And it was wonderful.

Forgive the exhaustive details; we were having too much fun to take many pictures, which means there isn’t much documentation of the trip.

Getting There, First Few Days
Flew into Flat and Hot, Texas in time for pizza dinner with Gram and some other relatives. R had bought a travel DVD player which we are determined to use judiciously. No permanent installation in the car; no video on the way to the grocery store, for heaven’s sake. They did pretty well on the plane. M would have done better if she’d been able to walk around. A little well-timed Elmo helped.

Gram has a very sweet yet exuberant dog that unfortunately had to stay in the garden room for most of the time. Both girls *want* to like dogs, and like them very much with a sliding glass door between them. But C screamed hysterical bloody murder when the dog got in. She was in my arms and I now understand the urge to slap a person who’s having a hysterical fit. I didn’t, but don’t worry, I managed to retain my eligibility in the Bad Parents Club later in the week. (Read the next installment.)

Tuesday we drove to Hip and Hilly where we had dinner and dessert with my brother, his girlfriend and ChaplainMom, who was there doing D.Min. work.

The divine miss m is now at an age where it’s hard to eat dinner in a restaurant. Ultra-bummer. And Hip and Hilly has some wonderful restaurants and hangouts, but few of the hippest seem to have changing tables. This was the week of toddler poops that were poorly timed, yet could have been disastrously timed (e.g. in the security line at the airport as opposed to on the plane).

Wednesday we went with Brother and Girlfriend to The World’s Best Water Park, which was awesome. I hadn’t been in almost twenty years. Am I that old?

The key to enjoying those places with kids is not to think about how much one is seeing, or not seeing. The question is, “Are we having fun?”, not “We paid XX dollars and are only experiencing 20% of this place!?!?” By that criteria (and most others) we had a wonderful time. M seems to have R’s skin color—she has a bit of a tan now. C, not so much, though at least she and I didn’t burn.

C liked the lazy river and put up with the tube ride that had a few mild drops. She giggled throughout most of the rest of it. M had to bail on that one, but not before one of the park personnel snapped her souvenir picture. I wish we’d gotten a copy; just imagine a forced grin that says gamely, “I’m tired and freaked out, but I’ve been told to say cheese, so I’ll do my best.”

Wednesday night we had dinner with some college friends at a place they had picked out that wouldn’t care that we all looked like drowned rats (no time to go to the hotel to change). We ate on a patio with a fenced-in yard where the kids played. M climbed the fence repeatedly. Lordy, she will climb on anything.

The restaurant had a roaming balloon man who made C a swan which later popped in two stages. The first stage we just had a lip quiver, which subsided when I suggested that C ask him to make another one. The second stage led to full-out crying. Oh, dear.

On the upside, one of the things I love most about C is how delighted she is by simple things. Balloon animals. A glow stick that someone gave her the last night of Presby-retreat. She carries these things around everywhere and adores them as much or more than the glitzy, expensive stuff. May it always be so.

(Speaking of glitzy and expensive, can we all just PLEASE stop talking about and otherwise paying attention to Paris Hilton? I know these celebrity train-wrecks give us all a boost of self-esteem, but really. If you need to scrape the absolute bottom of the schadenfreude barrel to feel good about yourself, you need help. Call my father in law or other mental health professional. Don’t delay, do it today!)

Thursday morning we went to H&H’s children’s museum, which happens to be the place where ChaplainMom had her wedding reception, and the girls had a ball. I would SO have a membership if we lived there. There aren’t many places for kids to play out of the summer heat that isn’t located in a retail center. In fact, I can’t think of anything here in Suburban Sheol, and the museum downtown is closed for a multi-year renovation. M got so worn out that on our way to Beloved Tex-Mex Place she feel asleep and slept in R’s arms through most of the meal. This was strange, but a godsend all week. She slept in all kinds of weird noisy places. I remember with C we would see kids doing that out and about and envy the parents mightily. C never did that. It does seem like some kind of kid karma—yes, she climbs on anything that’s anchored to the ground, and some things that aren’t, but she will sleep to mariachi and Texas roots music blaring while her parents dribble creamy jalapeno dip on her leg and face.

Then we drove to Presby-retreat, which is such a lovely drive but moderately excruciating with two little girls who were So Over the car. We got there around 4:30 and checked into Building Named After a Bird, which is where the families stay.

More later.