A day at Six Flags Fiesta Texas!

We had a really great weekend. Friday night my friends Clark and Benjamin came over with their parents for Shabbat dinner. Saturday Dad took us to Tot Shabbat in the morning, and then in the afternoon we went shoe shopping for Hazel, whose feet have grown a bunch since she started walking.

The best part of the weekend, though, was Sunday, when we went to Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio. Dad's company rented out the whole park for the day, so it wasn't crowded at all, and the weather was perfect. It wasn't too hot and it didn't rain on us.

When we first got there, we went to a picnic, where I met Scooby and Scrappy Doo. They were great! They danced with me, hugged me and gave me five. Make sure you look at our pictures; Dad took a great video of my fun with them that is now on the photo site.  Hazel went over to dance with Scrappy too, but she kept her distance; she wasn't too sure what to make of him.  We also had some yummy hamburgers at the picnic; it was an excellent start to the day.

Next we moved on to some rides. We started off on a train that took us all around the park.  I could see some of the rices that looked fun and I liked reading the name of the train - Miss Kitty.  Hazel wasn't as crazy about the train since it was pretty loud, but she did well.  Some of the other rides we went on were big red cars (I got to steer!), and a little roller coaster.  I wasn't crazy about the little roller coaster, but I did shout "Wheee" a few times.  I got to go on a Yummy Fruit Salad ride with Mom which went way up high and spun around at a moderate pace.  I really liked it.  After that, all of went on a School Bus ride where the school bus went into the air.  Unfortunately, Hazel and Mom didn't like that one as much, and that was the end of the rides for them.  Then Dad and I went on the tea cups, which I liked but they made Dad dizzy.  We also went on a ferris wheel that went up super high.  Mostly, I liked reading the warning signs inside the gondola.  Dad and I also went on a crazy water ride and we got soaked!

My favorite ride of all was the red airplanes. I got to push a button to make it go up and down while it went around in circles. I liked being high up and kept yelling higher. I also had a blast on the swings. While we were on the swings, I yelled, "Wheee!" (I was allowed to use my outside voice all day today!!!) and told Daddy I was happy.

Hazel was pretty scared of the few rides she went on, the train and the cars. We found a splash pad that she really loved and watched a show with the Wiggles. I have never seen them before, but I loved the show and Hazel liked dancing along to it too. The show had a pirate, dinosaur, octopus, and giant dog.  I told Mom and Dad how much I liked each of the characters.  I clapped and sang along during the show, and at the end, I high fived them all.

Throughout the day, I really liked hanging out with all the characters that walked around the park like Bugs Bunny and Tweety Bird. Hazel liked them better from afar. She liked looking at them but when they got too close or talked to her, she ran away from them.

On our way home, we stopped at Dad's favorite place for dinner.  Unfortunately by then, Hazel and I were fast asleep from our very fun and busy day.



Here is the link to the pictures and video. They are really cute.

Time out with Mom

Hi everyone, Hazel here.

Monday, Mom and I had some time to ourselves when Dad went to work and Mitch went to school. We needed some herbs and an outing, so we trekked down to Central Market. Central Market is a gourmet grocery with a great cafe and playground.

At the end of our trip, we went inside to get the stuff we needed and I got some great samples of tomatoes, guacamole and bread, but the best part was the playground.

I had a great time climbing on the little playscape and just walking around. I also made a friend. A little boy walked up to me and I grabbed him by the shirt. His dad hauled him away pretty quickly after that.

I moved on to chase a bird and tried,  unsuccessfully, to convince Mom to let me play on the big kid playscape. I really loved the slides and climbing on all the equipment. They had a cool ramp I enjoyed crawling up and a tunnel that was fun to hide in.

Speaking of hiding, I have found some good hiding places around our house lately. I like to go between the coffee table and couch when I find things to play with that Mom and Dad don't want me to have. I also like crawling behind a musical toy with a big mirror in Dad and Mom's room. Sometimes I read back there and other times I like to go back there, giggle, then poke my head out and yell, "Boo!"

I have also been talking a lot more lately. My latest word is "cracker," but I have been trying to say lots of animal names and making their sounds. This morning when Mom was reading to me, I said, "Duck! Quack, quack!" when I saw some ducks in a book. I am particularly excited about horses and bunnies lately.

Yesterday, Mom, Mitch and I went to the library. Mitch and I were each allowed to pick out a book. Mitch was really excited about his book and kept yelling its title, "Boo Boo!" Then I started shouting it too. It was a loud car ride home, especially once Mitch realized there is also a goat in the book and began yelling, "Goat! Goat!" but Mom thought it was all very funny. Dad did not know what to make of us when we came home to him this way.

For photos of my Central Market adventure, click here.

Rosh Hashanah Road Trip

Last night we began celebrating Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, by eating some apples and honey. Mom tried to get me to smile for a photo, but instead I cracked her up with a series of hilarious funny faces. Then I tested out my new rain boots by going outside with Mom to play in a downpour, thanks to Hurricane Hermine. Here's to a sweet new year (and splashing in mud puddles)!

Today we celebrated the holiday in a less traditional way. Hazel and I are too young to sit through services at our synagogue and didn't want to go to babysitting, so we made it meaningful by packing it up and making it a nice family day. Our first family road trip!

We drove in the car for about an hour, then stopped at a place off I-35 called the Snake Farm. It was great. Hazel's been making lots of cool snake noises lately because we have lots of books with snakes in them, and today we got to see real, live snakes. We saw lots of other cool things too, like tarantulas, turtles, scorpions, a zebra, longhorn cattle, tons of chickens, a turkey, alligators, lemurs, a hyena and some hilarious monkeys.

The last thing we looked at while at the Snake Farm were some goats and a llama, which were in a section called the petting zoo. Hazel was terrified of them, so she and Mom watched from afar, but Dad had a bag of animal feed he gave them, while I jumped up and down, flapped my arms, and screamed, "Goats! Goats!" in an excited, high pitched voice. It was fantastic. It was especially  funny when the llama pushed the other animals aside and took the whole bag from Dad's hand. Throughout the rest of the day I randomly yelled, "Goats!" and laughed.

Next we went to Dad's favorite restaurant, Krystal's. Usually we aren't allowed to eat fast food, with the rare Chik-Fil-A exception when our grandparents come to town. Today though, we had cheeseburgers and french fries. Hazel and I weren't crazy about the burgers but liked the fries.  Dad liked it all.

Our next stop was San Antonio's Witte Museum. We saw a few cool things at the entrance to an exhibit about dinosaurs, which closed a few days ago, and lots more animals like a jackrabbit, some buffalo, coyote and skunks, that were part of an exhibit about Texas wildlife. Our favorite part was the HEB Science Treehouse. They had a computer for kids my age with a fun ABC game, so I spent a lot of time playing that while Hazel walked around, played with Duplos, read books and played on a board that played music and lit up when you walked on it. They also had a touch tank set up to show you what the bottom of a river looks like, which I really liked.  I splashed and played in the water.  Mom was glad she brought a change of clothes for me; she's always very prepared.

It was late in the day by the time we wrapped it up at the museum, so we headed home. Hazel and I napped in the car and we had a great dinner at Chuy's. Mom and Dad were a little nervous about how we'd do with all that time in the car and such a long day, but we were all pleasantly surprised with how well it went.It was a really great Rosh Hashanah.

Make sure you check out our great photos from our road trip, which includes pictures from Hazel's first trip to the playground (she LOVED playing in the mulch), where Dad and I wore matching University of Kentucky shirts (and I enjoyed looking at two Mitch's in Dad's sunglasses).