Our Vacation...

Yay for getting out of Lubbock for a few days! We took a little family vacation/birthday getaway to Dallas this past week. It was so much fun. We crammed a lot into 4 days!

Day 1:
We left early last Wednesday (my birthday) with Chad's parents and drove straight to the Macaroni Grill in Ft. Worth! After our yummy lunch we took the kids to the zoo. Ummm...it was HOT! We were spraying ourselves down the whole time. Connor didn't seem to mind the heat, though. He loved the animals. He would point and say "ooh"! We saw all of our favorites (tigers, bears, birds, snakes, monkeys) and then decided we wanted the air-conditioned cars and left. We checked into the hotel before celebrating my birthday that night at the Grand Lux Cafe. The girls BAD wanted to go swimming so after dinner it was back to the hotel for a dip in the pool. Connor was so funny. He loves any type of button: belly buttons, garage door buttons, and as we discovered this past week, elevator buttons. Everytime we went up or down the elevator he would get so excited and say "Buh"! We let him push all the buttons:)





Day 2:
We had a day of fun at Hurrican Harbor. The kids loved the lazy river and the wave pool. Taylor actually rode one of the "big" slides with Chad. She loved it so much she rode it again with Poppi. And right before we left Chad drug me to the horrible slide called Der Stuka. The thing, I swear, is at a 90 degree angle. It is straight up and down. I am not a huge fan of heights, so climbing the seven-story tower was almost worse than going down it. As we got higher and higher you could feel it rocking back and forth. I was so mad at Chad for getting me all stressed and out of my comfort zone. But I did it - I pushed myself off the edge of that slide and screamed the whole way down:) I made Chad get behind me so I could go first - the suspense was just too much. And he told me afterwards that everyone in line asked him: "Is that your wife?" HaHa! He just nodded his head and said yes. After the waterpark we went back to the hotel for a few minutes of rest and then headed out again for a night of baseball at the Ballpark where we met up with my parents.










Day 3:
Donna, my mom, Taylor, Averi, and I started out the day with a girl's brunch at the American Girl Place. Talk about a little girl's dream. There are dolls, doll-clothes, and all things pink and glittery everywhere you look! There is even a doll hair salon right there in the store. When Taylor turned 3 we celebrated her birthday at the AGP in NYC, and I wanted to do the same for Averi (except, of course, we were in Dallas:). She turns 5 in September so it was an early celebration. After looking around, and oohing and ahhing, we headed upstairs to the bistro. They seated us in a big pink booth with a big pink flower light fixture above us. We told the waitress that it was Averi's special day and we would like it if they would come out and sing to her. So in a few minutes the whole crew came out with a candle-lit cupcake! We got so excited thinking it was for Aves. Well, they came...and kept going, right past our table. I'm pretty sure every little girl there was having a birthday because this happened 5 or 6 times. And everytime we were sure Averi was next. And everytime she wasn't. But it was so sweet watching all the little girls light up as we sang Happy Birthday to them. Finally it was Averi's turn. And her precious, shy, little face melted my heart as we sang to her and made her feel so special. Everyone clapped and cheered as she made a wish and blew out her candle. She told me that she wished for a "real live puppy dog" - I love that girl! I told Dondi and Granna what she had wished for and Dondi, as only she can do, told Aves that the puppy dog fairy was dead:) It was pretty funny. And Averi wasn't phased by her twisted humor. As much as we would like to be, we aren't very good dog people. Let's see...we've gone through how many pets? There's Nikki, Bow, Bailey, Sampson...and Ranger, my parent's dog, won't come near our car when we ask him to come over out of fear for his well-being! I think Averi will have to come up with another wish! Anyway, after brunch we let each girl pick out a doll and an outfit. Taylor chose Kit and Averi picked one of the bitty twin babies. The whole experience was so fun, but be ready to spend the $ when you go in that store. It's no joke!
After our special time at the AGP we went iceskating in the Galleria. Taylor did great for her 2nd time. Averi, on the other hand, was holding onto the wall (or whatever happened to be in her reach) for dear life. It was her first experience on the ice. After a little shopping it was lunchtime - we are a family that loves to eat! We went to P.F. Chang's! The kids wanted to swim so that afternoon we just hung out at the hotel. Donna, my mom, and I snuck off to do some shopping by ourselves. They bought me a cute outfit at White House Black Market. I love jeans that make me feel cute! We finished the day off at Uncle Julio's for dinner and back to the hotel for a nighttime swim.











Day 4:
Drove home. Oh that wonderful drive from Dallas to Lubbock. Whew! Apparently Connor feels the same way. He did great for the most part. But from Post to Lubbock he screamed nonstop. Poor baby. It was like some cruel joke putting him in his carseat for so long. He had big tears running down his cheeks and he kept saying "mama, mama" looking at me to help him. It was so sad, but so sweet. We had so much fun, but we are glad to be home.