More Dallas - October

My time in Dallas in between weddings and before flying back to NYC seemed like a bit of a whirlwind! I can't remember everything I did that week, but here are some highlights :

Soccer Games!  I got to see both Ryder & Beau show their stuff on the field.

Beau was kind of just hanging out on the field by himself and

I asked my mom if he was always such a non-player.  Turns

out he was super sick.  As soon as the 1st period ended, he

came off the field with tears saying he didn't feel good :(

We took him straight home to his mom (who was home with sick Shep).

Luckily, Beau had another game later that week and was feeling much better!

He even scored a goal!!

All the dads doing the traditional tunnel for their boys

Ryder played hard core for the start of his game

But, spent most of the game dancing on the field :)

Shep loves being at the games.  He manages to squeeze

himself into the team huddles and helps himself to the snacks.

I gave Shep his very own scooter for his birthday!

 He loooves to say Cheese!

Cheese!

I stayed home with sick Beau one day so Beth could keep her hair appointment.

We played some games and conquered this puzzle!

But, mostly we just cuddled on the couch.

When Beth came home and I started to get up, Beau said

"Man, that was really comfortable!"

I went to Painting with a Twist with some of the girls for Worley's birthday!

I've been wanting to try this for a while - so fun!

Michelle & I working hard

With Brooke & Michelle

The beginning of my creation

Masterpieces!

The colors match my kitchen pretty well, so I have mine hanging there

That week, I also...

- had dinner with Julie & Amber.  I was SOOOO late!  They were forgiving.  We had great food and margaritas at Gloria's and it was so fun catching up with these ladies!

- met Kelli (and little Lee) for morning coffee 

- had dinner with my friend Kristen.  We decided to check out one of the food trucks that are popping up around Dallas.  So, we got Korean BBQ from a Walgreens parking lot :)  We took it over to Kristen's  house to eat.  Fun!

- Dinner with Elizabeth & Tamara!  They introduced me to Cedars Social Club and I loved it!  It was a really fun night.  Amazing drinks and good food.

That's all I can remember from the week, but I'm sure the rest of it was filled with good times with the family!

Texas State Fair!

I was super excited when I realized that my trip to Texas for the weddings coincided with the Texas State Fair!!  The fair is a big deal in Texas....especially Dallas.  Public School kids & teachers even get a day off for the Fair!  I was excited to be back for it.  My mom and I went with B&B and all the boyz and we had so much fun.

No trip to the fair is complete without a Fletcher's Corny Dog

You always have to stop and say hello to Big Tex

All the boyz loved riding the rides!

I got to ride the log ride with Ryder & Beau - so fun!

Ryder competed in the Pee Wee Rodeo

Beau tried the barrel races!

Feeding the animals in the Barnyard

Llama

So cute!

Biggest Turtle!

These Zebras were so beautiful

There is always, always, always a huge mama pig and her babies at the fair

Camel

The bird show is quite entertaining

This bird could really talk!

 Huge bird flew right over our heads to his trainer on the stage

We didn't ride the Ferris Wheel this time

You can't miss the Butter Sculpture!

And we ended the trip with more rides!

We ran into Ryder's friend Cort!  They had SO

much fun riding this Himalaya together!

Love this pic of Sheppy....does he look laid back?  Or like he's holding on for dear life?

HARRY!

I think I'm just going to start making all my blog post titles men's names.

Today, I give you Harry....

I went with Rosella and Alejandra to see Harry Connick, Jr's musical, "On a Clear Day".  We mostly went to see Harry, but I actually enjoyed the show (the other girls would probably tell you otherwise).  The storyline was pretty out there, but I somehow still managed to like it.  Harry was great, of course!

ANDERSON!

Oh, hey there, Anderson!  Who's that sitting just to the right of you?!

Yes, it's me!  And to the left of him, you see Mindy in her green.  Yes, we were sitting together, we just had 2 more friends in between us...here's Megan and Stacy to the right of Anderson in this next picture.

As you know (if you've read my blog for long), I like to go see TV show tapings on random Monday Holidays.  It's really the only time I can do this, unless I were to take off work to do so.  For Martin Luther King Day, the four of us went to see Anderson Cooper's new(ish) daily talk show.  The episode we saw was rather boring, but it was still fun to be there.

Anderson is amazing.  As in, amazingly good looking!  He shook 2 people's hands when he walked into the theater and I was lucky to be one of those 2 people.  I nearly fainted.  His eyes are like nothing I've ever seen - a really crazy blue!!  I had convinced myself since that day that he must wear colored contacts.  But, I just pulled up the picture from our first meeting (New Years 2007) and his eyes were normal-human-being blue back then....I knew it!  Now I wish I had a picture of his crazy blues!

Anderson's set is awesome...it's in the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle and the floor-to-ceiling windows combined with the views of NYC from there make a wonderful backdrop for his show!

After the show, we walked over to Sarah Beth's for brunch.  Perfect MLK Day, if I do say so myself!

Up next?  Jimmy Fallon for President's Day...cannot wait!

Texas Wedding #2

The Friday after Jessica's wedding, I was back in the car on the way to Austin for another wedding!  My mom drove with me this time.  I decided just going down for the day might be best so I could maximize my time in Dallas with family and friends there.  And I was SO happy my mom was up for going down with me...we had so much fun together that day.

Mom and I arrived to Austin about lunchtime.  We ate lunch at Bess Bistro on Pecan (Sandra Bullock's restaurant).  I don't remember what we ate, but we did think it was pretty good.  The restaurant was a little bit dull atmosphere-wise.  Afterwards, we walked down the street to her smaller cafe type restaurant, Walton's Fancy & Staple.  We thought we might pick up something sweet there, but we decided we didn't want anything.  It was however SUPER cute...we definitely liked the vibe at this place more than at Bess.

We spent the next few hours browsing around S. Congress.  Popped in several stores and then got a cupcake to split at Hey Cupcake! and shaved ice...it was super hot that day and this was the perfect treat!

From there, mom took me to Kelly & Daniel's wedding (she went to the San Marcos outlets while I was at the wedding).  Their wedding was at a venue in Dripping Springs, just outside of Austin.  They have an outdoor area for the wedding and then an indoor reception spot.  Crazy thing is that once I got there I realized I had been there before!  My friend, Mindy, got married there in the early 2000's!  Kelly & Daniel's ceremony was so sweet and Kelly was a gorgeous bride!!  It was fun to see several members of my community group who came down for the wedding.  We had a great time at the reception!

Levi is in my community group and he sang

and played guitar at the wedding.  He was great!

Sweet pic of Kelly with her Dad

Here comes the Bride!

 Their last name is Ting, hence the Ting soda party favors.

So cute!  I had mine the next day and it was also delish!

CG Girls...Claire, Katie, Keri

More CG....Mark, Levi, Keri

Jeff goes to my church and was one of Daniel's groomsmen

All the CG members who made it down for the wedding 

Pretty cake

Cake cutting