Aquarium Trip

On Saturday we decided to blow off Payton's nap and go into Dallas to the aquarium. It had been a couple years since we last went there so we figured we were due, plus the kids were finally getting bored seeing the same fish at Petco, Petsmart and the Bass Pro Shop. The workers at those businesses are probably getting sick of seeing us too. We go into one of those stores every few weeks, yet I don't think we have purchased anything from any of them ever. If anyone knows our kids they will know that our kids love anything associated with the ocean. I guess it helps that their parents scuba dive and have lots of fish pictures from our adventures. Jessie was excited to be going to the big aquarium and Payton didn't know what to expect, since the last time we went he was only a few months old. Payton and Jessie loved looking at all the fish. Payton thought it was great to walk around holding the souvenier program. After we had a great time at the aquarium we went and had dinner at the Twisted Root Burger Company in Deep Ellum. We had seen this place on the Food Network and it is always rated as one of the best burgers in Dallas. We thought it was ok being it was just a burger, but it just added to the fun day in Dallas.


Jessie was excited to be at the Aquarium. She is now set on being a marine biologist.


The weedy sea dragon is one of Jessie's favorite sea animals.


Payton and Jessie loved watching the manatees, sea turtles, and giant catfish in this tank.


This was a double sided tank so I was trying to get a picture of the fam watching fish swim by.


Here was the highlight of the afternoon. The shark tank has a tunnel that you have to walk through so the sharks are swimming all around you. For Jessie this was just old hat, but for Payton it was the time of his life. I think everyone got a kick out of the excitement that Payton showcased. At every passing shark Payton would yell SHARK!!! at the top of his lungs. He was so excited he had drool flying out of his mouth by the end. After this exhibit now all he can talk about are sharks. (Click on the picture to see it larger)

Blueberry Picking

Over the Fourth of July weekend we went and picked blueberries at a farm about an hour and a half east of Rockwall. We got off to a later start than we wanted. We knew the day would be hot and we thought our kids weren't going to last very long in the fields. We started picking around 11am and we picked for about an hour which was 50 minutes longer than I expected my kids to last. We got about 15 pounds of berries and both Jessie and Payton had a good time and contributed to our cache. Payton had a lot of fun playing in the dirt and only realized with about 10 minutes to go that he should be picking the berries and not getting dirty. Jessie followed me around and she would pick the low berries and I would get the high ones. We had a fun time driving through the small towns of east Texas and stopped at a peach orchard for some homemade peach ice cream.


This was dirt that Payton was playing in, not blueberry juice.


It was a real hot day and everyone got really red and sweaty.


Most of the day Payton played and everyone else worked.