Vacation Rerouted

The extended Palmer family had been planning all year to go to Galveston Island for our summer vacation/family reunion, a tradition started about 3 or 4 years ago. Everyone was excited and so ready to relax at the beach. Then, Hurricane Ike hit the Galveston/Houston area. Galveston Island was basically shut-down and locked up. Linda still wanted to get the family together since everyone was going different ways during the holidays and it would be the last chance for everyone to get together. So vacation was rerouted to Frisco, home of the grandparents. It was a little crazy with the shift in plans but it was a lot of fun. Aaron ended up having the whole week off due to power loss and such at work and with employees. So we left Wednesday for the 4 hour drive to Dallas (instead of the planned 1 hr trip to Galveston). We put together a scavenger hunt for the kids and other fun stuff. Friday, we went to the Texas Rangers baseball game in Arlington. Saturday, Aaron went to Six Flags with his sisters and brother-in-laws. I (the motion sick one of the family) took the kids to the Dallas World Aquarium with Grandma. I loved it and I think the boys did too. We also took our yearly family pictures. Check out the vacation photo album to see some of our pictures. It was nice to spend time with family, especially since the Youngs and the newest addition, Xylee, were moving to Utah for a few months.

It was also nice to get away for awhile from the craziness that is Houston post-hurricane. At that point, it was still difficult to get gasoline, many people were without power, and there were lines outside of grocery stores just to get in. We were afraid we might not be able to get home because while in Dallas there were freeway signs saying things like "Do not go to Houston," "Limited fuel between here and Houston," and stuff like that. Luckily, things had calmed down by the time we returned and we even managed to visit Aunt Sandy and her boys in Conroe on our way home. They had their power returned just a couple of days prior to us coming back. After almost a month of postponed and rerouted activities and unplanned "vacations," we are finding "relaxation" in the return of normalcy to our lives.