Off to Dallas AGAIN

Richard and I are headed to Dallas this afternoon, we will spend the night and go in to see about our passports tomorrow.
A couple weeks ago just for fun I was looking at flights to Ireland (since my brother is living there until August) and realized with my new flight benefits we could fly there for almost nothing (less than 200 a piece first class less than that if we end up in coach) so we decided we would take a few days and go.
In the midst of making our plans we remembered that Richard's passport had just expired and since we had no immediate plans to leave the country we had not renewed it, so we found out you can go right into the office in Dallas and do it, he needs a new one and I need my married name put on mine.
We are hoping to see some sights while we are in Dallas as well, then I can at least say with all my trips there I have seen more than the airport and the hotel!
It has been quite the expereince getting him approved to leave the country, for me it was easy I just had to get my shifts covered, for him...he had to get approval not only on a company level but also battalion level, he had to take some classes on terrorists (as my sister says that is funny since they are sending him to Iraq soon, if he doesn't already know about terrorists he is in trouble!) and notify the state derpartment he will be there etc. it was a lot of paperwork, studying and signatures but he got it all done, we are very excited to go.
We are only staying 5 days it will be a quick trip but long enough to at least see Dublin.  Richard lived in Europe twice for several years so he has seen most of it, but never Ireland so it will be fun to go someplace he has never been (nor have I) and being able to stay with my brother makes it nice, since I have found the biggest expence when I have traveled overseas tends to be the hotel.
The kids were unhappy they can't go but I have not gotten their passports yet (except for Stevie) so I told them we would start getting them when I get home and maybe I can take them somewhere over there next year, with my job perks it makes travel affordable so they might as well get to enjoy it too.