Alan Pavio said:
Go straight to the office at the federal courthouse in downtown Dallas. Had to have my passport renewed in September so I could send it off for an Indian visa that I needed back in 3 weeks, and they turned it around in a day.
Per their website, the downtown office claims to only take appointments when you're within 2 weeks for a trip or 4 weeks of a trip that involves a VISA. I have a co-worker who was able to get in just fine for the same trip I'm going on (and at the time we were about 2 months out) but he did have to show an itenerary of some sort, so it's seems clear it isn't super rigid.
I'd call before just showing up - not sure how strict they are on that.
But again, with kids and everything else, if you have the time to make an appointment, I'd go that route. Any place you walk in will AT BEST be the same as an appointment, but has high potential for involving a wait of some sort. When I was waiting there was a crying baby and a 2 year old screaming and kicking his moms chair (he was on his back underneath it). Don't be that family