A few months ago, Nick and I were discussing our upcoming wedding anniversary and we always like to designate a little trip somewhere to celebrate :) Our first year, we stayed at a neat bed and breakfast, last year we took a family trip to Shreveport, so it only seemed fitting that this year we return back to our old stomping grounds, and to the place where it all happened...Ft. Worth. Not to mention, we were really eager to see lots of our old friends and favorite hangouts.
Since we were only able to squeeze out for a four day weekend and would be making a road trip out of it, it was a whirlwind to say the least! We weren't quite able to see everyone (which we wished we could of), but we tried to fit everything into about 2. 5 days.
We were able to split the drive there into two days, which was definitely the way to go! Nora has decided she is too big now to sleep in the car evidently so we can no longer just put the pedal to the metal and take off. We had to bring lots to entertain her and stop quite often so she could get out of her car seat and take a break. I will say however, because of the i pad, I would actually have given her an A in the road trip department. She was a little trooper and actually handled it all quite well.
It was actually Nick's idea to spend our first night at the famous, Great Wolf Lodge. So after arriving on Thursday and visiting daddy's old office, we made the drive over to Grapevine to spend a very fun afternoon and evening at the water park. Let me first add that Nora was just extremely excited about staying in hotels...period! She was bouncing of the walls and literally jumping on the bed saying, "Yea"! When we took her into the water park area, she immediately turned into the fearless, little, girl we know and love. We could hardly hold her back long enough for all of us to take off our coverups and jump right in. She was splashing, sliding and tooling around like she owned the place. I could go on and on about her here but all in all I will just say, we couldn't of been more proud of her and no matter what amount of money we spent to stay there...it was well worth it!
For our second day of the trip, we were very excited to meet up with some of our best friends. We made the drive out to Aledo, Texas to visit our dear friends and old neighbors and their adorable little son. It was so exciting to see how much the kiddos had grown since we last saw each other. When we left there, Nora was only 9 months old so imagine that! After a fun bbq lunch at one of our favorite spots, we also went to visit some more of Nora's little playgroup buddies. She was surrounded by lots of energetic little boys this trip but that sure didn't seem to bother her, as you already know about her firecracker personality! She got to swing, read books, ride a 4 wheeler and socialize all afternoon. That evening we were also able to get most of the old "crew" back together to hit up my favorite Mexican restaurant, Joe T's! It was fabulous as always and their margaritas were just as good as I remembered :)
On Saturday, we wanted to take Nora to see the animals at the Ft. Worth Zoo. It was simply beautiful there as always. It is not a very big zoo but is so well taken care of and easy to navigate. We only lasted a couple hours but Nora got to see all her favorite animals along side her buddy, Grady. After we left the zoo, we grabbed some lunch and headed the park for a picnic. We couldn't check into our next hotel for another couple hours so Nick literally drove a circle around the entire city so Nora could take her nap. We wanted her very well rested so that evening we could go meet up with yet another group of friends at the Ft. Worth Stockyards. I had been anxiously awaiting this part of our trip as I had also set up a "country" theme photo shoot with Nora's buddy, Bronson. My mom had made Nora a western style dress and I had purchased her her first pair of real cowgirl boots for the event. It turned out soooo adorable even though it was not easy chasing 2 very active 19 month olds around. That was a wonderful end to our trip though as we just hung out and socialized all while letting the kiddos run around in the nice green grass.
The journey home was the part I was most dreading....making the 9+ hour journey home all in one day! Let's just say, we all were very eager to arrive in Albuquerque by the end of the day. Nora only slept for two 45 minute naps and for the rest of the time, mommy was trying any and everything to keep her entertained. We did talk daddy into making a couple longer stops though so we could all have a break. I am not sure we will be making that long of a trip in the car again anytime soon but I wouldn't change any part of our trip. We had a total blast! Be sure to check out our whole album of pics on fb but below are a few of the highlights! Also, stay tuned for our Kansas trip coming up next month and we are also planning a Grand Canyon trip for this summer :)
