For Time & All Eternity

So this past weekend we had the opportunity to see family in Dallas, TX. My cousin Evan, his wife Janelle, and their son Aiden, were sealed together in the Dallas temple. It was such a sweet experience! It was Janelle's first time through the temple which brought back memories of when I went through exactly 6 years ago! And Aiden being near the alter and all their hands clasped together - it was just beautiful. A strong and joyful spirit abounded :) Congratulations Evan & Janelle & Aiden (and Kayson! sp??). Here's some shots of that beautiful day:

The beautiful bride and mother-of-two to be :) She just glowed today. Beautiful :)

love that boy's eyes :)

my favorite :)

had fun with my photoshop :) this made me laugh because I was like, hey, this is a good representation of eternal families :)

Patti Carroll, David Broach, Aiden Smith, Paulette Smith, Jim Smith, Evan Smith, Jason Brinkle, Janelle Smith, Joel Brinkle, Melba Brinkle, James Hall, Melony Hall. Janelle's grandparents came as well. Such sweet people! I feel like a shmuck though because I forgot their names - anyone's help with that would be much appreciated :)

I love this kid. I like the caption for this picture to read, "And for my next act, making the coasters disappear..." Oh I can't help but laugh when I think about it :)

Janelle & Evan were married on Saturday the 15th.  We got into Dallas on the 14th and we picked up Jason & Uncle Dave as well. My parents and Patti arrived later that evening. While we waited for them to get in, we went to Chilis for lunch. Mmm! Delicious! We'd checked into the hotel (which was nice!) before we went and got Jason & Uncle Dave.

view from our room 1518

some of downtown Dallas @ nighttime

Jason thought he'd help Mom and Dad find us in the hotel by dancing in the window.

and I had fun playing in the secret cubbies! This was the other side of where Jason was standing and if you went behind the cabinet, you'd end up right where he was.

 Then we walked around the Galleria Mall (it was attached to the Hotel we were staying in (The Westin Galleria). That mall was pretty posh. Lots of high end stores. But there was one store that we went into....it was called The Student Union. It had a whole half of the store (pretty much) dedicated to OU paraphernalia! Oh my gosh I was in HEAVEN! This is what I got:

Who could go to Dallas and NOT get something OU!

The mall was four levels and it was probably ....well, I would guesstimate about 1/2 a mile long? Or maybe it just felt like it. But in the very center of it was a giant skating rink! We need something like this in Tucson. That would be so wonderful to have some heat relief! :)

When my family got in we all went to IHOP for a late dinner. That was yummy too! They have pumpkin pie pancakes. Oh my deliciousness. I had a food baby that night fo show ("for sure" for those of you who don't speak slang) :)

Saturday after lunch James and I headed towards the DFW airport because thats where we were headed out of the following morning. My family went with the Smiths to Longview until today (Monday the 17th). We got to our hotel and decided we had a few hours so lets go do something. We looked up on TripAdvisor and saw that Grapevine, TX wasn't that far away and they had some quaint little Main Street shops/boutiques that we could go check out. Well, as it turns out they were having "Grapefest" that night. It was a wine tasting fair. We figured what the heck, we're here we might as well go in and see what its like. Not the wine of course. But just see the shops and such. There were a TON of people there. It was so crowded. But we eventually got to the end of it and found ourselves at the Kids Zone - aka, the rides :) It was pretty expensive in there so we decided to ride the Ferris Wheel. It would give us a nice view and some air :)

 

All in all it was a good trip! I had a blast. Just super sleepy now! We had early flights both into and out of Dallas. Pretty much slept (uncomfortably though) on all plane rides. I did wake up to catch this beauty though. Caught it flying into Phoenix :) Made my morning!