almost home, (Dylan's point of view)

After the park and hugging our Dallas friends goodbye, we left for the airport. We were a little ahead of schedule, so we stopped at the Bass Pro Shop. Isaac had fallen asleep in the car, so I stayed outside w/ him while Steven and Dylan did some exploring.
Dylan got ahold of the camera after that. You probably won't appreciate his photos, but some of them remind me of the magnified photos on the back of the "World" magazine from when I was a kid. I would see if I could guess what the big picture was. Sometimes it was a black dot with orange around it, and the big picture was a leopard, for example. It's pretty easy to guess what these are, but sometimes I have to think.





I love that my kids can get their own shoes off and back on. We had a layover this time since we flew out of Dallas. It was late, so we had a whole gate of the airport to ourselves after a while. At first, we just sat down and let the kids play w/ some pull back cars. A lady accidentally stepped on one, and others tripped before we were smart enough to relocate out of a high traffic area:)


Then we went home to our own beds, always bitter sweet.

Playdate at a Dallas park {with boutique Cupcakes!}

Some of Amber's friends work at the Society Bakery. It was voted best cupcakes (or something like that) on the Ellen show. So we picked the park near the bakery, of course, for our last thing to do before going to the airport. I'm not a real big cupcake person, but secretly I want to be. They're so invividual and fun, and a bit trendy, according to some blogs. Amber's friend, Catherine, and her two daughters went too. Quite the good morning snack!
Landon's so cute w/ his long crazy hair. (Isaac has a shirt like this too, only black, I just need to unpack it out of Dylan's boxes.)
Both Landon and Isaac are fine w/ making messes.
Dallas is a bit dryer than it is here. Isaac's crazy hair got staticky each time he went down a slide.
Then we fed Amber's old bread to othe ducks. Dylan was a good sport about sharing.

Dylan reminds me of Poo Bear looking for honey in this tree. I am really loving the texture in the bark, and wish I had noticed it while I was there.
Katherine has taken some photography classes, has a cool camera, and sent me this picture she took of Dylan. I'll call this photo "the rescue" b/c it took both Amber and Katherine to save her daughter while Zac and Dylan roam around (then climb right up to show off.)
Isaac likes playing w/ other kids, but is content exploring by himself too.
I don't remember what the boys were selling here, but I should have given them some business.
Here's Amber's friend the photographer, taking photos of her kids. She took this one of Isaac. I think I need to get her lense!

Then we drove to the airport, so sad, but we did leave on a good note and let the kids get some wiggles out before the long travel day back to home.

The JFK Memorial

We wanted really good Texas BBQ and TexMex food while in Texas. We checked both off of our list! I didn't capture the first place, it was a really busy part of a gas station, but there were a lot of locals w/ cowboy hats and cut/torn off sleeved Tshirts.
Amber took us to a delicious TexMex place, I'm not sure of the name, but it was in downtown Dallas. Her brother and his girlfriend met us there too.

See the "X" on the street? That's where JFK was shot. There are two markings. Have I mentioned how my boys hardly EVER wear shoes? It's true. My true colors are comming out here. Even in a dirty downtown area, Isaac won't keep his shoes on. It's really not all his fault. I grew up not wearing shoes much, and that was one of the hardest transitions when I went to public school for the first time in 10th grade.
AND, this is what I found when I rounded the corner of part of the memorial. He said he just had to go real quick, and basically told me not to worry about it. Yea, these are my boys.

I think that the boys needed to get out and just run and jump and climb and yell! They knew it was ok, b/c they were outside, and they could use their outside voices. Isaac and Landon weren't amused, but we let them yell it out.

It was still so hot out. Look at Dylan's freaked out looking face. He was red hot from running and yelling so much, not from being freaked out. Zac creatively found a place to ride back to the car.

Then we went to bed. I should have taken a photo of the sleeping arrangements. Dylan got to sleep in a tent next to Zac and Landon's bunk beds. Isaac started out in a pack 'n play, but ended up with Steven and me. Then on the floor b/c he kept scooting to nuzzle his head into something and scooted right up and off. That was the worst night of sleep b/c Steven and I both knew you were going to do it, so we had ahold of each ankle, and around you, but we somehow fell asleep.

The Texas State Fair

After Matt and Hollie's Houston wedding, we drove to Dallas to stay with one of my BYU room mates, Amber and her family. She also has 2 boys around my boys' ages. The last time I saw Amber was when Dylan took his first steps. I have such good friends from Stover Hall at BYU. We don't get to see one another frequently enough. The funny thing is that we both got dressed for church and came out at the same time to see that we both had really similar outfits on! AND look at HER shoes! We made Steven take our picture. I love that even after over 10 years, we're still so much alike. We're different too, of course, but she's still really active in our church, has 2 boys, works part time, and look at how we dress ourselves and our boys:) We wondered what we should do in Texas, since we had to buy 3 airline tickets (that my mom helped with - THANK YOU AGAIN), we may as well make a vacation out of the trip. We thought that a rodeo is THE Texas thing to do. Unfortunately, there wasn't a close enough one this time of year. But, lucky for it, it IS the big Texas State Fair season though. And I do mean season. They sell season passes! There's no way that somebody could do everything in one evening. We ate fair food (here's corn on the cob.) I heard that fried butter was the new fried rediculousness this year. Here's "Big Tex" above the corn on the cob.
Isaac only had a short nap in the car on the way to Dallas, so he fell asleep on the way to the fair even though it's close to Amber's new house. Zac and Landon also fell asleep. Amber had an extra stroller for us, but only one double stroller. Isaac still fits in this baby sling, so he slept for almost an hour. Me and Amber under the "State Fair of Texas 2009" sign
A group shot of the 8 of us
We spent too much $, mainly b/c we have to start buying things for our kids. I looked at the couples who are either kidless, or got a babysitter. I'd like to go w/ just Steven too, but you gotta love the amazement on little kids' faces! I know we didn't have to let them ride rides, but we were on vacation:)Isaac waited next to that airplane ride while Steven and Amber went on a spinny syntriphical force sick-maker ride and longed to go on an airplane. I promised him that if he waited, then we would go on it. The sign even said that if he wasn't tall enough, then he had to be accompanied with an adult. The guy didn't let him go. We explained the sign to him in English and Spanish and we were willing to pay double and everything, but he wouldn't let Isaac go. I was so not happy b/c it made me be a lier to my son. I know that's how kids get spoiled whatever, but I wanted Isaac to go on just one ride! So he and I left and I had to go with him (thus no good photos), but Isaac was content, and so happy. So was I. Wheeeeeeeeee!
World's Greatest Dad lifting Dylan so he could see the parade
Amber winning Zac a guitar by playing (a lot of) darts
This was the favorite of the evening! It's a slide the size of Texas! Dylan was soooo happy:)
All Isaac got was a big smushy kiss. (In front of the reeeally big Ferris wheel)

Here's the view from the top. You can only see a fraction of the big fair. It's the TEXAS state fair, and every thing's bigger in Texas, right? We were so hot and sweaty and a little tired, but this is inside of the Ferris wheel
Here's Amber's family
Big Tractors!
And little girls, he he
Dylan kept the camera and took some pictures of our looong walk back to the cars.
End of day one. Success!

the Heels

I've seen on other blogs mention having cute heels and dressing up more. It's on What Not To Wear, and on photographers' blogs, and was recently on a morning radio show etc. It's even on my cousin's blog I just noticed!
I don't get the occasions too often to put on heels (besides teaching my 3 and 4yr olds at church, of course) so my little brother's wedding seemed like a fun occasion.
I didn't know if Hollie wanted me to try to coordinate, or not. I was fine either way. Matt told me that her brothers' wives would be wearing purple pencil skirts with white button up shirts. I asked if he wanted me to do the same or not and he basically said "I guess???"
I didn't dare trying to find a purple pencil skirt for fear of clashing, but I had a grey one, and had a white button up shirt. I had black heels, but thought about perhaps getting something purple to accessorize with. I found these heels and didn't know if I could pull them off or not. I have a pair of fairly bright mauve pink really tall pointy heels that I like, but they match the shirt perfectly that I wear them with, so it's not that crazy. Other than flip flops, I have only had brown, black, or white shoes.
But, with this blogger and this post as inspiration, I splurged the $17 on them and figured that even if I only wore them once, it'd be worth it:) What a steal for a whole outfit! (Oh yea, I did pay $3.50 each for ear rings, a necklace, and a set of bracelets that kept Dylan and Isaac occupied b/c we forgot toys for outside of the temple.)

Anyway, I thought I'd finally blog about the shoes b/c I had more comments about them, then about my brother's wedding:) And while I'm posting, I'll share that the weekend after Texas, I went to the FDHA convention in Orlando. AND I wore those heels again, b/c any RDH knows that the official color of dental hygiene is purple too! I got more comments on my shoes there, which was fun, but then a dental drug rep from the convention showed up at my office yesterday (to try to close the deal on getting me to get my boss to buy his product), and made me blush by saying that I was a lot shorter now (in my frumpy scrubs). He brought cupcakes from a Tampa cupcake bakery, so I was happy that those heels brought him in to try to sweeten his sale:) They were yummy, so I'm talking my boss into getting his product! Everybody's happyÜ

And here's another picture of me and Maryellen. She was the speaker at our 7am CE class (I got up at 3am to drive with her so she had plenty of time to set up.) I helped her w/ the lecture, then she helped me with our fund raiser table. (She had cool red shoes too, but you can't really see them in the pictures.)So go to Ross and get yourself some fun shoes and take your man on a hot date! (I suggest dinner, not dancing though:)