Happy 4th With A Little Taste of Home

Hope everybody had an excellent 4th of July Weekend! I can't believe I didn't get to see the Laurel fireworks this year, but luckily fireworks are everywhere. On Friday the 3rd there was a big fireworks festival in Addison called Kaboomtown that we went to. A lot of people recommended it and it seemed like the best place to be. It was pretty crowded but we found a nice outside spot to watch them, and there was even a live band that we danced to! We left Shiner home in her thundershirt for the night, but not before we dressed her up in some red & blue bandannas! 

On the actual 4th I had the best visitors ever! My parents finally made their way down to TX on a lengthy road trip. Naturally, they needed to explore everything around here so we got busy doing exactly that! 

First stop, Dealey Plaza. My mom has always wanted to see it so this was a must. Sam and I came while we were here visiting last year, but this time we went in the museum. The first picture is the Book Depository (where the museum is) and the second picture is the view from the 6th floor of it. If you look closely you can see the X on the road below where Kennedy was shot. 

  Next up, we had to get my parents some delicious BBQ! We made it just in time to Pecan Lodge and enjoyed some fried chicken, brisket, and mac and cheese. Had to document it with a selfie out front afterwards. 

 Then we headed to Highland Park for some dessert. A round of root beer floats from the Old Fashioned Soda Fountain. The perfect treat on a 90+ degree day. 

The next day we ventured out to Southfork Ranch where the show Dallas was filmed. Obviously I never watched it, but I tagged along. We got to take a tractor tram around the ranch to the actual house used for filming. Here's our tram selfie, or a tram-ie if you will. 

This is a view of the house where a lot of the actual filming took place. The ranch was big and gorgeous, and they also had mini horses, a llama, and longhorn that we got to see! Seriously, how cute are mini horses?!

                                    

My dad was on the search for some "real" Texas action, so we headed to Ft. Worth and went to Billy Bobs. We walked around the Stockyards and watched some line dancing. My favorite part of Billy Bobs was the giant foam cowboy hat crane game. After 2 tries of being SO CLOSE, we eventually gave up and left hat-less. :(

Next up, we headed into the Reunion Tower to check out the GeoDeck! I knew it would be awesome, but I had no idea how awesome. The view was amazing and we could even see a live zoomed in view from cameras on the tower. We found where our car was parked! Luckily the weather was a bit cloudy so it wasn't a crazy hot day. However, that meant the wind up there (470 feet in the air!) was a bit out of control. Walking around the outside of the GeoDeck kind of felt like you were just going to blow over. Our hair in this picture pretty accurately sums up just how windy it was up there.

They also hovered us up on a platform to capture this genuine picture in front of the tower. :) 

JK. But we did get this awesome green screened photo, and we actually did "Have a Ball"

After the Dallas adventures, we headed down to San Antonio for the Alamo and Riverwalk! Got lucky with another cloudy day at the Alamo AND didn't have to wait in line. 

When we got to the Riverwalk we hopped on a Ferry to go around the river. Things were going great until after this picture was taken. As soon as Mom and I sat down and the ride started we got pooped on! It got on our legs, and as the ride continued and concluded we soon realized I had also sat in it. Thank goodness for a fellow rider having baby wipes handy. I've heard this is a sign of good luck... maybe?

 The Riverwalk is SO beautiful I am amazed each time I see it. Here's a view from our ferry ride of one of the restaurants on the river. 

Finding a place to eat was difficult... NOT. The hard part was choosing because they all sounded great. We decided on The Republic of Texas and got some tasty chips and salsa to enjoy! By the looks of it I think my parents were enjoying themselves. :)

For the evening, my dad found this place called Enchanted Springs Ranch that offered a Chuck Wagon Dinner and an opportunity to see some animals, so we drove on out to give it a shot. 

The first thing we saw was this giant longhorn replica and of course we were pretty impressed.  Who knew what else was to come... 

As we kept walking we saw a REAL longhorn standing right in front of us. His name was Woodrow and he was awaiting our pictures to be taken with him. We got to touch his horns and they were HUGE. It was a tad bit scary at first, but after the fear wore off it was awesome. Who looks the most scared?!

The Ranch was built up like an old town with a saloon, undertaker, church, livery, etc. We walked around until we heard the dinner bell. Then we got our plate of brisket, chicken, potatoes, beans, and cobbler and headed into the livery to eat. The cobbler was spectacular and I wish I could have gone back for seconds. While we ate we listened to a cowboy sing the top 10 cowboy songs of all time. You'll never guess it but #1 was shockingly Home on the Range. 

After our dinner it was time to take a tractor ride down to see the animals! At this point we had no idea what to expect but as soon as the tractor drove about 50 feet from a longhorn we had a good idea. We also drove by antelope, zebras, and even buffalo! 

As if this first tour wasn't amazing enough, our tour guide later took us back down to feed the buffalo. These were all females so they were harmless. (Unless of course they were to accidentally bite your finger while you fed them- but luckily that wasn't the case). The babies were adorably skiddish and startled by the smallest movement. We got to pet them, learn about them, and we even got a patch of buffalo hair to bring home as a souvenir. Never thought we'd be this close to buffalo before, that's for sure! It was a little surreal. 

 

Unfortunately, the longhorn that were out with the buffalo are very deadly so we couldn't get out and pet them or the zebras. But hands down this was cooler than any safari ride I've ever taken at a theme park! 

After dropping me off back in Dallas my parents had to head home. I guess a 15 day road trip had to come to an end. But it was a fun few adventurous days and I'm so happy they got to visit. And meet Shiner! She was a little confused and sad to see them go...

What a fun month already!

<3 Kendra

Hello, July!

Where does the time go? It feels like just yesterday we were flying to NY to head to Connecticut for Victoria and Nick's wedding! I'm so happy that even though we are down South now we were able to make it up there for it. Everything was beautiful and perfect and it was definitely a weekend to remember. Loved seeing so many great people, too! Here's a few pics because this wouldn't be a typical blog post if they weren't included! First you can see the view of Dallas from our flight out, and you can see the bridge over the "river" where the flooding occurred last month. Next, it's Sam and I with the most gorgeous bride, Victoria, after a lovely night of dancing, food, and drinks! Did I mention they also had a Cigar bar and a photobooth?

And here's a picture from said photobooth. You could say we had fun. 

June also included Shiner's final puppy obedience class! I like to think she was in the top of her class, and she graduated onto the next level unlike some of the others. She wasn't a fan of the graduation hat on your head idea but I think it looks pretty cute on her. Maybe that's my pup mom bias. 

Last weekend there was a big Lawn Party (aka food truck heaven!) next to the Reunion Tower downtown. Food trucks are one of the best ideas to ever exist so we headed over to check out what deliciousness they had going on. The scenery was as perfect as the weather. Here you can see the Reunion Tower, which Sam and I actually ate in last year when I came to visit. As it got darker out, the buildings all started to light up which was pretty neat to watch. The Omni hotel (the building on the right) was lit up with the word "Party" and an arrow pointing to the field, and then later even lit up as the Texas Flag. I'll never understand how that works, but it's awesome to watch every time. 

Here's a better shot of the Reunion Tower before it lit up for the night. 

                                               

It was definitely a hard decision trying to pick which food truck to enjoy but we made some good choices. First, we got sliders from The Butcher's Son. I had a BBQ one with mac and cheese, and a meat ball one. The picture doesn't do it justice, but trust me they were excellent. Then we obviously had to get dessert so we went to an ice cream cookie sandwich food truck. You could mix and match from a variety of cookie and ice cream flavors and make it your own. I went with peanut butter cookies and vanilla bean ice cream. Even looking at the picture now makes my mouth water because it was so good. Can't wait to find these food trucks again in the city and try more of their options! 

Happy early 4th of July, everybody!