Seasons Greetings

Amarillo, TX: Dec 6th & 7th, 2008

We drove up to Amarillo for the weekend to watch Katy & Kendall Welch compete in a cheer competition. They both did very good and Katy was such a good big cousin. As soon as she got done cheering she played with Olivia the whole time!

Olivia & Katy share a bowl of ice cream.

We went to a steak house called the "Big Texan", which was your typical tourist trap but... it made for a couple cute pictures.

Thanksgiving Weekend 2008

On Thanksgiving we did not have any family in town for the first time in 5 years. So... we decided to take a little weekend trip up to Dallas/Ft. Worth and see the sights.

The Fort Worth Stockyards were really neat. It was like driving into an old west town that was still up and running. Mark got to sit on a longhorn bull and get his picture taken. Everyday at 11am and 4pm they heard longhorns right down the mainstreet. I have no idea how those animals navigated through the cars and never scratched a single one???

We drove out to Parker, TX (outside of Dallas) to visit the Southfork Ranch made famous in the TV drama series "Dallas". It was fun to walk around the ranch and through the house. However, it was a little heartbreaking to realize that the house is actually much smaller than it appeared on TV. This is primarily because not a single inside shot was ever filmed in the house, only the exterior scenes were at this ranch. It was a beautiful home...just not what they made it up to be on the TV show.

(Below) Longhorns roam all over the ranch.

(Below) The long driveway up to the house has always been paved.... for the show they coated the driveway with flour to make it look like dust off a gravel driveway.

(Below) Jock's car from the show is in the gift shop.
(Below) This is a strange structure out in the field. It has nothing to do with the show but it is a funny story. The second owner of the house bought his wife an oil rig and built a platform around it so people could come watch. Then he went bankrupt and sold the rig to the middle east. I guess it's true, rich people do weird stuff!
(Below) Dallas aired in 13 countries. These are the flags of those countries.

The Aquarium was phenomenal! After an elevator ride to the 4th floor you walked out into a tropical jungle with waterfalls and foliage everywhere. They had so many animals... everything from a jaguar to a python. It was really cool to walk down the winding path and see everything. At the bottom of the jungle was a big pond which, when you went down below, was actually the water holding a huge array of marine life!

(Below Left) Looking down at the shark tunnel from above. You can see the people standing in the tunnel surrounded by water and sharks. (Below Right) Mark and Olivia sitting in the shark tunnel with a shark swimming behind Mark's head.

We went to the King Tut exhibit at the museum. These relics have not been in the United States for 35 years. It was very awesome to see the display.