4th of July 2019

Happy 4th of July!

I'll admit: we're all in bed and it's not even 9pm.

We are in a season right now where fireworks are just too late for our family (not to mention that our kiddos I'm sure would be absolutely terrified by the noise), and I'm okay with that...mostly. Ha! 

I can't wait until the kiddos are old enough to enjoy them (because really, fireworks are spectacular!), but for now I'm totally happy with how we celebrated America's birthday, which involved time at the splash pad with our cousins & a big 'ole family lunch complete with grilled chicken, corn on the cob, plenty of watermelon, and of course, apple pie.

Summertime Catch-Up

Where did the summer go?? It’s certainly been a busy few months for us. Here’s a little recap of what we’ve been up to:

On June 14^th we celebrated our 3^rd wedding anniversary! The morning started out well, but around lunch time, I got a call from Taylor - our '97 Ford Taurus had broken down on Highway 75 and Taylor was stranded! I quickly left work to go get him, and by the time I made it to where he was, he had gotten the car to start just long enough to navigate it off the highway and into a parking lot. We left the car there overnight, and the next day Sawyer helped Taylor tow the car back to our condo parking lot - yes, you heard that right - the guys towed the car themselves! I was very impressed.

We decided to bring the car back to our place for a few reasons. 1. The car was old and at that point, we weren't sure we wanted to invest the money in fixing the car instead of putting money towards a new car. 2. Since that was our mentality, we didn't want to pay a tow company to take it to a repair shop, and we needed a few days to figure out what we should do with the car.

So, the car lived in our parking lot for a few weeks and then we decided to donate it to the Texas Can Academy. The company came and towed her away for free, and we even got a tax write off. Definitely a win-win situation for us, but it was still sad to see her go. We've been a one-car family since then and are still looking for our next car!

Anyway, back to our anniversary! After the car drama, we finished out the day at work and then that night we had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants: Morton’s. Morton’s has turned into a tradition for us – it was the place we went on the night Taylor proposed and since then, we’ve been every year for our anniversary. The next night Taylor surprised me with a night away at Hotel Palomar (in Dallas).

We’ve been working on the condo non-stop since we moved in, in the middle of May. Our weekends have been full of rearranging, painting, and decorating. So far we’ve painted our bedroom and bathroom gray, and painted our entryway the same bright blue we had on the living room accent wall of our old apartment. We’ve gotten rid of some furniture (bar stools and our big dresser) and bought some new furniture (a craigslist coffee table and two tall wardrobes for our bedroom). We’ve also started hanging pictures on the walls and made a new headboard last weekend. {More pictures of the house to come soon!}

Painting is the perfect opportunity to write all over the walls!!

We split the 4^th of July between two parties: one at a co-workers house and the other at Taylor’s parents’ house. We bought these "4^th of July Rice Krispie pops" to each place (idea courtesy of Pintrest!):

We celebrated Bastille Day (French Independence Day on 7/14) at a fair in Bishop Art’s District with friends. There was live French music, French wine and many delicious food stands (mussels, crepes, etc.)! It was a lot of fun and my only complaint is that they totally underestimated how many people were going to show up – it was crowded!

We’ve tried out a bunch of new, fun restaurants this summer. Pecan Lodge is a BBQ joint downtown in Shed #2 of the Dallas Farmer’s Market. We went with my mom when she was in town for a visit and tried three incredible dishes: The “Hot Mess,” (which is a huge sweet potato filled with shredded brisket, cheese, butter, and green onions!), a BBQ Sandwich, and a BBQ plate with ribs and sausage. Yum! Taylor and I have become huge fans of Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives lately, and this place was featured on an episode!

We also tried a new place for brunch one weekend called Smoke, in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas. The place is a funky mix of old fashion barbecue and trendy new flavors and creative cooking. It was delicious! I tried the Broiled Raw Sugar Grapefruit (with cheese grits-hominy casserole) and Taylor got the Smoked Brisket Cornbread Hash (with a poached egg).

At the beginning of August we went on a family-road-trip-vacation to Florida and Georgia. The Florida portion was with Taylor's family and the Georgia portion was with mine. The entire trip was 8 days and about 2300 miles! The first day we drove from Dallas to New Orleans, and spent the night there. We stayed right in the French Quarter and got to walk around the city, try a yummy Cajun Southern-style restaurant called Cochon for dinner (where I got to try fried alligator and gumbo!), and had french beignets at Cafe du Monde before we left.

 

Next, we drove along the coast to Panama City Beach, Florida, where we spent 3.5 days with Taylor's family. I'd never been to that part of Florida before and it was beautiful! We hung out by the pool, went to the beach, and had many amazing meals.

 

 

Then we drove on to Savannah, GA and spent a day and a half with my mom. We explored the city, went for a boat ride down the river, and had many delicious meals (can you sense a food-trend!?).

 

 

At the end of the week we made the long drive home - with a quick stop just outside of Atlanta for a visit to some outlet stores, and an overnight stay in Jackson, MS on the way back to Dallas. It was a great week-long vacation!

We went to exactly 1 Rangers game this summer, and it was a blast!

And on August 16th I turned a quarter of a century old. Taylor showered me with birthday treats and surprises all day long: coffee and bagels for breakfast at home (favorite!), a stunning assortment of flowers at work, and then later in the day a delicious box of cookies (and a balloon!) from Tiff’s Treats.

My sweet co-workers also surprised me with cookies…it was a very yummy afternoon at work.

That evening Taylor and I celebrated at Five Sixty – a restaurant at the very top of Reunion Tower. Reunion tower is a landmark of downtown Dallas and is…wait for it…560 feet tall! The restaurant is inside the sphere at the top of the tower and it revolves in a full circle, once an hour, and gives you a spectacular view of downtown Dallas.

Five Sixty is Asian Fusion cuisine and the food was incredible! Here was the menu for the evening:

Appetizers

Crispy shrimp and lobster spring rolls for Taylor, and Thai coconut steamed mussels for me

Main Courses

“Hong Kong Style” Alaskan King Salmon, Bok Choy, shiitake mushrooms, and jasmine rice for me and Chinese Style BBQ Pork Shank with sweet tamarind glaze for Taylor

Desserts

A trio of salted caramel cheesecake brulee, chocolate decadence cake, and a citrus sorbet 

That just about catches us up to where we are now!

4th of July Weekend

I absolutely love long weekends. Aren't they just wonderful? I wish we had them every weekend. We were long overdue for a very chill weekend and this one totally hit the spot. I made a point to go out to the pool almost every day. It was glorious. I brought out my stash of magazines that were begging to be read and soaked up as much sun as my pale (now slightly red) skin would allow.

Friday night we discovered that the grill in our apartment complex is broken. Very sad. We marched straight into the apartment complex management office with a heaping plate of raw meat and tried to look as sad as possible. It apparently worked because the next day there was at least an "out of order" sign on the grill so other poor souls wouldn't spend 20 minutes in the scorching heat trying to get a broken grill to function. We did discover that it was broken during the Memorial Day holiday weekend too. Which makes no sense. Maybe they'll have it fixed in time for Thanksgiving. When no one wants to grill anymore. Sigh.

Saturday morning my sweet husband made me breakfast in bed! He knows the way to my heart. And by that I mean more of the feeding-me-breakfast part than the actual eating-in-bed part...but either way, it rocked!

After that we met up with two of our friends (Ky & Emily) for coffee at the Pearl Cup. These are the friends that recently got married in California...which you will know more about when I finally get around to posting about their wedding and our trip! Ky is a (recently-promoted) captain in the army and he and his new wife are shipping out for a year in Korea. It was great to catch up with them a little before they left Dallas!

Saturday afternoon (after some more good pool time) we spent a little while tidying the apartment in preparation for dinner with another set of good friends, Hayden & David. These friends used to be in our small group but then moved to Oklahoma/Ft. Worth so it's quite the challenge to get together! Our game plan had been to use the outdoor grill to cook our (blue cheese) burgers but since our apartment complex foiled that plan we resorted to pan frying the burgers...and they turned out pretty well if I do say so myself. We had such a fun evening together that we planned a second dinner-date for Monday night. Don't you just love long weekends?

Sunday morning we gave in to one of our favorite breakfasts out: Einstein bagels & Starbucks! Love me a double-toasted-sesame-bagel-with-plain-cream-cheese. Nom nom nom. After breakfast we headed over to Northpark for an early afternoon movie and discovered that the mall doesn't open until noon on Sundays! Who knew? It gave up plenty of time for (forced) window shopping! Northpark has a bunch of cute fountains and sculptures so it's actually a really fun place to walk around.

One fountain had a whole family of ducks and turtles! So cute!

We eventually plunked down near a few of the stores we actually wanted to go in to and waited for the doors to open. You should have seen the rush going into Tiffany's! :)

Cars 2 was our movie of choice for the weekend...super cute!

Sunday afternoon we headed out for a 4th of July BBQ hosted by one of Taylor's co-workers, Marvin. Yummy food and fun people!

Marvin is definitely seriously grilling in this picture. Oh and can see you see the corn we brought on the top shelf? We used Taylor's parents recipe for yummy grilled corn: husk the corn but leave the leaves attached (so just take out the stringy stuff), rub down the corn with butter, season with S&P, and then stuff/lay sprigs of fresh rosemary along the corn and tuck the leaves back up (so they cook in a little shell basically!). They're delish.

Another friend at the party, Paisley, made these fabulous looking desserts: 4th of July cupcakes and homemade apple and blueberry pie!

The majority of Monday was spent relaxing - both inside and outside by the pool! Monday night we headed to Ft. Worth for dinner round II. This time we feasted on baked fish with cheesy risotto and green beans. So. Good. After dinner we got to catch part of a local fireworks show from right outside the apartment which satisfied my 4th of July fireworks craving! The 4th of July just isn't complete without them, you know?

And so, here we are. Back to work and back into our regular routine. On the plus side, it is already Wednesday(!!!) and the next long (scheduled) weekend is only 58 days away! Sigh.