winter break time!

Please excuse me while I play a little game called "bloggy catch-up". It's what happens when you have the stomach bug, no computer, and no time. 

The week before Valentine's Day (see, told 'ya - catching up), our family ventured down to Dallas to accompany David for his pastor's conference there. 

I'm glad that we made the trip with him, because otherwise, I would have missed these beautiful KIDS jackets for sale for mere pennies at a Pilot gas station. 

.. every mother dreams of seeing her little ones in matching pleather biker jackets. 

And yes, I took a picture of them while I was in the gas station.

Yes I did.

We were super-worried about traveling all the way down to Dallas with 2 little guys in tow. 

And we should have been.

What normally would have taken 8 hours took us 11+. 

Thankfully, we had the genius idea to purchase a couple of these bad boys at Wal-Mart before the trip:

I'm pretty sure that my 15 month-old watched enough t.v. over the trip to ensure future hyperactivity issues. Awesome.

Nothing like a few hours of Diego to boost brain development.

He made up for it at the hotel by doing a little reading before bed.

While Avery opted to do a little freshening up. Right before bed.

We woke up the next day to this:

In Dallas.

Seriously.

Crazy, huh?

David used the opportunity to teach our 3-year-old how to make dangerously large snowballs.

And then to pose sweetly before chunking them at the hotel door.

Classy.

Later, we met up with my Aunt, Uncle, Grandmother and cousins for a little family time.

Charlie had so much fun playing with my cousin's little boy.
He liked dinner a lot too.

Those are peaches, by the way... nice and sticky...

The next day, while David went to his conference, my Aunt (a shopping goddess/guru/genius) took me to IKEA...

Oh Ikea, why do you only exist in cool towns? Won't you consider coming to the third most miserable city in America? Please? Pretty Please?

I'm going to take a moment here to show why Ikea completely and totally rocks.

Ready?

Here ya go:

And who doesn't love these teeny tiny shopping carts?

Or a giant igloo?

Fun times.

That weekend, my cousin Hunter drove in from her college to hang out with us.

Avery was in looooove with Hunter.

Seriously smitten.

Charlie didn't seem to notice 'cause he was gettin' himself some good Mimi lovin'.

After a few days at the hotel, Charlie started feeling more "at home".

We stayed at a hotel with some really amazing beds. Big, huge beds. 

Big, huge, king-sized beds.

The kind that you can really stretch out in.

Or so I heard...

On our last day in Dallas, I visited with my sweet college friend, Colin and her family.
Look at this cute little pizza she bought for us:

Charlie loved the pizza almost as much as he loved sitting in Colin's tiny chairs. 

It had been a year since Avery and Colin's little boy, Tyler saw each other last, but they lost no time getting to know each other again.

How cute is he?!?

We had a great time on our little Winter break. Everyone should take a week in February to get the heck out of Dodge and take a little vacation. Don't you think?