It wouldn't be Texas without having a Shiner

Since returning to Dallas after my visit home it's just about stormed every day. At least it's been short, isolated storms and has kept the temperature down. No pool days lately so instead we've explored some parks, went to a Rangers game, and added a 4 furry legged friend to our life! 

You'll never believe it but the park pictured to the right is in the heart of Downtown Dallas. Klyde Warren Park is literally located directly above a major highway that goes under the city. It really makes you feel like you are outside the city, but then you see the buildings surrounding you. We picked a bad time to go as they were replacing the grass. It's normally much more eye catching. 

It's lined with trees, sculptures, food trucks, fountains, an extremely fancy kids park, doggy park, and even a restaurant called Savor. We recently ate there and it is very delicious food with an excellent view of the park. 

My favorite part of the park is the tables they have lined up on the outer edge of it. They have little carts which have books, magazines, games etc. that you can rent (for free!) and use. We attempted to rent Chess but were accidentally given Checkers. We quickly learned halfway through the first game that we did not remember how to play... Checkers is clearly not like riding a bike. Then Sam looked up the directions and we were able to play by the real rules. And I  must add in that I won. :)  We also found some ping pong tables, and Sam beat me at that one. 

It's baseball season! Since we couldn't be home to go to an Orioles or Nationals game, we went and rooted for the home team. The Rangers! They actually won even though everybody said they aren't very good. Maybe we brought the good luck!

And finally, meet our new furry friend! Her name is Shiner and we rescued her from a shelter in the DFW area. She's 10 months old and is a black lab/blue heeler mix. Hence the name Shiner (blue & black!). We realized that after the fact actually. We originally named her Shiner after the classic Texas beer by the same name. I've always wanted a dog, and I loved our all black cat, so we couldn't go wrong with a black pup! She's definitely enjoying her new home and makes us laugh every day. 

When we got Shiner we didn't know much about her. Since she's part lab we wondered if she would be a fan of water. We found this GIANT dog park in the area (called Northbark Park) with a pond and let her play around. Turns out she jumped right in the water and started paddling around. Guess we'll be taking her back! She loved getting to run around the park leash free. There were even other doggies who came by that she got to play with. And of course she got muddy so that was fun too.

Post dog park adventures made us pretty hungry so we stopped in at In-n-Out Burger. Basically every restaurant and bar here has a patio so they can all be dog friendly. Shiner clearly liked it, or at least she liked Sam's soda!

So that's pretty much been our month of May in a nutshell. Here's to hoping our daily thunderstorms and rain showers stop soon. You've probably noticed a lack of delicious food in this post- we did a no/low carb diet for the last 11 days and each cut off a few pounds. Even at In-n-Out Burger we were able to get our burgers lettuce wrapped!

Lots of love and puppy kisses from Shiner and I!

Who says you can't go home

Oh Maryland, I missed you (and your people!) too much to stay away for very long. Timing pieced together nicely and I was able to come back very last minute to partake is a century bike ride with my brothers! Unfortunately Jason got sick and couldn't join, but Brad and I carried the Knieriem name to the finish line. The Six Pillars Century was in Cambridge, MD. Very close to the Eastern Shore so the 100 mile bike ride was nice and flat. The wind on the other hand was not very kind to us. We biked through Blackwater Wildlife Refuge and had some nice scenery along the way. I was lagging behind and Brad met me at a rest stop and we rode the last 40+ miles together. My lovely parents (Aka personal cheerleaders!) drove down for the day and found us on the road as we were getting close to the finish.

A great photo by Dad as they rooted us on for the last 2 miles. Homestretch! 

These are our victory pics! I'm not the fastest biker so we arrived to the finish line a little late to the party. But at least there wasn't many people to be in our way while we took our finish line pic. We also got sweet orange century t-shirts to wear for the next one. 2nd century in the books! I'm thinking we deserve a century car decal now, right? 

  

              

Since I came home for the century I had to find time to squeeze in some of my favorite faces. It says a lot about the company you keep when you return to them and it's just like it always was. 

While at home, gotta root for the Caps! Playoffs!!! In one of the previous seasons I went to my first playoffs game against the Rangers and we lost. This one ended much better! And I got a sweet towel that is now hanging on our wall. Here's hoping we keep up the winning!

Luck was definitely in the air for the Caps and us. Here you have ladies and gents, my brother, the winner of the 50/50 raffle! Jason has played enough and finally his number showed up on the screen! We couldn't believe it, but after double and triple checking we knew it was actually happening. I like to think I was the lucky charm, but either way it turned out to be an awesome night. 

Airports are on my list of least favorite places- but I do enjoy how they magically ship me to/from Dallas in about 3 hours. Cheers to my fabulous parents for dropping me off. I'll be seeing them again sooner rather than later... :-)

A great trip come to a close, but now it's back to Dallas fun. Sam finishes his first year of law school tomorrow and there's lots more to come in the near future. Keep on keepin' up with me!

Love, Kendra