Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden

Last weekend for our Friday Fun Day we headed up to Dallas Texas.  My cousin and his wife were moving so we decided to come up to help them unpack, but due to a screw in the tire they got delayed and we ended up playing.

We decided to got to Dallas's #1 tourist attraction the Arboretum.  They were having their fall festival and it looked simply gorgeous.  Plus coming from AZ and now Houston we haven't experienced fall in a long time.  It didn't disappoint.

They had thousand upon thousands of pumpkins, and a little fairy tale village full of different houses from different stories (ie Peter Peter pumpkin eater and Cinderella)

 Just beautiful!

We stopped and rested here, and while under the shade tree overlooking the river we got a call from Ryan letting us know he got engaged.  It was a good day.

Come to find out it was the first day they opened their new children's center.  Carson loved exploring and playing with all that they had to offer.

It was a fun day caped off with seeing Scott and Stephanie.  The following day for lunch we went to a fundraiser for the food bank.  They had the top local food trucks, which Brad has always wanted to try, and for the kids blow up toys and free face painting.  We didn't see Carson for almost 2 hours he was having so much fun.  Dallas seems like a really cool city and it will be nice to have family close by (even if it is still 4 hours away),  I'm sure we'll be up again for more exploring.

Some Getting Used to Part II

I told you I'd add more once I've lived here a little longer!

#8 Football

All the stereotypes about Texans and their football is true.  All of it.  With the start of football season I'm seeing in a whole new light this football nation.

• High school football is not actually played at the high school.  Oh that big football stadium next to the high school? Well, thats just for training and practices. No, no the real football games are played at a small college size stadium!  Its crazy how much they worship high school football.  I am wanting to go check out a game just to experience it.

• College Football.  Huge.  Everyone here are Texas A&M Aggie fans.  Coming from Utah State and being an Aggie is throwing me off.

• I thought being in Texas everyone would be Dallas Cowboy fans, but Houston has its own team (I never even heard of until I got here) the Texans.  So of course everyone here cheers for the home team.

Brad went on a business trip to Midland, Texas.  Apparently the show Friday Night Lights is filmed there or at least molded after Midland.  Haven't seen the show, but everyone says thats really what life is like.  Life revolves around football and the entire town is closed during the game.  Don't mess with Texans and their football!

#9 Restaurants

Local restaurants here know what family friendly really means.  A lot of the local places have a sandpit outside that the kids can play in while the parents eat on the patio.  We went to a BBQ place and sat on the patio while the boys played in the sandbox after dinner, and Brad and I just sat and listened to the live music from a cowboy singing and strumming his guitar.  It was perfect.  Another place even had a petting zoo to go along with their sandpit (don't worry lots of sanitizer was around).

 #10 Flat
The highest elevation you will ever get is going over an overpass on the highway.  No mountains.  Not even a tiny hill.  Houston is just flat.  Miss those amazing Arizona sunsets silhouetted by the mountains.

Some little tidbits I've learned about Houston:
Houston is the most air conditioned city in the world
Houston was the first word said on the moon
Houston residents eat out more then any other U.S. city.  We have over 11,000 restaurants.

End of Summer fun

With the ending of summer and falls arrival (although it still feels like summer) I thought I'd post some of the things we've done this summer, but never documented.

The children's museum.  They had a superhero theme going this summer.  Right up Carson's ally.

Carson got a new ride.  Courtesy of dad's co-worker.  We love taking it on walks around the neighborhood.

Took an end of summertrip to the beach.

We made a Carson sand castle.

 Love my boys!

We weren't the only ones who thought it would be a good beach day.

Carson went to music/art/science camp this summer for a week.  He loved it.

and now that the pools have closed since school started, we've been going to the splash pad.

 and of course the park

We love summer, but the heat and humidity wears on you.  So we are looking forward to the cool crisp weather that fall brings (fingers crossed). 

First Day of Pre-K

Today was Carson's first day of preschool!  Pre-school starts later here and we couldn't wait for it to start!

He goes to Grace Methodist.  Its a wonderful school and I just know he is going to be learning lots this year!

He goes Tuesday and Thursday's from 9 to 2:30 and I'm loving the full day!  I feel like I can get so much done!  Plus I get some mommy and Tanner time.

Although Tanner is sure gonna miss his buddy.  This is the face he gave when we dropped Carson off inside his classroom:

(I think he thought I was gonna leave him there too)

Carson sure was excited and jumped right into the the preschool scene.  Here he is signing his name for the attendance role with his teacher.

When I went to pick him up he kept telling me about his day and is very excited for Thursdays preschool, because they are going to make some play-dough.  Its going to be a great year!

Blue Bell & Austin, Texas

This Friday for our "Friday Fun Day" (aka Brads day off), we went to the Blue Bell Factory.  When we first knew that we were moving to Houston, one of the very first things Brad said, was that the Blue Bell Factory was only an hour away.  For those of you unaware, Brad LOVES ice cream and Blue Bell is his absolute favorite.  We average about 5 to 7 gallons in our freezer daily, we may not have our 2 year food storage, but we are never short of ice cream.

For all you Utahans who don't get Blue Bell, I'm sorry.  You really are missing out.  Blue Bell ice cream is only in the south (although we had it in Arizona), and it really is the best.

It was a gorgeous drive out into the country to tour the factory.  It was about a half an hour for the tour and Tanner was in awe!  He was so excited to see all that ice cream!  He kept pointing at all of the machines and saying "oooooo." Tanner is his fathers son.  The best part of the tour is at the end where you have the hard choice of choosing between 32 flavors of ice cream for a free scoop.

After we finished with the factory we saw a sign that said "this way to Austin," it was only another hours drive and we thought "why not we already drove halfway." So spur of the moment we decided that we would drive to Austin to see the bats, and spend the night even though we didn't have anything except the shirts on our backs.

It was so impromptu, but so fun!  Austin, Texas is home to the largest urban bat colony in the world.  Mexican tailed bats live in the crack of Congress bridge and at dusk they all fly out to feed.  Carson being a lover of Halloween and of course Batman, was so excited to see the bats!  There are 1.5 MILLION bats that live in this bridge!  It was so cool (although really smelly).

Its a good thing Carson travels everywhere with his batman costume, because he of course had to wear it to see the bats and everyone thought it was so cute!  He was pretty famous and everyone wanted to get his picture.

The next day we toured our state capital.  Its a beautiful building.  Very unique.  

 Inside the capital looking up towards the dome.

 Standing on the Texas state seal.

The flag flown at the Alamo (the top one) Bottom flag is Texas's first state flag.

Next time we go to Austin we will be more prepared and bring our swimsuits.  Austin has a lot of natural springs and waterfalls to play in!  Next summer.

We have lived in Texas for a little over 3 months now and I feel like we've seen and done more stuff then locals!  I love exploring our new home state!