March Montage

We started off the month saying good-bye to a truck that we'd had for nearly 20 years and getting J a belated birthday gift in a new truck. The old truck was great, but it was starting to show its age and we crossed our fingers each time the annual inspection came up. The new one is no-frills, but it seats four and gets better gas mileage than our SUV.

We also cheered on the 'horns as they made a deep run in the March Madness tournament - Elite 8! The backs of our heads even made it on the local news when they covered a watch party on a slow news day.

Owen continued to run circles around the track in hurdles and relays in March. The season culminated in the district championships where he ran in the 100M hurdles, 300M hurdles, and 4x200 relay. I tried all season to take a picture right as he was crossing a hurdle, but this was the best I could do (he's second from left).

Here's an exciting finish to the 4x200m relay. Owen was running the closing leg, and you can imagine how excited we all were, until we realized there was a whole other (faster) heat to go. Unfortunately, this awesome run didn't get them any points for the team. There are 17 junior highs in the district, and track seems to be low down on our coaches' list of priorities, compared to some of the other schools out there. It was still a fun season, and I think Owen will give it another try next year.

Lastly, I took an afternoon off of work and took the kids to the HLSR one afternoon. We hadn't been to the rodeo since our first spring break here. Like then, we went on another rainy weekday, and there were still thousands of people there.

We had a few hours to walk around before the main event, so we took in a youth horse show, pig races, and mutton bustin' fairly quickly. The latter reminded me of Owen's attempt 8 years ago! Good times!

We do like to look at the animals - lots of horses and just a few cows, since we were near the end of the whole rodeo. They even had llamas, though the llama parade had been cancelled due to the weather. I don't know what it is, but llamas crack me up! If you look closely, the one on the right knew to "smile" for pictures. 😄

And the babies - several pink baby piglets and a calf only one day old. So cute!

Finally, we made our way to the nosebleed seats in NRG Stadium for the main rodeo event. We didn't go to this last time, so this was our first real rodeo! And yes, behind us was no one. We were quite literally on the last row. The stairs made me a bit nauseous, and I was afraid I'd lose my balance and tumble down until I splatted.

Thankfully I didn't! And we took in all of the rodeo with a birds' eye view: calf roping, bull riding, barrel racing, and calf scramble, among others. It was highly entertaining, but we often watched the big screen rather than the actual event. I'd go again, but would get closer seats.

The post-rodeo concert was Chris Stapleton. He was pretty good, but I think he's probably a better show for smaller venues.

The kids were fading, so we left a little early to beat the crowds to the car. The carnival at night makes for a pretty background, doesn't it?

Cowtown Spring Break

Instead of a major Spring Break vacation like last year, we opted to stay a lot closer to home by making a long weekend of a trip to Ft. Worth. This is where Uncle Ken and Aunt Chantelle live and now Granna and Grandad do, too. We spent some time with them, but between Grandad's loss of hearing and Granna's loss of memory, it was kind of a quiet visit. It was still good to see them, hug them, and just be near them. 

But because it was Spring Break, we had to see the sights. Our first stop was the Ft. Worth Stockyards. We managed to squeeze in just in time to see the last "cattle drive" on Sunday afternoon. But it was less like this:

and more like this:

So many people! And a brief poll of the audience had people from all over the country and beyond visiting to see this parade of a dozen longhorns amble down the cobblestone street, including three of my favorite people.

After the cattle drive, we strolled up and down and around the Stockyards. We mostly window-shopped and people-watched, but we did have a tasty dinner at Riscky's and some ice cream while we walked around. We did NOT purchase any cowboy hats or boots.

I didn't realize, but the Stockyards have a small river area, which we enjoyed more than the busy shops. They had some cute murals that Owen posed with.

Longhorns are such impressive animals. (Yes, we may be biased!) We gawked at their pen on the way back to the car, and two started a slow-motion grappling of their horns. It seemed friendly enough, but the point of one's horn was so close to the other's eyeball! Makes you wonder how they don't have more injuries.

The next day we ventured to a large city park and ended up at the Botanic Garden. They had some lovely tulips out front, and the weather was amazing, so we were lured in.

Tulips, tulips everywhere! It's difficult to convey the spread of tulips in a picture. I need a drone! And Owen is a natural at the 'cute shoulder' pose.

Bluebonnets were just starting to bloom. If you look closely, you'll see a few in this patch of green. We joked that this was our family bluebonnet picture for the year.😄

Here's our real family photo. Can you tell Owen was in a goofy mood?

Now enjoy this brief montage of us in nature...

Can't you just see the quinceanera and senior pics being taken? Speaking of those... 

Just kidding! This was an art installation, and I think they were supposed to resemble bird nests...? But they were definitely a little creepy.

One of our favorite spots was the koi pond. These were huge fish! And they have been well trained to flock to any humans that sit at the edge. Alas, we did not have any bread, and they were not impressed by any sticks or leaves. Despite their aggressive swarming and mouthing of anything on the surface, they were still very relaxing.

The next day we began our homeward trip, but we made a detour to Dinosaur Valley State Park. No particular reason, but it was not too far off of our route home, and we were still on Spring Break, after all.

Supposedly, you can see real dinosaur tracks in the Paluxy riverbed. Our first attempt was a little disappointing. This was called the "ballroom" because there were so many different kinds of tracks concentrated here, but we couldn't see anything. We guessed they were under the water and not visible from shore. Maybe when the water is lower...? Again, I need a drone!

We tried downriver where the crowds were, and had better luck. We had to cross the river via stepping stones to get to the tracks.

Ta da! It was hard to believe that these were actual dino tracks that survived to modern times under water, but sort of magical to imagine we were sharing the same space, just millions of years apart. Some of us were more skeptical than others! 

After we'd seen enough, we went on a few of the trails. One went up to an overlook of the area we were just at.

Then the trail followed the river as it bent back around. Some of the trees were just starting to get new vibrant green leaves. It's no Grand Tetons, but hopefully we can get out and appreciate where we are a little more.

At some point, we realized that we were on the other side of the river from our car, and the trail we were on was several miles longer than we wanted to walk. We came to a spot that looked promising to cross, but the stepping stones weren't quite complete. The kids diligently worked to move rocks into the gaps for quite a while, but they weren't making much progress. Another couple came along, and the lady took off her shoes, rolled up her pants, and waded across. Sometimes, you have to know when to quit! We soon followed suit, and overcame the toe-numbing cold water to get to the other side.

After our adventurous morning, we had our stomachs set on finding the car, and eventually lunch in the little town of Glen Rose before heading home. Not too shabby, Spring Break!