Dad takes a few days off

When Robert transferred to this division of Siemens, one of the "bonuses" was that they close the shop a couple of days before Christmas until after the New Year. YEAH SIEMENS- however this year is different and the shop stays open- BOO- so when that became apparent, Robert started to take a few Friday's off since he no longer needed to save any vacation days for the end of the year. The first was in November.

On that day we decided to take our precious littlest Mullens to the Houston Zoo.

I should have posted the pictures and narration 6 weeks ago, but I was on facebook, so I'm making two posts in one- because today he took our future zookeeper/exotic animal vet Alice to the zoo as well.
I suppose anyone could have gone, but only Alice was awake and she's been hounding him for more "Daddy-Daughter time" and when she says daughter, she's not including the last born.

Here are some cute pictures of the girls with their favorite guy.

Ok, here Joely is all "I can do it myself"So the minute Robert puts his hand down, she freaks and decides it safer to sit on the "sleigh" Robert looks a little uncomfortable.

Both look much happier in the sleigh

Just to clarify, they aren't really standing in the ocean, it's a statue in front of a kick butt mural.

This is one of the favorite spots, watching the California Sea Lions.

"Uh Dad, I can't See"- Even when Cleary she could, she convinced Robert to pick her up.

She had so much fun she had to take a nap.

Since I was here at this event, I had planned where lunch would be, long before the Zoo day was set in stone. Pictured here at Lupe Tortillas on Kirby and 59. It is by far the best place to eat fajitas. While technically I love Chuy's better, I do not like fajitas at Chuys. Lupe Tortillas makes these awesome flour tortillas that are literally bigger than your plate. You have to "share" the condiments (cheese, guacamole, lettuce,sour cream, beans and rice) with your "partner" and this is where Robert is and always will be number one, he only wants the rice. We leave Lupe Tortillas with condiments in the cool dish. Another time I went there and shared with my good friend Galadriel and it was not nearly enough to "share."

But I digress.

Here is his day with Miss Thang. She took a lot of videos and she LOVED the day with her dad. Robert said the best part was the drive there and back while she sang and danced to the Christmas Music on 99.1- she's a performer at heart.

This is in the Cool Children's Part of the Zoo. Apparently Alice raised her hand to answer questions and was so cute, she was asked to assist the zookeeper. She was able to pet a "jungle" bird that looked like a chicken and felt a turtle exoskeleton in a box (aka the shell- it can only be taken off after the death of the turtle as it it's skeleton - just like you can't live without your skeleton)

One of the lesser known Animals, The Okapi, the giraffe of the forest. It has been one of Alice's favorite animals for years. It's tongue can reach its ears. We would catch Alice walking on all fours with her tongue out and towards her ear, she was pretending to be an Okapi. Today she got to listen to the Okapi keeper and it was "awesome"

She's actually taller than she apperas, she's not standing straight.

"stand up straight little missy!"

Alice is not mad, she's in character.

We have tons of pictures of each child in this nest, but none of Joely, she refuses to a mindless part of the herd.

Alice chose Chikfila for lunch, no picutres were taken.