Before we left for our trip, we took Mario to the dentist to get some cavitites filled. Mario did very well; the only problem was that he bit his lip when it was numb and it got all gross.
The boys did very well on the 10 hour car ride . When we got to the Dallas area this is how Mario's lip looked. Poor little boy.I honestly was overwhelmed with how many freeways, cars, and people were in the Dallas area. I could never drive in that place and I didn't want to try! It was insane.
The first thing on our list was to eat some In-N-Out burgers with some yummy milkshakes. It was really good. We ate like little piggies and we had fun. Jared gained 10 pounds and I gained 3 pounds in a week. It was worth it.
This was before we went to the Texas state fair. We stayed at a pretty cheap hotel, around 30 dollars a night for the first four nights. It was comfortable, and the boys just wanted to stay in and watch cable (for them, watching cable was a treat).
On Tuesday we got ready to go to the State fair at 10:30 in the morning and we left the fair at around 8:30 pm. The fair was HUGE. We spent around 150 dollars in food and rides. It was worth it. We also got a discount in admission because we brought three cans of Dr Pepper, so the admission instead of being 16 dollars each was 5 dollars each. When you get inside of the fair, you buy tickets which you use for food, games and rides instead of money. I am glad that we went on a Tuesday because it was not as crowded as I thought it was going to be.
We rode the biggest ferris wheel in the country. I am terrified of heights but it felt great. I just couldn't look down.
Me freaking out because Mario was moving the little cart too much.
My boys had a great time.
Another of the reasons we were so excited to go to the fair was because of the fried food. Jared and I had some great food and not so great ones too. This burger with donuts as buns was okay...
These were our favorites: Batter deep fried jambalaya, batter deep fried cookie dough and the fried banana peanut butter and jelly sandwich was very disappointing.
The statue of liberty. Well, now we just need to go and see the real one in New York.We also saw a bird show but I was too lazy to take pictures; I was just glad to have a place to sit down and rest for a little while.
Mario and Milo also had a lot of fun. First they pretended to be farmers and it was so cute. They got to work on a farm and for all the work they did, they got fake money which they used for buying real candy.
Oh, this was super cool too. The petting zoo at the Texas state fair was huge and amazing. There was a giraffe you could pet, baby goats, zebras, baby donkeys. The petting zoo was free. We bought some food for $1.
Texas State fair.
These sculptures are made out of butter. Very unusual.
We also got to see a pig race. Yes, a pig race!
We also saw an exposition about the girl scouts of america. It was very interesting. Girl scout cookies...hummm
We stayed the whole day at the fair because we didn't want to pay parking again. It is around 15 dollars. In Texas parking was not free at the places we were visiting. It was kind of annoying. Well, at night time we saw a parade, it was beautiful and fun.
One of the exhibitions at the fair was a Chinese paper lantern festival. It wasn't free, it was like 18 dollars per person but we did it because we were on vacation.
This dragon was made out of Chinese porcelain dishes. It was amazing.
There were some dinosaurs and Milo was freaking out. It was hilarious.
The next day we were so tired but we still went to the Fort Worth zoo. It was half price day.The best part about this zoo was that the animals were active and engaging with the visitors.
They have penguins. When are we going to get penguins at the Rio Grande zoo?
The zoo was practically empty; after all it was a Wednesday. The boys rode a carousel and Milo kept waving everytime he saw me. He was so darling.
The boys touch some sea stars, horseshoe crab, sea urchain and some shells.
That same day in the afternoon, we went to meet our friends the Bowers. These are some of Jared's friends from Ricks/BYU-Idaho. I guess now they are my friends too. We ate some yummy barbecue at a restaurant called Spring Creek.
Thursday
We went for lunch at our friends The Betancourt's. Jared and Sergio went to the mission together. They speak Spanish like us and Mario was loving hearing all the spanish. After we left their darling house, Mario has been speaking more spanish. I am so proud.
In the afternoon we went to the Grapevine Mills mall, which is pretty big. There were so many stores and so little time. I honestly got overwhelmed and had to stop shopping.
We had dinner at the Rain Forest cafe. Jared and I were laughing so hard because every time Mario and Milo would see the animals move, they would freak out. It was fun.
I feel very tired in this picture.
Another fun thing we did was going to Lego Land Discovery Center, which is inside of the Grapevine Mills mall. We played with all the legos, we saw a miniature replica of the Dallas downtown area made out of legos. And we saw two movies in 4D. It was so cool, we got wet, we felt hot in some parts, the chairs moved... It was fun.
Mario drove his first car ever. He was so proud.
They sang karaoke.
On Friday we were so tired but it was time for the main part of our vacation. A few weeks ago I won a sweepstakes for a vacation for our family to go to The Great Wolf Lodge resort. Besides that, I got $500 to spend at the hotel. The hotel was very fancy.
When we got to the hotel, everyone was so nice. I honestly didn't want to leave. They gave us four bracelets with microchips. The bracelets opened the doors of our room, and instead of paying with cash you could use your bracelet to pay. That way you don't have to carry your wallet with you. We divided the 500 dollars into our two wrist bands.
When the boys left to go swimming, I went to explore the resort. When I came back to our room, we had these yummy cupcakes and water from the hotel manager with a very thoughtful letter welcoming us.
Also, the hotel has an activity for children in which they go around the whole resort looking for magic clues. The kids get this magic wand and they can go on different quests. Every wand costs around $32 dollars so when we got there, the hotel staff gave us another gift certificate to get two wands for our boys. We were treated like rock starts.
There were many activities for the whole family. The boys also got some colorful crocks which they designed. We also pretended to be spies and went thru a room full of lasers. We played at the arcade and honestly, we had the best time as a family.
Dinner
Cutest little wolves.
Some picture of me and Jared. It was bombed by that kid.
One of the activities at night time included dressing up in costumes and go trick or treating around the hotel. Mario and Milo also participated in the halloween parade.
We took all these pictures with our iPhones.
The water park area was kept at a constant temperature of 84 degrees and the water was so warm. It was perfect.
After almost 4 hours at the water park, Milo needed a nap.
Jared and this tiny rice krispy treat.
Watching cable. We don't have cable so for the boys that is a treat. They look like zombies watching tv and eating all their sugar.
It was time to check out of the hotel and we still had money left in our wrist bands. I bought some creams at the spa and we tried to keep buying food. We were so stuffed, worse than when we get stuffed for the holidays. Best vacation ever!
After all was over, we went to the movies and watched Frankenweenie. Mario and Milo watched the whole movie. We slept that night at one of our friend's house. It was a great family vacation but I am so glad and grateful to be home.
The Hobbs' brothers, coolest brothers ever.
