On Friday after school, Kevin, the kids and I hit the road to head north to Dallas to visit Kevin’s brother Brian and his family.  Because it was a Friday at rush hour, we took the longer (mileage wise) back way to avoid terrible traffic through Austin, Waco, and part of Dallas. The back way is longer, but pretty and very little traffic.  It also has very little by way of food options, and so when we found a Dairy Queen along the way, we stopped and grabbed some dinner – and ice cream, because, you know, Dairy Queen ;).

We arrived at Brian and Rachel’s about 9pm, ingot the kids to bed, stayed up talking for a bit, and then all the adults went to bed as well.  The next morning, Kevin got up early and played video games with Brian, and then went off to play golf.  As for me, I took advantage of them living in the country (or at the edge of the city), and took a beautiful 3 mile walk. It made me miss walking in the country back in Pennsylvania – so pretty and peaceful.

Soon though, it was time for General Conference. We loved getting to listen to it together, and at one point, Rachel got out the snowcone machine and made treats for all the kids – which they loved! There was also conference bingo and other little things to help them stay occupied and to listen, so that the adults could listen as well.

In between the first and second session, Rachel took all the kids to the trampoline park to burn off some energy, and they had a blast! Lily even snapped a picture of Derek making it up on top of the big wall, since he was the only one who was successful at it.  (It may be because he is almost six feet tall – ha ha!)

During the afternoon session, my niece, Dana, who really doesn’t like people touching her hair, let me do a super fancy braid for her.  I loved getting to do it, and that she trusted me enough for it.  (It reminded me of something Katniss would have in The Hunger Games.)

That night, I took Derek to a concert in Fort Worth, but that deserves its own post ;).  

On Sunday morning, we had a quick breakfast and then hit the road back to San Antonio. We were able to listen to the Sunday evening session, which Derek and I missed because of the concert, and that Arthur missed because he was playing with his cousins.  Luckily, Kevin didn’t mind listening to it again.  We finished it exactly as the Sunday morning session was beginning, which was perfect. And since we were in the car, the kids were a captive audience – at least when they were awake – ha ha!  

We got home in time to get unpacked, grab some lunch and then settle down to watch the final session from the comfort of our living room.  As we were sitting there and watching, it made me think back to last year when we watched it at our neighbor’s house, since we still couldn’t move into our home yet since it was still in renovation mode.  It sure made me grateful for all of our blessings!