this was our dallas home.

this was our dallas home.

this is where we learned to love tex-mex, blue-bell, and blue bonnets; say y'all, and made and strengthened dear friendships.  this is where we brought baby cora home, and where hazel learned to talk.  we are excited for the new adventure ahead, but are fully aware that part of us will always love this wonderful city.  i finally understand why native texans have so much "texas pride".

the dallas children's aquarium.

yesterday we went to meet john for lunch at one of the places on "the list" - meaning, a place we have to eat at one last time before we move on thursday.  eeek!

so since we were close to the children's aquarium, i decided on a whim to take the girls to it after lunch.  i am so glad i made the effort.  hazel is obsessed with animals and particularly loves things in water.  plus, she is repeating everything i say these days so i can teach her the names of things!  hurray!  we came home and watched finding nemo to solidify my teachings ;)

so i made a quick video of our little adventure.  it's not professional or even well-done, but it took me 20 minutes to make and i'll get to have our day recorded in a special way.  plus, hazel will watch it on repeat for an hour on my phone so i can get things done around the house ;)

The Children's Aquarium from Paige Brunt on Vimeo.

ice sculptures

we went and saw the ice sculptures at the gaylord texan this weekend.  first of all, can we talk about what a terrible name gaylord is?  because really, i feel silly saying it.  but anyway...

the ice sculptures were amazing!  they are carved by chinese ice sculpture artists and the exhibit is kept at 9 degrees to keep the ice perfectly frozen.  i showed hazel frosty the snowman right before we got there, so she was all prepared to see him up-close in ice form.  none of the pictures turned out amazing, mostly because i recently traded in my happy, photogenic baby hazel for a grumpier toddler model.  i'm still trying to decide if i'm going to stick with this one or if another trade is in order...

also, hazel was not happy to be in that puffy parka.  but i think she prefered it to freezing.

hazel meets frosty in ice-form! really it was amazing.

there was a huge ice slide.  and i couldn't go down it with hazel, so naturally i just laid her on her back and pushed her down.  she didn't like it very much....

at the end there was a beautiful nativity. hazel especially liked pointing out the animals to me.

things to do in dallas: the dallas children's aquarium.

a bunch of moms from our ward went to the dallas children's aquarium yesterday.  it is small and simple, which makes it perfect for an hour or so long outing.  parking is free, and it's only $8 for admission for adults. children under 2 are free.  {that means you, hazel!}  

one of the best features of the aquarium is that the atmosphere is really relaxed.  for awhile hazel just ran from tank to tank saying "uphhhf" which i have come to learn is her way of saying fish ;) they have a great spot where you can pet lobster and sea urchins {the non-toxic kind}, which was a serious highlight.  hazel was surprisingly obedient with the "one finger" rule.

serves me right for trying to get her to take a picture with me after showing her the fish exploration ipad ;)

the shark tank was also pretty neat.  they just kept swimming past us in circles.  we had such a great time!  we actually ended up getting an annual pass, because it pays for itself after three visits.  so we have more children's aquarium in our future.

the texas state fair.

i am newly obsessed with the freddy's corny dog from the texas state fair.  since having one a few weeks ago, it has taken tremendous willpower not to drive downtown, pay $10 for parking, $8 for the entrance fee and $4 for another corndog.  that's a $22 corn dog, if you think about it so, i resisted.  maybe i can figure out how to make one at home that is equally as good because those darn pregnancy cravings really never go away.... and even hazel gave the corny dog the stamp of approval!

here we are at the fair, with our best friends, phil, briana, and henry.  i just love them!

another highlight was the petting zoo.  hazel is just obsessed with animals.  and she knows all the names.  also, she learned what an ostrich was when we went to the ostrich races.  did you know you have to weigh less than 130 pounds to ride an ostrich?  that counts me out!

we didn't have time for the ferris wheel, which was sad.  but we enjoyed avocado fries, rainbow pops, fried siracha balls, fried pumpkin pie, and lots of other goodies!  can't wait to go back next year!

the zoo!

we went to the dallas zoo the other day with our new friends from church.  hazel digs all the animals, and my new favorite thing is to get her to do all the noises as we see the animals.  she recently learned what an elephant, frog, and bee says!  so that's been fun.

hazel, look at the camera!  toddlers. ^^

the ross perot museum of science and nature.

on saturday morning we woke up and asked each other, what do you wanna do today?

and decided on a whim to go to a museum downtown.  i had heard great things about the children's section in the ross perot museum, so we took a little drive downtown, spent way too much on parking, and had a wonderful time.  

here's the world's largest dinosaurs exhibit.  there was a vertebre found that was as big as that femur john is standing next to, if you want to get an idea of just how big those largest dinosaurs actually were...

this was taken during the ten minutes hazel was happy in her stroller ;) ^^^

and this is hazel in the children's section, in a mini downtown.  she seems a little excited about it!

after the museum we went to chop house burgers and got some lunchies.  hazel demolished our oreo shake and fries and wouldn't try anything else.  

oh, how i love the weekend.

this weekend was pretty great.  besides faraway costco/homedepot/chipotle adventures, we also tried out a new instant favorite pizza place, called cane rosso.  guys, this pizza is so good, even hazel devoured it.  i'm loving the weekends more and more because hazel and i get john to ourselves for a few days and we usually try and do something extra special.  

you have to take a picture next to the red pig, am i right?

diapercation!

so, a week ago we packed up and drove 20 hours to dallas. i am so grateful to my family for their help, and especially my dad and in-laws for helping us drive out here. it broke my heart to say goodbye to my dad, because i could tell he felt like he was having to let his little girl go again, just like he had to on the day i got married. it kind of hurts my heart to think about it. but there's consolation in knowing my family is only a plane ticket away....

once we unpacked we headed straight to a friend's house for a vacation with all of john's high-school friends. every couple has a baby and one couple even has twins so... there's a lot of diapers being changed. hence the name: diapercation. on friday we went to the pond and fed the ducks and turtles and played on the playground. we also swam our first swim of the season and hazel learned to blow bubbles underwater!

here's a picture of all the dads with their babies. as you can see, at least one baby is crying at any given moment! 

on saturday we went to the zoo! i was oddly exhausted (hungry) at the zoo, but we saw some great animals and hazel loves looking at them.

i swear she was happy most of the time...

this bird is our new best friend.

after the zoo, we had a bbq by the pool.

sunday we went to church john's old ward. the people there were gushing over what a good group of young men they were. what happened?! ;)

now i'm gonna go get myself some blue bell ice cream.

dallas.

this picture was taken about a week ago, when i didn't feel like cooking so we went to cubby's. and i was still asking john to take a picture of the back of my hair every day, just to make sure i didn't still hate it. hazel was so interested in the cubby's cow that she didn't notice the paper hat we put on her.  so of course i had to snap a few pictures.  i am excited for the things that are to come, but i'm trying to soak up every last second of our last month in provo, utah.

that said, i am pleased to announce that our little family will be moving to dallas next month, and we are so very excited!  i loved exploring a new city last summer, and we will have at least a whole year in dallas to explore.  john went to high school in dallas, so, in a way, it's kind of like going back home for him.  it will be a fun new experience and i cannot wait.