Road trip to Dallas!

I spent the weekend of my 30th birthday away from the heat & humidity of Arkansas, and in the heat & humidity of Texas.

Graham and I had an absolutely wonderful weekend. We shopped way too much, we ate way too much, and we had so much fun.

If the rest of my 30th year is as wonderful as the weekend was, it's going to be an amazing year!

I was barely out of Little Rock when I saw a billboard for Dunkin' Donuts. Their strawberry frosted is my FAVORITE, so I drove about 15 miles out of my way so I could indulge in one...

I wasn't in any huge hurry since Graham was in class till 4:00ish, so I stopped along the way to enjoy the scenery... It's not the Blue Ridge Parkway, but some parts of Arkansas are really, really beautiful.

Instead of driving from Arkansas to Texas, I took the route that takes you through Oklahoma. Which gave me about 3 hours of absolute nothingness to look at. 

Carrie Underwood is my all time favorite American Idol, so when I saw this sign I literally slammed on brakes & pulled over so I could get out and take a picture. She had a song on her first CD called "I Ain't in Checotah Anymore".... it starts off "Where 69 meets 40, there's a single stoplight town..." She wasn't kidding. On the drive back I took a detour through the town and oh dear Jesus... I could never, ever live in a town that small. Ever. 

Finally in Texas! I missed getting a picture of the sign on my way in, so once I picked Graham up, we backtracked 20 miles so I could get my picture =)

On the way to Dallas, we saw storm chasers! So cool! I felt like Helen Hunt & Bill Paxton were going to hop out any minute!

And closer to Dallas I made Graham pull over so I could take a picture of one of the prettiest sights I've ever, ever seen! (No instagram filter here... it really was *that* beautiful.)

I'm not going to even pretend that the sole purpose for going to Dallas instead of having Graham come home, was for any purpose other than shopping. I like Arkansas, and I've enjoyed my time here, but I'm so ready to have access to my favorite stores without driving 6 hours. 

We do have a Homegoods in Arkansas. It's in Conway, which is an hour from us. So I love stopping in them  any chance I get. This one in Dallas had lots of good stuff, including these chairs which match my kitchen window treatment...

... this silhouette pet cut-out (you better believe I'm going to DIY one of these...)

... this gigantic mustache made me giggle...

... and this absolutely adorable faucet hook thing... How cute would this be in a mudroom?

We went to Ikea, where I wanted pretty much everything!

These blue & white dishes were SCREAMING my name!

So were these navy & white pepper mills.

This dining space is so pretty. It's elegant, modern, cozy & old fashioned all at the same time.

LOVED these vases!

And these lamps... swoon!

 

And we stopped by World Market where I bought these absolutely GORGEOUS platters I've been coveting. This picture seriously does none of them ANY justice. 

After a day of shopping (seriously, ALL day... If I ever doubted that Graham loved me, he proved it on my birthday, we had an amazing dinner at a tapas place in Dallas and then went back to our hotel room and sliced (*sniff*) into the perfect birthday cake Graham ordered for me from a local bakery.

This cake was divine, and we absolutely destroyed it.

Sunday we spend the day at Six Flags in Arlington, before heading back to the Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, TX. One of Graham's friends had kept Hermione for us, and she was very, very happy to be reunited with us =)

I want to see every state in the country, but to me, I can't check it off of my list until I've actually gotten out of the car & done something in the state. I saw a sign on the interstate for this, so I got off the interstate to see it. Unfortunately, they were closed on Monday. Even more unfortunately, I had ZERO cell phone service, and I got lost for about 30-45 minutes in middle of nowhere Oklahoma. I've decided it counts anyways, and I'm officially checking Oklahoma off of my list!

About 15 miles from the Arkansas state line, we encountered road construction. This cute face was just as annoyed by this as I was!

Finally! Arkansas!

And last night Graham got home from tech school for good (yay!) and we had an absolutely EPIC dinner! Steak kebabs, brown rice and an amazing, simple salad of Swiss chard, basil, dried cranberries, carrots, sunflower seeds & a wasabi vinaigrette. It was the perfect summer dinner!