Our Vacation to the Middle of the Sun

I haven’t gotten around to writing about our vacation last month (yikes! Summer is just flying) yet. I’ve meant to. I’ve had time. I just haven’t had much motivation to sit down and write. It’s weird when I write it’s generally because something strikes me and I have a compulsion to write about it – like our potty incident with Sam the other morning. There are other things I want to write about but that takes more effort in a way.

This morning, hiding in a stall in the women’s bathroom (teehee) I got the compulsion to write about Dallas. Okay I bet you’re wondering what about the woman’s washroom reminds me about Dallas aren’t ya? No Dallas does not resemble a public bathroom. J I was doing ‘my business’ while two other women yelled at the top of their lungs back and forth about how hot it is here right now. The conversation they were having made me think of Dallas and it’s poor citizens who really do know what hot is.

I think Dallas reset my internal body thermometer. Or maybe it’s been broken all along since stunningly hot as it was while we were there I didn’t find it all that onerous for the most part. It was kind of “cool” (as in a unique experience). The morning we left for Dallas I turned on the news and the forecaster was going on about how “very hot” it was going to be in our area that day. Temperature was forecast to hit 86F + humidity. I thought in my naïve little mind that this would make the temperatures in Dallas easy to adjust to. How much hotter could it be there? Hmmm… how much hotter is Mercury than Pluto?

We arrived at 5 in the evening and it was 102F + humidity. Didn’t get much cooler the 6 days we were there. Sam didn’t like the heat at all. One afternoon when leaving the hotel he got to the edge of the shade and stopped dead and announced “Pas ça! Chaud!” (Not that! Hot! ). He refused to go any further. He looked at me like I was crazy to keep taking him out into this awful heat (smart kid!). When I picked him up to carry him, he buried his face in my shoulder to escape the sun. Only looked out for a moment to give the whole situation a “raspberry” and then promptly buried his head in my shoulder again. He certainly isn’t a fan of temperature extremes be they hot or cold and isn’t shy about letting you know how he feels. It’s completely adorable.

Don’t know what he’s up to here:



It was a challenging trip for all. Sam’s not the best air traveler and we were traveling over his nap (both coming and going). Unfortunately on the outgoing trip he was just too exhausted and couldn’t wind down enough to fall asleep but was certainly unhappy (read screaming at the top of his little lungs) at being awake. Kamryn was no superstar either. We were probably expecting a lot more maturity out of her than we got. I think she traveled better as a younger child even. We were those people on the plane that EVERYONE hates and no one looks at with understanding. Ah well, we will never see any of those people again.

Both kids did well in the hotel though although I don’t see how they couldn’t have. Through a little bit of planning and a big mix-up we ended up staying in the Presidential Suite. We took pictures of the kids standing under the sign outside the room that read Presidential Suite because it’s doubtful that such a chance will happen again until they are rich and famous and paying for it themselves.



It was like a VERY nice apartment that we wouldn’t afford to rent. Each child had its own double “sleep number” bed. They shared a bedroom and slept really well (and late!) during the whole vacation. It was Sam’s first real experience with sleeping in a bed (he naps occasionally in bed at my parents house). He never even came close to falling out of the bed (the first night I surrounded him with pillows and put pillows on the floor around the bed but he stayed right in the centre of the bed all night long). He stayed in bed all night and did fine in the morning – both he and Kamryn would troop into our room on waking without getting into trouble first. This is a positive sign for when we finally free Sam from the crib on his twelfth birthday.

While in Dallas we visited the Dallas Arboretum where the kids had a wild time playing in this “giant frog” fountain. Sam wasn’t too sure at first but certainly got into it after a while. Kamryn was born to be wet.



Sam, checking out a treehouse:



We also visited the Dallas World Aquarium where both kids got a real kick out of all the animals. Sam most literally squealed in delight at the sharks. Aquarium is definitely a misnomer since it’s kind of a mini-indoor zoo.

Mostly we enjoyed visiting with some really great friends. We got together with a bunch of people that I met through Friends By Adoption. People I have spoken to and seen pictures of for years and had never met. It was surreal to open our hotel room door and see a wall of faces that I knew attached to moving and talking bodies. It was a great day. Everyone was nicer than you could even imagine. Kamryn is still talking about one of the little boys she met as if they have regular play dates. It was a wonderful day.

The highlight though was the time we spent with some very special friends, a friend and her family that I met way back when I started journaling on The Labor of Love. I’m so glad we connected so long ago. They were the reason we went to Dallas and they were such terrific hosts. They really went out of their way to make us feel welcome. They took us out to eat (oh we went to the coolest restaurant called Babes and ate real Southern cooking; I wish I knew how to make biscuits like that; I’d be the size of a house! Okay, I must admit that I’m on a quest to learn how to make biscuits like that. I yearn for them. ) They had us over to their house; we had a wonderful barbecue/pool party at C’s Mom’s house. They totally spoiled us. Last night in the car Kamryn was asking about when we were going back to visit C’s mother. She wanted to know why we couldn’t drive there. I asked her if she remembered the 6-hour flight. Lol We thought that Dallas was a once in a lifetime vacation, but I’m almost certain we will go back. Probably not in mid-July though.

Oh interesting aside, the heat the women were complaining about in the bathroom today (and oh they were complaining big time!) … well yesterday it was a dizzying 87. How DID we survive? lol Right now it’s 85F (humidex of 107) heading for a high of 93F + whatever the humidity brings it to. It’s warm, today especially, but really… In two months we’ll be lucky to crack 50F. Who will be complaining then?