4th of July and Our First Trip to Dallas

Our 4th of July weekend was a little different this year since we ended up flying to Dallas for our official house hunting trip that weekend.  Since we knew we'd be traveling all day on the 4th, we celebrated a little early with a few fun things here in Jackson.  

Friday night we hung out with our BFFs the Martins.  They just moved into a beautiful new home and we were excited to see it.  It was bittersweet, though, knowing this was one of our very last get-togethers with our sweet friends.  

Julie and Travis cooked dinner for us and Kyndall made a special 4th of July dessert to take over and share.

She may have shared more than just the cake.....Ha!

 Kyndall, Cam and Chase enjoyed a friendly water balloon fight after dinner

I'm gonna miss this one like crazy!!!

Saturday night we marked a few things off our "before we leave Jackson bucket list" including dinner at Sparky's and one last baseball game with the Jackson Generals.  These have been among our favorite things to do while living here in Jackson and we will surely miss them.

Sunday morning we all managed to coordinate in our patriotic attire for church

Sunday afternoon we were invited to a cook out and swimming party at the home of one of Matthew's employees.  Kyndall had a blast but I failed to take a single picture.  I think she went down the pool slide about 94 times.

Sunday night we gathered with our neighbors to shoot off some fireworks in the backyard which was a lot of fun.  Earlier in the week Kydnall had talked us into spending an ungodly amount of money on explosives at the local fireworks stand, and as it turned out so had the other kids in the neighborhood.  When we combined all of our stuff, we had a good two hours worth of entertainment!

Monday was the 4th of July and it was also the day we were leaving town.  We drove to Memphis that afternoon where we caught our direct flight into Dallas.

Totally my child....seizing every opportunity to take a photo!

Saw this shirt in the Dallas airport when we landed

Our mission over the next five days was to FIND A HOUSE!  I had been working with an amazing realtor for several weeks prior and she was ready and waiting for us as soon as we arrived.  She dedicated her entire week to us, spending countless hours driving us around to all the different suburbs of Dallas, giving us valuable information about school ratings, commute times for Matthew, etc.  I can't even remember how many homes we must have looked at but thankfully on our third day out there we found the perfect home for our family.  It was in my favorite neighborhood in my favorite tiny town and had everything we needed and more.  Once we saw it, we didn't waste any time making an offer and signing the papers.  It's a new construction home so the only catch was making sure it would be completed in order for us to move in by the time school starts.  The first day of kindergarten is August 22nd.  We close and move in on the 19th.  Yikes!  It's going to be a little crazy but I'm just thankful we won't have to live in a hotel for any amount of time, unlike previous moves.  

Once the house was taken care of we decided to spend the remainder of our trip exploring a little bit of Dallas and getting to know our new city.  We even met up and had dinner with two different families that we are friends with.  It was  a GOOD feeling to have the house hunt over and done!

Here are a few pictures of our new home, which is still a work in progress.  Nevermind our little photo bomber who jumped into nearly every picture I took!

It will be quite a change going from having an entire acre around us to less than a quarter of an acre, but thankfully our neighborhood has these little "pocket parks" throughout the subdivision and there's one right across the street from our house.  

We drove around Forney and found Kyndall's new elementary school where she will start kindergarten in just a few weeks!  It's less than two miles from our house which is a good thing since neither of us are morning girls and will likely be running behind most days!

We love our Mexican restaurant here in Medina and will surely miss it, but we found this one and tried it out while we were there.  

Downtown Dallas is quite different than any city I've ever lived in.  I'm not sure I love it just yet, as I'm finding more and more that I'm a small town kind of girl.  This is quite a jump from our teeny tiny Medina!

It's no secret that this move is not a happy one for me.  I've tried hard to find the positives, but it definitely didn't help one bit that the police shootings happened during the very week we were there.  We were enjoying a night swim in the hotel pool when all of the sudden my phone started exploding with texts asking if our family was ok.  We were completely oblivious to what was going on right down the road from us.  When we returned to our room we realized how bad it was and unfortunately there was no hiding it from Kyndall.  She had LOTS of questions so we stayed up late answering them the best we could.  I really hate that her first memory of her new city is such an awful one.  

These two fell asleep watching the news together that night

The next day we decided to do something fun, since Kyndall had been so well behaved during all of the house hunting, negotiating and paper signing.  So, we went to see The Secret Life of Pets and it was really cute!  

They say everything's bigger in Texas!

Including the sugar crashes!

We are very much looking forward to getting back in Whataburger territory! 

It was a full and busy week but thankfully we accomplished what we set out to do and we were able to return home to Tennessee resting in the knowledge that we had found a home!

Little Mama took good care of her new baby that she picked out in the Dallas airport

Headed back to Tennessee, and not a moment too soon in my opinion!

It was nearly midnight when we returned home Saturday night and Matthew's parents were already at our house, ready to take Kyndall back to Florida with them the next day.  

Kyndall spent the next week with her Nonie and Poppie hanging out at Panama City Beach.....

After their beach trip she spent a few days with Nonie and Poppie in Georgia

At the end of the week Matthew and I drove down and scooped up Kyndall on our way to Orlando for our CRUISE!  It would be our first family vacation on FOUR years!  I will share that post next....