Don't Mess With Texas

 Liam and Maggie got to experience their first airplane ride(s)!  We traveled to Texas March 15-19th to help celebrate a wedding.  We weren't sure how the kids would handle the plane rides, but they were champs.  We hit a little turbulence coming in to St. Louis and Liam threw his hands in the air and yelled "WHEE! It's like a roller coaster!"

 Maggie was a champ all until the last 15 minutes before Dallas.  The pressure in her ears and tiredness got the best of her and she ended up crying the whole descent.  And then kept crying in the airport.  And cried until she finally fell asleep in the rental car.  Thank goodness we had Grandma Sharon with us to help corral kids, haul luggage, and keep track of flight times/rental car arrangements.

We drove to Ft. Worth and stopped at our hotel to check in.  As we sat in the vehicle, the check engine light came on.  Then the hotel checked us into the wrong room.  Thank goodness there were food places within walking distance since it took 4 hrs to get a replacement van.  And the hotel told us we could stay in the room we had already dumped all our luggage into.  After that, we figured nothing else could go wrong--and it didn't!

 Friday we hit up Legoland.  That sounds very casual, but really it was a "make sure you buy your tickets WAY in advance" kind of thing.  I'm glad I did, because when we got in line (for our 10:30am entrance time...yes, you had to buy a ticket for a specific entry time), the man informed us that they were sold out through Monday.  And even though we had 10:30 on our tickets, we still had to wait in line and didn't get in until 11:45.  But LEGOLAND!  It was not as big or cool as I had anticipated, but the kids had fun and that's what's important.  There was even a 4-D theater!  We were blown by fans and misted by water and even snowed on while watching a 3-D movie.  Very cool. 

 They had an area with Duplos and even larger blocks for the smaller kids.

And a place where you could build and race your own racecar.

Friday evening Brian and I accompanied Liam to the chapel for the rehearsal.  We thought we'd have to be there for support in his ring bearer duties, but I guess all those talks that he and Brian had about it being just like Luke, Han & Chewbacca walking up to receive their medals at the end of A New Hope (Episode IV) paid off.  The wedding coordinator called Luke...er...Liam up, told him what to do, and he did it perfectly on his own.  And when the flower girl showed up, obviously nervous, he held her hand and walked down the aisle with her to show her how it's done.  It was too precious!

Saturday morning we joined Brian's cousin Alexis and her family at the zoo.  It was within walking distance of our hotel, which was good because the parking lot was PACKED.  It was such a nice zoo, and we had beautiful weather for it.

How handsome is this guy?!  I actually teared up when he walked down the aisle it was so cute!  And what a lovely wedding!  I wish Charles and Danielle all the happiness in the world!  They're a beautiful couple and I can't wait to see what the future holds for them.  The best thing about this picture is it shows off the pillow Liam carried.  That pillow is the same pillow that Brian carried when he was the ring bearer in Charles' parents' wedding.  How cool is that??

Best picture ever!!

These two were complete hams the entire night.  Maggie was out on the dance floor half the night.  The other half was spent in the photo booth.  I like this new trend of having a photo booth for people to take goofy pictures.  I think the kids went through 5 times!

Sunday we hit up the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History.  I had picked it because it had a children's museum inside, but boy was it way more than that!  We actually didn't even make it into the children's museum part because the rest of the place was so darn cool!  We visited an exhibit called Grossology where one can learn about farts and burps and snot, climb an acne wall, go down an esophagus slide into a stomach and climb out a rectum...you get the picture.  Then there was the science part where we learned how a tornado is formed, built a marble track, made and flew paper airplanes, etc.  I highly recommend it to anyone--what a cool place!  Plus, we got in free with our membership to Morrill Hall here in town!

Sunday evening was dinner with more family--it was a blast.  I am so lucky to have such wonderful in-laws!  We stayed with Liz and Charlie Sunday night.  It's shame we don't get to see them more often.  Liam is already planning a return trip, though!

The return flights were a little more hectic, as our flight out of Dallas was delayed by an hour.  Thankfully we avoided storms and tornadoes as we left Texas, and our layover in St. Louis allowed for a delay, so we arrived back in Omaha as expected.  In order to help Maggie with the pressure, we fed her fruit snacks and strips of fruit rollups on each flight during take-off and decent.  We would say "yawn, Maggie!" and she would open her mouth wide and tilt her head back as we dropped a snack in.  It was like feeding a little bird.

All in all, a great trip.  Can't wait to do another one!