TEXAS!!

We had quite the long Fall Break this year. I'll explain. My friend that lives in the Dallas/Fort Worth area (which btw, is like saying the Salt Lake/Provo area- they are not close together), her hubby is in the Air Force and is in Qatar for a year (left last April-won't be home til April). They will be moving when he gets home, so I was thinking of going to go out for our UEA break (long weekend) with the kids. Then Darren says, I think BYU is playing in Dallas in October this year. They were. So, we turned it into our family vacation this year. Plus, I did not want to go there in the summer...too HOT!
Well, we got in Saturday night. Amber was so generous to come pick us up from the airport (we couldn't all fit in one car, so she had to get a babysitter to do so-too nice-and she let us use one of their cars all week, since it's "extra" AND she let us stay at their house. Seriously. So great. I've known her since 4th grade-how many years is that??) We spent Sunday relaxing-her kids had their Primary program-very glad to hit that. Pro Football day, so Darren went to the Cowboys game (vs Rams). The kids got along so well; the genders are opposite-her older is a boy and second is a girl-but they played boys and girls better than ages. Her third is a girl like Aubs, but a year older. And she likes babies, so it worked out well.

We hit Monday by going to downtown Dallas. This is the JFK memorial.

This is the 6th floor window he was shot from (there's a museum-we didn't go to)

Aubrey doesn't know she's a baby. This was not a nice part of town.

We went to the State Fairgrounds. The fair had just ended that weekend, but that might have been overwhelming for us. They have permanent museums there and one was an aquarium. It wasn't too busy so this guy was showing the kids some personal attention and teaching them about the things in this tank. This is the horseshoe crab.

Aubrey makes friends where ever we go

Feeding/Petting/otherwise bothering the Sting Rays

Tuesday: we went on a tour of the Cowboys Stadium. This place is insane. This TV goes from the 20 yard line to the 20 yard line. 60 YARDS long. It's the biggest in the world-and was like 36 million dollars. To hang from the ceiling. At a football stadium. To show the game that is playing directly beneath it.
Part of the tour was the locker room. Yes, we tried on jerseys. Yes, we took pictures of it.

The fam on the field. We found a chatty employee and had him take the picture. You can only see about 1/2 the levels in this-it goes much higher. Cool to be on the field. It's astro turf-but really rubbery. They had already put the "college turf" down-so no star in the middle.

Wednesday: We headed to Fort Worth. They have an historical district which has stockyards. With some shops and a maze and other general old-timey fun. This little rodeo area had a fun "remote controlled" rides (the guy has just as much fun controlling them as the kids riding, I am sure). Trevor chose the long horn. (What the state is famous for!)

Rachel chose the bull. A little rougher ride because it also went up and down.

The main street (in the historic district) That's Amber's girl on the right. (not some random stranger)

Thursday: We went to this insanely huge mall called Grapevine Mills. It has a Legoland Discovery center. (Not like an amusement park; think more children's museum with Lego theme). We spent hours there. It wasn't too crowded and so we just stayed and played. Really fun. Would have been my nephew Henry's dream! Again, Aubrey doesn't know she's a baby.

Daddy and Rach building stuff.

Rach and Trev posing in what they built. This is a very small sample of what we did there at Legoland. But it's already a long post!

We went to dinner with some old friends who live in the "area" too. (I use that loosely because nothing is really "in the area." It's all "Texas-sized," a fact that the residents are all too proud of! It's funny, everything is spread out and you are on freeways A LOT. Thank goodness for GPS!) It was nice to see them and their kids too. They haven't lived in UT since he left for law school-like 7 years ago?

Friday: we went to the Bureau of Printing and Engraving. But no pictures allowed! You can't even bring in phones or any bags. Of course, where they make our money is going to have tight security! It was cool tour and I wish I had pictures, but oh well! Then we packed up and went to dinner. Some fine Mexican at a place called "Chuy's" We were in our shirts-ready for the game!

Back to Cowboys stadium for the BYU vs TCU game. Amber was so nice and offered to watch Aubs. Better that way, since it was late and she would have just been a monkey. I was looking forward to Fall football without freezing my tushie off but they opened the roof and it was pretty cold! We had an annoying TCU fan take our pic (seriously he was annoyed he couldn't swear because my kids were right in front of him but I do appreciate that he kept it PG). Awesome experience-embarrassing loss :(

We came home Saturday. What a week!