A big race in Big D

Okay, we're back to catching up on last month's travels. More than a year ago, Matt decided he wanted to try the Dallas Marathon for his second marathon, so we'd been planning this trip for a while. December's a great time to run a race in Dallas, but we overlooked the fact that we'd be returning to the Big D just 10 days later for the Christmas festivities. Yeesh. Thankfully, B is a great road tripper. When he's not sleeping, he likes to read.

We spent most of the trip exploring Dallas and hanging out with the family. B had fun checking out the awesome cattle drive statues in downtown Dallas while Matt picked up his packet for the race.

On Saturday, it was lunch with the family and pictures with Santa (his first since we didn't take him to see Santa last year; he was only a few weeks old, after all).

Silly sister

We wound up visiting the Santa at Half Price Books because it was free (they were taking donations for the food bank) and we knew the line at Northpark would be c-razy. He turned out to be super nice and patient, and I think he'll be hard to beat next year.

B seemed fine with Santa as long as I was with him (with the babies, they suggested taking a picture with the parent first and then passing the baby on to Santa for an individual shot).

But once I was out of the picture, B was having none of it! He never actually cried, but he squirmed like the Dickens to get away from poor Santa. Ha!

My sister and brother-in-law live right by White Rock Lake, so we also got in some quality time strolling around (and checking out part of the race course) in the beautiful weather.

Finally, it was race day! Matt headed to the starting line on his own, but we all waited for him around mile 15, which was right by my sister's house. B loved cheering on the runners and clapping with the band that was playing.

After Matt passed us, we hopped in the cars to head to the finish. He crossed the line right around 4:20, which was great considering it was warm and very windy that day.

The rest of the weekend was all about winding down with the family. My aunt and grandmother had driven in from Atlanta to visit my mom for a week, and they made sure their trip overlapped with ours so we could all see one another.

That was definitely a special treat since we don't get to see the Georgia family nearly as much as we'd like to.

Aunt Sam treated B to his first taste of pho — he loved it!

Dallas family!

B and his ladies

A laughing fit (not an uncommon occurrence in our family), caught in action. B wasn't sure what to think.

Finally, Aunt Vanessa treated B to his first hula hooping lesson. He's got a ways to go, but with a teacher like that, he's sure to master it ... just as soon as he learns to walk.