The Adventures of Team Daniels: March 2016

Our second week of spring break was full of fun. We started with a trip to Houston for Adam's birthday. Look what I found!

Gaea was babysitting. It was good to hold a lizard again. I had to resist the urge to kiss it and peel of the dead skin.

We always have a crazy time with our cousins.

After we got back the weather was perfect for several days. We were able to get out and enjoy spring.

We had a photo sesh at the park.

We met up with the Loisels while we were there.

It was a day of floating shoes. When we left we had 10 shoes for 5 kids, but it was looking a little sketchy for a bit.

I saw someone's pictures of a place called Trinity Falls, not far from our house, and we had never been. I made it a family goal to get there, come hell or high water. I drove to where it looked like the closest place to get there. It was a busy road and the parking lot was blocked off for construction. I turned around and drove back, thinking my friend was just there days before so there had to be some place to park. Definitely could not park there. I went to the closest parking lot which was actually part of the Base. Pretty sure we weren't allowed to park there, but we did it anyway. The whole gang started to hike to the parking lot for the Falls. Keep in mind there were a lot of cars and there was no sidewalk. That, and we had 3 Easter baskets, a camera bag, my purse, a lunch tote, and 2 dogs with us. Cars were zooming by as we trekked along the side of the road, nearly knocking us down from their backdraft. Finally I thought like a parent should think and decided it was too dangerous and we should turn back. Then we drove for about 30 minutes trying to find the next closest way there.

By this point we were ready to eat our own arms off, so we plopped down for a picnic on the trail.

At least I dropped off the lunch tote after that so I had one less thing to carry on the 15 minute walk.

We were anticipating the Falls and there was pretty nature to look at along the way so not one kid whined {BONUS!}. We saw turtles, alligators, unicorns, fish and ducks as we walked.

Finally we made it!

Sister gives me her boys' hand-me-downs, which I am so thankful for. When they take pictures she always has her boys dressed alike. All three kids asked why Zeke and Eli had on the same shirt. Apparently they are not as big fans as of matching outfits as Sister.

The water was cold, but it was 80-some degrees so it felt great.

At this point, Lijee had slipped once or twice and had a wet bottom, but that was the only wet part.

We took a break from the water falls and had our egg hunt.

I had bought chocolate candy. Remember it was 80 degrees, so our chocolate didn't hold up well. Their little hands were filthy from melted chocolate, so we went back to the falls to get clean.

I had them hop down a level because I thought it would be good for pictures.

Eli saw a break in the water and discovered they could walk behind the falls.

So they all went behind...

and a nano second later they all decided to come out like they were taking a shower.

A very cold shower.

They're all behind,

and out they come!

We spent a long time running behind and under the water. Oh, and there may have been singing and dancing.

We had a great day. Daisy said it was the most fun playing in water she had ever had.

Mission accomplished.

We wanted to try a new adventure for spring break, so the train it was!

We started looking at more exotic places, like Yosemite Park, Washington, and LA, but the time on the train was going to be days, and that was just one way. I kept scooting back the destination, trying to find a quicker trip. Finally we settled on Oklahoma City since it was just a 4 hour trip. We always drive through but have never stopped, so we decided to give it a go.

The train station departs from downtown Ft. Worth. We had some time to waste while waiting on Daddy to park.

Departure time finally arrived!

We touched every button possible within the first 5 minutes. Then we poked them all again two or 3 times.

When I told Elijah to use some self-control, he replied,

"But the train's so cool I can't."

It didn't take long to head down to the dining car to grab a snack.

Eli had time to get out a few of his toys.

We finally made it!

DanFam5 started the first day with the Oklahoma City National Memorial. The reflecting pool is marked with walls on each end, one with 9:01, when all was normal, and one with 9:03, which represents when rebuilding as families, friends, a city, state and nation began.

The chairs on the lawn represent the six floors of the building and lives lost that day from each floor. There are adult chairs and children chairs.

The Survivor Tree stands on the other side, along with orchard trees that were planted to represent survival and growth.

From there we hit Brick Town.

The kids loved Brickopolis. All three did the laser maze plus lots of other arcade games.

Then DanFam5 played a competitive game of laser tag.

Zeke, Daisy and Mommy were the red team vs Daddy and Eli on the blue team. I shouldn't say this out loud, but I was Ronin, and I was trying. {Yes, the very lowest score of the family. Even lower than the 5 year old.}

Here they're choosing their prizes from the arcade winnings.

We spent enough money to earn 2 free t-shirts. Go us!

This is outside the baseball stadium.

At the hotel we played a fun family game of Farkle.

But mostly we spent our hotel time swimming. Lots and lots of swimming.

During our stay we played shark games, and Marco Polo and fishy-fishy, and did challenges, and did silly pool entries (cannon ball, mouse-eating-cheese, husband-and-wife, etc.), and a Klondike commercial, and some water dancing choreography.