Josiah's Birthday

Recently, Josiah celebrated a birthday. We had a great time celebrating as a family in a number of different ways.

The morning of his birthday, we all got up early to get ready for breakfast because we were leaving on his birthday trip early in the day. Around 7:45 a.m., the fire alarm starts going off and the house smells like burnt plastic. Somehow our plastic microwave cover ended up in the large oven, and when Mom preheated it for cinnamon rolls, it melted all over the oven. :-P Yuck! Don’t know exactly how we’re going to clean that out . . . any suggestions?

Following tradition, Josiah got to open one of his gifts that morning.

We siblings had made him a candy card! He was quite excited about that and even brought some with him to have as a snack on our trip. J

After we cleaned up the breakfast things, we were off! While we were in the car, our dear friends from Michigan (whom we have adopted as our Uncle, Aunt, and 2 cousins) called to wish Josiah a Happy Birthday. We also saw an F-18 Hornet come in for a landing, and drove through a part of town where there were 7 lanes of traffic!

*Ahem* some of us had a pretty good idea of where we were going. J Josiah had been begging to go to some kind of zoo or animal safari, so it wasn’t too big of a surprise when we pulled up to the Fort Worth Zoo. It was a great day to be at the zoo: sunny and with temperatures in the 50’s. I can’t believe we can do that kind of thing this time of year! In Michigan, it was 23 and snowing that day. J

The Fort Worth Zoo is rated as one of the top 5 in the country, and I have to agree with that. It’s probably the largest Zoo we’ve been to yet, and it was a lot of fun to go to a zoo that we’d never been to before (I think we had been to every zoo in Michigan plus several in Ohio and Pennsylvania.)

We started off in the primate house. It was a rather smelly experience. J I have ZERO interest in being a primate keeper.

I was a little surprised by how much I enjoyed the birds. As I grow older, my appreciation for birds grows (I admit that I still have trouble getting excited over chickens.) I’m especially attracted to waterfowl, particularly ducks.

A special section of the zoo was dedicated to Raptors. I must admit that these birds scare me a bit! I don’t remember what this particular species was, but aren’t their faces just a little bit creepy? I think I would be plagued with nightmares if I ever came face-to-face with one of these guys in the dark!

See any resemblance here? J

Photo Credit: Betsy

We had lunch at a Burger King inside the zoo. The kids enjoyed looking at the crocodiles which were right outside the eating area.

I have literally had nightmares before of swimming in a pond and realizing that it’s infested with crocs. I’m glad that we don’t have them in our part of Texas!

Photo Credit: Betsy.

After lunch we toured the reptile and amphibian building. I was again surprised by how much I enjoyed it! I normally loathe those kinds of creatures, but I enjoy studying them when we’re separated by a thick layer of glass. J I loved seeing the cobra, Burmese python, poison dart frogs, diamond back rattlesnake, coral snake, and Haitian cockroaches.

Photo Credit: Betsy.

Another part of the zoo was dedicated completely to Texas. It was set up like an old western village and had lots of displays about wildlife, weather, and agriculture in Texas. I believe we have determined—based on what we learned—that we live in the High plains and prairies part of Texas.

This little guy was definitely another favorite of mine. J He let go of the branch and was trying to reach it again. Only he couldn’t quite get it and kept falling in the hole. J I’m sure that’d be something that would happen to me if I was a prairie dog. J

We also spent some time browsing in the gift shop. This map shows that Texas used to be really, REALLY BIG!

The birthday boy was happy to purchase a little Texas-themed memento: a stuffed animal Longhorn.

We also toured a building where they had a small touch aquarium. A few of us were brave and touched the starfish, horseshoe crabs, and other aquatic creatures. We then watched one of the zoo keepers feed the pelicans.

Then we reached the highlight of Josiah’s day: we saw the cougars. Josiah is a little bit obsessed with wildcats and coyotes right now, and cougars are at the top of his fascination list. Ever since our neighbor told him that she had seen a couple down the road from us (a couple of years ago), I think he’s secretly praying that he sees one in our area.

When we had just about walked our legs off, we called it a day. In the car on our way back, we skyped with Uncle Paul and his family. It was so good to see their faces, but as always, it made us miss them more. L

All the fresh air and exercise made someone sleepy. J

What the little man didn’t know was that his birthday trip wasn’t over yet. We pulled up to a Western outfitters store and told him that he was going to get cowboy boots!

I think he was just a little bit excited. J

Photo Credit: Roma.

We actually looked at one store, and then went to a second store that we knew had better prices. The cowboy was very happy with his purchase.

What a good-looking cowboy!

Photo Credit: Betsy

It was getting quite late by now, so we went out for dinner to a BBQ place in town. We are slowly accumulating a list of “if you want this, go here.” This BBQ place probably has the best pulled pork and Jalapeno corn casserole I’ve had in Texas yet. It also carries the distinction of being owned and operated by a man who used to cook for George W. Bush at his ranch, before he became President. Still, if you want the best ribs ever, we’ll have to take you to the place around the corner from our house.

When we got home, Josiah got to open his other gifts. He’s Mr. Moneybags with $9, a $50 gift card to Vision Forum, and a $25 gift card to Amazon. Plus a 3-movie VeggieTales DVD, and a new Lego set (which he already assembled. J)

Then he had his birthday cake! He had requested to have coyotes on the cake, and Mom did a great job fulfilling that request.

After we ate our cake, we hit the showers and made it to bed pretty late. It was a full and fun day. We’re so thankful that God blessed our family with Josiah!