Family Staycation

Jason got an extra week of vacation because of how crazy busy season was, so this week we had a family staycation! Here are some of the things we did...

Train Ride and Lunch in Downtown Dallas:

This was Callie's and Madison's first train ride! Madison slept in her car seat the whole time, but Callie really enjoyed it.

Then we had lunch in the Plaza of the Americas. Callie got a Happy Meal while enjoying watching the ice skating and the glass elevators going up and down.

Ward Halloween Party:

This was the best we could do to get a picture of Callie in her costume. She was a princess. Her tiara broke a day or two before (I think I was more upset about it than she was).

A few hours before the party, Callie woke up from her nap really grouchy. She didn't want to dress up, eat dinner, take pictures, or go to the party. She did finally come around, so we went to the party, but she didn't last long enough to do the trunk-or-treating. It was sort of a bust, but oh well. I've learned that toddlers just won't always cooperate, no matter how fun you think something will be for them.

Visit to Whiterock Lake:

We live close to Whiterock Lake, but hadn't seen it since moving here. We played on the playground and then checked out the lake.

 Fort Worth Zoo:
We visited the zoo on Halloween, so the girls wore Halloween shirts. We had a great time at the zoo. It was so fun to show Callie all of the animals she sees in her books and to see her reactions to things.

Madison was a trooper. She slept, played, relaxed, and only cried for a few minutes the whole 3 hours we were there.

We didn't take Callie trick-or-treating that night, because they don't really do trick-or-treating in our community of apartments and I'm pretty sure Callie would have been too shy/scared to do it. Maybe next year.

Date
For the first time in months and months, Jason and I went on a date--just the two of us. My good friend and neighbor came over to be with the girls while they took their naps. We went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch, and then we did some Christmas shopping for Callie. We even held hands!! We don't get to do that very often since we're always holding children and pushing carts/strollers. We felt young and carefree. It was a really nice break.

Neighborhood Searching
We've done this many other times over the past few months. It's pretty fun. We pack up the kids and some lunch and drive to cities within a reasonable distance to look at neighborhoods, trying to find places we'd like to buy a house in the future.

Other than the things I've already mentioned, we played games, watched movies, went on daily walks, slept in (until around 7:30 or 8:00 most mornings!!!), ate pancake breakfasts, and thoroughly enjoyed each others' company.