How We Stayed Safe While Traveling During COVD-19
Now, we left for Dallas on March 11th right when COVD-19 started to give us some social restrictions. The Las Vegas airport was its usual busy self and our plane was packed! So as a family we took a very common-sense approach. We wash our hands, like all the time, we wiped down our plane seats, trays and anything else we may touch with disinfectant wipes, we carried around hand sanitizer and we kept a reasonable distance away from other people. We traveled home 1 week after and let me tell you it was a totally different story. The Austin airport was dead and there were only 38 passengers on our flight home! All of a sudden, this invisible threat started to feel pretty scary. It is now April 1st which marks 2 weeks since we have been home and strictly quarantining our family and so far, so good no signs of this nasty virus for us!
At the Zoo
Man, that first travel day was long! Ryan and I had planned to hop off our plane in Dallas, get our rental car and drive straight to the Dallas Zoo! We landed in Dallas at 10am and we couldn’t check into our hotel till 3pm so we definitely had some time to kill. Allan was so excited! We don’t have any zoos in Vegas, unless you count the shark reef at the Mandalay Bay which I don’t, so I had been talking up the fact that we were going to see real animals to him and he couldn’t wait! Once we got to the zoo, we were surprised to see how packed it was! We ended up parking on the street since even the over-flow parking was full. Here I am thinking we would have the whole place to ourselves since it was a Wednesday afternoon. Little did I know it was Spring break here and all the families were out! Luckily this zoo is giant so once we were inside it wasn’t bad at all. Allan had a blast looking at the map and pointing to which animal he wanted to see next. Let me tell you guys it was hot especially when you have a baby strapped to your chest and your pushing around a kid that decided he didn’t want to walk anymore! But honestly, we all had so much fun and I must say I was pretty proud that our kids didn’t have total melt downs with the lack of sleep! I think I have to say it was the perfect way to start our family vacation.
A Walk with the Dinosaurs
I’m pretty sure we made Allan’s dreams come true when we went to the Dinosaur Park. After 2 days in Dallas we took a 3-hour drive (man Texas is way too big!) to where we would be staying the rest of our vacation, Granger. This is where my sister Nichole lives on a 10-acre ranch house with her husband Dave and 3 boys Liam 8, Gorge 5 and Holden 3. Man, what an awesome place to grow up am I right!
The next day we piled all the kids plus Gramps (my grandpa) into two trucks and headed to see the dinosaurs! All the kids were bursting with energy and gave all us adults a run for our money as we took the trail to see these life size dinosaur statues! After running around the trail and a stop at the gift shop (dinosaur toys all around!) it was time for lunch. Here’s some advice guys, if you ever see a hole-in-the wall restaurant and you’re not sure if you should stop to eat there, stop and eat there! In my experience these little places never disappoint and oh boy was this true for Billy’s Pit Barbq. They are serving up some seriously good BBQ! I mean had to keep myself from sucking on the rib bones and licking up the BBQ sauce on my paper plate!
Allan’s 4th Birthday
We were so blessed to have a day filled with family and lots of dinosaurs! Allan and his cousins woke up to dinosaur decorations and a kitchen full of balloons. The boys played in the sandbox and splashed around in the creek which was the best kind of dirty fun! Uncle Dave BBQ'ed hamburgers while Ryan, Liam and Gramps played basketball and Nichole, Diana and I sat on a blanket in the sunshine. We chowed down on cheeseburgers with all the fixings and toasted Allan with champagne, beer and juice! We sang Happy Birthday with my vanilla cupcakes with thick orange glaze, colored to match the dinosaur toppers and lit the 1 candle Nichole was able to dig up out of a kitchen draw. Then the best part for any kid, opening gifts! Then just like that my baby boy was now 4 years old! The days were long but man those years were short!
Family Pictures
Our last day in Texas was spent taking family pictures and honestly, I can’t think of a better way to end our vacation. Ryan and I aren’t professional photographers by any means but we do have a pretty nice camera that we have learned to use and over the years we have sort of become our family’s official photographers!