The Bunch Enjoy The Cooler Weather

 

The Dallas Museum of Art 

This July has been fantastic! We have had almost two weeks of temperatures in the the 80's or low 90's! Unfortunately, our house missed all of the much needed rain, but we really enjoyed the cooler weather. This week A went to see Shrek the Musical at the Winspear Opera House in Dallas. Unfortunately, this happened to be on the EXACT day that the First Baptist Church of Dallas caught fire which caused them to shut down multiple streets around the opera house. A ended up running the last 3 city blocks to get there before it started. She made it, but barely. She literally had only two minutes before it started once she got to her seat. A has been going to the theater a lot lately, which is great, but it is a little expensive for us to keep joining her so she goes to whatever show she has tickets to and we pass time at the Dallas Museum of Art and wandering around downtown while she watches her show. The museum is free and has nice, cold a/c. D and I had a wonderful time exploring it last time we went together. This time T and I explored it together this time. Needless to say, T isn't an art fan. I enjoy reading the plaques and T wants to speed walk and glance at everything. 😂We ended up just playing Moose Farkle in the cafeteria. We also tried Leila's Pizza. The have GF crust, but it requires either waiting for a bit or calling ahead to get one made. However, after the kids raved about how awesome this pizza is next time I will order ahead to try one. The downtown area has been revitalized and is really cute, at least around the opera house. There is all kinds of shops and restaurants in the arts district. It's not a horrible way to waste a couple of hours while A enjoys the theater. I think next month instead of seeing a play she plans to watch the Dallas Symphony play to a Harry Potter movie. 

Our first snack was the street taco place in front of the Opera House. It is so good!

The museum has lots of places to sit, relax, and enjoy the view.

I am always surprised at how shady and nice the area is.

One of the few things that T enjoyed at the museum. He is just a big kid!

His finished textile. I didn't have the heart to tell him that there wasn't supposed to be blank spots. 

The cafeteria is really nice.

We timed it perfectly. We got back to the Opera House about 3 minutes before it was over.

She had a great time! She was surprised that it was a little different than the Broadway version.

We also went for a walk at a park in town. We brought the dog since it has been so cool and it was only about 11am. However, Maisy is 14 years old, completely deaf, and starting to have some mobility issues. We have never had a big dog live longer than 12 years before. We had to really push her to finish the entire mile and I wasn't sure she could. Afterwards, even while we sat in the really cool air conditioned car while the kids and D played around a little longer, she wouldn't stop panting so hard that I thought she might hyperventilate. She was fine after we got home and she slept for awhile. She just can't walk at the park anymore or at least anymore when the temp is above 70. I walk her every morning, but we only do a half a mile so the mile loop at the park really pushed her. It's kind of funny. We walked her 2.5 miles every day before we moved after we moved we walked her 1.5 miles, then one mile, and now half a mile. Sadly, I think a quarter or third of a mile is coming soon. It's always so hard to watch your furry babies get old and eventually pass away. T is already picking out new dogs, but I have news for him. I don't think I will want another dog for awhile. I am also not going to be replenishing our chickens either. Half of them are 5 years old or older and the flock should be thinning considerably over the next couple of years. In the past year we have gone from 22 to 17. However, we still have one original left. She just turned 8 and we have written her off multiple times, but she always comes back. It's a running joke. We think she just likes having garage ( it's temperature controlled) time periodically, which is where our sick chickens go. She is going to outlast them all!

Maisy rode home from the park in the middle seat so she could get more air. She was so happy to be with her people!

We are crazy busy this week. T has a couple more classes at the zoo, he plays in a band at the neighborhood bar (not as bad as it sounds),  and we have basketball practice. Summer has only a couple more weeks left. It has gone by so fast! A and I are really looking forward to our girls trip to Orlando! We're going to have so much fun! A installed the universal studios app on her phone and her new favorite game is "I wonder what the wait times are".  She is compiling a list of when we should do what ride, though there is a couple of coasters I won't be going on. I did tell her I would happily stand in line with her and hold her glasses while she rides it though. She keeps trying to talk me into riding them, but that ain't happening!

Have a great week!