States Visit - Part 1 Texas

I've been meaning to post about our trip to the states. We have been back for almost 3 weeks and we are still trying to get our legs back. I keep wondering if that is normal, to have to take more time than you were on vacation to recover from it. Yesterday life stopped cold turkey, which is why I'm am blogging, I can't do anything else, nor do I feel like it.

I have strep throat along with McKenna which really happened at the most inconvenient time (when is sickness ever convenient). My Dr appointment was with an AF doc who I can only presume is a new, just out of the gate doc with an insane amount of arrogance. I can explain with the one statement he made that left me speechless, but let me set it up first. I have a sore throat that on a scale of 1-10 is a definite 7, except for when I swallow, then it is a 10+, the nodes on my throat are so swollen you can see it without feeling for it and there is a huge white streak on the back of my throat. I have no other cold symptoms. So when you combine all this, it is a pretty clear case of strep. BUT my arrogant doc says this about the white streak at the back of my throat (after he has disregarded all other symptoms because I don't have a fever which I told him I have been taking 800 mg of ibuprofen which would mask a fever) "That's probably just food debris" What the?! Really? because I haven't eaten in the last 32 hours! Conclusion: the rapid strep test came back positive (shocker) and for the first time in my life I felt like singing that fun song titled "I told you so, I'm sick, I'm sick, I'm sick, I just wanted to come in for an appointment because I have nothing better to do and I'm a useless dependent of the AF that has a goal in life of wasting your time". LaLaLaDeDA

So here are a few pictures of our time in Texas. We went to Utah first but I haven't transferred the pictures from Mark's computer over to mine yet.

The main reason for the visit of course, was shopping, so how convenient that we went while graduation took place AND we had time to fit it into our tight shopping schedule. Whew, almost missed that one:
Here is the Fab Four with Mark's parents and my mom.
Our dear German friends, Freddie and Claudia were able to join us in Texas for graduation and all our other shenanigans!

Red Raiders! Get yer guns up!

Hopefully this experience has motivated Bailey to follow Mark's example. I think she looks pretty darn good in this get up!

We had lot's of "Texas" experiences that involved Texas Land and Cattle, BBQ, Mexican food, the Cowgirl Museum, Children's science museum, downtown Ft. Worth and the Stockyards.

Longhorn Cattle Ride at the Stockyards:
The girls dancing at Billy Bob's:
Mark rode the bull for the second time in his life and I must say, the bull was scared. It had to be!

Bailey rode it too, but the bull magically turned into a kinder, friendlier bull soul during her ride.

We were also super lucky to get a visit from our dear friends the Hammons. It was so good to see them again and re-new our friendships. The kids fell right back into old times, as if they hadn't been apart. We love the Hammons!
Here is the picture that best sums up our Texan experience. That doggie didn't have a chance! Yeehaw!!