Safari

Today we decided to take Madison and Lucas on a magical safari! We headed down to San Antonio to the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch. It's totally like a real safari in Africa... except you drive your car through, feed the animals pellets through your window, and stop at the petting zoo and restaurant on your way out. But other than that, I would have thought we were in Africa - especially because it was so hot.
The highlight of the day that made it all worth paying the $16 per person fee was when we were attacked by an ostrich. Hilarious.

Aside from ostriches, we saw zebras, a bazillion types of deer, antelopes, Texas long horns, and other things with cool antlers. Then they had giraffes, hippos, camels and kangaroos in their own houses. There was a petting zoo where goats tried to eat our camera strap, Ben's shirt, and our paper bags - not the food inside. And Lucas sat on a pile of goat poop, so he had to eat lunch in his diaper.
After lunch we took one more drive through the safari to get our money's worth. I realized how awesome the sun roof was for animal viewing, and Ben realized that the line this time around was too slow and that we should have just gone home...

After we left safari land we headed into S.A. so Ben could pick up some parts for his bike rack project, got some delicious frozen custard and headed home. Lucas is down for his nap right now (at 6:30 pm)... as are Ben and Maddie.

It was a fun day thanks to that mean ostrich... and to Ben for eating part of a food pellet while Maddie and I watched in disgust. If you're wondering, they taste like really dry, bland cereal.

Back to Town

We made it back to town last Sunday. We elected to drive the entire way in one day, which I was a little worried about, but at least we got to stay and enjoy the 4th of July with the fam in ABQ, and didn't have to try to get Lucas to sleep in a hotel room.

I'm happy to report that the drive went 20 times better than expected. My niece, Madison, came with us and she and Lucas were perfect the whole way. Lucas didn't have a real fit the whole day and Maddie, of course, was very helpful in entertaining Lucas.

We headed out around 8:30 Sunday morning and stopped once in Clovis, NM. We ate at the DQ there and were the youngest patrons that place had seen in years. Lucas and Maddie burned some calories on the outdoor toy and then we headed on after a quick diaper change.

In Lubbock we stumbled upon a Bahama Bucks and I felt it was entirely necessary to stop, even though we weren't hungry. It's ice - there's always room for ice. It was well worth the stop and the money.

Our next stop wasn't until Abilene. We bought a cord for the iPod, checked out the mall logo that Ben designed back when we were in Santa Fe (he wasn't too pleased with it, but I snapped a picture anyway). Then we ate dinner and checked out a prairie dog preserve. We wasted two valuable hours there, but I think Lucas needed the break.

Shortly after Abilene, Lucas dumped his water bottle on Maddie, so we had to stop and let her change shorts. During this stop, a mosquito entered the car. About 10 bites (on my body) later I finally killed him.

Around 11:30pm we pulled into Austin. After spending a weekend sans air conditioning, our house was about 95 degrees upstairs. Lucas refused to go to bed once he was reunited with his toys - it was too hot anyways. We were all in bed in an 85-degree house by 2am.

The car did great. Ben was a great driver. I was a great driver for the 45 minutes I drove, and Maddie and Lucas were great passengers.

Oh yeah, Austin is freakin hot. We miss the good old Albuquerque weather.

This is the BIG one!

Hey Everyone,

I know, I know. We're always begging for your votes, but this one is for real. This is big. This is for 10K. This is pure genius. I mean, the boy had to design each little piece of camouflage. It took time. And did I mention it was for $10,000? It's in a contest for Design By Human's anniversary, hence the large cash reward.

So, please, PLEASE, go here and vote for Ben's shirt. You need to sign up for an account if you don't have one, but it's easy, and they don't send you all sorts of junk mail.
When you get there, all you have to do is press the "vote" button. Easy as pie. Easy as a frozen pie from HEB.

Another thing that's easy? You could tell your friends to vote too! That would be swell - real swell.

(FYI - Ben's Urban Assault shirt will be printed soon. Thanks for voting. The Taking Tree shirt is all sold out. We should have bought more when we had the chance!)
Thanks a million. Our car and house payments thank you, too.

Recent Lucasisms and other things...

I know I've been a bad blogger lately.... sorry, Nana and Grandpa!

New Addition: So, I've been in Albuquerque for 2 weeks. I was supposed to go back on Wednesday, but instead on Tuesday found the perfect car and decided to buy it, changed my ticket for Ben to come out, and we'll drive it back to Austin next weekend. Crazy, right? But it will be worth it. It's hard to find the perfect car, see. Our combined list of wants were a) Ben must fit, b) have good gas mileage, c) be roomy enough if we have company, d) leather interior (me), e) adequate cup holders (Ben). After weeks of research, we were settled on something like a CR-V or going back to a Maxima. We liked the way the CR-V would fit better in the garage, but it's 10 times easier to find a Maxima with leather (let alone an attractive interior at all) than a CR-V. But, then we found one here with attractive interior, cup holders, and great head room. I just couldn't let it go.

So, in case you were wondering if Ben and I were really on some trial separation, the answer is NO. It's just the car. Thanks to everyone who has been nice to Ben, fed him, and let him tag along on movies night. We miss him like crazy.

Friends: While we have been in N.M. Lucas has had fun with all of his new playmates - especially his cousins and aunts. He quite likes it when I'm not around and often times asks me to go away - usually if he's having quality time with Grandma, Maddie or Lisa.

Dirty Kid: Lucas spends a lot of time outside each day, which is great because in Austin it will be too hot when we get back! He loves riding the wiggle cars, and he's quite the pro now! Each day at bath time we have to scrub the dirt off of his feet and knees from the day's adventures.

Pinto and Whitey: We have some horses across the street we also like to visit and take watermelon rinds and freshly mowed grass. Pinto tried to bite Lucas the other day, but I don't think he noticed. He's kind of a mean horse.

(horses in Texas have it much better than these poor high dessert horses)

Name Game: Lucas has started calling my mom "Grammy" for some reason. It's only once in a while, but it's kind of funny. Sometimes he asks for "Tom" instead of Grandpa.



Sample, anyone?: We go to Costco at least once a week. The other night we met Lisa there and she took Lucas to the back of the store to watch the forklifts unload a truck for about an hour. On their way back to the front of a store, Lucas saw a little boy wearing a Nemo shirt and the two became fast friends. The mom asked Lucas if he wated to come home with them and Lucas said, "yes." Then the dad said, "You can be an Indian for the weekend - we're wild!" When it was time to part ways Lucas gave the kid a huge hug, and the kid reciprocated. It was the cutest thing ever. They even had their heads on eachother's shoulders. Lisa said Lucas kissed the kid, too. Hopefully he wasn't too freaked out - I think he was about a year older.



Nighty Night: Lucas has been sleeping in a little tent I bought for him. I thought it would be fun and keep him in bed. The other night he decided to sleep on the big boy bed, so I put about 6 pillows all around him so he wouldn't fall off. Then in the middle of the night there was a thud and crying. He slept the rest of the night in the tent. The next night he managed to stay on the bed the whole time, and last night he slept on the floor for at least 2 hours (after he fell off). He also fell asleep one day behind the rocking chair in the corner (after throwing a fit).


I guess that's it for now. I'll put more cute pics up later.

NBJ Challenge

Hey, peeps. Anyone up for a No Buy July* Spend-Off? We need to do NBJ again, but would like to make it a little more exciting by having a contest...
Come on. You with us?

*Here's a little summary Ben wrote about NBJ last year: NBJ is really about the spirit of the endeavor, as opposed to the guidelines. It's simply an exercise in extreme frugality - most of the stuff we buy we don't need in the 1st place. Now, you're going to have to get gas, etc. Granted. But even that "etc." is up to you.

Cheapskates unite!

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

Happy Father's Day, Ben! We miss you so very muchil.
Thanks for all you do for me and Lukie. We lurve you.
See you in a few days!
FYI - Lucas has improved immensely on the Wiggle Car. He's now a wild man who rides with his feet up and will bail off for fun. The dirt all over his face is from him rolling all over the driveway...

Again

If you feel like using your right to vote... B's determined to get these babies printed.

Fly Away

by benharman

Stuff byBenHarman