family dallas trip: day 1.

it's only taken me a month, but i'm finally getting around to posting about the family trip we took to dallas at the end of summer.  haley has never been out of the state of oklahoma, except to visit our aunt who used to live in arkansas. 

haley has stayed pretty busy babysitting for the loves and the leaches this summer, and my travel schedule at work has picked up quite a bit. still, we knew we wanted to get her out of town for a bit, even if we couldn't go for an entire week.

july 25th was a thursday.  haley spent the day babysitting for the loves in barlesville.  we picked her up right after work and headed to the tulsa airport to pick up a rental car.  travis and i had taken the next day off work, so we were going to have a three-day weekend.  instead of using one of those days for driving, we had decided we would drive down on thursday night so we would have all day friday and saturday for activities and part of the day sunday before heading home.  the rental car took a little bit longer to get than we had originally anticipated.  with the plan i have, we can usually get out, pick a car from the aisle, and head on out ... but the tulsa airport was beebopping-showstopping, so we had to wait for one to be cleaned and available.  i grabbed the car and haley and travis headed out ahead of me.  we got to the house and travis and i quickly packed, said good bye to the boys (my mom and sierra helped watch them at the house while we were gone - and then took them to tahlequah and muskogee later in the weekend), loaded up the car, and away we went. 

the drive to dalls from tulsa isn't really all that bad.  we had spotify to keep us company, and i created a fun playlist for our dallas trip.  sometimes almost always, when we get in the car, haley puts in headphones, so i tried to make sure it was a fun mix of songs we would all like.  i even included some one direction songs.

when we drove through durant, haley could see flashing lights in the distance.  she asked what was glowing in the sky.  it kind of cracked me up, because what was glowing in the sky was actually the casino.  (ignore the terrible quality of this picture).

when we got into dallas, we actually hit traffic.  haley was outraged.  what the heck? seriously? traffic at this time?? we explained that texas does all their road construction at night.  the trip definitely wasn't bad, but the last forty-five minutes of the trip i was definitely counting down the minutes until i could crawl into a nice cozy bed.

i wanted to stay at the omni dallas (the hotel that plays in the opening credits of dallas, the show), but they were completely full. so we stayed at the omni mandalay hotel instead. (also in dallas).

now, there are a few perks that come with travel as frequent as mine.  i had earned three free nights with omni because i've stayed with them so much, so our hotel room for the weekend was completely covered -- and we were able to upgrade to a suite for no additional cost.  (yay for free suites for a whole weekend!)

when we finally got to our hotel at a little after midnight this was waiting for us. 

we didn't spend too much time enjoying it, though, because we were all completely wiped out.  we quickly found our pajamas and toothbrushes and started getting ready for bed.

while i was changing, travis tried to make up the sofa bed for haley.  turned out there was no bed in the sofa.  we looked and looked, but there was definitely not a bed ... and there was no other furniture in the room that turned into a bed.  i felt terrible.  haley said she didn't mind sleeping on the couch, so we promised we would get it fixed in the morning, and all headed to dreamland.

flying to houston.

there was an incredible wall cloud that we had to fly around tonight on our way to houston.  the pilot called the flight attendant up to the cockpit to point it out to her.  

i never grow tired of seeing this sort of thing. 

we flew a "C" around the storm and then straight on to houston.  the sky opened up quite a bit once we were around it.  i love when we see wall clouds like that.  this particular one went up higher than 60,000 ft!  pretty incredible.  and since we fly so far around, we can enjoy the view without all the turbulence. 

headed home: mexico vacation day 7.

the 5th was our last day of vacation.  big storms rolled in last night {to the point that i was a little nervous we were so close to the ocean}.  it was still rainy and gray in the morning.  we packed and then went to breakfast with nick while kate stayed in the room.  i wish i had taken my camera with us because the storm had done so much damage to all of the thatched roofs.  i can't imagine what the upkeep must be like on all the buildings during this tropical storm season.  the lobby entrance is so impressive, but i was never able to capture a picture that did it justice. 

after breakfast travis and i just watched movies in the room until it was time to go to the lobby to catch our ride to the airport.  it was while we were waiting that i discovered they offered free wi-fi in their lobby. what?? how did i not know this all week?  i would have kept myself entertained in the lobby on some of the rainy afternoons.  ah, well.  a week unplugged was good for me.   

we snapped a few last  shots in front of the airport before heading off on a two hour drive to the airport.  as we were pulling away from the resort, i was able to get a few pictures on my phone of some of the damage from the storm.  they're a little blurry since we were driving.

our ride actually turned out to be a little shorter because there were no other pick-ups on our way in.  it was kind of nice just the four of us.  but also a little nerve-racking because there were militia-style police everywhere.  they had automatic weapons strapped around them and in the backs of their trucks, manned. 
  
we grabbed lunch at margarittaville in the cancun airport.  nick and kate ordered large beers, and they don't joke around in margarittaville. check out the size of these bad boys.

these are the last two pictures from our vacation.  after our lunch, we headed over to buy last minute souvenirs and snacks for the trip home.  kate purchased some organic gum ... and the four of us decided we're just not that green yet. 

dallas to tulsa was our last leg of the trip. we had appetizers at TGI fridays in the airport.  when we first booked the trip we wanted to make the most of our last day on vacation {not knowing it would be rainy}, so we got home pretty late.  haley was still staying in muskogee so we didn't have to worry about picking her up late or anything like that. 

our time away was fun, but travis and i were both excited to get back to our own bed.  

now i'm looking forward to planning our next trip ...

last full day: mexico vacation day 6.

the 4th was our last full day in mexico.  my migraine from the night before was still hanging on strong. and my sweet boy was experiencing crohn's in full force.  we make quite the pair, don't we?

eventually travis felt like he could get up and walk.  he needed food to eat with his medicine, so he and nick headed to the cafeteria while kate and i slept in.  travis brought some breakfast back to the room for me and i took more medicine.  travis's food and medicine didn't help him much so he ended up in bed again.

guess what.  it was sunshiney!  but now we were in bed like a bunch of frail, old patients.

i stayed in bed until around lunch time when i started to finally feel better.  i went and grabbed lunch by myself in the cafeteria.  i sat by an open window and enjoyed the sunshine.  i went back to the room and checked on travis.  he was still resting, but was feeling a little better.  we both took another nap.

a few hours later nick and kate stopped by from the beach.  we join them for another lunch -- well, it was my second lunch, but travis's first -- and then we all went to the beach after.

kate and i read while travis and nick laid in the chairs next to us for a while.  travis had to head back in because he wasn't feeling too well.  nick and kate finally pulled out the paddle ball kate and i had purchased earlier in the week.  they played for a while and it was fun to watch them laughing and having such a good time.  then the sun started to hide, so it turned a little chilly.  it looked like more storms were moving in.   kate and i got in the water for a little bit to try to warm up {weird when the ocean water is warmer than sitting on the beach}.   when travis came back out to the beach, i was lying under my towel like it was a blanket, finishing the last of lean in. 

we could tell the skies were really getting ready to open up, so we decided to head back in.  travis and i took warm showers ... and promptly fell asleep at 5:30 in the afternoon.  just sign us up for the retirement home. sounds like we would fit right in.  we had dinner in the cafeteria and drinks in the cabana bar, but no one felt like staying out late.  i felt kind of bad because it was our last night of vacation, and we were all headed back to the room at a pretty early hour.  everyone was tired, though, so staying up would have just ended up making us all miserable.

i'm still so grateful that travis and i were able to take this trip away, even if everything wasn't picture perfect.  we're blessed to be able to get away, especially with everything that as been going on over the past few months.  and we have awesome, awesome friends to share these adventures with. 

monday, monday: mexico vacation day 5.

how do the lyrics go? monday, monday.  can't trust that day ... 

so last monday we woke to more rain. i was feeling pretty puny, but didn't want to spend our entire tropical vacation indoors.  we grabbed breakfast, but didn't bother getting dressed in any of our cute vacation outfits. so, naturally we ran into the photographer who wanted to shoot us with the toucan.  nick and travis didn't snag a shot with the bird, but kate and i did.  i love her picture!

we decided to head out to the shops just inside the gates of the resort.  we'd heard rumor of a pharmacy there.  so we grabbed our handy, dandy umbrellas {did i mention one of them was broken}, grabbed a shuttle, and rode down to the shops.  there were little huts set up, but then there were gates into a square with actual shops.   we walked around, but several of us weren't feeling too swell.  we had to dash through the rain sometimes to get from one store to the next.  we did finally find the pharmacy, but i wasn't willing to pay the price for the antibiotic, so we moved on along to the next store.  we found another shop that had groceries.  they also had halls cough drops, so i grabbed a couple packs of those and prayed they would soothe my burning throat.

it looked like the weather might clear up after a while, so we headed back to the rooms, put our suits on under our clothes, and headed out to look for lunch.  it turns out that we ate a lot on this trip.  we started living for our next meal ... which really wasn't all that appealing to me or kate.  but it was what we had to do. so we did.

we found a really fun outdoor snack bar, so we parked it for a bit and had lunch there.  it was completely covered, but was wide-open all the way around, so we had refuge from the rain, but could still enjoy the fresh air.

i wish so badly i had a picture of it, but there are the cutest little animals on the resort.  they look like part deer {face}, part racoon {body} and they hop like a bunny!  we saw them all over the place.  while we were eating lunch one of them started sneaking up on the east side of the building.  it saw the worker and slowly eeked backward. it snuck around to the north side of the building and had almost made it to a table with leftover food when the woman turned around and caught him.  or maybe it was a her now that i think about it, because the woman said, "no, shoo chicka. shoo."  she talked to the animal as if it was a pet though, so somehow i don't think it was the little girl's first time to take food from the snack bar.  we had so much fun watching her.

after lunch we headed on down the beach and found another bar similar to the one by our rooms that we'd sat in several times.  we  stopped in there and played spades for a while.  we were getting a little stir-crazy being trapped inside, but just tried to make the best of the time.  it was incredibly nice to be away from work, not checking emails, etc.

the rain did finally stop, so we decided to take our chances and went back out.  it was a little cooler, but we had seen several jacuzzi bars on the map, so we thought we'd sit for a while in one of those.  and maybe we wouldn't even mind the rain if it came again, as long as it wasn't lightening.  it turned out there was a jacuzzi bar just around the corner from us.  it also turned out that jacuzzi just means "bubbles." there was no warm water in any of the jacuzzis we found.  we did have a fun laugh about it, though. we finally just headed into the

this was the night we celebrated my birthday ... and somehow i got zero pictures on my camera or my phone.  we ate at a really fun hibatchi grill.  they lit up the entire bar all the way around!  i've seen grills light the volcano of onions and even do other things on the grill {which this guy did}, but after all our plates of food were ready and he had them sitting on the bar, he lit a trail of fire from one plate to the next.  we were impressed!  i was really glad we all liked the food here the best of all the restaurants we tried since it was supposed to be for my birthday.  and there was no embarrassing singing. just travis, nick, and kate singing softly when they brought my dessert.  the rest of the table looked, but nobody joined it.  it kind of made me laugh.

dinner was great, but by the end of our golf cart shuttle ride back to the room, i started feeling awful.  i got a headache that just exploded and a bout of nausea to go along with it.  i felt terrible because nick and kate were asking if we wanted to stay up and play cards or anything, but i couldn't find a bed fast enough.  i jumped in a burning hot shower and fell into bed.