SWEET DAYS

All I can tell you is grab a cup of coffee, a glass of wine, or read this in parts.  For some reason I cannot do a short post. 
Just when I think I will only post a few pictures I remember I am doing this to record life. 
And life is more than a few pictures. I envy those bloggers that can post daily and do short posts.  It just does not work for me. 
When I signed off last we were in Dallas dropping Parker off for his Washington D C trip. 
Guess what?  We were still there 12 days later.  It was one of the cheapest (as vacations go) most fun vacations we have done in a long time. 
We had no agenda.  We had a five star hotel for under $50 a night. 

I am a Priceline junkie and this was one of my better deals. 
A few days after Parker left, Amanda and Jack decided to come to Dallas while Micah was on a business trip. 
She stayed a few days and we shopped and had fun with Jack and then we all surprised Parker at the airport. 
He had a wonderful trip and many stories…but I can’t say much for his pictures.  The event coordinator sent us an email each day loaded with pictures of what the kids did the day before, so we did know what they were doing and could find Parker everyday.

We are so glad that he had the opportunity to go and now he is an alumni and is already invited to Boston next summer. For some reason a 5th grade alumni is funny to me.

Amanda headed home the next day to work on school work and we decided to spend another four days of fun with the boys.

We spent an entire day at LEGOLAND and ended that day with a fun meal at the Rainforest Cafe…(almost made us feel close to the Mouse) 

Below are just some snapshots from the week and I could write a story to go with each one. I won’t! PROMISE!


Jack told me he  just liked band aids…no reason for one




Parker arriving at DFW to his little buddy!




Jack and his mom having a little IPAD time!


Sometimes only a Diet Coke will do!


Woody and Woody waiting on Parker to come through the gate



Imagination at its BEST!



Enough said!



JUST HAPPY!




LEGOLAND  LOOT




Wonder what he is thinking?



Decisions, decisions….I want one of each….and then he remembered he was with “the grandparents”!  no problem



A Great 3D movie at LEGOLAND



We headed back to the hotel to watch the basketball finals. What a great series between the Heat and the Mavericks.  We had spent the entire week in Maverick land. 

The city of Dallas was electric.

So we spent the entire 12 days sleeping, swimming, eating at new places…a little shopping, renting movies, and planning everyday doing whatever sounded like fun. 
Some days it was just staying at the hotel.
 
Amanda got a chance to have some Mom time at the Galleria shopping, getting a manicure and pedicure..she has been studying so hard that we are always happy when we can give her some free time.  this is a funny picture below.
 
In and Out Burgers has opened in Dallas and the wait even in the drive thru was 40 minutes.  This was Jacks opinion of that and who wanted a stupid hat anyway.




The last part of our trip was one of the most special. 

We decided to drive an hour out of the way and stop at the hotel where Jack had his stroke.
We wanted the boys to have a chance to say “thanks for saving our Pop”! 

I went in first to see if the lady that went to his room and told me something told her to get the door down…someone needed help and needed it now, was at work.

When I walked in I immediately knew the sweet girl at the front.
She had greeted Amanda and me many nights after long days at the hospital wanting to know how Jack was doing. 
She said Priscilla was off but the manager was there.
He had also been there and came out to talk to the kids.
 
Parker was so grown up when he walked over and shook his hand and said “thanks”! 

Talk about a Kodak moment.
Then the receptionist came out of the back and  said she had called Priscilla and she wanted us to wait.  She was on her way to the hotel. 

She walked in and literally embraced Jack for what seemed like an hour.  The last time she had seen him he was very close to death. What a sweet reunion. 
I got a few pictures through the tears.
 









We are now back home.  It is so hot here that I have to have a good reason to leave the house. 
I have several sites I want you to visit.
First my head elf, Terri, has opened an ETSY shop.  She has some great things.  I am hoping she will do a post on the holiday blog next week. 
The name is MilandDil Designs.
 
Also stop by this great new blog, Vicki’s Foodies, especially if you are doing Weight Watchers.

These two blogs are prayer requests….
Paige’s Petals
and then what may be a new blog to you…
Amie Hayes Dockery
She is a someone I know thru some friends.  She is a young Mom, a gifted writer, a pastor in Dallas and another example that life changes in a moment.
If you are still with me you are a trooper. Woody aka Jack says thanks for reading to the end.

OUR SNOW GET AWAY

These pictures will paint a small picture of our week in the snow. Thursday morning found us leaving on a jet plane. Can I tell you for our family to get through security, with stroller, carry-on luggage, computers, all get our jewelry and shoes back on, with no major break-downs, is what we consider a small MIRACLE! Parker is keeping Jack occupied with his DS while we buy water and coffee that we just had to throw away. As you can see Parker is in his Brett Farve gear, as we left with hopes of a win...The pictures below that are very self explanatory. Do whatever it takes to KEEP JACK HAPPY!

JACK IS FINALLY COMFORTABLE, NOW HIS MOM CAN READ.

We arrived at the VAIL/EAGLE airport to a SUBURBAN WAITING FOR US, COMPLIMENTS OF A FRIEND. WHAT A

BLESSING!!

WE drove for about 40 minutes to FRISCO and arrived at a wonderful MOUNTAIN HOME, compliments of some DEAR FRIENDS who live here in our town, but have a second home in Colorado. Thank you JOE and JAN. We loved your home. It was 3 stories and 4 if you count the loft! PARKER promptly claimed the LOFT as his own little HOME away from HOME! In another post I will show you the entire house, but here are a few shots of the bedrooms...you can tell that Jan is an interior decorator in Shreveport. She has impeccable taste.

This was the MASTER BEDROOM. THEY had just been there the week before so left this CUTE little BOOK on the bed.

Every room had its on charm with little touches that were so Jan! Great sheets and down comforters. We felt like we were at home.

WE stayed up late every night playing cards, watched football all day on Sunday, soaked in the beautiful scenery and saw lots of strange looking people at Safeway. The ski community is definitely a different bunch. I could have stayed in Starbucks for hours people watching.

JACK and PARKER'S FIRST OUTING in the SNOW. We were so thankful that it snowed almost everyday we were there.

PARKER is THE BEST BIG BROTHER AND JACK THINKS HE HUNG THE MOON...and I AM PRETTY SURE HE DID!

OUR VIEW

PARKER AFTER A HARD DAY SNOWBOARDING

THIS PICTURE IS SO JACK. HE FOUND THESE BEADS IN THE SUBURBAN and WOULD NOT TAKE THEM OFF.

ONE OF OUR FAVORITE MEALS AT ROUTE 6

AMANDA and HER LITTLE MAN

BEAUTIFUL VAIL VILLAGE at NIGHT...We had a WONDERFUL MEAL AT THE ORE HOUSE! NEVER TRUST A GPS in THE MOUNTAINS. A TRIP THAT SHOULD HAVE TAKEN 30 MINUTES, TOOK US THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS and TOOK 2 HOURS on VERY SCARY ROADS.

During the seven days we were on our trip we had some great meals out, but Micah and Amanda cooked some fantastic meals at the house. They are quite a TEAM in the kitchen. Amanda and I got to do a SPA DAY in downtown FRISCO at the neatest little spa. That's a post for another day. AND YES, I BOUGHT a NEW CAMERA and DID NOT USE IT ONCE. I just realized there is not one picture of me or of JACK (POP)! Guess that was because we always had the camera. I had planned to read the instructions to the new camera on the plane and that did not happen. Then after the first day of ALTITUDE sickness and a GIANT HEADACHE, I just never fooled with it...It was too easy to just use what I knew. So next trip, BETTER PICTURES. Our trip home was a little more hectic as we had to wait at the gate in Houston for 45 minutes until another plane moved and we came within a minute of missing our connection home. The door was already closed, but a very nice guy saw that we were not happy and let us on. Let's just say that the last hour of our trip, Jack was the kid that you did not want sitting close to you. He was not HAPPY and wanted EVERYONE to know IT!

HEADING FOR SNOW and HOPING FOR ANOTHER WIN

This may be my only post for a few days. I am getting ready to board Bella with the Zoo Keeper, making notes for the house sitter, packing, repacking, weighing the luggage, weighing it again, (knowing that I have over packed but cannot help myself), last minute errands, nails, hair, and on and on.

No matter how early I start getting my do to list done for a trip, IT ALWAYS GROWS. I am SO looking forward to a week of family, fun, snow and some football. I am feeling sad that Dana,Greg and their boys will not be making this trip with us. Hopefully we can all go on a fall trip when Grayson is a little older. They used all their vacation when he was in the NICU this past summer.


This is a HUGE football weekend. I don't have to tell you that last Sunday was "OH HAPPY DAY" at our house. A couple of people in my family are a little conflicted since the Vikings are playing the Saints. That would NOT BE ME! No conflict here. I want the 40 year 103 day old QB to WIN and head to Miami. I loved it that the ticker kept running his age down to the days, on Sunday. BRETT FAVRE, 40 years and 100 days. I still find that funny. So Sunday will find us watching the games, eating great food and loving our time in Colorado. Snow is predicted for Sunday, so that will just add to the excitement for the day.

Brett has given us so many FOOTBALL THRILLS over the past 18 years! I don't know another player that plays with as much excitement and love for the game. He is JUST GOOD FOR THE GAME. If you are not a football fan, just indulge me.
We are a FOOTBALL FAMILY!
I did get a new camera so hope I have better pictures. If NOT, the camera will go back. I need to get it all set up tomorrow on the plane and read the instructions. Nothing like last minute.
Just in case you are feeling deprived of pictures of Jack. Both boys spent the night last night, but Parker was asleep when I thought to make some pictures. Below is Jack pondering his up coming vacation and whether he plans to be nice on the plane. We have a portable DVD player, new DVD's and prayer. This is his last week to FLY FREE. I assigned him to his Dad's seat, but have a feeling we will all get a turn.
HE CAN BE SO SERIOUS
HE STEALS MY HEART EVERY TIME!

An Award from ONE of My FAVORITE BLOGGING BUDDIES PLUS I NEED SOME HELP FROM MY FRIENDS!

I Rarely Do Awards.....Not sure why, except that I am a bit embarrassed to get an award for sharing a little of my life... I always feel blessed to receive them...BUT THIS ONE came from one of my BEST BLOG BUDDIES. It was a very nice surprise to be honored with an award from ....Kat at Just a Beachkat. After reading her blog for so long, I finally jumped in, so her blog probably is the real reason I blog today.....The Honest Scrap award is to share "10 HONEST Things " about myself! Like Kat, I feel like I've shared everything about me with you already. I am really a VERY normal person, with a very normal family...BUT, I will give it a try.

1. Honestly I feel tired just thinking about all the trees I have to decorate.
2. Honestly I HATE exercise. (I keep hoping Kat will rub off on me)
3. Honestly I love the RESULTS of any deep cleaning project and right now my closet is in BAD NEED.
4. Honestly I am ALWAYS planning the next Disney trip.
5. Honestly I always love a day that I never have to leave the house.
6. Honestly I can count on one hand the times I have not made the bed in all our married life.
7. Honestly I wish there were more hours in the day.
8. Honestly I cannot go to bed at night until I take a HOT bath.
9. Honestly I start feeling depressed near the end of football season
10. Honestly I would rather rock a baby, especially one of my grandsons, more than anything in the world. They have ROCKED my WORLD.

Thanks Kat for the award....I pass this award on to all my blogging buddies. You are SPECIAL!

Now I need some help from you. I am planning a family trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming right after Christmas. This is an area where I have never been, so I need tips on lodging, restaurants, "fun don't miss activities", anything you can tell me that will help me plan the trip.. And if you EVER need Disney advice, just email me...My kids call me a Disney encyclopedia. So, I will look forward to some emails helping me plan this trip. Email me at annah99@aol.com ....(that email address confuses people, but Annah was our cocker spaniel for 17 years) I know some of you are fans of Jackson Hole....Help me out!

OK, lets have a GIVEWAY! I have had several giveaways on the Christmas blog...You were my first blog friends so I don't want to leave you out.... I will draw for this collection...a set of holiday file folders (so cute), matching notepad and the Christmas Cookie Book! I will get Parker to draw on Sunday night. All you have to do is leave a comment on this blog, on THIS post, telling me you sent a new friend to the Christmas blog.