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I got to spend the holiday weekend with the most adorable girl in the world.

I went to Dallas to visit with my brother and sister (-in-law) and had a GREAT time.

Okay, so it’s been waay too long since I started this post, and now I’ve forgotten some of the wonderful things that I was planning to share here. Anyway….

I flew into Dallas on the Friday before Memorial Day and immediately got to spend time with the cutie. My SIL and the Babe picked me up at the airport and took me to the Galleria mall. We moseyed around there for a while until my brother was able to wrap things up at work to meet us for dinner.

Dinner was at the Five Guys burger place there in the mall. I won’t pretend- Five Guys isn’t the most amazing burger, but it IS darn tasty.

After we ate, we made our way back to the car and headed home. We got to the homestead, put the Babe to bed, and, in true Braun fashion, talked into the wee hours of Saturday morning.

Saturday and Sunday were very laid-back, casual days. We went to the park to see the baby ducks, went out for dinner, and then rented a couple of movies to top-off Saturday night. On Sunday, we went to church and then went to my SIL’s brother’s home doe some delicious Puerto Rican fare. After some hood conversation, we went home and chatted a bit more before calling it a night.

Monday, being Memorial Day, we took our time getting ready and then went back to the park for a walk, to see the ducks again, and to enjoy the sunshine. Later in the day we went to a local driving range to practice the ol’ backswing and topped the might off with some wonderful grilled food.

If you haven’t caught on already, I really seem to eat some good food when I travel. (not that I’m complaining or anything….)

Tuesday and Wednesday were just as great, even though they weren’t holidays. On Tuesday, I accompanied the ladies to downtown Dallas to see some of the more historical/touristy sites. We drove through the plaza where JFK was assassinated and went to the north side of the convention center to see a massive sculpture garden of a cattle drive. I didn’t get any pictures of the JFK site, but I took a whole bunch of the life-sized bronze cattle. We then met my brother for lunch at a park near his office. After lunch, the ladies and I went to a different mall – one where they have valet parking at EVERY door and where they practically despise any vehicles that aren’t worth more than my house. Regardless of their dirty looks, we had a fun time shopping around in stores that we could never afford to actually patronize. There was some really great people-watching, though .

Tuesday night found us sharing dinner with the hilarious Mr. and Mrs. Whiteeyebrows at Scotty P’s Hamburgers. After more delicious burgers, we went back home and played Mao (a card game) with the W.E.s until the rooster was about ready to crow.

On Wednesday, the morning was full of my efforts to take as many pictures of the Babe as I possibly could. I think I ended up with about 180 or so for the first half of the day. We met my brother for lunch again at the same park, and the ladies and I went to Historic Downtown McKinney to browse the couture, antique, and trinket shops that line the street and town square. As was the day before, Wednesday was tons of fun and very relaxing. The Babe is an absolute delight to spend the day with, and her mother is incredibly fun, too.

Alas, the trip had to come to an end sometime, so after we finished browsing we ran home, grabbed my luggage, and raced to the airport so I could catch my flight home.

I had an absolutely wonderful time and look forward to the next chance I’ll have to hang with the Fam in Dallas.

Here are a few pictures for you:

First, the Babe:

Next, the Cattle Drive:

Then the Ducks:

And finally, the Egret:

We saw this dude CATCH and SWALLOW a fish, not even 10 feet away from us, while we were feeding the ducks. I have two pictures of the catch/eat, but they’re not really clear enough to show here.