Dallas-mama.

On Friday morning, we woke early and snuck out before anyone could make us take our kids and boarded the first plane to Dallas. Let me be the first to say: Dallas is stinking hot. We were proud of ourselves for adjusting somewhat to the humid NC climate, but it has nothing on Dallas. According to Wikipedia, the Dallas-Fort Worth area has around 3 million people. But it is so big, I'm sure it could hold about twice as many. I'm sure it has enough concrete to make it to the moon and back. While we were there, it was hot enough to declare unhealthy pollution levels and all people were warned to stay inside because air quality was so bad. I don't have that much experience with big cities, but I didn't notice that my contacts were covered in dust every night when I took them out.

On Friday night we got tickets to the Rangers-Padres game. It started at 7pm and 100 degrees. It was still 92 degrees when we left at 10pm. It was a fun game and the Rangers were up 12-1 when we left during the middle of the 8th inning.

We made it through the game on one thing alone: All You Can Eat Seats. Our ticket price (only $25) covered our seats, and a buffet of hot dogs, chicken sandwiches, nachos, popcorn, peanuts and pop. I earned back the ticket price with pop alone. I know I drank 7 cups full while we were there. The game was only bearable if you were chugging cold drinks and rubbing your legs and arms with ice cubes. Despite the heat, papa posed for a shot with Nolan Ryan on the way out. On Saturday, we celebrated the real reason for our trip down. Papa's high school friend, college roommate for 3 years and a groomsman in our wedding, Jeff married his lovely girlfriend Cara.

They were married in a cool mansion in a very nice ceremony that I only cried about half through.

After the ceremony, we were all excited to get the party started. I was impressed by the carved watermelon.

I guess grooms get their own cake in Texas. It was as delicious as it looked.

And the bride's cake wasn't too shabby either.

The wedding party cleaned up real nice, even though a high percentage hailed from "Mern", Ohio.

We were very excited to see our friends Ryan Arend and Anupam. Papa lived with Arend for two years in college and he was also in our wedding. It's been almost three years since we've seen him.

It's been since our wedding 5 years ago that we've seen the whole Griswold family. We were very excited to hear that Mr. and Mrs. Griswold live only a half our from our new house in South Carolina and hope that means we'll get to see the Griwolds more. (And we want to give a special mention to Mike's wife, Heather, who braved the heat and a plane ride to make it to the wedding 8 months along in her pregnancy. We feel for you, Heather.)

The vast majority of the kids at the wedding were little boys aged 6-8. We spent some time wondering which one Henry was most like. Half way through the ceremony, we got our answer when one said to his mom "Can we go already?"

We expect this picture to be plastered over Facebook in no time. How sweet.

When the happy couple left, we were given kazoos and noisemakers to send them on their way.

It was quite the procession.

The reception ended early, so the party continued on at the bowling alley, where everyone bowled in their formal wear.

Don't let papa's good form fool you. Despite bowling a pitiful 53 in my first round, I bowled a personal best of 91 and beat him in the second round. Unfortunately, we were bowling with the elder Griswolds. Jeff's dad rolled a 179 and his grandpa bowled around a 120.

Thanks for including us in your special day, Jeff and Cara!