved seeing his persistence, and once he made it, it gave him the confidence to keep on trying and make more and more shots.  

Before we left the park, Mom and I took one more picture together :)  Then it was off to Chick-Fil-A for a lunch date!

The visit seemed to pass by in a hurry, but that was partially due to the fact that we were gone part of the time.  But I am ever so thankful for the amazing time we were able to spend together before and after our Nauvoo trip.  Having wonderful parents is such a HUGE blessing, and I'm grateful for the love and support they show me and our entire family.