Port Aransas

Madeleine asked for a trip to the beach for her 8th birthday and Nana and Papa made it happen!  We are so thankful to them for a wonderful trip and so thankful to God for the beauty of the beach!   There were 6 adults and 4 children, and we all had a blast.  Port Aransas was beautiful and we had so much fun jumping the waves, playing in the condo's pool and hot tub, and building sandcastles. 

The group photo after a great beach trip!

Madeleine and Everett contemplating the beauty of the beach.

Celebrating Madeleine's 8th birthday

A family photo

Madeleine and I getting attacked by a wave

Everett and Lee building sandcastles

A brown pelican at the Port Aransas bird refuge

Driving to get BBQ

On our recent trip to Wimberley (where my mom lives) and Port Aransas (where the beach is) we knew that we were going to be relatively close to a BBQ place that we had been wanting to visit.  I had heard about this BBQ place on NPR recently that you can read about if you click here.  A father and daughter traveled 4,258 miles, visiting 31 BBQ joints and 16 states on a BBQ adventure that you can read about in detail here.  They shared that BBQ in Texas, "blew their minds."  Of Louie Mueller BBQ in Taylor they said, "This place had everything right from the clean dark brown burnished interior which revealed years of pit smoking to the perfect ratio of salt to pepper seasoning on the bark of the brisket. The sausage, all beef this time, was so juicy there was fat dripping down my arm."

 There was so much meat on these ribs!  And it was so good...

It was seriously good brisket, and those spicy pinto beans were yummy! 

 I loved the bbq charred menu!

Here is The Adventures in BBQ (http://adventuresinbbq.tumblr.com/) Best of List. 
Brisket
Louie Mueller Barbecue — Taylor, Texas
Sausage
Smitty's Market — Lockhart, Texas
Pork Ribs
Smitty's Market
Chopped Pork (tied)
Lexington Barbecue — Lexington, N.C.
Allen and Son BBQ — Chapel Hill, N.C.
Sauce, Tomato Based
Green Mesquite BBQ and More — Austin, Texas
Fried Chicken
Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken — Memphis
Pork Skin Sandwich
Lexington Barbecue
Biscuits
Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen — Chapel Hill, N.C.
Sausage Gravy
The Loveless Cafe — Nashville, Tenn.
Potato Chips
Central BBQ — Memphis, Tenn.
Hash
Maurice's BBQ Piggie Park
Sweet Tea
Felix's Fish Camp — Spanish Fort, Ala.
Chess Pie
Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken
Banana Pudding
Maurice's BBQ Piggie Park — West Columbia, S.C.
Doughnut
Gourdough's — Austin, Texas

#43 Thing to Do in Dallas with Kids

Go to Edom and pick blueberries!  This activity was not free and given the price of gas it was definitely not cheap, but it was such fun!  We left Dallas on a Wednesday morning at 9 am and arrived at the Blueberry Hill Farms in Edom at 10:30 am.  We applied our sunscreen and put on our hats and after an hour we were all ready to retire to the air conditioning! 

 The kids loved picking blueberries and had a great time.

Combined we picked 5 lbs of blueberries for $16.
 

On our way back to Dallas we stopped at Ham Orchard in Terrell and bought some delicious peaches, had peach ice cream, and decided that we were too pooped to pick blackberries.  This definitely needs to become a yearly tradition!

Memorial Day and the Nasher

A family photo right before the Memorial Day parade at Launa's Little Library, Everett (4 1/2) on his scooter and Madeleine (almost 8) on her new rollerblades. 

 The newest exhibit at the Nasher Sculpture Center by Ernesto Neto.  We went on the free family first Saturday in June and all took off our shoes and put on our blue booties to walk on the tightrope.  It was such fun!  Above is Madeleine and the picture below is Everett. 

 Then, we went to Crow Asian Art Museum right across the street from the Nasher and the kids drew themselves in a yoga pose.  I love me some free fun!

A cookie diva

 Thanks to so many friends, family, church family, neighbors, coworkers, Emler's swim class families, basketball team families, book clubs attenders, and gymnastics families, Madeleine was able to sell more than 1000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies!  As her reward, she was given lots of prizes (tshirt, towel, stuffed animal, deck of cards, patches for her Girl Scout sash), but she was also given a free night for herself and three other people at the Gaylord Texan Hotel!  May 19 was deemed cookie diva night and was only for those girls who had sold 1000 boxes of cookies.  Madeleine was so excited and my sister and I took our two girl scouts.  We loved the waterpark at the Gaylord, Paradise Springs, and had a blast on the zipline. 

This is Madeleine in her cookie diva shirt.  We got a free gift card for meals, but there was only $20 on it!  

 Madeleine wanted to explore everything at the hotel, even the exercise room!

 My sister and I with our two brownie girl scouts! 

Sunday afternoon all of the girl scout cookie divas were given tickets to Sea Life in Grapevine.  This picture cracks me up, Everett and Madeleine did not even realize that the shark was right behind them! 

This Saturday we have the 500+ club swim party at Hawaiian Falls!  We are looking forward to it!

#42 Thing to Do in Dallas with Kids

Visit Valley House Gallery and Sculpture Garden

On December 30, 2010 I made a New Year's Resolution to blog weekly about 52 Things to do in Dallas with kids.  I only made it to #41 and I did not blog weekly.  So, it may take me 2 years to do it (2011 and 2012) but here goes! 

Visiting Valley House has been on my to visit list for a long while and we finally went in April 2012.  It is in a residential neighborhood and has an art gallery that you can tour as well as beautiful gardens with sculptures.  The day that we visited artists were sketching outside and we loved watching them work.  I love the fact that it is free, in a neighborhood, and was gorgeous!

Valley House is located at 6616 Spring Valley Road Dallas, TX 75254 and is open to the public Mon-Sat 10am–5pm and is closed on Sunday. 

 The Gallery was very impressive.

 An artist hard at work.

4 1/2 year old Everett wanted to take our picture, it makes me laugh every time I look at it!

A great book...

Last night I stayed up way too late to finish a great book that I had started earlier that same day!  It is called "What Alice Forgot" by Liane Moriarty.  It is a book about a woman that hits her head and forgets the last ten years of her life.  She wakes up thinking that she is pregnant with her first child when instead she has already had three.  It is a book about the resentments that build up in our lives and the choice that we all have to let them go or to let them fester. 

Last Sunday my husband, Lee, and I celebrated twelve years of marriage.  After you have lived with someone for awhile, it is easy to let certain things get under your skin, but "What Alice Forgot" reminded me what life would be like if you were able to let those things go.  What would life be like if you relaxed, took deep breaths, and enjoyed life?  What if you decided today to enjoy your job, your children, your partner, eating, your house?  What if you looked at your house and instead of thinking of all of the things that had to be done, you celebrated the wonderful things that you like about your house?  What if we were to celebrate and enjoy, instead of regret and complain?  We have a choice each day to love our life AS IT IS or to wish it were different. 

A few weeks ago I saw Carol Burnett in Fort Worth.  One of her daughters passed away a number of years ago from cancer.  Carol shared that her daughter would wake up every day and say, "Today I'm going to wake up & love my life."  May those words be true for us today.