My 28th Birthday in TEXAS!

A few months ago Ryan found out that he had to go on a business trip over my birthday :( I was pretty bummed to hear that until...I found out it was to Dallas and I was going with him! My brother Matt and his family live in Dallas and I was so excited to go see them! Plus, I had never been to Texas so I was excited to go see it and spend my b-day there!

Plane rides with a baby...Ryan and I are putting on our brave faces---Riley was starting to express her hatred of sitting still for an entire flight and we hadn't even taken off yet.

Is the plane ride over yet? Riley actually looks super sweet here but oh boy. This plane ride was not our favorite. haha she was pretty fussy and screamed, A. LOT. That poor plane. Pretty sure everyone hated us. Also, this picture of me is super flattering. 

It was cool looking out of the plane window and seeing how far the skyline stretched. Without mountains or hills it really did look bigger in Texas!

Since we were tagging along with Ryan for his business trip we got to stay in a super nice hotel where Salesforces' conference was taking place. It was called The Omni in downtown Dallas. It was a GORGEOUS hotel. Holy cow. The nicest hotel we have ever/probably will ever stay in! It was really fun to pretend like we were rich people haha. We kind of freaked out when we saw our room. The windows stretch from floor to ceiling and we were on the 19th floor so we had an incredible view! 

Heading into the lobby. I was oohing and ahhing at everything. Yeah I felt a little dumb taking pictures of everything but that didn't stop me :) 

Lobby area

Our room

See that lit up disco ball thing at the top of that tower out there? We had dinner there!
More to come on that later in this post..

Have you ever seen a TV INSIDE of a mirror? It was pretty cool! You could watch a show while you got ready.

Riley had fun exploring the room too.

After a long day of traveling we were all ready to sleep. Unfortunately, Riley decided to quit sleeping. Forever. We got only a couple of short hours of sleep each night. We're talking 3-5 hours of sleep per night. Oh man. We were so exhausted. I think Riley slept worse because she could see us in the room with her so she would just cry until we would get her. 

Texas skyline just goes on forever, as far as you can see. This picture doesn't do it justice!

The best part of Texas was obviously seeing my brother and his wonderful family. I love Matt and Mandi so much. I'm so happy Matt married such a great girl. Mandi is a great friend! And of course it is the best seeing my little nieces. They have so much energy and are so full of life--it makes for non-stop laughs and adventures. I got to see my family the first full day we were there but Ryan had to work. 

This is a pic of the room filling up before Ryan's session. He got to speak at a session of the conference. He received really good  feedback and reviews and did a great job! 

While Ryan worked, Riley and I visited my brother at work. It was so great to see him! I haven't seen him since he came out to Indiana when Riley was born! 

After seeing Matt, Riley and I headed to Denton to see Mandi and the girls. Funny story--when we pulled up Harley and Emery ran down the stairs so excited! I thought Harley must be so excited to see Riley and I! She took one look at me, looked confused...and circled around the car looking in the windows. Then this is the first thing she says to me, "Where's Ryan?" haha I thought it was so funny! That was a foreshadow of the whole trip. Harley LOVED Ryan. Seriously she always wanted Ryan to be by her side. It was pretty adorable. 

We made a ginger bread house. Well, really the girls just ate candy. Also, after this Mandi colored my hair. She is amazing! Seriously. My favorite colorist ever. 

These two are less than a year apart so I hope that they will grow up to be good friends! 

The first full day we were in Texas was my birthday. Matt and Mandi were so sweet to watch Riley so Ryan and I could have a date night! Ryan planned an awesome dinner for us. We went to a place called Five Sixty by Wolfgang Puck. It was the coolest restaurant ever!! It is a circular room at the top of a 50 story building in Dallas (Remember the building we could see from our room? The one with the disco ball thing on top? Yeah it was there!)

The restaurant walls are all glass so you can have a 360 degree view of downtown Dallas. But here's the coolest part, the restaurant slowly rotates! It was so cool! Since the room is slowly rotating, our scenery kept changing little by little and we got to see downtown Dallas from every angle without ever having to move from our table. THE coolest restaurant ever! If you are ever in Dallas you neeeeeed to go. Oh and here's the best part of all, the food. It was literally the best food I have ever had. EVER. I mean it. The food was ridiculous. Ryan and I talked about nothing but the food the whole time! haha we just could not get over how delicious every morsel was. It was quite the experience and made my 28 birthday so magical. 

Sorry to make you tilt your head... haha We are pretty excited to go eat up there! :) 

That building with the lights on top! That's the restaurant! AMAZING!! 

This is not my picture but it shows the restaurant better than the pics I took!

Ryan and I were geeking out over how cool this place was!

This is the view of our hotel from the restaurant!

Apps! We got the potstickers and butternut squash soup. The soup was THE most delicious thing either Ryan or I have everrrrrrrrr had. Period. I know what you're thinking, I mean it's squash soup, how can it be that good? The answer, I have no idea. But it is. It is that good. The plate was filled with little bite sized pieces of roasted butternut squash and then they came out with a teapot and poured steamy fresh soup into the bowl. So neat. We felt so fancy! 

Even the spoon was fancy. We had to resist the urge to lick the bowl. 

My meal was flash fried pork with a spicy coleslaw and some sort of fabulous sauce and jasmine rice. YUM! Also, HUGE.

Ry got the filet and some pomegranate brussels sprouts.
They didn't even give him a steak knife. That's how tender the meat was. It just melts. 

This captures some of the view. 

Happy 28 to me!

My little B-day dessert.

I love this guy. It was so wonderful having a real date with just each other!

Mandi sent me this picture of Harley holding Riley. Clearly she was in great hands :)

After dinner we headed back to Matt and Mandi's. On the drive I suddenly had to go to the bathroom so bad. I felt like I was in labor or something like--PULL OVER!!! That's how bad the emergency was. haha So we stopped at the first place--a Sonic--and I made it just in time! PHEW! We just kept laughing about how that would have been the worst/funniest birthday story if I hadn't made it in time...
Since we were already at Sonic....we HAD to get an oreo shake--they are the absolute best but as we drove away we discovered that there was pretty much ZERO oreo in our Oreo shake so of course we had to turn around and be that customer. Ryan was so embarassed but asked for more Oreo anyway "since it was my birthday." haha They were super nice and ended up chocking it nice and full of Oreo. :) I know these are very stupid details but it's a fun memory I want to be able to remember someday :) We then headed over to Matt and Mandi's to pick up Riley. We got to chat with them for a while and just hang out! It's always so fun to be with them! I wish we lived closer. 

My 28th birthday was one of the best birthdays I have ever had! It was so much fun being in a new place and having such a fabulous date with my love. It was also so much fun to see Matt, Mandi, Harley, and Emery. Also, it was my first birthday as a mom. She is the greatest present I could ever receive! I'm so grateful to everyone who made me feel so loved on my birthday!

Still to come, more of our Texas adventures!