Dallas Day 2

Dallas Day 2

Saturday was a busy day. Connor was the first kid to wake up and so he and I went downstairs to the free breakfast area and filled a plate with omelets, sausages, bagels, cereal boxes and condiments we returned to our rooms with me feeling like beggar or a thief. There was no sign that said you couldn't take food back to your room but I still felt like I was raiding the buffet and emptying it into my purse. When we got back to the room Caleb decided that he wanted to peruse the offerings so we went down agin. I pulled my hair up and wore my sunglasses in an attempt to not look like the same mom that had just come down and pilfered the buffet. Plus I was with a totally different kid so maybe no one recognized me. Anyway when we got back to the room Don left to go and get a haircut. There was Supercuts and a Great Clips just across the street. I think that he was gone for maybe 20 minutes. I was amazed when he walked back in so quickly. Ah the joys of civilization! After the kids all ate and we all got dressed, we headed out for the day. We decided to go the Dallas Science and Natural History Museum. We thought about the zoo but were worried that it would be too miserably hot. Mind you that we apparently brought the heat with us because it is now raining and stormy in Logandale and Dallas is practically in a heat wave. Classic! After a quick stop at 7-11 (by the way did anyone remember that yesterday, 7/11 was free Slurpee day? We did not either and there is a 7-11 right next door. Bummer!) We entered our destination address into our GPS friend affectionately named Pam (map backwards) by Cody. I like the name Carmen though-Carmen Garmin I think is pretty great. So half of the family is referring to the GPS as Pam while the others are calling it Carmen. We drove to the Dallas Fair Park where the museum was. Don was excited to see that is where the Cotton Bowl is played. It was a little nerve wracking getting there because there are about 400 freeways merging and intersecting and fly above you. Because we went to the Discovery Gateway in Salt Lake the week before the 4th and I bought a 6 month pass we were able to get into the museum for free because they are a partner museum with Discovery Gateway. This museum was a lot bigger than the one in Salt Lake. It also had more things for my bigger kids to enjoy. Don and Cody had the best time making huge bubbles. Actually everyone loved that and there was also a dinosaur excavating thing the kids could play in. It really was 2 museums in 1 because after spending 2 hours in the science part we went to another building that had the nature part. They had stuffed animals from the area on display. It was alot like the Bean Museum at BYU. When we were walking to the other building we saw a neat pond that had Swan paddleboats. After we went into the rest of the museum Don, Connor and Cayden got into 1 paddleboat and Codyand Caleb got into another. I declined and sat on a ledge in the shade while they paddles around the pond. The kids were excited to see lots of turtles, fish, tadpoles and squirrels. We saw that there was an aquarium there so we went to that too. It was quite small but had some cool things and was cheap. The kids were even allowed to touch some of the animals that were in tanks on the ground. I have a cute pic of Connor wanting to but not wanting to touch a crab thing that looks like a sting ray while the man from the aquarium holds it out to him. We then treated ourselves to yummy snowy and headed back toward the hotel to get some lunch. It had been a nice cheap way to kill a few hours. We wanted to eat at a yummy Mexican place that Jessica and Russell showed us last time but could not quite figure out how to get there so after some frustration, confusion and all around grumpiness we ended back at the hotel and went next door for some Cane's Chicken Fingers. After a few hours of resting and swimming at the hotel pool Cody and I wanted to do a little exploring. We went first to Barnes and Noble because you know we have never been there before. We perused the shelves for a while and then I left him and went across the street to Old Navy to find some flip flops for Connor who had just broken his. No luck at Old Navy so we started looking for a Jamba juice. The only one we knew of was about 10 miles away and half way there I decided that it was just too far so we opted for Sonic instead. We took some food back to the hotel and then Cody and I made another run into Target right before they closed. We tried to go back to Quizno's for Cody but sadly they had already closed but along the way back we found a lovely French Bakery/Cafe. They were still open so we had to enjoy their wares. Éclairs, Strawberry Napoleons and Chocolate Croissants all handed to us by an authentic French gal with accent. Much better than the creepy Jacque at Eliane's in Provo. That might be Cody and I's new favorite thing, French Bakerys. We came back to the hotel shared our goodies and tried to get everyone to bed. It was a fun day.