TEXAS

for shawn's last break, we dropped the boys off with our parents in utah and then headed to dallas, texas to visit some of our besties, nate and callie. this is what i have to say - i did not know that dallas was ever cold, but it was. everyone said it was abnormally cold, which is typical, shawn and i seem to bring cold weather with us everywhere we go. however, we had a most wonderful time. here's some of the happenings.
one of the highlights was going to the stock yards in fort worth. here we are in front of the signature longhorns. for day-to-day goings-on, pretty cool animals. for your bridal pictures? not so much. true story, at the very moment we were taking these pics, there was a bride 15 feet from us capturing her special moment with these magnificent creatures, wallowing in the mud. only in texas. i said that many times on this trip.

this is the train that comes through the stock yards, and honest to goodness, i felt like i was about to hop on the hogwarts express. geeky? possibly.
have you ever noticed that when you have a group of boys, when one does something, they all HAVE to do it, like their manhood is about it expire if they don't? folks, that continues well into adulthood as manifested here. in all fairness, i THINK shawn is bending his knees to look short. i think.


here we have a diagram of how a stampede takes place, and shawn kindly stopped to enlighten nathan.
our favorite thing to do with these guys is play the beloved game of dirty marbles. it is ritualistic, you might say. shawn and nate are on a team, callie and i are on a team. we did a lot of this, as well as some fantastic card playing. i didn't even have to go to bed at 11 because i didn't have to worry about the kiddos. it was seriously great.
nate and callie...thanks from the bottom of our big hearts. our lives and bellies have been touched and expanded (respectively) and will never be the same after living the texas way. love you.