My Trip: Part 1 of 1

I have a lot of pictures to post, but I'm not really a fan of slide shows since I myself always get impatient with them and usually only see one or two pictures. And I guess I could divide this email up into parts, but I'd rather just get it overwith, so please be aware that this will be long!
This is how the trip started. Well, not really, but this was the night before, 11 pm. Of course this happens when I'm already running around with a million things to do and I have to get up early for the flight. Many towels, a bucket and mop, and even an electric fan later, the mess got cleaned up.
The fight was okay, not great. It was pretty empty, which was great, but Will was too excited to settle down and so there were a few bouts of screaming in between some short naps. So I was a little weary and haggard when I got off the plane, but the flight attendants were very helpful and nice.
My sister JoEllen picked me up and took me to her new home in Flower Mound, TX (in between Dallas and Fort Worth). I loved her neighborhood, it was very pretty and had a lot of very pretty brick homes.
Her husband recently (2 years ago actually) graduated from business school and is now a consultant for Deloitte, so he travels a great deal for his job. I was hoping to be able to help her a lot since he's usually out of town, but it happened that he was there for almost my entire stay. So I'm sure I wasn't very helpful. :)
The first few days there were pretty laid-back. We went to the park, and I did a craft with her kids. I also started developing a cold which made me sneeze constantly and was very annoying.
Swinging at the park...Will also got to try out the baby swing but didn't know quite what to think.Jo's son Matthew is three years old and seems to be going through a Jekyll and Hyde phase where he can be so sweet and imaginative or a complete grouch. He refused to smile for any pictures.
Here is the fall craft we did...making little pumpkin people. Ignore the strange expression on my face.
I should have done a craft that involved the kids doing more since I had to do the carving, hot gluing, and glitter spraying. But the finished product was cute. Rest assured they were all destroyed a day later.
In the meantime, Will was busy trying to figure out some new skills, such as sitting up and holding his bottle. Most of the time he's too interested in everything around him to focus on these things, but we're getting there.
And of course he had lots of fun with his cousin Maxwell (or Macwell as Matthew calls him). They didn't beat each other up too much.
Friday night I went with JoEllen and Mark to an Iron Chef Party. The challengers were 'apple vs. pumpkin' and basically everyone brought an apple or pumpkin dish. We made my Mom's sour cream apple bars, although Jo likes the pie better, I still like em. Many of the dishes were really good, and we had to try everything and then rate it. The winners were Pumpkin Creme Brulee and a raspberry Apple pie. I personally loved the apple green salad and squash/apple 'casserole'. I also enjoyed chatting with some people there. There are a few couples in Jo's ward who were in Boston with them. Small world.
On Saturday we drove to Fort Worth to the Stockyards, which is a place that celebrates Texas's cowboy heritage. It was pretty cool...they had lots of different things you could take pictures in front of, along with an old train, classic cars, a mock jail, a covered Main Street, and a cattle drive. The cattle drive was cool because the long-horned cattle were cool to look at, but there weren't very many. Jo and I were expecting something crazy, more like the Running of the Bulls in Spain, but it was pretty tame. Katrina and Maxwell, riding the saddle. Note Felicity sulking in the background since she wanted to do this first.Me, three times: "Matthew, turn around for the picture!"
Matthew: "I said NO THANK YOU!"
At least he was polite.
My sister showing Matthew what to do for the picture. Instead he refused and ran off. Don't be mad that I put this picture up, Jo. You look lovely.Hopefully the only time Will goes to Jail.A little chaotic getting this picture...we kind of gave up, which is why you can't see Felicity's face.
The Cattle DriveJo's beautiful yellow girls.
Sunday was like a regular Sunday: get up, wrestle the kids into their Sunday clothes. Take picture of Katrina marching around in Mom's shoes. Sit through half of Sacrament before taking Will out for a nap in the Mother's Lounge. At least he was happy in Relief Society. And Jo and Mark had invited my aunt and uncle (who recently lost their oldest daughter) and their family who live in Frisco to have dinner with us. It was so great to see them and I was amazed to see how much they've grown up (the kids, not my aunt and uncle). I kept wanting to call Rebecca (who is 18) Maren because the last time I saw Maren I think she was around that age. I think that Maren's death is really starting to sink in now, so I hope that we were able to distract them a little bit.
Monday was Zoo Day. I loved going to the zoo when I was a kid and I haven't been in forever. So I really wanted to go to the zoo, and we headed out to Fort Worth again to the Fort Worth zoo. It's a good zoo, and I liked how you could see maximum animals in minimal time/distance. There were some funny chimps and some entertaining playful baby tigers. Matthew's favorite part was, of course, the train ride at the end. And possibly stealing Saltines out of his mom's diaper bag.
Maxwell, inspired from seeing the monkeys, tries sucking his own toes.
And how nice it was when the babies fell asleep during the middle of the day.
Tuesday was the day I left, but since my flight was at night, we took Will and Max to get some pictures taken together. How cute our babies are, I just have to say. Hopefully many good times lie ahead down the road.
Afterwards, I packed and Jo drove me to the airport. I got through security quickly (I like the Dallas Love Field airport--very good customer service) so I stopped at Chili's Too for a quick dinner. We sat by a couple of people on a business trip and Will couldn't stop smiling at the woman, which she loved. I was prepared for a fussy baby on the plane, but he was great, thankfully. He played with my until we took off and then went to sleep. And thank goodness he slept the whole time because I got some serious airplane ear before we landed in Phoenix due to being congested. And Will is also kind of congested, so he probably would have been screaming bloody murder because I wanted to scream bloody murder!
I greeted a very happy Aaron at the curb. He was pretty lonely while we were gone and resorted to renting a lot of dumb movies and eating out a lot. But he cleaned the house a lot and hung up the curtain rods, as I had so requested.
So now I'm home, and I am happy to be here. I like going on vacation, but I really like coming home. This was the first time in our marriage that Aaron and I have not seen eachother for more than a few hours, so it was weird to be apart for a week. But I really enjoyed seeing my sister and her family, and I liked Texas. And there you have it, that wasn't so long!