Hope Park or Huge Park

Yesterday it rained most of the day, so we didn't get outside as much as we normally do and the kids were going crazy. So today we went to check out a different park. It is called Hope Park, but Blake calls it huge park because it is well, huge.

I had to take this picture and send it to Aaron. Frito Lay is apart of PepsiCo.  Who needs to advertise on commercials when you can do it at a park?

In case we forgot what state we were in...kind of random...got to love the Texas pride.

It was hot today, can you tell? Normally the small sized water bottles are fine for our adventures. Clearly it wasn't today.

Yes, Dylan loves chocolate.

We came home and ate some lunch, then we went outside to go swimming and found a bird in our pool. We tried to scare it away, but it couldn't get out, so we scooped him out with our net and put him in our front yard.  After swimming, we went to check on him and he was still there. I am still waiting to hear back from Animal Control to see what I need to do or not do.

We had a successful day...they were tired. I was making dinner and then noticed Dylan...out. This makes me laugh because when he was a baby we called him our little high priest because he would frequently fall asleep in our arms just like this..like how people in church fall asleep and think no one can notice that they are sleeping. Dylan isn't trying to be sneaky about sleeping, but I still think that it is funny. He is going to fit right in with those high priests won't he?

Bug Show

Tuesday afternoon we went to the library for a bug show. Jim, the bug guy, gets really excited about bugs. The kids in the room freaked out when he pulled out one of the snakes.

After the show, we got to look at all the bugs up close. Blake was really into the show and he was answering lots of questions Jim was asking.  I guess he does pay attention when we go to the museums. Dylan was not really interested in it...until we got to see them up close.

A catfish.

Horseshoe crab. Did you know they have blue blood? (Must be true Cougar fans huh?) This blue blood is used to treat cancer.

After the show, we went home and made dinner and one of Aaron's co-workers, Rich, came over for dinner.  It was pouring rain when they drove to our house. We need the rain, but the timing wasn't great. Rich works out of the New York office, but comes to the Plano office a lot. Anyway, he brought dessert with him, which may have had something to do with why the kids like him. He scored even more points when he said he was going to leave the dessert leftovers.

Good News

Since the unwritten rule of a post is that a picture is required...here you go..I know, it is a fabulous picture. Friday, Dylan's doctor called and said, "Your boy is good". Um, I think so too. He said that for the first time in his life, his AFP levels are in the normal range. His ultrasound was clean and is exactly as it has been since he was born. This made our doctor conclude that we will do his tests every 6 months instead of every 3 months. He is in the critical years currently....he is at the highest risk until age 4. I was happy to hear the news. Of course it is great to hear that he is fine, but also great that we can reduce the amount of scans.

Also on Friday, Aaron got back from New York. Saturday, we went to our HOA beach club where we can pretend like we are at the beach. We weren't the only ones who thought it would be a great idea.  Some friends ended up being there. We stayed much longer because of it, but the kids loved playing with friends. We also went on the paddle boats. No pictures, but it was fun. 

Aaron had to speak at church today. Good news...he did great and it is done. The fun part was we invited some friends to come hear him speak and they came. 

The not so great news...worse watering restrictions.  We can only water 1 day every other week. The good news...it rained today, which also meant it was cooler today which meant we were able to go on a walk without dying of heat.

Temple

One of the errands that I needed to get done was to go to the temple and stop at the distribution center. As we were walking out, I realized that the kids rarely go to the temple...unless someone is getting married...and they had not seen the Dallas Temple yet, so I thought we should get a picture.

Well, that was a mistake.

Someone had a meltdown. Apparently we were at the museum too long.

Hey, we tried.

Perot Museum

We had some errands to run close to downtown Dallas, so in the middle of the errands, we decided to go to the Perot Museum downtown.

The kids love to race against a T-Rex. There are other people or animals that you can race against, but they always pick the T-Rex.

After the race.

Since I didn't get a picture of our race, but here is another race to give an idea.

Always loving the art projects.

And the dinosaur dig.

Look mom, we are campers.

They had a field journal with lots of things to find.

After their hunt, they went to the tent, which had apparently previously been used by a girl (note the flowers in the tent).

They were on guard to make sure no one else comes in.

Their favorite T-Rex.

Dylan thought the view was cool....Blake did not.