~The Speth Family~: Thoughts on... Texas

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Thoughts on... Texas

Last weekend John decided to ship me off. Just kidding :) A few weeks ago (round about my birthday) John decided it would be a nice time for me to go and visit my sister and her family. He checked into his sky miles and found out he had a free ticket and blamo! It was done. I don't think I have traveled by myself since we got married - it was kind of weird. But FUN weird.

The weekend flew by terribly fast with lots and lots of mixed feelings. I was sad that it was passing so quickly because I really enjoyed spending time with my sister, but glad that it was so fast because I very much wanted to be with John and the kids. If they could have come with me it would have been perfect!

I arrived late Wednesday night and went to bed. I woke up Thursday with ANOTHER cold. This one felt strangely different than the previous two colds of the previous two weeks. But I was still fully functioning so we got up and went to the Dallas temple. It was really nice, except I was freezing (the flu, maybe?) and a very nice grandma-type lady gave me a shawl to keep me warm - and it WAS warm! Those shawls are under-rated. After that we grabbed some lunch, picked up the kids from school and drug them to the outlet mall where my sister gave me a much needed lesson on finding clothes that fit and flatter. So I bought a few things (John also sent me with a little spending money!) and went home feeling super successful.

Friday started with far less productivity. I was sick and slept until noon. Really, I could have easily staid in bed all day, but they had bought us tickets to Cirque du Soleil. THAT was super cool! Lots of acrobats and contortionists and the TRAMPOLINE GUYS - holy moly. I could watch that trampoline part for hours. The story was about bugs - it was cute! Tami and I took her daughter, Kalia. I think she really liked it and now I want to look into taking my kids to the water version in Vegas if its appropriate. I think they would love the acrobatics.

Saturday was filled with relaxing, sitting in the warm sun (one of my favorite past times), more shopping and playing with the kids and driving around to look for stores that may or may not exist. A little advice - if you are going to live in the sprawl laden Dallas area you HAVE to have either a GPS or Google app and even still... but that is all I will say about that.

Dallas is nice. Its CLEAN and the people are SUPER friendly and from what I hear many areas are very safe. I had a REALLY hard time getting over the lack of mountains (or hills or any sort of elevation change). Last week I was looking at the mountains from my back porch and I thought, "eeh, they're nice and all, but I could live without them." I have since come to realize that they are in fact BEAUTIFUL and a true blessing for those stalwart pioneers who settled this state. It seemed to me that despite the lovely suberbia surrounding the Dallas area, Heavenly Father had forgotten to decorate the place (lack of nature). Despite my sudden crazy attachment to naturific landscapes, I really did enjoy Dallas and I am very glad I got to spend time with my sister and her cute family.

Here are a couple of pictures of my niece and nephew whom I miss and love and had so much fun with!

Grady and Kalia sitting on my suitcase while I tried to zip it up!

Going shopping

These two are CRAZY fun!

A few people have asked me how John survived with the kids. This is the funniest question for me to hear because he has never been anything except fabulous. He told me he would be on his best daddy behavior (meaning patient) and the girls told me he definitely was :) On Thursday night he took them to the art fair at Kylie's school (for like two and a half hours!). I have to say he was VERY brave to take all three of them without help, but he did and they had fun and I heard about it over and over again! Friday they went to the park and to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa Spencer. Saturday they went to another park with John's family and to Discovery Gateway, which I heard was fantastic!

Discovery Gateway with cute cousin Addisyn

I never have to worry when John is in charge of the kids. That sounds kind of weird, because why should I have to, he's their dad! But people keep telling me how lucky I am that he is so involved and willing to do everything on his own when I'm away - and I believe them! Our responsibilities with the children haven't always been so balanced, but the older we get the more comfortable we are at sharing responsibilities. I think we have had to work pretty hard at determining what we each need to compromise to make things run smoothly, but luckily we both have been willing to sacrifice some, and it has been worth it! He really is a good husband/dad.

3 comments:

HeidiFebruary 16, 2011 at 12:15 PM
Wowwee! Congratulations on getting away and enjoying some time to yourself and with Tami/kids! :) And so glad John/kids enjoyed themselves too. What a fantastic trip! Hugs to you!
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JulieFebruary 16, 2011 at 3:59 PM
so fun! I love the new look of your blog too!
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Tyler & LauraFebruary 16, 2011 at 8:50 PM
So glad you were able to get away for a bit!! Bummer about those dang colds you keep getting. We need summer to get here!!!
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