Spring Break- Dallas Here We Come

Last Thursday we packed up and "got the heck out of Dodge." It wasn't long into our 5 hour drive to Dallas that Tanner began with the "Are we there yets" but we got a movie going and the time began to pass a bit faster. It was fun to be back in a big city. Once we drove into Dallas and I began to see the big buildings and began to notice all the traffic around us I realized that other than our trip to Utah last July I haven't been further than 30 minutes from my house in the last year! It was definitely time to get away.

We made the trip with some of our good friends Mike and Stefani Hooper and their kids, Megan, Sammy and Noah. It was a lot of fun to hit the local shopping sites and enjoy the "Big City Life." (Keep in mind that almost any life is 'Big City Life' compared to life in Bentonville.)

After we arrived and checked in to the hotel we hooked up with some good friends that Greg and I met while going to Utah State. Elliott and Camille have lived in Dallas for the past few years and it was fun to catch up with them. We went to dinner at Olive Garden, and the entire time Greg was trying to convince Elliott that they needed to come work for Wal-Mart and move out to Bentonville, kind of a hard sale to make. :) After dinner we headed back to their house and Camille saved me from the 'poor mother of the year' award and let us join her kids in coloring Easter Eggs. I don't know how I missed this important Easter tradition, but I am grateful Camille saved me.

Friday morning we woke up bright and early to catch one of the outlet malls nearby. I can tell you I have been shopping deprived in the recent past and it was fun to have so many stores at my fingertips. Stef and I could have seriously spent the entire vacation shopping and have been completely happy, but we do have husbands and children that would rather gouge their eyes out than spend and entire day in the mall. Although they all enjoyed a fun ride on the carousel.

After the mall we decided to take the kids to the Dallas Zoo, it took us about 45 minutes to get there, another 45 minutes waiting in line to find a place to park, only to finally decide that we didn't want to walk 5 miles from our parked car to the zoo entrance then turn around and spend another 45 minutes going back towards the hotel and to find a place to eat. During dinner it was impossible to get the kids to sit still for even one minute. Thankfully a few police officers were eating at the same place and Stef asked them where a local park was. The park was the highlight of their day. They had so much fun just running and playing.

Saturday was the last day of our trip. Tanner was pretty disappointed that we didn't make it to the zoo the day before so that was our destination for the day. Luckily we made it there early enough that we were able to park in the main parking lot and didn't have to walk far at all. The zoo didn't even begin to seem crowded until after noon. Tan and Bryn were so excited for the pony ride that was located in children's zoo. Bryn absolutely loved it, Tan... well, I think Tan still remembers what it is like to ride Bugs at Grandpa Ralph's house. He went on the ride, but wasn't exactly overly excited about it. There was also a 'free fly' zone in the children's zoo where birds will fly right up to you and let you feed them. I think it was a bit of a shock to both Tanner and Bryn when we walked through the door and 4 birds came and landed on them. Tanner even threw his 'food stick' on the ground and Bryn started to cry, but after a little coaxing they realized it was actually pretty cool. We spent a good 15 minutes just holding and feeding the birds. We all had a lot of fun at this spot. A few other hot spots at the zoo were the monkeys, elephants, giraffes and rhinos. Tanner was looking forward to seeing the rhinos all day. I was so glad when we finally found them. I really think the highlight of Bryn's day was finding a small patch of purple flowers and being able to pick flowers for a minute.

After the zoo we met up with the Hooper's again and started our caravan home. We had so much fun. It was good to get away for a little while and it is so good to come home.