quick trip to dallas

e had a business trip scheduled to dallas at the end of the thanksgiving weekend, which is why we opted to stick around home for the holiday.  drive to illinois, and then to texas in one weekend?  nah. 

('specially when we got to see both families the weekends before - and, for lots longer than a shortened thanksgiving trip.  SO GLAD that worked out!)

"cheeeeeeeese"

we really enjoyed our quick trip with e:  

a stop at IKEA on the way into town.  a hotel across the street from grapevine mills mall, and we had fun checking the place out while he worked on monday. 

i was completely amazed that thing 1 seemed to remember the mall, and that it had a choo-choo train inside!!!  we had been there early in 2011, but i was blown away that he remembered.  needless to say, the train ride was the highlight of someone's day.  we spent a lot of time watching for it, looking at it, and basically drooling over it ... 

waiting ever-so-patiently for the train driver to return so we could have our ride.  they turned down everything i suggested doing instead of sitting to wait.  nope!  they were gonna wait right there, and were so nice about it.  they kept looking over (upper right of the pic) to see if the driver was back yet, but had so much fun telling me allllllll about the train and the "moke-ack"

had to ride in the coal car so we could be right by the engine... thing 2 wasn't so sure about the ride when we got in, but ended up loving it just like big brother.

supper with daddy, and then a bit more mall time before bed.  there were lots of ramps and sets of steps between mall sections, and they had fun running on those until their cheeks were rosy.  the train was closed for the evening, so we told it night-night and returned to the hotel.  fun, fun!