Four Weekends to Our Next Vacation

At some point during 2010, I noticed that my world revolved around weekends. Why it took me so long to figure that out, I'm not sure. I mean - Monday through Friday are the same routine - work, work, work a little more; come home and pick up or fix dinner; watch TV (this, we need to work on); and/or work on a plan for the next weekend and/or trip or potential trip. Pretty straightforward. Ha!!!

So...here's what we were doing the four weekends between Labor Day and our trip to Europe:

The weekend AFTER Labor Day, we traveled again. This time to Austin, TX. My friend, Laura, who had a baby in June gave us her UT game tickets. So, we loaded up the car and drove down to Austin. It was really fun to go to a game - the atmosphere is fantastic. I could totally and completely see why their fans get so in to the sports!!! I only took a few pictures, but here is proof we were there:

Really?


Go TEXAS!!!


The game we attended, by the way, was the home opener vs. Wyoming. The Horns won, 34-7, but their season was pretty much downhill from there. They finished 5-7 and failed to qualify for a bowl game for the first time since 1997.

The next weekend, Joe had tickets to the Bears vs. Cowboys here in Dallas. For some reason, I felt doom so I decided to head out of town. It had been a long, long time since I had been to visit my friend, Sheli, so I took the opportunity for a quick visit. I didn't take any pictures, but for the record, my instincts were right. The Bears beat the Cowboys (although so did everyone else during the first half of the season!) and Joe was able to enjoy his victory without having to worry about me.

The next weekend, Joe and I traveled again. This time we headed to Champaign, IL to watch our niece, Emily, play in the state softball tournament. It was a lot of fun to see the girls. They lost the first game, but won the second. This placed them 3rd in the tournament and they were thrilled. It made me so happy to see Emily play, but also to see those girls get so excited to get 3rd place. They were truly proud of their accomplishment and we were all happy for them!!!


The weekend before our big trip, we had tickets for our final show with the Dallas Summer Musicals, Shrek. It was definitely more for kids, but we enjoyed the show and as an added bonus, we got into the State Fair for free. We saw a special exhibit about Tom Landry, visited the pumpkin carver, and tried the deep-fried chili pie, which was pretty good (way better than the fried bacon from a couple of years ago). It was a fun day, in spite of the fact that it was Texas-OU day and the fair was completely packed with people going to the game.