When I was younger, I got in to making Christmas cookies. I’m really not sure how it happened, but it did and that’s what matters! I would make up my list every year on who would get cookies, I would bake them up, divvy them out and my dad would drive me around (until I got of age to drive, then I’d drive him) delivering cookies. I chose different recipes every year.
Then about 6 years ago or so I got out of doing that, which again I don’t know why and it truly is sad. People would go to my parents saying, “I missed Nicole’s cookies this year.”
Since I’ve been with my husband I talk about this ritual quite a bit to him and finally this year we decided we’d do this tradition again, however Tbug was going to be involved. So that’s just what we did. Saturday morning, she and I set out to make Christmas cookies.
One place that is near and dear to our hearts is Ol’ South Pancake House. One good thing is they are open 24 hrs, however don’t plan on walking in and immediately getting a seat at 2am, because it probably won’t happen.
Now generally we’re there on weekends (Texas) so possibly it’s easier to walk in and get a seat on a week day, I don’t know.
One of my aunts lives down around Ft. Worth so we called her and she and a friend decided to come meet us for breakfast before we headed home last weekend.
Saturday started out like most of our trips down there… No, not with Starbucks, although that was a perk!!!
And not with seeing my dad walking away from us although I wasn’t sure he wanted to be seen with us, that’s what we were teasing him anyway because he took off without us.
One place that we like to eat at in Ft. Worth is Uncle Julio’s. I have no idea how my parents found it but it sure is good! We try to make it there at least once on our trips down there… key word: at least once. Maybe that’s more like a key phrase.
Their chips are made fresh, I know this because you watch them make them as you walk through the door. Hubby says this is some of the best salsa he’s had. Fairly certain they use fire roasted tomatoes because you can taste a bit of a smokey flavor in the background.
On Saturday of last weekend my aunt and uncle asked if we wanted to meet up for lunch. When we said sure they gave us two choices and we ended up at Pei Wei Asian Diner.
I have actually eaten here one time prior with my aunt, my mom didn’t remember that though, but I got the same thing both times. Now Pei Wei is owned by the same people who own PF Changs, it’s just the “fast food” version I guess you could say.
When you walk in, you’re greeted with their menu on screens 🙂 How very modern of them :).
I’m so glad you’re back for Week 3 – Holy cow where has this month gone let alone this year! – of the Review Extravaganza. This week we’re reviewing July (my birthday month hint hint 😉) – September (my anniversary month hint hint 😉).
Remember there are still plenty of chances to win some of the hottest prizes on the block 🙂 so get crack-a-lackin and get you post written and linked up!! Just write your post, grab the button, place it in your post and link up! And don’t forget to visit my wonderful co-hosts (just click on their names) Emmy-EmmyMom; Lourie-CA Girl; MiMi-Living in France; Mrs. Match-Date Girl Diaries; Janette-Johanson Journey.
If you’d like to check out January-March April-June Please by all means click on the links, but now let’s kick this party off right with July – September!
July
– Hubby answered a Q&A session for the blog. – I participated in and completed an entire Photo-a-day challenge in June and shared it in July! – I found out my Tbug listens to me more than my hubby’s mom (grandma… aka Memaw) and I questioned if that was a good thing or not…. – I shared some funny moments of me growing up…. – Hubby and I made a fun trip to Kansas to go check out Big Brutus and finished the evening with a Rain storm in the drought we were having and dinner at Josie’s (you know, that restaurant out in the middle of Kansas somewhere).
– I gave you good reasons on taking photos to remember the little things in life! You know, such as this:
Circa October 2010
– And someone at work left me a note that I drive a land shark to which I still don’t understand… – I did really confusing math for you. – And proved to you my husband was glutton for punishment on our first date but went on to marry me. 🙂 – I came across this Video by the Peterson Brothers [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48H7zOQrX3U]
– I ended out the month of July by turning the Original 29 – Which I wasn’t handling very well. I say original because it seems like once you turn 29, people never get older… they always claim to be 29. – Plus my friend’s son is 21 years to the day younger than me and Tbug helped Earl & me decorate T’s birthday cake.
August
– We had the fun task of replacing the air-conditioner in our house. To make matters worse – I was sick. – Hubby shared his version of our story. – In the middle of our drought, my parents neighbor set a brush pile on fire and left to go to town and pretty much tried to burn up the neighborhood. Luckily no houses were lost, just 40 some hay bales. – I gave you a little more insight in to me. – And the night that we got to go back to living in our house (AC remember) hubby and I did a Vlog :). [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY_wBx1qmbs?rel=0]
– I went on my first and so far only work trip where I did restaurant reviews and think I drove my co-worker nuts… now ask me if that bothered me 🙂
– Tbug took over my kitchen again to bake breakfast this time – Biscuits & Gravy!
– I taught you how to make your very own bloggy button! – And I entered my very first photo contest and did rather well!! – And my grandpa’s birthday would have been August 28, so what did we do? We loaded my grandma up and took her out to dinner at a restaurant 45+ miles from home since Grandpa said to find good food you had to go 45 miles from home or more 🙂 We took her to Iguana Azul in Nevada :).
Whew, that was just 2 months and I still have another one to go. I’ll try to keep it short!!
September
– The first part of September brought heart ache to the Life’s a Beach household. Sadly we lost our Squirty Mare (& her foal inside of her) to so far unknown causes. We then made a freak trip to Oklahoma State Vet School with her Full Brother showing similar symptoms and were able to save him. Tbug showed her true colors here – You can’t help but love this little girl!
– Tbug participated in her first horse show and maybe made her little half sister a bit jealous too… I’d say she was showing off just a bit ;).
A place that my parent’s said my aunt introduced them to was Joe T. Garcias. I’m not sure you’ll find better. Ok, you might, I won’t argue with you there, but this is FABULOUS Mexican Food… I’m telling you!
It’s located down near the stockyards, in fact through the tree clearings you can actually see the Stockyards. Anyway the best way I know how to tell you to find it, head on the main drag, look for the Joe T’s billboard painted on the side of a building, drive a couple blocks and bam, you’re there. 🙂
Now one of the great things about Joe T’s is the seating. Obviously if it is cold or rainy you sit inside, however when it’s nice out, they have outdoor seating. Their outdoor garden is BEAUTIFUL. We planned on sitting there this particular night but at that time, they weren’t seating outside. I’m not sure if it was too early or if it was because it was misting. Every year we eat here, even last year when it was below freezing, we’ve sat outside because it’s soooo much prettier.
Use to, the ritual was to eat there on Sunday mornings for brunch. That was back when the Open NCHA finals were on Sunday evening. A couple years ago, they changed up the Futurity events and we wound up going to Joe T. Garcia’s in the evening. Their brunch was good, but once you go dinner, you never go back :).
Friday brought a start to our day bright and early. The Open Semi Finals started at 8am. Now truthfully that means they bring the cattle in at 8am to be settled, and the actual show starts about 45 minutes later give or take. We missed the first horse. Not bad, right?
During intermissions they have a huge trade show set up with Cowboy Tack, Gifts galore, trailers, trucks, anything you could think of pretty much. We actually walked through the Horse Bus. I meant to get a photo of the horse stall portion, however I forgot :(. It was a pretty steep incline to take your horses up though! But you have your horses and living quarters all in one. Now you’ll just have to tow a car behind you so you can get around in the city :).
It even had a nice flat screen tv where you could sit outside, enjoy the night air and watch tele.
Inside the trade show they have the automatic horse/cow simulation. You climb up on the horse and you get the general feel of what it is like to show a cutting horse. I’ve heard from a lot of people it’s a really cool experience, even if you’ve grown up showing cutting horses.
Well hello there 🙂
This was a quilt they had set up. So awesome, I want one!!
I thought with that saddle pad flipped upside down on that saddle it looked like an English Saddle.
The Open semi’s were awesome. Sadly a bunch of good horses just weren’t having the luck on their side and didn’t make it back to the finals on Saturday evening, but a lot of good horses did. It took a 215 to make it back to the Finals and they took the top 25+ ties which wound us up with 30 horses in the Open finals.
Bamacat ridden by Austin Shepard set the bar high with a Semi Finals score of 224
followed closely by
High Brow Jackson ridden by Monte Buntin who scored a 221.5. The speculation was High Brow Jackson was the horse to watch and not only did High Brow Jackson have a story to be told, so did Monte.
Hi Ho Nabisco ridden by Grant Setnicka came in 3rd place going into the finals with a score of 220.
2012 NCHA finalists:
SF Score Horse
224.0 Bamacat
221.5 High Brow Jackson
220.0 Hi Ho Nabisco
218.0 Highrey Cat
217.5 Looks Halreycious
217.0 Autumn Boonsmal
217.0 Botero
217.0 CR Tuff Hearted Cat
217.0 Lil Catbaloo
217.0 One Gone Cat
217.0 Primary Cat
216.5 Hal Ofa Secret
216.5 Jett Setter
216.5 Kittyswood
216.5 Mo Faye Rey
216.5 Reverendquintanspoon
216.5 Travelin Smooth
216.0 Jack Boon Cat
216.0 Meradas Sly Cat
216.0 Summer Stays Here
215.5 Desire A Lil Pepto
215.5 He Bea Cat
215.5 Peptostruck
215.5 SFR Magic Doll
215.0 Compact Style
215.0 Donas Suen Boon
215.0 Ima Studio Cat
215.0 No Way In Hal
215.0 Reys Lucky Gal
215.0 Spoonful At Noon
After the Semi-finals were over, it was time to go find some grub so we headed to Joe T. Garcias down by the Stockyards.
Here’s a fuzzy view of the skyline of Ft. Worth. Best I could do with my iPhone running down the road and by running I of course mean driving :).
After dinner we headed to Central Market where I found these cute gifts. A Milk Chocolate Cowboy Santa, a Milk Chocolate regular Santa & Chocolate covered apples. Holy Cow!
As we were leaving Central Market I saw this cute sign. I so need this sign at my house!
And that boys and girls was my Friday (last week of course)
Don’t forget that tomorrow is the July-September Review Link up &&&&& I’m involved in a giveaway over on Megan’s blog! Check it out!
One of my absolute favorite things about going to Ft. Worth is all the food we get to eat that we don’t have around home. I know, but I’m a foodie so it’s ok!
So being at the Will Roger’s Coliseum for an entire day watching the show leaves you with a few options for food. Leave and lose your parking spot, which they seem to be getting harder to come by! Eat over-priced Coliseum food, which it’s not bad but still… Or walk down the road to Dos Gringos and have Tex-Mex!
Obviously as you can see we chose option 3. Besides Dos Gringos is good!
It was misting & sprinkling the day we went so I wasn’t able to get a very good shot of the outside of the building, but this sits outside the window I was sitting at. Very cool! Now they can come and do this design in my yard!! Totally love it!
Like any good Mexican or Tex-Mex grill restaurant they start you off with Chips and Salsa. What’s cool about their chips is they cover them in chili powder. It gives them just an extra kick! This particular day we got free Queso – Read below to see how!!
So last Wednesday night, I may or may not have posted this photo on Instagram. And EmmyMom may or may not have said I looked like I was up to something… My reply – a couple days vacation!!! It was 5pm and I was headed to my parents house so we could move out!
Part of the goal was to make it to Pryor to JL’s(shhhh don’t tell Tbug!!) for dinner. Hello Yummy!
Then we were back on the road headed to Ft. Worth! We made it as far as Durant and everyone was tired and sick of being in the car so we stopped in at a hotel for the evening. Btw, it was warmer at home than it was in Durant that night!
Next morning we were up and at em headed to Pilot Point, TX, for a stop at Paul Taylor’s tack store before heading on to Ft. Worth.
Hello Red River & the Texas State Line! You know, we’ve seen a bunch of the Texas state line this year, but not as much as I did when I was a little kid! I was the master traveler as a kid because we used to show horses all over Oklahoma and Texas.
When we got to Paul Taylor’s this lovely kitty followed me all around the store. I think she/he really wanted this saddle, but it really wasn’t my cup of tea! 🙂
I did manage to sweet talk my daddy into stopping at Starbucks for a sweet Holiday Treat after we left Paul Taylor’s! This was a Peppermint Mocha Frappe! mmmmm!
So we didn’t really need to be to the Will Roger’s Coliseum until 4pm on Thursday afternoon so we decided to go kill a few hours down at the Stockyards.
I so should have bought this just because it was cute! I didn’t though… I resisted the urge!
The Stockyards used to be where they shipped cattle in and out of Ft. Worth. All the stores are in old stores &/or cattle holding grounds. Now the Coliseum there at the Stockyards they still hold rodeo’s in, however they no longer use this as shipping grounds for cattle. It’s just a main attraction. The train though still runs on these tracks but for pleasure only. Someday I’ll have to ride the train just to say I’ve done it!
I think I need the red lipstick to pull this look off, what do you think?
Just a different shot of a portion of the stockyards. By this point we were walking up toward Riscky’s Steakhouse to grab a bite to eat before heading to our hotel to check in.
After we were done with lunch we headed to the hotel to check in and drop off our luggage and then headed to Will Rogers to watch the NCHA Amateur & Non Pro Finals of the 2012 NCHA Futurity.
Cutting horses are a blast if I do say so myself!
Amateur Winner – Destini Benson, on Jimmy Cracked Corn, by Widows Freckles
Amateur Reserve – Luke Barnhart, on Hal Of A Mate
Non Pro Winner – Paula Wood, on Donas Suen Boon with a 220
Non Pro Reserve – Greg Coalson, aboard Mia Browbeater, with a 219
We got back to the hotel around Midnight, ate at Jack in the Box because they have a 24 hr drive through and we all crashed for the evening.
