Today was my last day of school. YAY! I’m so happy to be free. Tomorrow I’m going to one of my favorite places in Texas — Fossil Rim Wildlife Center. Fossil Rim is one of those animal parks where you drive through it and look at all the free-roaming animals. They have a pretty intensive animal conservation program plus all types of activities that you may want to look at for the summer. They have camps and programs and they have this thing called a Nature Challenge where families compete against one another at various missions and projects. It’s meant to get families in the outdoors and in nature (http://www.fossilrim.org/index.php). I think I’d like to check it out for something to do this summer.

I love Fossil Rim. My earliest childhood memory comes from there. I was feeding an ostrich and he tried to swallow my entire hand.

I was one of those kids several years ago that may or may not have been exposed to a sheep with rabies from the park. Fossil Rim was very good about trying to contact everyone and let them know if they had been at the petting zoo at Fossil Rim during a certain time they may have been exposed. Well — I was there during that time. My mom and dad did not want to risk it so I had to get rabies shots. It was not fun. I had to have eight shots (not all at once) with this big ol needle right in the muscles. I remember biting my mom’s hand while she helped hold me down for the shot. I apologized to her the whole time I was doing it but I wanted to get away. One time I threw a book at her head. Another time I made a break for it and ran out of the doctor’s office and all the way down almost to the parking lot before my mom caught me. I sound like a real brat but those shots were horrible. To this day I HATE shots and needles of any kind. My mom figures I will never get a tattoo because you have to use a needle to get one.

I’ve had a lot more good times at Fossil Rim than bad times. My dad, mom and I spent the night in one of their safari cabins once. It was fun because we got to see all the animals come down to the watering hole at sunset. We heard coyotes howling that night. We also got a behind-the-scenes tour where we got to see the Attwater Prairie chickens and some of the other animals you don’t get to see in the park.

Since school is out for the summer I will probably be adding more and more stuff to my blog. I hope you will check it out now and then and tell your friends to check it out, too.