Labor Day Weekend

Okay. Okay. I'm a little late getting to this post.

During the Labor Day weekend, we went to Dallas with the kids. We didn't do much the first day, but cruise around the city and check it out. Then we went to dinner at Craft, which was an excellent restaurant. We loved that the food was served family-style and Tate could pick and choose from the various entrees and sides. Also, during our first night, Ed and I realized that the baby could not sleep with us and that Tate would have to go into the pack and play. Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep that night. Fortunately, the hotel had a crib that we could borrow and the next two nights were much better.

We were impressed with Dallas. Everything looked clean and new.



Of course, we always have to hit the local Farmer's Market. Dallas' market was huge! If we lived there, I would practically live there -- there was so much to choose from.

We also went to Fort Worth to the stockyard. Unfortunately, Fort Worth wasn't as nice as Dallas. I guess that it's kind of like Minneapolis and St. Paul (Minneapolis nice. St. Paul not so much).

Here we are waiting in the shade (and yes, it was HOT) for the cowboys to herd the cattle.

Some cute pictures of Colt waiting for the cattle.

I tried to protect his eyes by having him wear sunglasses, but he kept taking them off. I wonder how other parents convince their little ones to wear shades???

Here they are!!!

I think that the cattle were hot too.

I like this picture.

While we were in Fort Worth, we went on a train ride. Lately, Tate LOVES to point out and watch trains. So, we thought that he would really love riding on a train.

Here is Tate checking out the train before we leave on our ride.

Here is Tate pointing out all of the trains. As you can tell, he loved the train ride! He kept pointing at everything and he would constantly say "train...choo choo!".

Here is Tate checking out the view during our train ride.

Of course, we also had to go to an airplane museum, the Cavanaugh Flight Museum. Tate loved this too. He kept walking around saying "plane" and making plane noises. So cute!

They had planes inside and outside -- Tate almost had plane overload. He kept running from plane to plane pointing and talking.

Here are Colt and I looking at the planes.

I thought that I would include a little video of Tate touring the airplane museum.

Pineville Safari???

Last Monday, we decided to head over to the new attraction near town, Gone Wild Safari. We weren't sure what we would find. I mean really...what does one do in Alexandria, Louisiana??? It's not near New Orleans by a long shot and it's even further from any kind of beach attraction (if Louisiana really has something like a "beach attraction"). Once we arrived at the safari, we were pleasantly surprised. They had quite a few animals and we could actually feed them. We thought that Tate would really enjoy feeding them, but he preferred to stay at a distance.

Because it was a Monday, we were able to have the place to ourselves. Initially, we took a bus ride around the premises. Once we entered, we soon discovered we had a stalker who enjoyed eating A LOT.

Here's our first encounter. Of course, he met us at the gate...



Feeding him may not have been my best decision of the day, but what was done was done.



He won't leave!

Tate liked watching the camel from a distance.

Here we are watching the buffaloes. These buffaloes reminded me of our trip to Alaska when we encountered a wild herd grazing alongside the road.

Colt liked watching too.

Of course Tate would watch Ed feed the animals from well inside the bus.

We tried to have Ed feed the animals with Tate beside him, but he decided to run away and Ed was left to feed the animals alone.

Tate watching the Emu.

Oh, did I mention that the first camel brought back up??? Yes, he had a partner-in-crime that liked to stalk our bus too. I must say that the second camel wasn't as aggressive, but she still wanted our food.

Tate finally is brave and decided that it was okay to feed the animals. Or...maybe he would just feed the small animals???

I just like this picture of the giraffe.

Here's Tate feeding more animals. I'm not sure if you can tell it or not, but Tate ultimately dumped the food out.

Here's a couple of miscellaneous pictures. Ed took this one of Tate and Colt "playing" together. Colt loves to watch Tate run around and at times Tate will play peekaboo with Colt. It's so cute!

Here's Ed with the boys...