Texas Trip

 When we found out that BYU was playing a game against Baylor in Waco, Texas, we made a trip of it! Nathan and Danae live in Dallas and Jen and Gary live in Austin so we planned a trip to go visit both our siblings and have some fun in Texas! The game coincided with our Fall Break so it worked out perfectly!

We flew to Dallas on Wednesday and had a crazy time getting there! Long story short - we boarded the plane in SLC and before we even sat down it was announced that our flight was postponed because of a crazy storm in Dallas. So we hung out on the plane for a while. We finally took off and made it to Dallas but we didn't land - we were just circling Dallas Love Field Airport while we waited for the lightning storm to pass. Well it didn't pass quickly and so the pilot decided to land in Midland, TX to fill up on gas and then wait for the storm to pass so we could go back and land in Dallas. After an hour and a half in Midland, we finally flew back to Dallas and landed. By this time it was super late and so Nate jetted from the plane to go pick up the rental car before it was closed. The whole airport had been closed from planes going in and out during the storm so the airport was chaotic. We eventually got our luggage, got the rental car, and headed to Nathan & Danae's house around midnight! It was quite the adventure to get there. 

We've only been on an airplane a few times so the kids were super excited to fly there! The funniest comment was from Graham. Once we took off and we were over the clouds Nate said to Graham "Look Graham, we're over the clouds!" And Graham replied, "But where's Jesus?!"

The first couple of days we hung out with Nathan and Danae and their kids. They recently moved into a new beautiful home with a pool so the kids spent a lot of time playing in their pool and hot tub! The weather was beautiful and warm enough to swim but not too warm! 

Texas is known for food and we ate at some of the yummiest restaurants while we were there! Torchy's Tacos, Hutchings BBQ, and Shake Shack were some of our favorites. We also went to the Star (the Cowboys practice facility), a high school football game (football is everything in Texas!), Sydney's volleyball game, Buc-ee's (the coolest hugest gas startion ever!), and we even stalked the Dude Perfect building that's just down the street from their house. Our kids line up with their kids so well and they all got along great! Nathan and Danae are such great hosts and we had so much fun spending time and visiting with them! 

The boys especially loved seeing some cool cars around Dallas!

We were those awkward people trying to peek into the windows of the Dude Perfect building and trying to open the front door :) We didn't see them but we did see a bunch of their cars. The kids know their cars from seeing their episodes.

Buc-ees had so many yummy snack and food options! We were in heaven with lots of yummy things to try!

All the fun was wearing Graham out! But he still held onto his new rubber band gun from Buc-ee's :)

On Saturday, we headed to Waco! Nate and the older boys went to the BYU/Baylor game while Danae and I went with the littles to Magnolia! I love all things Magnolia and Chip & Joanna Gaines so I was so excited to finally get to go! It was just a beautiful and amazing as I thought it would be! Even the bathrooms were beautiful :) We first headed to the restaurant to get on the waitlist and it was 3 1/2 hours! So we put our name on the waitlist and headed to the Silos. The Bakery was SO yummy (especially the cranberry orange biscuit), the shops were amazing (I wanted SO many things it was hard to decide what to get), and the green space to play was perfect for the kids. The kids especially loved corn hole. Because of the BYU game, there were BYU fans everywhere so it kind of felt like Magnolia was in Utah somewhere! After hanging out at the Silos, we went to the restaurant and the food was so yummy! The restaurant is only open until 3pm and luckily we put our name on the waitlist when we did because we were the last party to get in! After the restaurant we spent an hour at a random park in Waco and then headed back to the Silos to hang out a bit more. I loved it and already want to go back!

That delicious cranberry orange biscuit:

(1,242 miles for us)

What eating out with kids looks like :)

While we were having fun at Magnolia, Nathan, Nate, and the older kids had fun at the BYU/Baylor game! Actually they said it was fun at the beginning but BYU did not play great and eventually lost so the end was disappointing, They were grateful to still get to go despite the outcome.

After the game was over, we loaded in the rental van and drove to Austin! It worked great that Waco is halfway between Dallas and Austin so we only had an hour and a half to drive to get to Jen and Gary's. We arrived at their house pretty late and stayed up visiting and talking with them. They are such kind and generous hosts and were so accommodating for us bringing our family of 6. On Sunday, we went to church with them and then spent the afternoon visiting and making food and we went on a walk to see some longhorns. We hit the jackpot on weather and it was such a beautiful day to spend outside!

On Monday we planned on doing a hike to see some dinosaur tracks but the trail was wet and muddy so we had to turn around. Instead we headed to the 360 bridge in Austin which is such a beautiful viewpoint! I had no idea Austin is so hilly and green. We went to County Line and ate some yummy bread and fed the turtles and fish for a while. The whole time we were there Gary was trying to show Graham a frog that hangs out in their yard a lot, but sadly the frog never showed up. So Graham was especially excited to see the turtles. We went to a huge park afterwards and played football and hung out for a while. And then after Sarah was done with high school, we went out to dinner at Lupes which had the best Tex Mex ever! We had the beef fajitas and Nate and I have been craving them ever since! So yummy!  

Pretty much the entire trip Brennan had a football in his hands :)

The infamous fajitas:

After dinner, we had to say our goodbyes to Jen and Gary and Sarah and drive back to Dallas since we were flying out of Dallas early in the morning. We stopped at Buc-ee's one more time before we left and then headed to a hotel near the airport in Dallas to stay the night. It was such a great week in Texas and I'm so glad we got to go! Hopefully we can make a trip out of it again the next time BYU plays a game down there!