Play area at the zoo
The Squirrel monkeys were Lexi's favorite!

The neighborhood part of the museum! Gas for the cars

Peoples of the nation room at the museum!

Waco

Boy, am I behind! So, there's been a lot happening here lately. I guess I'll start with our trip last week to Waco, Texas. We had been planning this trip for a while and it still snuck up on me. Anyways... it's a 10 hour trip, in a car with two kids under 5... what were you thinking you ask? That's a good question. I'm not sure I have an answer. But, despite the long, and I mean LONG, trip there we had a great week. We drove early on Monday morning, hoping the girls would sleep for a major part of the trip, which was apparently too much to ask as at 4 am both girls were wide awake. And then that night we got there late and just went swimming at the hotel pool and then grabbed some dinner at the stand alone Chick Fil A there. You've got to love that, and even better it even had a playland in it! What a great way to end our sedentary day. Tuesday had Patrick at work there with the car so we just hung out in the hotel catching up on sleep and planning the rest of our week. Luckily during my planning I called a movie theater thinking maybe they'd have something the girls would like and low and behold they had The Princess and The Frog, which Zoe has been bugging me to take her to since before Christmas! And it was only $4.25 a ticket on Thrifty Tuesday! I found it to be a good movie overall, but we were well prepared for the voodoo and scary shadows too and had prepared Zoe for them before we went by reading the book to her. So, all in all we enjoyed it, I enjoyed it a little more after Lexi finally fell asleep on me. After Patrick got off work we went to the Suspension bridge over the river Brazos and then to a fantastic Cajun seafood restaurant over the river. It was wonderful, and then we noticed on the tv above the bar that an earthquake had hit Haiti. Normally this would just be a disaster that we pray about but don't really focus on, but it just happened that at this time in Haiti we had a brother and a sister there ministering at an orphanage there. So, after frantic phone calls to Patrick's parents we finally got word that they were unharmed. What a relief! Thank the Lord! Then the rest of the week was emails and texts back and forth with the family about when they'd get home to safety. Through the Lords grace and mercy, Jonny got home on Thursday morning and Esther returned home on Sunday morning. Thank the Lord! We continue to pray for the Haitians and for Jonny and Esther to heal from all they saw there, but praise God for the ways they were used, including getting 7 orphans home with them to their adopted parents! To see or read more of their amazing story, click here: http://www.fox4kc.com/wdaf-missionairies-haiti-adopted-kids,0,2226259.story

Then on Wednesday we went to the Cameron Park Zoo. I must admit before we left I was a little worried that it would be a boring small town zoo, boy was a surprised! It was a beautiful zoo. The animals were all out in their natural looking habitats and the play area was great too! The girls enjoyed it a lot as did I. The displays were so close that only a piece of glass separated us from the animals and it was amazing. The girls thought it was fun to be soo close, unless of course it was the lion and then Lexi would run when it got too close to her.

Thursday brought us to the Mayburn Museum Complex on Baylor Campus. It was a lot like a discovery museum. Lots of play rooms and hands on experiences. Such fun, too bad we didn't have enough time to really enjoy it, there's always next time we go back there.

Friday morning brought us all back in the car another 10 hours. The girls did great. They only really started to complain- mommy, no buckle, mommy hold me! about 2 hours outside of home so about 8 hours is their limit in the car, honestly it's about my limit too!

So, that was our wonderful week in Waco. We had beautiful temps in the 50's and 60's and came back to snow and temps in the 20's... why do we live in Kansas again?

So, I'll get the pictures on soon and then you can live vicariously through us!