The Great Outdoors

So let's recap our weekend...

Some of you may not know this about me but I am quite the outdoors woman. Lions, tigers, snakes, I am a friend to all living animals AND there is nothing that says PART-AY to me quite like being out in nature, breathing in the clean air, making food the way it was intended over an open fire...ahhh the outdoors!! You may not know this cause well...it's a great big LIE! :)

I tend to only be able to identify the animals that come with a vegetable side item. I don't particularly like animals unless they are caged or living with someone else. Oh and I would much rather be inside with the electricity on and running water then out living on the land so that leads into our very outdoorsy weekend last weekend...

Friday I took aiden to the zoo with some friends of ours. Aiden and I have not been to the zoo since he was a wee little one mostly because of my above statements and cause I don't know if you know this but the zoo kind of smells and it makes me feel dumb cause I don't know the names of most of the animals. Don't laugh, it's not like "oh there's a deer it's like some weird hybrid tiny deer that originated from a totally different place than a deer and you're sitting there telling your kid it's a deer and then feel really dumb cause someone else overhears you and reads aloud very LOUDLY to their child that it's actually a ______ " and let's face it I don't need that kind of added pressure in my life. So I said all that to say we haven't been to the zoo since aiden was a baby and before that I probably hadn't been to the zoo since I was about 12 but aiden is now really liking things like that and in my effort to be a good mommy, I'm gonna try to take him more often. I may even buy a zoo pass, watch out world...today the zoo, next week the amazon!!!

When we first got there, checking out the waterfalls.

And feeding the birds, I am so in tune with nature right now I might break out into song...

Ahh boys after my own heart, at the zoo and their favorite thing was playing in the electric safari car that you can also find outside any grocery store??

Aiden with one of his best buddies, Lucas, who is picking his nose. Priceless!

ANDDDD one of the favorites was the phones? Inside! Go figure.I love this picture of Kyle. Mom, Phone for you!!!

And petting a snake.

And looking at some animal over that fence, I'm not gonna try to take a stab at what it might have been.

So all my sarcasm aside... Aiden really did have fun and I had much more fun than I expected. Probably cause I was with one of my good friends :) and also a little fyi, the zoo seems to be more enjoyable when there's not as many people and it's cooler outside, I think this may even keep the smell a bit more under control? Possibly.

On to part 2 of the great outdoors, saturday night we went CAMPING with friends from our church. Weeeee!!! Shockingly enough I was more excited about this adventure than ben was. Maybe he was better prepared for how it was actually going to go down???

Having a cooked out dinner of hamburgers and hot dogs, how can you beat that?

Sitting by the fire...

And then SMORES!!!

Me & Aiden roasting marshmallows

And eating smores

And playing with bikes

And chatting and chilling with friends, what's not to like?

I guess here it's not about what story the pictures are telling you but more what I couldn't take pictures of. First being aiden running away from us in the great wide open DARK every 5 minutes, second that this was the first night in DFW that there was a freeze warning so we were very very cold and third, that picture with all the bikes, that was at a different campsite of people we didn't know and aiden would not stop bothering other people's stuff. Sooo after about 3 or so hours of outdoor fun we decided that camping was best left for older kids who would stay snug in their sleeping bags all night long, stay in the campsite where they belonged, and not try to steal stranger's toys. We left at bedtime :( But in a few more years, I totally see us being that outdoorsy family!!!

But for now we're gonna stick to getting a zoo pass! :)