Weekend Update

The girls and I had an awesome weekend road trip to Round Top and Austin.  We piled into our rental car at 9:00am and set off for a great adventure.  

First stop...Jamba Juice!

Armed with a little juicy sustenance, we were on the road...

This trip was quite a bit longer than we expected, and we had a teeny little bit of rental car trouble.  In the 5 hours that we were on the road, we filled up a slowly leaking back tire a handful of times.  Savannah and I became pretty well acquainted with this little machine...

When we finally arrived in Austin at 8:00pm on Friday night, we took a quick detour to the airport and traded out our Chevy Malibu for a Chevy Impala with all four tires adequately filled with air.  Huge relief...

Just before we got to Round Top, we stopped in Brenham, TX at the Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory.  What a beautiful place that was!  We didn't go through the tour, but we did stop into the little ice cream shop and each of us grabbed a scoop of our favorite flavor.  Awesome treat after a long drive.

And look at all these flavors we had to choose from!...impossible decision.  

 Finally, late in the afternoon, we rolled into Round Top and got to stop and wander around all the amazing treasures there.  We could have spent days in this place and not seen everything...seriously.

About three hours later, when the sun started to set and all the little tents started to close, we reluctantly left and headed toward Austin to find our hotel (and trade out our pitiful vehicle.)  I so wish we had gotten to Round Top earlier and been able to explore more, but the girls and I loved it so much that we might just have to make this an annual event!

On Saturday morning, we drove to the University of Texas campus and wandered around.  I have wanted to stop and explore here the last few times we've driven through on our way to or from San Antonio, but we've always been so short on time that only a quick driving tour was possible.  This time, I made sure that it was our first stop so we could get out and walk around.   

Our first stop was the Fine Arts building so I could show the girls where I spent half my life during college.  We wandered around the lobby and the practice rooms and the gorgeous concert hall and I was flooded with memories of a million choir concerts and music classes.  There happened to be a mini Strings Camp going on this weekend, and when we wandered into the lobby, some cute little Strings Boosters were selling last year's t-shirts for $1.  Megan had to have one of those!!  

From the Fine Arts building, we drove to the football stadium, the second most memorable place of my four years at that school.  

And then the Tower.  Gorgeous.  Regal.  Right in the center of campus.  And right next to all of my Psychology, Architecture and Latin classes that I took before I decided on an Elementary Ed major.  I was so flaky, but I learned so much about so many things.  The amount of useless knowledge I still have floating in my head is pretty awesome.  :)

 

We ended our little tour at my dormitory!  Oh, I can't tell you how strange and wonderful it was to walk back into that quad and into that building with my three daughters in tow.  We saw the piano in the lobby that I spent hours playing during my (very few) free hours.  We saw the rows of mail boxes that held excitement, anxiety and heartbreak, depending on who did or did not write to me.  We saw the dining hall where I ate nearly every meal for two whole years.  And we saw college girls who are closer to my daughters' generation than mine, but who look remarkably like I remember myself looking and how I mostly still feel.  

I loved taking my girls back with me to my pre-mom/pre-wife years.  It's so hard for them to imagine that I ever even had any of those.  I love that they are just as excited to see anything UT-related, and that their blood now bleeds as orange as mine!

After a little pizza lunch, we started the trek back home.  It was a great weekend.  We talked and ate and laughed and we all like each other a little bit more because we spent two whole days together doing something out of the ordinary.  

Wanna see what the boys did?

Craig bought McKay a hiking backpack and they went on a two-mile hike around Cedar Bayou and camped in their new mini tent that Craig got last year for his birthday and has never had a chance to use.  He's doing this same hike with his scouts on the 18th, so he wanted to try it out with McKay first.  They had a great weekend, too, and are looking forward to their trip in two weeks.  

Hooray for safe, fun, adventurous weekends, and for bonding with family!   Hope you had a wonderful weekend, too.