Wicked in Dallas

For Memorial Day weekend we got to go to Dallas to see Mark's sister Jaime and her family.  They were so kind to host all six of us for four days.  We had a blast!  It was literally nonstop fun.  We tired the kids out.  Our first day there we went boating.  Here are Anna, Alexis, and Brooke, the inseparables, on the way to the lake.

Garrett and Michael being silly.

All the kids except the three year olds got to try the U-board, a first step to waterskiing.  Each of them did great and showed no fear.

Mark got to waterski for the first time in a long time.

Boating beauties having a ball.

Brooke and Alexis tubing.

Lainie and Ellie catching some water in the face.

Even Garrett went for a short tube ride with Brooke.

After a fun day of boating we headed out to dinner.  Look at those sunburned cheeks!

We finally made it to the theater and got seated to see Wicked!!! Poor Lainie was so exhausted.  We knew boating the day of an eight o'clock show time of Wicked would be sketchy, but when you only have four days to play with fun cousins, you pack it in!

Anna showed a bit more enthusiasm.  The play was FABULOUS and I enjoyed it as if I was seeing it for the first time.  The girls had been so anxious to see it.  They knew all the songs from when Mark and I got the CD around the time we went to New York to see it a few years ago and from listening to it rather constantly since then.  I was so excited for them to be able to put the music to the actual story and figure out what it was all about.  It did not disappoint.  In fact, I am surprised to say it was even better than when I saw it in New York.  The Glinda in the Dallas play was phenomenal.  Both of the Elphabas we have seen were equally amazing.  Everyone managed to stay awake through the whole show.

One of the days we chose to go to Six Flags.  We didn't get there till about 1:00 and it was a toasty 95 degrees out!  Good thing our family is no stranger to the oppressive heat and humidity of the south.

How perfect! A seat for every kid in our two families who wanted to go on the ride.

I love these pictures of the kids in their superhero capes they "won" by playing a game thanks to Uncle Mike.

We had a great day at the amusement park and stayed till it closed.

We rode two of the most fun roller coasters I have ever been on. This is the Titan.  It has a vertical straight up and a vertical straight down that were both insane!  I love roller coasters, and honestly this is the best one I've been on.  Brooke and Alexis went on it two or three times.  They were roller coaster riding maniacs, which makes me proud because it means my girl takes after her mom and I have more people to ride roller coasters with!  We couldn't get Anna to ride big roller coasters that day.  She rode them all when we went to all the theme parks in Orlando, so I'm not sure why she wouldn't this time.

Jaime picked up this to-die-for chocolate cake from a bakery she loves in Dallas to celebrate Brooke's birthday together on our last night.  Let me tell you, that cake was fabulous.

Jaime is six months pregnant, by the way, and she tolerated six flags and all the rest of the being on the go constantly, maybe better than the rest of us even! Thank you Jaime for being such a generous and fun hostess!

Everybody wanted a turn to ride in Uncle Mike's Aston Martin.  How handsome are these little boys!