Lily’s big fourth birthday meant that it was time for her American Girl doll. Rather than have a big friend party, we started this little tradition with Ella and carried it on. When Ella went, we just had to go to Mall of America, enjoy a fancy meal in the bistro and pick out a doll. But now, Austin is so weird, they don’t have an American Girl store, so we had to choose Houston or Dallas. Since we were recently in Houston, we chose Dallas as we’ve only driven through it and had wanted to see Fort Worth as well. It was going to be an entire birthday weekend extravaganza! Then…school was cancelled on Friday for an ice storm that didn’t really happen, so we decided to book a hotel room for Friday night and extend our trip by leaving Friday afternoon.
As we were driving along, nearing our dinner destination, we encountered a small town off the beaten path named Lillian. Of course, we had to detour! We pulled over to get a photo with the city limits sign and drove slowly through the small downtown. This was definitely a good sign for Lily’s weekend! Turns out, there’s also an Ella, TX. It’s a ghost town. Not sure what that means in the scheme of things.
We stopped for some Asian food, the girls had fun and picked at some of their foods, so all in all, a success! The girls were pretty jazzed to get to the hotel. The excitement was palpable. We settled in and watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics and the girls just giggled themselves to sleep.
Saturday morning, we were up early and on our way to Forth Worth to explore the Stockyards. We got there around 9:30, but turns out, the Stockyards really wake up around 11. It was a bit chilly out, but we really enjoyed walking around and exploring. One of our first stops was to the visitor’s center where the girls were immediately sworn in as deputies.
The visitor center also had something pretty amazing outside…snow! Snow in the little flowerbeds outside was enough to divert our attention for awhile while we made little snowballs to throw at one another. Meanwhile, in the visitor’s center, we met a couple from Hutchinson, MN. They probably laughed at us “Texans” playing in the snow.
There’s a lot to see everywhere you go. The girls tried to find horseshoes that fit them in the sidewalks. We found another Lillian, this time, I star on the sidewalk.
We were excited for the daily cattle drive. Some longhorns were brought out for photo opps, and real cowboys started to assemble in preparation for the drive.
The architecture of the buildings was great, and the history was amazing. Add to the fact that it’s still an active stockyard (on a much smaller scale), where livestock is bought/sold/traded.
As we were exploring, I went out the back door of a building and happened to find a small walkway between buildings. Turns out, it led to an observation walkway above the animal stalls. The girls loved seeing the cattle and horses that were there. We watched the men feed them and clean stalls. Across the way, we could see the cattle being rustled up for the drive.
Once we got a spot for the cattle drive, we didn’t have to wait long before things started to happen. One of the cowboys was snapping a whip to announce it and our girls did not like that. The cattle came out from between buildings and then walked down the main street a couple of blocks. With the large horns and cars parked on either side of the road, I was happy we’d parked in a lot rather than on the street.
We were wrapping up our stockyard fun a little earlier than anticipated due to our earlier arrival and the cooler temps. We decided to move up our trip to the American Girl store. First, we made a few stops. One, to a German grocery store. The girls were obsessed with the giant jar/tub of Nutella and five pound bags of gummy bears. We also made a lunch stop and a stop at Hobby Lobby. Loran braved the terrible Dallas traffic and construction and got us to the Galleria so we could find Lily’s doll, but first, we had to wake Lily up. Despite being terribly excited, the morning’s festivities were too much for her. Once she was awake and realized where we were, the excitement built. We stopped to watch the ice skaters in the Galleria on our way to American Girl.
The girls were wide-eyed with amazement, like most little girls who walk into the store. It didn’t take us long to find “the one” for Lily. It helps that she and Ella have been scouring the catalogs for months and already knew what they were looking for. Blond hair, blue eyes, curls. That was our girl. The girls perused around the store, but Lily was really eager to complete the purchase and get Bonnie out of the box. Luckily, the cashier offered to take the doll out for us, which saved us the hassle since they’re the professionals. We took the girls upstairs to the Bistro to see if they could fit us in earlier than our reservation two hours later. But, it was booked solid. We decided to cut our losses with the Bistro and head back to our room to relax a bit before dinner.
We had wanted to make the trip extra special so bid on a fancy hotel online. We got a night at the historic Warwick Melrose Hotel. The girls were in awe, and it helped that there was a wedding party in the lobby when we checked in. Our room was big and well appointed. The girls were in their little fantasy world playing with their dolls.
We found a fun pizza place nearby that was delicious. Of course, the dolls came with. Every place we went, female hotel employees, waitresses, etc. would stop us and become instantly nostalgic, recounting their own American Girl dolls from their childhoods. It was neat to share those memories, and I hope our girls have the same nostalgia when they’re young adults.
After pizza, we settled in to play dolls. Lily had us all reenact the ball scene from Cinderella. The girls also used the heavy draperies in the room as their stage curtain. The imagination was plentiful. There were a lot of shows put on and we went through a lot of hotel stationary. Eventually, we settled in and watched some Olympics coverage and drifted off to sleep.
The next morning, we had a few more shows before checking out. We grabbed a quick Panera breakfast and then caught a neighborhood trolley. The trolley was definitely one of the girls’ favorite things. We took it a few stops to the Perot Museum (with Bonnie).
We spent the day at the museum exploring and learning. It was a really neat space. The girls did well. When they started to get a little ornery, we took them to the cafeteria to get lunch and once refueled, they rallied for more museum fun. We didn’t see everything, but hit the major points we were excited for. Then we caught the trolley back to our car and then started our trek back south to the warmer weather and home.
Best Ella quote of the weekend: “I don’t like cows. I like burgers.”
Now that we’re home, Bonnie has adjusted quite well. Lily has a bed set up next to hers, sometimes the bed is in Lily’s bed. Lily gives Bonnie on of her Blankies each night to sleep with. Bonnie joins us on a lot of outings, including doctor’s appointments. However, it has been a little like adding another actual person to our family. Each meal we have is held up while Lily scrambles to prepare a plastic meal for Bonnie (as though these major meals we have three times a day come as a surprise to Lily). I’ve been buckling Bonnie into Ella’s car seat when Ella’s not in the car (I had to put the kibosh on this pretty quickly because I’m not buckling a doll up, car seats are torture enough). Every time we’re trying to leave the house, we’re slowed down trying to find Bonnie’s shoes, jacket, or change her clothes. It’s nice that Lily loves Bonnie, but I didn’t need a third child to keep track of out of the deal…but we can’t help but love Bonnie and love the happiness it’s brought to Lily.
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