Rawr!

We spent Gabe's Adoption day at the Houston Zoo!  I am so grateful that Gabe loves the zoo as much as his Mama does.  We tried to beat the heat (well some of it!) and the afternoon traffic by arriving shortly after they opened and it worked.  We had a close parking space, lots of room to move around at exhibits and besides the eventual onslaught of school groups.

Much to my surprise and Gabe's delight, the traveling Dinosaur exhibit that I frequented at the Cleveland Zoo with my nephews has landed in Houston for the summer.  Gabe was in dino-heaven.  90 percent of the pictures I took had him looking up at the dinosaurs.

On a side note, one of the few shows Gabriel watches is Dinosaur Train.  It's a super cute PBS show about an adopted T-Rex (Buddy),his Teranadon family and their adventures as they explore the differences in the members of their family and travel to visit other dinosaurs on the dinosaur train.  I am a huge fan of how positive PBS provides children on the outlook of adoption and being different. 
So, the second Gabe saw the dinosaurs he alternated between yelling "dinosaur train" and "rawr".  It was so cute.  Unfortunately for him there was no train.  I don't think he was too disappointed as we spent nearly an hour walking back and forth through the exhibit to soak it all in.

Most of the pictures I took were of Gabe looking away from
the camera towards the dinosaurs.  He was enchanted!

This is Ornithomimus.  In the Dinosaur Train he is the conductor.
When I told Gabe what dinosaur it was, he immediately said "Mr. Conductor"
It was super cute and reminded me of what a little sponge Gabe is.

We ventured back out to the live animal portion of the zoo and walked through as many exhibits as we could before finding the elephants. Mister Gabe loves the elephants, especially the baby elephant.

After nearly 4 hours at the zoo we left and were able to meet up with Matt and some of his French and Brazilian coworkers that were in town at the outlet mall.  Gabe and I definitely scored when we saw there was a sidewalk sale and were able to add a few pieces to our summer wardrobes.  They were needed when you consider summer seems to go from March to November here in Houston!  Matt's coworkers scored big as well seeing such incredibly low prices compared to what they are used to at home. 
After shopping we took Matt's coworkers out for BBQ.  It was a little past Gabe's bedtime so rather than sitting at the table (and guaranteeing a meltdown from a tired toddler) we had a little picnic in the grass.  There was a band playing, the food was delicious, a slight breeze cooled us off... sitting with my little guy at The Goode Company was the perfect way to celebrate his Adoption Day, the day we legally became a family. 

Friday was absolutely perfect... the kind of day I could only dream of just 3 short years ago.