Friday
Travel day 1 was fun, Dallas is only around 6 hours from home so it wasn't too bad of drive for us. Of course we didn't start the day off on time (my bad), we left an hour after we said we would. LOL. But road tripping is always fun, you get to see new places and I think that our country is just so beautiful! We had some lunch in Oklahoma on the way down at good ole McDonald's (don't judge) and had a funny interaction with the guy behind us in line who said we got out of the car really fast?
We hit a little bit of traffic when we got to Dallas but thanks to Waze, our favorite road trip GPS, we got through it pretty quickly and made it to our hotel.
We stayed at the Hilton Dallas Lincoln Centre and we thought it was really nice! We booked our room through Hotels.com and got a pretty sweet deal: our room, free parking in the hotel garage and breakfast vouchers. We felt pretty fancy with our king bed and sit down fancy breakfasts. The first thing we did after throwing our stuff in our room was swim in the outdoor pool!
After swimming we met up with my cousins and Aunt at Whiskey Cake Kitchen & Bar in Plano. Josh and I both had their Chicken and Cheese melt which was a chicken sandwich with pesto, avocado, bacon, lettuce and tomato, it was SO good guys. And the restaurant had great decor too which was really fun, it was loud place, you could tell other people were enjoying their conversations and dinners just as much as we were. We really should have taken a family picture but we didn't....
Saturday
We started Saturday off with an awesome breakfast buffet in our hotel, bacon, eggs, potatoes, and banana bread, anything that our hearts desired. Then we headed to Waco. Since we have been renovating our house we thought it would be fun to visit Magnolia Market, the store created by Chip and Joanna Gaines from Fixer Upper. Waco is about a two hour drive from Dallas and I'm glad we made the time to go. The store was fun but we enjoyed the atmosphere more than the shopping. It was clear that they had designed to be a place where people could just come to relax. We didn't buy anything we just had a good time and ate some food found at the food trucks. I know that some people are like, how could you go and not buy anything?! We frankly didn't see anything that we NEEDED, but the creative and interesting designs gave us some ideas of things that we can make and incorporate into our new home.
It was super hot in Waco we were melting by the time we decided to leave. We drove around the town for a little bit and saw the campus of Baylor University and even stopped by some other shops that are featured on Fixer Upper. It was a cute town and it's crazy that I almost decided to go to school there.
After Waco we made the drive back to Dallas and decided we were going to check out a church's Saturday evening service. There are a couple of churches that Josh and I like to follow online and learn from because they have great teaching Pastors and seem like churches that have a great vision of discipleship and sharing the gospel. So we knew that our weekend would be filled with making some visits and experiencing what we already believe to be awesome in person. The church we tried, key word tried, to visit on Saturday was The Village Church and we tried to go to their original campus in Flower Mound (a suburb of Dallas). So on our way back from Waco we saw a pretty wicked thunderstorm ahead of us, there was a lot of lightning and rain but we were far enough behind we weren't really in it too bad. When we got to the church all the lights were off and we were 30 minutes early and we thought maybe that's their thing....then we heard an announcement that the power was out and they wouldn't be able to get it turned back on for the 5 pm service. Everyone promptly left the building and we thought it was funny watching all the people arrive at church and then find out the news that they couldn't get the power back on. We think the storm must've been pretty wicked and knocked their power out.
We were kind of bummed because we couldn't stay for their later service as we already had plans but we redeemed the situation by having some yummy dinner at Chipotle which is a delicacy to our small town pallets. And then we headed for another worship service in Klyde Warren Park in downtown Dallas. This service was put on by Watermark Community Church and it was such a great night of song and prayer for Dallas and to thank God for what he is doing in their community. It was fun to be a part of. After a long day we were ready for bed and headed back to our hotel excited for Sunday morning.
Sunday - 1st Wedding Anniversary
Our day was very sweet. I'm so thankful that we decided to go to Dallas to celebrate because we left so encouraged about what God is doing there and full of belief that he can do the same things where we live too. We started Sunday off by visiting a fun little donut shop called Glazed Donut Works. I've decided that eating donuts on our anniversary is going to be a tradition since we also ate donuts on our six month wedding anniversary. Then we went to church at Watermark, it was just as good as we thought it would be and we were so encouraged by the culture of their church. It was evident that they truly want to do things with excellence in order to share truth effectively. A lot of thought and effort go into how they life together as a church each week, and I'm not talking about just on Sundays.
After church we went to the Bishop Arts District and had lunch at Dallas Grilled Cheese Co. It was super yummy and the atmosphere was great too!
He is the cutest in these glasses! <3
Such a cute little place! The neighborhood of Bishop Arts was cute too but it was a little to artsy for us, lol, we didn't stay as long as I thought we would. Josh wasn't too mad about it because we had enough time to go to The Village Church again and this time the power was on, lol. We really enjoyed both churches that we visited. The services were simple and focused on the Gospel which left us feeling really encouraged. It was clear that the mission of these churches was focused and focused on good things, sharing the Gospel and making disciples. The aren't big churches because they tried to be, they are big because faithfulness and focus on the Gospel brings people who see that you have something real to offer. God is using these two churches, just like he is using churches all over the world to bring people to himself and that is a beautiful thing to see.
Sunday evening we played mini golf and arcade games at Adventure Landing and we had a blast laughing and enjoying each other's company. Our short trip to Dallas was so refreshing and exactly what we needed to start another year of marriage on a good note and with an energy that this year we will love and serve Jesus together, that we will share the Gospel together, that we will encourage each other and pray for each other and that we will pursue biblical community with other believers. These things aren't always easy but we're asking God to teach us and to lead us as we walk into another year. We don't know what is in store but we can trust that God is faithful and that he works everything for his glory and our good.
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