Life Is Just So Daily: Road Trip!

So....randomly, we can load up in the car & hit the road, now that I stay at home.
Wooohooo!

Gage and I loaded up one day to head to Tyler to surprise Darnin.

On the way, we saw the sign off of I-20 for the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center. Erica (http://www.halpinboys.blogspot.com) had previously posted about her boys' trip there, so I thought, "hey, why not?"
Well---let me tell you. The sign is a bit misleading. It has the name of the place and an arrow to the right. I thought perhaps it was just down the road a bit. More like---45 minutes from your current destination. UGH. Oh well. An adventure was to be made. No turning back at that point.

Along the way we stopped at this little vegetable stand on the side of the road & picked up some Lady Cream Peas. YUM!

We continued on our way....and finally arrived at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center.

The catfish were my favorite, but we saw lots of other interesting things too.... Like this reeeeaaallly ugly paddlefish. (And people wonder why I don't like to swim in lakes....)

We arrived just in time to see the alligators "wrestle." {Okay, they were mating, but I told Gage that they were wrestling. "Why are they making that noise?" Well, buddy, they are just having fun.}

Other pics from our visit....

(This kiddo LOVES stuffed animals, and he got a parent and baby fish at the gift shop. Sweet boy!)

Then we hit the road again, off to Darnin's house. She was still at work. So, we got to her house, let ourselves in, and did an inventory for dinner. Mario was there, and he played with Gage a bit so that I could run to the store. When I returned, I had a surprise for Gage: an inflatable bowling set. How random? Gage and Mario (mostly Gage) had fun with this in the garage....

And before we knew it, it was time for Darnin to come home! She was very surprised to see us there. Gage was so excited to surprise her.

No trip to Tyler would be complete without hot chocolate and storytime before bed.