While we were in Dallas (yes, I’m about a month late blogging, because this was on July 4th) Anthony and I took the opportunity to have a day away. Nana kept the kids and we headed off for a little freedom. After driving 20 hours in the car with the kids we were very much looking forward to a break.

 

Anthony is a Dallas Cowboys fan, I became one after we were married. In 2009 we were able to go to a game in the stadium, however, although it wasn’t a Cowboys game. It was an amazing place. Seeing as it wasn’t football season (and the lockout was still on going) we opted this time to tour the stadium. Now we’re even more in awe of the place…the only thing left to do is see the BOYS play there. Someday we will.

One of the interesting things about the stadium is that there are multiple pieces of “art work” that were commissioned by Mrs. Jones (Jerry Jones’, the owner, wife). Some of the artwork is cool, other is…well, weird. 

    

The Cotton Bowl has moved its offices into the Cowboys Stadium. It was dark in there but I thought the lobby of it was really cool.

 

This next picture just might be my favorite of the day. Its Anthony standing in the place you generally see Jerry Jones during the Cowboys game. It is his personal sweet that he sits in with just his 2 sons and they get into it in their personal elevator. Its pretty exclusive. He has another suite where the rest of his family (wife, daughter-in-laws, etc) and guests sit, but this one is pretty small and really just meant for the 3 of them. It is encased in glass but they said they generally do not open the glass (especially if the Boys aren’t doing well in the game) because they do not want the public heckling him.

Here’s Anthony sitting in the post game press room.

And here he is in the Cowboy’s locker room.

An interesting tidbit of info from our tour guide on their lockers. Apparently Mrs. Jones (who was in charge of the decor for the whole place) originally ordered some nice wood (can’t remember the names of the wood now) and when it was installed she didn’t like it. So, she sent it back and ordered an even nicer type of wood – which again she hated and returned. (All of this wood by the way was being imported from far away places which of course added to the cost). Finally she decided on this wood, which is best known for being the wood used in the dashboard of Bentleys. Each individual locker cost about $10,000.

Only the best for the BOYS right?

 

And then there is the Cheerleader’s lockers. (Clearly they weren’t as impressive as the pictures above them.)

The wood they used for them? Was imported all the way from Home Depot. They are made from particle board.

We loved touring the stadium. It is a pretty spectacular place. I’d actually like to do it again as I have forgotten so much of what she told us, but next on the list is a game for sure.

After a full day spent just recovering from our 19 hour trek from Florida to Dallas we headed to Grapevine to visit the new Legoland there. Thanks to Anthony’s mom because she called and found out that for groups of more than 7 you can get a group discount and after going it is my opinion that you should never pay above that group rate because, it was fun – but it wasn’t THAT fun. It was smaller than all the adults had anticipated, but the kids liked it, and that is all that really matters anyway. (There is one being built in Orlando opening in October of this year. I have 2 free tickets to it so I’m thinking Ethan and I will check it out while the girl’s are in school. Its supposed to be bigger than the one in Dallas, with a admission cost of more than twice that of Dallas’. I’ll let you know what I think after my free visit there.)

We started with building cars and racing them. I don’t know who won, but I waited a long time for all the other kids to get out of the way so I could get a picture of just our kids and their cousin Sammy. I’m glad I was patient. 

And this next picture…don’t you love Natalie’s look?

And the one REALLY cool thing there? Dallas built with Lego’s, which included sunrise, sunset and fireworks. It was really cool.

It even included the BOYS stadium. It was awesome.

I am a TERRIBLE blogger this year! Not that I have “readers” – I’m just mad at myself for not having kept up on it and potentially losing memories. So for the remainder of the year I have 2 goals. #1 – be a better blogger. #2 – FINALLY, after 6 years of blogging get going on my blog books so I can have these memories in hand. Okay…moving on.

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When we moved to Florida it was a Saturday afternoon – Halloween to be exact. The next day, November 1,  I was the “new girl” at church. I felt about as uncomfortable as most “new girls” do, and was sitting in the hallway with my misbehaving 1 year old when a blond girl stopped by and said, “You’re Jennifer right?” How she knew my name I’ll never know (I guess I could ask her) but she was the first to stop and say hello.

Fast forward to February (I think…or maybe it was January) and she calls and invites Natalie, Ethan and I to a play date. Our simple exchanges of “Hello” turned into daily phone calls and texts with just that one morning of chatting. We just clicked, there is no other way to say it. And I KNOW she really liked us b/c she (okay mostly her daughter) endured the worst of Ethan’s hitting stage and they STILL kept inviting us over.

I have known for months that they were going to move. I just didn’t allow myself to think about it, it was always so far away. At first they wouldn’t move until their house sold and I was certain in this economy and housing market that could potentially take a long time. I envisioned them here until Thanksgiving.  They received an offer the second day it was on the market (and although the initial offer didn’t work it ended up working with that buyer in the end…needless to say, it sold fast). They briefly talked about building a house when they moved which would make it so they needed to stay here until it was completed and their buyer had agreed to rent back the house to them if that is what happened. That didn’t happen. And then it always seemed so far away – the middle of summer.

Before I knew it I looked at the calendar and it was – the middle of summer. It was one week until she would move and I’d been so busy avoiding thinking about it I almost felt like I avoided her. Worst of all (or maybe good for us) I was leaving for vacation on Tuesday and she wasn’t moving until Saturday. So she was here when I left but gone when I got back.

The morning before we left town I had to stop by and bring her something. We stayed for about an hour before we had to go and we said a quick “see you later” because we refused to say goodbye and we both quickly went inside/got in car before the tears could fall. Except then I sat in the car in her driveway and cried until I realized my girls were crying too. It was a tad pitiful. (Geez, even as I type I can’t help but get teary eyed.)

So the news of them moving is old (very old) but the reality of it is a seriously fresh wound.

We realized before she left that we had no pictures of us. So we took a few the Sunday before she left.

 

The good news in it all is I made a friend. A really good one, and I still have that really good friend, just not really close. Sometimes I think that she was one of the reasons we were supposed to move here. When we became friends I hadn’t learned to like Florida yet. Since then I have fallen in love with this place (even without her here). But you know there are just some people you know you’re supposed to know when you meet them. There are have been a few of those people in my life – and she is certainly one of them. Lucky for me she is only 8 hours away – so it is close enough to visit by car…and you had better bet there will be visits.