Eating our way to & through Texas

donkeyHope you all had a wonderful Easter! I know I ate to my heart’s content.

So let me start out by saying that my blog has been a little neglected lately. As I recently mentioned, I’ve been a busy bee! We’ve been so fortunate that Hanky Planky has been keeping us incredibly busy!!! Plus, my kids were just on Spring Break and we took a trip to Texas. Again!! Simply put, we love Texas! And my brain has been on vacation mode and it’s been quite the chore to get back into the swing of things.

But since eating and food is a huge part of our lives, I thought I’d share with y’all (<—-see what I did right there) a little bit of our culinary adventures.

Our first night we stayed in Las Cruces, New Mexico where we ate some incredibly outstanding Mexican food. Can I get a holla for GREEN CHILE?!?! OMG, that stuff is good! We tried a new restaurant that happened to have a lot of cars out front and our bet paid off. For $10.95 I got a combo plate which included a chicken taco, chile verde, cheese enchilada, chile relleno (all smothered in green chile), rice & beans. It was a great deal and I ate almost everything!!! #gorge

new mexicanAfter that we headed over to Caliche’s Frozen Custard. Heavenly, creamy, delicious, unlike anything I’ve ever tasted in my life. I’d make the drive there JUST to eat that custard. Seriously! Words almost can’t describe.

custardOur next stop was East Texas where we enjoyed the scenery on Lake Cypress Springs, as well as time with family. Our kids stayed outside almost the whole time and we were fortunate to have some really nice weather!!! Plus, we ate the best catfish I’ve ever tasted in my whole entire life! I’m not a big fish person because honestly, catfish tastes like dirt, but what we had there tasted nothing like what I’ve had in California! The whole time we were there, we spent our time canoeing on the lake, catching turtles, fishing, finding petrified wood, and just exploring.

lakelake 2catfishfish kissAfter that, we headed to North Texas to visit my BFF. To celebrate her husband’s birthday, it was requested that Adam make panko fried shrimp one night. He ended up cooking 51 HUGE shrimp. We did have 12 people there but 8 were little kids and surprisingly, we ate almost all of that. #gorgesomemore See how happy he looks to be wearing my friend’s apron? 🙂

adam shrimpme & laceyOn our last night, us adults had a date night and went to our favorite restaurant in Texas, Pappadeaux. Cajun seafood restaurant with huge portions and the best fondeux I’ve ever had in my LIFE! It has shrimp, crawfish, mushrooms and is creamy and decadent.

pappadeuxme & adamAnd of course, since we don’t have Cracker Barrel where we live and it’s pretty much a tradition that you have to eat there on a road trip, we ate there not once, but TWICE.

cracker barrel

And keeping with what seems to be our new annual tradition, we stopped at Rooster Cogburn Ranch in Arizona on our way home, hence the donkey at the top of the post! I’ve decided I must own a donkey one day.

I kept it short and sweet because honestly, we did so much and had such a great time, that I really couldn’t cover it all. But you get the idea. And how many pounds did I gain on this trip? Don’t know, but whatever it was, it was totally worth it!

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Monkeying Around

532Time to share an embarrassing mom moment. My family and I went to Texas on our Spring Break to visit some family and friends. Yee haw! We loved Texas! While there, we visited the Dallas Zoo. If you’re in the Dallas area, I highly recommend stopping by this zoo. It’s affordable and you’re able to see the animals UP CLOSE!

524As for one of our up close animal experiences, we were super close to one gorilla in particular. She was just on the other side of the glass and that’s definitely the closest I’ve ever been to a gorilla.

gorillaIt was very cool to observe her so closely. Well, this gorilla wasn’t shy, and during our observation, she decided to scratch herself. Down there. You know, in her private area! My kids thought this was super funny and one child in particular decided to announce it several times. Loudly. Unfortunately for me, I had an older couple standing right next to me. They just stood there and smiled while I tried to gag shush my loud mouth of a child. Don’t you just love it when your kids embarrass you? I know I don’t.

So I hoped we wouldn’t hear about the anatomy of Lady Gorilla again. Until we get back from our trip, and I find out my neighbor asked my daughter what her favorite part of our trip was. Her response? Watching the gorilla scratch her ******* at the zoo. Awesome.