the big "d" (warning: ginormous post)

Every year, the church pays for David to go to a conference. This year, he chose a leadership conference at Fellowship Church in Grapevine, TX and Avery, Charlie, and I tagged along.

During the first few days of our trip, David went to the conference while I stayed at the hotel with Avery and Charlie.

I have to tell you, after a few hours of being cooped up in a room with a newborn and a 2 year old, I felt like a prisoner. In a really pretty prison. With soft bedding. And a maid. But prison none-the-less. The warden was a beast.

You may be thinking that I'm being a tad dramatic, but try listening to a two-year-old beg to eat the $12 Snickers in the mini bar for 3 hours at a time and tell me how dramatic I'm being then.

The combination of limited space and stir-craziness definitely inspired some creative playtime:


Thankfully, the "Beautiful Prison" included Room Service. For only one meeellion dollars, you too can have 4 pancakes and a container of yogurt.

Not just any kind of yogurt, but Activia yogurt. You know, the kind that "aids digestion". Digestion-aiding yogurt wouldn't be an issue if it weren't for the fact that Avery's been wearing the last of the Dave Ramsey Diapers. Can we say, "impending catastrophe"?

On the last day of David's conference, we joined him to hear T.D. Jakes speak.

Avery was pretty pumped about going to the childcare room. Perhaps it's because the Kid's area at Fellowship looks like Disney World. For real.


The 4,000 seat sanctuary was totally packed, but guess who and ended up being our (totally adorable) ticket out of the dreaded "overflow room"? At a church like Fellowship, hanging out in the "Cry Room" was a little like having box seats to a basketball game. Not too shabby.

My Aunt, Uncle, Cousins and grandmother live in Dallas, so while we were in the area, we were able to spend some much needed catch-up time with them.

my Aunt Elaine

my cousin Erin, her baby Duke, and my other cousin Billy

Avery and my uncle - I love this picture of them. He's a big, tough, retired Marine Captain guy being a total goof-ball with my 2 year old. It makes me smile.

Mimi and Charlie

Avery loved seeing her "mimi" and totally fell in love with my cousin Billy. At one point she said, "Mommy. I like Billy. He's my favorite. He loves me.". So cute.

Just look at how TALL he is! Wowza! I felt like a midget little person.
Turns out everything really IS bigger in Texas. ;-)

While we were at my grandmother's house, I took a picture of Avery sitting on the "Green Stool". The "Green Stool" is the place that I watched my grandmother make every Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner I can remember. I just love that Avery was able to sit on it while Mimi made a snack for her. It was a really special moment.


As an added bonus, we were able to spend time with my sweet friend Colin and her family while we were in Texas. I haven't seen Colin in over 7 years. That's right - 7 years. I can't even tell you how special it was to finally see her again. I love, love, love her.

Avery thought Colin's son Tyler was so cool. Colin's kiddos are TOO cute.

I just have to tell you how sweet my husband is. He totally went with Colin and the kiddos and I to The American Girl Store and Cafe. He let Colin and I "ooh and aah" over all the crazy-cute, sweetness and didn't complain once. He definitely scored some points for that.

Avery did some "oohing and ahhing" herself. I caught her looking at a book and saying, "I want..."

It seriously has to be some kind of terrible sin to leave The American Girl store empty handed, but that's what Colin and I did. Dave Ramsey would be proud.

Before we left, we stopped to take a picture there - if you look really closely, you will notice a little pair of shoes poking out between Colin and Avery. That's Tyler. He wasn't so much in the mood for a picture. He was a little trooper at the store, but I'm thinking that asking him to document the humiliation with a picture was more than he could take!


We had such a fun week in Dallas! If it weren't for the never-ending car ride from Hades, our weekend would have been perfect.

I won't go into details - but there was vomit involved.
Nuff said.