Dallas Birthday Trip

William and I headed to Dallas for the weekend with Bebe and Pops and my sister, Rachel.   May 14th is Bebe's birthday and the 17th is mine, so we opted to celebrate our good fortune by shopping!  William was FIRED UP to see Bebe and Pops.  It's been WAY TOO LONG since their last visit.

William and I arrived at DFW on Thursday around noon.  Pops was there to pick us up and the 3 of us headed to Wolf Lodge in Grapevine.  Wolf Lodge is high on William's list of favorite places "ever" ("ever" being 3 years in toddler time travel) and although we have been to the one in Williamsburg 3 times, we had never experienced the Wolf Lodge in Texas.  Folks, it did not disappoint.  William was delighted to be at the water park and showed Pops the ropes.  We immediately got our room, suited up for the pool and hit the slides.  You would have thought William was an old pro.  He just waltzed right on in the water park area, picked out a life jacket and promptly told me to "put it on my body so I can do the wave pool."   Ready. To. Rock.

The Wolf Lodge in Grapevine and Williamsburg have a very similar toddler area.  However, there were many more toys in the water at Grapevine.  William thought this was fabulous and he spent most of his time climbing on the wave runners, shooting water from the buoys, climbing the fort, etc.  He really didn't hit the slides until we had a few hours under our belts.  William and Pops had a super time floating in the wave pool and crashing into the waves with their inner tube.   Sadly, I didn't take many pictures at Wolf Lodge.  It's just too wet and I am always afraid that my camera might end up in the pool. 

Friday we met up with Bebe at Northpark to start our shopping weekend.  The weather was kinda crummy, so taking William to a park while we shopped was not an option.  Never fear.  William was as good as gold.  A majority of the time, he is SUCH a go with the flow kinda kid.  He was just beside himself to be in the presence of Bebe and Pops that he could care less that we were spending our days in the mall.  He loved watching the duck and turtles in the pond outside Neimans, and we found a toy store with.....AIRPLANES.  Shocker.  He was in hog heaven and got to select 3 new planes to take home.  Throughout the weekend we divided our time between Northpark and The Galleria.

Rachel arrived Friday evening and William was so excited to finally get his surprise that Rachie had mentioned weeks ago on the phone.  A bag of M&Ms.  Oh how he loves his Rachie!  Saturday we hit the shops again and Pops and William explored the escalators and watched the ice skaters in between our shopping marathon.  We brought along the stroller too which was super because William could take his power nap along the way.

Saturday afternoon we also had lunch with cousin Meredith, the bride.  She's getting hitched at the end of June so we were all eager to catch up on the wedding details.  It's going to be a fabulous seated dinner  - WE CANNOT WAIT FOR THE BIG DAY!

Saturday night our family went to Rise to celebrate my birthday.  We had a delicious french meal in a cozy atmosphere of twinkle lights.

Sunday afternoon we said good-bye to Rachie and all William could do was whimper "Rachie, I miss you!" before she walked out the door.  I thought that was so sweet, but I was not prepared for the sadness that ensued when William and I left Bebe and Pops.  William sobbed.   and sobbed.  and sobbed.  He didn't stop crying until we got to our gate at the airport.  I felt so helpless as I tried to calm him down and let him know that we would see Bebe and Pops again in only 4 weeks.  Of course for a toddler, 4 weeks is like 20 years.  He was just so sad.  "Mom Mom I don't want to leave my Bebe!!!!!  Pops misses me!!!! I want to stay with Bebe and Pops!  I don't ever want to go home!  I don't like my house!  I want to stay with Bebe and Pops!" and on. and on.

The gate agent saw me and came over to visit with William.  She was lovely and a great distraction for William.  He stopped crying when she started telling him that she worked for American Airlines and knew all the pilots.  You say "pilots" and the world stands still for this little guy.  He asked her lots of questions including whether or not our plane would have winglets, did she know that American Airlines has a blue and red stripe and 2 letter As on the tail, what was her favorite kind of fighter jet, was the pilot on board, what is the pilot's name, and did she know that he had a pilot costume?  They had a super conversation and I was so thankful she was there to calm him.

Just before boarding, our sweet gate agent (Nancy) called out over the PA system: "Paging passenger William B. Barron.  Please come to the front desk, passenger William B. Barron."  William stopped dead in his tracks and gasped, "Mom Mom that is my name!"  We approached the desk to find that Nancy had found a pair of AA wings for William to wear as well as a brand new AA airplane key chain that makes noise.  He was beaming ear to ear and gave Nancy a huge hug!  She even let William board the plane first.  He got to say hello to the pilots and he told them, "I am William and I love airplanes.  I am going to be a pilot for American Airlines and Delta when I grow up. I have a pilot costume just like you."  The pilots got a kick out of that!

About half way into the flight, the pilots came over the speaker with a routine request for "everyone please return to your seats and fasten your seat belts.  We are experiencing some bumpy weather at this time."  I didn't think much about it.

Then they came back on the loud speakers.........

"We would like to extend a special welcome to our VIP customer in seat 14F, William Barron.  You might have seen this little fellow earlier while boarding.  He's had a hard time leaving his grandparents out of "Oak" City today, but we are glad to have him aboard our flight.  For those of you who will be flying in 20 years, he's let us know that he plans on being a pilot for American Airlines and Delta at the same time.  Glad you love the skies buddy!"

Needless to say, I was one proud Mom Mom.  Too bad my little pilot was fast asleep in my arms and missed the whole exciting moment.