Taking the Train

Our big adventure day with the cousins consisted of taking the train into downtown Dallas.  Seeing how it's difficult to be on time with 10 kids we missed our train ... so we hung out in downtown Fort Worth until the next train came.  

We took the kids across the street to the water gardens.  

It is filled with plants and steps and at the bottom is this huge blue pool of water (not for swimming in of course).  

Grant

The water runs along the top in pools too - kind of like canals, but it overflows and runs down the walls.  
Uncle Aaron showing Ira some of the cool stuff on the wall :)

Babies chillin

This is what most of my pictures looked like - kids with their hands on the wall feeling the water :)

Here are a couple of pictures of the train ride:
Joy and Sandra

Ira and Clayton

Simon and Clark
Leann has the front of this picture... funny babies.

Our first stop was the Children's Medical Center.  Inside the lobby they have this huge model train.

Here is Snow White and the seven dwarfs.

Lots of cool caverns and stuff.

There was a second floor to look down on the whole site.

We even met the engineer who designed the train.  He was showing the kids how to turn on the lights and such.

Waiting in the medical center.  We probably resembled a day care group... but these are all ours ;) (plus the 2 not pictured).

Uncle Aaron bonding with the Engineer ;).  This also gives you some perspective on how huge the train set up is!

This building is on our way to the grassy knoll where JFK was shot.  It's the red brick museum.  I just loved the awesome architecture.  

Here is Reunion Tower - right by our last stop, very common part of the Dallas skyline.

Here is Aaron chatting with the "guide" by the grassy knoll.  Let's just say we all thought he was getting hustled by the conspiracy theory guy.

View of us hot and waiting.  This was the first trade post in Dallas.  We are around the grassy knoll area.

Then we walked and walked and walked to find the fountains.  
By the time we got there everyone was hot and tired.  
Oh and PS they don't have restrooms for public use.  We found that out thanks to Mhari.  We got to use the facilities at the bus station instead.... um, not the funnest place.

But the water was pretty.

Cute Clark

Here are the jumping fountains.  The kids were not allowed to play in them :(.  

So instead Grant decided to be a conductor of the water.  It was very cute to watch!

Then the rest of the kids joined in.

On our way back to the train we finally found the JFK memorial.  It's supposed to look like an open tomb.  At night the lights are make it look like it's floating there - but we didn't hang around to see it ;).

Info on the tomb... if you can read it ;)

It was a long hot day.  By the time we got home Mhari was out.  She napped for about an hour too.  I think we all felt that way!

It was fun to ride the train and see Dallas.  I don't think it's something that I feel the need to do again any time soon though.

Splash!

Before the cousins came to town I bought a slip 'n slide for the kids to play on outside.  I figured it was plenty hot and this would help cool off the kids and wear them out at the same time :).  The kids loved it and got lots of energy out... the problem is that they were able to break the water sprayers on the second time we used it ... bummer :(.  

But here's the pictures of the fun we had!

Sandra

Grant and Sandra

Clayton and Joy

Grant and Joy

Aunt Leann with Clark

Mhari took a while to warm up to it, but she liked the splash at the end :)

Talmage and Joy

After all of the outdoor fun it was time to clean up .... which meant we got to do babies in the bath!

Simon giving Clark loves.

crowding

Splashing

Hunny rocking Simon trying to get him to go to sleep.  

It was a fun evening... filled with water ;)

Stockyards and Riding the Bull

One of the days the cousins were here we went to the Stockyards.  It was fun to show them all of the cool cowboy stuff :).  The first thing we did was measure up to the long horns.  

Talmage was the longest of our kids...

Sandra is getting bigger ;)

Grant is just shy of Talmage's length.

Then Mhari, our littlest longhorn girl :)

Then it was time to lock up the bandits!


Sandra

 Grant

Mhari

 A jail full of wild ones ;)

Next it was on to the maze.  Uncle Aaron braved it with the kids.  They went all over trying to find the punchers to spell out "maze."  They all had fun - well, accept Mhari who gave up early.  They were sure hot afterwards!

 When they all completed the maze they even got a prize!  Here they are showing off their reward.

Meanwhile...


Simon and Clark bonded in the strollers :)

On our way out we ended up by a mister.  Simon had fun in it and it was cool to see all of the water drops speckling his face :)

We also got to see the long horn cattle drive.  There were only about 10 long horns... I thought there were more last time we saw it 

Cool picture 

Last summer when Jeff's parents were in town after Clark was born we took them down to the stockyards.  During that time Jeff decided he was going to ride the mechanical bull.  Seeing how I had just had a baby and how fast the bull went I really had no desire to attempt it.  

Well, it's been a year, I've been mentally preparing... oh, and the bull ride has totally changed!

It was time to ride the bull.  It was a lot slower than when Jeff rode it so I got to hang on for a while :)

It got pretty tiring...

And after a while it was time to get off :)

Man, my legs hurt for a few days afterwards.  I guess I don't ride enough bulls to have strong legs for riding :).  I'm glad I did it... being a Texan now and all.  


We also went souvenir shopping and ate lunch at Risky's Steak House.  It was a fun time at the Stockyards even if it was hot outside.