Vist from our pal Pearson

     Every time we go to Mom and Dad's Cooper asks about his cousin Pearson. He really likes hanging out with him and Pearson is so nice to play with the boys, since they are younger than he is. So we decided it was time for Pearson to come and visit us way up here in Caddo. The summer almost slipped by, but an opportunity arose the week before we left for vacation and we couldn't pass it up.

Ready to ride.

    I'd gone to a homeschool conference for the weekend with Mom (more on that in a later post), and brought Pearson home with me that Sunday. I was a little nervous about the 4 hour ride…..you know making conversation, hoping he wasn't wishing he was back home. But thanks to Hank the Cowdog audio stories and song we made it without too much awkwardness.
     That evening we met with the boys, who did not seem to miss me as much as I thought they would/should, and all went to town for the church swim party. They boys had lots of fun jumping off the diving board and going down the slide, well worth the trip into town. And they all slept well afterwards too!
     We had a pretty fun week, and hope Pearson did too. I'm sure he was a bit bored at times, like when the boys napped, but we tried to keep things fun. They rode horses, we went to the lake, and the big boys even got to work with Dalton one morning while I did my glucose screening (I'd have rather been working with Dalt).
     Rather than blabbing on trying to remember details from the visit, I'm going to let pictures do the talking.

Waiting on their horses 

 

Ace wasn't too happy to be left at home with Mama 

Finally Ace's turn 

"See Dad, all I wanted was to be on a horse." 

Cooling off at the lake 

 The race is on, with head starts for Cooper and Pearson

I think Dalton forgot about the 'let the kids win' rule 

Leaping to victory! 

Pearson felt that his lifejacket gave him an unfair disadvantage so they re-raced. 

Notice his happy grin as he runs ahead of Dalton.  

Made it to the water

We let both boys tube together before Person got his solo turn. Dalton told them to give the thumbs up sign to go faster and thumbs down to go slower. Every time I looked back there Cooper's thumb was sticking up. It was hilarious! We sped up but never got to the point where he was content; I'm sure Pearson was wishing he could put his thumbs up too….Mama was a little cautious.  

Once we reeled Cooper in, Pearson got to have some speedier fun. If my tummy wouldn't have been growling and Ace wouldn't have been trying to crawl out of the boat, Pearson would have stayed there all night I think. 

Everyone got to catch their own horse this time. 

 Leading him out, ready to saddle up

 Cooper in trouble because he didn't obey….poor pitiful guy

 The  horses liked having Pearson around, extra hand fed hay snacks.

 The boys after a long morning of hauling cattle and working on a pumpjack. Dirty, sweaty, and smiling big; they were ready for the pizza I brought back. 

      As the week passed I started to realize that we were leaving for vacation in a few days, so instead of staying until Friday, we decided to meet Rachel Thursday for the drop off. That morning we went to our playgroup and the kids bounced and tumbled around until it was time to go. Then we made a quick stop for lunch and headed to Weatherford. We met them, handed Pearson off and headed home to pack. On the way home Cooper said "I miss Pearson, can he come back home with us?" It was pretty sweet, and I missed him too. Hopefully he can come back soon to play and maybe the weather will cooperate for a camp out. 

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God." 1 John 4:7

Fish, the Rainforest and More Adventure

***I cannot believe it's been over a month since I've blogged. Wow, it's been busy busy! I have to catch up on a few so bear with me until I can get back to the present.

      By definition, the Dalton Pitcock family isn’t known for spontaneous trips anywhere. We have ideas, debate about whether to go, plan it and then follow through if we don’t change our mind in favor of staying home to save money and to avoid the craziness that comes with hauling our two guys anywhere.

    Well, last month we decided to be spontaneous. It’s been so hot here (in the 100s daily) and the boys and I had about hit our limit at home and run out of ideas in the backyard. So I thought a trip to the city to stay in a hotel, take the boys to the aquarium and just have some good ol' family time might be what we needed. It was also going to be a trial run for our big vacation to upstate New York for a week (another spontaneous decision actually). 

Cute little sea horses 

Checking out the crabs

     So that Friday at lunch I brought the idea up to Dalton and we talked about it and decided that it would be a good idea. The whole afternoon I wondered if it was the right choice but we got ready and were waiting for Dalton when he got home. We loaded up in Mere Mere's car and headed to town to pick up our car (it was in the shop getting the AC fixed….remember the chicken ride?) and return hers. We picked up the car and got to Mere Mere's, with the intention of a quick visit so we could get on our way.
      The quick visit turned into a very pleasant and fun long visit because Kallie and Karper showed up. It was great to see them and let the boys play for a while together. We even got to talk to Justin via Facetime, from overseas. We loaded up about 7, ready to head to the city. As we pulled out of the driveway we briefly wondered what we were thinking, leaving at 7 but decided to stick with the spontaneous mood. We picked up hamburgers and started chowing down as we left the city limits. About 5 miles outside of Graham, half-way through our hamburgers, Cooper said his mouth hurt…..*red flag meaning he was about to throw up. Sure enough he threw up and up and up and we pulled over to assess the damage. Obviously he had to be stripped down and we realized the car seat needed to be washed. I tried to get as much out of the car as I could while Dalton cleaned up the boy.
     The whole time we were cleaning him up he kept saying "I want to go to the hotel. I don't want to go home," which made us chuckle a bit. We were a bit dismayed at the situation; I mean who does this happen to?? We try to throw caution to the wind and this was the result? But we'd already bought the aquarium tickets online so we called Mere Mere to meet us back in Graham with a different car seat and  turned around. We met her, switched seats (poor thing, she got stuck with the nasty seat and clothes), loaded up again and once again passed the city limits sign; this time with Ace screaming in the back because it was close to bedtime and he'd already had enough seat time. He fell asleep after a bit though, which was a relief.
     We drove on through Mineral Wells and Weatherford and then started pondering where we would stay. We aren't very familiar with the Grapevine area, which is where we were going, so we searched for deals online. We almost attempted to bid on a Priceline hotel and see what we got but decided we weren't that free-spirited and picked one that was affordable, with pictures online. After we picked the hotel we set our course that direction, feeling better that we had a destination in mind, since it was getting late.
     As we exited onto I35 we hit an immediate traffic pile up with no end in sight. Dalton and I looked at each other we tired frustration and then we looked back to a set of coon eyes staring at us (ok they were pretty blue eyes) asking if we were at the hotel yet. After about 10 minutes of sitting in the same spot, my impatience was mounting and the chuckling over yet another crazy situation died down. I found a way out on my phone and we took side roads for a while. When we emerged back on I35 it was flowing freely, yay!
     We got back on the highway, kept driving and watching the dot for the hotel as it got closer and closer. Just as it seemed we would be close, we looked up and saw it pass by on our right. We laughed, kept going to the next exit and turned around. Before we could get to the hotel we had to get milk. Our milk monster Ace has a tendency to require milk mid-night when we aren't at home. So we pulled into a shady gas station and Dalton ran in for milk. He came out with the goods and we pulled out, excited to see the hotel in the distance. Unfortunately we were met with oncoming headlights and honking and quickly realized that we had turned onto a one-way street, the wrong way. We let the car pass and made it to the right road, laughing again at our luck.
     Finally about 11 we pulled into the hotel, checked in, unloaded and took our pajama clad boys inside. The previously exhausted little guys quickly turned into energetic bouncing boys and ran around the room for a while. Meanwhile we discovered that there wasn't a mini-fridge and went to work figuring out how to keep the milk cold overnight. The solution wound up being an ice bucket and trash can filled with ice to hold the sippy cups and spare milk.

 "Roomservice? I'd like some milk and cookies please, extra milk."

     About midnight we got the boys settled down and turned out the lights. Ace wallowed around a bit, kicked us in the face and ribs then started asking for milk. So I pulled the sippy cup out of the bedside ice bucket and passed it over. The sound of the chilled cup coming out of the bucket made us giggle again….instead of champagne, we have chilled milk bedside. And with that we settled in for the night.

Sea Turtles! 

 Ace was pointing to the fish under the glass floor.

Jellyfish

      The next morning we got up and around and enjoyed breakfast before we headed out for the aquarium. The drive to Grapevine was very pretty, filled with pastures and cows…unexpected.
    The boys really liked the aquarium, and so did I. They had sting rays, sharks, fish and even big rescued sea turtles. There was a tunnel for the boys to go through, with a clear floor, but Ace wasn't a big fan of walking on water. We made it through the aquarium in good time and got to see all that they had to offer. On our way out we stopped in a photo booth and took a family picture; it turned out cute even with all of our faces squished together.

Cooper touching a starfish 

 Lots of sting rays

A neat looking shark

    After that fun experience we walked the length of the mall looking for the Rainforest Cafe, our other special adventure. On our way we stopped and took a carousel ride. The boys didn't enjoy it as much as we thought and I got a little dizzy, so I don't think we'll be carouselling again.

     I got excited as we waited for our seats at the Rainforest Cafe. I could hear animal sounds coming from inside and the atmosphere was so neat. As we were escorted to our table we passed several gorillas and saw tigers in the distance. We could hear the elephants but couldn't see them. Our table was right next to a big gorilla, which kept the boys entertained. Ever so often…usually about the time the boys got restless…the gorillas would start shaking the tree, making noise and getting their attention. Both boys liked it but Ace was especially interested. He never got scared, just wouldn't take his eyes off of them, especially the one right behind us. The adventurous atmosphere all around us made for a relaxing time because entertainment was provided. We enjoyed our lunch, watched the animals and then headed for home. By that time it was starting to really heat up outside so we opted not to make any other stops and pointed our car toward Caddo.

Watching the gorillas and tigers, the boys are really paying attention

    The ride home was wonderful…the boys slept the whole way, which made up for all the trouble we had on the way in. When we got home we still had the evening to enjoy our place and then slept well in our own beds.
    So even though we probably won't make a new habit of being bold and spontaneous with regards to travel, we'd consider that trip a success and loved making memories as our family of four.

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge." Psalm 19:1-2