To Highland High School and then off to Texas.......

Jena participated in the High School Training Choirs Festival at Highland High School at the end of March.  Of the five students in her functional skills class which take choir Jena and one other are the only ones who have performed in the choir performances each quarter.  Jena wanted to go to the festival and the teacher had no concerns about taking her.  I was a bit nervous with some many kids and so many schools there, but I wasn't able to go so I let her go.  She loved it (I think riding in the bus back and forth was her highlight).  The teacher emailed me the next day and said that Jena had done great and was exactly where she should be at all times (which is more than she could say about other choir members.)  Now Jena wants to go with the choir to Disneyland.......???

Two days later Jena and I headed down to Salt Lake to catch a plane to Dallas Texas.  It was so great that my niece's farewell was held on March 31st on Easter.  It was spring break so Jena and I were able to go down and spend a week visiting family and friends plus visiting some great places.  We wished that Gary could have come but we are trying to save vacation at this point.

Our trip went like this:

Friday, Mar. 29:  We arrived in Dallas and headed to my brother, Rick's home to spend a couple of days.  We arrive late so mostly headed to bed. 

Saturday:  We had a great day.  We headed with Rick and Linda and their four kids--Katie, Tana, Duncan and Thad to the Dallas Museum of  Art and then a downtown park plaza built over a freeway.  The weather was great and I loved sharing it with them.




Katie posing by the Van Gogh car in the parking garage
She is an art history major so this is the perfect car for her. 
Too bad she is going on a mission to Portugal and doesn't need a car.

Jena took this picture inside of the art museum looking outside
their large window.

We attended the Chagal exhibit.  He was a Russian painter who eventually came to the United States.  He did a large variety of types of art, including designing costumes for ballets.  They had some of the dresses that he designed and actually paint on for the ballet.  It was all very impressive.

Then we headed to the nearby park which has a name that I can't remember.  It was in the middle of downtown Dallas and was so fun.  It was meant to be a gathering like place and had a huge variety of activities.  On a Saturday it was packed with people enjoying the weather and the fun.  It has a center of grass for ball throwing and picnics and around the outside and throughout the 3 blocks or so of park there were lots of activities to see and do.  To complete the feeling, there were food trucks on the outside where you could buy lunch or just a treat.

Heading down the walkway.  At night those balls light up.

Thad near one of the many water features in the park

Jena trying to catch some water without getting too wet

A modern tree house (Duncan and Thad)



Tana standing by one of the treat carts

 


Dallas skyline



Jena's pizza sandwich
She loved it.

The dog park.  There were dogs everywhere in the park,
but this was a special spot where they could be free.
This dog was the leader of the group this day.
We all watched him play in the water and then
he started running and all the other dogs there started following him
where ever he went.  They have small hills to run up and down and the dogs would
go with him.  When he would stop by his master, they would all stop and wait for him to move again.
It was so fun to watch.

They had three ping pong tables and you could check out the balls and paddles to play.
They also had a small putting green, a crochet area, plus a cart where you could check out other "yard" type games.

To avoid posting a hundred pictures, I just wanted to mention that they also had a place where you could check out books and newspapers to read for the day and then return.  They also had board games you could use and little game tables along the edge of part of the park.  As you could tell, I loved this park and am trying to figure out where we could put one in Syracuse.  For us, it could be a fun gathering place of neighbors.  I will add it to my growing list of things that would be fun to do.

This is a picture of the freeway under the park.

They have a tram so here is Tana and Jena as we got off the tram.

 The following are from a sculpture museum and garden.  These pictures are from the garden, of course.

 

The pose for the day

 

We ended the day with a Korean dish which Linda made which was excellent. And we played games--a Giberson pastime when we are together.  During all of that Katie was busy preparing her talk for Sunday and her computer crashed!  With the help of the Apple store she got it working and got her talk prepared and had time for ice cream with some friends.  It was a productive day all around.