Home for the holidays

Merry Christmas to everyone!! This was the first Christmas in many years where we have all been together. We had such a great time hanging around. We made Gingerbread houses, went bowling, toured the Denver Art Museum, played lots of games, had a skit night, celebrated Maci's Birthday, ate too much food, saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ( I highly recommend it), and much much more. I took so many pictures I had to put them all in a slide show and even still I am missing half of them. I miss all of you already...

Christmas 08

Holiday Cards

A few friends asked me to take their Holiday photos and I wanted to share them. They are pretty amateur, but it was fun to pretend I know what I am doing.

Thanksgiving 08

Happy late Thanksgiving to all. Tom and Annette Kimball came in town for the holiday and we had a wonderful weekend. Thanksgiving morning we headed down town to participate in the Turkey Trout. It was a 5k walk/run, but there were so many people there it was literally impossible to run. The total estimate of people was 35,000!!! It was neat to see so many people get out and participate with their families. After the race was over we came home and Ryan made us all a yummy Thanksgiving brunch, croque madame with fresh berries and mint. The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and watching football. This year we cheated and went out for dinner. We went to this fantastic restaurant downtown called Charlie Palmer. The food was delicious. At home, we made homemade vanilla bean ice cream, homemade pumpkin pie and whipped cream.

The rest of the weekend we wanted to give Tom and Annette a little taste of what is authentic to the area. Friday night we took them to the best home cookin' you can find here in Dallas, Babes Fried Chicken Saturday we showed them around downtown Fort Worth and the stock yards. That evening we went to Joe T Garcia's where they only serve fajitas or enchiladas with a line out the door, literally. Sunday was really neat, we went to the Dallas Museum of Modern Art for the King Tut exhibition. It was so cool to see all of the ancient artifacts from his tomb. But beware if you are going to go, Tutankhamun is not actually there. Sad. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and have so much to be thankful for, and we hope all of you did too. Thank you so much Tom and Annette for coming in town for Thanksgiving it was so great to spend time with together.

Day Trip

Ryan took Friday off so we could spend some time together. We both felt like driving somewhere, getting out of town. Our first stop, Herds Burgers. Ryan is constantly doing research on the best food around and he had read several reviews all saying Herds Burgers were the best in Texas. Some saying a Herd burger was better than the many we hold high on our list. So we thought this would be well worth the drive to taste one. Herds burger is in the middle of no where, Jacksboro, TX . Jacksboro is an hour and half northwest of Ft. Worth. Unfortunately the burger was not the best in Texas, a very hard achievement in Texas because there are so many really good burgers here.

Next stop on our list was Mineral Wells TX. Mineral Wells is a small town west of Fort Worth with a fascinating history. James Alvis Lynch and his family founded Mineral Wells in 1877. Both him and his wife were very sick, and after drinking water from their well they claimed to have felt better. Rumors spread and the Lynch family well became a destination for people suffering from all kinds of sickness. Many more wells were made and are still around today. The Crazy Well received its name because, the story goes, "a demented elderly lady drank from the Crazy Well twice every day and overcame her illness. The crazy lady story could well be true, because in Mineral Wells most of the mineral water wells have a significant amount of lithium, which is used to treat various mental and mood disorders today." Now for the reason why we actually drove to Mineral Wells... "Mr. T.B. Baker, hotel entrepreneur, saw a chance to cash in on the thousands of tourists coming to Mineral Wells to drink and bathe in the local mineral water. So he built the Baker Hotel in 1929. The Baker reigned supreme for 25 years as one of the nation’s most glamorous hotels. It had been described as a city in itself. Consisting of 14 floors and 450 rooms, the Baker offered the very finest in resort hotel services. The second floor contained many conveniences for the hotel guests, such as a doctor’s office, beauty parlor, exercise room, steam room, and bath department, with its mineral baths and massages by trained professionals. The hotel also provided a private elevator for guests to use if they chose to go to and from treatments in robe and slippers. Other amenities available in the hotel were a private club, complete with dinning and dancing, a drugstore, shopping area, barber shop, a mineral water drinking pavilion and babysitting services. A social hostess greeted the guests as they arrived. She would ask if they liked to play bridge or other card games, and would arrange for like-minded people to get together. There was bingo every night on the West Terrace, dancing in the ballroom, sunbathing in the garden and swimming in the huge outdoor pool." This hotel was the "in" spot for the rich and the famous. It was not til the 60s that this all came to an end, with setbacks in the resort industry and an advancement in the medical field the hotel closed its doors. This is all so fascinating to me, and its funny because what used to be so desirable is a ghost town, literally. They say this hotel is now haunted because all the sick people that died in Mineral Wells and Mr. Baker's mistress is said to reside on the 7th floor of the Hotel. It is sad too, it is such a beautiful building and now it is rotting away. It is for sale if you want to buy it.

The front entrance to the Hotel.

The side of the Hotel. To the Left is the swimming pool.

This is the back of the Hotel.Back side.If you google the Baker Hotel you can read all kinds of ghost stories this web site is neat because it has a bunch of pictures on the interior of the hotel. http://www.sgha.net/baker/baker.html

Practice Parenting

The other day I babysat my friends little girl, Morriah. She is so cute and full of personality. She is only three and had the biggest vocab I have ever seen. She knew all her colors, the whole alphabet, all the words to "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and " Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." Whenever we would leave the house or come home we would have to drive up and down the parking garage and she thought that was the funniest thing, she called it a roller coaster and would yell weee up four levels and down four levels. The funniest thing was, Ryan and I took her to blockbuster and there was a rack full of magazines, one in particular with Barack Obama's face on it, she pointed to it and called him by name!! She also knew he was our president, it was the funniest thing. Kids are so cute. I took some pictures of her while we were at the park, isn't she a cutie?

Obama for your mama

We are so happy Obama won!! This means so much for our Counrty. This day will always be remebered, it makes me proud how far we have come. I even got a little teary eyed last night watching the results come in. I wish him the best of luck. (I am sorry Janelle you might be "huring" for a few years.)

Claire Abigail Lindsay

Congratulations to the Lindsay family!

Yesterday Jamie gave birth to Claire around 8 in the morning. With a short three hour labor, Claire was here, 6 pounds and 20 inches long. Everyone is doing great.We are so happy for you guys, and we love you and miss you very much.

Dallas Arboretum

We have been waiting for it to cool off a little so we can go visit the botanical gardens downtown, and lately it has been pretty cool. Except for the day we choose to actual go. Sunday was a beautiful day, but it was close to 90 degrees outside. We were burning up. In addition, everyone else had the same idea we did. The gardens were incredibly packed, it was hard to maneuver around the hundreds of strollers. The Great Pumpkin Festival was going on so I think that had a lot to do with how many people there were. The numerous amounts of pumpkins was a sight to see. There were sooo many pumpkins it was amazing. All the pumpkins lined the walk ways on both sides throughout the entire park. They also had a section with all of the many different kinds of squashes. I never knew half on them existed.

Salt Lake City, Utah

Our trip to Utah was an amazing trip. Utah was at its finest, the weather was absolutely perfect! The trees had all changed their color, and we were able to see the small window of fall. We enjoyed spending time with family and going around visiting all of our favorite places to eat. To name a few: Trio, The Pie, Lone Star Taqueria, and Tony Caputo’s. I flew up earlier to spend a couple of days with the Isaacsons. It was so fun to finally see and hold Mason, he is so precious. Kent was patient enough to let me do a little family photo shoot for them and I think the pictures turned out so cute. Ryan and his parents flew in on Friday, and Saturday we attended a wedding and flew home Sunday night. Short but sweet.

some (a ton) pictures from our trip:
(I know some of you already saw some of these on Janelle's blog, but I love them too!)

Nasher Sculpture Center

During TX vs OU weekend Ryan and I intended on seeing the King Tut Exhibit on display at the Dallas Art Museum but it was far too crowded with all the people in town for the game, so we found ourselves across the street at the Nasher Sculpture Center. We enjoyed brunch, a ballet performance, and a few of the following sculptures...

American, born Sweden, 1929
Clothespin, 1974
Bronze, 47 3/4 x 16 1/4 x 7 in.

American, born 1942
Walking to the Sky, 2004
Stainless steel and painted fiberglass, Pole: 100 ft. high

Polish, born 1930
Bronze Crowd, 1990-91
Bronze, 71 1/8 x 23 x 15 1/2 in.

Texas BBQ trail

During our trip to central Texas we decided to visit a few of the iconic Texas Barbecue places on the "Texas BBQ Trail." Our trail began on our way south. Passing through Waco, we stopped at Rudy's. Although, the Rudy's in Austin is alot better. The remainder of our trail went through Luling where we visited Luling City Market. Luling City Market is one of the oldest and most legendary Barbecue restaurants in the nation. The meat is purchased in a separate room from the seating area. The town and restaurant itself were very charismatic. However the meat was a little dry. We tried the classics: ribs, brisket, sausage. We attributed the meat's dryness to the fact that we were visiting at an off-hour in the afternoon and the meet had probably been prime during the lunch rush. The character of the place was Luling City Market's biggest appeal. Our next stop was Lockhart; a town known for Texas barbecue. We arrived at Smitty's market with our bellies still full from Luling. The town of Lockhart had the same appeal that can be found in many of the small central Texas towns on the BBQ trail. Smitty's Market was very similar to Luling City Market in the food and the separation of the dining room from the meat cookers. Smoke filled the entryway and upon negotiating the dark, black corridor leading to the kitchen we noticed the walls were all iron. Lots of character and lots of meat were found on our BBQ trail.









The orbs in the pictures are a result of the thick smoke in the air.

Part Two:
The remainder of our trip we floated down the Guadalupe river, visited the Alamo and walk around the historic Market Square in San Antonio.

BIG Tex

This past weekend Ryan and I went to the Texas State Fair, it was a blast. We tried lots of fair food, took a ride on the Texas size ferris wheel, and looked at all the new cars coming out. We tried to sign up to be judges for the chili contest, but they were already full, dang it! Every year they have a fried food contest so this year the winner went to Chicken fried bacon. It cost 10 tickets for a basket! I did not want a WHOLE basket I just wanted to sample it, after one piece it was enough to get the idea. It tasted like fried food. We also tried a fried smore, that too tasted like a ball of fried food. The other runner ups were: a fried Jelly Belly, fried banana split, fried grilled cheese sandwich, fried chocolate truffle, and the list goes on. Ryan got to meet Big Tex himself (he is a huge animated character that tells you what is going on at the fair that day in a really cheesy Texan voice.) We missed out on the pig race which I really wanted to see. Instead we saw some dogs do some silly tricks. All in all it was a fun day filled of entertainment.