We woke to a thunder storm and tornado warning this morning (Turns out 7 people were injured and 2 tornado reports in the Dallas/Fort Worth area). Mark had booked me in to get a manicure. I had one before leaving but one of the nails lifted so I went and got it redone. When I arrived they said they had text me (which I never received) to say they had delayed opening until 12 to give staff time to get in safely due to the storm but they did have some staff there so I could still be seen then ?. They took so much longer than at home and were so much more careful. Got an anti-aging hand treatment with it ?. Mark clearly thought I needed it ?. He took the kids to Barnes and Noble (bookshop) while I was there although no books were purchased, just added to wishlists for kindles as too heavy to carry.
We headed into the city to Klyde Warren Park, a park over the freeway. We got lunch from a food truck, much to the kid’s disappointment (they wanted to eat at a restaurant ?). Mark then took us on a walk to see the cattle drive sculpture. Again the kids weren’t impressed ? with the walk or the sculpture! It depicts a cattle drive featuring 3 cowboys and 40 cattle.
Next was the AT&T Discovery District. Suddenly TJ was happy when he saw the giant screen with the World Cup Semi Final being played live between Argentina and Croatia. We sat and watched until half time.
We started to head to a quiet spot for Mark to do a call and I took the kids to a cafe while he did that. When he was finished we wandered back via the flagship original Neiman Marcus Store (a department store – didn’t actually go in) and headed home via the gas station. The gas (as it’s called here) cost approximately half of what it does at home.
Once home Mark did some work and the kids all did half an hour Math (as you can imagine they loved that! ?)
On our way out to Grapevine, “the Christmas capital of Texas” we were talking about how few photos the kids had taken (TJ in particular) and Sophia says “it’s ok, it’s better to live in the moment and not be stuck on your phone”. Hahaha says she who all she wants to do is sit back at the house on her phone and not enjoy the “moment”.
I have to admit to starting to feel a bit skeptical about how good this Christmas experience would be but once it was dark and the lights were all on, you could see they go to a lot of effort. We wandered up and down Main Street looking at everything. When done we headed home via a quick stop at Whole Foods for a quick dinner and to pick up ice cream to eat at home.
On our way back home we saw a McDonalds and for a second we thought Sophia had seen the light when she proclaimed “we should see if we can go the whole 7 weeks with no McDonald’s” (like that would be a hard thing to do ?) but it is quickly followed by “there are so many other [crap] places we can go” and then starts listing them “Chick-Fil-A, Dairy Queen, In and Out Burger … “ ???