Vacation - Fort Worth

Here's a link to pictures of our trip to Fort Worth.
http://imageevent.com/tri_pod/vacation2008/fortworth;jsessionid=fgg9pzi1j2.tiger_s

It was wonderful to be home again! We got to spend some time with Granny and Pa Pa Glenn. It was wonderful to get to visit and hug them. Bandit is getting to be quite old, but still very spoiled. Mom hosted a little get-together and made yummy tacos. We got to see Bobby, Debbie, Justin and Megan, and we enjoyed the chance to visit face-to-face, instead of by email. They were so kind and took us to eat at Chili's -YUM! We missed seeing Scott, Jan, Ashley, Josh, and Malorrie!! Renee hosted a get-together with some of my friends, Cindy, Lorrie, and Courtney. I also got to see my former student, Jade, who is in junior high now! She is a beautiful young lady, and as sweet as I remember! It was great to spend some extra time with Cindy, who was so patient with all my ditzy behavior - she's a true friend :) I'm really hoping that Cindy and Courtney will plan a trip to Japan soon (wink, wink) :)

Sam was so sweet and had a limo pick up the girls and me at the airport. The flight was nice - much shorter than going to Japan, and the girls slept quite a bit. Of course, that means they were wound up when we got to Fort Worth. We also got to ride the Shinkansen, which is the Japanese bullet train, to Tokyo. It was incredible! It's very sleek and quiet.

I'm such a dork, but seeing the American and Texas flags was really nice. The girls were so excited about hearing people speak English. Sam said a lady bumped into him and said, "Excuse me," and he didn't know what to say :) When we were at the Chinese restaurant, Sophie told the waitress, "Domo arrigato." She just laughed and told us how to say thanks in Chinese.

I realized when we got to Fort Worth, that I forgot my credit cards. We never use them in Japan - most everyone uses/accepts cash, so credit cards and checks aren't used much. I did run to Walmart the first night :) Driving there was interesting. I hit a couple of curbs, had to really pay attention to what side of the road I was on, and turned the windshield wipers on several times, instead of the turn signal. I would also think I was going really fast, until I checked the speedometer - you Texans are speed demons!

Back to Walmart - it was so nice having a big cart. In Japan, the carts are all very small, because most people don't have large fridges, so they can't buy large amounts of food. I bought some Carlo Rossi Sangria, and I was amazed how cheap everything was! It was actually very overwhelming. I miss the wines I can get in Texas :) On the way back to the hotel, I stopped at Don Pablo's for some chips and salsa.

The hotel room had a garbage disposal. We don't have them in Japan. And it was nice not having to sort trash :)

We took the girls to Build-A-Bear and the Fort Worth Zoo. The rest of our time was spent at the doctors and dentists.

After the Turks and Oklahoma trips, we returned to Fort Worth for a few days to rest before flying home. We stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge, and our friends, drove up from Cost to play with us. They have triplet girls that are 10 days younger than our girls, and we can't forget Kathryne, the big sister :) We had a great time playing with them. They are so incredibly sweet. It's as if we've known them our whole life. The girls actually referred to them as sisters :)

We had a wonderful time, but it just wasn't long enough!