North Park Center

How to beat the 100 + degree heat, meet up with friends, exercise, and take in a bit of culture? North Park Center Art Tour is the answer.  We met up with our friends, the Huffs, and went on a sort of art scavenger hunt/tour with our camera handy. Afterwards we treated ourselves to lunch at the food court and perusing the Disney Store. We missed a few pieces of are here and there but it was just the right amount for our kids and we had fun!

"The Fresh Maker"

We finally tried the Mentos in Diet Cola experiment to our delight!  It was even more spectacular, thanks to our friends, Kari and Carter, letting us use their spout made specifically for this fun.

Love the look on her face!

Playing Downtown

After our Pioneer Day celebration we wanted to continue the family fun and headed go downtown Dallas to catch a ride on the McKinney Trolley Cars.  We boarded the Green Dragon and experienced the 'turn about' at the end of the line, and were off.  The Green Dragon was built by the St. Louis Car Co. back in 1913 and was retired in 1956 when she was stripped of her running gear and wiring to become a hay barn in far North Dallas.

She was cleaned up and put into working condition in the late 1980s.  She didn't smell like a barn, thank goodness, when we rode her.

The trolley ride was fun and we saw a lot of downtown that had been recently revitalized. We stopped in the arts district and headed to Klyde Warren Park. This park is also a recent addition to downtown and is built over a heavily traveled freeway.  It's so quiet and pleasant at the park, you wouldn't even know it.

See the freeway?!

Klyde Warren Park has everything and we spent a couple hours there just taking it in.  By the way God sent us weather in the low 80s--in late July! Some clouds, a nice breeze--it was awesome!

We played on the playground, walked the paths, had snow cones, sushi, and ice cream, petted dogs, read the kids books in the reading area, played Connect Four from their game selection, and watched the kids get soaked in the spray park.  And we missed a lot of other recreational opportunities but it was time to head home.

"Rosie" is the car that took us back.  She is 103 years old, and was manufactured by J. G. Brill Company for export to Porto, Portugal.  She served there from 1909 to 1978. Then she made her way back to the States and ran in San Franciso for a short while before making her home Dallas.  Because of her age, she only runs when the other cars need back up, so we were lucky to enjoy our ride back on her.

The kids standing aside Rosie while the 'turn about' is in action.

It was a great day to stay unplugged to technology and plugged into our family!

Mormon Culture

What's as big a deal as Independence Day in July to Utahns? Pioneer Day!  Well, we Mormons don't do it as big in Texas (which nullifies that "everything's bigger in Texas") but we still have fun every now and then honoring our pioneer heritage and paying mind to others with a pioneer spirit.

Saturday morning we gathered for a pancake breakfast, in which Neal got to exercise his excellent flipping skills. 

Sophie followed through with her intentions when she stated a week earlier that she would be participating in the pancake eating contest. After two full plates, Sophie did just that.  I was so proud of my little girl seated between three other boys, two a bit older.  With her hands behind her back, as instructed, she put in a really good effort, even after they called the winner. 

Everything was followed up by a kiddie bike parade, because that's the way we roll.

Our 11th Annivesary Rescheduled

So the night before our 11th anniversary of blissful marriage we began squabbling over what to do and the details of it because neither of us had taken any time to actually plan and communicate our thoughts with the other.  Perfect way to honor our marriage, I know, but this is real life people!  So the next morning we woke to a little boy with a high fever and all our unplanned plans were off!  I proposed instead of being unhappy with our marital communication skills and present circumstances, that we just move our anniversary out a week.  Neal readily agreed.  Good for us!

A week later we dropped the kids off at Oma and Opa's house and we were off to Paris!  Paris, TX that is!  A couple hours east was our destination but we took roads less traveled and made stops at historical markers along the way.  We had a great time!  Talked about painting the bedroom, future travel plans, where to live when we retire someday, and just had fun planning and dreaming together.

Upon arriving at Paris we headed straight for the petite replica of the Eiffel Tower topped with a red, 10 gallon cowboy hat! The Tower was made by metal workers using scrapes for fun and the hat was added later for some sort of advertisement or event, but never removed.  This from a local school board member and 18 year resident of Paris, Charles Osborne. 

We met him just a few feet from the tower at the adjacent Veteran's Memorial, which was still under construction.  It was huge, beautiful, and thought provoking and only half of it was laid out and completed.  Charles was taking to a friend near three paver stones honoring his family members and himself.  I asked if he was Charles and then shook his hand and thanked him.  We enjoyed a long conversation about his experience coming home from Vietnam and how just recently in the past few years he had felt gratitude from his fellow countrymen.  It was interesting to hear his perspective and personal account--one of the highlights of the trip.

Following this stop, we headed out to the local cemetery and viewed another quirky attraction, a statue of Jesus wearing cowboy boots!  This is what people say it is but I don't think it is a statue of Christ but a maiden leaning on a cross.  Anyhow it was still fun.

Next we had lunch at a good burger joint called Jaxx and toured some antique stores. We took less traveled route home and enjoyed a lighting storm, mostly in the distance on our way.  Thanks to Oma and Opa for loving on our babies while we celebrated our marriage.

Play Ball!

Just to keep the momentum going, we headed out to family night to cheer on our local minor league baseball team, the Frisco RoughRiders.  Hats were included with our bargain tickets and even though the team lost we still got a second evening of fireworks!

Independence Day

After arriving home from our family vacation one day prior, everyone went to bed at a good decent hour which was good because we wanted to hit the McKinney 4th of July Parade.  It has great small town charm and it's a great way to kick-off the day.

We spent most the day doing grocery shopping and trying to get our heads on straight again. For dinner the kids helped create our patriotic skewered fruit flag (say that 5 times fast!). By evening we were off to the fireworks in Plano to celebrate as our founding fathers intended--with lots of pyrotechnics!