Girl's Weekend!

A few of my best college girl friends came to Welch for a girl's weekend the last few days and it was so fun, hilarious, relaxing... lots.

Heather came from Midland, Kaelyn came from Dallas, and Lauren came from Abilene!

Friday night, I made my mom's "Chicken and White Wine Sauce" for dinner and picked up an Angel Food cake with whipped cream and strawberries for dessert. I love that dessert. No fat but still so good. 

After dinner, we jumped in the truck with Kanyon and Zeb and went to go check water with them. I hadn't seen Kanyon's cotton in a couple weeks myself (I never drive that way since I work in the opposite direction) and I thought it'd be interesting for the girls to see.

And they wanted to ride in the back with Zeb... I said "have fun, I'll be in the cab, thanks."

We spent about an hour out there checking water and Kanyon having an interested audience to tell about cotton farming. He pulled up a stalk to show them and all three gasped in horror and said "how much did that cost you!?" I laughed because thats the same way I felt about it when I first came home with Kanyon. Now I know its not putting us out more than 50 cents.

Saturday, we got up a lot earlier naturally than we ever did in college (9:00 am!) and had breakfast and just hung out in our pj's until noon.

Then I told them I wanted them to meet my boyfriend... Mr. Tac.

Tac loved having the attention of four girls. He was quite the charmer. But thankfully he still made me feel I was his favorite :)

I asked Kasha and Al (Tac's parents and our good friends) how they felt about becoming my entertainment for my friends when they come to town, ha! Somehow I always end up bringing visitors to come meet Tac and see what's going on at Al and Kasha's. I mean, they just happen to always have something interesting going on! Kasha's taxidermy, Al's cotton gin, or their new house that's being built right behind their old one is a lot more interesting than my living room!

Tac thought this was hilarious... he was laughing with his mouth under water, blowing bubbles.

Don't worry, Zeb hadn't gotten a chance to drink out of it yet!

That afternoon, we relaxed around the house, watching a movie, taking a nap and reading. That night, we headed to Lamesa to eat out and go see a movie.

Dinner was great, we ate at Taqueria Jalisco's and then headed to the movie theatre where Kanyon and Landon met up with us. We saw Captain America in 3D!

Heather in her 3D glasses and her Captain America pose.

It was a great weekend and we had so much fun getting to catch up and hang out. After a really great church service on Sunday and a church potluck lunch, everyone headed back home and Kanyon headed to the gun show in Lubbock so I took a two-hour nap. Nice :)

Confessions

1. I went and saw the lastHarry Potter last weekend and I cried the entire time, even before anything sad happened. I can't explain..

I am one of the biggest Harry Potter fans I know. I'm not one of those types that dresses up for the previews or buys a "wand" off eBay (cough cough Cole) because in my opinion, none of that makes you a "huge" Harry Potter fan. Tell me what Essence of Dittany is or who discovered the twelve uses of dragon's blood and then maybe I'll talk to you about it. But get that wand out of my face.



2. I really want to make these Butterscotch Meringue Bars tonight... but I won't. Because I'll be the only one who eats them. Its really sad that I can't connect with my husband about love for baked goods. He'd rather have a Chips-a-hoy, thank you. That is an abomination, I tell you. Makes me sick.

Click here for the recipe if you are lucky enough to make it.

3. I'm currently battling myself about whether or not to run a half-marathon in November with a bunch of girls from Lamesa.. Part of me thinks it would be great for me and I could get into better shape but the other part of me thinks.. wait a second. I hate running. The only reason I can do a few miles every once in a while is because I make myself forget I'm even running by listening to my iPod.



4. I've completely given up on my flowerbeds in the backyard. I watered them faithfully and they just died. And didn't even hold on. It's like they knew the drought was coming and decided a quick death was the best for them. Mom, I'm sorry your money was wasted when you went and bought the plants! This drought even killed my Knock-out Roses! Ya know, the roses that will live through "anything".

I think Kanyon put it best the other day when I asked him if he thought the sprinkler would give enough water to the flowers twigs sticking up out of the flowerbed and he said it would give as much water as dead plants need.

At least my front flowerbed is still doing okay.. thank you, Vaughn, for those dusty millers last year!



5. Three of my best girl friends from college wanted to have a girl's weekend this weekend and I told them it'd have to be in Welch cause I'm not wanting to be more than 20 miles from my home anymore than I have to be. Is that selfish?

I thought that I was at the busiest point in my life in college. I was wrong... this summer has been crazy. I just want to sleep in my own bed for 7 nights in a row... I wonder if the girls will mind if we spend the whole girl's weekend in my house and never leave??...



6. I make smores at my kitchen table... on a regular basis...
Kanyon's going to be embarrassed I told yall that.

Natalie's Wedding

I love my family. My mom's side's family reunions are every two years and I look forward to them more every year. Even Kanyon quickly grew to love my cousins, 2nd cousins, 3rd cousins... I don't take much notice to degrees. If you're my cousin, you're my cousin.

My cousin Natalie got married last weekend in Dallas. I've been looking forward to it all summer for lots of reasons. Number 1, I love weddings, especially when I am close to the ones getting married. Check. Number two, several of my closest cousins were going to be there. Number three, my wedding photographer Erin was going to be Natalie's photographer and I was excited to see her! Oh and number four (why am I numbering these??), a few of Kanyon and I's really good college friends live in Dallas that we hadn't seen in a while and we made plans to see them. Lots of reasons to look forward to it!

Getting stuck in Denver put a kink in some of my excitement though, since I would have about 24 hours between getting home and then leaving again. All while packing, sleeping, and working somewhere in between that.

We got to Arlington, where the wedding was held, on Friday about the time the rehearsal was starting. Family was invited to attend and eat dinner after. We had a great time catching up with lots of family although all weren't there yet because of work or other commitments.

The wedding was at Howell Family Farm and the kids had fun running down the fence where the longhorns were kept and watching them. It was a beautiful venue. It consisted of a farmhouse where Natalie and the bridesmaids got ready upstairs and a few parts of the reception were held downstairs. Also, a big barn with horse stalls on the first floor and room for the caterers to set up the buffet. The second floor was where all the tables for eating and the dance floor were at. It was also air conditioned, hallelujah. Outside the barn there was a simple setting for a wedding where they had white chairs leading up to a raised stoned area for the wedding party. Beside this area, there was a large field with a softball diamond in the corner. Natalie rented a bounce house that was a big hit for all the cousin's kids!

I didn't get any pictures of Friday night because we were busy helping with the rehearsal or talking to family or eating the amazing Mexican food they had for us.

Saturday morning, we got up and had breakfast with all the family staying at the Embassy Suites and mostly just hung out while more family kept arriving. My mom's sister and her kids arrived Saturday and my parents got there a little before the wedding Saturday night. Kanyon and I got to see and catch up with our friends Kaelyn and Bryan, who live in Coppell and Fort Worth. I was so glad we got to spend a good amount of time with them. Both were in our wedding and we hadn't had a chance yet to come visit them.

This is my great Aunt LaVerne with her great-grandson, Elliot! You can't see much of him but you can at least see his super cute nose :)

Saturday night brought the wedding which was an absolute blast. The wedding was beautiful and all the neices and nephews were in it and did a great job. After the ceremony, we made our way into the barn and had a BBQ dinner and drinks while the wedding party took pictures. The reception was great!

This made Kanyon's night.. Several of my cousins have kids and they are all adorable. We love getting to play with all of them and Kanyon loves it when they warm up enough to let him hold them :)

Here is Natalie and Corey Nenovich! These pictures are horrible quality because my point-and-shoot died and I had to use my iPhone. You can see the field and some of the softball diamond I was talking about outside the window.

My cousin Bethany and my Mom looking so pretty!

 Bethany, Sara, me, and Emily with the bride!

The reception was held all over the property. There was a bounce house for kids outside and I think some guys were even playing some softball! In the farmhouse, there was a candy bar and a slideshow of pictures in one room and a photobooth in another where you could make picture books! My cousins and my mom and aunt had a lot of fun with that! They had props and funny hats for you to dress up in. In the barn, there were cigars and pictures and a quilt to sign for the bride and groom, and then dancing and drinks in the second floor of the barn. They made it so fun for everyone. We danced for hours... I probably burned off my dinner and cake that night just dancing. Which is my favorite way to burn calories! My cousins are all dancin' fools. I wish Cole would have been able to come from Colorado... he would have owned that dance floor.

Kanyon was a baby magnet that night. Or maybe he just gravitates towards them. Either way, most of the time he had one of my cousin's kids.

Sunday, we went to church with our good friend Nicole Killebrew Childers and my parents went to church with her parents at their's. We hadn't seen her in a while and her church's worship was great! I was excited to see a part of her life in Dallas. She was in grad school while I was in under-grad at ACU in Abilene so we saw each other all the time before we both moved. After lunch at Pei Wei, we headed back home to Welch. Its been a crazy week since we got home but I finally got some cleaning and laundry done this weekend and slept in on Saturday a little. I am looking forward to a low-key week this week.. Maybe I'll go see Harry Potter again. It was amazing. My eyes are so puffy today because I cried the whole movie. But I am kind of a huge fan.

Off to bed! Getting up early to drive the elementary kids to church camp at work!

Denver Part 2

See Part One here.

Its been a crazy week here at work. We've (the First Baptist Church of Lamesa) been working on 10 different houses around town doing construction and painting jobs and we are pooped but having a lot of fun.

I wanted to share these pictures with you real quick before I go back out to the worksite.

On Monday night, we took Kanyon and Dad to the airport to fly back home and Mom and I stayed until Wednesday so we could have more time together. On Tuesday, we were planning on going hiking again at this park in Evergreen called "Three Sisters" but rain was in the forecast and we decided we might wait until Wednesday. So we ran around Denver that day, going to Cole's favorite coffee shop and going to see a movie.

Wednesday, the forecast was still for rain but we felt like we had done all we had wanted to do in Denver so we decided to go ahead and head for Evergreen.

It was a very picturesque little town. Lots of little shops, a small lake with tons of people canoeing and lots of green, hence the name.

(taken while driving..)

I loved this little town. Cole took us to a trail park called Three Sisters that had multiple trails leading up to the point of a large hill (enough to take about an hour to get up there and make you pretty darn tired..).

 I think he liked being in charge for once.

After we got done hiking, we had an hour or so before we needed to get back to the house and pack and head to the airport. So we headed back down to the lake in Evergreen to sit on the dock on the lake. It was a beautiful little event center that we told Cole that if he ever got married, he needed to have it at!

 That afternoon, we headed to the airport to catch Mom's flight. Her's was an hour before mine so we dropped her off and then headed to grab dinner before Cole came back to drop me off. After grabbing some Chinese food that we regretted getting almost as soon as we left, we headed back up to the airport.

My flight was a late one, set to leave at 8:00 pm. About 7:35, a lady got on the loudspeaker and said in the most annoyingly chipper voice, "Flight 7293 with service to Lubbock has been cancelled! Please proceed to the nearest service desk to reschedule!" I was so confused by her chipper tone that it took me a minute to realize my flight had been cancelled.. I decided that I guess I better make my way to the service desk which I happened to be sitting next to since there were already about 20 people in line.

Within 10 minutes of me getting in line, I was so thankful that I hadn't taken my time getting there. About 70 flights got cancelled all at once and the line grew to hundreds of people. I couldn't believe it.

About 30 minutes later (and I was only the 20th person in line...), I got up to the counter and the United employee looked up flights for me. The earliest direct or in-direct flight that could get me to Lubbock would get me there at 10:30 pm the next night! Finally after thinking of every possible combination (Denver to Dallas to Lubbock, Denver to Houston to Lubbock, Denver to Dallas to Midland, etc...), I finally confirmed a 5:00 am flight to Houston that would connect me with a flight to Midland. I should have just slept in the airport but I thought I might get some sleep at a hotel. So I booked a room at the nearest hotel and got up at 3:00 the next morning. The next day, I heard they were rescheduling flights until midnight the night before. How miserable.

But I finally got home! And then had to turn around and pack and leave for Dallas within 24 hours. 

But it was a great trip and I enjoyed seeing my family and hiking and the weather so much. Next year, we're spending July 4th in Welch, though.   :) 

Denver Part 1

Denver was a lot of fun. We spent time walking and shopping around downtown Denver, hiking in a couple of Cole's favorite spots, eating out at really great restaurants, and enjoying the difference in weather!

I'm going to split it up into two parts not because I am trying to be mysterious but because I don't have a lot of time this week. We are in the middle of Mission Lamesa this week and I am trying to work as much as possible out on the job sites. Mission Lamesa is a "mission trip" that the church I work at, First Baptist Church of Lamesa, "takes" in their hometown. We are having lots of fun and I'll share more on it next week when life slows down a little...

Kanyon and I got to Denver on Saturday afternoon and we went to dinner that night with my parents and Cole at this amazing Italian restaurant, Maggiano's Little Italy. We ordered the family style dinner and had an extremely good 4-course meal.

The above are all iPhone pictures, by the way, because my point-and-shoot decided to finally give up after 6 long years.

We were there for a couple hours at least and it was so nice! Getting to talk face-to-face makes all the difference.

The next morning, Sunday, we got up early at 6:00 and got in the car and drove for an hour or so to Frasier, Colorado. Cole wanted to take us on a trail that he knew about from a friend called Byer's Peak.

Mom looks pretty legit, doesn't she? :) She's done this a couple times, no big deal.

I never would have thought that Cole would end up being a mountain guide. But now that he's older, he's so natural at it. Life is funny.

Mom is happy to be with her boys!

The trees are a bit greener here than in West Texas...

After hiking for a couple hours, we finally got close to the beginning of the Byer's Peak trail. And it looked like this...

When we finally got to the beginning of the trail, it got a whole lot worse. The snow was about 8 feet deep and there was no way we were prepared to trek through that. So we decided to back track a little bit and take a different trail up a different mountain.

 I can not remember for the life of me the trail we ended up choosing but it was so gorgeous at the top! We got there a little before 1:00 pm when the storms were supposed to hit.

Dad pushing Mom up the last bit :)

It was so beautiful. And the snow was so fun to see and play in after a couple months of 100+ degree heat!

My brother, the mountain man.

When we got down off the mountain about an hour and a half later, we decided we would go and visit Crooked Creek Ranch since it was so close.

Crooked Creek is a Young Life camp that my family all has ties to. I went there as a camper in 2003 and then worked there in the summer of 2006. Cole was a camper there two or three times in high school. And my parents have been adult guests and adult guests hosts a couple times. We all love the camp. Kanyon had never seen this YL camp so we wanted to take a short visit.

Hellooo, beautiful Crooked Creek!

Relaxing on the "Denim Delights" at camp. 

The pine beetle infestation in the Denver area has been eating away the trees and making it unsafe to have the ropes course where it has been the last few years. So they built a new free-standing course this year!

When we got home that night, we relaxed a little in the hotel room and then headed out for another really yummy dinner at a well-known Mexican restaurant. I had some green chile enchiladas and they were hot. My parents and I lived in New Mexico when I was 2 years old and they developed a love for green chiles. So we had to have some while we were that much closer to NM!

I have lots more pictures to show you of the second day of hiking my mom, brother, and I did after Kanyon and Dad flew home on Monday for work. And then even more of our weekend in Dallas for my cousin's wedding!

I'm heading back to work!

P.S. See Part Two here.