Girl Trip- Day Three at the Dallas Arboretum

Our last day in Dallas before driving home was spent at the Dallas Arboretum. It is a beautiful large garden and we'd never been before, but will certainly go back! We started in coats and ended with sleeves pushed up! The weather was perfect!

Our first stop was the Rory Meyer's Children's Garden. It was so well designed and super educational! Check out the celery slide and pea boat.

These were found in the incredible edible garden along with this silly veggie art! This whole area taught kids about gardening, food's importance to your body, dirt and soil types, etc. It was fun to teach her more about where the grocery store is stocked from.

There was also a whole weather section that showed how wind is used to pollenate, water and sun make plants grow and the other more sever weather's damage to plants. Abby stood on the sun dial and it was right on- 11 AM!

I jumped in the wind tunnel with her! Total and complete silliness!

Nana helped Abby shoot water to make the orange pieces spin and then she proudly did it by herself numerous times.

I loved this flower area- it felt like Honey I Shrunk the Kids!

There was also a fun little cottage playground area with over sized bugs!

After the children's garden we had lunch on a covered patio inside the kids area. The lunch spot offered tons of healthy options- I loved it! We had sandwiches, carrots, apple sauce and yummy non-soda drinks like Texas Tea.

After lunch we walked the main gardens. I feel like visiting in May would be ideal! Lots of things starting to wake up for Spring.

I'd love to see these trees in bloom! 

I am no gardener- I think this is a white Dogwood. I love trees that just cover themselves in flowers in the Spring. Leaves are so boring when flowers can be seen.

They have seasonal displays and we saw the peacocks made from greenery and flowers for their big tails. There were a handful of them and they were really impressive!

Overall we had a really fun day and girl trip! We had good weather, a pretty happy camper with us, and the right shoes to walk without blisters!

We might have even made a little tree hugger out of Abby!

Girl Trip- Day Two

Wednesday was our light day on the trip- we knew the zoo would be lots of walking for Nana and crowded, so we wanted to do something a little easier that day. It also was the coldest day so we looked for indoor activities. My friend Erin is a big fan of the Urban Air Trampoline park nearby, so we decided to go jump there on Wednesday morning.

Abby and I had so much fun! It was a blast for both of us and a really good workout. I had fun and was out of breath!

Abby loved running and jumping into the foam pit. I did not do that one... I wasn't sure how easily I could climb out of the foam!

Check out the video of Abby running and jumping in!

After our jumping, we drove to nearby Plano for my favorite BBQ- Red, Hot and Blue. It was delicious as always. I so wish we had an Austin location. We also did a little shopping before going back to the room to rest.

Then, it was time for the moment Abby had been waiting for... her tea party at The American Girl store. She was giddy with excitement and couldn't say the words without squealing!

For Christmas this year, we bought Abby a My Generation doll from Target. It is the "off brand" American girl doll and it works just fine for us. I couldn't buy Abby a real doll and luckily she has no idea she has a generic version. 

Abby had saved her money for months and with a little help from the tooth fairy, she was able to buy the two items she really wanted- a lunchbox of food and a baby sippy cup and snack. You are looking at $38 right there. Wow.

We made an appointment to have a tea party and expected a large group to do a craft and then have a few snacks. It turned out to be our own table and this beautiful presentation of food!

It was all delicious and at 4 PM, really counted as an early dinner for us! I would highly recommend doing the tea party. 

It is $12 per person and includes all of this food and your pink lemonade to drink. 

Abby was also given a small cup and plate for her doll and the pink bow napkin rings and the flowers in the small pots. She was thrilled! 

We had a wonderful time at our tea party!

Up next, our last day was spent at the Dallas Arboretum. It was a pleasant surprise that we loved even more than the zoo!

Girl Trip! Girl Trip!

This past week was Spring Break and Marcus had a training all week in Denver. Boo for the odd scheduling of that! So, rather than sit around all week and miss Daddy, we grabbed Nana and hit the road for a GIRL TRIP! GIRL TRIP! (We named it that to take away the sadness that Marcus wasn't with us. It worked like a charm!)

We were all so excited that we left before 7 AM on Tuesday morning. We were at the Dallas Zoo before 10 AM which is a good thing because it was super crowded as the day went on. We were lucky to get decent parking and sunshine all morning! We even got a little sunburn!

It was a lot of walking for Nana but she did great! 

We rode the monorail which is a must do. It costs $3 per person but you get a guided tour of parts of the zoo you can't access by foot. And, you are up high so everyone can see!

The okapi is Abby's very favorite animal and she has only seen one at the Houston Zoo. They had a couple at the zoo and we attended the zoo keeper talk where she fed one and told us all about it.

I believe we were told this is the only koala in North American zoos right now. It was pretty cool to see- they are super fluffy and look so friendly. It sleeps 20 hours per day, so we didn't see much movement from him :)

We have been to lots of zoos in Texas- Abilene, Austin, Houston, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Waco and now Dallas. Waco is still our favorite, but I really liked Dallas too! Lots of animals, easy to get around, and a couple of really interactive spots. The food was awful and parking was pretty bad, but overall we liked it a lot!

I'll share Day Two soon!

Disney Cruise Recap: Atlantis Resort at Paradise Island, Bahamas

Our final cruise stop was the one we all looked forward to the most- Nassau Bahamas where we would be spending the day at Atlantis. There were tons of options in Nassau, but I just couldn't be right there by The Atlantis Resort and not spend the day there. Our whole excursion budget went to this day and it was tons of fun!

We got off the ship and immediately knew we were in the Caribbean. It was muggy, the buildings were colorful and the cruise ships were all lined up with happy passengers ready to disembark.

We took the 10 minute shuttle to Atlantis where a guide walked us through the hotel, casino, and mall to the water park area. The hotel was amazing- so much bigger in person than I had expected. The Miami Heat were all in house for training camp!

The area in the middle of these two hotels is called the Michael Jackson suite as he was the first to stay in the suite. It rents for $25,000 per night and there is a 4 night minimum. When it first opened, the suite was booked for 5 straight years. I'd love to know what is inside the hotel room!

We had a few hours in the waterpark and started at the kid's play area. It was cute and Abby loved it. Marcus wasn't allowed on the slides which made us sad....

until we found the adult slides! This one had a 40 foot drop and Marcus did it a couple of times. Abby and I sat at the bottom cheering him on! He didn't do the 100 foot drop. I can't even imagine!

We also found a few little baby slides! They had lots of pool all connected by little slides that we all did to get around inside the water.

Our friends Carrie and Brian loaned us their waterproof camera which made for fun pictures in and above the water! I think I need one for Christmas!

After a little swimming we were hungry and used our vouchers for lunch! We had sliders, fries and drinks at one of the hotel's outdoor venues. It was part of the package we bought and they were yummy!

At this point we decided to hit the lazy river that runs around the water park. It looked fun at the start, but there were signs about it being an intermediate ride which frightened us a little for Abby. I didn't want to scare her from all water for the day. I rode in a single tube and Marcus doubled up with Abby.

We were almost immediately separated and since I couldn't exit my tube and the waves kept pushing me, I couldn't see Marcus and Abby. We entered right at the point where the water pushes out and the biggest waves happen. It was fun, but the whole time I just knew Abby was terrified and Marcus was trying to calm her since an exit wasn't an option.

We finally made it to a calm area and I waited for them outside my tube. She loved it! Hooray for a brave little girl! We did it a couple more times and once, they went around solo with me on the bridge snapping photos!

After all that waterpark, it was time for us to do the Dolphin Interaction at Atlantis. Swimming with dolphins is a bucket list item. It is always something I've thought about and never thought I would get to do. I am so glad we did it!

We watched an informative presentation about dolphins, removed all jewelry and put on the most uncomfortable piece of clothing known to man.... the wetsuit. Ugh! Thank goodness I have a cute blond child covering up my wetsuit! :)

This wasn't a go in the ocean and "swim" holding a dolphin tale, but honestly it was perfect for us! We were in a group of 11 people and had Jonah the dolphin and his two trainers with us.

We all took turns kissing him, petting him, feeding him and smiling for the camera.

We even taught him to jump so that we could high five his fin.

In total we spent about an hour in the water with him. Cameras were not allowed, but they had a professional in the water with us snapping pictures the entire time.

I wish we could have taken our own- their pictures were not cheap. But, we just couldn't not buy a couple! So, I bought them and scanned them!

At the end of our day, we took the last shuttle back to the boat and talked about how much fun we had all night! If I had it to do all over again, I would have done just the dolphins and not the waterpark. We just didn't have enough time. There was so much of Atlantis we didn't see and while the water park was great, we have so many water parks in Texas that are bigger and have more rides. I would have loved to explore the Reef and sharks at Atlantis, seen some of the shops, and visited the property more. There just wasn't enough time!

That covers our Disney Cruise! We had the most fun! Please email me at annajenk@yahoo.com or leave a comment if you want to know more or read all about our trip here.