Weekend in Dallas

Many months ago, we bought tickets to the Elite Eight Championship tournament in Arlington. We didn't include Clay in our little trip, because 1). he's a toddler, who hasn't shown great interest in watching basketball games (though he loves to play with balls of all kinds) and has absolutely no taste for sitting still for more than five minutes and 2). he had an invitation to spend a weekend alone with Nana and Papa, without the other kids. (The other kids also have an invitation for a solo weekend with the grandparents). So, we dropped Clay off on Friday afternoon and headed for the Big D.

After checking in to the hotel in Dallas and resting for a short while, we made our way to Cowboy Stadium in Arlington. We got parked and settled into our seats just in time to see Michigan and Kansas take to the court. The kids loved the mega-jumbotron and all the fun snacks. But they also really enjoyed picking a team to root for (since none of us were particularly loyal to any of the teams going in to it) and watching and learning about the game. We all decided to go for Kansas. It was a very close game and was very exciting, even going in to overtime. Weston kind of got caught up in the emotion of it all and was sad (to the point of real tears) that Kansas didn't win. We had to remind him that he had never even heard of Kansas before we started following the teams this year and that there was nothing on the line for him personally. We had a nice little break and a trip to the concession stand to assuage his feelings before the next game between Florida and Florida Gulf Coast began. We rooted for FGCU, since they were the underdog and gave a pretty impressive dunking display, especially in the first half. No one was particularly devastated by their loss, but that could have been because it was close to midnight, and we were all too tired to care much one way or the other.

Fortunately, we were all able to sleep in on Saturday morning. After a late breakfast, the kids changed into their swimsuits and spent the next four or five hours splashing and playing in the connected indoor and outdoor, shallow-enough-for-Max pools at the hotel, with a host of other kids who were in town for a big conference, while Jeff and I read and visited in relative dryness from the comfort of cushioned chairs. We even ordered pizza in for lunch, so that the fun wouldn't have to end too soon. When the kids were finally wrinkled beyond recognition, we decided to pursue other forms of entertainment. We found a theater that was still showing Life of Pi  and decided to take it in. It was an interesting and entertaining movie, which gave us some things to talk about afterward, as well. After the movie, we headed over to Magic Time Machine for dinner, where we were challenged to a battle of wits by our waiter, The Dread Pirate Roberts. Tired from the late night and all the swimming, the kids were ready for bed early.

On Sunday morning, there was time for more swimming, before the final game of the tournament. We came in thinking we would go for Florida, but got cold feet before the game started and switched to Michigan. (The boys actually switched back and forth throughout the game, probably to avoid getting overly attached to any one team and becoming too emotionally invested, as had happened on Friday) We were certainly glad we made the switch! Michigan was clearly the better team on the court yesterday, and we predict they may be even more of a force to be reckoned within the next few years, since two of their star players were only freshmen.

We had a great time at the tournament and doing some things that we can't easily do with Clay in tow. But, we were glad to be reunited with our Little Bitty, and he was glad to be reunited with Max. I took only one picture the whole weekend and then I left my camera at my parents' house when we picked up Clay, so I guess I'll add that later. Here's hoping you all had a wonderful weekend, as well!