Texas shaped waffle from our Wyngate hotel. Love it!
Dallas Arboretum trip. Twelve Days of Christmas Display. Really cold but really fun to see the displays. They had a gorgeous gazebo set up depicting each scene from the Twelve Days of Christmas Song. What a great way to get people out to the arboretum in the middle of winter.
Ally did in fact step into a fountain. I thought I snapped a photo but don't seem to have it. The sidewalk turned but it was dark and hard to see. Of course it didn't help that she was walking backward but she stepped right in with both feet but managed not to fall over. It was quite impressive. She had cold feet up to her knees for the rest of the evening but at least she wasn't soaking wet everywhere. We all worked hard keeping Nanny tucked into her blankets as well. It seems like she enjoyed her night out and was smiling and laughing with us.
Pollan Turkey Trot. We had a Junior League that pulled off the one miler and the more advanced squadron who did a 5K. We won't say who did which. We also won't tell on Jason who biked the whole way. Of course Ally did take advantage of the free ride occasionally.
Post Turkey Trot pool plunge. Tyler went in for a plunge when he beat us all home. Byron tried to convince him to come again a bit later when we got back and it appeared like he was game. He had a last minute game plan change though and as Byron flew off the end of the diving board it became clear Tyler was not going in again. Oh the humanity, Byron had been hoodwinked. Sadie and Ally got their suits on but only dipped toes into the frigid water. Smart girls!
Thanksgiving Feast! Another successful meal.
So apparently when Tyler was packing for this trip he couldn't decide which book to read so he brought them all. This is what he has been carrying around in his backpack the whole trip. Yikes kid! That's a lot of free time. We didn't know this until our last day in TX so at least he hasn't complained at all. Maybe next time pack a few more pairs of clean socks and a few less books. Funny kid!
String Party on our last night in town. We had to try hard to fit it in. Luckily Nanna Pollan apparently has boundless amounts of energy.
The kids always have a fun time winding their pencils to get to the presents. As good as Christmas!
We got home from Dallas to find out our finches were at it again. More eggs laid = more baby birds. Two more eggs were growing. Only one of the chicks survived this go-around. The baby who hatched out a few days early kept throwing the little one out of the nest. Ally found it in the food bowl and saved it one day. The next time it landed on the bottom of the cage and was dead when we found it. Ally and her friend buried it in the backyard and put a few flowers around it's grave. We named the chick who lived Endominous Finch after the dinosaur in the new Jurassic World movie. It also killed it's sibling. We are hoping to be in town next month so we can put a stop to all this finch breeding. This is six finch babies total Cheeks and Lele have had. They are on a flock a month schedule. This is serious business.
Dallas Trip - Thanksgiving 2015
Friday - 6:45 am flight to Dallas. Direct on Southwest. Amber and Jason flew on the same flight as us. Barely made flight- ran for the gate, called our name over the loud speaker. Random seats available on Southwest. Arrived in Dallas switched up cars. Phil and Jason both cried when Phil hugged Amber for the first time. Big deal meeting the new potential in-laws to be. Phil came with Byron and I to pick up rental car. Kids Jason and Amber went straight to Pollan’s in the Honda. Phil is getting his name on our rental so he can drive it while we take the larger Pilot down to San Antonio to visit with Granny and Grady. Got the car headed to the house but stopped at Kuby’s German Deli on the way to pick up Hungarian sausages and Rye bread for lunch. Phil had to take photos of the sausage he was picking out so Laura could be sure he was picking up the right ingredients. Found lots of yummy chocolate wafer treats and shortbread cookies to hide in my purse. Made it to the Pollan’s and hugs all around. Fun to see everyone. Hollie’s kids are darling and have grown so much, especially baby Walker. He is a chunk at 24 pounds and 4 months old. Joszie Jr is a wiry fast little guy. Sadie is growing into this older sister role quite nicely and is a big help holding the baby. She also plays part Mom trying to make sure Joszie isn’t breaking the rules. We all ate our hot sandwiches for lunch, pulled two long tables so we could all sit in the dining room together. It runs almost the whole length of the front room. Barely space for the couch and two chairs at the end. Fun to see Nanny Pollan again. She is certainly showing her 92 years but is holding in there. She tells us all the time that she's an old lady and is 101 years old. Well, almost. Family photos were quickly taken this afternoon. We had planned it for Saturday but the weather called for cold and windy on Saturday and we can’t take Nanny out in cold and windy for pictures so we all made a dash to the shower and made it in time for the witching hour of photography which is currently 4:00-5:00. I think we got some great shots! We were all starved again so we hit up In-N-Out for dinner. Then we were exhausted from our 4am start of the day and headed to the hotel to get to bed early which turned out to be 9:30 or 10 anyway.
Saturday- Slept in and ate a continental breakfast here at the hotel. Temple trip with Jason and Amber. Since we finished out Saturday plan on Friday we had extra time today and snuck over to the Glass Blowing shop. The kids all rolled molten glass in colored glass and the glass blowers made ornaments for us. The kids had a blast doing this. We thought they would be able to be more hands on than they were but alas, safety is always an issue. You have to take a four hour training course before you can do the actual blowing for yourself. The kids still enjoyed the activity. On our walk out Tyler could hear a blacksmith at work and was drawn toward the hammering. We all headed that way and there was the biggest joker blacksmith you have ever met. He was teasing everyone and cracking us all up with his corny jokes. He had baseball bats from China in a bat box but he had leather hanging over their door to keep it dark in their home. He called them Red Chinese Bats that had come in off the freight trains. He was located right near the Train Depot where the Polar Express Train starts. He also made a mold where he can hammer nickels into cowboy hats for the kids. He made Tyler and Carter mini swords out of a double barbed nail. Pretty slick guy if you ask me. We paid him $2 per hat. Not a bad return on a nickel if you ask me. Kids stayed home with Nanna and the adults went to Uncle Julio’s, for dinner. Uncle Julios fajitas never disappoint. They were fantastic as always.
Sunday - Breakfast at the hotel. We are staying at Wingate by Wyndham. Church in the 9am hour. That felt early! Chris came with us so that was a bonus. After church we hit the road as fast as we could to head down to San Antonio and visit the Greats. The drive was long but we broke it up by eating lunch at Five Guys on the way down. We checked out the Guitar Center and played on their ukuleles and banjos while Hollie gave Walker a little snack.
Granny and Grady are looking tired and frail but they liked our visit. Well, at least Granny did. Grady liked it for about ten minutes and then one could tell he was tired out. Lucky for him we stayed two and a half hours. It is hard with such a big group but it was nice to visit. Hopefully our kids will remember this one. We brought pumpkin squares for dessert and passed those around. Granny had candy bowls full of life savers, peanut m&m’s and tootsie rolls. The kids helped themselves to lots of candy. Joszie Jr would ask anyone but his mom to open his lifesavers. He had lots of help and ate lots of candy while we were there. Sadie Joszie Ally and Ty played a bit of soccer in the backyard. We also played jump on the bed in Great Granny’s guest room for a while and then we played Lights on Lights off, or Go to Sleep / Wake Up. Then Sadie became the tooth fairy who was delivering money to Ally every night who kept loosing lots of teeth. I was ready to leave and missed nearly all the conversation while watching the children. Amber came in and take a turn herding kids. You just couldn’t hear a thing if they were in the room with us. Poor Grady could hardly hear a thing when the kids were all out of the room. They do seem like they are being very well taken care of by Charlene their lady who comes in three times a week to clean, cook, do laundry, pretty much everything. Laura and Granny had a Facetime chat while we were there. It was heartbreaking that Laura couldn’t come with us but it was not meant to be.
We found our hotel in San Antonio. Stayed at the Hyatt on the Riverwalk. Super nice hotel. Went out and ate at Iron Cactus for dinner. I had an upset stomach but and ordered a bowl of soup. It seemed like everyone liked their meals. Sadie keeps ordering whatever Ally orders which is cute but I don’t think she has loved all of her meals thus far. Ally and Sadie are getting along very well so far. Joszie and Tyler are also best buddies. Ty is a good big cousin and is taking good care of the little guy. Carter of course is the baby whisperer. You can count him in a pinch with a tired baby. We met up with Hollie’s friends the Vorhees. They have two boys and Noah and Tyler were fast friends as Noah showed up with a rubics cube. Winner winner chicken dinner. They were inseparable for the next two days.
We had a group of 17 we traveled around with. Plenty tricky but it worked out okay. Chris, Amber and Jason shared a room, the BJPs had a room, Hollie’s crew had a room and the Vorhee’s had a room. Lucky for texting or it would have been undoable.
Monday- We picked up donuts and pastries and a cute Davy Crockett nutcracker from the CVS and fed our room and Jason’s room breakfast in the morning. We had OJ and chocolate milk and fared just fine in the room. We discovered last night at dinner that Sea World doesn’t open at 9am, nor 2pm it now opens at 3pm and closes at 9pm. After much careful deliberation we decided to scrap it and go to the museum called the Doseum instead. It was not a popular choice by Ally. She had a full on crying fit, quietly and hidden under the cover of the bed sheet while sitting on the floor. It was heart breaking because you could see she was trying so hard not to be completely devastated but she really was. It was one of the worst parenting decisions we have made but it just seemed like making all of these 17 people pay Sea Worlds exorbitant price for less than half a day of fun at their park was not the best move. So I cried on the inside and Ally cried on the outside and we went to the Doseum. To her credit she recovered after about twenty minutes of quite sobbing and put on a game face and enjoyed the rest of her day. She did not wine or complain and I also may have bought her three pounds of fudge because I was so proud of her. Seriously what parents dangles Sea World for two months and then rips it away at the last minute. She handled it way better than I ever would have at her age. Well, the decision was made and the group was happy except for our little Ally. We headed over to the Alamo after breakfast and enjoyed walking through the museum. They have the shrine, and the barracks, a gift shop and pretty gardens. A few costumed period people walking about. It was a great exhibit for the entry price of free. We saw Davy Crockett’s vest, his rifle, his wallet, the place out back where he was supposedly shot and killed. They had a little info on Def Smith who is another ancestor of the Pollan’s. It was very interesting to hear about. The kids ran about like crazy and the parents tried to read about the Alamo. Pretty much the experience you would expect when 17 people travel around together.
Lunch was a short walk over to Jimmy John’s for sandwiches. Carter does not enjoy J&J’s any longer. Hard to keep everyone happy all the time. He managed to not starve to death though. We pretty much took over that restaurant while we were there.
We drove over to the Doseum and played there for a while. Joszie wet his pants near the end, that was twice in two days. Poor Hollie is having trouble with him but especially when he is so busy playing. The Doseum was a fun kid geared museums with lots of hands on activities. The highlights for our kids were the tree house and the outside water splash zone. The ball that balanced on the fountain was the coolest and the kids, young and old, spent lots of time playing in it. Joszie full on sprayed himself and me with the hose at one point. We were both dripping wet. I was frozen and I bet he was too but he didn’t stop to notice. It did help disguise his wet pants though; couldn’t tell he had an accident at all when your hair, shirt and pants are all soaked. They had a spy room that the kids liked, and a dress up corner where Sadie was pleased to be a martian Pricess in. There was a screen that made it look like the kids were laying in a field of grass that was pretty sweet. It was a good museum but no Sea World. We promised Ally we would bring her back to Sea World this summer and stay for two days so we could go to the water park as well as the Aquarium part.
We had dinner in the Market District at Mi Tierra & Bakery which turned out to be a beautiful restaurant with really great food. There were shops outside like Mexican Market stalls and we bought a Poncho jacket called a Baja, a salsa bowl, Ally got a few armadillo stone animals, Carter found an Alamo glass piece, Ty of course got a new Fidora hat. He is a Fidora loving boy. The restaurant was fully decked out in Mexican piniatas, colorful banners, christmas lights, portraits of famous mexican people like Caesar Milan the dog whisperer and Poncho Via. It really was a cool setting. My dinner was awesome. Pollo Verde Enchilada. Finger licking good. The littles were melting down near the end of dinner. Sadie puked a little from all the root beer she drank sitting down by her non parents who don’t say no, Joszie had wet his pants again….they headed back to their room.
We went on a boat tour at the River Walk. It was a thirty minute guided tour where he talked about the buildings along the River Walk and the architect who thought up the whole idea in the first place. It was fun to drive along and see the whole 2.5 miles of water without walking it all. We bowed out after the boat tour but Jason and Amber showed their young hearts and went out for desserts.
Tuesday- Breakfast at Schilo’s German Delicatessen. I had biscuits, grits, ham and two over easy eggs. It was delicious and very filling. We did a little more walking along the River Walk. I bought another Baja jacket because Byron full on stole the one I bought for myself last night before I even got to put it on. It was pretty awesome. I found a green one today I really like though so it’s all good now. I bought one for Chris as well so Merry Christmas Chris. We finished packing up after Schilo’s and headed for home via a Safarri park and Salt Lick’s BBQ Restaurant in Roundrock, TX.
The Safarri Park was pretty awesome. The animals came right up to the side of the car and usually ate very nicely out of our hands. They had giraffes, Kudu’s, various African antelope looking creatures, maybe a reindeer type animal, zebras, emus and ostriches. The ostriches were the hit of the day. They would dodge their long necks around and come barreling at you hands at mock speed to snap up the feed they sell. If you don’t loose a finger or have blood drawn you are lucky. Nearly all of us took turns feeding the ostrich and screaming a little. Jason was the only one who got bloody and we all kept our fingers so I guess that makes a good day of feeding ostriches. They are quick and dodgy suckers though.
Salt Lick BBQ could have been really good. I just ordered a salad. We have been eating a lot on this trip and I was nowhere near being actually hungry for lunch or well, linner as it was 4:15 but we didn’t finish up with breakfast until around 11:30 and we had eaten a big country style breakfast. I think the others were fairly pleased with their meals.
We pulled into Dallas around 9:00 and felt like we had been driving for a week. it really is hard to fit that many people in the Pilot for that long. We had a full car at 8 bodies. Nice to get out and spread out.
Laura had picked up our christmas ornaments now that they are done with the kiln. Everyone was very pleased with how theirs turned out. That was a big success! Well, Jason wished his had more yellow in it but they all looked great.
We checked back into the Wingate by Wyndham and are ready to hit the pillow.
Wednesday-
Breakfast at hotel, work out, under 10 minute mile, hang out at the house, guitar stores banjolele and ukulele shopping, quick stop at hotel, lunch at Twisted Root Burgers(Byrons new favorite burger joint), back to house, trip to Arboretum, 12 Days of Christmas displays, Ally walked backwards into pond, managed to keep her balance and only get her pants, feet and shoes wet, dinner at 9:30. Taco salad, forgot the meat in the microwave. Oops.
Thursday -Turkey trot, 3 miles, nice humid weather, sprinkles of rain, still hard. dip in the pool by Tyler and Byron. Ty duped Byron into jumping in at the same time and then didn’t jump. Lots of prep. Thanksgiving dinner at 3:45, uncle Hank joined us. Broke out a puzzle, went to the new Charlie Brown movie. Rain, rain and more rain.
Friday - Pack up, quick stop to exchange the stuff we forgot. Took back rental car, ate lunch at airport, no lines at security. Bumpy ride home, stopped through Phoenix and took Southwest. Fun trip but as is always the case with vacationing... good to be home.
