ArchibaldFive: The Archibald Five go to Texas

Well we had a change of plans. We'd originally planned to visit my Mom, Mike and my step-siblings in San Marcos this year (near Austin). Instead we ended up taking an overnight trip to Dallas to meet them half-way and hang out. It was GREAT.

We left early Saturday morning and got to Dallas around 11 am. We headed over to Grapevine Mills Mall, and took the boys to eat at Rainforest Cafe. That was a lot of fun. I highly recommend splitting the appetizer platter. Neil and I did and the little boys split a meal as well. Much more affordable that way and they give ALOT of food. Anyway the kids LOOOVED the atmosphere and all the animals.

After we ate we walked around the mall some and then stopped in at the Skate Park to watch everyone skateboard on all the ramps. It was pretty cool.

We met up with my Mom and Mike around 3 as well as my step-sister Michele and he husband Bobby, their kids Caleb & McKayla (I am forever spelling her name wrong I know), also my step-brother Randy came. Randy lives in Dallas. It was the first time we really got to hang out with him since my Mom and Mike married. The boys really liked him. (We did too). Okay so yeah we met up at Incredible Pizza and played a ton of games and ate pizza. As we were getting ready to cash in tickets I decided to finish off a few of the playing cards on a jackpot game. My second time to play I hit the jackpot. I will a little over 350 tickets! I won another 100 in a few turns. IT WAS CRAZY! We got about 800 tickets total. It was a lot of fun getting to hang out with everyone and see the boys play with their cousins.

Later we headed over to the hotel. We stayed there 4 years ago on our last family vacation -- the only other time we've stayed in a hotel since our honeymoon. LOL!! Anyway it's a great set up it's like a 2 story 2 bed 2 bath apartment, very reasonable as well. So yeah we all hung out and opened presents. Then the kids all played with the presents. Chase got his marble run and played with it for well over an hour. THATS AN INSANE RECORD FOR HIM!!!! We all settled down eventually -- thats when the real "fun" began.

So yeah Neil and I stayed upstairs with the 2 younger boys. Neil in the bedroom with Chase and I stayed on the foldout in the living room with Alex. Aiden slept on the fold out downstairs. Everyone was sleeping great until around 10:30ish when the people next door decided to have a party. Their balcony connected to the window right next to where I was sleeping. Around 11 I was just fed up. I went to peek out the window to see if I could tell how many people were there and a girl proceeds to lean over the balcony right in front of the window and start vomitting. I WAS DONE!!!! I called the office and the lady assured me they would send someone out. Around midnight they are still going strong. I called back. At this point some chick is crying and ranting and her friend is trying to console her. Every other word is an f-bomb over and over and over. THANKFULLY ALEX WAS SLEEPING THROUGH IT ALL as you could hear them like they were in the room. So yeah the front office says they will call the cops. Instead they send out a security guard who we are informed is really just a matinence guy. He tells them they need to stop partying by 1 am. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?! I gave up. They died out around 3. I fell asleep around then and woke up about 4 times between then and 6 when Alex woke up.

So we ate breakfast with Mom and Mike and then they went home. We called the hotel and asked for the room to be written off, we had to sign a no party contract beforehand and felt it should be free if they were going allow others to party without kicking them out or offering to change our room or SOMETHING. They agreed pretty easily and so the hotel was free which freed up cash for us to go to the aquarium with Michele, Bobby, Randy and the kids. So that made the puking, crying, and partying worth it -- almost. :0)

It was our 3rd time to the aquarium. The little guys 2nd time, they didn't remember it. Aiden did. It was everyone else's first time. It's alot of fun. The boys all had a great time and we got alot of great photos and made alot of fun memories.

We made it home with no further eventfulness and overall we had a GREAT trip!! The boys are ready for next year. :0)