Disappearing meat and surprisingly large lakes

My preference for this trip would have been to stay in one house the whole time (or two I suppose, since we did want to go to Arkansas as well as Dallas), but it did not—remember all our rental house troubles—pan out that way. However, the fun part of moving around is getting to experience lots of different places, and this house in Quinlan was my favorite! We would have loved to stay here the whole time (this is the house I had booked way back in April 2023 which then got snatched mistakenly from us on two of the days due to a misunderstanding!) but we were glad to be here for Friday at least, as well as the Saturday of General Conference!

Quinlan is in the Dallas area, about 40 minutes out, and close to Abe's mission areas of Rockwall and Heath where he served for several months. He covered the Young Single Adult branch in Rockwall as well as the Heath Ward, and he really loved that YSA branch. He made lots of friends there, and taught and baptized his friend Jack who has become practically a brother to Abe. We got to meet and hang out with him a few different times and we really liked him. Abe got to go to the temple with him, and he now has a mission call and leaves for Argentina in the summer! So great.

Rockwall is next to Lake Ray Hubbard, a huge manmade lake in Dallas. I remember Abe always complaining about traffic on the bridge at rush hour, since there's only the one bridge across the lake. We stopped by the waterfront and walked around where Abe and his companions often walked and talked to people (most of whom had no interest in listening to them). At least it's a pretty place in which to experience rejection!

Abe drove us around some fancy neighborhoods with huge houses in Heath, including this full-on castle house! Every once in awhile the missionaries would have a reason to visit one of these neighborhoods for service or something. A few church members live in them too. This is the area where members would bring dinner for the missionaries every single night, and half of them would then slip the elders an extra $50 to buy "some food for later too." Generous people!

Even Abe's missionary apartment in this area was nice. It had a huge weight room and a clubhouse and swimming pool (which of course the missionaries couldn't use, but they liked the weight room!).

We saw some big nests and…big birds in them. Vultures? Or something else?

My favorite sight was this meadow of bluebonnets by some of the big houses.

And a heron in the little pond!

After seeing Rockwall, we found our rental in Quinlan. It was on the shore of yet another huge lake, Lake Tawakoni. When we arrived, we walked through the backyard out to the shore of the lake and looked across at the houses on the other side, and saw some boats skimming around on the water. It was beautiful! Then I looked at the map and saw that what I had thought was the lake:

…was in fact…

…only the teeniest little finger of the lake. Ha! I was very surprised.

This house had a little cottage separate from the main house. I assumed the girls or the big boys would be all over it, but when we got there it turned out the bed situation was more conducive to the kids staying in the main house. So Sam and I got the cottage! Hooray!

It was super cute.

We didn't end up having anyone sleep in the little loft, but Clementine (alarmingly) loved climbing up there!

Loft bedroom in the main house

I loved this whole wall of windows in the house. Such a beautiful green view to look out on!

The little boys were down by the lake and throwing rocks in within minutes of our arrival. I read something recently that posed a good question: with all the vast numbers of men and boys that have existed throughout time, how is it that any bodies of water remain un-filled by rocks?

Clementine did not want to be left behind!

There was a little trail through the woods to a dock and some boats.

Pretty flowers along the trail

The house had a screened porch. The only other house I've stayed at with one of those was in Delaware when Abe and I went to Philadelphia. I think they're so charming! This one had a hot tub inside, which was the perfect thing.

Sam and I left the girls in charge of the little ones Friday night while we drove with the three big boys back in to Richardson to eat at a BBQ place Abe said was the best he'd ever had—but too expensive to take the whole family to! (In a cool coincidence, it was my dear friend Nancy's brother—bless him—who took Abe there as a missionary!) Ten50 BBQ, it was called.

There were two huge smokers and piles and piles of wood in the outer courtyard, which was promising

We loved the beautiful courtyard eating area. The temperature was perfect at that time in the evening (it reminded me of many of the outdoor restaurants we ate at in Puerto Rico) and the food was so good—Abe was right; it was some of the best meat we've ever had!

You go along cafeteria-style and tell them what things you want, and we got SO much meat to try, and it seemed like it would be WAY too much—but with our three big boys along it disappeared impossibly fast. Such a fun thing to eat in Texas!

When we got back to the house the girls had made Sebby Cake and were happily playing in the hot tub again. Fun night!

Saturday was General Conference! And this house was the most wonderful place to watch it! Such a peaceful, restorative setting. Some of us got up really early to go see some bluebonnet fields in Ennis (I'll put those pictures in a different post)…

…and then when we got home Sebastian took the little boys downtown to the same Frontiers of Flight Museum we visited back in August, and to DFW to watch planes.

Abe went off to watch Conference with the YSA branch and the missionaries. But the rest of us just spent the day blissfully resting and playing in the lake and watching Conference.

Philip's family decided to drive out from Dallas and spend the afternoon with us, so that made it extra fun. Philip helped the kids get the kayaks out so they could paddle around between sessions.