Amarillo by evening

Last week I cowboyed up and took the kids on a road trip to Amarillo by myself. They did really well on the long car ride. I was in great conflict over this trip. I really wanted to see my parents. I really wanted the kids to see their grandparents. But I fully remembered our last two trips to the big A. They were not good. No sleep. Sick Jake. Whining, crying, screaming Emma Mae.

This trip was better. We kept the kids pretty busy with outings to the Discovery Science Center and the Zoo. I took Jake to see "Brave" one afternoon. That was delightful. Emma Mae did pretty well up until the last day. What is it with age 2 and 3? She just has so many uncontrollable outbursts. The first happened our last day there at Toys R Us. My dad wanted to take the kids to buy them a toy. (Well, I'm pretty sure the kids hit him up for a new toy the first day we got there. They have such good manners!) Emma found a stuffed lion that she wanted. The trouble was that she didn't want to give it up to the cashier to let her ring up the price. So instead she threw a fit. Right there in the check out line of the toy store. I had to pry the lion cub out of her tender little clutched up fingers. I handed it to the cashier and she was all "you still want to get it for her?" And I was all "yes." Look. I know I should have marched that girl out of the store without the toy. But I am worn down from all the show downs so I just threw it at the cashier and told her to ring it up while my dad paid for the toys and I carried Emma out of the store. Total parent fail.

Emma rewarded me later by having a complete melt down at the dinner table. It started with her telling me she didn't want to eat her corn. It ended up with her in our bedroom screaming and hollering while the rest of us started dinner without her. I told her she could join us when she felt happy again. My mom tried to rescue her a couple times. I really don't remember how she ended up rejoining us but it turns out that she didn't like the color choice of the corn holders on her cob. They were blue and she wanted yellow or pink. Totally understandable. I always flip out and get hysterical if my corn cob holders are the wrong color.

Anyhow, I'm going to go ahead and declare this trip a success because there was more sleeping and less crying than normal. But poor Jake did get sick again. I think he's allergic to Amarillo. And as a major plus my dad had time to teach me how to can apricot jam and he taught me how to play three chords on the guitar. (sort of). Also, I got in two trips to Taco Villa and one to Blue Sky. Beautiful.

I love that they get to play with my old Fisher Price toys. This train set used to make me sooo happy!