Texas

My husband and I got a chance to go to Dallas, Texas to see the BYU Football game vs. Oklahoma. This would be the first time that my husband and I had had been on a trip by ourselves in 2 years (mostly due to the cute one year-old that is sitting on my lap as I type this.) It was great fun and the fact that BYU was able to pull off the upset win was definitely the highlight. I am posting a few (okay--actually A LOT) of pictures from our trip.

We stayed at the Gaylord Texan. It is an amazing hotel with several acres of indoor gardens and walkways.




We were able to tour the new $1.3 billion dollar Dallas Cowboys Stadium the day before the football game.




The black streaks that you see on the field are little pieces of rubber that are used under the artificial turf to give it some bounce. While we were touring the stadium, there were several trucks on the field working the rubber into the turf and "vacuuming" up the extra pieces.



Did you notice the jumbo screen in those pictures? The HUGE HD display is 72 feet high and 160 feet long and spans nearly 60 yards. It weighs as much as a full jumbo airliner and uses 30 million light bulbs!!

We also toured the Texas Rangers stadium as well. They are both located in Arlington, Texas and within walking distance of each other.



These were taken from the Texas Rangers dugout.



The BYU v. Oklahoma game was Saturday evening. Here is the team warming up.



Max and the "Stretch Y" on the Jumbotron!



A play leading up to the winning touchdown.


The winning touchdown pass from Hall to Jacobson.


Jacobson's winning touchdown catch. I just love how open he is and the offensive line's immediate celebration!



The celebration after the game!



I also learned some photographic lessons:
1) Don't take a camera on a trip that you haven't used for over a year. You won't remember how to perform some vital functions on the camera despite the fact that you think it is pretty similar to your current camera!
2) Camera's manufactured prior to 2008 shouldn't be used at ISO settings of higher than 400. The result will be some really ugly noise!

I debated for several days before the trip whether I should take my older and slightly smaller Nikon D70 on this trip. I eventually decided to do this and upon taking my first picture regretted my decision for the above reasons. I got some okay pictures but with each click of the shutter I wished I had my current camera. If you are still reading this--thanks for sticking with me through ALL these photos!