summer vacation: part 1

This time last week, Darren, Connor, Coby and I were in Texas for a mini vacation. It shocked me to realize the boys had never been to Texas. I remember travelling there frequently with either my family or youth group for short weekend trips while growing up. It's just such a fun place to go for a quick getaway.

We left Cale at home as we knew this probably wouldn't be his kind of trip. We were going to stay rather busy and we really wanted to have some quality time with Connor and Coby. Don't think for a second though that Cale was left out. His time was divided between staying with Grampat & Papa and Nina & Poppy. He came home with several new toys and he told me more than once that he had eight suckers at GramPat's house. I'm not sure if that is true, but if it is, I think I'd rather not know for sure {wink, wink}! I think it's fair to say that he led a spoiled life while we were away.

Here is our trip from the start....

I truly believe that all vacations should start with a trip to Cracker Barrel for breakfast on the way out of town. There's just something about CB that starts out a trip just right!

We stopped in Gainesville so I could go to the Gap Outlet (which is about all that's there anymore) and we let the boys play for a bit.

Then we checked into our hotel which was FREE to us. Thanks to Clint for sharing your hotel points with us (I don't think he reads my blog...but just in case he does I want to say thank you).

Now it was time for fun...I couldn't wait to share Six Flags with the boys. I have SO many memories coming here for Nazarene Night during Fall Break each year. I still have a picture of me and Darren here from when we came with the youth group...we were all of 12 and 13 years old!

The boys and I had so much fun!!! I can't say the same about Darren. He does not like crowds or waiting in line. Not a good match for Six Flags, but the boys and I had a great time anyway! I hoped that the boys would fall in love with the roller coasters, but just as I had feared, they did not. Connor's favorite ride was the Mine Train and Coby's was the Mini Mine Train. We rode those rides over and over again! Luckily Kristen was in town (more on that tomorrow!) and she met us at Six Flags so she and I were able to ride some of our favorite more adventurous rides together (I can't believe I didn't get a pic with her in it...ugh!). It was fun spending time with just her for the few minutes that we were able to be away from the guys.

There was the most amazing light show at the end of the night. My picture doesn't do it justice. They had the Batmobile, the Mystery Machine (Scooby Doo), Tinkerbell, and on and on. The parade lasted a long time and Kristen, the boys and I enjoyed every miniute of it (meanwhile Darren couldn't wait for it to bo over so he could get out of there...what a grump!).

Tomorrow I will try to get the rest of the pics up. We went to a baseball game which is actually what brought us to Texas in the first place.