Journey to Pridemore Pastures : December 2011

I initially wrote this post on December 14, the day Jamie returned from Tonga. Right before I posted it the computer I was working on decided to shut down, and I thought all was lost. I just went back to re-write about this and found that a draft was saved. Yay! So here ya go...

Today was a big day that our family had been anticipating for a long time...Jamie is back in the States! It's been just over 14 months since we dropped her off at the airport to begin her 27 months of Peace Corps service on the Pacific island Tonga, so to say we were ecstatic to see her would be a huge understatement!
Yesterday the girls and I drove to Scottsville and today we were all up bright and early to go pick her up at the Nashville airport. We arrived at the airport around the time her plane was set to land and tried to figure out where to park and where to go. I'll avoid the frustrating details around our parking, but let's just say the security guard working near the 10 minute parking area we were in was extremely frustrating and in full rent-a-cop mode! When Jamie came down the escalator where we were waiting, Mom and the girls were the only ones inside (because Dad had I had been asked to drive our cars around the airport circle and re-park...seriously) but sweet Ella was crouched down at the bottom of the escalator holding one half of a "Welcome Home Aunt JJ" sign, and Jamie said she wished she could freeze that moment when they first saw each other and Ella whispered "that's JJ!" to Mom. When Jamie left last October Kendall was 6 months old and Ella was 3 months shy of 3 years old, so they have changed a lot since she left! I made it inside soon and we all exchanged lots of hugs. Then another security guard made me go back outside with my unattended car, since Dad standing next to it with his car wasn't enough. I'll go on and mention that I greatly dislike the Nashville airport! Ella was so excited to see Jamie, and kept saying "Can JJ ride in our car? I missed JJ. I like JJ's suitcase." ha ha.
We went to a nearby Dairy Queen for breakfast since Jamie had insisted on her "first meal" being a Blizzard. Unfortunately her stomach was upset from ice cream at the LA airport the day before, so she stuck with biscuits and gravy. From there to mom and dad's house she rode with us. Ella talked a million miles a minute, and Jamie was cracking me up as she readjusted to the country. When we drove by the Sonic in Scottsville she said, "Oh my gosh SONIC!!" I said, "Do you want me to stop and get something?" She said, "No, I just FORGOT about it! Ahhhh I can't wait to get a cranberry limeade!" ha ha! Oh the little things! Tonight mom made her favorite, meatloaf, and lots of veggies, and I thought Jamie was actually going to lick her plate clean.
Ella hasn't left Jamie's side since we got to mom and dad's house. Poor Jamie is so jet-lagged. She flew to Fiji and had a 12 hour layover, then to LA with a 12 hour layover, then to Chicago for a 2 hour layover before finally arriving in Nashville. So Jamie is exhausted but Ella has been glued to her hip. She is currently sleeping in her bed with her. As you can see in the pictures below, Ella is holding her hand. Ella usually insists on sleeping on a little cot we make in Travis's room, but tonight she wanted to sleep with Aunt JJ. I initially told her no, because Jamie needs a good night's sleep and Ella is a crazy, toss and turn sleeper, but she started bawling and Jamie insisted it was ok.

So I just realized that I haven't had one single post in December. Slacker, anyone?? I did make a post when Jamie came home and had pics uploaded and everything, but as soon as I was ready to post my parents' computer decided to just shut down and all was lost. Frustrating! As much as I want to write about Jamie being home and all the fun times we had at Christmas, I feel like I can't move forward until I finish talking about Dallas. Yes, I realize that it was a month and a half ago, but we had so much fun I have to finish talking about it. So here we go, part 2 begins with Saturday.
Saturday morning we woke up and felt like exploring. My friend Erin used to live in Dallas and had given us a few recommendations of places to go, so we decided to check some of those out. The first place we went was a neat little place called Mockingbird Station. If you are familiar with Louisville, I would compare it to Westport Village. It has lots of shopping and dining. We would have probably done a lot of shopping there, but since we flew to Dallas we were limited in how much we could take back (and any space we had was pretty much gone after we shopped at the Pro Shop in the stadium!). After we left Mockingbird Station we ate at a mexican restaurant she recommended called Desperados. We were excited when we arrived and saw a sign saying that it was the "official caterer of the Dallas Cowboys." Fun! I'm sure they aren't the only restaurant in town that claims that, but it still made us excited! Our food was really good, even though we were initially scared that it might be "too" authentic for us picky eaters! We then drove by American Airlines Arena, where the Dallas Mavericks play, then decided to head back to the hotel. We were excited to get to meet up with some of Ronnie's family. His cousin Emily and aunt Cindy came by the hotel and picked us up and they drove us to where his uncle Steve, aunt Bonnie and grandma "Granner" live. Granner then took us all out for a delicious dinner at Red Lobster. We had a great time catching up with family that we don't get to see very often. After we left Emily & Cindy drove us all around Dallas and showed us places where Ronnie lived, played and went to school when he was young. They moved around a lot as kids, and Ronnie has very little recollection of his childhood. I think it was as fun for me as it was for him. As they would drive by a house Ronnie would say things like, "I remember that house, it has the huge tree in the backyard!" or "That house has a park nearby, right?" It was really fun and I think he regained a lot of memory on our tour!
The next morning was the big day, game day!! We woke up so excited and got our jerseys on. The weather was beautiful. Highs were in the 70's...I got to wear shorts to a football game in November! As we were getting ready to leave we were watching the coverage on the TV in the hotel room. All of the sudden Ronnie said, "They're on the field!! We have to go!!" So we quickly made our way to the stadium, walking amongst tons of fans...mostly Cowboys but some Bills also. If we thought it was amazing being on the field during our tour, it didn't compare to being on the field on game day! We immediately saw our favorite players on the field, Jerry Jones was walking around. One of the reasons we could see this so well is because I'm an AMAZING wife and bought ROCKING tickets. We were on the 30 yard line, 8 rows up. It was incredible. And don't ask me how much I paid for the tickets...I made a vow to never tell anyone and I'm sticking to it. :) We found out after the game that we were sitting four rows above and a few seats over from DeMarcus Ware's wife!! I had his jersey on and his wife was sitting right by us!
We had fun watching the players warm up. Ronnie and Dez Bryant had a little "exchange." It was so cool! He threw a ball that accidentally (I think...) hit a kid who was on the field in the head. Ronnie yelled out sarcastically, "Nice one, Dez!" Dez turned around and looked directly at Ronnie and pointed at him. OMG!! Then Rowdy the mascot walked in front of us and when I got out my camera he posed for me. The people sitting around us were awesome. That's always a slight concern when you are at a big game. Thankfully they were loud and energetic like we are! The guy sitting next to Ronnie siad, "Ok, do you high five? Because I high-five." Ronnie was like, "Dude, I'll be all over the place high fiving everyone!" It was pretty funny. Shortly before game time we decided to go on and get some food. We obviously didn't want to do this during the game, and we didn't want to do it at halftime beacuse they had one of those cool card things going where we had to hold up colored cards to spell something out. So off we went. Unfortunately this caused us to miss the big fire show on the field when the team runs out onto the field. :( This happened because I insisted on walking further around the concourse looking for something I saw during our tour, which we never found. Woops. However, we did walk right past Roger Staubach on the concourse. I didn't recognize him, but after we passed Ronnie said, "AHHHH!! That was Roger Staubach, that was Roger Staubach and I FROZE!!" Pretty cool to be so close to Cowboys hero!
The game was amazing. We've decided that I'm good luck at Cowboys games. I've been to two and both have been Cowboy blowouts. The Cowboys won 44-7. We were so excited to see a good win! They pretty much played perfect. It was awesome.
We had a great time in Dallas. I would love to make it a trip we make every few years. It was fun to relax and enjoy time with each other, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to see Texas for the first time. We had a nice flight back (I was ok...much less stressing for me!) and we were really excited to see the girls. We gave them their presents from the stadium. We got them a Cowboys Mr. Potato Head, and Ella specifically told me she wanted me to get her chapstick on our trip, and I ended up finding Cowboys chap stick. Yay! Thanks again, Mom and Dad, for taking such good care of the girls! Here are a few pictures:

Walking to the stadium