stay-cation, part 1

there's nothing like a little "time-off" for daddy, while he's got a conference for which he's supposed to be general go-fer boy, for a great family stay-cation! fortunately for us, it worked out really, really well!

paul's last day of practicum (essentially an unpaid mandatory internship) at galaxy counseling center was tuesday may 31. the conference (the name of which i have forgotten) started officially thursday, so paul was still really busy that week. fortunately, the conference was taking place in the fairmont hotel in downtown dallas, and double-fortunately the person in charge of the conference was paul's advisor, and he managed to get two connecting rooms for us for thursday night, so the kids and i got to go down to dallas and have a little time with paul, and have a great vacation too! we LOVED the hotel!

the girls, and kitty, coloring on fairmont hotel stationary.

 i think everyone's favorite part of the hotel was actually the view (though i didn't take any pictures). the kids all went straight to the window-wall upon entering the room and pointed out various items of interest (fountains, people, cars, a swimming pool on a parking garage roof, lots of really, really tall buildings with cool windows, lighting, painting, etc)


needless to say, the hotel beds were also a major fascination point (not to mention the tv that you could see from the bed...)

the kids and i went on a little walk while daddy was particularly busy, and right next to our hotel was a building i'd told afton about once before, and she remembered, so we went there first. it's called fountain place (the big green building with the triangle-shaped point for those of you that remember the dallas sky-line but don't know/remember this place). there are fairly extensive (for the city) grounds under/around the building that are covered with water and fountains. most of them are small like these, with trees and tables and benches and things to enjoy the view. they also have a great "dancing" fountain, that squirts water straight up in patterns. the kids all enjoyed sitting and watching that (again, no pictures) for a little while.

fountain place



malachi needed his own "bed" and though he didn't make it through the night in it, he loved having a place of his own



when daddy was finally done with business it was too late to go to a restaurant for dinner, so he picked up some texas barbeque for us to enjoy at the hotel. yum!

friday morning we thought we'd take a trolley ride (since we didn't have time to go swimming before daddy had to be off to another meeting... darn conference!). since i was more or less sitting still for the next hour, i took lots of pictures :)

here we go! (yes rayna was a little nervous, though she got over it pretty quickly)

 

see, i told you she got over it! and yes, i was there too.




malachi was having the time of his life!

 

our driver was a retiree that studies dallas history in his spare time, so he assured us he could tell us more than the average driver, and i'm sure he did! he was a great tour guide!



he also let us ring the trolley bell when we were disembarking. it's a button on the floor so you can just step on it, though chi liked to bang it with his hand. the girls were a little more nervous, though afton did ring it once.




if i'd gotten around to posting the pictures right after we got back i could tell you how old this trolley is... i remember it was from melbourne, and it's been in more or less continual use since it was first made. the only  real modification is the a/c (thank heavens!)

the best part of the hotel experience for me though, was friday night. my beautiful amazing loving awesome sisters came to watch the kids at our house so paul and i could have a date-night. though i'm not sure that's the right phrase because i had three hours to myself while he was still conferencing. (that's right folks, three solid hours to do absolutely nothing without any kids!!!) then we had a late dinner and walk through west end. it was nice to enjoy the energy of the city, and have a little break from the routine of the average day. thanks so much missy, nicki and naomi for watching the kids that night!