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We made it back home Tuesday about 10PM actually. I just didn't get a chance to edit pictures from the trip until last night and tonight...so I will try to fill you all in now on our weekend. :) Prepare yourself for a LONG blog entry -- You have been warned!

We left Saturday morning and drove 7+ hours to Arlington, Texas. John's company was having a users conference down there at the Hilton and do to some last minute changes, I found out last Tuesday that they had an extra room and the boys and I were going along on the trip. The boys both did really well on the drive there and we only made 3 stops. Since Zach is SO huge and almost a year anyway, we went ahead and turned his seat to face forward so he was able to watch the videos too. Of course he wouldn't keep the headphones one, but he still had fun just watching them.

Once we got to Arlington, the boys all went in the pool. It was Zach's first time in a big pool and he LOVED it!
That evening we ate at the YUMMY "Saltgrass Steakhouse" which was across the street from our hotel. I haven't had a steak that good in a LONG time!! It was done perfectly. My mouth is just watering thinking about it :)

Sunday we had the opprotunity to visit the church Brian Grey no pastors. Brian use to be one of our church's associate pastors until they moved last August to Arlington to work with Harmony Baptist Church. It was great to see the Greys again and we even had the chance to have lunch with them at a favorite mexican restuarant of theirs - Mercado Juarez Cafe. YUM - chips & salsa.

It was also John's birthday. Of course you have to have a cake on your birthday, so I ran out Friday morning before we left town and got a small 8" one to take with me. I even got it all the way down there and into our room without John seeing it. Drew decided as soon as we were in our room to open his mouth though, so it didn't end up being a surprise for Sunday. It wasn't anything fancy...but at least it was a cake! :)

Sunday evening John had a little get together for all those attending their conference so the boys and I just hung-out in our hotel room. Drew had fun spending time looking out our 7th floor window to Six Flags Over Texas which was just across the highway from us. Here is the view directly south from our window: Monday was more time in the room for the boys and I while John had his conference all day. When the evening rolled around, the boys and I were more than ready for some time out of our room. To say Drew was excited about getting to go to the Texas Rangers Baseball game is putting it mildly! The child was bouncing off the walls to go to his first baseball game!!! (I know - it just isn't right that his first baseball game wasn't a Cardinals game...ah well.) When we arrived at the stadium it was 84 degrees out. There was a storm just to the west of us and it sure looked - by the clouds - that it would get us too...
It did end up missing us, but by game time the temp had dropped to 74. It was a gorgeous night for a ball game - no hot sun beating down on us and a nice breeze to go with that. Drew was fascinated for a short time at the beginning...but since we had arrived almost a half hour before game time, it wasn't long until he was saying he didn't like baseball and wanted to go back to our hotel. The Rangers didn't start off well at all. Giving up some runs to Seattle right off the bat (lol - pun intended there). So I couldn't really blame him too much. Then Sosa hit a 3 run homer in the bottom of the 5th and they shot off some fireworks...Drew began to rethink his feelings about baseball. The Rangers' left fielder, Wilkerson, followed that up with another homerun....the mascot came around to interact with the fans (although Drew was REALLY mad he didn't shake HIS hand - lol - this from the boy who was afraid of the Easter Bunny)...the Ozarka "dots" had a race on the field...7th inning stretch.... Drew decided baseball was a LOT of fun after all and we ended up staying until the end (11pm!) instead of leaving after the 7th inning. The Rangers let Seattle score 3 runs in the top of the 9th and it looked for awhile there that they might end up lossing the game, but they held on and ended up winningby one run 8-7. Below is a little slide show of just a few of the MANY other pictures I took at the game.

Tuesday morning John had the rest of his conference and then we headed out around 1pm. We stopped with the rest of the people from his office at Pappas Bar-B-Q in Dallas. YUM again!!! This family opened 4 different style restaurants (seafood, mexican, steahouse & bar-b-q) all next to each other and from what I have heard they are all excellent. I don't know about the other 3, but the Bar-B-Q was delicious and HUGE helpings!

The drive home didn't go as smoothly as the drive to Texas. :) Zach was cutting his other top tooth (it actually came through last night FINALLY - up to 4 teeth now) and was REALLY cranky. Drew was pretty cranky too. For dinner we stopped in Vinita, Oklahoma at the World's Largets McDonald's. The building itself was huge - stretched across interstate 44, but there was VERY little seating and the service was SO slow. Drew had fun watching the cars drive under us though. I said next time, I vote for stopping at the cool looking McD's in Dallas that looks like a Happy Meal box!
Wow! Yet ANOTHER really long blog! So sorry about that folks! If I would write more often I could probably keep them smaller. The only other news I have right now is that in the 5 weeks we have been doing Weight Watchers I am happy to say I have lost 13 pounds. Not outstanding, but still good. I'm happy that it at least seems to be working...even with not following it as closely this past weekend. I'm not noticing a difference, but I will trust the scale :) Ok, off for tonight. I need to get rest so I can tackle the stack of reunion flyers I need to get addressed and in enveloped tomorrow so I can go mail them Saturday morning. Then it is on to cleaning the house. *cringe* Night all!