Thanksgiving in Texas *Nov. 23rd - Nov 30th 2013*

We headed out on Saturday November 23rd. Olivia decided to do some screaming and Sam hated it so he decided to hide in his blanket. Elese followed suit about a half our later.

After a stressful night on snowy, windy icy roads the Kids woke up on November 24th, looked out the window in Santa Rosa, NM, and were thrilled to see the snow. Elese shouted, "Look, it's even on the road!"  She was thrilled. Us not so much. I'm also wishing I'd followed my instinct and wore my boots. As we were getting packed up I kept thinking, "Wear your boots and pack your flip flips." But instead of doing that I just left my boots at home...after all, Texas is nice and warm in the winter, right? At least I had my cute Jamberry Nails on.

There was more snow falling on the drive. I felt physically sick because I was so nervous.  I prayed that I could know we would arrive safely and that I could be calm. Roads were great after that and I felt very calm. Saturday should have been 12 hours and it was 14.  Sunday should have been 8 hours and it took about 12. We were very happy to get to Heidi and George's.  Heidi had dinner ready for us. We ate, put kids down, and watched walking/talking dead. Sam had a hard time going to sleep but after a few tears and reminding him that he got to sleep with Max, he went to sleep.

Mom tried to watch the Walking Dead with us but after the first 5 minutes she got too stressed and left.

Monday, November 25th we ate pancakes and bacon/sausage for breakfast. After we were all up and moving we went to Braums ice cream for a little treat. After Ice Cream we went to Dallas to see George's work and Dealey Plaza.

Steven's niece, Ally took great care of Sam for me. Steven was doing a little filming for work so it was a great help to have her watching after him and he loved the attention.

Then we went to Fuzy'a for dinner and returned to the Rivera's to watch Man of Steal. Sam was loving our Texas trip! Aunt Heidi had so many train toys that he was in Heaven.  He played with Ally, his Texas friend, and started talking lots more. Steven's Mom said she had just put on her Jammie's and Sam said, "I have Jammie's on too". We were all very impressed!

Tuesday, November 26th,  I went shopping with Steven's mom and his sister Heidi to get a few things for Thanksgiving dinner. Heidi and mom were fighting about who would pay for the food, it was pretty funny. Steven and Max went to a comic book store and Max bought a Mine Craft Steve. After that we went to stockyards and Steven's dad came along with us. Everyone else had gone to the George Bush Museum.  Unfortunately, we barely missed the cattle drive. Steven sat on the longhorn and got his stand ups for the story he was going to do about Texas.

We did some exploring...

...and found a little gift shop where we bought everyone's (but mine) Christmas ornaments for the year. That night just the adults ate at Rudy's BBQ while Ben and Ally baby sat. Mom, Heidi, and I stayed up for a while just talking and laughing.

On Wednesday, November 27th, I made cheesecakes and then we went to six flags.

 Heidi had season passes and they could get guests in for free that week. We were one season pass short so we had to pay for one ticket but it was discounted It was a great deal!

 Although it was cold we all loved it and they had a couple of fire pits around to help keep us warm.

Steven and Max went on superman ride and that was their favorite ride.

 Steven and Eelse had some alone time and went on her favorite ride, Lavibora, it was a trackless bobsled. Sam liked the train for a little bit but then cried.

Steven's favorite part was the Justice League store. Sam and Elese got superman/girl capes.

 With 4 adults we were able to take turns on the rides that Sam and Olivia couldn't (or wouldn't) go on.

On our way home we stopped Steak 'n Shake for dinner and it was yummy!

On Thursday, November 28th, we woke up and got cooking and cleaning. Since I had made my cakes already (carrot cheese cake and raspberry white chocolate cheese cake) I filled in where needed and spent some time checking out the Black Friday (gray Thursday, really) deals. Steven needed to film at a lake so he and George took the kids with them while the rest of us finished up last minute stuff. George took some cute pictures of the kids.

Elese had a blast collecting sea shells.


















Steven's cousins David and Kathryn & her friend and their families joined us for dinner. We ate and visited.

After dinner and before dessert George took us to a nearby park and took some family pictures for us. I never printed any because it took me forever to even look at them. Then I kept thinking...we'll get new ones taken in 10 months - 9 months - 5 months...anyway so we never printed them but here they are for your viewing pleasure.

At dessert Ally was very chatty. Heather (David's wife) is funny. I bought a couple of things online and then we went to Walmart, Target, Michaels, and Walmart (again). We got back to their house at 12:10am. Liv didn't go to sleep until 11:45. While we were shopping Steven and kids watched pacific rim and Sam fell asleep on Ally.

Friday morning November 29th, we woke up, packed, cleaned up and headed to Albuquerque, NM. We ate at Dyers BBQ in Armarillo for dinner and their onion rings were AMAZING!

The next morning Saturday November 30th our hotel had a really good breakfast. While we were driving traffic came to a stand still. Later we learned there had been a really bad accident that closed the only road out of New Mexico.  We waited for about an hour and got frustrated and tried to find an alternate route but we didn't have any luck. Then Steven found a very pretty view and everyone got out and explored while I nursed Olivia. After about a 3 hour delay we finally got moving again.

(Sam loves dragging around Elese's little suitcase - notice it in the photo)

When we returned home that night I noticed the the cyst in my breast had increased in size significantly and I was getting a little stressed about it.

While we really enjoyed our time in Texas we never want to drive there again. It was not the most pleasant of journeys but it was a really enjoyable stay...to be honest thought I don't mind long drives so much but Steven says never again...he did do most the driving though.