Dallas

Happy Monday!

I’ve been back in the real world for four days now, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t missing my quiet time in Dallas!

Matty and I left last Monday for a glorious few days of rest, relaxation, and shopping for me . . . and a not so glorious week of manager training for Matty.

I have a fair amount of pictures, but not as many as you’d expect. How many pictures of me reading/napping/shopping do you need? #notalot

We picked an afternoon flight on Monday and will NEVER do that again. We had to entertain the girls all morning, they kept asking when we were leaving, we were so ready to leave . . . lesson learned! We eventually made our way to the airport and enjoyed a drink before boarding.

We had a smooth two hour flight and headed right to dinner after picking up our rental car. This was ONE meal that we decided to split. As Matty reminded me several times throughout the week . . . everything’s bigger in Texas.

Side note: The gentleman at the table next to us ordered this exact meal all for himself, plus FOUR bowls of salsa. We were obviously amateurs!

Tuesday morning I dropped Matty off at his training and enjoyed breakfast in the hotel room while leafing through magazines and listening to Good Morning America on the TV in the background. Then I showered and listened to my audio book while getting ready. It was bliss!

We were staying in a town called Addison in North Dallas. It was a shopping mecca. No joke. I decided to spend my first day wandering around a giant mall called the Galleria. There is a skating rink in the middle of the three story mall! This was my view while I ate lunch. It was SO weird to have a day to myself without time constraints. It definitely took me a while to get used to it.

After Matty’s training we decided to drive into Downtown Dallas and check out the JFK Museum and have dinner. We parked behind the museum and had a great view of Reunion Tower, which is where we ended up eating dinner!

Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to do the 90 minute tour through the museum because we got there too late, so we just walked through the gift shop and saw some of the monuments outside.

There’s the Book Depository.

And the Grassy Knoll.

I bought this giant chocolate coin from the gift shop to take home for Andy, Sadie, and Gordie. I had to document and send it to Carla in case it didn’t make it home in one piece. Spoiler alert: it did!

We walked over to Reunion Tower . . . it was pretty tall!!

This was our view from our table! Look at all those highways! It took about an hour to turn all the way around one time, and we got a great view of Dallas as it got dark.

We stopped at the gift shop and grabbed these adorable stuffies for the girls . . .

. . . and then had a chilly walk back to our car. Reunion Tower looked so pretty all lit up!

On Wednesday I had thought I’d make the hour and forty-five minute drive to Magnolia to see the Silos, get a cupcake, and chat with Chip and Joanna. 😉
However, it was 39 degrees and raining steadily . . . all day long! ugh! I could have stayed in Michigan and had that kind of weather. Instead, I decided to stay a little closer to Addison. I drove to McKinney, TX which was a cute town about half an hour away. It had a lot of cute shops and restaurants, very similar to Downtown Plymouth. Lots of people I chatted with recommended their local craft burger restaurant, so I tried it out for lunch. It did not disappoint!

And then I stopped at the ultimate outlet mall on my way back to Addison. My umbrella and I braved the nasty weather to walk around the entire outdoor mall . . . and I treated myself to an early birthday present! Good news for Matty . . . his shopping is DONE!

I got back to the hotel around 3pm, and was so chilly from my day in the rain that I decided to crawl back into bed and read until I had to go pick up Matty. It was a tough life I led in Texas! I swear I’m not trying to sound obnoxious. This trip was definitely a first for me, and it was so good for my mama soul.
Some locals suggested Hard Eight barbeque, so we drove to Plano for dinner on Wednesday night.

This restaurant was so unique. When you walk in the front door you’re really in a screened in porch area where they are cooking all the meat right there. It was hot and cold at the same time, and VERY smokey.

We chose our meat, the guy sliced it up and put it on a tray, and then we went inside to get our side dishes and beers.

They parked this wagon filled with hot coals right in front of us before shoveling it into the bottom of the oven. It was HOT!

And then Thursday morning I took an Uber to the airport to head back to our little ladies, and Matty stayed for another day of training.
We had wanted to tour AT&T Stadium together, but the last tour is at 4:30 pm and he didn’t get out of training early enough either of the days I was there. Of course on Thursday he got out around 3pm! He decided to go on the tour himself and sent some great pictures.

This one is my favorite!

I got home late Thursday afternoon to my two sweet girls.

Friday afternoon we drove to the airport to pick up Matty. Emmy has been fighting a cold and couldn’t hang on the drive home.

They were so happy to have their daddy home!

Sweet Emmy Roses had a fever and I could tell she wasn’t feeling well because she took a two hour nap on me on Saturday!

And it’s back to business as usual at the Kissel house!

It was so great to get away with Matty and have time just the two of us. Full disclosure: we spent some time looking at pics and videos of the girls because we missed them! haha

Texas was great. We were definitely in an affluent area. We didn’t end up going anywhere further than 20-30 minutes from our hotel, and there was nothing but shops, stores, and buildings all along the way. I saw a funeral home that I assumed was a country club at first, two car dealerships that seemed to go on for blocks, and a Kroger that Matty said looked like Caesar’s Palace! Don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed the shopping mecca of Addison, but I also wouldn’t mind seeing a little bit of the rural Texas that you see in movies some day. According to my Uber driver, that’s in West Texas.

The grandmas said things couldn’t have gone better for the three nights I was gone. I guess that means we can start planning a trip to Las Vegas!

Kidding!

Or am I???

Have a great week!
XOXO