Sharkarosa

A few weeks back, Jacob's Kindergarten class had a field trip to a wildlife ranch, Sharkarosa. Sarah and I got to join in on the fun and boy was she in heaven seeing the different animals. The one small problem, it turned out to be a drizzly, rainy, cold morning. The kids were freezing and wet but still had a great time. I quite frankly was about ready for this field trip to be over. The rain did stop halfway through the trip so we caught a little break.

Looking at the lemurs. 

Getting ready to board the safari ride. 

We love Mrs. Naber

They had buckets of feed on the side of the trailers and the animals would come right up to eat. 

Camels up close and personal.

Petting a lemur.

Class pic

After seeing the animals, we had a picnic lunch all together. Then we all bolted and got to head home early.

And just in case we didn't have enough excitement at the field trip, our day got even more adventurous. So it was noon when we left the ranch. I asked Jacob what he wanted to do on his afternoon off from school and he said he wanted to go the mall, get a pretzel and play at the play area since he never gets to go to the mall anymore. So, we picked Luke up from school at 1:00 and headed down to the mall for a little fun. 

We head to the food court and got our snacks. Since we were upstairs I told the kids I wanted to run into one store before we headed down to the play area. While we were in the dressing room at Ann Taylor Loft I received a recorded call from the Prosper ISD superintendent. Saying that they would be dismissing school at 2:30 instead of 3:00  because of the timing of the storms that were headed that way. Not having been home all day, I hadn't seen a recent weather update. At the same time my sister Kristina was texting me with weather updates. Hearing the news of tornadoes in Arlington, I was very alarmed at this point. We quickly wrapped it up and headed to check out. I quietly asked the girls working there if they knew where we would go in the event of severe weather. As they were beginning to look and find out, the mall sounds their alarms and a recorded message comes on asking everyone to evacuate the stores and head to the nearest secure hallway. Really?? Trying not to panic, I round up the kiddos and we make our way towards the escalator. I'm holding Sarah, pushing the stroller and the boys are walking with me. We make our way down the escalator safely and start following the crowd of people. I'm trying to remain calm for the kid's sake but really I'm freaking out. I'm in the middle of a huge mall with all three of my kids and all I can think about is what if, what if a tornado really does hit Frisco? AH! 


We make our way down the hallway and end up back behind the stores. We sit there for a good 30-40 minutes with everyone else. My sister-in-law, Rhonda and Kristina were texting me with weather updates since I wasn't able to pull up the radar on my phone. I was saying many prayers at this point. Really fearing the worst. I told Luke and Jacob to say a prayer asking for safety. Jacob was very in tune with what was going on. Asking lots of questions and trying to figure it all out. I didn't want to scare him but wanted him to know what was going on. Luke decided this would be a good time to have a mid-afternoon meltdown and Sarah was keeping herself busy with...well I don't really know what with. But thankfully she was fine. In between my prayers I kept thinking how I was going to protect all three kids and myself. Oh and I couldn't reach Jim. He was in Allen at an all day conference. Come to find out they were all hiding out too in a secure location. As it turns out, as the storm moved closer to Frisco, it weakened so there was not the threat of tornadoes as before. I could finally relax a little.  The mall employees were very accommodating.  They were walking around giving everybody water and gave all the kids tokens for the carousel. 


Finally, they let us go once the storm passed and we were able to leave. I told the kids we were headed straight home. Oh how I just wanted to be at home. Our afternoon of some mall fun turned into well...everything but that.  But we were just thankful we were safe and felt so sad for those that were affected. As we were walking out of the mall, Jacob tells me, "Mom, God answered my prayers and kept us safe from the tornadoes." Ah, sweet, sweet boy! That's what it's all about!