Father's Day itself was a lot of fun. We started out with a delicious breakfast at Trudys. Afterwards, we went to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. It was beautiful but hot. We limited our explorations to the shady zones.
Back in Dallas we celebrated in the best way possible -- Baskin Robbins ice cream cake!
We spent Father's Day weekend in Austin. Our first stop? UT of course.
The turtle pond was a big hit. Joe even found some friends to explore it with.
Hook 'em horns!
The heat wore Zane out.
The on-campus Texas Natural Science Center was also fun. Check out the two future scientists.
A quick snack at the law school.
That night, we were able to take a tour of the UT tower. The views of the campus and the city were amazing.
After the Tower we headed to Congress Bridge to see the bats come out for the night. It was quite an experience. We then caped off the night with some Amy's ice cream.
Joe thought the car ride back to the hotel as a little cold. Look at our little homeless boy.
Joe built some amazing "racetracks" in Texas. They were made up of all sorts of toys and other found objects lined up head to toe in fantastic curves around the house. Here, Speed Racer is propelled into the air after a terrible collision with a plastic elephant (or something).
We met up with Cheryl, Hailey, and Ryley again a few days later for more water fun at the Tom Muehlenbeck Center. Zane loved crawling around.
Eventually, he wore himself out. Here he is asleep in my arms where he crashed out for quite a long time. Hailey is showing off what the kiddos did most: jump, jump, jump around.
Goodbyes were hard. We miss you guys!
We were thrilled that Cheryl, Jason, Hailey and Ryley were able to come visit their Texas relatives while we were in town. One Sunday we all met up at Hailey's grandpa's house in Flower Mound, not too far from Plano. It was great to see Ryley
and Hailey again.
The adults had fun catching up over some tasty bbq while the kids played in and around the house and then cooled off in the wonderfully refreshing (unheated) spa.
It was a sweltering day when we headed to The Heard Natural Science Musuem. We spent some time with the indoor exhibits, but one in a particular just got me down: a live snake and a live mouse together in a terrarium. Ick. We walked around the outside and saw a loverly butterfly house, but the heat was soon incapacitating. I'd love to return sometime in the winter.
I have to point out that the pink chair in the background is Zane's favorite item in the entire house. He climbs up, he climbs down, he sits and watches the world go by. It's been an absolute hit.
It wouldn't be a Texas summer without a tornado watch. The skies turned this amazing shade of hunter green and black, and we could see clouds swirling (rather tornado-like) in a wide counter-clockwise arc. It was time to explore "the cave" also known as the closet under the Duffys' stairs. The boys thought this was a blast. It was soon over, and the only damage was a downed branch in the front yard. Joe wants to go cave exploring every night.
The dentist options in Grand Forks are limited. There are no pediatric dentists. We tried taking Joe to a family dentist, but he was freaked out and refused to even open his mouth. So we endeavored to solve this problem during our Texas stay. We ended up finding a fabulous dentist in Frisco, just the next town over from where the Duffys live. Joe was apprehensive but everyone walked him through the process very gently. He had xrays (and loved seeing his teeth bones), watched Clifford while having his teeth cleaned ("We'll do just one tooth. That wasn't bad, was it? Let's do the others!"), and allowed a dentist to examine his teeth as well. He started out so nervous and was so calm by the end that the dental assistant asked Joe to speak to a slightly younger child who came in and was terrified of the process. Joe's advice? "Well, I'm a big kid. It's no big deal. They take a picture of your teeth and brush them. Just like at home."
Here is Joe showing off his newly cleaned pearly whites.
Here he is playing with Chris, the little boy he coached through the cleaning process.
Our Texas babysitter, Allison, invented a game that makes Zane giddy with happiness. She builds a tower of blocks and Zane knocks them all down.
