Wednesday, January 2, 2013

The Griswald's, I mean Osero's Christmas Vacation

The vacation started not quite how I thought it would....BUT that doesn't surprise me AT ALL!  We were to leave on Friday after Avrianna got home from school.  I was in the RV packing it up when I was getting chilly so I went to turn on the heater........NO HEAT!!  Are you kidding me???  I had really thought that would be it for our vacation.  We can't drive there with no heat.  I know we are going to Dallas, TX but we still need heat for the drive especially for the evenings.  Thankfully I found a wonderful repair shop that would look at it first thing Saturday morning.  So everything was on hold till I got word if it was repairable.  Saturday morning Dan took the RV in and thankfully it was an easy fix.  Those darn Mud Wasps had found a great place to make their home...in the igniter and damper for the furnace.  I am so glad it wasn't anything too serious....the vacation is back on!  
As we were wrapping up our packing and ready to hit the road......My thumb got slammed in a door.  OMG did that hurt!  I thought I had broke it, but it just dislocated.  I relocated it, bandaided it, and we were ready for road once again.
The kids and I were in the RV ready to go, with excitement rising high to head to the big city and warmer weather.  Dallas here we COME!!  Dan opens the door to the RV stating it's going to take a bit longer as when he went to load the van on the dollie the front bumper got alil too close and it was "repositioned" ~ Ahhhhhh! 
With that I will start to share our photos from our "vacation"

$%!^ ~ we threw a few screws in the wheel well to hold the bumper down and it was good enough so we could shove off
 OUCH!!
 On our trip we got to celebrate Danny's 9th bday on the 23rd.  Happy Birthday Lil man!
 I started a group on FB called Birthday Card Shower..... Danny had 73 cards to go through the day of his birthday.
 Where's Danny??

 Avrianna had a blast opening and reading all the cards that Danny received.  What an amazing turn out!!  Once we got home he had more waiting for him.  He got 100 cards in all.....now that's a shower of cards :)

 I think he was excited to get all those cards :)  Doesn't he have a wonderful smile?!?
 On the road trip I ended up falling down and landing on the console with my lower back.  INSTANT bruise OMG did that hurt.  It was an injury prone vacation for me, that's for sure.
OUCH!!
On the road you could tell the weather wasn't the best.  Thankfully we left a day later as the weather wasn't so nice the night before.  There were MANY semi's in the ditch jack knifed facing the wrong direction.  It was eerie how many there were. Did you ever get that feeling that maybe we shouldn't be on vacation?? We decided to get off the road for the nite and hang out to watch a movie and enjoy Danny's Birthday more. 
Once in Texas we saw the Race track it is HUGE!!  It is true in Texas they do everything BIG.  Wow!

 The kids did wonderful :)
 Christmas morning was very relaxing.  The RV was overflowing with gifts.  We opened our gifts and just hung out for the day playing around with our gifts.
 My Christmas Reindeer
 My Secret Santa
 So much for the warmer weather.................it rained, thundered, and lightninged so hard Christmas Eve and then it turned to wet heavy snow.  Yes my friends Dallas,Tx got 2" of snow AND it was so cold out our water hose to the RV froze.  We were without water for 2 days.......I can only laugh at this point of the trip.
 If there is 2" of snow in Dallas, TX you would think a blizzard hit.  To us it's a dusting, but to them WOW.  They were freaking out they had ALL that snow.  The news were talking about staying off the roads to stay safe........REALLY?  Some thought they were snowed in, LOL.
We took off to the Grapevine Mall.  Again HUGE place.
 They had the Legoland Discovery Center ~ of course we HAD to go.
 We checked out the 4D movie
 Even Danny thought is was cool!!

 Dan and Avrianna got their competitiveness on and each made a race car to see whose would cross the line first.


 Across the hallway there was an aquarium.  How cool is that legoland and an aquarium right in the mall.....AWESOME!!  Did I say how big this Mall was?!



 Well of course they had to have a bungie jumping place right in the entrances of Legoland and Sealife.  Man they have big tourist money pit/trap, and yes we fell into it ALL :)

 The new Cowboys Stadium.....HUGE, HUGE.  Did you know it's located in Arlington?  It was just down the road from our KOA trailer park we stayed at.  There was so many sites ALL in this location....the Cowboy stadium, the Texas Rangers Stadium, AND Six flags Great America.  I can only imagine how busy this area can get.

 The restaurants were AMAZING there.  All of our favorites!!  We were ready to move there with all the good foods.  They even have a Jason's Deli, but we didn't get to that one.  We did get to eat at Sweet Tomatoes, and the Cheese Cake Factory BOTH my FAVORITE!!

 We took a trip into Fort Worth to check out the Science Museum.  Our hopes were to see the Titanic Exhibit but unfortunately it was sold out, but we did see some other amazing things while there


We even caught a lazer lite show in the Planetarium ~ Holidaze
Then is was off to Dallas where we hit the Ripley's Believe it or Not and Wax Museum.   COOL!!  I remember as a kid watching the tv show of Ripley's
 Very life like ~

 So COOL!

 Walk the Line!!
 Go Michael Go Michael!
 Jesus
 Two headed infant
 World's tallest man??
 Weird and OUCH!
 The maze of mirrors.  I so got lost.  I got separated from these two and pushing Danny in a maze full of mirrors in the dark was NO picnic.  I ran into some kids and they helped Danny and I find the end :)
 Our last stop was to the Southfork Ranch ~ "DALLAS".  When I was a lil girl I remember every Friday nite going to my mom's friends house and the "women" watched the show and the kids got to play.  Dan and I have started to watch the new episodes and it's a blast from the bast.



 RIP ~ JR Ewing ... You will be missed!!

 Southfork ranch, yes the actual ranch.  BUT the only scenes they shot from the ranch were all Outside on the patio, pool, and in the stables.  They have the inside all decorated to "fit" one of the actors but they never video'd inside.
 Where they ate breakfast pool side :)
 The end of the trip was a bittersweet.  BOY was this trip an emotional and physical strain on me.  It was an eye opener to the good and the bad.  But all n all I am so glad we got to go.  Of course in true Osero style things didn't turn out as planned.  But as a good friend has said to me recently.....if you dwel on what didn't happen you won't enjoy the things that did.  I DID enjoy myself but again it was ALOT of work.  For me it wasn't much of a relaxing "vacation".  To maintain Danny on a daily basis is....well.....WOW!  I am so much more grateful to have the 4 WONDERFUL nurses we have with us to help me with my favorite Lil Man.  I am indebted to them forever for all that they do to help our family life flow and maintain his health.  It's a hard one to swallow, but I really don't think I could do it on my own anymore.  It was an eye opener for me.  Thankfully he waited for the ride home to have a pretty intense seizure that required many rescue meds.  Poor Bug had so much fun it overwhelmed him :)
But look at that face......So peaceful.  I could gaze at him forever!!
Well that was our trip!  I am glad I was able to show you our adventures.  I bet you all are jealous you  didn't get to be with us, HA!  No wonder I feel I need to be in a padded white room at times :)
Now onto our next BIG adventure.  Danny will be admitted into CHOW on Monday nite, the 7th and he's scheduled to have his VEPTR rods removed and then have his back fused and stationary rods will be placed.  This is going to be his biggest and longest surgery, he will require more blood product due to the significant blood loss and the surgery will be approx 8-10 hours, to date.  I ask that you please keep my Lil Man in your thoughts n prayers next week.  He can use all the help we can give him.  Then on Friday the 11th in the afternoon he will go into surgery once again to have his baclofen pump replaced as the battery for the pump has neared the end of its life.  You can say anxiety is running HIGH with his momma right now.  I will be glad when it's February and we can look back and say it's over with and things turned out alright.  PHEW!!  Thanks for following us.  I'm off to finish undecorating the house, unpack from our travels, and pack for our extended stay down in CHOW.  Wish me LUCK!