Monday, June 9, 2014

dallas or bust

Sooo two weekends ago we took a spontaneous family trip to Dallas for the weekend. JJ had found out about 4 days prior that he was going to be taking residents to a cadaver lab at a research hospital so we decided to turn it into a mini vaca. Plus we had a Christmas IKEA gift card to spend... soooo there was really no persuading on my part. 

 We drove down Friday evening and had dinner at restaurant Buca Dì Bepo which is an Italian chain that we just so happened to have our first date at-in Pittsburgh. JJ spent Saturday at the cadaver lab while the boys and I had ventured into Dallas to see what mischief we could come up with. 

It started with breakfast at Panera where Damien somehow coaxed a teenage girl to give him free chocolate chip cookies-- 2 of them--and where we saw the waiter we had the night before at Buca. Except this time he was dressed in a tank that showed all his vibrant tatoos and Damien kept asking me why that man colored all over his arm. After we destroyed our booth which looked like a bagel and cream cheese had died a very violent death, we moved on to the container store which is the store of every organizers dream. I could have spent a good hour in there but instead we chopped it to about 45 min since Damien thought it was a good idea to crawl in every basket and Owen threw anything I put in the cart onto the floor. 

So far it was a pretty easy morning as I am used to the little boy crawling, exploring, hiding, karate-chopping ways by now. 

By this time it was time to find a park so we located a city park with Google and I let the boys run their hearts crazy until lunch. Our hotel, JJs hospital, the park, container store, panera, galleria mall, and everything else was all within a 15 min drive so next on our list was the galleria mall. There we had lunch, watched the ice skaters, played in the germ infested nasty plastic play area and I had to constantly explain to Damien why we don't take off our shoes even though the other kids are. Sorry. I'll let them play in there..but I'm not trying to pick up warts or staff by them running all over germ city with no shoes on. Ain't gonna happen. 

And wait for it.. I didn't buy ANYTHING. What?! With H&M and every other store imaginable.. I didn't spend a dime. I was proud of myself. Honestly there isn't enough sanity in my day to attempt clothes shopping with two toddler boys.. So I wasn't disappointed at all. Plus, I was here for ikea.. So that's all I really cared about! 

By this time the boys were exhausted and it was time to go pick up JJ. 

The boys napped as I snatched up my man and we drove 25 min north to IKEA. Praise God I don't live near an IKEA. It would be my money pit. I can almost rationalize buying EVERYTHING in the store. So good thing we budget ha. I found a few great treasures and once I paint the boys room we can assemble everything. I'm pretty excited:) 

JJ actually thought about guest blogging about his adventures with Damien and Owen at Ikea.. Which consisted of major amounts of poo and a screaming 3 yr old because there is an hour wait to get into the 'kid zone' and "but lassttttt time you saidddd I couullldddddd." 

Meanwhile I was shopping in IKEA bliss and then we met up for dinner and peaced. Back to the hotel for a little swim and bed time. The next morning was a fab breakfast from the hotel, mass, more play time at galleria mall-- where we ended up buying the boys new (needed) shoes and Jj went off for another adventure with the boys while I got to go looking at my favorite stores! He was such a trooper-- both boys fell asleep on him while he was carrying the bags and he actually contemplated paying a stranger to carry one of our children. Thank God he didn't resort to that, and I answered his call of desperation and we packed up for the ride home. The boys slept all but an hour of the 3 hour trip and so we made great time home (as JJ usually does ;) ).

I wish I had my ikea finds assembled and together so y'all could see them, but I'll have to just update this post when that happens. Don't wait around. 

Enjoy :) 












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