Dallas Min-Vacation

Bruce had some training in Dallas for a few days so we tagged along.

We arrived at the hotel late Sunday night. Hailey slept in the car, but was awake when we arrived. She was so excited to stay in a hotel she went wild in the room. She assigned everyone and everything in the room, people to beds, clothes to dressers,  people to sinks, soaps to sinks. Then she unpacked her 3 days of clothes into the drawers, opened the soaps, told us how cool it was to be in a hotel, and generally wandered around being cute.
Bruce and I were tired, me more that Bruce since I fell asleep about a minute after I laid down and woke up in the night to find him in Hailey's bed. She apparently had a little trouble calming down and going to sleep, which means Dad had a little trouble sleeping, too.

The next morning was more excitement- breakfast in the hotel with yogurt and waffles and oatmeal, and, and, and whatever else the hotel had, because we pretty much ate it all.... After breakfast Bruce walked to the office and the girls packed our bags of the day. We met with Sharon Sommerfeldt, Bruce's aunt who lives in Dallas and visited the Dallas Arboretum. We happened to be there during the tulip festival, so the whole park was brightly colored with blossoming tulips. The girls didn't capture the beauty of the scenery, but they enjoyed the walk, the picnic lunch, and the game of tag in the grassy picnic area.When they were sufficiently wore out, we returned to the hotel for naps and then went swimming in the hotel's outdoor pool. It was warm outside, but they don't heat the pool so it was FREEZING. I got wet to my knees but couldn't make it any further. McKayla dipped a toe and decided she liked the deck, and Hailey would stand on the first step but go no further. We had fun playing pretend and going from the lounge chairs to the water to the deck to the pool. When Bruce got back from work we went to Pioneer Heritage Park, a park with many longhorn cow statues, to play before dinner at Craig and Sharon's home. Dinner was great, the company was enjoyable and Hailey got some princess coloring pages. All was well in the world. Bruce shared a bed with Hailey again. :) Poor guy- Hailey's a pretty wiggly bed companion.

On Tuesday after breakfast we tidied up and got ready to go to the Dallas Museum of Art. The first Tuesday of the month they offer free kid activities and we happened to be in Dallas on the first Tuesday, so it worked out well. Hailey loved all the activities and McKayla held up well. They had an incredible story teller- she told a fable about the wind competing with the sun to get a child to remove her jacket. The wind blows and the sun shines and the moral is you can often accomplish more with gentleness than with force. The storyteller had a wind costume that was stings of crepe paper that rustles when the worker moved around. She told another story about caterpillars turning into moths and butterflies. Hailey loved both of them and told them to me again later. There were various other crafts including vegetable stamping and scientific investigation. We ate a picnic lunch outside and walked home in the rain. After naps and when Dad got home we went to dinner with Craig and Sharon. Bruce didn't have to sleep with Hailey. :)

On Wednesday we went to the Farmer's Market which sounded really cool on paper but was fairly anticlimactic, perhaps due to the overcast weather. We also rode the trolley, which was very cool, but due to time restraints for the parking meter, was a short ride, so in the end Hailey thought it was also a little anticlimactic. We hurried back to the hotel for a quick morning nap before we had to check out, and then met Sharon to go to Bass Pro Shop. The girls loved climbing on all the boats, looking at the animals and the fish, and wandering around. They had a great time. Hailey also loved the ice cream treat on the drive home. We dropped Sharon at her house, picked up Bruce, went grocery shopping on E&Y's tab, and got dinner before we drove home.

It was a great little get-away at little cost to us, win-win.