Grandpa R comes to town

We love company! My dad came to see us for a few days. The weather was gorgeous, fun things were going on, and the kids LOVED spending time with one of their grandparents.

First up, we went to pick up Jake after leaving the airport so we could go straight to the fair. You know how I adore the state fair.

Here is Dad, me, and Big Tex:
One can't miss place is the petting zoo.


We also hit the Doberman Dog Show, the car shows, the arts and crafts display (my favorite), and a few other places. We made sure to try a couple of state fair treats. We chose fried Autumn pumpkin pie and fried lemonade. I'm a sugar lover, but my tongue is still smarting from the thought of the intense amount of sweetness from the fried lemonade. Here we are in a small corner of the auto show with some antique cars:

We left the fair to get dinner at JG's Hamburgers --which is always a hit.

Another day we headed off to the Heard Nature Museum in McKinney. Tessa was so excited to see the rocks, minerals, and fossils (really?) and ran back and forth making sure we all saw them as well.
Both kids were great with the small dinosaurs that started the Dinosaur Nature Trail, but once they got bigger, Cole didn't want much to do with them.
These dinosaurs moved and made noise. Even the eyes moved, which was really cool. Tessa knew the name of this particular dinosaur. (Cryolophosaurus???) Thanks again, PBS.


Neither of the children wanted anything to do with the T-rex. Size may have had something to do with it.
That same evening we went fishing over at Bethany Lakes Park. Cole was ready to rumble with his Cars fishing pole and his fishing hat. Man, this kid's cute:

Once we moved to a different location and were ready to call it quits, suddenly we found the hot spot. In a speedy amount of time we caught a total of 5 or 6 six fish. They weren't very large, so we threw them back. But it was fun to catch them.

Tessa caught the biggest one, which happened to be a Big Mouth Bass. Here's his big mouth:
I think she was really pumped that it wasn't a catfish. She is a little terrified of catfish and was not happy when we went to look around at Cabela's because she knew those ugly things were swimming in the tanks at the back of the store.
We had picnics, yummy Mexican food, World Series watching, more fishing, shelf building, and overall just a really nice visit. Thanks for coming, Dad!