Awww...

I realize this is out of order since I still have some Dallas stuff to post, but I just had to brag about my birthday. I thought Wayne had forgotten about the day, but not so! He came home from work with two dozen red roses and a birthday cake, then whisked me away for a birthday dinner at Outback. Yum! I even splurged and shared a Bloomin' Onion with the gang. Thank goodness I've already had my annual physical!!!

Do I Feel Old!

While in Dallas, we had the opportunity to catch up with an old friend of ours. Wayne has known Joan for decades but hasn't seen her in 14 years. While her husband and youngest two daughters weren't able to join us for fun and games at Gameworks, Joan and her oldest--Julia--did.

Julia is right between Sam and Chris age-wise and they seemed to hit it off pretty well. I mean after all, if Chris TOUCHED her (evidenced by the picture above), he must've liked her at least a little (laughs).

On a subsequent day, we returned to Gameworks for a Freeze Pinball Championship. Sam and Jill BOTH beat the boys. Samantha even won a free game. We love playing pinball as a family, but sadly the machines have become hard to find lately. Luckily one of our favorite Germantown, Tennessee pizza joints still has a few tucked away in a back room for after-buffet play (grins).

Sam + Tweety

As we entered Six Flags Over Texas, Sam got a chance to catch up with Tweety Bird. She says Taz is checking her out (laughs)!

I feel sorry for the people who have to wear those costumes in such scorching heat. We had a blast there though. I rode a neat raging rapids ride with the kids which I could have stayed on all day if the line weren't so long, and the kids enjoyed roller coasters and a funnel cake. Oh, and Sam say SpongeBob Squarepants 4-D attraction was waaaaay cool. Especially the part where they were splattered with pickle juice.

Room with a View

While hanging out in the hotel room in Dallas, CJ became enthralled with taking pictures from the window. The one shown here is one of the better ones as far as clarity, etc. goes. He tried night shots, train shots, limo-watching shots...thank goodness we've gone digital, or the film and developing costs would have been a fortune (laughs)! I'll share more later as I post more trip notes.

Back from Dallas!

After nearly a week away from home, we finally made it back. The shiny buildings above with the dome to the left was the hotel we stayed in for the conference portion of our trip. Since all of the activities were in the hotel, we decided to pay extra to stay onsite so the kids would be close by. The Hyatt Regency was a nice place, and the view from the dome was spectacular. I'll post more pics later.

The day we got there, there was a literacy fundraising booksigning. Many of the biggies were there including Nora Roberts, Carly Phillips, Stephanie Bond, Vicki Lewis Thompson (the nerd series), etc. The crowds were overwhelming, but Samantha was thrilled to find some of her favorite young adult authors signing books as well. And Vickie Lewis Thompson even agreed to pose for a picture with MY nerd which I'll post soon (smiles).

After several days of intense networking (one of the editors we've spoken to in the past even made it a point to visit with us, and I nearly shrieked with joy when she instantly knew our names) and workshops, we headed over to a much more low-key hotel in Arlington for some fun. We hit Six Flags Over Texas, played cutting edge video games at Dave and Busters, and caught up with an old friend and her oldest daughter at GameWorks. We even did some outlet shopping. Luckily the car was overstuffed with books so we couldn't spend TOO much money (grins).

On Saturday, a fellow romance book blogger's husband invited us on a top secret tour of Lockheed, where we saw F22s and new F35s get built. Cool stuff!

There's lots more, but I just wanted everyone to know we arrived home safe and sound and that the animals aren't TOO mad at us. They are awfully clingy though.

"Flipped"

Despite heading for the National Romance Writer's Conference in Dallas in two days, I've accepted a writing challenge conceived by author Alison Kent. You'll find a link to the challenge and a link to my book blog on the right. I need to get a move on if I'm ever going to get published, and this write-a-book-in-70-days challenge came at the perfect time for me. I had an awesome story idea I'd been kicking around for the past couple of months. Now it's time to make it happen!

The story is called "Flipped". It's a romantic tale about house flipper Beth Markham. Click the "Flipped" Blog link to the right to learn more.