A visit from Brent

Friday morning, before the crack of dawn, we deposited our brother Brent at the airport for his flight back home, but for 9 days before that, we had him here with us, and it was great fun. We spent a good bit of time at home: we took some walks around the neighborhood (the weather was quite cooperative for Brent's sun-starved WA self), played some board games, and ate A LOT (it's the Texas way). We also had 3 bigger outings, and here come the pictures..

The arboretum, of which we are so fond, has a 12 Days of Christmas display each holiday season, and so off we went. We chose to go on a Saturday night in order to to see the 5 million Christmas lights that were advertised as part of the display, but I think there may have also been 5 million other families in attendance, so from now on we'll stick to visiting during the day. Still, I'm glad we know what it's about and that we were able to experience it with Brent.

Seven swans a-swimming...

Nine ladies dancing...

Twelve drummers drumming...

And two lovebirds canoodling ;)

[ As a side note, taking decent pictures of the displays was a little bit tricky because of the crowd & the glare from the lights, etc and I laughed out loud when I saw that all I had captured of the eight maids a-milking was the back end of a poor cow. That one went straight into the recycle bin :) ]

Brent was interested in seeing Dealey Plaza, so we spent some time one morning downtown. The Sixth Floor Museum is fascinating (I've been twice and would go again & again), but we decided to explore outside instead. 

This is the former Texas School Book Depository, and the second floor from the top (or the 6th floor) is home to the museum. The window on the right-hand corner of the 6th floor is where Lee Harvey Oswald fired the shots that killed President Kennedy; the assassination occurred here on Elm Street. 

Brothers on the grassy knoll, which for some reason is much smaller and different than I imagined it would be. 

And just a block or so from the 6th Floor Museum is the Old Red Museum of Dallas County History & Culture, which we've not visited yet, but it's such a pretty building and the weather was so lovely,  I had to take a picture :) 

After roaming around Dealey Plaza and before eating an embarrassing amount of lunch at Babe's Chicken Dinner House, we stopped at the arboretum so Brent could see the splendor of it in the daytime. 

You can't know how excited I was to finally, finally have found fall :) 

The Japanese garden made us miss the Japanese maple that grows in the front yard of our WA house. I told Jan I want to plant a bunch here, but I'm very good at killing everything except weeds, so maybe we'll just enjoy them at the arboretum instead. 

This makes me smile because it reminds me that it's been years & years since I've had little brothers that are actually littler than me :) 

And this makes me smile because I'm at my favorite place in Dallas with my favorite person on the planet :)

Happy hearts

The first week of November is one of my favorites of the whole livelong year because our Dad & Mama were here. I cried when we left them at the airport for their trip home, I cried off and on for two days after, and I would like airfare to be free so that families don't have to be so far apart for such long stretches at a time, thank you very much. There are some things in my experience that feel too dear to talk much about, and this is one of them :)

Early October

We have pictures from the state fair and the arboretum, and I want to share them.

As far as I'm concerned, the very best thing about the fair are the animals in the petting zoo (although this year the horses from the Dallas Police Department Mounted Unit were a close second. So beautiful!)

I'm not sure how much petting the porcupines actually received, but it was fun to see them :)

And these are our friends Hugo and Eduardo, as well as the first corn dog of the day. It's practically compulsory to consume one's weight in fried food at the fair, and we did a decent job. We all, however, managed to steer clear of the Krispy Kreme cheeseburger. Even we have limits. 

I spy fall at the arboretum! :) 

This doesn't look like fall,but it's beautiful, so I'll allow it :)

Hot Springs

Near the end of September adventure was calling and we answered by high-tailing it down the road to Arkansas. Hot Springs is interesting and weird all at once. It's known for it's ties to Major League Baseball, illegal gambling and gangsters, and of course the thermal water that flows from 47 springs in the downtown district; there's really quite a lot of diverse history to learn about there. We toured an old bathhouse (c-r-e-e-p-y!), held alligators at a petting zoo and took a very sweaty but beautiful walk through a botanical garden. We also sat in our motel room and watched the Seahawks lose to the Packers, but we won't dwell on that too much :)

Summer rewind

It's fall but it doesn't feel like it (where is the leg warmer weather?!), and so sharing the last week of our summer vacation to the PNW doesn't seem too out of place, even if it is October already.

One of the things that feels hardest about living so far away is missing out on the ordinary, everyday things that I think we probably took for granted when we were just 2 hours up the road. So, we did a lot of sitting on the porch together, and prowling around the garden, and taking naps in each other's company, and feeding the ducks at the park, and having root beers floats downtown. I'm so thankful for who we have to love, and that they love us back, and that small things like watching the Mariners with our 85- year-old grandma and going to story time at the library with our 2- year-old wonder nephew really aren't small at all.