Dinner and a show

Last week was Spring Break.  My cousin Gina flew in from Mississippi and met me in Dallas.

We had the best time!
We slept in, laid in bed drinking coffee and watching the news, and laughing and talking the whole time.
Jennifer did all the fun stuff with us and my sister even spent more time with us than I would have predicted.

We started the week with a little time shopping and lunch in a wonderful little bakery...

 

We went out to dinner and when we walked out of the restaurant there were police men trying to arrest a girl and get her in the car. 

 

She was very concerned about her pink fur purse and apparently "hadn't done anything".  I know that because she yelled it the whole time.  It was quite the show!

 

We all went to "You can Paint" and spent the evening having fun

 

Katie flew alone for the first time and joined me in Dallas

 

 

We spent a little time at the Arboretum

 

you can't take those two anywhere...

 

though the did spend some quality time together taking something to Kellie ( she was on a mission trip not far from us)

I went to see her for a few minutes while they were at the mall and ice skating.  She wasn't interested in me...

I ran into one of my sweet friends when we were out shopping one day.  What a nice surprise!

We went to the Farmers Market.  Katie was really really excited about that!

We stood in line for some wonderful BBQ.  It was a great time!

I didn't get to go visit any of my local friends but think we may be going back soon.  We put Gina on a plane and drove home.  It was good to spend cousin, sister, niece time.

I'm glad for all of us to be back in one place! 

 

 

 

 

Are we there yet?

We have been in Dallas for the whole week of spring break...
We did a lot of family time, friend time, quick visits with old friends, shopping and the sweetest wedding I've ever seen
It was a week of going non stop but I enjoyed every minute.

We spent some time with the favorite dog cousin

we ate at a lot of good places

we did some early birthday celebrating for Jennifer

Kellie chose the place and we ended up at

The Magic Time Machine

Jennifer spent some time on driving lessons for me!  Katie got to drive the car she will get soon...

I think the favorite moment of the week was Katie getting her eyebrows waxed for the first time.  She was very nervous but really, really needed it done!

She survived

We headed back towards home last night after the wedding.

Kellie needed to be able to see the nuggets she was eating

I got too tired and we stopped at a hotel

I tried to enjoy every minute I got to spend in this fluffy hotel bed!

It was just me and the girls for this trip.  I think they have had enough of each other and of me by the time we got home....
but it was all good.  They both had their favorite friends over within an hour of getting home.

I came home to a very clean house which is a very big deal to me and very unusual for Mike to have it that way.  He also took my car to and had it cleaned after we got home. 
Today is our anniversary and just coming home to a clean house was the best gift ever!
I sat at that wedding last night thinking how it seemed like yesterday that I was getting married... how could it be 17 years???? 
17 fun filled years!

A little Vacation

We took a short vacation...
We took a dozen six kids...actually only 5 on the car trip and one met us there...
Jennifer met us there for a couple of days...

They were really good and the car ride was actually WAY better than I expected...
There was also less drama than I expected with 6 girls...

It seems we had 'Charlies Angels' with us...

And some girl ninjas

The ninjas did not have near as many pictures for some reason...

One of my BFF's joined us for a day...

we posed like the girls...

we showed them our crazy piano skills (which are none...)

We sent the husbands off with a fishing guide...

We read bridal magazines with my bff since she has a son getting married...

played some games...

found an empty restaurant while they were dragging us around to take pictures of them...

and we may or may not have let them dance in there...

and finally, the picture they had planned all day...

The best part of the vacation to the lake this year is that we didn't have the boat to worry about... The lake was much more enjoyable while I was spending time in the pool...

and I found this photo taken from the backseat on facebook that Katie's bff posted...

a good time was had by all...

What's a vacation if you don't have your tiara

My sister and brother in law and my niece Jennifer came out for the weekend and we all went a couple of hours north to the Texas Panhandle 'where you can see further and see less than any place on earth'. 

Mike and my brother in law Ted are history, western, etc. buffs... so the reason for the trip was to see the Palo Dura Canyon and the play "Texas". 

We had been to the canyon and looked around last summer and decided we needed to go back for the musical with the rest of the fam...

We started our day at the Cadillac Ranch on old route 66 to spray paint a little...

On a side story, Kellie's birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks and she had asked if we could celebrate early while the family was with us... We gave her the standard "we'll see" and never mentioned it again.  

They had brought her birthday gifts and we had planned to do her birthday at dinner but never told her.  She asked about it right before we were about to leave the hotel for dinner and when we told her we were, she replied "I brought my tiara just in case, let me get it..."  I love that kid!

We took the free limo ride to the Big Texan restaurant... well, most of us did... Katie thought it was "embarrassing" and rode with Aunt Jan....

 it was an old limo but a fun ride...

Dinner was fun.  We got to see two people try to eat the big 72 oz steak in an hour... both failed...

There were calf fries on our appetizer platter... Mike made Jennifer try one... she wasn't thrilled...

Funnier though, was when my sister got a big fried jalapeno rather than a mushroom... she thought her "insides were on fire"

The birthday girl was a little put out that they didn't sing to you for your birthday at this place... think the huge dessert made up for it...

Then it was off to the canyon.

  a sweet man took our picture but left his shadow for us to enjoy...

the boys really wanted to go look at caves that had been used for hide outs etc... luckily there wasn't enough time for that...

The play was great, the night beautiful and a good time was had by all...

Having done almost all the touristy things we all headed home today....

We did have to make a little stop to visit with this lovey "mustang cowlly"