Dallas With Mom & Dad

On Sunday morning I flew from Houston to Dallas, and met my parents at the airport. We went to church in a little town near there. After Sacrament Meeting, this lady came up to me and gave me the Relief Society newsletter and asked what my name was, and then asked if we were new. Nope, just visiting. She took that (even after we told her I live in Virginia and mom and dad live in Utah) to mean that we were looking to move into their ward, so she told us the two cities that it covers. Then she looked right at me and said "Now what year are you in school? Our ward covers two high schools." Seriously? She really thought I was in high school? She couldn't believe it when I told her I'd actually graduated - from college - six years ago! ha ha it was pretty funny. Maybe the heat in TX got to her and impaired her vision ;)

After church, we drove to the Dallas temple. Of course since it was Sunday, the grounds were closed, but we walked around a little anyway. This was the first temple that I went to in my life ... before it was even built ...
And then a few years later with my brothers ... gotta love the one-piece outfit ;) So now, 25 years later ... temple's still there, and we look a little more fashionable (at least I think so).
We spent the rest of Sunday relaxing. We went to pick up our tickets from the guy I bought them from on craigslist for the game the next night. While we were there, we stumbled on a neighborhood that had some model homes. I probably shouldn't have even looked because what I saw made me sick about how expensive homes are in Virginia! Oh well, it is wayyyy too hot and humid in Dallas for me!

We went to lunch at a really good little Mexican restaurant. Our waiter, Jose, made our day. He wasn't hesitant at all to inform us from the beginning that this was his first day and he was really nervous. He spoke with a cute little accent, and every time he came to our table he asked "is everything good? Is everything ok?" He made a few small mistakes and kept apologizing - not a big deal. My dad told him he was great and he said that we made him feel really good about himself that day. We just shook our heads and laughed as we left because he was cracking us up!

On Monday we slept in, after finishing "Get Smart" in the hotel room. Then we headed out to the outlets to do a little shopping (not a lot, just a little). Then we went downtown Dallas to Pioneer Plaza see the bronze cattle crossing the stream that my mom wanted to see. It was actually pretty cool, er, except for the bronze cattle, which burned my leg when I tried climbing on it ...
Of course, what good are cattle if there aren't any cowboys to round them up? Speaking of cattle ... our next stop was the Stock Yards in Fort Worth. My dad wanted to go there, and it was really fun! Kind of had an old western feel to it, and we even saw the "running of the cattle" that afternoon - more like a walk down the street, but hey, that's certainly not something you see in DC every day!
We walked around, went into Billy Bob's, ate Blue Bunny ice cream (soo good!), and had lunch at a really good BBQ place (where I think I singlehandedly drank all the water they had since it was so hot outside), and then called it a day - at least for that part of the trip. Next up, the baseball game!!