Ben took Wednesday off from work at
Saint Francis and our family drove down to Texas to be with Ben's brother, Steven, and his family. We came back today (Saturday). The drive from Great Bend, KS to Dallas, TX is about 8 hours, which is similar to the drive Ben's parents used to make when they were living in Michigan and went down to Kentucky each Thanksgiving. So, the drive brought back some memories for him (mostly boring memories of watching the landscape pass by). But, even though the drive each way was long, there was a lot of fun on the days in between the car trips. The pictures you will see below are not in chronological order by any means, just the best order for the stories they tell.
Analeigh was very happy to see her Uncle Steven and Aunt Janet and did not seem to mind being held by them. She even snuggled up to her aunt for a moment. Thus, Analeigh seems to be coping well with any symptoms of
separation anxiety (then again, Analeigh might just have been happy to have been taken out of her car seat).
David and his cousin, Nathan, did everything together. They sat at the table together, played with trains and trucks together, and, even when they were apart, fell asleep in random places together.
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, which was made all the more lively when David and Nathan went upstairs to the balcony which over looks the dining room. As we looked up, Nathan was about to drop a
C-3PO doll onto the table. We all focused on telling Nathan not to throw anything down. In the meantime, since we weren't addressing him, David determined it would be okay to throw the bungee cord he was holding over the railing and into the fruit salad. Its a pity we weren't recording video, because it was hilarious. Alas, David did give us another opportunity, later that evening, when he threw his bouncy ball onto the counter and into the pumpkin pie, as pictured below.
At some point, Janet pulled out a bag full of plastic balls, similar to the ones you might find in the ball pits at a McDonald's Play Place. David had fun tossing them around and Nathan's two brothers had fun burying him in the storage tote.
Later, on Black Friday, we checked out the stores (closer to 10 a.m., so as to avoid the madness). Steven took us on a tour and showed us
The Flower Mound, for which the town of
Flower Mound, TX is named. We didn't have our camera out when we passed by, so we grabbed this picture off the internet. In order to help you visualize what we saw, The Flower Mound was just as desolate-looking when we passed by, but the sky was a bit more gray, since it was raining. The cool thing about this picture is that we went shopping at the
Radio Shack in the strip mall you see in the background - so even though you can't see us in the photo, its kind of like we're right there. On another note, the mound is privately owned so it is protected from further development (such as commercial and residential development) so it will always be as barren as you see it now.
Finally, we went to the
Dallas LDS Temple, as we wanted to purchase some items at The Church's
Distribution Center. We took some pictures using the night setting, which lengthens the exposure time so as to capture more light. However, if the person moves, the picture becomes blurred, as these photos did. Nevertheless, they are fun to look at. And, just in case you were feeling curious, the following persons are in the last photo: Ben, Analeigh, David, Elizabeth, Benjamin (born on Ben's birthday), Janet, Nathan, and Preston.
In summary, we had a wonderful time and would like to thank Steven and Janet for being such excellent hosts.
