When TCU's schedule was released and I saw that there was a home game Thanksgiving weekend AND it was Eddie's mom's birthday, I suggested we go out for the weekend. We ended up going Tuesday through Monday (we landed at midnight Monday night! There was a mix up between AM and PM.....ahem....).
It was a fun and busy week out there. As usual, I took a million pictures.
Flying to Texas was okay... I sat with Andy and Eddie sat with Cal. I drew the short straw :) kidding. Kinda. Not really.
I downloaded Planes on the ipad and had it all ready to go-- but when we got on the plane (ha), it wasn't on the ipad. I have no idea what happened, but I was NOT happy with myself. Andy wanted nothing to do with his ipad any more. Soooo, I was off to entertain him on my own!
We arrived in one piece, as did our luggage and we headed to Mimi and Poppy's house to drop our things and play a little before heading over to see Poppy's practice.
The boys loved watching the players and imitating them on the sidelines.
Andy was taking a knee here-- like the players behind him.
Cal watches every single TCU game that he can. He memorizes them and knows the players. His favorite this season was Jason Verrett. Cal finds him on every defensive play and cheers for him-- hard. Cal and Andy both got the number 2 jerseys long before Cal developed his obsession with Jason. The best thing about Jason? He is so so so nice. He came straight over to Cal and picked him up and was all smiles in pictures-- he even played catch with Cal. I thought Cal's head was going to pop.
There are two number 2s on TCUs team-- we won't go into the issue that caused this year (grrrrrr), the other being Trevone Boykin. He came over to get in a picture with both boys and their number 2 jerseys.
After the picture, Andy yelled at Poppy: "POPPY! DOWN! SET! HUT!" and then tackled him.
Walking back to the offices, it was the most beautiful night- I made everyone stop to take a picture. They used to all get annoyed and roll their eyes with me taking pictures all the time, but when you get gems like the one below, people no longer complain :)
We did lots of fun things while we were out there. We went to a park to play-- this was about half a mile down the road from my in law's house. We rode big wheels and plasma cars there-- the boys were spent by the time we got there! It was a beautiful day to be outside.
When I downloaded Planes onto Andy's ipad, I downloaded the 2011 Rose Bowl game onto Cal's. The boys have watched it at least 80 times-- they love this game! (and, uh...I do too!)
Both boys were in need of haircuts. So I gave them ponytails to give their daddy a heart attack.
We decided to try putting both boys in sleeping bags this trip. We usually put Cal on an air mattress and Andy in the pack n play, but Andy has just flat out exceeded the capacity of a pack n play! Mimi bought each boy a sleeping bag and they LOVED sleeping in the same room! I about melted. I am seriously considering putting them in the same room at home-- it would probably be a horrible decision, but I think they would both love it!
Thanksgiving Day....
So. I am ALL about traditions. I always have been. So when Eddie came to me and said he wanted to go to a Cowboys game on Thanksgiving day, I immediately said no. Who would want to go to a football game on Thanksgiving? (besides the 80,000 who packed the stadium....). To me, being all together on Thanksgiving was more important. Eddie really wanted to take Cal to the game. I said fine- as long we can do the family thanksgiving dinner before you go. Well, as things turned out, Eddie's sister was getting in around 1, we had to leave for the game around then, and people were coming and going from TCU. So, I agreed to go to the game with Eddie IF our family of 4 could sit around the table together and eat a meal (I sound so high maintenance, I know, but it was really important to me-- and I feel it's important to show our children that it is a day to give thanks.....) . So we sat around the table. Andy screamed that he had to poop and cried that he didn't want to go to the potty. Cal refused to sit down and hopped up and down from his seat, knocking his plate of food over. I finally looked over at Eddie and we both burst out laughing-- was this the perfect thanksgiving feast I had in mind??? HA! No, it was not at all, but it was perfectly unperfect! I am thankful we got to all sit together, even if it was kinda miserably chaotic.
So, we ate and then put Andy down for a nap and headed to Cowboy stadium. We were walking in and CalBoy wanted to hold both of our hands. I melted a little bit.
When we got there, Cal literally could not take his eyes off the field. I tried to take this picture, and Cal would smile for me, but he would not look in my direction- ha!
Eddie has a client who plays for the Cowboys so he gave us tickets. We were in the family section, sitting 5 rows up from the field.
We tried about 30 family pictures:
Selena Gomez was the halftime show...
We headed up at the end of the game to go to the family area-- Cal still didn't want to take his eyes off the game, but he couldn't quite hold up his head any more. Sleepiness was setting in.
The high light of the day was watching Cal's hero walk in-- Bruce Carter. This is Eddie's client. Cal loves the TCU player, but he ADORES Bruce. He idolizes him, really. He carries around his trading card and talks to him. Bruce walked into the room and Cal's whole face lit up. Bruce immediately picked him up and Cal was beaming. I love love love this picture. I may frame it for Cal for Christmas-- is that cheesy??
Bruce's mom was worried about Cal getting cold on the way home so she pulled out the hat she just bought from her bag and put it on Cal's head. We got in the car and his little eyes got heavy and he was going....
going.....
GONE. sweet dreams, little buddy.
Cal is a heavy heavy sleeper. We carried him in and put him on Poppy's chest for some snuggle time. He never stirred and Poppy was happy as can be. It's rare to get to hold a still Cal.
Mimi had a birthday while we were there so I HAD to make a banner for her!
Cal and CB got some good snuggle time on the couch-- he was a wild man, but he loves his CB!
We went out to eat on Friday night to a fun Mexican restaurant. Now. y'all know I LOVE Andy. I adore both of my children. But Andy's terrible twos on this trip were enough to drive a momma to hit the bottle....or the margaritas in this case. Bless his heart, his tummy was bothering him and when he has to poop, he is just ROTTEN to be around. He had on average 30 meltdowns a day that were all the fall on the ground screaming kind. It was exhausting. And frustrating. And so so so hard.
This night at dinner, he really had to poop, but was refusing to go. We kept saying he had to go to the bathroom, but when we got there, he wouldn't go. He also would not let anyone else take him to the potty. Just me. He had that attitude the entire trip, really. I had all the sweet wonderful people willing to help me...and he would NOT let them. CB and Mimi are like saints-- CB seriously is the greatest person alive. I think she saw me losing my mind dealing with all of the meltdowns and she tried so hard to help me-- she is like my angel.
We went to dinner and I spent the majority of the night walking back and forth to the bathroom with Andy. But it was still a fun time!
That night, after we got home, Tommy (my new brother in law) bought a Santa suit and called the boys via facetime. It. Was. AWESOME. We had all had several margaritas and thought it was fantastic-- but the kids were freaking out. They thought it was so so cool.
Saturday was game day! It was a great game-- we hung in there longer than we thought we would, even though we lost in the end.
We got to the stadium early to see Poppy and I had to take another picture of his office. He has two HUGE bulletin boards filled with all the pics I take of the boys. Each picture has about 15 stacked behind it and then on his book shelf there is a file of all the ones that no longer fit on the boards-- and there's about 300 in there. I love it. I love seeing all the ones that make it to the board. This is why I take so many pictures every day!
Andy was ready for the game with his head set on! He was still having tummy issues this day and wanted (me) to go to the potty every 4 minutes. It was SUPER frustrating. Thankfully he got over it after the first quarter.
Me, Eddie and Cal ran across the field in the beginning of the game for the "bleacher creatures." Cal was terrified and loved it at the same time.
After a HUGE meltdown with Andy after the first quarter, he mellowed out for the rest of the game. We came home and ate dinner and the boys watched more football together.
Bath time smiles
More park fun...
We headed to the airport Monday night (ahem) and I knew the boys were going to be exhausted when we landed so we bathed them and took them to the airport in jammies. This is how we were traveling:
Once again, I sat with Andy and Eddie sat with Cal. Of course, Cal fell asleep in flight and didn't wake up until 8 the next morning. Andy on the other hand, did not sleep:
he wasn't bad, really, but he would not close his eyes and go to sleep. They kept all the light on on the plane and I think that made it hard to sleep. I had a man come up to me after the flight and tell me what an awesome kid he thought Andy was. Uhh. Maybe it was because when we landed and the whole plane was silent Andy yelled out: "TWO LEGIT. TWO LEGIT TO QUIT, HEY HEYYYYYY!"
We headed to baggage claim where Andy ran laps while Cal did this:
Never woke up....
He went straight to bed and slept hard all night!
We had a great trip out to Texas and now we are looking forward to Eddie's family (it's weird calling them that because I feel like they are my family) is all coming in for Christmas!
Hope everyone had a great turkey day!
