Where Country Music Isn't Just An Option On Your Radio- It's A Way Of Life!

On Saturday, we headed to Fort Worth with our friends Aidan and Jeremy to the historical Stockyards. It was frrr-frrr-freezing out- the 'high' for the day was only in the mid 4o's! Our first stop was for some lunch and to duck out of the brutal cold wind that was blowing through the alleyways.

We 'hung up our hats' at Riscky's BARB-Q and sat down for some beef brisket sandwiches and all you can eat ribs {or I should say that the guys tore into the ribs while we ladies stuck to our sandwiches}.

Here's a pail-full of rib bones...enough to feed Old Yeller. Notice the glass of water on the left- see how it was not even touched? Yeah, the water here is awful. It seriously tastes like soil and metal. Troy says it's not as bad as the water up at the church in Leesville {Jeni and Aaron will know what he's talking about} but since I was warned by Jeni not to drink that water, all I can say is that this is the nastiest water I've ever had!

I loved the sign for the restrooms- '2P' with an arrow. Classy.

Of course, I couldn't resist stopping into the Candy Barrel and checking out the goods. This is seriously a sugar heaven. Aidan and I both couldn't leave without getting ourselves some Jelly Belly jelly beans. I've finally found someone else who likes the buttered popcorn jelly beans! Alas, no one else shares my love for black licorice flavored jelly beans though. I think I'm the odd person out on that one ;-)

This was a store that we stopped in that specialized in all different kinds of spices. They had every spice you could imagine in there and even some mixes for rubbing on BBQ or seafood. It smelled scrumptious in there!

We all had to laugh at the cowboy rendition of a Zoltar machine. I wonder what kind of fortunes 'Pappy' is handing out!

Only in Texas.

Don't you love the holster attached to her hip?

We saw these mechanical horses and decided to peel the kids out of their warm strollers for a photo opp.

Peyton to Shelby: All you need is a gentle touch with her and she'll go where ever you lead her. Let me show you... You take the reins like this....

Shelby to Peyton: If we head down Main Street and hang a right, we can mosey our way down to the cattle yard and pick us out a nice side of beef!

Shelby was in awe of this cow- she didn't say a word until we walked away and then she kept exclaiming "Cow!" "Cow!". I would have shown Peyton the cow too, but he was mad that we took him off of the horse ride and then buckled him back into his stroller. I knew there was no way we would get that boy back in his stroller after we had just struggled to get him back in it!

Here's where they hold live auctions for the cattle- they show the cattle being sold on television moniters and people bid on the ones they like. Nearly everyone in there had on boots and/or cowboy hats. I'm definitely not in Louisiana anymore!

We all laughed hysterically at Jeremy's ride on the mechanical bull. It was $5 for only 18 seconds of fun, but man was it worth it to watch it! :-0

This was my favorite cow of the day!

These guys were all huddled up by the fence and I couldn't blame them- it was really, really, REALLY cold outside!

At the end of the day, Shelby gave her buddy Peyton a goodbye hug. Poor Roxy is scratching at the door to get in- I think if she could dig herself a hole in the glass to get inside, she would!
After we left Aidan and Jeremy's we still needed to head out to the studio home and pick out some last minute options for the house. This was heading back to our temporary home in Richardson. What you can't really tell in this picture is that we were headed down this huge hill with a lake at the end of it. The lake is literally only 7 or 8 minutes from our house-to-be! Would you believe that matching paint color to cabinet grains to wood flooring to granite counter tops is really stressful? I think we've finally got it narrowed down though and we should have a meeting with our builder soon to verify all of our choices so they can begin building. Yippee!