This is a LONG one.

Erik and I spent a lovely weekend hob-nobbing with the biggest names in paint sundries. If you don't know what paint sundries are, you need to look it up. We spent our first weekend away from our kids EVER. We have had a few nights away here and there, but this was 3 nights away from all 3 kids. IT WAS AWFUL!!! I don't know how people do it. It was great after the first night, but then we started missing them like crazy and wanted to come home.
The "paint show" was held in Dallas this year so I was kind of excited to go somewhere warm and possibly awesome. I researched a couple of places I wanted to go (mostly from Food Network) and we headed off. We actually spent Thursday night in Salt Lake so we could catch our early flight on Friday morning with no problems. We went to dinner with Danny and Steph and had a great time hanging out. They took us to this burger place downtown where I ate one of the best hamburgers I have ever had. I can't remember what it was called but it was sooooo good. I was also a little baby hungry after spending the evening with Alex, but I will probably get over it.
We flew out early Friday morning with plenty of Xanax. I will never get over my fear of flying - I really don't like it. WE landed in Dallas after a bumpy flight and stepped off the plane into frigid weather. It was much colder than it had been in Salt Lake the day before. I was pretty bummed about that part, but Erik made it all better by upgrading us to a Cadillac at the rental place. We zipped off to the hotel with our Garmond Navigation System, which rocked and started to think about all the places we were going to eat in the 3 days we would be there. Now, anyone who has been on a Carlson family vacation will understand that the whole trip is based around food. My dad is a big spender on trips and likes to take us out a lot. I tried so hard not to become this way, but I think when you live in a small town with NO restaurants, the most exciting thing to do is eat somewhere good. (This post will basically be about the places we ate - when I got home I realized the only pictures I had taken were of restaurants.)
We spent the first day determined to get some real Texas Barbecue. We used our navigator which led us down a dark alley to an abandoned building with no barbecue. She recalculated and led us to Sonny Bryan's. I have to admit I was TERRIFIED to go in this place. I actually sat in the car for a few minutes to psych myself up. It turns out that this is a really famous place in Texas and was SO delicious. Erik actually ran into someone he knew from Utah inside and we had the best chicken and brisket I will ever have in my life.
Blah blah blah, we went to the sundries show for a while, ate at the hotel, went to bed at 9:30.

We actually had to go to the show AGAIN in the morning. It was almost like we had flown all the way from Utah just to look at paint brushes. I found it very boring and left Erik alone and went to the room for a nap. That afternoon we decided to go to a place about to be featured on Erik's favorite show: Diners, Drive Ins and Dives. It is called Twisted Root Burger Company and it was really fun with really good food. Instead of giving you a number when you order they give you a funny name. So while we were in line we kept hearing these names being called out and Erik was kind of panicking because he thought all of these people had come up with their own names. I could tell he was trying hard to think of something funny and was relieved when they handed him a card that said: Chrissy Snow.

I had big plans for sightseeing downtown, but was thwarted by the freezing weather. Luckily, we had been to Dallas a few years ago and had already seen a lot of it.
Sunday we literally spent most of the day at the airport trying to get an earlier flight, but didn't get to Salt Lake til after 4. I was so happy to see my kids and we all slept very soundly in our beds last night. I know this trip sounds boring to you jet-setters, but we had so much fun and are glad to be home. Thanks Mom and Randi for being so awesome. I promise I will never ask you to keep the kids so long again - I am so serious.