Girls' Day in Waco

In June I was lucky enough to get a day away with some of my favorite friends in the whole world. 4 months prior to this Ashley, one of our besties, had moved down to Round Rock. We hadn't all gotten together since she moved, so we planned a great girls' day in Waco. We are big Fixer Upper fans so the first stop was at The Magnolia Market. 

This was my first time here and on a Saturday morning, it was PACKED. Like hardly room to walk or enjoy all there was to look at. So we stayed a short time, then made a plan to go shop and eat elsewhere for a while.

THIS. was my FAVORITE place. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Chip and JoJo. But Junque in the Trunk was my store. It was across 35 from Magnolia, but not too far. They had the cutest, most wonderful pieces of decor and furniture. If I was rich I would have bought the whole store out. Since I'm not I purchased a new desk chair (which I love and am sitting in as I type) and a red painted window frame that is proudly hanging above my couch. I felt like the pieces here were reasonably priced and all so fun. I want to learn to restore/paint/create greatness from old furniture.

Ashley, me, and Marianne in front of Junque in the Trunk. We also stopped and ate lunch at George's in Waco. I did not get a picture but the food was great and they hooked me up with all my gluten-free dreams. 

Before heading back to Magnolia we stopped and got coffee at Common Grounds right across from Baylor. This is the BEST coffee shop. Cute outdoor seating. Delicious beans. It was humid out but we still sat and sipped for at least an hour. I love these ladies so much and we have had some marathon coffee dates together, so it made sense to grab coffee before we hit the ground shopping again.

Back at Magnolia things had calmed way down. I would definitely recommend going in the afternoon. I bought a Magnolia tank top (that I wear multiple times a week, like as soon as it is clean and hanging back in my closet) and a cute kitchen towel. I liked a bunch of their products, but most of what I liked was too breakable for our stage of life.

 The "famous" silos that Chip and Joannna bought. I don't know why but I thought the store was inside of these. Nope. Just a landmark. Am I the only one who thought this?

The seed store. I'm not much into gardening but if I were this would be my inspiration.

I seriously love the whole Magnolia grounds so much. We even picked up dinner from their food trucks before heading home. The only sad part was that their new bakery hadn't opened yet (it has since then). But I guess that means....

We will have to go back! Who's ready for another girls' day???

Weekend At the Gaylord Texan

Time to start blogging about summer before summer is over! A few weeks ago we got to take just Eva on a big girl getaway to the Gaylord Texas. This girl was cracking me up when she was with us there and I was smart enough to capture some of her best quotes on my phone. Starting with...when we entered the Gaylord. She took one look around the big atrium and asked, "Is this Disney World?" Ha. Nope, just a fancy hotel.

When we got to our room she was still so excited. She looked around and goes, "Wow! It has a bathtub!!!" I guess it's the little things that matter most.

After settling in we were off to the Gaylord water park, Paradise Springs. By far the coolest part was the zipline that you drop off into a plunge pool. Eva did this so many times, and she even got to where she would zip out, do a flip off and then dive down into the pool. 

We went out to eat at the Gaylord's Texas Station our first night so we could enjoy all of their huge screens to watch part of the opening of the Olympics. While we were walking there we noticed all of the Alice in Wonderland decorations and activites they had for their summer season. Eva hasn't ever seen that movie and kept calling it "Allison Wonderland," like it was just her first and last name. 

After dinner she got a unicorn balloon animal that she was in love with. As we walked she was by far the most twirly, whirly, happy kid in the whole place. We kept reminding her to stay with us so she wouldn't get lost. It occurred to me to make sure we were prepared just in case she ever did get lost. I asked her what she would do if she got lost. She replied, "I would run into the woods and learn to survive!" Ha! Not exactly the "look for a police officer or a mom with children," response that I was hoping for.

Back at the room they brought in a roll away twin bed. It was still vertical when we entered the room and at first Eva thought she had to sleep upright. I will say, the hardest part of a getaway with a kid is the sleeping. I don't know, maybe it's just us, but our kids don't adapt well to sleeping anywhere different. Which is a big part of why we didn't bring Jensen. We figured since Eva was almost 5 she would be ready. She didn't do awful but.... I wouldn't take her on a long trip anywhere yet. Sigh.

The next morning we were up bright and early ready to go swim and splash some more at Paradise Springs. We rode the trolley to get there but Eva kept saying "choo-choo" like we were on a train. She said that the trolley rides were one of her favorite parts of the weekend.

Ready to swim! We swim a lot anyway, but it was still fun to have this park to play in. I feel like it made our time away more eventful that if we had just been at the hotel. After swimming we went back to our room and played the game Hedbanz which I had secretly snuck in our suitcase. This game was new to us and it was so silly and fun. 

After one last stroll through the hotel it was time to say goodbye...to Eva. Ryan and I stayed on for a second night, lovingly letting Eva go stay with Papa, Nana and Jensen back at our house. I LOVED our time with our big girl, but this was a great decision for us. I'm so glad we got time with just the two of us as well.

We walked around, eat some Mexican food, swam, and enjoyed watching the Olympics. It was so peaceful and relaxing. 

He always makes me smile :) So thankful for our weekend away.

East Texas

This past weekend we loaded up the minivan and drove out to East Texas. We went to visit a family friend in Avenger and visited the Wildflower Trails Festival in Hughes Springs. This is one of Ryan's childhood memories from growing up there and we have been talking about visiting the past few years. We were a bit nervous about the drive because sometimes our kids get crazy just diving to Walmart but overall the ride was pretty easy.

We tried to stop at the festival when we first arrived in Hughes Springs but the rides didn't open until 4pm so we decided to go ahead and go see Miss Joyce. She is like a grandmother to Ryan and he grew up going to her home all the time. Eva always likes to feed the fish in her pond.

Sharing his childhood with his son. We visited Joyce when Jensen was just a couple of months old but this was his first trip where he could really experience anything.

Lots of swing time. Joyce's property is lush and beautiful so we spent tons of time outside.

A great big world and a little man.

It was so good to visit with Joyce. I kept joking that Ryan could just take the kids and I would stay and hang out with Joyce until Monday. I just always love talking with her.

At 4pm sharp we were headed to the Wildflower Trails festival. Eva got to pick 5 rides and decide on the big swings first. It was the fastest ride there and she was flying!!! 

Saturday night we spent the night with Nana and Papa. The next morning we drove around Royse City and Ryan got to show me where his football team was the 2004 state semi-finalist. He was so proud. 

Saturday afternoon we went over to my sister and brother in-laws and got to play with Mallory's new swing set. Eva keeps saying that we need one now...not sure our yard is big enough, but it would be fun!

The girls all up in the clubhouse. I may have liked it a little. Okay, a lot. It was pretty awesome.

Saturday night we met up with friends for a picnic and park time at Bicentennial Park in Southlake. I hadn't been before - it is a great park. We didn't know they had a water or sand part, so Eva got a bit messy. I wish I had taken a picture of her and her little friend all covered in water and dirt. Classic. I only snapped this one of Jensen on a super cool swing.

Spring Break in Laguna

Over Spring Break week Ryan and I got to leave our children with the grandparents and take a trip to California! Our first stop was a night aboard the RMS Queen Mary. 

This is what the ship looked like when we arrived late the first night. The Queen Mary used to be quite the fancy way to travel abroad but it is now dry docked in Long Beach and the once famous first class cabins and suites have been turned into a hotel. Much of the boat is still preserved and historically accurate, although there are obviously some modern accommodations. 

After getting checked in we joined our friends at Sir Winston's restaruant aboard the ship. We were a bit jet lagged and to us it was like 11 o'clock at night but that didn't stop us from enjoying this delicious steak dinner. I can honestly say that I've never eaten that much steak, nor steak that late at night, but it was worth it!

Much of the original 2nd and 3rd class areas have been turned into galleries. I liked this look of how the Titanic would look if cut in half. It had tiny miniature pieces and everything was labeled so you could see where everything would have been located. 

The next morning we walked all around the ship on our own, took a guided tour, and visited the touring Princess Diana exhibit on board.

Later that afternoon we finally got to put our toes in the Pacific! We stopped for lunch at Huntington beach, and as we arrived a crazy fog was over the whole area. You couldn't even see the water from the edge of the sand.

Then we traveled on to Laguna Beach where we stayed at a Mariott Resort.  I enjoyed Laguna a lot, and it reminded me of visiting Vancouver, Canada, with the way the city is built up.

 I don't know why this photo is fuzzy, but the essence of it is that shirt. Wowzers. One afternoon we shopped around and we made our purchases at the Laguna Thrift shop. I got an awesome new purse and Ryan snagged this shirt. He doesn't look like a tourist dad at all. Not one bit.

 At the resort before heading out to dinner on our last night in California. The resort had so much to offer, I wish we had planned more time to just lounge around! It was actually pretty chilly most of the time so we didn't even enjoy the pool as much as I would have thought. Guess we will have to make a trip back to enjoy it all :)

Our travel buddies! We had a wonderful time enjoying California with our friends, the Glasers. 

My two great loves - Ryan and the beach. I'm already longing to go back to the shores!

Staycation {Part 3: Play Museum, Stonebriar, and a Date}

Let me first say, that I am in love with the photo of Jensen above. My son is handsome. I love that baby so much! Okay on with the vacation blog....
On Friday of our staycation week we went to the Frisco Play Museum. It was not so much of a museum, more like a really interactive play town. My comedian husband cleaverly posed Jensen with a wooden carton of milk in the restaraunt play shop. 

One of the first things Eva wanted to do was to dress up like a firefighter and put out the pretend flame burning from a building. She was even patient enough to eventually get to wear a firefighter helmet...those were in high demand.

Such a clever idea! When I was in elementary school our district had a pretend village set up where we could learn about economics and such {anybody remember Enterprise City????}. This was similar except kids could do whatever they wanted. Aside from the creative play village they also had an art table, magnetic blocks, kinetic sand {which of course Eva had to do even though we play with the same thing for about an hour a day at home...}, a table with floam-like material, and a few other actitivities. You even get a wooden coin with your admission that your child gets to use to "purchase" a healthy real snack. 

Beep beep! Firefighter Eva coming through...on her school bus.

They had a science area where you could change how the tubs and connector pieces were set up to see how it affected the battern of the balls. The real highlight of this photo is the kid on the right. One of my favorite things about Eva is her boldness in approaching kids to play with. We've taught her how to walk up to another kid, introduce herself, ask them their name and then ask if they want to play with her. We've also taught her that if she walks up to kids already playing something she needs to be okay with joining in on what they are doing...like if they are playing baby dolls she needs to go get a baby doll to join in. It is seriously so sweet to see her walk up and want to play with somebody. Well, Eva and I were playing together in the home living area because the crowd had died down a bit, and in walks this kid Cameron with a cart full of wooden groceries from the pretend Kroger store. Eva introduced herself and asked Cameron to play and from that moment until we left they were buds. He was a very funny kid. 

After the museum we headed to Stonebriar mall. Then we made her dreams come true...we let her ride on one of the silly rides that are in the play area. You know, the ones you always say, "Umm, not today..." when your kid begs to ride. We had some quarters so we let her go for it. 

Then we took her to ride the carousel! Okay, so I totally get that this is just a silly carousel in the middle of a mall food court. But she was so excited! As we were riding I thought about how one day she will be like, "Mom. I do NOT want to ride that lame carousel," and my heart will be a bit sad. So in that moment I fully embraced the ride and laughed my way around and around, being so thankful for that moment with my three year old who looks at a pretend horse like it has magical powers. 

We ended Friday night with dinner and a few games at Dave and Busters. This was mostly for Ryan who has mentioned going to Dave and Busters since we started dating and we never have gone before.

For our very last relaxing day we booked our favorite baby sitter for some date time. We started with board games at Starbucks. Then we went to the Foot Palace and got reflexology. This is kind of like a massage except less expensive and easier to book last moment. That's the best way to explain it.

Finally we enjoyed some On the Border to end our wonderful week. And that's a wrap for our 2015 staycation!