Houston Schrenks visit Ft.Worth Schrenks

Kind of on a whim, we decided to go to Fort Worth. Brandon's brother Nathan had gotten permission from their landlord to build a fence, so he asked Brandon to come help him. The girls and I decided that we would take Aunt Malinda to the Fort Worth Zoo (since they live a whopping 5 minutes away from it).

We left on a Friday afternoon. We got a later start than we wanted. Jordan slept through Houston (and Houston traffic) but when she woke up (after an hour or so) we decided to stop to eat. I am pretty sure we weren't even in The Woodlands yet. Brandon and I were worried that it was going to be a LONG drive.

We stopped again in Madisonville, where the new Buc-ee's is. Buc-ee's is a chain of gas stations known for HUGE and VERY NICE restrooms. If there is one on our way, that's where we'll plan stops. We stopped and got the girls changed into jammies. We figured it was getting dark so we'd put them in jammies and put in a movie and they'd fall asleep. Wrong.

Here's a picture of what the majority of the ride looked like:

They were throwing Jordan's burp rag back and forth to each other. Good thing I brought extras because Allison kept throwing them behind her. I need to teach the dogs to fetch.

Saturday morning, after only 6 hours of sleep, the girls were up EARLY. We ate breakfast and I made lunches and Malinda, the girls and I headed out to the zoo.

Here's a picture ALLISON took for Uncle Nathan (he likes the flamingos).

The zoo was a ton of fun. It's a long zoo but you can take a train from the entrance area directly to the end (where the kids area is). Here are the girls on the train (eating snacks, of course).

How convenient! Once you get off the train, there is a carousel! It's styled after the old western original ones, so it's not as extravagant as our zoo's is but it still was fun.

Then we went to eat. After lunch, we hit up the Play Barn. It's all about Texas farms/ranches/etc and Texas agriculture. Jordan liked this area. There was a slide too but you had to go up into the tunnels to get there (so neither of mine did that).

We had a little bit of drama in the play barn. There is an exhibit that you put a ball into a silo looking thing and it's supposed to be like planting and harvesting plants. The ball follows all these other steps and goes into a trough. Then a cow "eats" it and "poops" it out. Kind of hard to describe. I really wish I had gotten a picture of the whole thing. Anyway, Allison was playing in there with another little girl. Malinda and Jordan were over at the chicken coop thing. I took my eyes off of Allison for ONE SECOND (I know, that's all it takes) to see what Malinda and Jordan were doing and next thing I know, Allison is coming to me SCREAMING and holding her mouth.

Now, we all know about Allison's motor skill delay, and know that she's a LITTLE on the uncoordinated (ie - clumsy) side. I didn't see any marks so I was just trying to calm her down. Next thing I know there is blood ALL OVER both of our hands. Great. She is bleeding profusely from her mouth. I set her down and run out to the stroller to get a wipe. I figure, it will clean up the blood and it's kind of cool so that might help her. Malinda was watching (while keeping an eye on Jordan) and told me later she was a little worried at how long it took to stop the bleeding. After I FINALLY got the bleeding stopped (and Allison stopped screaming), Malinda came and looked at it. She was an athletic trainer and is EMT certified. She said she didn't think it was deep enough to warrant an ER visit. So we left the play barn and bought Allison a snow cone instead. (And cotton candy.....she ate the ENTIRE bag).

And then we headed to the gorillas. VERY cool. Our zoo's largest primates are the orangutans so it was really awesome to get to see gorillas, chimps, and all kinds of other larger ones. This gorilla gathered up the straw and made a pillow and laid down on it while we were there. Allison just stood there chattering away at him and showing him her monkey. When it was time to leave, she kissed him through the glass. (She got a couple of "ohhs!" from onlookers).

We had a great visit to the zoo (even with our drama). It was a really fun zoo and I can't wait to go back. It was also nice that Nathan and Malinda live so close.

After nap, I tried to get a picture of her lip. She had a pretty good gash and a horrible bruise on her bottom lip. Sadly, this is the best picture I got (it looked MUCH worse in person).

Then Allison helped Aunt Malinda make the drink for dinner (cherry limeade).

Pouring the flavoring packet in

We left Sunday morning. Allison was awake the ENTIRE ride again. We stopped at Buc-ee's and got lunch and thought for sure she'd go down then. No dice. She didn't look like this until we were 10 minutes from home.

Even with the messed up nap/sleep schedules, we had a GREAT visit. We love hanging out with Nathan and Malinda, even if it for a short time. Hopefully, they'll come see us soon!!!