This summer, Mack and I made what we feel is a very important decision. We vowed that we were going to take time off… here in the busiest season of the year… to enjoy the summer with our kids. Now, we still have weddings pretty much every weekend, obviously. But we WAY cut back on the amount of weekday portrait sessions that we booked in June, July & August, specifically so that we could spend more of our weekday time doing fun stuff as a family. After all, what’s the point of working for yourself if you never get to prioritize a little time off? It has been SO wonderful to have these big weekly outings, family cooking adventures, and nights spent staying up late to watch “Iron Chef America” marathons. We are trying to remind ourselves all the time that work will always be here… our children will never be this age again.

We’ve got lots more excursions planned for later in the summer, so I’m sure I’ll do a Part 2 of the McG Family Adventures around the time school is starting. But we’ve got enough fun pictures from the Fort Worth Zoo, the Dallas World Aquarium, and Six Flags Over Texas to do a fun blog post now!

This deer up on it’s hind legs is one of the creepiest things I’ve ever seen. Don’t know why… just really creeps me out!

Jack bought a “seed stick” when he went inside the aviary, and he had a really great time. I advise my ornithophobic sister to skip over these next few pictures! 🙂

Dottie really enjoyed her ice cream cone. So much so, in fact, that when she was done with hers, she helped me eat mine!!!

Turtle likes his lunch! Nom nom nom.

The next week, we went to the Dallas World Aquarium! We’d never been, and really enjoyed it. It’s a bit pricey, but that didn’t bother us because we were able to very clearly see that they reinvest in the habitats of the creatures they keep there. Everything was pristine, and we’ll definitely be making a return trip!

We got to the shark tank just in time for feeding, and I caught this fun shot of a shark eating a shrimp. More noms! 🙂

This week, we took Jack to Six Flags. We’ll be going a few more times this summer, since we were gifted with season passes by Mack’s folks. This time, I’ll admit, I didn’t do a great job of taking pictures. I downloaded the images from our little point&shoot camera only to find that I prettttty much only took pictures of the food. *hand/forehead*

Jack requested Japanese Palace for dinner, so we changed out of our gross Six Flags clothes and headed back to Fort Worth. This restaurant is one of my favorites in DFW, and we really love taking Jack there to try new things!

Lastly, I’ll leave you with a picture of Dorothy… one where she hasn’t been dressed up for a day out. See, Dot has rebelled against clothing in general, and it takes acts of true witchery to convince her not to pull clips out of her wild,wild hair. My sweet daughter, most of the time, looks like a hobo. A flippin’ adorable hobo.

I really encourage everyone who’s reading this to try and capture a bit of summer for yourself this year. Have a picnic, run through the sprinkler, have an all-night-movie-marathon… whatever it takes. Just don’t let summer 2011 slip by you without making a wonderful memory!