Daycation

Daycation, Staycation - everyone seems to want to use these terms this summer. So I figure I need to conform and have a blog post with that title.

We had a full day out and about last Saturday. I made Chili on Thursday night which reminded me of how much I miss Hard Times Cafe. The best chili anywhere in my opinion. So my wonderful husband tried to find the restaurant in Dallas with the best Chili. He said there weren't too many to choose from. The best was about 30 minutes away in Grapevine, TX. So we planned our day around that. We went to small Botanical Gardens park in Grapevine. It was so nice. Great weather, beautiful flowers, few people, and kids who were in good spirits (the most important part.) We hiked around and went on an adventure as Orin called it. Whenever we hike he likes to be our guide and calls himself "The Way Man." It's so funny. He'll say, "The way man says to go this way so you have to follow." Here are too any pictures of our fun.

Examining nature. Orin was really interested in these walnut thing's that were falling from the trees.
Their favorite part was this cement pipe. We spent forever here just playing and climbing.

There was a small hole in the top which was very useful for fun things.I love this one of Micaiah peeking through the hole.
Orin took this - not bad, huh?
It is so hard to get a real smile out of this boy - this is a great one!
More fun with the hole.Do we have a "tree hugger?"
Caiah was scared to climb the tree so he enjoyed practicing the beam.
Our attempt to get a nice picture by the fountain. Oh, well. I can only seem to get one smiling at a time.
There was also a wonderful playground next to the gardens.
He is definitely having fun here!
Nothing necessarily significant about this sign except for Micaiah walked up to it, stood there for a minute and told me, "It says, 'Grapes and cool whip.'" Grapes and cool whip is a favorite of his so he must have been getting hungry!
We got to Main Street. As we were walking to the restaurant the kids saw this statue and just thought it was the coolest thing. Orin would have sat there talking to the guy forever.
We stopped by this neat little craft fair-type-thing. Lots of items that little hands can't touch. They had some interesting and creative things - a little too pricey for us though. :-)
After all of this I forgot to take pictures at the restaurant. Sad. The chili was good - but it was no Hard Times!