A Great Beginning to Spring Break

This year, the hubs and I decided to start spring break with a 3 day weekend.  A little while back, we made plans to meet the brothers (Sam's brothers, that is) in Dallas for St. Patrick's day, but we really didn't want to have to drive.  Sam came up with the awesome solution of riding the Heartland Flyer (a train that runs from Oklahoma City to Dallas).  Since I had Friday the 16th off due to parent-teacher conferences that we completed earlier in the week, Sam took the day off too and we boarded the train at 8 a.m. Friday (the train only goes to Dallas in the morning and to Oklahoma City in the evening).

It was awesome riding the train since a.) we didn't have to drive, b.) we had a lot of room to stretch out and relax, c.) you can bring your own drinks and snacks to enjoy as you please or get stuff from the snack car, and d.) you can get up and walk around if you need to stretch.  Sam's back really started hurting in the week leading up to our departure, so it was nice that he was able to recline and walk around as needed.  We decided that if we ever have kids, we will definitely be taking them on a train trip or two.

Here I'm stretching my leg as far as I can to show you how much leg room we had.

We sat mid train both times.  The chairs face two directions, so we ended up riding to Dallas backwards.

My bearded hubby.  He started growing his beard at the beginning of the year with a goal of not shaving until St. Patrick's day.  He has since shaved it off.

After we got to Dallas, we all decided that we didn't want to fight the crowds.  Instead, we hung out in Ty's back yard and enjoyed chatting with friends, playing horse shoes, jumping on the trampoline, and a fire pit once dusk hit.

Pete really wanted to get every bit of bark off of the logs.

Can you see the wake board rope and handle hanging from the tree?  Ty has a special wake board for the trampoline to practice flips and jumps.

 

Seriously, how cute is this dog?!?!?!

Of course, I made a shirt for the occasion!

 

Oh, and even though this has nothing to do with the weekend, I have to include a picture of the St. Patrick's day mantle I made for when I hosted bunco.  And, for the fun of it, let me tell you a little more about St. Patty's day bunco.  I served a loaded baked potato bar, leprechaun floats (sprite and lime sherbert ice cream), Skittles (taste the rainbow :), and Oreo balls (because they're good).