Labor Day Weekend

Long time no blog! We have been little work-a-holics lately, so we soaked up every second of our Labor Day Weekend :)

On Saturday we went to our current favorite restaurant in Dallas: Good to go Tacos! Of course, we  ordered the famous Hotlanta tacos (fried chicken & sweet potato taco). Awesome.

We have a bike/running trail that starts right by our apartment. Colin and I finally decided to take a walk along the path so we could start telling people we've done it. (We get asked all the time if we run the trail so we figured its time we stop looking lazy haha). I discovered that Colin is just like my dad in yet another way....

 

He HAS to stop and read all the small informational plaques that line the trail!!! Such a Brian Goold move....he even makes the B.Goold face while he's doing it! I pretend to stand there and act interested, but......im not. hahah.

On Labor Day we took a miniature road trip to Fort Worth, TX. We had lunch at this place called the Mellow Mushroom. Its a pizza place that has delicious pizza and pretzels! One of our favorite things about the Dallas area is how many different places there are to eat :) We love trying out new restaurants!

After lunch we headed over to the Fort Worth Stock Yards....talk about stepping into the Wild Wild West! Its cowboy central! The stock yards house tons of cattle. They actually do cattle runs through the streets twice a day... pretty cool. I got really excited when I saw my first Texas Longhorn. So excited that I went ahead and bought a Texas Longhorns tshirt and cookie cutter :) 

While we were roaming the streets of the stock yards, we stumbled upon something truly amazing:

DR. PEPPER BBQ SAUCE!

Another thing we love about Dallas is the crazy obsession people have with Dr. Pepper. Anywhere we go, there is sure to be Dr. Pepper and Diet Dr. Pepper on tap. SCORE! 

Overall, this weekend was great :) We had some great husband & wifey bonding time, which is always a must. We love you all <3 

First day of a NEW job!

Today was my first day back with Wells Fargo :) This time around, I am working as a Lead Teller! I was super fortunate to receive a promotion with our move to Texas. I also lucked out because the branch I am working at is only 6 minutes from home!  I will be working full time-- grown women style! haha. All of my coworkers are so awesome and friendly. Our local grocery store is in the same shopping center as my Wells Fargo branch, so Colin and I went grocery shopping after I got off. While we were there, the cashier told us that Tom Brady comes in ALL the time and that he lives right across the street!! Im wishin' and hopin' I run into him sometime ;) or all the time!

We made sure to have an awesome weekend before I started work. On Friday we went to Rudy's BBQ, which was incredible! Texas definitely gets an "A" in the food department. Colin and I loaded up on the food...we got turkey, ribs, and brisket with sides of baked beans and creamed corn. We were pretty excited and gained about 10 pounds by the time we left.

On Saturday we went to a FC Dallas soccer game with our friends Katie & Corby from our ward :) They also brought their super cute daughter Jade. It was tons of FUN! Dallas played Colorado, and they weren't expected to win. So... it was awesome when Dallas won 3-2! As they say, "Dallas 'til I Die" haha.

We are living life to the fullest here in Texas. We deeply miss our family and friends! We think about each of you often and LOVE you TONS :)

Dinner DISASTERS!

I will be the first to admit, I'm no Bobby Flay in the kitchen. I usually can cook up some tasty meals, but this week, my blonde moments have gotten in the way a little bit.

Each week I make a menu that maps out what meals I want to cook (it makes grocery shopping a little easier). For Tuesday I planned to make a chicken coconut curry. The recipe calls for coconut milk to make the curry sauce. When I got to the point of needing the coconut milk, Colin discovered that I bought coconut WATER!!! hahah. We had to use tons of cornstarch to thicken up the sauce.
Not only did I screw up the sauce, I added WAY too much jalapeno to the sauce. It tasted "hotter than the fires of hell" as Colin put it. Oops!
We prayed that the food would be somewhat edible...and all I can say is that miracles do happen!

For tonight, I planned to make a beef stroganoff with egg noodles. I was really hoping to redeem myself from the night before so I was putting lots of time into making this dinner. I cooked the meat all day in a Crock Pot to make it super tender. As we sat down to dinner, Colin noticed that our beef stroganoff was made of pork!!!! 

Colin: Jess, did you know that this meat isn't beef??

Jess: Yes it is, I bought stew meat.

Colin: Um Jess, stew meats come in pork too.

Jess: Oh....DANG IT!!! NOT AGAIN!!

SO EMBARRASSING!!!! But so funny. Gotta love a girl for trying. We just sat there and laughed the whole dinner. We figure that we at least have some good stories to tell our kids, haha! Cross your fingers that tomorrow's dinner turns out better. Or maybe we should just eat out....

Exciting Updates

First, the most important update of all: Colin is HOME! It was so great to see him after what felt like forever :) Distance definitely makes the heart grow fonder. Now we really appreciate any time we have together.
Colin has been in New York the past two weeks for training in his new job. Even though it was hard to be far from home, he had a great time in Manhattan. His hotel was in Time Square, he did morning jogs in Central Park, and he ate at really cool restaurants! How lucky is he, right?!  This is his company's building in Time Square:

Colin also had some time to do some touristy stuff like seeing the 9/11 Memorial site, the New York LDS temple, the Flatiron building, and go to a Yankees vs. Red Sox game! Awesome!

New York LDS temple

Yesterday was Colin's first day at his office in Dallas. Look how studly he looks at work :) I am so proud of him!

The day Colin came home, I attended the temple before picking him up at the airport. The Dallas temple is so pretty and very small. Its much smaller than the temples I am used to in Utah. One lady mentioned to me that I was the youngest girl she has ever seen there haha. She was upset that I was already married because she has 4 sons that she wanted to me meet...lucky for her, I have a younger sister ;) 

I also received a job offer yesterday from Wells Fargo for a Lead Teller position! I feel so grateful for this, especially after feeling like I might not get the position. The branch I'll be working at is only a 6 minute drive from home, which is so lucky. It is also across the street from a Country Club and a Four Seasons Hotel so I'm sure I will have some fun experiences there lol. Not to mention that this branch is closed on Saturdays!!!!!!!! Way happy about that haha. Colin celebrated this accomplishment by taking me to see The Dark Knight Rises (super good movie!) and taking me to sushi. It was fabulous fun. 

We are continuing to love it here in Texas. We feel like our little life is coming together just as we planned.... and it's only going to get better :)

I want to give a special shout out to all of the amazing people who went out of their way to lift my spirits while Colin was away. I appreciate all of the phone calls, Skypes, and text messages that made me feel less lonely :) I have the greatest family and friends. I love each of you so much. Your efforts were GREATLY appreciated!

And the Adventures Begin

This weekend has been way fun! We absolutely love Texas! Everyone has been so friendly and welcoming to us. Colin and I moved into our loft on Thursday. We hired two movers to come help us take all of our stuff up to the THIRD floor. I don’t want to complain too much…but walking up and down stairs with your hands full in 96° weather is not my favorite. I was so grateful for the movers help!

On Friday morning, we had lots of errands to run, but we took some time out to walk around Las Colinas. I must say, we did a dang good job picking our location! Las Colinas is absolutely gorgeous! We walked along the path that lines the lake we live on and were just in awe that we actually live in this place. The weather and the beautiful scenery makes us feel like were in Mexico on vacation, haha! The highlight of my day though was receiving my FIRST bouquet of EDIBLE ARRANGEMENTS!!!!!! Hooray! Mom and Dad Kilgore sent us a delicious arrangement of fruit. It was so thoughtful of them…. I cried I was so happy and missed our family so much.

After we picked out all the fruit, I told Colin that I was going to use the rest of it to make the salad for dinner.  He was really excited. 

Saturday was a very exciting day. Colin took me into Downtown Dallas to go exploring. We walked through the streets and found so many cool places that we want to visit each weekend while he’s home. Colin also found a cool place for us to eat; it’s called Good 2 Go Tacos. INCREDIBLE! I’m a taco freak, and I can easily say these were the best tacos I’ve ever had (yes, even better than Chipotle!) 

We got the Paris, TX, (featured on Food Network), the Hotlanta, and the Spring Chicken. The idea of the restaurant is to put crazy, unconventional stuff into tacos and make it a knockout. We decided that we will be taking everyone to this restaurant when they come to visit, so……COME VISIT US!!! Heres some pictures of our day in Dallas :) 

      

You know its hot when Cacti are all around the streets!

Kennedy Memorial

Eating our first meal on our kitchen bar.

Today we attended our new ward in Irving. WE LOVE IT! We were swarmed with people welcoming us to the ward and making us feel at home. There are a lot of young couples there that are going through med school, which made us feel like we were immediate friends!
There's so much more I want to share with ya'll so keep an eye out. 
We miss you all and love you tons :)

We Should Get Jerseys, Cuz We Make a Good Team

We made it to Texas! And man, is it HOT! Colin and I had such a fun adventure getting to our new home :)

On Day 1 we drove from North Ogden to Denver, Colorado. Colin was so excited when he finally got the hang of driving such a heavy load. He now refers to himself as The King of The Road and has even considered giving up his job to become a trucker. Not sure how I feel about that yet ;)

Like usual, I made myself sick from being so emotional/stressed about our move. My poor little body just cant handle it, haha. I've had a really sore throat and I'm completed congested. The morning we left for Kansas I had to get some herbal tea for my throat, while sucking on ColdEze 24/7. So so happy I have my fantastic husband to take care of me!

Day 2 was full of more driving from Denver to Wichita, Kansas. All I can say was that it was a whole lot of hours staring at a whole lot of nothing. Good thing we had each other to stay entertained! We sang really loud to Tim McGraw and Whitney Housten. It was really hard figuring out why the heck that place is called America's Heartland :)

Although Kansas was boring (sorry Aunt Sue), the food was deeeeeelicious! For dinner, Colin and I went to Hog Wild BBQ. I can definitely get used to the BBQ out here. Holy smokes. The meat is super tender and the Texas Toast is dang buttery and fluffy :) Colin was in heaven!

We were SO excited to wake up on Day 3 (today) knowing we would finally get to Texas. Our first stop in Dallas was Nordstrom to get Colin's new work pants tailored. We couldn't find anywhere to park our huge truck and trailer at the mall :( In the end, we parked in a fire lane and prayed we wouldn't get a ticket during our first 20 minutes in Dallas. I stayed behind to babysit the truck, while the Texas heat pretty much cooked me well-done. Where we parked was a narrow cul-de-sac that already had a motor home parked in it. So the only way out was to do a 37-point turn. When Colin came and started the car, some random lady ran over and insisted that she help us. She jumped into the drivers seat and got us out in only a 5-point turn! I am already LOVING the people in Dallas :) A big thank you to her for making us feel welcome!

Tomorrow is the big day...we're moving into our apartment...woo!! (There will be inside pictures to come) Stay tuned! 

 Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers during our travel. We appreciate all of your love and support!

a new chapter in our story

Well, since it is past midnight, today is MOVING DAY!! Colin and I are leaving Utah and starting our new adventure in Dallas, Texas. We've known this day would come for a long time...i just can't believe its already here! holy smokes. 

Tonight we had an awesome going away party... courtesy of my mamma jo. All of our close family and friends came to hang out with us one last time before we move to the Salsa State (my new nickname for Texas ever since I found out that salsa is the state food) Saying goodbye to everyone was so emotional for me! Its going to be really hard to live so far from my family :/ But I am very grateful that I got to spend time with all the people I love will miss so dearly! 

This blog is going to map out our many adventures in Dallas :) So stay tuned....because there will be lots of EXCITING stuff going on!