Texas Memories

As I mentioned in my last post Mark and I spent the week (including Thanksgiving) in the big ol state of Texas!

Here are some pictures of some of my favorite memories from our trip...

My cousin Tim and my Aunt Beth practicing their mother/son dance on the deck of the house we stayed at. I had the opportunity to sing the song for this dance for them while my other cousins played the guitar. Practicing the song while they practiced their dance is a precious memory that I'll cherish forever.

Tim and his bride Leah were married at a beautiful historic villa in the "Hill Country" of Texas near Austin. This picture shows nothing of the beauty of the place, but unfortunately its the only picture Mark and I got that day.

We stayed in Austin the day after the wedding... our favorite stop? Dickies BBQ... which originated in Texas.

We got to take a tour of the Dallas Cowboys Stadium 2 days before the game. The tour ended on the field where they encouraged you to play on it as much as you want. Mark was in his element. What Cowboy fan wouldn't want to catch footballs in their end zone?

Of course... what Redskin fan wouldn't want the
chance to rub some bad "juju" all over that
same end zone??? :)

One thing we can agree on... we both enjoy watching the NFL. He's a lucky man, yeah???

The Dallas Steak House that was a must on our "to-do" list. We ate there after the stadium tour.
 We are red meat lovers thats for sure!

Our other Dallas food "to-do"... try the local fast food. Okay, that wasn't really on our to do but we were sort of in a rush to eat before we took the above tour so Whataburger made it on to our food destination list. But we don't have Whataburger in Virginia so we counted it as a win. :)

Fuzzy Photo :( BUT! I was so excited to go inside of an American Girl Doll store! I loved American Girls growing up and they still have a special place in my heart.
I had never been inside the store so this was my little girls dream come true!

On Wednesday we spent a little more time with our family. My cousin Kelleigh and her husband and sweet baby Brileigh! They are leaving the country, today actually, to continue their missionary journey. They won't be back for 18 months so we were happy to spend a little more time with them! They took us to some favorite local places in their little town of Tyler, Texas.
Stanley's BBQ! So good people were lined up outside of the door to get some on their lunch break!

We visited the Tyler Zoo! (I love Zoo's!) Brileigh Ray wasn't quite as impressed as I was, and she especially didn't like the funky smells, but she DID cheer up when she saw the elephants behind us. We bonded over our love of elephants. :)

Our last local spot of the day... Orange Leaf! The Texas version of Skinny Dip. LOVED IT!

And of course.... GAME DAY!
We enjoyed a great game. People around us were very good natured and we enjoyed some fun football rivalry joking between all the Redskins and Cowboy fans around us. The Redskins won (woohoo!) much to Mark's disappointment, but it was definitely worth the memories that we made.

While our Texas trip may not have been the most financially frugal/wise decision we've made since being married, we feel it was 100% worth it. We made some excellent, lifelong memories of our first Thanksgiving together.