March Part III-Texas!

We got to go to Texas for a week in March.  We were on the go the entire time and had such a good time seeing all the family in Texas that we sadly, rarely get to see.  The kids had a blast playing with their cousins and especially Texas Grandma and Grandpa (Our kids instead of calling their grandparents Grandma & Grandpa Hawkins and Wilson, they call them Texas Grandma & Grandpa and Boise Grandma &Grandpa:) We flew out from SLC the day after Carter's birthday.  We did some shopping, some eating, stayed one night at the Great Wolf Lodge (a hotel with an enormous water park inside), took in a Mavericks game, and visited several pet stores. The kids had a great time helping Grandpa plant his garden and have enjoyed the pictures he's sent of the garden over the summer as it grew.  They also LOVED catching caterpillars and other bugs galore in the backyard. A friend of mine the other day posted about how trips to Grandma and Grandpa's houses are always magical and this trip was just that!

Michael again solidified his "Father of the Year" award by emailing a particular pet store (Plano Pets) ahead of time to tell them we were going to bring in our 5 year old who LOVES animals.  

Here are the two emails:

I have a soon to be 5-year old (turns 5 on March 20th) son that is fascinated with snakes. Unfortunately, we currently live in Idaho Falls, Idaho and have two pet stores, Petco and Petsmart. Those stores are better than nothing, but just barely. I am from North Richland Hills and we are going to be visiting my family next week from March 21 - March 28 and after doing a lot of research online it seems that your store would be the best pet store to visit while we are in the area. The reason I am writing and telling you this is to ask if there are any days or times within that week that would be better for us to come to your store and be able to see and handle your snakes and other animals? My son and I watched just about every one of your Youtube videos the other day and he is extremely excited. He even gets all of his play snakes and reptiles and plays "pet store" at home. He has me come in the room and he says, "Welcome to Plano Pets, how can I help you today!" Thank you in advance for your response.

-Mike Hawkins

The Response:

Mike-

Thanks for the note.  I shared the story with my staff.  We really do love all our critters here and enjoy finding them great homes, but sometimes we don’t realize how much what we do impacts people and especially the kids.  I would like you to send me your sons shirt size and his name.  I would love to surprise him with something. 

Just let me know when you might be coming by.  I’m here nearly every day.

Chip Beitel
Store: 972-527-7877
Cell: 214-563-2234
www.planopets.net

www.dfwpartyanimals.com 

When we got there everyone was so excited to meet Carter went over the top to help him have a good time and had a shirt made for him!  He was so excited to say the least.  I was so touched by how kind everyone was to us (complete strangers). One of the girls that day said their boss read everyone the email from Mike in a store meeting and she cried?! 

Anyway, it was a great trip as usual to Texas! Here are the few pictures I took...we were having too much fun to me to take many pictures.  I hate when I do that!  

On the plane ready to take off!  The kids did so great on all the flights.

Snuggled up in Grandma and Grandpa's chairs to watch a movie with popcorn!

Carter getting his Plano Pets shirt.  He didn't know what to think about all the attention at first.

There is a scorpion in there...the white is babies on her back!  Yuck!

Cute little baby hedgehog.

Tortoises

Bearded Dragon

This is Mark and Sandy's beautiful new house! We stayed with them one night.

Mark's house is in Carter Ranch which is funny because we live in Ammon and they have a boy  named Ammon!  

This is Deon Sander's house...he lives just up the road from Mark and Sandy.

Driving in to the Great Wolf Lodge

Some of the slides go out of the building and back in.  It is seriously HUGE!  I  can't believe I didn't take any pictures of the inside...or all the family for that matter!

In our room.

LOVE Carter's new Rangers hat. 

Emory "hid" in this little cubby.

Aunt Anita gave the girls mani-pedis!  So cute.  Emory LOVED it!

At Michael's "happy place"...American Airlines Center for a Mavericks game.

I got to go too! We went to the game with Mark and our nephew Eric.  Mike was in heaven watching the game  in great seats with his brother!

The view from our seats.  Thanks Mark!

Michael was so excited to see the Champions poster in person.

March Part II-Happy Birthday Carter!

Carter had the best birthday ever!  Well, the best birthday for him!  He got up and got to open almost all of his presents first thing because we were leaving for Utah after lunch.  He had cake for breakfast.  After lunch we drove down to Utah...checked into our hotel by the airport and then headed down to Alpine, Utah where Michael had arranged for us to go to a Snake Breeder's house!  It was seriously a dream come true for Carter.  He held probably 20-30 different snakes while we were there!  As if Mike hadn't already won best Dad of the year...this definitely sealed the deal.  After leaving the breeder's house we headed back to SLC and got the kids favorite pizza, went swimming at the hotel, had cake, opened one more present and zonked out for the night!

Carter's Snake Cake....not really a snake, but it has a snake on it!  He liked it! Sorry a couple pictures loaded sideways and I didn't want to take the time to figure out why/how to fix them.

Birthday morning....are you sensing a theme for Carter?  

Since we were leaving for Utah after lunch, Carter got to open almost all of his presents at breakfast!

A sweet new basketball hoop.

They really wanted cake for breakfast...I was planning on donuts and Michael pointed out that there wasn't a huge difference between cake and donuts, so we had cake for breakfast!

At the snake breeder's house.  Carter and Mike enjoyed this thoroughly...Emory was done after about 10  minutes though.

Not the best picture ever, but the only one with me in it and I had to include it to prove I was there and held at least one snake! (All of the snakes up to this point have been different morphs of corn snakes)

Milk Snake

Ball python

I think this is the woma python.

This is a rainbow boa constrictor

Another ball python...this is my favorite picture of Carter.  He looks so sweet and content.

Carter thought this was pretty funny.  This is another corn snake.

Opening up a book about you guessed it...SNAKES!  It was perfect for the plan ride the next day to Texas!

Swimming in the hotel pool with Daddy.

One last piece of cake before bed! What a birthday for our little man!  I can't believe he is starting Kindergarten this Fall.

March Part 1

We had a fun-filled March!  Carter had been wanting a pet for months...first he was wanting a tarantula...that was a definite NO!  Then we talked about hamsters, cats, snakes, etc.  In the midst of these conversations a cat decided to live on our front porch for a week when it was FREEZING cold outside.  She was nice, but I wouldn't let the kids touch her.  Then one day we went outside to play in the snow and the cat followed us so I told Carter he could pet it since we was wearing gloves and such.  The poor cat was shivering.  She stretched and I noticed she didn't have any claws!  I told softy-Michael who took her to the vet and got her all checked out and wanted to take her in.  She got a clean bill of health and was in-fact declawed so we took her in.  She purred NONSTOP for the 24 hours we had her.  A few hours after bringing her in it was easy to tell Carter was very allergic to her.  We had thought maybe Carter was allergic to cats after our last visit to Texas because Michael's parents have a cat, but they had also just gotten a brand new wool rug that was still shedding quite a bit so we didn't know which Carter was allergic to. No we know though...it is cats!  Emory and Carter LOVED Migi  (That is what the kids named her) and she was such a nice cat. She had pretty blue eyes too.  The next day Michael had to take her to the animal shelter.  The kids bawled....so did I because I felt so bad for them! It was so sad.  Emory still whines occasionally and says she misses Migi or just last week we were at Petsmart and walked by the cat tower things and Emory said "Migi would have liked that." Seriously breaks my heart!

Anyway, after that fiasco we felt we had to make it up to Carter.  He had the best birthday a 5 year old could have!  Then the next day we flew to Texas and spent a week there doing all kinds of fun things.  And when we got back Carter finally got the pet he was really wanting...a snake!  More posts on those events to come.

Snow Day!

Our Cat for 1 day...Migi.  

Did I mention she literally didn't stop purring the entire time we had her.  Poor thing was just so happy to be inside with a family to love her again.

Carter's allergic reaction to Migi.  It doesn't look near as bad in this picture as it really was.  Poor kids.

Magic balancing broom! Emily texted me that  night about some crazy thing with the way the planets were aligned (or something) so you could balance brooms.  She sent me a picture of hers that had been up for hours, so of course I had to try it!

YEAH!!! We can play outside again!

Feeding the geese by the river on Carter's favorite rattlesnake bench.

Any takers?!

Carter finally got 1 who would eat from his hands.  He wore those gloves so he could try to feed them out of his hands and his hands would be protected if the pecked him. This kids LOVES animals!

Walked to Jamba Juice one afternoon.  One thing we will miss when we move from here is being within walking distance  of so many things!

Splashing in a puddle by the theater.