Fort Worth Zoo

Well, I am trying to catch up on the recent adventures, and I forgot about the ZOO trip. It was the first time we have gone to the zoo since we moved here. Maddie went with her 1st grade class a few months ago, so she was really excited to go again. The problem was that it was a THURSDAY that we were going.....so I took her out of school and called it a mini vacation. Technically it was. In our van...Mom, Rick, Larry, Sarah, Kylie, Maddie and I. Yep, a FULL car. I was squeezed in between Kylie's and Maddie's car seat in the back row. Good thing it was only 30 minutes to the Zoo.
Wait a minute.....BEFORE we even got to leave....We woke up to find that one panel of our crappy fence fell over. We have a weird shaped yard and we have a neighbor on the side, back and then in between the two we share a corner fence of about 12 feet with another neighbor. That corner neighbor has 8 foot fencing and instead of 4x4 center posts, they have 8" metal posts connecting the wood panels. So....this means that our first panel on the back fence didn't have anything to screw into since the connecting post was metal. So what did the prior owners do????? They tied it with a rope. SERIOUSLY? 1 rope. Dumb. They could have been more creative. So, we have had some crazy strong wind and down the fence came. We are lucky it was only that panel. Our fence is 8 yrs old, but with the wind and humidity here in TX, the fences don't last that long. Especially when they do NOT cement in the 4x4 center posts. STUPID. I can't wait until we have the $$$$$ to replace the fence PROPERLY!
So, ...oh wait....rewind some more.....Wed (the day before we went to the zoo) I notice the back driver tire of the van was SUPER low. Larry put air in it on Wed night, but it was still pretty bad on Thurs morning, so he took it in to get checked. Yep...there was a metal object in it...so they fixed it and he was on his way.....While he was gone, Mom, Rick, the girls and I were waiting for him to get back and that is when we saw the fence!
.........so, I called Larry about the dumb fence while he was gone. Rick & I went out there to try to re-tie the stupid rope....it worked for a whole 10 seconds before it totally fell apart and broke. So, I went in the garage and found edging twine. Thank goodness we had some extra. The fence panel was totally damaged. Out of the 3 horizontal beams, the bottom one was broken and had about a foot missing at one end. Luckily when Larry got home we found better rope, a new bottom horizontal beam and 1 extra plank. When it fell it also broke a few of the old planks, we only had one extra of those, so Larry was crawling back and forth between the yards through the panel (thank goodness he fit-LOL) We did all we could, and then yesterday the neighbors bought 6 new planks and nailed them up. So.....until further notice...the fence will hold....that is until the weathered and rotten posts give out...BLAH!
OK....So....after fixing everything....we met Lynette and the kids at the zoo around 12 noon. We saw all sorts of animals of course. They loved the new Museum of Living Art (snakes, amphibians, ect), the Texas area, the Aviary (Maddie got the birds on her seed stick, while Kylie ONLY wanted to feed the BLUE birds-LOL), and many more things.
We left around 5pm when they closed. We were planning on going to dinner that night, but we were cutting it to close since Larry had Home Teaching to do, so we just relaxed at home and had pasta. Fun day! Thanks to Mom & Rick for paying. And yes....you are BOTH SENIORS...LOL