Kenny did a fabulous job organizing our road trip, arranging a variety of excursions along the way, and basically taking care of all the tedious planning. Thanks honey, YOU ROCK!!! We took off Saturday morning on July 7th. We met Danielle's BFF RuthAnn for lunch at Avanti's in Bloomington IL, then we headed on to St. Louis MO.
At St. Louis, we went to see a concert under the arch. The headliner was Dierks Bentley -- AWESOME! We were lucky enough to get another Meet and Greet, so this time Delaney got her picture taken with Dierks:
The next day, we hit a Butterfly House in Chesterfield MO. IT WAS ABSOLUTELY FILLED WITH BUTTERFLIES! Soooo beautiful!
We had a delicious lunch at Sweet Tomatoes (one of our favorite restaurants), in St. Louis before we left town. The last time we were here, it was over Spring Break 2011 and a blizzard!!!
This time it was definitely not a blizzard, as it was VERY HOT. So the kids posed yet again for us by the same bushes right outside the restaurant. :-) They must get so annoyed with us!!!
Then Kenny and the kids had a fun sidetrip to a laser tag place in Springfield MO, Lazer Force Lazer Tag Zone. The kids absolutely LOVE laser tag, so they were psyched! In fact, they had SO MUCH fun and they found out that the Joplin MO location had two stories... that yes, you guessed it... we had yet another pitstop at the Joplin location so they could play another game. Thankfully, I had a good book to read while they were shooting each other. :-)
Next we had a river rafting excursion in Oklahoma!!! It was pretty darn hot, but at least we could always dip in the Illinois River to cool off when needed.
Then we finally made it to Dallas!!! Woo-hoo! Since we had a few days before convention, we spent some time together as a family. The first full day in Dallas, we went shopping. My very first convention was back in 2004 in Dallas too! We got this adorable picture of the kids while we were there:
So much to the kids' chagrin, we decided to stage another photograph at the same mall (minus the Burger King crowns -- although, if Burger King had still been there, they probably would have been royalty again).
What a difference 8 years makes! LOL The next day we hit Fort Worth's Bureau of Engraving and Printing to watch money being made. It was interesting, but due to security reasons we weren't allowed to take pictures!!! :-( Then we moved to yet another hotel, but still within Dallas -- it was the convention hotel, the Hilton Anatole. Before convention started, we all hit the pool and played together as a family. Then I headed to convention the next day, while Kenny and the kids had yet another lazy day at the pool. That evening, Kenny took all of us to Texas' largest honky-tonk Billy Bob's. After supper, Delaney and Kenny hit the dance floor and learned a line dance:
My next convention day, Kenny found a place that had an all-day pass for laser tag, bowling, and miniature golf. They were up and there early in the morning and literally spent all day there!
Then Saturday morning was my last day of convention, and the day that I was teaching at Extravaganza. Here is a picture of me with my boards:
While I was busy doing that, the kids and Kenny spent one last day at the pool! Then we packed up and headed out as soon as I finished my last event at Convention. Unfortunately, our trip back wasn't nearly as fun and was mainly just driving home as soon as we could. We had one pit stop in Little Rock AR just to sleep, then we were up and off again and made it back home shortly before midnight on Sunday, July 15th! Whew!!!
One more quick note, we had a plethora of books for the road trip. Kenny was slightly annoyed, but he tolerates our love of reading:
Well, that's it! That's the abbreviated version of our awesome trip. More details to come on everything else!!! :-)
Enjoy!
Love,
Ken, Dani, Dee & Kyle
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