Mom & Dad Debenham in Dallas!!!

We were so thrilled to have Mom and Dad come stay with us for a week here in Dallas!  They were our first guests in Texas!  I had a week off for spring break, so they flew in for the whole week.  We did all kinds of fun things. See the pics below!

We made sure Mom and Dad got a taste of home at Sweet Tomatoes on their first night here.

Of course we had to see the famous Dallas malls!  Notice the four stories in the background and the ice skating rink down below in the middle of the mall.

We went to the famous Dallas Arboretum.  It was in full bloom with beautiful tulips!

There were beautiful water features at the Arboretum.

Here we are having cookies and milk for dessert one evening.

We went to a wonderful butterfly exhibit and saw amazing butterflies!

Here we are inside the butterfly house.

We visited the stunning Japanese Gardens.

We saw the awesome water features in the center of downtown Fort Worth.

We were able to climb down into this water feature.

We had ice cream and a movie on Wednesday night.

We made sure Dad got himself a Texas hat.

We took a walk around Grapevine Lake, only 15 minutes away from our apartment.

We ate delicious salads all week long.

We did a walking tour of downtown Dallas.

This amazing water feature is outside one of the buildings downtown.

Here is an amazing exhibit at Pioneer Memorial Park.

Downtown Dallas is quite a sight!

We made sure to take a look at the Dallas Opera House.

We grilled hamburgers, hot dogs, and steak on the grill.

We found a lovely walk around many little lakes right near our apartment.

Most of all, we enjoyed spending time together!  We're so glad Mom and Dad could come visit us!!!  We love you and will miss you!!!!

Dallas Mavericks vs. Utah Jazz Game!

We attended the Mavericks vs. Jazz game on Saturday night.  We were super excited, especially Stephen!  Last year the Mavericks won the NBA Championship, so they are a pretty good team!  We took the DART (similar to the Utah Trax or Portland Max) for the first time to avoid traffic and parking prices.  The DART stop is just a five-minute drive from our place and dropped us off right at the entrance to the American Airlines Center.  The game was great!  The Mavericks won, but they didn't beat the Jazz too badly.  I wasn't sure which team to cheer for, but I ended up cheering for the Mavericks since we are Dallas residents now!

Here we are at the DART stop.  The DART rides high above the ground for the most part.

Here we are at the American Airlines center!

What a great game!

Spring Walks

We are thoroughly enjoying the beautiful weather here in Dallas!  For the last two weeks, the weather has been in the high 60's, 70's, and even the low 80's on a few days.  To take advantage of this beautiful weather, we have started going on a few walks a week.  We live right across the street from a golf course, which makes for a lovely view.  Many of the trees here are sprouting leaves and flowers, and some of the trees are in full bloom!

Our backyard.  These trees were bare just a few weeks ago.

I relaxed at the pool for a little while on Saturday.

This is the street we walk along on our walks.

These trees were also bare just a couple weeks ago, and now are in full bloom!

Here's a view of part of the golf course.

Weekend Fun

Stephen and I pulled out Jenga, one of the games I use with my speech kids at school.  It was a fun and competitive game.  Our tower got really high before it finally toppled.

Dessert Night!

On Friday evening we hosted a dessert night at our home.  We had three couples and three kids over for the evening and it was lots of fun.  Everyone brought a dessert, and we ended up with strawberry shortcake, apple pie, a yummy lemon dessert, and the peanut butter chocolate cookies that I made.  Everyone had fun chatting and getting to know each other better.  We are blessed to live in the boundaries of such a wonderful ward with lots of young couples.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is always a wonderful day!  This year we did our Valentine's Day date on the Saturday before Valentine's Day.  Stephen made secret plans and bought us tickets to the musical "Big River."  We went out to dinner and then enjoyed the play!  Stephen knows exactly what I like!

On Valentine's Day we were going to keep with our tradition of eating a heart-shaped pizza, but the pizza place ran out of heart-shaped pizzas at 5 PM!  So, we ate a circle pizza.  We made up for it by making heart-shaped cookies and frosting them with pink and purple frosting.  What a great day!

Our date on Saturday - dinner and "Big River"

Stephen bought me these lovely roses which blossomed beautifully over the next few days.

Valentine's Day - pizza and cookies!

Making our heart-shaped cookies

Complete with frosting and sprinkles

Texas Barbecue!

Last weekend we went to a highly recommended barbecue restaurant called Hard Eight.  When we walked up to the restaurant, smoke was billowing out from a big fire where tons of meat was being barbecued.  Stephen was in heaven with all the ribs, sausage, steak, etc., etc., etc., that they had to offer.  The bill was more than we would normally pay to go out to eat, but we were glad we gave this restaurant a try.  We had to come home and shower because all of our clothing smelled like smoke from the fire!

We could choose any amount of any meat we wanted.  Price was determined by weight.

Stephen with slices of lots of different kinds of meat.

Not a great picture, but this is where they were cooking up all the meat.

Mexican Food & Downtown Dallas!

Our date nights each weekend involve exploring new restaurants and new places here in Dallas.  A few weekends back we got Mexican food at a fun and festive restaurant just a couple blocks from where we live. After dinner we drove downtown to explore Dallas at night.  We parked our car in a ritzy and expensive part of town and had fun walking around and seeing all the nice hotels and all the people eating dinner at super expensive restaurants.  We also came upon a cute little cupcake restaurant and bought a delicious chocolate cupcake.  While we were sitting there, the restaurant owner came over and gave us two more little cupcakes! It was a great date night.

Eating a Taco Salad at the Mexican restaurant, Guerro's

Dinner at the Mexican restaurant

Our yummy chocolate cupcake

Walking around downtown

Lots of the buildings downtown are lit up really cool, like the green one in the background

The Dallas Opera House - Dad Debeham, this is your place!