Back in the Groove!

Oh heyyyyyyy!

Remember us??

Yea, we're the people who (apparently) have so much going on that we can only catch you (family, friends, random web-surfers {hi!}) up quarterly/seasonally/tri-monthly (or whatever you want to call it!).

But now...we're back!

Oh yes, for real this time.

Since the thought of writing a looong catch-up post (again) to summarize the past 3 months makes my head hurt, I've decided to break things down into manageable chunks. What that really means, is that I'm making you wait just a bit longer to get the full scoop on the goings-on in the Williams household since September. Sorry!

However, just so you don't leave disappointed, here are some pictures we took this past weekend in Dallas. We set out early Saturday morning for the Dallas Arboretum. In case you're not familiar with the Arboretum, it's the perfect botanical backdrop for pictures...no matter where you take one, they come out amazing!

Anyway, so we arrived at the Arboretum to find that every single person in Dallas (and all surrounding areas) decided to go to the Arboretum that day too! We passed at least three completely full parking lots (darn Chihuly exhibit!) before we came to a sign telling us that we could head to the "overflow" parking area, which was only a zillion (slight exaggeration) stoplights away. The sign went on to further describe that a shuttle bus would truck to us the Arboretum and then back to our car when we were done.

Okay so they want us to drive far, far away, to park our car and get on a bus to drive all the way back so we can look at some plants with the zillions of other people who wanted to do that very same thing?

It was very tempting. For all of 2 seconds.

We ended up walking around the Turtle Creek area near our house and got some pretty cute pictures (without masses of people in the background).

We call this one "Whoa. It's a bear!"

This and That

The weeks have been flying by! It's out of control.

Taylor was here a few weekends ago and surprised me with these beauties:

We decided that we wanted to go to a Broadway show and had our eye on How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (staring Daniel Radcliffe...aka Harry Potter, as well as John Larroquette). Just a few days before Taylor got here I made an amazing discovery: theaters sell day-of "general rush" tickets. For $30 a pop! Now some of you may be thinking "Duh. Who doesn't know that!?" That would be me. I had absolutely NO idea you could get such a deal on tickets! And no, I don't mean going to the TKTS booth. Tickets from there are usually on sale, but are still pricey. To get day-of rush tickets you have to go to the theater where you want to see a show and get in line before the box office opens (usually around 10am). We got to the Hirschfeld theater a little after 9am and joined a crowd of about 50 people. It was a chilly hour or so wait, but we were successful and snagged three tickets (my mom came with us!) in the third row! The one catch with this theater is that the rush tickets are typically partial view. So we did miss a tiny bit of the action on our side of the stage, but we were so incredibly close to the stage that it was totally okay. Daniel Radcliffe was phenomenal and we laughed the entire way through the show. I totally recommend it!!

After the show we took a little trip up to Levain Bakery for yummy, yummy, yummy cookies. We tried the chocolate peanut butter and got a few to go for Taylor's parents.

We had dinner at 5 Napkin Burger that night and let me tell you - it definitely earned itself a spot on my best burger list. It's not quite as good as the burgers at Father's Office (you can read my thoughts about FO here), but I do believe it claimed the #2 spot. Their regular burgers come with Gruyere cheese, caramelized onions, and rosemary aioli. Oh and their sweet potato fries are amazing.

The next day we went to the World Trade Center memorial. Free tickets are available online to see the fountains - they are two large infinity pools exactly where the towers used to be. It was pretty incredible. Taylor took most of these pictures:

After the memorial, we went to a chocolate restaurant for bunch. Yes, a chocolate restaurant. It's called Max Brenner and they specialize in everything chocolate. Hot chocolate, chocolate crepes, waffles with chocolate, chocolate fondue, chocolate bagels, and even chocolate pizza. It's ahhhhmazing. Take a minute and check out their sweets menu. Warning: you may start to drool. 

Since we were rather hungry we did order "real" food - Taylor got a breakfast burrito and I got pancakes. Taylor's food was normal...my pancakes were covered in chocolate truffle cream, chocolate shavings, and caramelized bananas and were accompanied with two little bottles of chocolate to drizzle over the top. Whoa-chocolate!

As you can imagine, I was totally chocolated-out after my pancakes and sadly couldn't bring myself to order one of their delicious deserts. I would recommend going just for dessert :)

Right before Taylor had to go to the airport we made a quick stop at Stumptown for coffee. LOVE this place!

In the Big Apple

Taylor came to NY last weekend and we had a blast! Friday night we tried out an adorable wine bar called Terroir. They have an extensive wine list and a delicious foodie menu. We tried their classic bruschetta and a funky version of meatballs. They definitely weren't your ordinary Italian-red-sauce-pasta meatballs. Oh no. These were risotto, oxtail, red wine meatballs. And they were fabulous.

Friday night we stayed at the Affinia Hotel in midtown - it was the cutest hotel ever. I couldn't resist taking pictures of our room and the lobby!

LOVE their "do not disturb" door hanger:

Saturday we of course had to make a stop at Stumptown for some amazing coffee. I'm pretty sure this is one of Taylor's all time favorite coffee shops in the city. Their coffee if fabulous and the shop is set up in the lobby of a fun hotel so there are oversized couches and tables everywhere - very fun atmosphere! We discovered it last year and it's become a must-visit every time we're in the city. 

Sunday my sweet husband accompanied me to work so I could finish up a little homework. We made sure to stop and get a NY bagel at a place near my job called Ess-A-Bagel. Words don't do these bagels justice - just take a look at this deliciousness:

 It was a short weekend but soooo much fun. I can't wait until the next 6 weeks are over :) And yes. We only took one picture of US the entire weekend. Gotta work on that next time!

One last little tib-bit to share (and I know I'm going out of chronological order here, sorry!): my sweet husband sent me a care-package a few weeks ago. The contents of the package included the most amazing smelling candle ever, post-its, and a Starbucks card. My husband absolutely knows the way to my heart :)

I'm Obsessed...

...with sweater dresses and tunics, over leggings and boots. Obsessed I tell you! It might just be that it's been quite chilly in Dallas for the past few days so it actually feels like fall, or it might be that the leaves are changing colors so it actually looks like fall, or it might be that we've lit a cinnamon candle a few times lately so it smells fall...whatever it is, I'm love love loving cozy sweaters, comfy leggings, and cute boots.

So fall. So fun. (more pics from this cute blog here)

Add this one to my want list.

Love it. 

I never thought I'd say this but...I sure hope it stays chilly in Dallas for a little while longer!

Pumpkin Carving

I love pumpkin carving. While I'm not exactly crazy about Halloween, I always have to carve a pumpkin each year (it's equivalent to turkey or a tree for me, you just have to do it!). Of course, we roast (and eat) pumpkin seeds while we're carving. Yum. Taylor is very creative with his designs, no triangle eyes for him! I generally try to stick to something easy - I'm a little bit a perfectionist, so my pumpkin needs to look neat when it's done. Last year I branched out a little and was pretty proud of how they turned out. Here are our pumpkins from last year:

Mine is on the left, Taylor's on the right

 Halloween pumpkin 2009

I was worried about missing carving this year, but thankfully my sweet husband had two good looking pumpkins ready for us to carve when I got home from my trip last Sunday. Mine is the one on the left, Taylor's is on the right. Why did he choose the tall pumpkin instead of the pretty round one, you ask? Just check out his design! 

B-e-a-utiful choices (straight from a pumpkin patch - okay, Central Market)

Taylor worked on his design quite a bit...you can tell what he was thinking about all weekend! Go Rangers!

Let the carving begin! 

I decided to go with a classic design (read = easier). One year maybe we'll invest in "real" pumpkin carving tools instead of using kitchen knives!

The finished product!

 Halloween pumpkins 2010

They turned out pretty well if I do say so myself!