germany, at last!!

6 hours of driving.

5 construction zones.

2 squealing, laughing, giggling, hitting, sleeping kids.

i can't say texans aren't friendly drivers,

but the texas way of driving is driving 90 in a 65.

waiting for germany, aka aunt natalie, to meet us at the hotel.

we were about 20 minutes earlier there than them.

seeing "her friend kait" for the first time in 2 years.

she always calls her that.

at the "fancy" mall in dallas.

saks fifth avenue.

tiffany's.

pottery barn, which i had to walk by and not go into.

if they would've had a pb kids i would've gone in.

those girls ran all through the mall.

i was one of those parents.

totally worth it.

they had so much fun.

you know those kids that you want your kid to be bff's with,

but they just don't get along well enough to make it as bff's??

em and kait are not those kids at all.

ceiling in the mall over the ice skating rink.

yes, ice skating rink in the mall.

so weird.

all the levels.

our kid parade.

lunch time.

"you gotta pucker up your lips, like this..."

germany in the flesh.

big f and jus.

fun pic with kait.

if you ever go to dallas on a budget,

do not take your kid to american girl.

man, those dolls are expensive.

the girl's really wanted one.

bad.

we PROMISED we would take them to the disney store.

the 2nd mall of the day (in search of the disney store),

aiden found a buzz hat at jc penney.

and the girls found a carousel.

after our mall trip,

it was back to the hotel for us.

the kids were sooo crazy.

recently a friend of mine had visited disney in cali

for christmas and said the best things for kids are trips to hotels.

psshhhh!

not for mine.

they were awful.

no exaggeration.

thankfully we weren't there too long.

we made a run to our 3rd mall in search of the disney store.

and we found one!!!

finally.

the boy found lots of "howdy-howdy" toys.

thank you disney store for the abundance in toy story items that

my son can actually have.

and for the sale.

love clearance.

he made it out with 2 buzz plates, cups,

a bowl, 2 small CHEWABLE buzz and woody dolls(like dog toys almost-love them),

and a stuffed buzz doll to join his woody doll that granny and papa

found him for christmas.

happiest child on earth.

emily got a stuffed dug that talks(the dog from UP) per my request.

and when she doesn't want it,

i will gladly take it. :)

since i really wanted it,

i let her pick out her own toy.

good thing she's cheap.

she found a beauty and the beast figurine set.

go figure.

dinner at bj's brewhouse.

one of justins many empty glasses of dr. pepper.

i swear he thinks that stuff is water.

germany and i.

sportin' my 97 cent shirt from old navy.

getting ready to leave.

this was not a staged moment.

saying farewell.

bye, germany!

we will miss you!!

their new friends.

our hotel was on emily road.

emily liked it when judy, our gps, said emily road.

tear.

we didn't get to have any.

well. justin cried over jack n the box.

i didn't so much.

everything's bigger in texass.

hi, shelby!

oklahoma city.

i always hate seeing this sign.

i miss tulsa.

frontier city.

emily said, "that's my city!!"

uno. i mean, dos. 2010 is here.

the first post of the year and there are no photos with it.

such a bad start.

the first of the year has come and gone.

thankfully.

i spent my morning disappointed with my husband.

that's never a good thing.

he very rarely disappoints me.

grateful that he will be home this afternoon, though.

his kids are driving me crazy.

he called this evening and said they(he and his hs bff's)had gone to kc

today and checked out the christmas light display.

can't wait to see all of the photos.

i swear if there's only 6 photos from the whole weekend....

ergh.

anyway, i will be glad to see him, regardless.

we have to get into last minute panic mode and get everything ready for dallas.

i always work better when there's a time crunch.

i don't know why that is.

though the boy is a few hours away,

his parents are only about 40 minutes or so from him.

they went up to have a late christmas with jason and heidi today.

finally.

it's killing me not to talk to heidi about her present!! :)

A BIG

thank you to everyone for their comments and help with the photo project.

germany bought me a year subscription to popular photography magazine...

got the first one in the mail on thursday.

it has really been amazing to look through.

reading it, i feel like i'm trying to decifer another language.

i have some serious work to do.

narrowing down a camera is difficult, too.

i have a lot of questions for some camera guru's.

if you are one and want to help,

my ulcer thanks you.

germany has a panasonic lumix, which i hear is a great camera.

one of the models was camera of the year for 2008.

2009's is a nikon d3x.

only a mere $7,000.

everyone i know says go with the canon rebel.

my niece famie does photography here in town and she is getting one

at sam's for $600.

very decent price considering what i've seen.

rena and heidi have one, as well, so they can tell me some things.

but then i'm reading about the new technology in camera's...

panasonic and olympus, i do believe, have models out with the four-thirds...

which of course i have absolutely no flippin' idea what that means.

i just wonder if it's something i would need in the long run.

and if it comes in a camera model that i can actually afford.

back to the drawing board on that one.

i've been looking at purchase prices for lenses.

there will be a purchase for some photoshop software, as well.

good grief.

this stuff is wearing me out.

i'm going to bed.