Fun With Children

Yesterday, I had a delightful morning at the Mall with Crista and Isabella. Crista needed to do some shopping, which she rarely (read: never) gets to do, and I was happy to occupy her cute little girl, who loves to go go go the second you put her on her feet, like a little roadrunner.

She seems to be quite a seasoned shopper (thanks Mom!), and seemed to gravitate towards anything pink or rainbow. It seemed that she wasn't looking to spend, but was happy to browse extensively:

The shopping was so exhausting, we had to go eat some apple wedges and Goldfish crackers out of Tupperware.

We had a lovely morning. And Crista was able to find a nice outfit for the show. So everybody had a good time.

Crista and Tarek deposited Isabella at the neighbor's house, and rented some kids for the night to form a lovely makeshift nuclear family:

(L.-R. Ally & Stormy). These girls were so adorable, and so completely out-of-their-minds excited about the show they could barely speak.

They screamed their way through the show from the front row, a perfect vantage point of yours truly...oh and some girl named Miley too.

I hear she's okay.

And to top it all off, as we were leaving we ran into the Jonas Brothers backstage, and the girls got a picture with them:

And then their brains fell out.

Dilly Dallying In Dallas

Today I was in Dallas with a day off, which means I had time to visit with some wonderful friends. I met up with Crista and her daughter Isabella, who is absolutely adorable and almost two years old, and my old college roommate Jonathan. We headed out to the Dallas Zoo, which is apparently not as cool as the Fort Worth Zoo. Eh. We had a good time anyway.

Here are some fake and real flamingos living in perfect harmony:

Isabella took her very first pony ride:

She conquered the monster slide:

So cute:
We ate lunch at an delightful, inexpensive and tasty restaurant called Madeleine's or something. Ridiculously awesome pumpkin pie.

Then we basically just sat around all afternoon, which was such a nice change. Crista introduced me to Skype. People have been telling me for months/years that I need to use Skype and somehow I always just shrugged it off. But Crista basically forced me to install it and it's great. Her husband Tarek came home to find Crista and I video chatting while sitting next to each other. Kind of odd but fun. Try it.

We topped off the day with dinner at the Outback Steakhouse. Yes I know...not very original or indigenous to Texas, but it's somehow always better than I remember. And we ended with the most mountainous chocolate cake I've ever seen...I'm still paying for it and it's 1am.

Tomorrow will be a lot of fun as Crista and Tarek are coming to the Dallas show. This is the first time I'm having friends out to see it. They're bringing some young ladies along who will most definitely be screaming their little lungs out. I can't wait.