Spring Break II

So, it's Spring Break and we tried to think of cool and different things to do. Since we are members at the Zoo and haven't been in a million years, we decided to check it out on Wednesday. So we headed out after lunch.

Not sure what I was thinking, but we got caught in construction traffic in the Medical Center. What should have been a 5 minute drive took well over 40 minutes. Add to that the fact that the police had closed off all of the turn lanes we needed to aid in traffic flow, and let's just say that we were very glad to get out of the car.

Nana had joined us, and we all agreed to head straight to the giraffes to check out the new baby. The Zoo was as crowded as I had ever seen it, but Henry was really enjoying himself.

We had some great peeks at the giraffes, elephants, lions and tiger and bears (oh my!), as well as the cheetahs, jaguars and lesser-known elands. In between, we also managed an little snack (root beer floats for Nana and Mama, and a cherry icee for the boy) and a ride on the carousel.

Fortunately, we were all content with the abbreviated trip and headed home for a wonderful crock pot meal with Nana and Papa.

So on Thursday, we decided to head to Brenham to tour the Blue Bell Ice Cream factory. I had looked it up online, so I knew they had made special arrangements for Spring Break. But I had never taken Henry for the tour and Papa seemed excited about it too. So we decided to head out right after breakfast

En route, we ran across several large patches of Texas Blue Bonnets. Anyone from Texas knows it is tradition to take pictures of the kiddos with the Blue Bonnets...it's just something you gotta do. Here are the ones we snapped this year;

After we passed this patch, we passed several more that were even larger. But we decided that we had our shots and we pressed on. We heard ice cream calling our name.

We arrived in Brenham shortly after 11 a.m. All of our jaws dropped to the ground when we drove passed the Blue Bell factory. The lawn in front of the plant was covered with a snaking line of people. There were tents up, and even bouncies that looked like gallon tubs of ice cream.

There were men at each of the parking lot entrances holding signs that read "Lot Full", but at last, we were waved in to take the place of a car that was pulling out. Whew. We piled out of the car and headed to the end of the snaking line. After we had been in line for about 10-15 minutes, we reached the "check-in" point. We were advised that if we remained in line, we could expect to be called for our tour at 1:40 p.m. Yikes...it was now 11:30 a.m. That meant waiting in line for more than 2 hours. We hadn't planned for this and hadn't eaten lunch or even packed a snack. But, we'd driven this far, we decided to tough it out.

These folks knew how to manage a crowd. As we waited, employees walked around and passed out ice cream hats.

Even better, they handed out free ice cream sandwiches. Granted, they were the miniature bars. But since we were at the factory itself, it was the freshest ice cream sandwich I had ever eaten. They also had strategically placed coolers filled with ice cold water that they provided on a complimentary basis.

They also were scooping ice cream for the nominal fee of $1 a bowl. Shortly after we got in line, Nana, Papa and Henry headed off for their first scoop of ice cream. After they returned to hold our place in line, it was my turn to go and get a scoop. Yum Yum, ice cream before lunch!

It was amazing how quickly those two hours passed. And before we knew it, we were being led into the factory to take our turn. It was very interesting to see the process of how the ice cream gets made. Henry even seemed a bit fascinated by it all and focused mostly on the production line that was making the vanilla. At the end of the tour, we were all given ANOTHER scoop of ice cream...yep, that makes two scoops of ice cream BEFORE lunch.

After the tour, we were hungry for food, so we headed to Chapel Hill and ate at the Bever's Kitchen, where we all ordered chicken fried chicken...some of the best we've had. And then, it was the long drive home.

For Friday, I decided to let Henry pick the activity of the day. I suggested we lunch at Rainforest Cafe, but then left it wide open as far as what he wanted to do. It took only a few moments for him to decide that he wanted to bowl. So that is what we did. We got to play three games...Henry won the first, I beat him for the other two. But he was a good sport about it and announced that he had fun.

We are planning on going to the Rodeo on Saturday. Stay tuned for that recap...

Wordless Wednesday

Spring Break

This week is Henry's Spring Break. He could have stayed in school as an "extended day" student, but I decided that a week off sounded like a great idea for both of us. So we've planned (or haven't planned as the case may be) a bit of a staycation.

Yesterday, our first day, we were just kind of getting our bearings. The day was spent running a bunch of errands. It's amazing how long it takes to get things done. When you have a whole day ahead of you with "nothing" planned, it seems like the possibilities are endless.

But then, the day gets filled with sleeping in, a quick visit with a lawyer, a short visit with Nana and Papa, one last "work thing" that needs to be finished, a trip to the car wash, a lunch stop at Taco Bell (Henry's choice), a quick run through Wal-Mart, a stop at CVS to order some prescriptions, a run back home to pick up the grocery list, the weekly grocery shopping, and whew...back home at 4 p.m. to start having fun. Wait a minute, we're having guests for dinner. Time to start the donuts...I mean the dinner. Then there was that minor issue with the potatoe peels clogging the pipes. Good thing Papa was only a few minutes away and "available". Time to put the salmon on the grill...whoops, the propane ran out. Good thing there was a backup tank in the garage. In the end, we had a lovely "dinner party" with Nana & Papa, and Grandma and Grand-daddy (as Henry refers to Leslie's parents). After dinner, we finished the day off with a round of our favorite dice game (10,000...check out the rules here) and a dish of Nana's homemade tapioca.

We decided Tuesday would also be a low-key day, and then we would actually try and go somewhere and do something each of the rest of the days of the week.

Tuesday started with The Boy sleeping until well past 9 a.m. Glad he gets the concept of sleeping in. After that, it was a rush to start our day. We had an appointment at 10:30 to get his silhouette made at a local children's clothing store. Here's a picture of him sitting patiently, and then the end result.

After we finished there, we went to the toy store a few doors down. We had already spent a few minutes in there because we were early for our silhouette appointment. Henry had spied out a few things he wanted to spend his allowance on. It's funny, when we first went in, the first thing that he looked at was the thing he "had to have". After a bit of encouragement, he spent some time looking around at the rest of the toys and in the end, decided on something completely different.

From there, we decided to go to Mr. Fuzzywiggs Candy Factory, down the street. It really was a block away. When I asked if we should move the car, Henry insisted that we walk: "C'mon Mom, it's such a nice day...let's just walk down there!" I couldn't have agreed more, but had to feed the meter a few more quarters. And off we went. On the way, we stopped by the fountain.

And then I let Henry run, since there were no streets to cross or traffic to worry about.

Again, as we entered the candy store, Henry stopped at the first thing he saw. I again encouraged him to shop a little more and take a look at what there was. Again, he totally moved off that first item. He selected three things: the colorful mints with the sprinkles on them (non-pareils??), a stick with sour powder in it, and a package of colorful licorice. Thanks to the generosity of Aunt Courtney, he had a gift card that covered his selection, and has enough left on it that he will be able to make a similar visit in the future. Here he is with his loot:

From there, we made a stop at The Dessert Gallery, where Mama got a treat. I had a piece of delicious lemon cake (before LUNCH!!!) and a cup of coffee. I nibbled on this while Henry ate his licorice.

After this, we made our way back to the car. On our way home, we stopped at the local Regional Airport to watch the airplane activity. There wasn't much going on, so we didn't stay long.

And this was all accomplished before noon. The rest of the day won't be quite as exciting, but I'm hoping we'll make up for it as the week progresses.