Dallas

I haven't seen Jared since before his mission and while I was pregnant with Kort. He got home a couple months before I had Griffin so I couldn't see him for his homecoming. Now he's got two nephews he's never even met! Well, he told me a week ago that his friend's dad was flying him and his buddy to Dallas (where his friend is from) to stay for the week before they could move into their apartment before school started. Jared asked how close we were to there and I said we would take a trip down there to see him!!!!

I was trying to find hotels on Hotwire and was trying to find a good middle ground to where he'd be staying and the temple and shopping. Our friends just stayed there the other weekend and told us about Galleria Dallas - the shopping mall and The Westin Hotel connected to it. It was literally getting out of the elevator from your room and walking into the mall! So, I found the area for that hotel on Hotwire. Before you book, you're not guaranteed that specific hotel, just have a list of ones that are similar to it, same star rating, etc. Our friends paid $200 a night and if we got it on Hotwire, it would be $140 for two nights! Well, I went through the process and once you pay/book, you find out what hotel you got. We got The Westin! I was excited :) 

We left Friday morning, stopped in OKC for an appointment I had, and then made a stop at this place we saw on the Travel channel from the show Food Paradise - The Original Pie Shop -  fried pies. 

It was right off the interstate in Davis, OK. Really, they were good, but I guess I don't like them as much as I used to as a child (the fake, processed ones), but it was fun to check that off our list of food places to visit ;)

We made good time, the kids did great (thanks to our friends letting us borrow their portable DVD player for Kort), and drove to IKEA! We were in there for too long ;) We ended up getting a lot of presents for Kort's birthday and Christmas. That is such a fun store! We finally met up with Jared and went to dinner at this awesome BBQ joint. It was so crazy seeing him again! 

We caught up on life while we ate amazing ribs, pork loin, and brisket. 

We took him back to where he was staying, and ended up saying our good byes :( We didn't think we'd get to meet up the next day as he had a lot planned, so that did end up being our good bye. We'll luckily get to see him again at Christmas though. 

Our hotel was amazing!

Griffin went to sleep pretty well but Kort did not want to fall asleep, even in his own bed. It wasn't super late but he woke up a couple times so Clay got in the bed with him.

Saturday morning we found a Target to get some diapers for Griffin then headed back to the hotel. We started our shopping by Clay taking Kort to look at some dogs there for adoption while I fed Griffin.

It was a big mall with three floors and an ice skating rink in the middle - kind of reminded me of The Mall of America.

I was so pumped to check out certain stores and go on a shopping spree, but as usual, I'm too much of a bargain shopper and only ended up spending less than $50. It was still fun though. I think it was the first time I actually bought clothes from Forever 21 and Clay buying something from Brookstone. 

We ate lunch at Five Guys, where the potatoes were from Idaho Falls that day, then headed back to our room a little later to take naps.

We went shopping some more after, got a light dinner, then went swimming in the pool. I took Griffin and he seemed to like it! It was a little cold and he ended up wearing his normal shorts over his swim diaper since I didn't have trunks for him. Kort loved every minute of it and was brave again jumping off the sides. 

We got back to our room, took baths, and got ready for bed. The boys did better at falling asleep this time :) Kort ended up waking at 6:20 - ugh. Good thing Griffin slept a little longer. We went to get gas, Griffin fell asleep, so we took a drive and checked out the temple. The gates were closed so we did t get many pictures, but it kind of looked like the Boise one. Check off another temple on our adventure map :)

We had to return something at the mall, then ate lunch at Panda Express. I haven't really eaten there and never really wanted to, but I just got the noodles and orange chicken and just gobbled it up it was so yummy! We left at 1:00, the boys took a two hour nap, and we made it home 4.5 hours later! It was a fun trip to get away, seeing how we don't do that often enough, and especially see Jared after forever!