Camille and Brandon come visit

Right after getting home from all of our trips, we got to have some visitors come extend our vacation time, haha. Since we had them here for four days, we got a good excuse to do sightseeing and fun stuff that we might not usually do on our own. We had a GREAT time with them visiting, and Dane got used to having Camille and Brandon sleeping in the living room and coming out to surprise them every morning. He loooves them (especially Brandon--he's still got his thing for the men in his life) and he was sad to say good-bye. They were good sports and we had fun going around the Dallas-Fort Worth area doing some fun stuff together. Unfortunately, Tommy had to work most of the time they were here, but he got to hang out with us in the evenings and play TICKET TO RIDE with us every night. (We had several tournaments.)

One of the big things we did was heading to downtown Dallas. We drove past the place where JFK was shot (but it was raining and there was no parking and we didn't really feel like getting out) and then headed to the science museum downtown. It is ridiculous how much it cost to get in there, but we had a good time there and Dane LOVED seeing the dinosaurs and animals. It's definitely aimed at an older crowd than Dane, but he still had fun.

We (stupidly) paid extra to go to this dinosaur exhibit, which was tiny and not worth our time except for this cute little archaeological dig for the kids to play in. Dane had a blast and loved wearing the goggles. He kept saying, "Mommy, I goggles."

One of Dane's favorite animals--the ibex!

Then after the museum, we walked (with some unintentional detours) to Klyde Warren Park, where there were food trucks and some splash pads for Dane to run around in. He was IN HEAVEN. This boy is such a water bug. He would get his whole face covered in the spray and he would just stand there and laugh. He could have stayed there all day (but we left to get him home for a nap after about an hour, haha).

Another day, we drove to Forth Worth to go to the Stockyards. It's the place where most of the cattle came through in the good old days, and at the highest point they had some 5 million cattle come through there in a year (or maybe even more). And now they are down to some 15 cattle that they use for their twice-daily tourist cattle drive. Amazing how things change. But it's got this little street with old-timey stores and several museums and animals you can go see. It was a very Texas touristy thing to do and I was glad we could all go so we could see it!

Dane loved petting the horses.

Dane just riding on a bull. (We had to pay $5 for this picture, although I didn't realize it at the time. . . Oh well.)

Oh man, SO CUTE.

Waiting for the cattle drive...

 Dane was so enthralled by the cows!

And then we hung out closer to home a few days. Dane loved all the extra attention he was getting from his friends. 

One of the nights was 1/2 off cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory, so we braved the lines and each got a piece. (Best choice: 'Smores!)

We ate a delicious, DELICIOUS chicken dinner at Babe's with the Myres family. There was a point where they started playing the hokey-pokey and had everyone who would get up and join them. Dane was terrified (for some reason... would not stop clinging to Tommy) but everyone else had a good time.

We got a good one of everyone on Kristin's phone--I just need to get it from her!

 We went to Costco one morning and ate Costco hot dogs for lunch there. Dane ate a whole one by himself. 

He loved playing hide-and-seek with Camille. He's not very subtle. 

After they left, we had to really, finally, truly come back down to earth and get down to the business of actually living here in Texas and starting to get a routine down. It's hard, but it must be done. Can't be on vacation forever!