I'm soooooo happy to have my Bean home again! My goodness, she's been gone since June 2nd and we've all missed her very badly. She even started crying when she hugged me in the airport, and then of course I welled up… My Sweet Sabrina is home.
And now… I need to get the rest of these Dallas photos posted!
As I mentioned yesterday, I didn't take my camera with me to Hurricane Harbor, so you lucked out on Day #2. However, Day #3 was spent in downtown Dallas with my camera in hand, and let me be the first to tell you – my sister is one hard chicky to keep up with. But we managed, and Audrey only had to ask us a few times if we were ready to call it quits yet.
Our first stop downtown was to the Dallas World Aquarium…
Here's Neenee, throwing a tantrum… poor Neenee!! (She was mad that Sophie could reach the information monitors and she couldn't.)
And here's Neenee a little while later, throwing another tantrum. (She was still mad that Sophie could reach the monitors.)
And now she's really mad, bc Sophie isn't getting mad back.
Or maybe she was mad that I was taking her picture while she was throwing a tantrum.
After the Aquarium, we drove further into the city and passed the famous Sixth Floor building…
…And then on to yet another cupcake shop: The Cupcakery.
Neenee wanted Sophie to try her orange cupcake…
I could be way off base here, but I'm guessing she didn't like it.
Once we were in the car again, Neenee entertained herself with her new maracas that her mommy surprised her with…
(That was my favorite picture of her.)
Then it was off to the Country Marketplace for vegetables! Audrey makes the best roasted veggies with olive oil…
And she puts dill in absolutely everything!
Here are the girls, playing with a digital scale. Natalie is quite satisfied that she can "reach" this one…
Sophie adores her baby niece…
Audrey was NOT kidding when she told me they had hundreds of different kinds of cheeses!
And since I'm a sucker for olives, I had to take a picture of only a portion of the olive bar…
The flowers were beautiful! Any kind you could think of! I loved all the signs over the different sections…
What a fabulous shopping center this is… there were so many samples of things to be eaten, one would never have to actually cook anything on the day one visited. :) I wish we had one of these where I live… everything from the soup bar to the bakery to the vintage-style candy was outstanding!
We made our purchases, and out into the intense Texas heat we went again. In the car, Sophie decided to help Natalie cool off by covering her in baby wipes…
Since it was still going to be a few hours before dinner (roasted vegetables with angel hair pasta) was going to be ready, we made a quick stop for the best tacos I've ever eaten…
Oh my goodness. I want one of these where I live too. If you've never had a Fuel City taco, drive there now.
Home again, home again, to Audrey's house for dinner…
(That was its pre-cooked state.)
It was so much fun sitting around Aud's living room with Shaun and Paul and the girls, just chatting and laughing. At one point, I realized that Paul and Audrey and I were reminiscing about our childhoods, just like I would hear my parents and aunts and uncles do when I was little, and I was quite amused by the thought… except I never heard them say things like "Man, I remember the time Mom tried spanking you and you farted on her hand."
(My apologies to anyone who is offended by the word farted, which my mother had convinced us kids for years was the "f-word.")
On our last day, Shaun drove Sophie and I to my brother's workplace so we could say our goodbyes to him… in typical fashion, as soon as the camera was put away, Paul was all smiles again.
(Btw, he was also smiling when he farted on our mom's hand.)
And now Sophie and I are back home in fit-for-human temperatures, still unpacking and wishing we lived closer to Dallas. It was a lovely visit with family. 🙂