Reunited at the Zoo

Have you ever met someone that you just click with, instantaneously, and you think to yourself, "This person is way too good to be true." When I was in college a girl named Rachel sat next to me in one of my classes. A conversation was started at some point, and then the talking never stopped. We would run into each other on campus and talk so long that we both ended up missing the class that we were initially planning on going to. We ended up having a few classes together, and we made mighty plans to have our husbands meet and hang out outside of campus, but those plans never panned out. Sure enough at some point, we parted ways. We have kept in touch through emails, texts, and our blogs. Nothing terribly consistent (I'm pretty lousy at long-distance communication), but enough to stay in contact.

A few months ago Rachel and her husband, Eric, moved to Oklahoma for Eric's job. She had mentioned that in order to get to Costco they had to drive to Fort Worth. I was all over that like white on rice. I told her the next time she was in Fort Worth, she best give me a call. A few weeks later a little gem popped up in my inbox. Rachel was coming to Fort Worth. We were going to party.

Our rendezvous point was the Fort Worth Zoo. Grace and I haven't been since her birthday last year, but Grace was in hog heaven checking out all of the animals.

Plenty of gasps, and screams and "Mommy let's see more animals" were heard throughout the zoo.

Rachel and I picked up right where we left off, catching up with the more intricate details of our lives, and how we came to be where we are now. You would never have thought the last time we saw each other was four years ago. Rachel is one of my friend-soul-mates. Yes, I made that up. Yes, I swear they exist. Grace was a pretty big fan of Rachel as well, and required no "warming up" time before she was ready to BFF it up with her.

I'm pretty sure Rachel received "you are the coolest" status when she took Grace into the bird atrium and let her hold a bird-seed stick to feed the birds. Sister friend carried that stick around all day long.

There is a RainForest Cafe in one of the malls nearby. Grace begs us to take her to see the fake crocodile outside of the restaurant. As soon as we get close, Grace loses her nerve and begs us not to take her any closer to the crocodile, panicking as if her life was hanging in the balance. However, at the zoo, she was mere inches away from an actual crocodile the size of a pick-up truck and she shed no tears, nor panicked in any form or fashion. But the foam mechanical one at the mall? Hysterics. We'll work on it.

About two hours later we had only seen about half of the zoo, but I was hot, my feet were swollen and I cried Uncle and told Rachel I had to bail. We drove a few miles down the road to Smash Burger, because let's be honest, this Baby Boy loves his burgers. I am salivating at the thought. Out of all of the Burgers I've had, Smash Burger tied for the number 1 spot. For reals.

 In the late afternoon we finally said our goodbyes and set up plans for their next visit to Texas. It's going to be grand.