Memorial Day Weekend

Josh and I spent Memorial Day weekend in Dallas at my parent’s house.

Josh picked me up at work Friday afternoon so I didn’t have to travel south and then back north again (traffic leaving Houston is bad on a normal afternoon, not to mention a Holiday weekend). We arrived in Dallas around 7:15pm, had a bite to eat and just lounged around awaiting the arrival of my brother, Karl, and his girlfriend, Audrey. Not much else happened on Friday night, we went to bed kind of early.

Saturday we woke up and Mom made breakfast burritos… Mmmmmm. Jackie only ate scrambled eggs because she had her wisdom teeth taken out the day before. Eggs were nice change of pace from her slushes and pudding she had been eating. Anyways, breakfast was delicious; we cleaned up the dishes and proceeded outside to assist the boys in building the retaining wall around the air conditioner units. Mom, Audrey and I made three trips to Home Depot to pick up more stones for the retaining wall, luckily we ran into some strapping young men to lift the stones… you know that what that means? no broken nails… wooo hoooo!

Before and After

Once the sun had reached the side of the house the boys came inside and we all had lunch, then it was POOL TIME! The rest of the day was spent pool side… ahhhhh I love the sun! Dad had put ribs in the smoker for dinner; we could smell them all afternoon. It really left our mouths watering for the dinner bell! Right before dinner dad threw some marinated shrimp on the grill, Mom and Jackie didn’t have any shrimp so that left more for the rest of us, but there still wasn’t enough… they were so delicious!
Sunday morning, Jackie and Mom got ready to attend church while the rest of us headed to the lake before the crazies got out. We got out on the lake around 10:00am and sped across the lake to Dad’s favorite anchor spot. The boys chatted while Audrey and I soaked up some rays. Once we got a little toasty, I finally convinced Audrey to jump in the lake with me, it was disgustingly refreshing. Awhile later we traveled back across the lake only this time, it was a little different. By that time it was close to 1:00pm and the crazies were out! It took us a lot longer to get back across the lake, people were cutting you off, and there were tubers and jet skis, waves and more waves!!! Time to go! So we did! We loaded the boat, got home and put the boat in the garage in record time, we were home by 2:00pm. We spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool and enjoyed some burgers and hot dogs for dinner. That evening it was the battle of the T.V.s Karl and Audrey were watching the Twins Game while the others were watching the Nascar Race.

Monday, I got up and made Monkey Bread for breakfast. The boys finished up the retaining wall while I mowed the lawn. The rest of the day was relaxing around the house and packing for the trip home. We left The Colony around 2:30pm and arrived at home shortly after 7:00pm. Nothing particularly significant happened over the weekend, but I was extremely thankful to see my whole family. It’s not very often we are all together anymore. I hope to see them all over the 4th of July Holiday when we all work on a special project! Stay tuned for more on that story!

Happy 24th Birthday Joshua!!!!

I asked Josh what he wanted to do for his birthday and he said he wanted to spend the weekend at his dads because he was off work, which is a rare occurrence. After we got home from work on Friday we packed up and headed to east Houston. We had a great time just visiting and telling stories. Saturday (Josh’s Birthday) we woke up to the smell of Pancakes Terry was baking in the kitchen. We all rested after breakfast, and I baked Josh’s birthday cake (Funfetti of course!). We grilled some burgers for lunch and rented movies to watch for the rest of the day. Throughout the day Josh got to open one gift from me at each meal. I will let him tell you what his least favorite gift was.

On Sunday, we woke up early to get ready to attend First Baptist Church in Pasadena, TX with Josh’s Grandparents. After church they treated us to brunch at Franks. After that we went back to Terry’s and watched the Nascar Race (Jimmie didn’t do so hot) and I took a nap. We packed up all of our stuff headed back to Pasadena for the Strawberry Festival. Can you believe we got a huge flat of strawberries for just $10? I am looking forward to Josh’s smoothies. After the festival we met Terry, Net and Josh’s Grandparents at Texas Roadhouse to treat them to dinner. It was delicious! We had a very relaxing weekend… now it’s back to school and work!

San Antonio Get-Away

May 7th – May 9th Josh and I went to San Antonio, Texas for a weekend get-away. Work had been really stressful and exhausting the few weeks before and Josh was on his last week of break in between trimesters. So we decided to just go away and have fun. If anyone knows me in the slightest… this is extremely out of character. But it was worth it!

Friday morning we woke up, packed and headed for San Antonio with a slight detour through Brenham, Texas. Blue Bell Creameries in Brenham, Texas has been cranking out the best ice cream in the country since 1911. Visitors share in the rich history of Blue Bell with a short film, see the ice cream making process from the time the milk is received to the time the filled ice cream cartons are sent into the blast freezer, and then end the tour with a serving of ice cream… Mmmmmm. A friend of mine from college currently works in the Marketing and Research department so we got to see him as well. Josh had been to the factory before, but it was my first time. It was pretty interesting. After the tour we grabbed some lunch and got back on track for our trip to San Antonio.

We arrived at the Courtyard Marriott on the Riverwalk around 5:30pm. We walked to Market Square to check out some shops and eat at a Mexican Restaurant/Bakery, Mi Tierra. We strolled around the riverwalk and headed back to the hotel. We planned on visiting the Planetarium at UT San Antonio on Friday night, but when we arrived they had cancelled all shows for the night. Hmmm, what do we do now? Well we headed back to the hotel, walked around the river again and just relaxed. Ahhhhhhh

The next day we did visited some museums: Ripley’s Believe it or not!, Guinness World Records, Tomb Raider 3 D Adventure and Louis Tussaud's Wax Works. We walked around the Rivercenter Mall, walked to the La Vallarta (off the riverwalk – they had small little shops). We grabbed some lunch at The County Line Bar-B-Que, it was delicious! Then we went on a boat tour of the Riverwalk. The rest of the day we just walked around either on the riverwalk or up on the streets of downtown San Antonio. Then we headed back to the hotel to freshen up. We had reservations for the IMAX theatre that evening to see Avatar in 3D. The movie was great, it was a lot better than we were expecting it to be. It was about 10pm after we finished the movie so we strolled back to the hotel and ventured down the new section of the riverwalk that extends down towards the Art District. It was very peaceful, but kind of scary at the same time. This section of the river is not as commercialized as the rest so there weren’t very many people around.

When we woke up Sunday it was misty outside. We had planned to go to the San Antonio Zoo, but I didn’t figure that would be good Zoo weather, so I told Josh let’s just head towards home… so we did. We stopped at Buckeys to get some beef jerky and Fudge… Mmmmmmmm. And then I remembered there was a big outlet mall we had passed on the way to Brenham on Friday. I asked Josh if he wanted to stop by there before we go home. He took a little convincing and then finally agreed. So we headed to the Houston Premium Outlet Center. Wooo Hooo SHOPPING!!! After we finished there we still had a 30 minute drive home. While we are exiting the Outlet Mall Josh says, “That sure was more expensive than the Zoo.” and I replied, “But it sure did make me happier than the Zoo!”

It was nice not having an agenda or a list of things to do or a budget to stay in. We did as much or as little as we wanted whenever we wanted to do it. Now that is a vacation! I am really looking forward to the many more, big and small, vacations we will take together in our lifetime.