Dallas {Spring Break 2012}

One of the {many} joys of being married to a teacher is that he gets a lot of days off that "normal" people don't get. Add in there that I can take off whenever I want (my boss can be mean, but as long as I don't have any shoots scheduled, she's pretty lenient), :) and we were able to take a mini vacation to Dallas this week.

Adam and I don't take a lot of BIG vacations. You know, like a lot of people go somewhere every year like Cancun or on a cruise (ha!). We went to Hawaii on our honeymoon and that was about it. So whenever we can go to Kansas City or Colorado or (in this case) Dallas, it's a big treat! Many of our friends are teachers, so we got to go down there with two other couples who are some of our best friends, it was a blast!

We drove down Sunday after church and with all our stops, ended up getting there around 7:30pm. We got settled into our rooms, and then the guys went out and got pizza that they brought back for us to eat. At one point I came out of the bathroom and Sutton had gotten up on the couch and just looked like he was ready for a business meeting.

After the boy was in bed, we played a rousing game of "Things" til the wee hours and then headed to bed. The next morning, we ate Texas-shaped waffles before taking a walk to the nearest Walmart to buy some essentials. Sutton was ready for a nap by the time we got back, so Adam stayed in our room with him and did homework while I headed out with the rest of the group.

We were actually in Addison, which is a suburb of Dallas. So we went to Addison Circle and ate lunch at a little sidewalk cafe. Then we walked around the circle and lounged at a pretty park with fountains. It was the perfect weather, so us girls just laid in the grass for awhile talking. So relaxing and fun! We took weird iPhone photos while we were there...

After Sutton woke up, we headed over to a flight museum to look at a bunch of airplanes. Sutton's favorite was the helicopter, but he kept saying "Whoa..." cause there were so many BIG planes. Usually he only sees them small in the sky or in his books.

 

I wanted Adam and Sutton to see the park we'd spent time at earlier that day, so we headed back over so Sutton could run around for awhile.

Then we went to Cantina Laredo for dinner, yum... It started raining as we were getting back to the hotel so we hung out there for the evening, Adam built Sutton a fort.

 

After Sutton was in bed, we played Pictionary all night. For awhile, all us girls were on our phones and Luis felt the need to document it...

 

I listen to the Kidd Kraddick morning radio show as often as I can, and I have since college. I randomly remembered that they're based in Dallas, so we did a little reconnaissance and figured out where they were located. We got up a little earlier on Tuesday morning and ended up being the only people there watching their show. Big Al came out and talked with us for awhile, and even ended up giving us a tour of the studio! It was so cool. We got to meet J-Si, Kellie Rasberry, Shannon, and Jenna as well as some of the behind-the-scenes people. They were all really nice! I totally felt like we were meeting celebrities. :) Us girls got our photo taken with Big Al and J-Si.

 

After that, we went to the Dallas World Aquarium. Coolest place EVER! It was so neat to see the monkeys, otters, sharks, manatees, birds, snakes, lizards...all in really amazing environments. Sutton had fun until he peed his pants from drinking crazy amounts of apple juice. :)

Adam and Sutton and I headed back to the hotel so he could nap, and we both also got to take long naps. That was wonderful. When everyone was up, we headed to the mall of all malls...the Galleria. I'm not a huge shopping person, but the other girls were, and we had SO much fun shopping together. One of the best parts of the trip was spending time with my good friends Val and Melinda.

 

At one store, we all decided to try on something that we'd never wear. You can't really tell in the photo, but Val had on a strapless, shin-length romper, I was wearing suspenders that were attaching to high-waisted capris, and Melinda had on some short-shorts overalls. Sexy. :) 

Adam was great and took the kiddo the whole time so I could hang with my friends. They got a cinnamon-sugar pretzel from Auntie Anne's, and Sutton dipped it in cheese and loved it. Weirdo.

That evening, we headed back to the hotel to put Sutton to bed while Luis and Val, and Ryan and Melinda went to get take-out from the Cheesecake Factory. Luis and Val treated us all to dinner - they're so awesome! We ended up eating at like 8:30 in our PJs in the hotel, and it was so fun. Then we played more games before breaking out the cheesecake. Yummmmmmm.

Wednesday morning we packed up and checked out of the hotel. Sutton was complaining about his teeth, so we got him some pain medicine, and he did alright. We went back to the Galleria for more shopping. Sutton played in a little indoor play area.

Val and I waiting outside Banana Republic for Melinda. We ate lunch at Chic-fil-a, then Adam and Sutton and I got on the road to head home since it was his nap time. He slept for about 30 minutes and then woke up crying and wouldn't calm down. So we had to stop and get out for awhile. He was all congested and sounded terrible. After driving a bit more and him falling asleep again, he woke up and it happened all over again. So we got him some cold medicine that was supposed to make him sleep but it didn't really work. So we just took our time getting home and got back right before bedtime.