...day NINE...

This morning was supposed to begin with the Mr and I attending meetings beginning at 8am. I mean that was the purpose of the entire trip. Instead, the Mr took us on a different path.... he woke up worshiping the ivory throne on his knees (such reverence! lol :p) at 6am! And the only reason I knew is because the noise of his gut coming alive was reverberating throughout our hotel room! Luckily I'm the only one that heard it and awoke, not the littles! POOR GUY! I felt so sorry for him! I did what I could to care for him and put him back to bed! By 8am I decided to go ahead and go register us for the convention with Reed as my date, since he had recently awoken anyway. So we checked in, got our lanyards and conference info and stopped at the in-house Starbucks counter (not REALLY bucks, just a kind-of, sort-of, wanna-be) on the way back up to the room. The very nice man there, Andre, made polite customer service conversation and asked if Reed was my FIRST!?! HA, HA, HA.... I respectfully did NOT double over in laughter, but said, "no, he's #3 and #4 is upstairs with the others." And so the conversation went about how his mom wanted a girl and kept going until she got one. After that, I'm assuming there's at least half dozen kids in his family....but no, just 3! lol He said his sister was 7 years younger than him and he had an older brother so he was the middle child. Birth order fascinates me and I've read quite a bit about it. So I was thinking throughout the day that he was quite an unusual middle child considering he was in highly outgoing and customer service oriented work. At least from my observation that is not a normal direction for middle children. Anyway, Reed and I collected our drinks, and ended the conversation with our smiles and "have-a-good-days."

Back up to check on the sick patient and bring him some tea. He was resting which was just what he needed! We assumed it had to be something he'd eaten recently since no one else was feeling ill. Okay that's the only plausible thing I could even remotely consider! I couldn't imagine having something go through all 7 of us - nope not even going to entertain that thought! Friends of ours who were making a similar trip in their SUV (thus no bathroom!) did have the puking flu go through all four of their girls WHILE on their trip! Agghhhhh!!!!! NOT going there!

So everyone else got ready and we headed AWAY from the patient down to the hotel's restaurant for some breakfast. And wouldn't you know it, we run into Andre at breakfast as well. I told him about my internal dialogue regarding his family's birth order (he was middle child only slightly and had lots of baby of the family traits since his sister was 7 years younger & birth orders normally start over with every 5-6 yr gap). He got a big smile on his face and we had a short little conversation about it. At the end he said "thank you! I can't believe you'd take the time to think about my family like that!" It was encouraging and fun to let someone know I cared (even a complete stranger) just by dialoguing with them about themselves! :)   

We returned to our room to find Kevin laying on the floor on his back asleep! There's a few things you should know... first of all, Kevin NEVER sleeps on his back, he can't even go to sleep on his back. Second... he's on the FLOOR!!! That's just slightly disconcerting knowing he's been sick! Lol He explained that his back hurt from being in the bed so long. That is very understandable considering the bed quality was like sleeping on a marshmallow! Lol He was fine just surprised us all with his odd disposition!

He was feeling a bit better so he decided to attend the afternoon meetings with me! Thus the rest of the description of our afternoon together is just riveting and teeth clenching so instead of adding extra stress and anticipation to your reading experience - I'll spare you! Lol There were some yummy mini-desserts/pastries we got to enjoy! You know, the afternoon slump fix so you keep your eyes and attention on the afternoon speaker who drew the short straw. 

Sarah was able to come in the afternoon and spend some time with the boys so they were watching frozen when we returned up to the room. She had so thoughtfully brought some microwave popcorn with her in order to supply a full-feature movie experience for the boys! However there was a dilmena when they realized there was no microwave in our room! Lol {minor detail} So in true Sarah-fashion she put on her thinking cap and determined to find a way to POP the movie popcorn! She called the front desk and they suggested the microwave in the little Starbucks kiosk/area in the lobby. Sarah, also former Starbucks crew member, thought that was a profound solution to her problem. So she and Tate sat on the floor behind the closed Starbucks counter using the microwave that was down below in the cabinet. Only twice did they get asked by someone for a drink or pastry! lol As if the Starbucks employee actually working there would be sitting on the floor! 

Before Sarah had to take off to head for her classes, she accompanied us down to the indoor pool. 

Kevin and I returned to the room for just a bit before we had one more function to attend that evening. It was a vendor show where we walk around to different booths and basically pick up swag from all the vendors that PM uses in their stores. We always come away with some great chip clips, spatulas, finger laser lights, mini-flashlights and lots of other fun goodies. One guy who sat at a booth was celebrating his birthday that day so all he had was jars filled with candy and bags to fill up with whatever candy you wanted! Of course the boys LOVED the swag we brought back to the room from his booth! And it gave me one too many headaches from some over indulgence myself! At least there was no sharing with Kevin.... at this stage he was downright fearful of food! Lol

{so odd to see our daughter in her first swimming suit! Not sure her dad is ready for this.... pretty sure she's excited about it though!}

Kevin headed to bed at this point but not before him and Reed each enjoyed a carrot together. 

I proceeded to take all the kids to the swimming pool. G & T had been to the pool a couple times before but Reed & Esther had not been yet. This was Esther's first time in a swimming pool so we were all excited to experience it with her!! :)

However, once we got down to the pool and began our entrance into the water, I soon discovered that the temperature of the water was far below my comfort zone. And if I had subjected my daughter to the pool water as it was, I'm afraid she would never enter a pool again! Lol Even rough and tumble Reed began shivering after a few minutes of just having his legs in the water. Needless to say, the littles and I sat out and watched the bigs do jumps, cannonballs, belly flops and sword fights in the water. 

Phew! What a day! We were all ready for a sick-free day! :)

PS. I forgot to add that when we were at the Fort Worth Stockyards my Mr came out of a store and said... "Hey they have your same rubber cowboy boots in there!" He thought it was just a funny coincidence. What he didn't know is that my pair at home had come apart and I was so sad to think they probably couldn't be repaired considering they were rubber. And I had originally purchased them for a steal on Zulilly which meant I couldn't run out and buy another pair. Needless to say, I said, "oh thanks for telling me honey!" And I ran right into the store and bought another pair of my favorite boots! :)

See! Aren't they just cute as can be!?! I'm a HAPPY girl! Didn't have to commute far for the replacement pair either! Lol :p