the Bayou Wildlife Park

My mom has been down here this past week for spring break.  She left this morning which started what we call around here "nanny detox".  So Mark and I took the kids out of the house and down south a few miles to the Bayou Wildlife Park.  This was our first trip to the park where you ride a tram out to see all the animals.  They have tons of them and lots of endangered species, most I can't remember their names and couldn't begin to spell them, sorry.  Celia is ready to go back since they had several baby animals as well as lots of expecting mommies so she wants to return to see the newborns especially the new zebras on the way.  They let you feed the animals right out of the tram.  Celia wasn't so sure about that when she almost lost her bucket of food to some sort of antelope.  But it was the perfect "nanny detox" trip and the perfect ending to a long week of spring break.

  

the Lake

I grew up on a huge lake in Oklahoma.  Pretty much everything in the town revolved around the lake which spanned 4 towns and 2 counties and nearly surrounded my hometown.  So when my neighbors asked us years ago if we wanted to join them at their lake house about 3 hours north of Houston we jumped at the chance.  We've been going to their lake house off an on ever since.  It's in a quiet little town, very Texas, very country.  It reminds me of home except that this lake is tiny in proportion to my hometown one.  But the cows and horses surrounding the roads to get there might as well be the same ones that surround the roads to my lake back home.  My husband has been wanting to take Celia "camping" there for a while now and decided this past weekend would be perfect.  He planned on pitching a tent in their backyard and "camping out" with Celia while the comforts of home (like a potty) were just steps away.  We loaded up the SUV with the 2 kiddos and headed up there.  It's amazing how time flies.  We realized on the way there that we had not been there since I was pregnant with Kye who is almost 2 now.  Unfortunately for us the weather did not cooperate.  Saturday was nasty cold and rainy.  Amazingly, Celia and Mark were so intent on camping that they in fact did sleep in the tent Friday night, but came running in the house on Saturday morning to warm blankets.  The weather messed up most of our plans to fish and enjoy nature.  But we still had a great time inside reading, coloring, movie watching and did venture outside with lots of layers on for a nature walk. 

Even cold it's still very pretty up there...

This is what most of the weekend looked like though...

Mark did try a little fishing with Kye on Sunday when the sun finally came out.

I took some pictures of Celia for a project I'm working on for her.  Here's a little sneak peek on the dock...

and this is what Celia looked like on one of our first visits to Lake Murvaul on the very same dock...

Rain or shine we always have fun at the lake.  It's nice to unplug from our loud busy city for some R&R out in the country with some great friends.