Field Trip - Day One
I was up all day and most of the night cleaning on Sunday, but you would really not know that if you went to my house right now...mostly because it was really gross before I even began. Still, I imagine when we get home, it will be passably clean. Enough so I don't feel exhausted just walking in the door, anyway.
The kids returned from their dad's house on Monday morning, early. Monk immediately, and without complain (bless his little heart) started doing all of the chores I had listed for him to do to help prepare for the journey. I finished packing the car. Coley ran around being cute and silly.
We finally officially embarked at around 8:30. I only had to run back into the house once, to retrieve my clip-ons. I had the case, but not the shades. And we were off.
It is so easy to get to Dallas. Just a straight shot up I-35. And once in Dallas, my directions (google maps, baby) made it totally easy to get to the Arboretum. I don't even have a map with me and I found my way just fine. I paid 18 bux to go look at nature in the middle of a big city, which seemed somewhat apocalyptic to me...moreso since the place was freaking PACKED. On a MONDAY. However, there were lots of cool plants to look at and the kids enjoyed the space to run and explore and play while I took pictures and soaked in some relaxationness.
In the middle of the park is this giant green lawn that you are allowed to sit on, play on, picnic on, and what have you.
I kind of felt like my kids were being more rambunctious than the other kids there, but fuck it! We were outside on a lawn. I couldn't see a good reason to ask them to rein it in. Let them wrestle and tackle and play like puppies for crying out loud. Go ahead and give me dirty looks for...whatever it is that I am doing wrong. They played and played and I chilled and chilled and then we got up and explored some more.
There was a frontier area with cabins and things. Some random (non-park employed) lady reprimanded Monk for playing with the, um, PLAY food in one of the cabins. Dude, what crawled up yr ass and died (is what I wanted to say to her)...it is not like the cabins were actual relics of the past. I just wanted to push that lady down! But the kids just ignored her and played in the various play cabins until I couldn't stand it anymore and said it was time to move on. They weren't terribly thrilled, but they complied...grumbling a bit.
The rest of the park was more of the same...flowers, well tended and architected. Lots of straight lines. Lots of fanciness. Some whimsy, but not anything like the Austin Botanical Garden. It made me miss home, actually. I love the wildcrafted xeriscaping thing they have going on. So curvaceous and crazy it looks like it is impossible that anyone tends to it. There were points yesterday where it almost seemed like I was looking at a flower factory farm. Entire fields of one type of flower. Good choices of color and texture, but no ART. No FEELING.
Well, the vw flower cars were cool. So was the butterfly. And I liked the toads and awful lot. However, my favorite part of the visit was laying in the field, staring up at the clouds while the boys tumbled and played around me.
Back at the hotel (which was super easy to find!) we had dinner, then had a swim in the pool, then back to the room for cartoons. Then story time and bed. The kids fell asleep almost immediately, and I stayed up until two chatting with friends and wiggling my eyebrows in the mirror. hahaha.
(more photos at my flickr page)
