Our Thanksgiving trip to Texas had to finally end, and we arrived home today. The drive home went pretty well, but there were a few more rough spots than there were on the trip down. For entertainment, we have been relying on videos I have saved on my computer. We keep it charged with an AC adapter that plugs into the cigarette lighter. Well, the adapter died about an hour from our hotel last night, and the boys were not happy about it one bit. In my world, I can rationalize that the battery died and the thing that charged the battery isn't working, so it's perfectly reasonable to go without Elmo for an hour until we get to the hotel. In a toddler's world, the video was working one minute and not working the next, and they want it back with no explanations or rationalizations. Needless to say, within minutes I pulled over and got the other laptop out of my bag so they boys could watch the rest of their video. Thank goodness Gina married a geek who happens to have 2 laptops. Let me explain briefly that Sam and Nate don't watch a lot of videos. We usually let them watch one 30-minute video per day, and it's usually while Gina is working on dinner. However, long road trips are a different story altogether. I can't speak from experience, since my childhood was during the time before car seats and my parents let my sister and I play in the back seat untethered. So, I have to use my imagination when I think about how boring car seats must be. There is really only so much a toddler can do in a car seat before he starts to lose patience. And when our toddlers lose patience, they yell and scream, which means Gina and I will lose our minds shortly thereafter. So, on long road trips videos are a good way to break the monotony of being strapped in a car seat like Hannibal Lecter.

Overall, the trip was great and the boys traveled like little champs. We loved spending time with family and friends, and we are already talking about our next trip in May. I included a couple of great shots from our last days in Texas.

Notice the cowboy boots!

On our last night in Dallas, Granddad took the boys to ride a special Christmas train, which is actually in a guy's backyard. It's really quite amazing and was a lot of work to construct. Sam loved the train and took 2 rides. Nate ... well, he screamed and the driver had to stop the train to let him off. He did, however, love watching it go around and around while sitting with me on the ground. I was happy with that, too.