So on Friday after I posted about having a wild hair to get out of town, I called Simon.

“What are you doing this weekend? Are you working?”

Pause. “Uhh, why?”

“Well……  wanna go to Dallas?”

And that’s how it all began. After a few false starts, we finally hit the road and rolled into Dallas around 10pm. This made for a tired, yet wired little boy.

Oh wait, excuse me. Not a little boy. Captain America, of course!

Of course we had to bring his newly-acquired Captain America costume.

I had visions of spending the weekend frolicking in the fabulous Arboretum gardens where we would view the pumpkin patch and the Chihuly sculptures.  In stark contrast, we spent the entire weekend entirely indoors or dashing to and from the car due to wild volumes of rain. It rained and rained and rained and rained. So when it rains, what else do you do but go to the mall and eat loads of good food at local restaurants? And that’s just what we did. Jude got some cute new duds from Peek and I got to catch a glance of my iPhone cases in the Limited. Simon got his Mexican food fix at the Taco Diner.

That night we dashed out to Grapevine to hit Legoland Discovery Center (warning! overstimulation alert!) and basically make all of Jude’s dreams come true. Complete with rides. All 3 of them. I’m not even kidding – it’s like a miniature Disneyland inside of an equally overstimulating mall. We walked outta there like zombies after it was all said and done.

My one request was to get an appointment at the Dry Bar. Talk about stellar branding — everything from the overall design of their logo and interiors to the mission of Dry Bar (blowouts only! No cuts or color – just fabulous hair) makes me want to do anything I can to bring it to OKC. Love the whole thing.

Finally, on our way out of town, we stopped for a quick lunch at the Twisted Root Burger Co., a totally irreverent and delicious little spot. Grab a roll of paper towels for your own table, add a little graffiti to their walls — it’s all in good fun. Plus I can support any place that has pre-mixed lemonade & iced tea ready to go.  Oh, and Jude’s footlong hotdog nearly made his eyes pop out of his head.

As I wrote it on the bench, Jude says, “I don’t get it. What do you MEAN ‘Jude was here’?”

It was a good trip, regardless of the rain. And also regardless of the fact that I may or may not have threatened murder when we went into the Container Store and Jude was racing down the aisles repeatedly and then we lost him for a brief moment. I think we were definitely the parents of THAT child running amock (“Where is that kid’s parents? Good grief! Hrmph.”)  Not exactly my shining parenting moment, to say the least. But then there’s the moments where all 3 of us were snuggled up in the big bed at the hotel, giggling and all I could think was, “I’m so crazy in love with my little family.”  ::sigh:: That’s what parenting does to you — crazy extremes, all based in love.

How was your weekend?