Dallas Vacation

So I may be the worst blogger ever.

We only took eight pictures while on our vacation. Four of which were on my phone and one was taken by Brad, with his phone. But I do have a video to share, hopefully that will make up for the lack of pictures. :)

But the lack of pictures does not mean there was a lack of fun! :) We had a great time! I thought I would give a day by day overview of what we did, with my few pictures inserted in as they apply. This may not be interesting to you at all - and that is completely fine. I want to remember our trip, so I'll record it for my sake. No feelings hurt if you are not interested.

~

We left home on Thursday at 6:45am and headed toward the big city. We arrived at 1ish, unpacked a bit and let Lulu stretch her arms and legs a bit. She felt right at home. :)

Then we headed out for a late lunch. Where? Chipotle!

Lucy got her first taste of Chipotle and I assume, from the open mouth awaiting more rice and/or beans, that she liked it. :)

After having Chipotle, we headed to Whole Foods, where we got cheese and crackers (one of our favorite combinations) and brought them back to our hotel room for dinner. :) Big, late, lunch at Chipotle = Small, dinner in our hotel room. :) We relaxed at the hotel for the afternoon and put Lucy to bed on time. And watched some of our Thursday night shows after she went down while enjoying our cheese and crackers. :)

A relaxing first day of vacation.

~

We awoke on Friday to a beautiful day! We had a small breakfast in our hotel room (I had brought a bunch of food for snacking on) and by the time we were ready to go it was 11am! (We were on vacation, and that ment NO rushing!) We headed toward Ikea and decided on the way to eat an early lunch so we could shop til we dropped and not worry about eating. :) We found a fun resturant close to Ikea

So yummy! I had fish tacos and Brad had braised beef shoulder. Seriously. So. Good. A great lunch to fuel our bodies for wandering around here:

(Yes, I am sorry to admit, 2 of the 8 pictures we took were of the outside of Ikea...)

Lucy was a champ - I carried her in the Beijorn (our front carrier) for about an hour and a half, then we put her in the cart - she did such a good job! In the above picture she was having a conversation with her daddy. :)

We left Ikea after a few hours (it's easy to loose track of time in that place!) and headed back to the hotel, hoping Lucy would be able to get in a nap before we headed out again. She did sleep, for a little bit (no where near as long as she usually does), and then we headed to The Galleria.

Now I had heard that this mall was big - but I was shocked by it's size. We wandered around, trying on clothes, smelling perfume and meandering. So fun. :)

We had dinner at Chamberlains Fish Market. Another yummy experience. Brad had asked me before we left Pampa if there was any food that I "had to have" while we were in Dallas and I requested sea food. I hadn't had a good crab cake in forever. :) Our dinner at Chamberlains was so relaxing, they put us in a back room (very nice when you have a baby who likes to make her presence known) which allowed us to enjoy our meal without worrying about bothering people. :) After a appetizer of crab cakes, I had Mahi Mahi and Brad had Salmon.

~

One of the things we had wanted to do while in Dallas was see our friend Kate. Kate graduted from MBI in Brad's class and is now studying at Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS). We had scheduled to have lunch with her on Saturday, but called her that morning and asked if she had time to go to the outlet stores with us. :) We had to twist her arm but we reminded her that she would get to see Lucy for a longer period of time. Just kidding - she was excited to come with us, and we were thrilled to spend more time with her! :) We had lunch at Chipotle (where else?) and headed to the outlets to bum around. Gap Outlet was the largest success for all of us - best. store. ever. :) We had dinner at Hulihans and brought Kate back to her apartment :(

No pictures from Saturday - even though I asked everyone in the car, Lucy included, to remind me to get a picture of the four of us. We all forgot. :(

~

On Sunday we woke up when Lucy did - exactly like the other mornings, but we brought Lulu to bed with us to cuddle :) She was happy to show off some new tricks:



So fun!

We went to church at The Village and I got to sit next to my hubby during worship AND the sermon - a privilage I used to take for granted, but now as a pastor's wife I treasure. :) We heard a great sermon and left feeling encouraged.

We went to a Mexican resurant for lunch (I can't remember the name) and headed to the hotel for nap time. Lucy decided she didn't want to nap, and after she cried for 1/2 hour, we got her up. She and I cuddled for a bit, read books and played. About an hour before our dinner reservations we decided she HAD to sleep, we put her down and after 15 minutes she finally fell asleep. Enough of a cat nap to keep her happy through dinner. (Phew!)

We went to Del Fresco's Double Eagle Steak House for dinner (that's a long name right!?). Brad's one thing he "had to eat" before leaving Dallas was a good steak - and man! We found good steaks! The food was ahhhmazing. And we ended dinner with chocolate cake (shouldn't have though).... it was sooooo gooood.

Enjoying a bite of chocolate cake after dinner. :)

We ended the evening watching the Oscars, a yearly tradition for us.

~

We woke up a little sad on Monday, as we knew we needed to go home. But we quickly cheered up after we got this after we checked out of our hotel:

best. breakfast. ever.

After we got our breakfast, Brad asked me, "Anywhere else you want to go?"

"Nope" I answered, "Let's head home so we can extend the vacation through tonight. Get home early, unpack, order pizza and relax as we watch our Monday night shows."

And that's just what we did. :)

On the way to and from Dallas we listened to the book The Brethren by John Grishom. We haven't finished it yet - but it is so good! Listening to books on tape, we have found, is a great way to pass the time. We almost didn't want the drive to be over. But we were so happy to be home after a great trip away. :)