Chillicothe

This past weekend, we loaded up the car (and boy was it loaded up!) and drove the 6 hrs to Chillicothe, TX (about 15 miles from Oklahoma) to visit Brad's father. Except we made it into more like an 8hr drive, with stops for lunch, diaper changes, and feeding the baby. But all in all the way up there was pretty uneventful. I am kinda sick of watching/listening to Annie though. ;)

Through pictures, here's our trip in a nutshell.

The drive - this is what the road looks like once you get past Dallas....for miles and miles and miles...there is nothing. And tumbleweeds everywhere! Brad said he's seen some as a kid there that come rolling out in front of your car as big as the front end of a truck! Saturday, we showed up at his house (which I should note is the same house that HIS parents built years and years ago), visited some, checked into our hotel and went out to eat a GREAT Mexican food restaraunt. The food was wonderful. The coke was not. It was flat and when I asked if I could have something else because of its flatness, the waitress nonchalantly replied, "Oh...they're all flat." Ok...??? Anyway, we got to the restaraunt around 6:30 and thank heavens! Because they apparently close at 7 on Saturdays! I couldn't believe it either, so here's the proof of their nontypical hours...Then back to the hotel we went for a good night's sleep. The hotel was really nice! We had a 2-rm suite so the girls could go to bed before we did and it was probably the cleanest hotel I've ever been in! Everyone slept really well for being away from home and we woke up to a fresh start Sunday morning (they did both wake up a little earlier than usual, but whatever). We got up and went to church with Brad's dad in Chillicothe. I think it's a congregation of 25 people? Maybe? It was great though! I do love that small-town feel and everyone there was so glad to meet us!
Here's Grandpa Scott with the girls before church...Then after church, we did some "sightseeing" in Chillicothe. Here's what there was to see. :)And while the girls napped in the afternoon, Brad went back to his dad's house and helped fix some things and get a computer set up for him. Then they came back to our hotel to go swimming! Yes, it is wintertime and cold, but again our hotel came through for us with an indoor pool!
(Brenna looking cute in her new swimwear)Now, I was of the expectation that because it was in indoor pool, it would be heated. Wrong assumption. The water was COLD!!!! But you get used to it. Brenna and Brooke both did. In fact, Brenna loved lounging her her float! (thanks to a friend we borrowed it from) We will definitely need to get one of these before Summer comes!But she enjoyed being out of the float even more because she LOVES to splash in the water. Before we got out of the pool, we would take them in the hot tub (or warm tub - it really was just warm) to warm them up before getting out and drying off. The room was really nice and warm so it wasn't really cold. But the pool water was really chilly!Brooke had a blast swimming as usual and this was her as we kept telling her to get out and come dry off. Her arms crossed, frowning, looking longingly at the pool. :-PAnd a random shot of Brenna (with her now TWO teeth coming in at the bottom...but you'd never know it if not for the physical evidence. She doesn't seemed to be phased by the teething at all. Hopefully it stays that way!)And an equally random shot of Brooke. She spent some time reading books while we were there. That's my girl!Monday we were to check out and come home (luckily it was a 3day weekend for Brad). We were sad that our visiting was over, but glad the girls got to see their Grandpa. We dont get to see him very often, but hopefully over the Summer we'll get another trip in.

Now, on the way home, it was a toss-up between stopping in Glen Rose at the Wildlife Ranch that Brooke loves so much or just doing some shopping at the outlet malls north of Dallas. Shopping won out as the Wildlife Ranch was a little more expensive than we remembered and a little bit more out of the way. The shopping also coincided with a nice time for a break from the drive for lunch, etc before naps in the car. So we ate at the Rainforest Cafe at the mall. We had eaten there before, but this was Brooke's first time that she remembers. At first she was a little scared (of the unknown cuz it was kinda dark inside), but ended up loving all the moving animals and such.

While at the mall, Brenna had her first carousel ride with Brooke and me. Thankfully Brooke WANTED to ride in the "carriage" as opposed to a horse, so Brenna did in fact get to go along. Brooke thought it was cool to be like Cinderella and Brenna was fascinated by the horse next to us glittering with lights moving up and down on a pole. :)

We ended up spending way too much time shopping. But who knew that outlet mall was as huge as it was? And had to stop again to eat dinner in Waco. Unfortunately, our not-so-good travelers in the back seat chose not to sleep in the car (like.....at all.) and were nightmares on the way home! I think Brenna cried all the way from Dallas to Waco. Brooke has never been a sleep-in-the-car kinda girl. She would only sleep if conditions were perfect (naptime, extremely worn out, with blankets, and pillows, etc) and even then only for maybe 30 min or so. And unfortunately, I feel that Brenna will follow in her big sister's shadow on this one. :( Maybe cuz she likes to sleep on her tummy? And in the carseat there's no room to toss and turn that's for sure. She is also very distractable kinda kid.

Anyway, we did finally make it home last night around 9:30! And the girls were completely wiped out! They slept hard all night and I had to wake up both of them in time to get Brooke to school this morning. It was a fun trip (despite the incredibly long drive home!) and we can't wait to see Grandpa Scott again soon!