More Sweet Boys and Rusty Taco

After a fun morning spent with my sister and her two little boys, it was almost time for me to head back to the airport for work. Wop wop.

But not before an incredible lunch!

I put my sunglasses on, and Evan asked for his, too. I think that he definitely wears them better!

Evan talked the entire drive, and it was so fun to listen to him forming sentences. He has always known what he was saying, but now I can understand it, too! What a sweet little man.

And here it is…in all of its glorified glory.

Welcome to Rusty Taco.

Please allow me to say that if you live anywhere within a 1,031 mile radius of this small chain in Dallas, Texas…please go.

Your taste buds will thank you. And you will be very happy indeed when you walk through the door.

The menu is simple and delicious. The only difficult part was deciding which tacos to enjoy today! T’liese recommended the #10 Fried Chicken Taco, and I thought that it sounded like a pretty good idea.

I also tried the #11 BBQ Brisket Taco because, hey, it’s Texas.

My lunch was finished with the #2 Roasted Pork Taco, which is one of my favorite things on earth, if you must know.

I know that this sounds like a lot of food (and it was), but these cute, little, teensy tiny tacos were manageable. And I’m so glad that I got three!

Woops. We also accidentally ordered some chips and salsa to share before our real food arrived. These chips were warm and perfectly salty. And the salsa was heaven in a bowl.

I love me some chips and salsa!

It must run in the family, because Evan seems to like them, too.

Isn’t he just too cute in that little hat?!

When he saw the camera, of course he said, “Cheeeeeese!”

And then I quit taking pictures of him because this happened. Lunch…in all of its pure goodness.

All good things in life should come in warm, soft, corn tortillas.

This is the roasted pork taco with pickled beets and cojita cheese.

Yes, please! This was probably my favorite.

And I loved the BBQ brisket taco, but it was a tad too salty today. Nothing that more chips and salsa couldn’t fix!

In case you’ve never tried it, every taco is better with fresh lime squeezed on top. Give it a whirl to see if you agree.

Uh oh. This crispy chicken taco may have been my favorite, too. For those of us normal people who aren’t crazy about fish but have always wanted to see if fish tacos really were all the rage, this was the perfect solution.

It had the crunchy, healthy, crispy texture of some deep-fried chicken with a yummy slaw and creamy almost-tartar ranch.

I should have gotten a dozen of them. I’ll just leave it at that.

I had wonderful company, in addition to wonderful food. The place was packed, which allowed Evan to watch lots of fun kids enjoying their lunch, too.

Beautiful kids come from beautiful people. Plain and simple.

Always fashion-forward, Evan showed us the future of wearing plastic containers as hats.

He is so good at everything! I wonder if he gets tired of that.

It was the perfect place for lunch, and I already wish that I could go back. Why don’t they open one here in Phoenix? I promise that I’ll keep you in business, Joe!

Yes, the owner’s name was Joe. And he was here today, and I got to tell him how much I loved his restaurant.

Now move to Phoenix, yo.

It was bitter-sweet to head back to the airport. It was really hard to leave such sweet, cute boys behind.

Especially after Evan got really quiet when he realized I was about to leave. Those big blue eyes said it all, and it broke my heart!

We tried some silly faces.

James won…again.

Then we tried some more uniform posing, and you can see how well that went.

But I would like to point out that James is most definitely my sister’s baby. He can’t keep his eyes open in pictures, either!

See? It’s genetic!

Holding this sweet little man for so many shots just warms my heart. This Baby James is sure a wonderful boy.

And oh-so handsome! I just love these pictures!

Now you can start a successful weekend, knowing that such cuteness exists in this world.

Playing with the Friendly Boys

I only had a few hours to spend the next morning after arriving at their new home in Dallas, but my short time with family was wonderful.

One of the best parts of getting to be in Dallas for work today was to finally meet this little man! Welcome to the family, Baby James!

I’ve really missed this little guy. We used to wrestle a whole lot more than we’ve been able to do these past several months since he moved. So we had lots that needed to made up.

And, in usual Evan fashion, he started to say “Cheeeeeeese,” every time he thought that I was going to take a picture.

It made for some cute half-smiles, though. He is still as sweet and fun as I remember. And he was nice enough to let me sleep in his room!

Thanks, Little Man!

Have I mentioned that Baby James is pretty adorable, too? What is it about new babies that smell so great? He was much bigger than I was expecting, but it also made it more fun to watch him smile and enjoy his brother.

We can already tell that he is very contemplative. Just look at all those bells and whistles working inside that sweet-smelling little head!

With such beautiful parents, this little man had a pretty good change of being cute. But he raised the bar for the rest of us, yet again.

And not just because he was wearing a space-themed onsie today.

His hair is so soft, and his belly so round. He has kissable cheeks and is oh-so sweet! His temperament is so calm. He only cries when he is hungry, and even then it’s just a little peep.

What a good baby!

I think that they are going to keep him, so that’s a wise decision on their part.

This new home offered so many things that were wanted, including a play area for the boys. We spent several hours in here today, playing up a storm!

Evan even got stuck in this for a second. It was pretty funny, though he didn’t think so at the time.

James thought that it was pretty funny, though.

Then Evan showed us how high he could jump on the chair. It was so much fun to play ball, building blocks, and (of course), wrestle with him all morning. I have sure missed him.

James watched us play as he aced some tummy time. He wasn’t too sure about it at first, though.

But that sweet little smile could make anyone’s heart melt. Did I mention how wonderful he smells?

Tomorrow, I’ll show you the incredible place that we ate lunch with these fun boys!

Goodbye, Windy City…Hello, Texas!

It was quite a weather shock to leave beautiful, warm, and sunny Arizona and end up in cold, wet, and windy Chicago. Luckily, we wouldn’t be staying long.

But, since we were in such a lovely place, of course Giordano’s Pizza had to be enjoyed for lunch!

Of course!

  

Their menu is enticing. To be honest, I’ve never really looked at it before! We’ve always just ordered a pizza!

But with some healthy goals in mind, I decided against it today.

That’s right…no Chicago-stuffed pizza for me!

I got some minestrone soup, which had lots of yummy vegetables and beans for protein. And, it was only a whopping one-hundred twenty calories for this giant bowl!

Being cold and wet made this soup taste even better as it warmed me up.

I also got this Greco Roman Salad with a vinaigrette dressing on the side. I didn’t even use the dressing, but that wonderful chunk of feta cheese flavored each bite.

It was a nice meal for me, and very filling. I didn’t even miss not having some of the best pizza in the world!

After our late lunch, it was time to drive through the rain back to the airport. You can see those flags going to town on the right…it was really windy!

Yuck! My least-favorite form of weather is wind!

Hi, Midway Tower!

These guys are always swamped but always awesome, too. It’s actually a nice place to land because they do their job so well.

No offense, guys, but it’s way too cold to stay. We’re outta here!

They wanted us to depart from the same spot that we had parked just a few hours before, but there was an airplane just in front of us. Gladys doesn’t have the best turning radius, so we got moved so that we could actually leave the ramp!

Double-bonus: it was actually closer to the door for our passengers to arrive!

Just above our wing, can you see the city skyline of Chicago? It’s a nice place. I haven’t had time to really explore it in years, but it was way too cold to consider anything like that today.

Besides…I’m anxious to get to Dallas to see my family!

We received a progressive taxi to the beginning of Runway 31C and held short there to wait for some arriving traffic to land.

Can you see his lights out there? He just broke out of the rain clouds on final approach.

This is the hold-short line at the edge of every runway entrance. The two straight lines mean that we can’t cross, but if we were on the runway trying to get off, we could cross the two dashed lines to get to a taxiway.

Does that make sense? Any time that you see double lines first, you need permission to cross it.

El you no a crosso.

Here he is! We were waiting for this Southwest Boeing 737 to land. As he passed, Tower cleared us to “Line Up and Wait,” which meant that we could enter the runway and get ready for takeoff while he was also still on the runway. We just sat the beginning until he exited the runway at the end.

Then we were cleared for takeoff. Let’s get out of this drab weather!

On our climb, we didn’t get out of it quickly. There were cold, icy layers up to about 9,000 feet tonight.

Luckily, Gladys is a champ and climbed us above it before we were starting to get tired of seeing nothing outside our windows.

This was our view on top of the clouds. Isn’t this so much better than rain and muck?

We had a gorgeous sunset for almost the entire two-hour flight into Dallas tonight. So beautiful! I could get accustomed to views like this!

We hurried up to Flight Level 400, or 40,000 feet. Above 18,000 feet, they are called Flight Levels and are referred to by the first three numbers.

For example, here, we are climbing through Flight Level three-eight-four on our way to Flight Level four-zero-zero.

Does that make sense? I’m so good at confusing today!

I loved this picture. It reminded me of some orca whales skimming on top of the water with only their funky fins showing. It doesn’t take much to get my little pea brain to pretend with some cloud shapes!

At least I didn’t try to speak whale to them, like Dory.

Jet contrails high, and jet contrails low. What a pretty sunset to make them even cooler!

Not soon enough for me, we finally had the lights of Dallas under our wings. It’s been several months since I’ve seen my sister and her family. I can hardly wait!

And, no matter how hard I try, it’s impossible for me to get a still shot of a city at night while flying along in a bumpy airplane!

But Dallas is pretty large, in case you were wondering. I love it here.

There was construction all over the airport, which made finding the FBO that much more of an adventure. And, on top of that, the runway that was closer was closed! So we landed on one side of the airport and had to taxi to the other side!

And I’ve never been here!

But, like most Towers, they helped us find our way. Controllers are so nice!

This is my first time to the Southwest hub of Dallas Love Field. How fun! Every other time that I’ve been to Dallas, we’ve landed at Addison, a corporate reliever airport just north of here.

This is also the first time to Texas (other than a fuel stop) with this new job. Yeehaw!

This microscopic rental car was waiting for me! I got to drive a little north to spend the night at my sister’s new house.

And, just so you know, it’s gorgeous! I’m just sorry that I got there at 10:30 at night!

What did we do before GPS on our phones?!

It was so nice to visit with T’liese and Joe, and to wrestle with Evan, and to finally meet Baby James. I think that you’ll like the pictures these next few days!