State Fair of Texas

We took Jacob to the State Fair yesterday and oh my goodness, we had so much fun!!! This age is such a blast- he remembers things, he understands and gets excited over stuff. Which definitely makes lugging all our crap to something like that much more pleasurable and quite honestly- worth it.

We started off the day at the auto show. This is, by far, Josh's favorite part and Jacob is quickly learning to love it, too! It's so so cute seeing them jump in and out of all the cars and trucks. Jacob nearly died when he saw the Jeeps. If you know anything about my boy, it's that he LOVES Jeeps!

This picture is awful, but I love seeing both of them smile so big. They were in heaven! (oh, and PS- notice the water bottles in the cup holders, he insisted on putting two drinks in there! Ha!)

Next we walked by Big Tex, a State Fair must! It was the perfect timing because he said "Howdyyy, folks!" right when we walked up! Jacob was thoroughly impressed! (nothing like a little double chin selfie...eww...but Jacob and Josh look good!)

A first for us this year was the Children's Boardwalk area. It was really neat! They had face painting and temporary tattoos and sidewalk chalk. Of course, Jacob wanted nothing to do with any of that. All he really wanted to do was R U N. So typical! But I did get a few cute pictures of him checking out the horses and elephant.

 

Next up was the petting zoo. Some pictures worth noting...

That HUGE pig. It's the first time I've ever seen it actually stand up and walk around! Talk about whoa!

That camel scared the  s h i t  out of Jacob. And that picture might be the best picture from the whole day!

And lastly, that baby llama. Le sigh. Cutest damn thing ever, and it was only 3 days old!!!

 

Next up- FOOD! Corny dogs, fresh-squeezed lemonade and tater twisters were on the menu. YUMMY! I kept trying to find a few of the new fried things, but it seemed we walked past them or missed them all together. Whatev.

Last thing we did was hit up the dog show. Jacob was dancing and clapping, it was so cute! Somehow I managed to not take a picture of the actual dogs, but Jacob was adorable! ;)

 

AANNDD according to this picture, I'd call the day a success! :)

Family Field Trips - 2014 Part I

One of my New Years "Goals" was to go on at least 1 Family Field Trip each month. So far we've been successful, and now that its warming up, I'm sure we'll be doing more and more. Here's a recap of the first four months...

JANUARY
San Francisco for Josh & I / CoCo Camp for Jacob

FEBRUARY
lake trip to visit my parents

MARCH
Day Out with Thomas

APRIL
Fort Worth Zoo

Weekend Zoo Trip

Hi, friends! Happy Monday! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, we sure did! We took a trip to the Fort Worth zoo with some friends, and had an absolute BLAST!

We took Jacob to the same zoo almost exactly a year ago, and my goodness- what a difference a year makes! We had SUCH a fun time! And Jacob thoroughly enjoyed himself. He pointed out all the animals, told us what each animal says, and ran totally wild the entire trip. We were exhausted by the end. Here's a photo recap. 

 

 

This gorilla was waving to everyone from behind the plexiglass. It was so silly and cool! We all stood there for 10 minutes just waving at home, hoping he'd waved back. Which he did several times. He probably thought we were all idiots! Ha!

 

 

My favorite part of the trip, and probably everyone else's too, was this lion. 

At first he was laying down up above, so we barely saw him. But then he sat up, popped up, walked down to his bowl of water, and then out to this ledge in front of all of us. And then ROARED!!! It was seriously one of the coolest things I've ever seen, and luckily- I got it on video. Enjoy...

 

 

The Fort Worth zoo has a large bird cage thingy where you can buy sticks with bird seed on them and feed the birds. The dads and kids went in, and totally loved it!

After the zoo, we headed to Fred's Texas Cafe to meet-up with Josh's dad and for some yummy cheeseburgers. Jacob had a lot of fun hanging out with his Grandpa!

And yes, Jacob has a black eye. Ugh. He fell on Friday, and hit his head on a concrete planter. I think I stopped breathing for a few seconds. He cried for awhile, but he's fine now! And looks really tough. Apparently, the chicks dig it...?

Our Day Out With Thomas 2014

Oh. My. Gosh.

I don't even know where to start. We had such a fun Saturday!
 

After Jacob woke up from his nap, we headed to Grapevine to catch a ride on Thomas the Train.

I had been hyping this up the whole week, but I don't think Jacob actually understood what I was talking about until he saw Thomas. His eyes lit up and a huge smile came over his face. My heart could literally explode, just thinking about his happiness in that moment.

We got our tickets at will call and proceeded to the boarding line. 

 

 

The ride before us pulled into the station while we were waiting, so we got to see Thomas in all his glory. All the kids cheered and yelled, it was seriously so cute.

We hardly waited at all and the train took off on schedule. (such a plus when dealing with this many kids)

Jacob had so much fun waving to all the people at the station and along the ride (which was only 25 minutes, by the way- perfect length!).

The Conductor came by and gave all the kids a Junior Engineer Certificate and said hello. And we sang songs and took too many pictures.

 

We really had such a fun time! We'll definitely do it again next year.

After the ride was over, we deboarded and attempted a few pictures in front of Thomas. Someone wanted to run around.

Pie Date

My sister and I (along with the J-bird) went on a pie date this morning to a yummy little hole in the wall, Emporium Pies, in McKinney. Apparently they have an original location in Bishops Arts, which is probably equally charming.



via

This place is so cute! From the "no soliciting" sign on the door (which reads: No Soliciting Unless You're Selling Thin Mints), to the antique plates and silverware they serve their pies on, to the June Cleaver-esque baristas.

 

All their pies are made from scratch with all-natural ingredients. They have 7 pies at any given time. Some are always available and some are seasonal. 

We shared the Dr. Love and Smooth Operator. Both were rich and delicious. The filling and the crust were equally tasty. 

Slices are $5-6 and whole pies are $30, although they recommend you pre-order whole pies.
 

They also have an amazing selection of coffees, lattes, cappuccinos and hot chocolate! Many of their syrups are homemade. AND they have a secret menu- ask for it when you go!

We had a blast, and someone really enjoyed all the sugar!

 

I brought home a slice of most of the pies (good Lord!), so I'll have to update this post with our thoughts. 

If you've got a little time on your hands and a sweet tooth, you gotta visit this place. 

Cheers! Happy Friday!

Recent lake trip

My parents recently bought a house on a lake about an hour away, which is such a blessing to me because they've been 3+ hours away since I moved to Dallas 7 years ago. Before Jacob, we were able to go to Austin and visit them a lot, but now it's kinda hard! Soo I'm beyond grateful they moved closer. And now we have a fun place to getaway to during the week!

My sister, Jacob and I drove out there this week and spent the afternoon playing. It was a really great day. Just what we all needed- some quality family time! And the weather was just perfect!

Here are some pictures from our trip.

 

 

San Francisco Recap

Hi everyone!! I can't believe it's Thursday already! This week has been  f l y i n g  by! Probably because I've been playing catch up from our California getaway last week. I still catch myself daydreaming about the San Francisco Bay, and the delicious bottle of wine we drank while watching the seals swim by. Sigh...

 

I thought I'd do a little recap. This is mostly a photo dump, but I'll try to give you a play by play, as well as some recommendations!

 

First, we start off with a view from our hotel. We stayed at the Westin St. Francis on Union Square, and it was the perfect location! Right in the middle of all the great shopping and restaurants. Although most days we trekked across town to get closer to the water, it was nice to be close to restaurants at night!

 

On our first full day, we walked literally from Union Square to the Fisherman's Wharf. Talk about a LOT of hills. Holy shiz! But it was perfect, because we worked up quite the appetite for a delicious lunch.

 

This was when we stumbled into China Town. Talk about feeling out of place. But it was gorgeous and so interesting! All the little street-side markets and fresh fish. It was wild!

 

 

We took a little break on Washington Square in Little Italy before tackling Telegraph Hill and Coit Tower.

 

 

We fell in love with this gorgeous church on Washington Square. Ahhh...the weather was just so amazing!

Coit Tower is in the Telegraph Hill neighborhood, and you literally have to walk 135° uphill for about 200 yards. This Texas girl is definitely NOT used to that!

 

We made it! And of course, we had to commemorate it!

That hike was so worth it. LOOK at this view!!! You can see the city, the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge. So awesome!

After stumbling back down the hill, we ate lunch at Tony's Pizza Napoletano. Best.Pizza.Ever. Literally this place is amazing. They have all different types of pizzas and cooking types/temperatures. We had the Margarita and the New Yorker. Both delicious and I'd highly recommend them!

 

After lunch (and 3 glasses of wine for moi), we kept walking down to the Fisherman's Wharf. And we, of course, had to visit the seals. This whole phenomenon is hysterical and strange to me. Like a train wreck, you can't stop watching. Haha!

 

We dipped our toes (or Wellies) into the Bay. The water was chiiiiiilllllllly!!!

 

 

And then we stopped into The Franciscan, and enjoyed a delicious bottle of wine and the beautiful view.

They even had binoculars! How perfect for the inner Peeping Tom in us all.

After walking around the wharf some more, and visiting Ghirardelli Square, we decided to take a cable car home. Mommy had too much wine to walk back that whole way! Sorry I'm not sorry.

 

After cleaning up and a quick nap, we headed out for dinner and more drinks. We decided to go to Cheesecake Factory on Union Square because it was super close and they have an awesome rooftop dining room. What a great view, huh?!

On our last full day, we decided to take a ferry out to Alcatraz and walk around for awhile. I could literally post 561,324 pictures from the island, but I'll just show you a few of my favorites.

One thing I learned while on the island is that most of the officers and their families actually lived on the island. Just below the cellhouse is where their apartments/duplexes were and the playground area for all the kids. Can you imagine playing that close to one of the most dangerous penitentiaries ever?! How insane!

There was a fire on the island in 1970, so a lot of the buildings were destroyed. But the buildings still standing were still stunning, especially with the city in the background.

One of my favorite parts of San Francisco was all the gorgeous flowers and plants! Everything thrives in that climate. This was my favorite succulent on the wharf.

After Alcatraz, we ate one last meal on the wharf. And this time it was right on top of the seals. I couldn't have asked for a better "last meal."

We ate a Swiss Louis on Pier 39 and I finally got my clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. So worth the wait! Definitely recommend this place for clam chowder, and the view obviously.

And one last picture. The morning we left it was sooo foggy, and was supposed to rain later that day. Good thing we left when we did!

Can we go back????