Trip to Dallas

 I took this past Friday off and we went up to Dallas for a three-day.  Of course, when I say we went to Dallas, I don't think we actually entered the Dallas city limits.  We were pretty much confined to Arlington and then drove some through Fort Worth.  But you know what I mean!  The main purpose of the trip was to go see a Rangers game and check another ballpark off my list.  We invited our friends, the Dummars, and I can officially say that great food was eaten, funny stories were told, and good times were had by all.  Here we are in front of Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, just to prove we made it.

 

  

  

The drive was a little long, but Caleb and Carter were well-prepared and well-fortified.

 

 The hotel had a great pool.  Luckily, they had no problems with our European ways.

We had a trolley adventure on the way to the stadium.  It was a little cramped, but the kids liked it.

 I was hoping to get a picture of the field that included our family, but our seats ended up being the second row from the top.  So, you just get a picture of the field instead.  The game was against the Tigers and it was sold out.  It was a good game to go to.

 Yes, that is the top of the stadium right behind us.  But the view didn't diminish our enjoyment one bit!  At least not Caleb's enjoyment.  And doesn't Lorein look pretty with her windswept hair?

On the drive home, we made a spontaneous stop at the Dr. Pepper Museum in Waco.  It was a little underwhelming, but I still enjoyed it.  The museum is housed in the original bottling plant from the late 1800's, so you don't get to see any active bottling, which is where our disappointment stemmed from.  They did have the old bottling and bottle cleaning machines, so that was cool.  It was also interesting to learn Dr. Pepper's origin story.  It was just a soda jerk in Waco who enjoyed mixing syrups together and hit upon a delicious formula.  So, when Dr. Pepper markets its 23 flavors, it's really true; as Lorein pointed out, Dr. Pepper is the original suicide soda.  I also learned that Dr. Pepper was originally caffeine free, and they marketed it as a healthy alternative to other sodas.  The museum didn't specify when or why caffeine was later added.  The best part of the museum was the old-style soda fountain.  We got a rootbeer float and some Dr. Pepper.  There was an honest-to-goodness soda jerk who would pour the syrup into a cup and then fill it with spritzer.  It was neat and tasted REALLY good.  The boys also really liked the old delivery truck.  Carter took that last picture, which I think is quite impressive.  It's good.

Lorein's 29th birthday party

Last week was Lorein's 29th birthday.  For the first time in awhile, I knew exactly what to get her.  Costco has had mountain bikes for sale for a couple months.  Every time we would go (and we go to Costco A LOT!), Lorein would talk about how much she wanted a bike.  Then, the Sunday before her birthday, we borrowed our neighbors' bikes and went on a short ride around post.  Lorein kept talking about how great it was and how she couldn't wait to get her own bike.  Completely clued in, I left for lunch a little early on Monday, drove to Costco, and bought her a bike.  I left it in the bed of the truck and locked the tailgate and bed cover so she couldn't happen upon it without first having to ask me for the key.  I was quite proud of myself and was excited to see how excited she would be when I pulled it out.

At dinner Tuesday night, Lorein told me she wanted a really good portable speaker for her birthday.  We went to the PX to check it out.  She was really into the Bose bluetooth speaker and I noticed it was exactly the same price as the Costco mountain bike.  Seeing her excitement about the speaker, I was forced to divulge I had already gotten her a gift.  She had to choose, and she went for music.  I returned the bike.  On the bright side, I can at least use the speaker; I never would've ridden a girl bike

Although I wasn't able to get Lorein her wished-for gift on the first try, I do want it known that I was totally on the ball this birthday.  I even had a party planned.  Because I'm so thoughtful and caring, I wanted to make sure she didn't have to invest any work in the planning or performance of the party.  On the other hand, because I'm not what you would call an "expert" in the field of party throwing, I wanted to keep everything relatively easy and casual.  So, I ordered a cake (from Costco of course!) and invited the neighbors over for a small get-together.

When one of our neighbors, who I will call "Megan", read the invitation (yes, I even had invitations!), she immediately asked why there wasn't going to be any dinner.  I was engaged in some small repartee with her when Lorein appeared and completely took Megan's side.  My well-meaning and good-hearted intentions soon withered under their combined attacks.  I agreed to grill some hot dogs to appease the masses, but they did not find this to be sufficient.  We ended up with like 20 people going to the Purple Garlic restaurant.  The food was really good, but the manager got mad at us for not letting him know we would be having such a large party.  I would like to point out that, if everyone had simply followed my original plan, we would not have been yelled at by anybody.  After dinner, we went back, had cake, ice cream and milk, and talked the night away while listening to music.  It was simple and incredibly fun.  It's almost as if that portion of the festivities could've stood alone as a more-than-adequate birthday party.

The next day, Lorein asked me not to do anything for her next birthday.  Of course, her next birthday will be her 30th, so that's not going to happen.