Fall Break in Texas

We just got home from a wonderful fall break in Texas. We got to visit the Drake cousins and see some of my cousins- Zach and Trevor Bogart. We left Monday afternoon after Chris fixed my van's timing belts. It took him about 18 hours and he worked so hard. When we finally got to leave, we drove straight to Fort Worth to meet everyone for dinner. We drove to the Fort Worth Stockyards and explored there for a little bit. 

 

Benson loved all these little horses. 

 

 

The kids really loved petting the horses. I think they would have loved to have gone for a trail ride, but when Dad saw the trail ride was basically a ride on pavement, we decided it wasn't the authentic experience we were looking for. 

 

 

Eventually we all met at "Risky's BBQ" for dinner. We got to meet the Bogart cousins too. It was so fun to be all together. 

 

These cuties loved having their own table.

We had to get a group picture of the 2nd generation cousins. 
Bailey was obsessed with McKenzie and Caroline (Trevor's little girls) and Zach's little guy, Luke, fit right in with the group of boys. It was so fun!

After dinner we went back to Uncle Joseph's house to sleep. The kids had so much fun staying up late, playing their tablets and the switch together. They were up way too late but it was too much cousin cuteness to stop. 

The next day we slept in and had a delicious breakfast made by Uncle Joseph. Then we went back to the stockyards to see the Cattle Drive. They only do it twice a day and we had missed it the previous night.  I sure love these handsome boys of mine!

We waited for just a little bit while the cattle were gathered and then we were surprised to realize that we were at the very beginning of the cattle drive. 

We couldn't believe how long the horns were. 

 

After the cattle drive we got a group picture and then we toured the Texas stock exchange. It was said that during the height of the Texas cattle drive more money changed hands there then at the NY stock exchanged. 

We also did a little window shopping. I had to get a pressed penny so we found one and the kids found all sorts of souvenirs that they "had to have".  

 

After leaving the stockyards we all went to lunch at a local pizza place that Uncle Joseph recommended. Again, the cousins had their own table and they ate their weight in pizza from the buffet. 

After lunch we went to a trampoline park and played for a couple hours. 

The Dads played hard too!

The kids had a blast playing together and bounced their little hearts out. 

We are so grateful for cousins who are also best friends. 

We eventually had to say goodbye to the cousins and we drove to Grapevine, Texas. We had a reservation at "Great Wolf Lodge" and we surprised the kids with it. 

We arrived and got checked in and the kids were so excited. 
Because it was October, they were doing the "Howl-O-Ween" special so we got to trick-or-treat around the hotel. 

I had bought the kids matching pajamas and we all got wolf ears from the hotel. The kids looked so cute together. 

The kids had a great time trick-or-treating around the hotel. They got bags full of candy.

Benson took the "Howl" part of "Howl-o-Ween" very seriously. 

The kids loved this picture of wolves. 
Each kid also got a stuffed wolf and they were in love with them. 

After trick-or-treating, we went back to our room to change and go play at the water park until it closed.

I didn't get a ton of pictures because I was busy riding slides and swimming with my kiddos. It was so fun. After playing at  the water park, we went to the restaurant to get some dinner.
We were so tired at this point that we drug our paws back to our room and immediately fell asleep. 

The next morning we slept in, except Dad. He couldn't sleep so he left to go get breakfast for all of us. 
He came back with delicious breakfast burritos and we loved it. 
Then we went to play again at the water park. We played all day until we had to leave to drive home around 3 pm. 

I love these pictures of the kids in their yellow swimsuits. We had a great time playing together. 

Benson was cracking me up as he tried to stick his face in the fountains. 

He's such a cute buster. Bailey and Tucker really enjoyed the wave pool. 

Benson loved the hot tub and he really loved it when Tanner would play in there with him. 

We rode all the slides more than once and the kids loved it. Even Benson was big enough for the big slides. He rode the biggest one with us but decided it was to scary and stuck to the tube slides. 

He didn't even cry when him and Dad tipped over coming out of the tube slide. He's a brave little guy. 

Dad and I enjoyed watching our kids play independent of us. The kids are really getting to a fun age!

We had to get a picture in front of the fireplace before leaving. 

We had a great time at Great Wolf Lodge. I don't think we will go back unless I can get a great "groupon" deal again. But we really enjoyed our first visit to GWL and would love to go again sometime if possible. 

After checking out at GWL, we grabbed some dinner on the road and then drove the rest of the way home. 
It was such a great fall break. We miss having the Drakes live 3 minutes away, but we are grateful they love to have visitors. We will definitely be going back. 
Happy fall everyone!