Week in Review & A Weekend Trip to Dallas

I hope you are having a great start to your week. I spent yesterday being lazy and recouping from a busy week and now I’m ready to dive into another one! Do you ever need to do that? Just take a minute to kind of reset? I definitely do or else I can get kind of overwhelmed. I’m probably just a weakling! 😉 

As soon as we got Uncle Dave on a plane back to San Diego, it was time to prep Andy to get on a plane for his study abroad in London. He was very excited. A few last outings and dinners with friends before he left on Tuesday and lots of laundry, packing and last minute errands kept us busy. 

Letting him go do something fun for a few months was WAY easier now that he’s been on a mission. I don’t even feel like he’s hardly going to be gone…although maybe that’s because Ash and I are headed to London soon for a little adventure of our own. 😉 I don’t know that we’ll see Andy much, but we’ll be busy so time will fly!

He arrived safely and has already  mastered the tube system and has been galavanting all over town. The coronation, futbol matches, you name it…he is having a blast and seeing it all. I think there may  be some school involved in there somewhere too…just not quite sure where yet. lol!

I spent Wednesday and Thursday doing some things for the Alumni House and getting ready for grandma and grandpa to come this week. I feel like I am washing sheets and cleaning the guest bedroom for constant turn around these days, and I love it. Bring me all the guests! Mixed in with those things I was getting the three of us ready to leave for a weekend in Dallas. We had some airline credit to use up before it expired and Ed Sheeran was playing at AT&T stadium with some very reasonably priced tickets…so we threw caution to the wind and sneaked in a little getaway. You can find my ultimate travel guide for Dallas here.

We landed just  in time to grab some lunch at one of our favorite spots in Dallas…Torchy’s Tacos. I love the breakfast tacos any  time of day…I also like a Trailer Park…get it made trashy. Yum! Back in a place where we could get good chips, salsa and guacamole. It was a good weekend!

After a little nap to sleep off the tacos, we headed to our MUST HAVE bbq whenever we’re in Dallas…Terry Black’s. It is SO delicious. 

Yes, there is most always a huge line. Worth the wait.

Number 4 is especially important. 😉

What  I recommend…the cornbread is heavenly. The green beans are my favorite. Mac n’ Cheese that melts in your mouth, amazing potato salad, incredible creamed corn. Brisket, sausage, pulled pork. All divine. And top it all off with peach cobbler and banana pudding. With a Dr. Pepper and Big Red of course. You are in TX after all. 😉

give me all the smoked meat. SO good!

Some happy BBQ eaters. 

We wrapped up Friday night with a drive around Deep Ellum and headed back to Southlake…where we often like to stay when we’re in town. It’s funny. We almost moved to Dallas 8 years ago. John had a job offer, I had never been there before . I went out with him for both the interview and then once he was offered the job…to look for housing. It was miserable. We prayed about it and just couldn’t get the feeling that moving there was right for our family at that time. It was SUCH a hard time. John was unemployed and to have a job offer in hand but not accept it took a lot of faith. It ended up being a huge blessing as the job that he was offered turned out to be something that would not have been a good fit for him once we saw what happened to the company shortly after he turned down the job, but man was it a trying time! Blessings don’t always seem like that at the time, that’s for sure! After those two trips to Dallas I thought I could never go back, it just had been so difficult. Well…fast forward eight years and now I can’t get enough of the place! We love it there! I could totally move there now! 😉

There’s a cute little shipping center in Southlake and a yummy tex-mex place that we really like.

The nachos are just like what  John remembers growing up in Texas, and they have a super yummy salad that I like to get to feel better about myself after eating copious amounts of BBQ. 😉

After lunch, Ash was on the hunt for a great pair of boots. We drove downtown to hit up Wild Bill’s, only to discover that they were closed for a private event until later that afternoon. Rumor had it that Ed Sheeran was going to be popping in to the pop-up shop that they had a few blocks away, so we decided to go see if he would actually show up.

It was hot and the lines were SO long to get into the pop-up, so we decided to be smart and wait across the street where there were hardly any people. On Friday when his album released in NYC, he had shown up and performed on top of a Volvo.

Sitting right in front of the pop-up was a blue Volvo, so we were certain we would have front row seats if he did show up. Well, in 94 degree humid heat, after almost 2 hours of waiting (when he was supposed to have arrived after 30 minute of us getting there) I was hot, tired and a little bit over it TBH. Luckily there was a cute restaurant literally where we were standing, so John and I headed inside for a cold drink and some AC.

Best diet Coke I had had in awhile. 😉

The build out of this place was SO cute! LOVE that tile flag on the wall!

Ash was a die hard and stayed out in the heat. Her persistence paid off and a few minutes later an unexpected ice cream truck drove into the empty lot next to the pop-up and surprise! Ed Sheeran popped out of the window tossing merch to the crowd. So fun!

It was obvious that there had been some trouble with the original plan having him show up. The security people didn’t even realize this was happening as they had briefed Ash and the crowd to prepare for his arrival in black escalades and for him to make his way to the Volvo. He was late due to them needing to find alternative plans last minute. But that made it even more fun. He climbed on top of the ice cream truck, no mike, no amp…nothing (again due to unforeseen changes to the original plan) and played an acoustic set of a couple of songs for the crowd. It was SO fun!

They then handed out ice cream to everyone…I’m sure as a thank you to the fans for waiting so long in the heat. It was super cute.

After the impromptu concert, we ran back to Wild Bill’s. Ash found some boots of her dreams…

To which I promptly said no way when I saw the $400 price tag. Holy cow! Boots are a fortune! Then it was back to the hotel for a quick change and off to the real concert!

Ed Sheeran puts on an amazing show. He is SO talented. He performed for almost 2.5 hours almost completely on his own…only bringing out a few other guitarists for 2-3 songs. Insane!!

I would highly recommend seeing him live if you get the chance. I was mainly just going because I wanted to do something fun with the fam and left with a real appreciation for his incredible talent…I’m a total Sheerio now!

As soon as the lights came up in the stadium, these signs were EVERYWHERE on every screen in the place…and they weren’t joking. This storm was insane! Not exactly what you want to see when you are surrounded by huge steel structures and have 2 miles to walk back to the car. It was more lightning than I have ever seen in my life, with incredible winds that were blowing us around like nothing…SO wild! we made it safely back to the car, and decided that this was the perfect time for a midnight snack. So where else do you head at midnight when you’re in the south?

You guessed it! Waffle House! We were the only people in the place with the wind and rain and lightning pounding outside, it was perfect. 

We loaded up on waffles and all the fixings. We were pretty cold at this point with the rain and being soaking wet, so some hot food was really nice. We made it back to the hotel after waffles and fell fast asleep. What a day!

Sunday was a quick trip to a must-visit when in Dallas…Buc-ee’s…seriously, do not miss this place. It will blow your mind.

Our flight was delayed a bit, so that could only mean one thing…time for one last BBQ adventure before we left. We did a little quick research in the car and decided on Heim’s BBQ in Ft. Worth. 

There are several locations around town, so we picked the one closest to the airport and headed over.

Decisions, decisions…

While we all still prefer Terry Black’s this place was yummy too.

The brisket was melt in your mouth tender and the ranch beans were super yummy. I always like to try new places.

We landed back in SLC and were happy to see that the creek down the road is lower than when we left. I was a little worried it was going to flood while we were gone and couldn’t do anything about it. We’ll see how things go this week!

I hope you have a wonderful week this week. Grandma and grandpa are arriving today, so I’m off to make last minute preparations!

Have a great day!
Tammy