Pics from Dallas

Hi there,

Well, long time no blog. It's been hybernatin' season in Seattle.

I went to Dallas last week for a visit w/Max (and Lissa & Alex, of course), got a chance to see some of Dad's relatives, and then went to an, uhm, leadership training. 30 hours in a hotel room doing soduku puzzles was more like it. It was a test run for the training, really, er, rough draft, and they paid me to be there, so I didn't feel too bad... and I do now know what an innovator and early adopter are. And how very, very many fast food and chain restaurants there are in Dallas.

Here's Max being his cute and active self in the hotel room.
And being his cute and active self at a playground. One of us said "wow" when we got out of the car (it was one of the best playgrounds I've ever seen, really, Dallas does do things big), and Max spent the better part of the 30 min or so we were there saying "woooowwwwww" in the most adorable way ever.
Of course, Lissa got it on video... see her blog for more details.
Max & I spent some time roaming the halls of the hotel, some running, some pushing him around on a luggage cart, some making a b-line for the elevators to push buttons, and mostly heading straight for the business center where he could watch Abby videos on Sesame Street.com. I think that's where we were headed in this photo.
And here's Marlene from Philadelphia. We were a bit slap happy by this point (it was "graduation") and she was decked out in "quality gear" and doing a little dance I like to call "Quality Aerobics."
Now I'm recovering from whatever bug I picked up on the trip. Not sure if it was the guy hacking next to me on the plane there, Max's runny nose, the pollen in TX, or the norovirus going around the hotel.