A weekend in Dallas

Last week I was in my final training class (yay) for this huge project I am on at work. This time it was in Dallas. Lee's dad Damon and Lee's brother Kevin live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area so we had Lee fly out on Wednesday to meet me and stay for the weekend. On my way to the airport to pick him up I realized I was pretty early so instead of just sitting at the airport, I decided to see if I could find somewhere for a quick shopping trip. I ended up at the Grapevine exit and saw a sign that said Historical Main street so I thought I would go have a look. It was really a pretty interesting place that had been nicely restored and rebuilt with lots of cool shops and restaurants, an old movie theater and other cool old stuff. I kept on driving for a bit (following signs to a place called Katie's Woods and Campground). This led to an absolutely beautiful lake. (It doesn't take much to impress me since I live in the desert- just a few trees and maybe some grass or flowers does the trick - but throw some water in there and WOW!!)

This left the kids (Josh, Joel and Jenna) home alone for 2 nights which was a little unnerving, but they did just fine. They (the kids) then flew to Dallas on Friday and met Lee and I. Meanwhile, Lee's mother Judy and her husband Hal drove in from Austin to see us at the airport at least that was the original plan. Lee and I ended up meeting them for a quick dinner in Grapevine (because I wanted to go back there again) before picking the kids up and then they (parents) were tired and returned to their hotel room. Then we went to the airport ,got the kids, turned in the rental car my co-worker and I had rented for the week and we picked up a van (gotta have a van with this many kids!) . Then - we went to the hotel where Lee's mom and Hal were staying so they could see the kids. This hotel was in North Dallas. Then finally, we drove down just past Arlington to Kennedale where Lee's dad and his wife Claire live. Whew!! I guess we finally got there close to midnight.

Oh - and I forgot to mention this - we were not sure if Jeremy was even going to be able to go at all because he was in Gallup New Mexico for work and was not sure if they were coming home Friday or Saturday. He finally found out Wednesday that he would definitely be home for sure Friday, so I bought him a Southwest airlines (they had later flights available than American) ticket to fly to Dallas Friday night, and an American Airlines ticket back home so he could fly with us. I thought that was all settled when he called back late Wednesday night and said he was actually getting to return home a day early - on Thursday. So, I ended up cancelling the Southwest ticket and getting him on the same American Airlines flight as the other kids. Needless to say, his round-trip flight cost more than twice as much as Lee and the others'!! But we were really glad he got to go because we all had such a good time.

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures from the weekend. For the first time in 4 years of owning my camera I actually used the self-timer so I could be in the pictures too. (I don't know what came over me but I totally forgot to take any pictures of Judy and Hal with the kids Friday night. Maybe my mind just finally shut down because of the week of training and the logistics of getting everybody to Dallas and worrying that Joel and Jenna would be flying for the first time without either parent and worrying that they all would not get to the airport on time or something!!!)


Here are Lee and I with Judy and Hal in Grapevine.
And here we all are in Arlington I think - it's near Kennedale anyway.
left to right back row are: Jeremy, Lee, Kevin, Josh, Claire, and Damon
front row: Shelley (Kevin's wife), Joel, Allison (Kevin's daughter), Jenna and me.