Texas Trip--Day 5

We woke up on Wednesday morning, loaded Shelby's stuff in the car, and headed to take her to DFW airport. Caleb and I had bought Dallas Passes to get discounts on several places we wanted to visit, and we decided to go to the George W. Bush Presidential Library first. 

This was somewhere Caleb wanted to visit more than I did, but I've got to say that I really enjoyed it. I didn't think there would be much to do/see, but I was wrong! There was a really lovely museum that talked about George and Laura's upbringing, family life, etc., 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns, the 2000 election controversy, programs and causes that were championed by President Bush, and lots more. We watched a short video that kind of recapped his presidency, and then continued to the only area that was for kids, which talked about his "No Child Left Behind" campaign. 

Henry enjoyed driving the school bus! 

Mrs. Bush was a librarian, so they had shelves filled with classic children's books for kids to peruse. Henry picked a Richard Scarry book about trucks, of course! 

It was when we left this area that Henry's HUGE MELTDOWN of the day occurred. He didn't want to get back in the stroller and started screaming "NO!" at the top of his lungs when we tried to make him. It didn't help that he was the only child in there among a bunch of older adults! Things ended up escalating to the point where we were going to leave, but first we took him to an outdoor courtyard to try to calm him down. 

Caleb took this picture mid-meltdown, and it's funny now, but trust me, we were NOT laughing then! 😂 It took nearly an hour plus a snack to settle everyone down (seriously, tensions were high for all 3 of us!), but we did get to return to the museum. I had a stroke of genius and gave Henry my phone to watch baby videos, and he didn't make a peep the rest of the time. 🙌

 They had a replica of the oval office exactly as President Bush had it, complete with photos of his wife and daughters on the table behind his desk. There was a really neat exhibit about The White House during the Bush administration; events they held, dignitaries they entertained, staff that worked for them. It was really interesting!

We made a stop at the gift shop on our way out and bought a couple things, and then headed to the car. We knew Henry would fall asleep once we started driving because he was SO tired, so we decided to drive to McKinney, a suburb about 30 minutes outside of Dallas to give him a little time to sleep. We picked Hutchins BBQ for lunch because it was ranked #1 in McKinney and it DID NOT disappoint! We had the best BBQ we've ever eaten, plus delicious homemade sides. I'm not even a fan of BBQ, but I got pulled pork and it was amazing! Caleb got sliced brisket, plus ate some of my pork, and he was in smoked meat Heaven. 😊 Henry got mac n' cheese which put him in a good mood, plus they have free soft serve ice cream, banana pudding, and peach cobbler if you dine-in, and that put smiles on ALL our faces! 

I thought Caleb's paper was soaked with BBQ sauce, but then found out he didn't use any sauce; the meat was that juicy!

I don't know what I was holding, but Henry and I were both staring very intently. 😂

Since we had dragged Henry through something we wanted to do, we decided to find something to do just for him. I read the blog of someone who lives in McKinney (Andrea at Momfessionals), and she has RAVED about this place called Play Street Museum for years. I've always wanted to see one in person, and this was the perfect opportunity! Oh my goodness. I'm not even going to let myself get started on how much we loved it, because I would never stop talking. I'll just say that it was SO MUCH FUN, Henry had the best time, and Caleb and I loved getting to watch him explore, use his budding imagination, and just PLAY! And once I find someone to invest in my dream, I'm going to open one in Huntsville. 😄

We stayed at Play Street for about 2 hours (Henry would have stayed longer!), and then we headed back to the house we were renting. We got there around dinner time, but Caleb and I weren't too hungry since we'd eaten a late lunch, so we just picked up Whataburger kids meals and ate at the house, which was fine by me! We tried to get in bed a little early since we'd had a busy day and Henry had not napped much. We had another busy day planned for Thursday! I decided to split days 5 and 6 into 2 posts because it was getting a little long, so check back Monday to see what we did on the next day!