Rich and Jane v. the Big City

We were hoping and planning to go to Amarillo to visit Bonnie, David and Emery during this trip. With Beck not here yet, we were reluctant to drive 6+ hours and risk having to turn around and come right back if Sarah went into labor. So we checked into plane tickets and were shocked to find out that they would be $335 each. Wow. For a 45 minute flight! So it looks like Amarillo is off the itinerary this time. Thankfully, Bonnie and Emery already have reservations to fly in on the first weekend of December or we would have had to figure something out. Can't come to Texas and not see all the kids and grandkids!

Sarah is still hanging in there, though she's really uncomfortable and more than ready for baby to arrive. She has an appointment with her doctor tomorrow morning and a Csection scheduled for Tuesday morning if nothing happens before. At this point, we are convinced that Beck is going to wait till the scheduled date.

So we decided to drive to Oklahoma City on Friday for a quick visit with Rich's sister in law Nadine and some of her family. It's only three hours so we figured we could turn around and come back without too much trouble if need be.

It was fun to see Nadine again and to reminisce about good times. Rich had not seen her since his brother George passed away, and it's been longer for me. We were glad to catch up!

I had never met Nadine's sons Danny and Jay or their wives. We visited with Danny when we first arrived but he had already planned a hunting trip for the weekend so had to head out and I didn't get any photos of him. This is his wife Kristie.

Nadine's son Jay and his wife Angie. We had a great time chatting with them and sharing stories.

Rich and Nadine saying goodbye. We just spent one night, went out to dinner, talked a lot, got up the next morning, visited awhile and then hit the road. Very quick trip but we are happy we were able to do it! We stopped for about 20 minutes at a casino on the way back, lost some money and left. haha

Here's sweet Elle with her Daddy. She loves hanging out with him and he puts her to bed most nights. On Saturday, we promised we would be back by evening so Sarah and Miles could go out one last time with their friends. Elle and I had great fun playing with her doll Sally and reading books, including her new favorite, Going on a Bear Hunt, complete with hand motions, expressive voices and lots of enthusiasm. She wanted her Mommy and Daddy at bedtime but didn't fuss too much. She called me back once to turn on the fan, then asked for Mommy and Daddy again. I told her they'd be home soon and would come in and check on her. She said, "I just want to cry." I said, "that's okay, you can cry a little bit if you want to." So she cried softly for a few minutes but didn't get too upset, eventually falling asleep.

We kept our rental car for the weekend so thought we would run some errands today. We left the house at 11:30 AM and did not get home till 5 PM! We had way too many Dallas traffic adventures for my taste, including getting backed up for an hour in a traffic jam. It literally took us an hour to go ONE MILE. I told Rich I am not leaving the house tomorrow! We went to Target, then drove to the Bishop Arts District to seek out a place called the Soda Gallery that Rich had read about. They have a big variety of classic and hard to find sodas so we stocked up on two six packs of various soft drinks--root beer and cream soda, orange and grape and ginger ale, etc. While down there, we had some lunch and browsed a few shops. Then came the nightmare of finding our way back and a stop at the grocery store. Can you believe it took us all day to do those few things?!