Only Me and Sweet Pea!

The day started off early as AK, and I decided to put the hurry-up offense into full effect so we could take in the entire college football experience. Our destination was the campus of Texas Christian University to observe TCU take on Big XII rival the Bears from Baylor!

Pam scored huge points several weeks early in her never-ending quest for the awards to become The Most Loved Spouse of the Year and Worlds Greatest Mama. She scored two tickets to the game for AK and I. Just like a quarterback leading the offense down the field and steering the team to victory; Pam knew that the anniversary of losing my dad was going to be a terrible day for me. To combat the sorrow, the leader of our fambam knew that a day with my AK to college football game would make all the difference in the world!

We loaded up the Road Warrior, and AK climbed into the captain's chair to drive us 2 hours east. After a quick stop at Chick-fil-A for sustenance we were on our way. AK's highway driving has been coming along nicely with little to no high blood pressure moments occurring. After several hours in the car and sharing stories of her freshman year antics in high school we soon arrived on the campus of the Horned Frogs.

AK and I decided we wanted to take in the entire college experience and arrived early to tour the campus. Immediately upon arrival AK's eyes lit up bigger than Little D's do when she sees a stray puppy! Pam and I have been making it a point for the last several years to visit college campuses on our different trips to get the girls excited to further their education. The purpose of this decision is for the girls to make enough money to take care of in our golden years!

The first stop was at the campus store to look for some TCU apparel as AK decided to attend TCU after five minutes of being on campus. I could hardly blame her as the school is beautiful with the rolling hills filled with huge oak trees and architecture that probably makes a lot of kids want to pick TCU for their institution of high learning.

We walked over to the TCU arena to see their Hall of Fame display. We were pleasantly pleased to see Jake Arrieta from the Cubs had received a much-coveted spot in the TCU Hall!

With AK wanting to explore the campus more we headed to see the residential dorms. The dorms at TCU look just a tad different from the prestigious Dodge City Community College I attended for my freshman and sophomore year. A good day living at Sheldon Hall at DCCC was when the power worked. Something tells me the freshman class of TCU lives a little bit better than we did back in the day when the food from the cafeteria was so bad that Bogey and I survived on 99 cent Whoppers from Burger King!

We continued across campus on found our way to Frog Alley for the pregame festivities. We tried to score a prize while participating in various carnival games, but AK soon realized her old man no longer could throw very well or accurate for that matter. Instead of winning my oldest daughter a shirt for being able to show off my athleticism, AK had to settle for free fries that McDonald's was handing out!

Pam obviously knew I would be enjoying the usual stadium fare of nachos, BBQ sandwiches and pizza, so she brought us the Ueker seats to burn off the extra calories. We hiked high enough to feel light headed with the lack of oxygen from the high altitude!

Once we got to our seats, I soon realized why Pam was in charge of the fambam and always carried a bag full of stuff to take care of her brood. The temperature was 88 degrees and we had no sunscreen which was not good for our pasty white Irish skin!

We toughed it out and took on our sunburns to watch the mighty Horned Frogs beat the Bears in the battle for who was the better Christian school. AK and I had a great time watching the game and taking in all that college football has to offer. With the game ending, we walked back to campus and snapped a few more pictures to send to Pam and Little D so they would not forget us!

Pam and Little D were helping BJ pack up some boxes to move to storage and found a picture of Delaney from long ago. Little D decided to send us a before-after-picture so we wouldn't miss her too much while we were gone!

After the game, we decided to check in to the Hilton Homewood Suites that would play the role of our sleeping quarters for the night. Since this was AK's trip, I let her pick where we were going to eat and do after dinner. AK quickly decided with all the restaurants at our disposal in the greater Dallas area to pick Olive Garden despite the fact that we live two blocks from one in Midland! AK ate her usual meal of Alfredo with unlimited breadsticks while I stuck to the salad knowing we were heading to the movie and I was going to have to save room for popcorn with jalapenos. AK was pleased with her Olive Garden experience and gave the pretend Italian restaurant a rating of four-and-a-half eaten breadsticks out of five. 

We still had an hour before the show, so we walked to the various shops at the outside mall. I am not by any means a shopper, but I knew AK would enjoy it while we killed time. I was amazed at the lack of people in the stores for it being Black Friday. Perhaps everyone was shopped out or maybe people have come to their senses and realized that stores really are open all year around!

We soon found our way to the theater where AK picked Daddy's Home 2. After getting the jumbo-sized tub of popcorn and enough jalapenos to keep Sam's Club in business, we settled into our seats to enjoy the show. AK and I liked the movie as our ribs hurt from all the laughter only Will Ferrel could provide!

We made our way back to the hotel and after a long day they started at 6:00 in the morning and driving two hours, eating several nuggets from Chick-fil-A for breakfast, walking many miles across TCU and watching two Christian college football teams breakout into a fight that delayed the game for ten minutes, one TCU sweatshirt for AK and a football for Little D purchased, a feast of unlimited bread sticks at Olive Garden for AK and one funny movie watched, we called Pam to thank her for the trip as she declared the AK Daddy day over and summoned us back to Abilene to pick her and Little D up so the fambam could reunite for next weeks adventure as Pam takes on hills in San Antonio to run a marathon!

The Desparrois Family Trip to Meet a Real Life Cowboy!

The trip started much later than usual as Pam was driving the girls from Midland and I was driving my rental car out of Houston. The plan was to meet up at the rendezvous point in Dallas late Friday evening for another fun-filled fambam adventure. The last two weeks have been a grind for the entire family. So when our good friend Leslie asked Pam if we would like tickets to watch Oklahoma State take on the mighty Wildcats from Kansas State, it was a no-brainer!

 Pam and the girl part of the fambam were running a little late coming to Dallas as they stopped in Abilene to see Daddy Bill, Pam's great uncle. Daddy Bill is an extraordinary man and someone we treasure dearly. Unfortunately, he is in the hospital and would appreciate any prayers. Pam and the girls went in to see him and give him some love and a few hugs to help with his spirits. AK reported that despite not feeling well, Daddy Bill was still himself and filled the room with stories and laughter that only Daddy Bill can do!

 After a quick bite with more stories and humor from cousin Hayli, the girls loaded up for the last stretch and rode into Dallas around 10:30 at night. Since I arrived earlier, I had already checked us into the Doubletree hotel which would serve as our sleeping quarters for the evening. It was a beautiful reunion to get the fambam back together in one place as I had been in Houston for most of the week. We enjoyed catching up, but soon realized that it was late and time to turn as we had another four-hour drive ahead of us in the morning to Oklahoma for the game.

 We got up early and enjoyed our usual free Doubletree breakfast and found ourselves on the road. AK turned 15 this year and had jumped through the hoops to acquire the proper documents to get her driver's permit. Pam and I decided early on that our daughters were going to learn to drive well before they turned fifteen in parking lots and back roads.  So now that she has her permit, AK has come along nicely and is learning to drive rather well. Pam’s simple rule of thumb is If we are going somewhere and AK is with us, then she is driving! The rule also pertains to long distant trips. We strongly feel that our girls need every opportunity to learn and we have to be comfortable with allowing this to happen and not just "do everything for them". The hardest part of the whole kids driving thing is giving complete and total control over to kid!

Pam's stomach started to growl and I remembered that I stopped at to pick up the much sought after Beaver Nuggets the day before on my trip from Houston at the worlds largest convenience store called Buc-ees's. To avoid a "hangry" Pam, I pulled out the southeastern Texas delicacy and fed them to my wife and Little D so peace would be kept in the back seat of the road warrior!

 With it being our first time to eat Beaver Nuggets, we honestly don't know what all the hype is. As a family of four, we only ate a quarter of the bag leaving lots of beaver morsels left in the bag. We all agreed that Rigo had it right when he claimed that Allsups fried burritos with taco sauce are the only way to go on a road trip!



















We soon arrived at Boone Pickens stadium and met up with Leslie. The tickets were in a great spot, and the girls were eager to take in some college football. 

Little D was eager to see the stadium, so we snuck off and found our way to the stadium store. Like most sports stadiums we visit, Little D had her sights on a game ball. Little D is well known for playing catch regardless of the sport. She is kinda like a puppy dog. You just cannot throw it to her enough. She just keeps coming back for more until your arm is ready to fall off!

 

We enjoyed cheering on the Pokes and were hoping they were going to pull off one the greatest college football comeback ever. Unfortunately, they came up a few points short on their final drive. After the game, we thanked Leslie for the tickets and took the opportunity to get a picture of the girls favorite Cowboy and starting lineman Johnny Wilson #72!

 

Johnny is an awesome kid and has taken the college playing field by storm this year being named a team captain and getting the MVP for the game against Texas. We were honored to be asked to come to a game and look forward to watching Johnny's success in the future!

We once again loaded up and headed to Oklahoma City to find rest for the night. The girls were starving and we sought refuge for their hunger pains at Waffle House. Many families have dirty secrets they keep hidden away for no one to know. Ours is the pure pleasure of the greasy cafe food from Waffle House. I can't exactly tell you why we like it so much, be we do and we are proud to say it could be a Top Ten spot for us when it is available.

After stuffing our faces full of sweet waffles, biscuits and gravy, eggs, bacon and their world famous hash browns we found ourselves ready for a long food-induced coma and settled in at the local Hilton Garden Inn.

It didn't take long for the girls to pass out and Pam to take control and declare that we would be in no hurry to return home. She decided the girls were needed some rest for the long journey back and was going to allow them to catch up on some much-needed teenager sleep.

As usual, I was up early the next morning and enjoying my free Hilton morning coffee when Pam came down to join me. We spent several hours just drinking coffee and enjoying some time to ourselves. We are so busy with work and the girl's activities that we appreciated a simple cup of coffee together.

Little D woke up and decided to join Pam and I for our free complimentary Hilton breakfast while AK opted to snooze longer. Little D was eager to get some pool time in and try out her new football. I loosened up my arm and Pam dragged AK out of the bed so we could all go to the pool together. We had a good time playing catch and having chicken fights. The girls may be getting big, but are still not match for their parents in a good old fashion chicken fight.

We soon checked out and headed to lunch at Braum's for lunch. Pam and the girls had never had eaten there and thoroughly enjoyed their first trip while scarfing down Braum's burger, french fries and washing it down with the delicious Braum's shake!

Before heading home, Pam and I participated in a friendly game of rock-paper-scissors to see who would have to play parent and sit up front with AK as she navigated the way home while she drove. I won and Pam had to sit in the pressure seat while I enjoy a leisurely ride home watching Wonder Woman and Spider-Man with my best buddy, Little D.

After spending over 13 hours in the car, one college football game, trying out some unimpressive beaver nuggets, a picture opportunity with a Cowboy, and two different hotels, Pam officially declared the weekend over as we arrived home at our little zoo filled with roue dogs and two cats.