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.
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!
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| On the plane ready to take off! The kids did so great on all the flights. |
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| Snuggled up in Grandma and Grandpa's chairs to watch a movie with popcorn! |
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| Carter getting his Plano Pets shirt. He didn't know what to think about all the attention at first. |
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| There is a scorpion in there...the white is babies on her back! Yuck! |
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| Cute little baby hedgehog. |
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| Tortoises |
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| Bearded Dragon |
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| This is Mark and Sandy's beautiful new house! We stayed with them one night. |
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| Mark's house is in Carter Ranch which is funny because we live in Ammon and they have a boy named Ammon! |
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| This is Deon Sander's house...he lives just up the road from Mark and Sandy. |
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| Driving in to the Great Wolf Lodge |
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| 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! |
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| In our room. |
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| LOVE Carter's new Rangers hat. |
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| Emory "hid" in this little cubby. |
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| Aunt Anita gave the girls mani-pedis! So cute. Emory LOVED it! |
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| At Michael's "happy place"...American Airlines Center for a Mavericks game. |
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| 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! |
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| The view from our seats. Thanks Mark! |
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| Michael was so excited to see the Champions poster in person. |
4 comments:
I loved hearing about the trip to the Pet Store and Mike's advance e-mail to ensure it was a special event. I'm sure that's a memorable moment for the whole family and the store. I was glad to see a few pictures Jessica of you for a change, though in neither did you seem as excited as Mike or Carter (i.e. attending the Maverick's game or holding the snake). I loved the picture of Emory and Carter with the yellow light posts and Emory's matching yellow shirt. I printed it out and hung it on my cork board.
Oh my, I just died looking at Carter's bday and the Texas posts! Can we babysit your kiddos sometime, pretty please?!?!
Hey Jessica! If you get this send me an email- it's rikosuave7 at gmail
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