The weekend that Aidan turned 4 The Houston Zoo happened to be having an event that Friday night where they were staying open for a few hours later than normal. I guess they do this a few times each summer so that guests can enjoy the zoo later in the day as it cools off. They were also having "Christmas in Zoo-ly" that night. Oh, and I had a coupon for $4 off admission for each of us.
SCORE!!
So we went and yes, it was pretty toasty out, but we still had fun. There's lots of shade and misting fans around the trails so you can stay cool. Plus there are lots of indoor exhibits too.
We were so impressed by this Zoo that Ryan equated it to Disney's Animal Kingdom. We will definitely be getting a membership and going more often when the weather starts to cool off. There's splash pads and jungle gyms and all kinds of fun stuff for the kiddos to do. Oh and it's HUGE! It took us over 2 hours to cover the whole place (compared to oh, say 30 mins for Lehigh Valley Zoo or Utica Zoo), and even then, some of the exhibits we barely lingered at! I imagine you could spend many hours hanging out (we also didn't utilize the playground areas since we were on a mission to see everything and get some food).
The boys' favorite part of the Zoo was a special exhibit that featured life sized animals made out of Legos. Each display had a sign that stated how many hours and legos it required. It was quite impressive.
People walking by while I was taking this photo were "awwwww-ing", and I have to admit, it's a rare "both smiling and looking" photo!!
After discovering that all the restaurants in the Zoo were not remaining open for the extended hours we tried to grab some Tex Mex at a place downtown near the Zoo called El Tiempo, but it was after 8pm (bedtime in our house) and the wait was an hour. Moving on!
We drove out of the city and closer to home to try a Mexican place called Gringo's. Again, over an hour wait, and now after 830pm. We gave up our hope of Tex-Mex and went to a brewery in the same plaza and ended up eating there...finally sitting down somewhere around 9:15pm. Yikes.
Luckily even though they were hot and tired the boys behaved very well, and scarfed their food since they were absolutely starving!!
Mason kicked back to enjoy his lemonade at the restaurant
I had the best fruit themed dinner ever though. Started with a Watermelon Mojito, then a Watermelon feta appetizer salad and then had Pineapple Mahi Mahi for dinner. I love how fresh and tasty the produce is down here!
Sunday rolled around and it was Aidan's 4th Birthday! We had decided to have the other Fellows over for dinner and swimming that night as a sort of small celebration for Aidan. I set presents out the night before for him and then he got to make a Special Birthday Crown and we had cupcakes and treats !!
Aidan even got to have a special Birthday FaceTime with Uncles Ama and Donnie along with a Skype chat with Nani & Poppy!!
We had some dinner before heading over to the pool where we sang Happy Birthday and had cupcakes before going for a swim.
Our little buddy Ethan joined in the pool fun, too!
Aidan had a great birthday and I'm so glad we were able to make it special for him seeing as we are so far from home!! A special thanks to Brittany & James as well as Ethan & Kara for coming over that night to help us celebrate!
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