Touring around the Panhandle

When my family comes to visit (and my dad joins the party) we like to go and see and do. :) My parents have always been good at taking day trips to historical places or interesting sights that are within a few hours of our home and their visit inspired us to go to a few of the attractions within an hour of our house that were FREE (love adventures that are free!).

But before we get to the adventures, here is a picture of three of my favorite little girls snuggling on the couch watching the Wonder Pets:

Aren't they cutie pies?

Our first stop on Monday, aka The-Day-Of-Adventure, was Groom Texas - home of the largest cross in the northern hemisphere. This cross is big, and I mean BIG. You can even see it from space!

The picture on the right gives some perspective - those statues around the base of the cross are almost lifelike in size! 

Lucy had fun chilling in her car seat and Laura and Anna got to run off some energy after sitting in the car for 30 minutes and before sitting in the car for another 30-40 minutes as we made our way to our next destination. They also had a neat "replica" of the EMPTY tomb at the cross (pictured above on the lower left).

Next stop: The Amarillo Zoo - which happens to be free on Mondays (very convenient for our family since our daddy/husband is a Pastor)

I had very low expectations of the zoo since I hadn't heard much about it but I was pleasantly surprised! There are a good number of animals there - including monkeys (top left), bears (the girls are looking at them in the top, middle picture) and a whole array of farm animals, donkey's included (upper right - poor donkey was "hot and tired" at least we hoped so).

There were also long horns (Top middle - Anna promptly tried to teach Lucy to "Hook'em!" haha), peacocks (lower left) and lions. I have never been so close to a lion in my life - so cool. The zoo also had buffalo, but they weren't looking that pretty - I guess it is molting season? We were so pleased with our little Amarillo Zoo, a perfect place to walk around for an hour and let Lucy learn while getting some energy out! :) 

By this time we were really hungry, so we went to Ruby Tequila's for lunch - best fajitas you will ever have. Ever.

Waiting on our table to get set up and playing "This little piggy..."

 

What a fun day! Full of everything I love: family, laughter and food (including Starbucks after lunch - best.day.ever). 

We haven't seen everything the panhandle has to offer - Mom and Dad there is a really cool state park up here that I have heard is great to hike in, so come visit again soon (preferably when the weather is a bit cooler!)!!! We loved having you.