The Kids: Texas Visit, October 2012

I was so excited to spend a long weekend with the kiddos! It had only been 3 months since they had been to Utah but it always feels like so much longer!

Friday:
I flew out of St George at 6:15am and arrived in Dallas a little after 12:00. By the time I got the rental car and checked into the hotel room, I was at the house to pick up Lizi at 2:30. Trey and Shelby get out of school at 2:55. They started going to a new school this year - the Chandler School - which is ironic since that's the same name of the School in California that my mom taught 1st grade and Kindergarten at for 30 years.

I got the car seats and kids suit cases loaded up and we were on our way to get Shelby and Trey. I always love the look on the kids faces when they see me picking them up at school. They are just so excited and genuinely happy. Trey was his class' line leader so he was the first one out. When he saw me he yelled, "daddy!" and ran to me open armed.

Shelby was next, sort of glanced at me out of the corner of her eye while she was walking in line and got a huge smile on her face. After she checked out with her teacher, she ran and jumped into my arms into a cuddle hug.

They showed me where they usually park their bikes since they ride their bikes to school everyday. We loaded up in the car and made our way to the hotel. It was a warm day so we decided to go for a swim. The rest of the weekend was supposed to turn cold so I figured if we were going to go swimming, we better do it on a warm day. The pool was cold, but we swam until the kids (or Lizi) was ready to get out.

After swimming, it was dinner time and the kids were hungry so we went to McDonald's and had dinner and played on the play place. It was cute as the kids would climb to a certain platform, they would stop, look for me, find me, yell "hi daddy!" and then continue what they were doing. After playing, we went over to Walmart to get some groceries for the weekend. I love shopping with the kids. By this time it was getting close to the kids bed time, so we went home, read stories and went to bed.
Quote of the day:
Trey: (with a sigh) "Daddy, I have to go to school for like 100 more years."

Saturday:
The weather turned cold and was windy outside so we spent the morning at the hotel. We woke up about 7:30, ate cereal and then I put in a movie - Cinderella - for the kids while I got ready for the day. After Cinderella, we played with the kids toys - Disney princesses, airplanes, and cars - and then colored in some cool Halloween coloring books that Liz had picked up for the kids. At 12:00 we went to Dominoes and got a couple of Pizza's and had lunch back at the hotel.

Trey had a Birthday party to be to at 1:30 at the White Tiger Tae Kwan Do martial arts academy for Charlie Campbell, one of his classmates. We originally planned to drop him off and return to pick him up at 3:00, but there was room for all of us to stay so we watched as they put on a demonstration and then had the kids learn and practice basic skills. It was fun to watch and Trey had a fun time doing everything.

After the Birthday party, we went to the Calloway garden center, which was having a cool pumpkin/fall festival where there were a number of free activities for kids to do. We walked around and looked at all the cool looking plants and then went out side where all the activities were. We first spotted a seed planting station so the kids decided that they wanted to plant grass seeds. After planting seeds and decorating their cups with eyes, the kids were getting cold so they decided that they wanted to skip the other activities and go.

It was about dinner time so we went back to the hotel ate some sandwiches, had baths, played go fish and uno, read books, and went to bed.
Quote of the day:
In response to me telling Shelby that I was so glad that she picked me to be her daddy before we came to earth, Shelby, teary eyed, said, "That almost made me spit tears."

Sunday:
We woke up about 7:30, though the kids were ready to get up about 7:00. Shelby really wanted to play UNO so we played a couple of games. Then we ate some cereal and Lizi picked Tangled to watch while I got ready for the day.

After the movie, we watched the morning session of General Conference. I told the kids that for every thing they told me they learned from conference, they would get a jelly bean. Shelby remembered 9 things. They loved it when the third article of faith was recited, as they all just memorized it a couple of weeks ago. They did a good job listening and they colored a little while they watched it.

After conference, we warmed up some leftover pizza and went to the park to play baseball and frisbee. We didn't stay long because it was so cold. But on the way home, the kids decided that they wanted to play a little on the playground at the fish park. We drove by it but there were people there so they decided that they wanted to go to a different park. So we went to the one on Allen Heights and played there for a little bit.

When the kids were done playing, we went back to the hotel and had some sandwiches, had baths, played games read books, and went to bed.
Quote of the day:
Trey: "My jacket is inside out." Shelby: "Mine's not. I insided it out."

Monday
We woke up about 7:45 and played our normal card games - this time Go Fish, with the Disney Princess card deck. After cards, we had cereal and doughnuts for breakfast. The kids picked Tarzan to watch while I got ready for the day. After the movie, the kids packed their bags and we checked out of the hotel at about 11:45. We went to McDonald's to have lunch and play on the play place.

On Monday it was much warmer so we went to the park to play baseball and frisbee. Shelby and Lizi were "making a cake" by turning the frisbee upside down and picking flowers and grass and putting it in the frisbee, while Trey and I played baseball. Then Lizi wanted a turn playing baseball, followed by Shelby. Then we all threw the frisbee around. It was probably the most fun we had just running around, playing and laughing together all week.

We were to meet Keri and Steve at the fish park by their old house at 2:30 to help lessen the impact of me leaving on the kids. So we headed over to the park and played for about a half hour before I had to go to make my flight out. Shelby and Lizi had the hardest time saying goodbye this time, Shelby burying her head over my shoulder and clutching me tightly, and Lizi hugging me equally as hard. It was a difficult goodbye, as always, but knowing that the kids are coming out to Utah for Christmas made it much easier on them and me.