After Christmas Dallas Trip–BYU Bowl Game

A few days after Christmas last year we did a short little trip up to Dallas (about 3 hours away).  Daniel and the older boys had tickets to see BYU play Tulsa in the Armed Forces Bowl, and we thought it would be fun to make a family trip out of it.

We drove up the day before the game, and got there late in the afternoon.  We wanted to find a fun place to hang out and spend some time in downtown Dallas before we drove to our hotel, so we went to the Nasher Sculpture Center.  It was different and neat and fun. 

The kids each picked a cool sculpture to get their picture taken in front of:

This red one was one of my favorites.  I didn’t realize it had faces in it until I was looking at the picture on my computer, and now I like it even more.  I want one for my house. 

Henry loved this “creepy guy” sculpture, but was a little nervous about standing close enough to get a picture.  There was no way he was turning his back on that thing.

Sometimes we tease Oliver (nicely) about having a big head (he doesn’t mind – he knows he gets it from me), so when we saw these tiny headed sculptures, we knew he would love them.  He thought they were so funny.

After admiring all the sculptures inside, we headed to the outdoor sculpture garden in the back.

Cynthia loved being free to roam around.                            

She found this tunnel sculpture that she really wanted to go into, but she wasn’t sure how to get in, exactly.  There was maybe a 1/2 inch drop, and the ground changed from dirt to gravel, and I guess that was enough to make her feel unsure about it.  She kept approaching it from different angles, and then she’d look around to see if anyone was watching her (we all were).                           

She finally decided to go in on hands and feet, like a bear crawl.  I guess that felt safe.

Once she made it in, she never wanted to come out, and neither did the older kids.  I wonder if I put a sculpture like this in my backyard if my kids would just stay in there all the time.

Rachel was cute because when we were about to leave, she came and got me and said she had found a really great spot for me to take a picture of her.  I agreed with her that it was pretty great.                             

After the sculpture garden, we went to a little BBQ place for dinner (our Man vs. Food restaurant for the trip).  They had funny little benches with school desk tops to put your food on.  Here is a picture of the kids waiting for their dinner with lots of sun in their eyes:

After dinner we checked into our hotel and got ready for some swimming.  Is there anything cuter than Cynthia in a swimsuit?  I just can’t believe how grown-up she is getting.

Tristan and Oliver doing some late-night reading.  We loved our hotel room – it had two separate bedrooms (each with a king bed and a bathroom), and then a pull-out sofa in a family room in the middle.  And a kitchen.  Seriously, Homewood Suites are the best.  Anytime we stay anywhere, we check to see if they have one. 

The next day Daniel and the older boys headed out early to go to the football game.  The other kids and I settled in for an afternoon of fun in the hotel room.  Henry was super excited when I surprised him by pulling out some puzzles that I had brought from home. 

And all of them were excited about our gourmet lunch that we got to eat in the hotel room.  I had run to the Walmart near the hotel the night before, and gotten some fancy rolls, applesauce, oranges, and string cheese.  You can tell by the way Rachel and Henry are posing with their string cheese that it was the highlight of the meal (how long will they be this easy to please?) 

Then it was nap time for Cynthia and Henry and movie time for Lizza and Rachel, and I got to watch the football game.

Pictures of the boys at the game:

They got lots of autographs after the game, which was very exciting.  Plus, BYU won the game, so everybody was happy about that.

That night after the game we drove over to the Fort Worth Stockyards.  Our original plan had been to go to a rodeo (they have one every Friday and Saturday night), but it ended up that the night we were there they were doing a special bull-riding competition instead of the rodeo.  It was a lot more expensive and wasn’t going to be quite as fun for the younger kids, so we decided instead to just walk around the Stockyards and explore, and then go out to dinner.

Since we had saved all that money by not going to the rodeo, everyone agreed that it was worth it to pay the $5 to let Henry and Lizza “ride” on this bull.  Henry thinks for sure he is a real cowboy now. 

Exploring:                                                                      

More cowboy action:

Picking out saltwater taffies from the barrels:

Posing with the Christmas cowboy.  I understand Lizza’s pose – that’s kind of her go-to classic – but I have no idea what Oliver is doing.  Is he scared of the cowboy, or what?:                                

Trying on lots of cute hats.  I really almost bought this raccoon hat for Henry just because he looked so cute in it.

The last thing we did was let the older three try out this fun maze.  They had to go all around and find different letters in different areas.  It was pretty tricky.  After about 20 minutes Daniel went in to rescue Rachel (partly because she needed rescuing, and partly because he wanted to try out the maze).

It was getting cold and dark, so while they finished up the maze I took Lizza, Henry, and Cynthia back to the car.  Henry entertained us all by telling us a scary story.  He tried his best to follow in Oliver’s footsteps (Ollie is the master of scary stories at our house), but he still has a ways to go (he had no idea what he was doing). 

The funniest is that I know Ollie has been telling the kids stories about a mysterious “black shape”, and Henry totally stole that idea, except he thought the black shape was a literal shape, so his story features “The Black Square” (haha!  I can just see him thinking, “hmm…black triangle?  no….black circle?…no…what’s another great but kind of creepy sounding shape?”).  Anyway, his story is a little hard to follow (he goes from darkness and sticks and wrappers to Black Squares and Balrogs).  You can tell at some points that he realizes his story is a disaster, so he throws in some good stuff like super powers, lemonade and pepperoni pizza to rescue it. 

When the maze was figured out and the scary storytelling was done, we headed off to a Mexican restaurant for a late dinner.  We waited and waited and waited for a table (they kept telling us “just 10 more minutes”), but finally after a really long time we realized that if we kept waiting we weren’t going to be eating before 10:00. 

Everyone waiting (some more cheerfully than others):

We left the Mexican restaurant and went to a nearby Chick-fil-a, where there was minimal waiting involved, plus all the kids got their own kids meal and it was still cheaper, plus there were slides.  And ice-cream cones.  Good decision, us. 

The next morning we drove back down to Austin, but not before Henry enjoyed his last breakfast at the hotel.  Here he is eating out of 3 bowls simultaneously – I think he has some waffles with chocolate chips on the left, oatmeal (also with chocolate chips) in the middle, and some Lucky Charms on the right (no chocolate chips in that one, thank goodness).  This looks to me like the work of a “helpful” older brother getting him his breakfast. 

That night was New Year’s Eve.  We celebrated by letting the kids eat all the leftover trail-mix from the trip (the good kind, with caramel candies and m&m’s) and then opening 3 bottles of drinks (Martinelli’s sparkling cider, Welch’s sparkling grape juice, and also Welch’s sparkling white grape juice).  We poured everyone a little glass of each kind and did toasts and yelled “happy new year!”  Everyone thought it was a wonderful party.

The end.