Dallas Ya'All!

I'm Back from Dallas! Above is a cowhide that I just happened to be seated under during dinner on Tuesday night with my friend Amber! I actually didn't even notice it until we were paying our checks. So I had to be a tourist and take a picture.

I left Monday morning at 4am with a layover in Houston getting to Dallas at 10am CST. I immediately got my rental car and drove 45 mins in the rain to my first appointment. (I did stop for a quick lunch at Braums). 3 clinics later after 5pm I checked into my hotel and collapsed. I ended up walking down a block to the little outdoor mall and got dinner and starbucks and came home to find out i had to figure out how to use the sleep number bed. (apparently nothing was simple)

Tuesday it didn't rain so I had breakfast with one of my mobile Drs and made the mistake of ordering tap water. When I drank it i must have made a face b/c the Dr started laughing and explained that the warm and cold water tends to mix during certain parts of the year and causes it to taste funny. (HE wasn't drinking the water) It tasted kind of like dirt...

I had lunch at a HUGE Frisco mall where there was a Ice Skating rink inside of it... and I got to meet up with an old coworker who lives in Dallas. I saw 6 different clinics that day and got back to my room about 7pm. My good friend Amber (who went to high school with me) moved out to Tx about 6? years ago so she was great enough to come pick me up and take me to dinner and see some real cowboys! (I complained that I hadn't see a single cowboy hat so far)

Surprisingly Dallas is very similar to Baltimore, but it has much larger sky scrapers and only small trees. I kind of drove all over the area and a lot of it is becoming very posh/up-in coming. I also got to see the new and old Dallas Cowboys stadium.

And yes sorry mom I took these while driving... I didn't have my eye up to the camera or anything though. Just point and click and hope for the best

Dallas has CRAZY highways! They drive 70/80mph constantly.



This is where Amber took me! The Fort Worth Stock Exchange! Its very touristy, but unfortunately by the time we got there (8pm) most of it was closed.

Me, a Longhorn & a Cowboy

Yes I am on a real longhorn!

Amber and I, apparently the cowboy sucks at taking pictures

This was my educational part of the night, its a metal sign on a wall showing what the cowboy's proper formation is while herding cattle. BTW this place takes cattle through the streets twice a day for a round up and does a wild west show.

I said that i wanted the light up head to put in my front lawn for part of my christmas decorations

Weds saw two more clinics, made it to the airport by 2pm, where there was a Mary Kay convention ending (mary kay has a HUGE building in dallas) so the estrogen levels at the airport were at their highest peak. Then due to weather delays my flight there and from Memphis was delayed and it took me about 10hrs to get home. Luckily I had a book (which i completely finished while waiting) It was a great trip I really love getting out and talking with the clinic's first hand, much more rewarding then on the phone.

Home now, big weekend ahead! Tomorrow Lisa and I are taking the kids to the GB Carnival, then sat is my Godson's 1st birthday party! I can't believe it! Sat night my parents/brother and I are going to see Paul McCartney!!! Sunday trying to relax with some girl friends and taking brandon to see some goats mowing the lawn at a park in Pasadena! (they are using 40 goats instead of more non-environmentally safe things to cut the grass)

Evenings on the Beach

These are a few shots from our first night and last night at the beach.

Looking for shells

throwing sand into the puddle

The Harrison's

B deff likes to run! And FAST!

Jumping into puddlesThanks for checking out our Vaca pics for 2009! B has already asked to go back to the beach, we told him next year... (hopefully that will be a Disney Beach~)

Keep us in your thoughts next week as I go to Dallas,TX alone for work! And YES I know it will be HOT!

Pool Pictures

B liked the pool the best, he had a floaty that was attached to a "shirt" so he could swim on his own. (since he's so independent that worked the best) and he loved to jump in (as you can see)

(we just thought it was funny him having a belly shirt when he got out of the water)

Beach Pics!

You can see he's smiling in this one.

What I love about MB is that the water is warm, and its much more spread out then OC so there are less people on the beach. (although its deff starting to get filled, i was shocked since my last visit 5yrs ago). Brandon loved to build sandcastles and water pits on the beach, and have us pick him up to "jump" over the waves.

(He's kicking the sand that i would shovel on his feet)

Vacation Pictures!

As I promised here are the Vacation pictures. There are so many I'm not quite sure how to do this...

Well first for those who don't know let me give the explanation of importance to this trip.

My parents started visiting Myrtle Beach, SC for golf/vacations before I was born and then for the majority of my life (before marriage) my immediate family and uncle/aunt & 3 cousins have been going to Myrtle beach every summer for vacation.

My family would get a condo and then my cousins family would do the condo directly above us, for 1 to 2 weeks every July. Kenn has gone twice with us (once before marriage and once after) and with us being out of the house, and James not wanting to go on vacation my parents just started to go other places during the summer.

For the last 2 summers we have taken Brandon to Ocean City to visit with Kenn's aunts/uncle/cousins and we have all enjoyed it so much i just thought "wow i wish my parents could see this" so last July 08 we decided that's what we would do for this year.

So although 2 of my cousins & my brother were not able to go, the rest of the family resumed to the condos again. (although this year we broke tradition and stayed in a different condo 2 buildings over where we could get a 3bedroom one.

While i was packing up at home i came into the room and Brandon had crawled into his clothing hamper...

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We left 7am on Sat morning, had 1/2hr stop for lunch/gas and made it there around 3pm, so we did great on time!

Every morning we would get up, have breakfast...

and go to the beach and pool. Then we would come back, have lunch then take naps/read
(this is the one day kenn took a nap with brandon)

And then go out to dinner and an evening activity...

Brandon LOVED to push the elevator button (we were on the 4th floor)

Brandon go to play his first mini golf game!

GrandRuss & B. (my father is an great golfer, he and my uncle played almost every day)

Daddy teaching b. (kenn and my mom even got to go play golf on their own one morning)

Brandon went through 3 clubs, the plastic, then the reg childs club then my club....

This one he was actually able to roll the ball in the hole!


My mother, Kenn and B and I went to Alligator Adventure one day, which is like a small zoo for alligators/crocodiles and some exotic reptiles. At first brandon was so/so interested. (his new saying is "No Thanks") so he'd walk up, look for a second and say "No Thanks" and walk away. Then after we were finished we got him a bottle of water while were walking out of the place and all of a sudden he was all ready to go back and do it again. (there must have been something in that water) so with a pleasant B we walked around again.
Going into the place...
(this is the view over the fence that brandon was looking through)
B and some baby alligatorsThis is the first time around so he's giving the look that says "i hate you for making me stand here while you take pictures of me"
The Albino Alligator, taken by Kenn.

We purchased a stuffed alligator which Brandon holds at night when watching TV and a plastic squeaking albino one that b now makes "bite" my hand while he's in the bathtub, which i squeal at and he giggles uncontrollably. its pretty darn cute.

The last night we were there Kenn, B and I went to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe (which I went to the first week it opened back in 1995!)

He liked the guitars on the walls and the music videos playing on TV. He spent most of his time walking around with Kenn looking at everything.

we stop in the gift shop and as we are leaving B starts to cry and so we both look down puzzled and ask "Do you want something?"... (Now B is the complete opposite of me he has zero interest in gift shops and he NEVER wants anything)

His response....

DRUMSTICKS!

(we didn't even notice them there) so after an $18.00 purchase of sticks we had the happiest b we prob had all week!

Daddy, B and drumsticks outside of HardRock.

"I loooooooooove DRUMSTICKS"- Brandon Chisholm


2hrs later, still hugging them inside of the car on the way home. The first thing he did when we got home to MD was run upstairs and start playing his drum. We are def. getting a full drumkit for him for Christmas this year.

Ok NEXT post will have all the beach and pool pictures :)