There, and back again.

If you follow our blog at all regularly, you already know about our nightmarish trip out to Dallas to visit Matt and his family. But we're happy to report that, although we may at times have felt like this:

Or this:
Once we arrived, we mostly felt like this:

(Incidentally, these are all pictures of Evelyn in her birthday present from us--a fairy outfit). You'll be pleased to know we made it back without incident--although I was half convinced the entire time that something was bound to go wrong: our flight would be delayed (worse, cancelled), our luggage would get lost, our car would be stolen when we got to the lot. In actual fact, everything went boringly as expected. Except, of course, for the snow we ran into as we neared home. Seriously. It's mid-May. Aren't we done with snow yet?

But I have to admit that cooler temperatures here meant that it was really nice in Dallas-instead of the high 80s from the week before our visit, we had days mostly in the temperate 70s (Saturday it didn't even crack 70). One of the women in church told me she was glad that they could orchestrate such nice weather for our visit. I bit my tongue and didn't explain that the same cold front that brought the nice weather also kept us in Vegas for two days.

Of course, Sunday's post to the contrary, we didn't spend all our time in Vegas at the airport (although it felt like it! When we got off the plane and walked into the same wing where we'd spent so much time fruitlessly waiting, Dan and I both had the eerie sense that maybe we'd never actually left the building . . . but we have pictures to prove we did!)

On Tuesday, before any of the flight fracas, we had lunch at Maggianos, walked down to see the pirate ships in front of Treasure Island (and took pictures, but since the kids were never a) looking at the camera or b) looking in the same direction, the pictures hardly seemed worth posting), and then went to the natural history museum. Turns out, it was a pretty nice little museum. The kids liked all of the animal displays, although they were bored in the recreation of King Tut's tomb (which was one of the most interesting parts for Dan and I). The museum also has a dinosaur room with animatronic dinosaurs. Once the kids got over being scared of the T-rex and triceratops going at each other in the entrance, I think they actually enjoyed it.

The picture here is bad, but that's a feathered raptor you see behind the kids. (They still wouldn't look at the camera at the same time--a problem we had most of the trip).


They also had a little room with some hands on activities for the kids. Here, a glass dome lets you see inside a fish tank.


Afterward, we killed time before check-in by playing at a little park behind the museum. It was perfect--not too hot, and we were the only ones there. After check-in, we went swimming with the kids in the hotel pool.


The next two days you already know most of, from the previous post. I think, in an effort to make up to the kids for the misery of spending so much time, we may have overcompensated. The kids got to ride the carousel *and* some of the quarter rides at the mall where we went to replenish our wardrobe (Andrew and Evelyn wore and slept in these same outfits for two days straight--and if you've ever seen kids eat, you'll know why that was a bad idea).

However, I suppose no one can be stranded at the airport forever, and on Friday we finally actually made it to Dallas. That first day we just hung out with Matt, Laurie, and the kids. I tried to befriend Clara and only succeeded in making her cry. (She *really* likes her mom; in consequence, she looks askance at most other adult women. I considered it a big success that, by the end of our visit, she actually let me hold her for fifteen minutes or so, as long as I didn't let her see her mom). I should add that Andrew kept pestering me to take a picture of Clara, and I didn't, because I was sure I had one--but it turns out he was right. No pictures of Clara from this trip. (This is particularly sad because she is a pretty baby). We'll have to rectify that when they come out in July.

Friday night Matt and Laurie took us to a little El Salvadorean restaurant and introduced us to pupusas--a kind of flat baked pancake-like thing with cheese (or other filling) inside it. They were really good--and they allowed us to check off one more letter on our world-cuisine tour: "N" for "Nicaraugua," whose food (so Matt tells us) is quite similar.

On Saturday, we went to the Dallas arboretum. We've heard a lot about it from Bubby and Poppy, but we wanted to see it for ourselves. It was beautiful--if a bit crowded. The day, despite the sunshine, was cool and breezy (mostly in the upper 50s). It was funny to hear people complain, though, about the cold. We also saw several brides and quinceanera candidates (I'm not sure what you actually call them) in their full formal gowns. Evelyn was entranced with a little hispanic girl who wore a pink formal gown with a full hoop skirt (clearly an attendant for a wedding or quinceanera). I also watched this same little girl fall down and then start crying because she couldn't get up unaided in those huge skirts.


In one section of the park, they had a children's garden with a pioneer theme; in addition to a covered wagon and teepee, children could explore a pioneer house and a miniature pioneer village. Evelyn thought she was in heaven--what could appeal more strongly to a domestic little girl's sensibility than a bunch of houses and dishes to play with? (If you think there are more pictures here of Evelyn than Andrew, you'd be right. The kids wandered in separate directions here--I had Evelyn and Dan had Andrew . . . and I had the camera).



As a last hurrah before we left the gardens, we let the kids play in the water at the frog fountains. (Laurie had warned us to bring dry clothes for the kids). By the time we left, the kids were all thoroughly drenched.

Sunday, of course, was church. I didn't get much out of Sunday school, because I was distracted by Clara, who was flirting shamelessly with me from the safety of her dad's arms. But I did enjoy Relief Society, where we talked about the importance of working on our talents (something I've been thinking about a lot lately and may have to post something about on my other blog). For dinner, we had turkey and mashed potatoes. I think that may have been our only home-cooked meal--not because Laurie and Matt weren't willing and able to cook, but because all of us (visitors and hosts alike) enjoyed the excuse to eat out for a change. (Well, to be fair, we did help them eat leftovers on Saturday).

On Monday, Matt took the day off of work and we all headed out to Fair Park, home of (at least) 10 different museums and the site of the Cotton Bowl stadium. (Also, apparently, the site of the Texas State Fair, which claims to be the largest state fair. Judging from the size of the complex, I'm not surprised). We bought museum passports which let us into 7 of the different on-site museums; we went to three of them: the Museum of Science and Nature (which included a children's museum); the Children's Aquarium; and the Texas Discovery Garden (a butterfly garden).

The kids loved the children's museum in the basement of the museum of science: they got to "milk" a fake cow, explore a miniature farm, learn about water flow (I think) by playing with water and ducks, crawl through a child-sized ant-hill, putter around a home, play in a sandbox, dress-up; pretend to be firemen, etc. Aside from the hordes of school groups there, I don't think the kids could have imagined anything better. (As an adult, I was bored a considerable portion of the time--although the heat sensitive screens were cool.) It was fun, though, to see the kids' excitement. Leo's enthusiasm radiates through his entire body.



The upstairs portion of the museum was much cooler--there was a pyramid shaped sorter that created a normal distribution (I had to throw that in for my parents, who would have liked it) and some cool exhibits that explained how the body works to burn energy, how DNA sequencing gets used, and what kinds of physical forces create a tornado.


After lunch, a nursing break for Laurie, and a quick trip through the Natural History portion of the Nature and Science museum (the exhibits were nicely put together, just small), we headed for the Children's Aquarium. I think this was one of the highlights of the entire trip for Andrew. There, the kids were able to touch sting rays (Andrew and I got to feed them some shrimp--a very peculiar sensation, since the rays don't actually have teeth, but they manage to snuffle the food off your hand) and handle horse-shoe crabs. We saw one of the keepers feed the moray eels, which apparently have a second set of jaws that they can thrust out to grab their prey.


Last, but not least, was the butterfly garden--an enclosed, well-heated, structure full of plants and, of course, butterflies. I usually can't take good close-ups of living animals (my children included), but I thought these pictures turned out pretty well.

Monday evening, we ordered Chinese food and Matt and Dan did themselves proud by making sure there weren't too many leftovers.

Tuesday, our final day in Dallas, we took the kids to the zoo. Matt was back at work and Laurie was watching a friend's daughter while her friend attended a funeral, so it was just us this time. The zoo was a nice one--with large habitats for the animals, and (my favorite part) a monorail ride around one of the areas with a guided tour of the animals. (The area surrounding the zoo, however, is a bit ghetto Laurie tells me; apparently, a week or so ago the entire zoo was evacuated because a robbery had taken place nearby and the criminal hopped the fence into the zoo. I'm glad she didn't tell me this until afterwards; just like I'm glad I didn't know her mother's story, about the previous owners of *our* house being held at gunpoint after robbers broke into the house, until yesterday).

We started out with the children's zoo--a playground area with exhibits for some of the smaller and more domestic animals, like this turtle.

All of the goats in the barnyard were named; we got one of the junior zoo-keepers to point out the goat named Jasper (an Eves' family name), so that we could get a picture of Evelyn petting Jasper. (Jasper, however, refused to lift his head for me, so this is all you get).


Here's Andrew in front of the condors (he'd been asking me about them earlier in the week, wondering if it was possible to see them in Utah--I thought he'd be excited to see them in person. But he doesn't look too excited here, does he?)



Tuesday night, we had dinner at Salt Grass, a big steak house place. Dan had chicken-fried steak, the kids had macaroni and cheese (Laurie and Matt marveled at how much Evelyn ate; the most they'd seen her eat all week). Matt and I both had grilled chicken (although mine also came with some coconut shrimp, which I ordered mostly for Dan, but which I tried and actually enjoyed), and Laurie had a pot roast. Very good, but I think we brought home almost half of the food in leftovers.

That night, Laurie's mom arrived, so we had a full house for one night (and lots of tired, over-excited children). And now we're back. With the heat on.

And I'm done. Whew! Are long blog posts as exhausting to read as they are to write?