Weekends Go by Too Fast

Wow! Has it been busy around the Happy Texan house! We've been working like crazy to get the scrapbook done for our Nature Challenge mission. We finished up Friday night and Saturday was the big event.

It was held at Sims Bayou Urban Nature Center. Charlie had a great time exploring the grounds and making friends.
Rachel enjoyed holding the snakes including this huge red tailed boa.

We won a couple of door prizes and 3rd place in the competition! Woohoo! Our prize was a pair of very nice binoculars from REI.

We're a little sad that it's over but look forward to next year's competition.

You'll notice the Godzilla-sized Smokey Bear. It was Smokey's 65th birthday so we got to sing happy birthday and have cake.

Speaking of birthdays, I wanted to share the fantastic cake Rachel made for Charlie's birthday. It's a Ben10 character for Charlie's 9th birthday. It was only her 4th cake to make. Of course I'm super proud of my little girl.

After the competition we went for a night hike at Brazos Bend State Park to see some alligators and just enjoy the evening in our favorite quiet place.

.

Sunday we visited a new church. I wouldn't say we're an exactly "religious" family so we went to a Unitarian Universalist church that had an African Methodist Episcopalian speaking. It was interesting and lively. But this was a small place and not many kids. It was kind of odd to see on their library bookshelves everything from the Bible to the Koran to Harry Potter to Dracula and a book of spells. LOL

.

Afterwards we had a bad-for-you lunch at a Mexican restaurant and then it was off to Moody Gardens for the dinosaur exhibit. I love that place. They are still trying to recover from the hurricane last September. I am hoping we won't have to go through that again this year. It's just too scary.

.

.

I keep promising to share some new recipes but honestly I haven't made anything that I wanted to share. Though I've tried a few new recipes, I haven't been impressed by any of them. :( I'll keep trying and share the next good one.

.

Exercise has consisted of walking and hiking and the general busy lifestyle that I seem to be leading lately. I know that's not enough though. My elbow STILL hurts. So I guess I'll just get back to my Leslie Sansone Walking DVDs for my indoor workouts. I don't want to lift things with that elbow still hurting.

.

This week will consist of school and getting ready for a camping trip in Austin this weekend. We haven't been to Austin in a long time so we're all looking forward to it. :)

.

And hopefully I'll have some new recipes to share soon. Sorry for the lack of them lately.