Summer Break: Weeks 3 and 4

Dearest Jackson & Colton,

On Tuesday of Week 3, Billy & Heather flew in to visit us from Virginia.  Although you hadn't seen them since last summer, you both warmed up to them right away!

On Wednesday, we ventured into Dallas to play at a new park.  It's called Klyde Warren Park and it seems to be DFW's version of Central Park, just on a much smaller scale.  It was our first visit there and I didn't know there were water features....but that didn't stop you boys from splashing around!

While I like to keep this memory "book" upbeat, I do want to include a memory that, although scary, was eye-opening for me.  A little boy, not much older than you, Jax, was playing on a nearby climbing structure when he fell.  Upon hearing the call for help, Heather (the nurse) sprung into action and rushed to his side.  As she worked to help the unconscious child, I tried to gather you boys and take you away from the chaos.  During the entire ordeal (even as the paramedics arrived and rushed him away), you could not take your eyes off of him and stood guard from a safe distance.  Your level of concern was unlike I'd ever seen from you before.  You were very worried about him so you and I prayed together and then you announced that you wanted to leave the park immediately!  We walked over to the food trucks and had a lovely lunch and that seemed to lighten the load on your heart a bit.

Thursday was one of Ms. Steph's 4 scheduled summer sitter days.  You boys played with your friends all day at her house so Daddy took off of work and we took Billy & Heather to explore the city.  First stop was Cowboys Stadium.

We hiked through the stands, toured the locker rooms, and had a mini-press conference before playing a game of toss on the turf.

We headed to the West End for lunch and then took a segway tour of the city.

Billy & Heather used Friday to go exploring on their own so we played in the pool for a few hours.

(And some of us worked on our tans!)

We hired a babysitter that night so that we could double date.  First stop, Heather's favorite restaurant, Texas Roadhouse.

Then it was into Fort Worth to our favorite comedy club, Four Day Weekend.  

Not getting home until 1am meant that Saturday was a very chillax day.  We hosted a get together that evening and friends started showing up at 4:00.

Here are some of the cute kids that partied with us.

Here are some of the cute adults that partied with us.

All 20 guests were gone by 8:00 so we tucked you boys into bed and kept the good times going with game night.  It was another late night full of laughing!  

We were bright eyed and bushy tailed for church on Sunday morning & we followed that up with even more swimming!  Sunday night was reserved for Medieval Times.  This was a first for you boys and I loved watching your reactions to all the hoopla!  

We were the first ones in line on Monday morning at the SeaLife Aquarium.  This was another spot we hadn't visited before.  You two loved running around the place and the fun was over much too soon!

The city of Grand Prairie greeted us on Tuesday when we drove there to have lunch with Daddy.  We left Billy there so that they could play around the shop and then have a guys night out.  Meanwhile, we napped, went out for dinner, and visited Grandma & Grandpa's soon-to-be new house.  While there, you boys wanted to frolic around the golf course.   Fun times : )

Wednesday was their last day with us so we made the trek to Billy's favorite store of all time - Cabela's.   While it's definitely a hunter's paradise, it was outstanding for kids too and you both loved it!  There were much cooler photo opps than this one but I was running out of photo-taking steam (if you hadn't noticed) so this one shot wraps up our fun:

From there, we took them to the airport and wished them a tearful goodbye.  It was a spectacular trip and it made weeks 3 and 4 of our summer vacation extra-special!