DALLAS TRIP: PEROT, ARBORETUM & REUNION TOWER

I'm not sure what it is about visiting another city that makes us want to pack a lot of stuff into those days, but we certainly managed to do a lot.  We left the Ranch and hit up the Perot museum in Dallas which has an amazing children's area, among other really cool exhibits that we weren't really able to take in due to the number of children we were hauling around.

We stayed Saturday night at an Embassy Suites, and Steph and I endeavored to eat a take out meal with the kiddos in the lobby.  Until a staff member informed us that we couldn't have outside food or drink there.  All seven kids were set up and eating, and I almost started crying.  Steph was really nice about it, and I was slightly less nice about it.  Thankfully, the employee helped us carry everything and herd the kids back to the room.  She even brought us a couple of cartons of ice cream treats for our trouble, so it turned out all right in the end.

Sunday morning we did the Arboretum which has a newly opened children's garden.  I had no idea how expansive it was, and we easily could have spent an entire day just there - the kids loved it!

(She loves rolly pollies.  How do you spell that?  No idea.)

(Pluto was still included in the Solar System, which made my heart weirdly happy.)

(We take water pumping very seriously.)

We did do a quick walk through some of the regular gardens which was even more beautiful than the last time we were there.

After the Arboretum, we headed up Reunion Tower for lunch and a trip to the GeoDeck.  It really was such a treat, and the kids loved the way the restaurant spun around slowly for rotating views 35 floors up.

Gotta love green screen group photos with totally random props!



There will be one last post in the Dallas trip series - we just did so much!

DALLAS TRIP: RANCH LIFE

About once a year, we endeavor to meet up with our dear college friends, Brian and Steph.  This year it worked out to do a long weekend - actually five nights - with them in the greater Dallas area, and it was a blast.  Except when it wasn't, but that is to be expected with lots of kiddos in tow.

Our trip down was pleasant-ish.  There was slightly less crying than normal, for which we were grateful.





We arrived at the Ranch just after sunset, which is such a gorgeous time of day there.

We visited the Ranch back in February, but we were kidless, and this time, it was really fun to see how much they enjoyed the great outdoors and down time all together.

There were morning walks.

And mid-morning 4-wheeler rides.  (The daddies drove one child at a time.)




And also canoe rides.



After lunch, we headed down to a shallow part of the creek for swimming, which was such a lovely treat.  The weather was perfect, and we thoroughly enjoyed our time splashing in the stream whose aesthetics had greatly been enhanced by all the recent rains washing out the debris.

After a delicious salmon dinner, we did a little fishing.  The girls were mesmerized, since we've never done this family activity before.

The Clauses made it possible for John and I to take a quick 4-wheeler ride by ourselves.



We played games and talked after the kiddos went to bed.  Our second night there ended up being one of the worst nights with the twins since they were itty bitty.  W is getting teeth, and he managed to wake up V, and in our panic to not wake the rest of the cabin, we pulled both twins into bed with us.  We hoped they would drift quietly back to sleep.  We couldn't have been more wrong.  After about two hours of them chatting it up with each other, clapping, trying to play and flopping all over us, we eventually got them milk and put them back in their pack n plays.  This was an enormously frustrating experience that involved anger, 4 letter words and exhaustion - never what you are hoping for from 12:30 - 3ish a.m.

But - other than that, we had an absolutely delightful time!



We continued our adventure in Dallas proper which will entail one to two more blog posts whenever I wrap up our laundry.  Or maybe whenever I need a break from the laundry.  We shall see.