Dallas Trip

I'm a little behind in posting everything from our trip to Dallas, but better late than never, right? Dave & I took Jackson, Davis and McCall with us this time. Dave's training was in super nice resort just north of Dallas in a city named Grapevine. While I would have loved to stay in that hotel, it just wasn't the best for kids. Lucky for us, we found the absolutely BEST place to stay with kids right across the street. It's called the Great Wolf Lodge. There are several around the country and if you ever have a chance to take your kids, they will love you forever! It was pretty pricey, but when the company picks up the tab, who cares? The boys loved having their own room and bunk beds.

They had an indoor water park right there at the hotel that was included with your stay. Anyone that knows Jackson knows that this is his kind of place. That kid loves water more than anything! We spent any extra time we had at the water park going down the slides and playing in the wave pool or kiddie pool.

On top of that, they have this ultra cool game that you can play throughout the hotel. It's called MagiQuest. Basically, you buy a wand and then can go through the hotel pointing it at pictures, treasure chests, etc. to make them light up, talk or give you gold points. We went on several scavenger hunts trying to find all of the clues to solve the puzzles and win the game. We often were out searching until 11 PM when everything shut down for "Hibernation hours". I thing we easily could have never left the hotel and still have had plenty to do and keep busy with. Between the game and the water park, there was never a dull moment.

We did break and head to the outlet mall to find Jackson an early Christmas present--a Cowboys jersey, and to see High School Musical 3. Such a cute show!


On Friday, I took the kids on a train ride to Fort Worth Stockyards. We ended up having to wait for over an hour to leave because of a freight train clogging up the tracks, but it was worth the wait. This was a really old train and it took us down to where they still have a cattle run daily. We had some lunch, saw all the real cowboys and then headed back to Grapevine. Davis was in heaven and basically bouncing off the walls all afternoon. The normally quiet little boy was wild! We're guessing that he really liked it.

On Sunday, Dave and Jackson headed off to the Cowboys game and I was going to take the little kids to the zoo. As we were walking out of the hotel, Davis started puking and continued through breakfast. What I thought was going to be a fun day wasn't looking so great. We dropped off Dave & Jackson at the stadium and started toward the zoo, looking for a Target or something so I could get Davis some clean clothes. Well, there's nothing in downtown Dallas that closely resembled a Target, so I hoped for something at the zoo, even if it would cost more. Sweet little McCall gave up her stroller to her sick brother and we headed in to the zoo. That day happened to be their "Boo at the Zoo" day and the handed the kids a trick-or-treat bag and a handful of tickets. Davis continued to play dead until after the first treat station where McCall turned in one of her tickets for a candy bar. All of a sudden, he thought he felt good enough to sit up and participate. One more stop for treats and he was all better, running from station to station collecting as many treats as he could. Thanks to Dallas Zoo for curing my sick child!

The boys had a blast at the Cowboys game until it took me an hour and a half to figure out a way to pick them up. The police had blocked off every road getting anywhere near the stadium, making it impossible for me to get to them. After being yelled at, flipped off and sworn at, I was in tears. Just when I was ready to give up, they opened a road into the parking lot and we were able to find each other and rush off to the airport.

But, in keeping in line with the way my day had gone, our flight was overbooked by 4 people. After some discussion, we decided it was worth the free flights, hotel, etc. for me to stay with Davis and McCall and take a flight home on Monday. It actually ended up a little better, because for the first time on our trip, I got to bed before midnight! Dave & Jackson continued home (despite Jackson's begging to stay) so that Jackson could get back to school Monday and Dave could relieve our babysitters. The rest of us got home about noon on Monday after flying all over the country to get here.


This was a one of the funnest (I know it's not really a word) trips we've taken. So many thanks go out to Aubrey & Britton for taking such good care of the kids we left home. They had so much fun and were well cared for. Thanks to Kim & Chet for taking the kids to church with them and always letting my kids be a part of their family. Only a parent knows how valuable it is to have someone else that will love your kids when you can't be there.