Ingram the Conqueror: Friday and Saturday March 8th and 9th, Spring Break Begins!!

So we decided at 1:30pm Friday that we would leave for G-Mommy and G-Daddy's house outside of Houston Texas for Spring Break at 3:30pm...and we hadn't packed at all! We went into hyper-speed mode to pack for a whole week in both cold and warm temperatures for the fours of us (Madison, Lindsey, Ingram, and myself)and just a couple days for Daddy. We were so excited that Daddy was driving down to Texas with us, but so sad that he had to go back home to work Sunday night. But...having Daddy in the car with us for over 10 hours was a huge bonus and a super fun time once we left! We ended up leaving at 4pm which is pretty good considering that I only had 2 hours notice to pack. We made it out of town in record time after dropping off Craig's car at the airport; he had to return to work in Memphis on Monday and has a one way flight Sunday night (by the way...Booooo!) and would need a way back to the house Sunday night.

The kids were totally wild in the car from the beginning and we knew that it was going to be a fun trip. They watched "Wreck-It Ralph" for the first time and a couple other movies from Memphis to Texarkana where we made our first stop. Yes, if you have been this way, you know that's a major feat; when we finally stopped, all the kids ran to the bathroom "100" fast as Ingram said before they even asked about dinner at almost 9pm! We have a running joke/tradition that Daddy will use his find a Dairy Queen restaurant and that's how he bases his stops; he learned long ago that the trip is about the journey instead of about the destination, and we gladly give him his little indulgence of a Double Reese's Peanut Butter Blizzard every time to keep him our little happy driver! After our HOUR LONG STOP (major travel faux pas according to the Dismuke family travel guide), we both realized that we weren't going to be able to finish out the rest of the trip during the night. We found a hotel along the way even though all three of the kids were sound asleep in the car; we were a little worried that if we didn't stop, we might have 5 people sound asleep in the car and that wouldn't be good! We carried Ingram from the car to the hotel room and even changed his clothes while he stayed asleep. The girls thought it was funny and of course kept trying to wake him up to no avail.

In the morning we got our favorite hotel breakfast of hot waffles then started the second half of our journey home. We made it to G-Mommy and G-Daddy's house just in time to play outside before we had to get showered and ready for dinner at our favorite restaurant in Houston, the Taste of Texas. Ingram taught G-Daddy how to play T-Ball in the backyard with the wind blowing and the girls made chocolate fondue with G-Mommy in the kitchen for pretzels, strawberries, marshmallows, etc. Craig and I went for a short run to get all the aches and pains of traveling two days in the car out, but the humidity level added to the car ride made for a terrible run. The kids didn't have as much sleep as they needed in the past couple days and by the time we were at the restaurant waiting on our food, Ingram just couldn't stay awake any longer! That little stinker starting falling asleep at the table with his arm propping his head up while he was eating his roll. Then he dropped the roll, gave up, folded his arms across the table, and put his head down to sleep. A few minutes later our food came and he woke up to eat at least we thought he did; after one bite of his chicken, he gave up again and this time laid out in G-Daddy's lap and slept while we all ate our dinner. After his 30 minute power nap and being passed around from G-Daddy to Daddy and back to G-Daddy, he woke up like the Energizer Bunny and was ready to play more baseball at the house. But we had other ideas for after dinner than the kids!

One of the treats of being in Texas is getting new Cowboy and Cowgirl boots at Cavender's Boot City! We know you can get boots anywhere, but getting boots in Texas during Rodeo month is pretty cool. We've been doing it ever since the girls were able to walk and Ingram got his first and only pair on our last Texas trip November of 2011. The kids had all outgrown their boots from that trip and had been begging for new ones. We headed to Cavender's after dinner and within 15 minutes the kids had their boots all picked out and were ready to leave. But instead of leaving, Craig headed to the Women's section and was determined to find a pair for me. The last time we were here, I tried for almost two hours but couldn't find a pair of boots that fit right but at least we had the rest of tonight to find my pair. And the rest of the night it took!! I tried on a ton of boots and had it narrowed down to four pair that I liked but I was looking for the pair that "made my feet happy" as G-Mommy said. We finally made it out at 10pm after getting to 7:15pm...yes, we spent over 2 and a half hours looking for one pair of boots. I know it was totally crazy, but purchasing my very first pair of boots at the age of 37 is a big decision and I wanted them to be just perfect! The only down side of my first pair of boots is that they were out of them in my size in our store, but our sweet gal found them in another store were in another town and they are being shipped over just for me!