Visiting Santa

Sydney can be so mischievous and it cracks me up to see her turn up the charm and insist she's been a good girl all year long. 

She certainly looks innocent, doesn't she?

Brigitta made a futile attempt to get a puppy for Christmas- if ever a girl wanted a dog!!! 

Call me crazy, but I think Santa understood she wasn't going to be getting one and he was so, so kind to her!

Ireland gave an impassioned plea for the final Harry Potter books as she only owns books 1-4 and as an ardent Harry Potter fan she absolutely, positively needs to have the entire collection. Santa spoke gently to her and I love how she cocks her head as she listens to him.

Before heading to see Santa, Liesel came to me and said, "Can I not sit on Santa's lap this time?"

Whoosh! Tempus Fugit. 

I feel strongly that girls should not be forced into physical contact be it a kiss for an uncle or sitting on Santa's lap. I told her she could kneel in front of him or just stand a but behind him for the photo but he pulled her right on to his lap. She was a good sport about it but I think these trips to Santa are definitely numbered as the other girls start to feel the same way. 

It actually seemed she had a lot to say!

I love this picture because even though they have a space heater in that little house, it is always SO cold! This is a more accurate picture of what it feels like to visit Santa.

Houston: NASA Johnson Space Center & Axe Throwing

There are moments when I realize I'm pretty geeky at heart and I think that really came out when we visited the Johnson Space Center. We toured Building 9 which houses the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility. We were told to whisper because people are actually working down there. 

The next stop was Rocket Park where fun fact: there are vintage Schwinn bicycles all over the place!

I was so happy to see this one!

I couldn't help but feel patriotic.

I was lagging behind everyone trying to read all the plaques- sometimes a rock isn't just a rock!

I love this thought from the last man to walk on the moon- "we leave as we came, and God willing, as we shall return: with peace and hope for all mankind."

I've read very little about the conspiracy theories surrounding trips to the moon (ie that they were all staged) so I found this really interesting about why there are no stars in the sky in these photos.

This one gave me chills- this is the prototype CO2 scrubber ground personnel created and then used when instructing the Apollo 13 astronauts. The command module had square scrubbers while the LM had round. The LM was only intended to have 2 astronauts and its supply of CO2 filters was outside where they would have been retrieved during a moonwalk. Because of the explosion, they had to find a way to reduce the toxic gas- literally putting a square peg into a round hole. This is one of my favorite parts of the movie Apollo 13 and I could have spent quite a while just staring at this thing.

The fact that I took this photo with my smartphone was not lost on me. Advances in technology just blow my mind.

After this we made our way to try our hand at axe throwing. It's much harder than it looks, but Michelle managed to nail a bullseye which was pretty sweet to see. Later that night I overheard her telling her husband about it and it warmed the cockles of my heart to hear the excitement in her voice. Axe throwing was my idea- it has been on my bucket list for a while- and I'm grateful everyone indulged me on trying it out. 

I'll close my record of the Texas trip here. Let's just say after this point I was really anxious to get home. Due to finances, we hadn't taken a family vacation in a couple of years. I'd missed a girl's trip to NYC last year and so Brent and I agreed this trip would be both my birthday and Christmas gift. I felt a huge amount of guilt taking off while he watched the girls, with no break of his own in sight. 

This trip definitely clarified some things for me- about myself, about my friendships, about the importance of my daughters, about my (lack of) communication skills, about what I want and need out of this crazy life we are all living. I actually called Brent crying, asking him if he would come pick me up at the airport, but that was a no go- he'd put the girls to bed already. 

It was a relief when I was finally home again with my tribe.

Waco: Companeras

When I knew I'd be visiting central Texas, Laney and I made tentative plans to get together. She'd had a little girl that she never expected and that I hadn't met yet. She ended up taking time off of work just to make the 2-hour drive from Austin to spend an afternoon with me. We had stopped for some Mexican food and Laney wanted to meet all my Crystal Lake friends so she stopped in. We actually ran into each other in the restroom and the second I saw her I thought, "Oh there's Laney" as if I see her a few times a week. She looked up and initially didn't react at all either. It took a beat and then we went into the high-pitched voices and hugging. So funny. They had these hats near the back entrance so I insisted we snap a pic and send it to one of our mutual companions. She responded right away.

There's something really special about watching old friends go through different stages of life. I've known Laney as a missionary, I've known her single, I've known her married, and this was the first time I got to see her and her husband as parents. I have to say, I'm a big fan.

Her daughter is a doll but they aren't ridiculous or overly precious about her. They have good heads on their shoulders and as sweet as she is, they don't let her charm her way out of anything. She's wary of strangers and as we walked around the zoo (which we pretty much had to ourselves), my only goal was to get her to trust me enough to want to hold my hand.

Spoiler alert: she held my hand!

Blaine hung back with her while Laney and I caught up on each other's lives. There's that saying that real friends pick up where they left off, whether it's been two weeks or two years. In short order we both pulled the demons out of our closets. We cried and listened and reminisced a bit. I was so worried that taking off with Laney would offend everyone on this trip but I remember when we were watching the lions when they started roaring and feeling healed as I was able to get out a lot of stuff that had been shoved deep down inside of me for a really long time. For just a moment, I was able to roar the awful stuff and just getting it all out in the open made me feel stronger, more ready to go back and face the new nightmares that awaited me. This picture later taken at the Waco Suspension Bridge is kind of a foreshadowing of what was to come for me emotionally after this visit with Laney- haha!

Oh man, I needed that brief respite with my old companera!

Waco: Magnolia Table, The Silos & the Dr Pepper Museum

Whitney introduced me to Fixer Upper and it wasn't long before I was a superfan. When my girlfriends invited me along on a trip to Waco I was so very, very excited. Here we all are together- there in the center of the picture is the tumbler Lindsey made with my name on it! When you grow up with an unusual name before personalization was the thing it is now, you always get excited about an object that has your name on it. 

We headed over to Magnolia Table for brunch- those are Annie's cute feet by the tiled rug at the entrance.

 We were seated right near the front and I was so proud of this picture. We'd all had a tough year, but Annie had some heartbreaking disappointments. This girl will never fully comprehend how badly I want for some much-prayed for blessings to come her way. With all my heart, I hope the good ol' times are still to come for her!

The hot chocolate with heart-shaped foam was pretty sweet (pun absolutely intended!)

I think we had all assumed Texas would be much, much warmer than Chicago in November but it was chilly and rainy. Even though there was a glass screen, the cold wind blew through the front door and right over to our table. The hot chocolate helped remedy that.

Becky and I went to the restroom not because we really needed to go to the restroom, but because we wanted to see how it was decorated- haha!

I have to give them props for all the little details like this framed matchbook of the original restaurant.

Aside from the hot chocolate, I ordered the lavendar donuts and eggs benedict. It was good- they came on biscuits instead of the traditional English muffin but it was, I don't know how to put this, touristy. If I lived in Waco, I don't know that I would come here and order this. It's the kind of thing you eat when you are on a special trip with girlfriends. I mean it was good, it just wasn't something I wanted over and over, ya know?

I remember when they highlighted the leather pouches along the wall for stowing electronics. In spite of those and these signs, pretty much everyone had their phone out, taking lots and lots of photos. Probably all tourists like ourselves.

Our waitress was very practiced in taking group photos, as you can see:

Outside around the corner you can see this in the concrete- so cute!

 The nearby gift shop was adorable but even as a superfan of the show, there just wasn't anything that was tempting to me.

There's a to-go truck outside Magnolia Table that sells the exact same cupcakes they sell at the Magnolia Baking Co but it wasn't open yet so the bakery was our next stop.

I think I got a little overexcited about the cupcakes because I bought a lot of them thinking it would be fun for everyone to snack on them throughout the trip. In the end, I ate most of them and even ended up bringing some home on the plane for Brent and the girls.

I know it's trite but true- The Silos look so much smaller in real life than on tv! I breezed right past the famous entrance installation without even noticing it at first.

We happened to visit on Chip's birthday so they had this huge card we signed. I loved that we missed the crowds and enjoyed wandering around all the pretty displays. I picked out just a few things to purchase. I was much more judicious than I had been with the cupcakes, for sure!

 We stopped really briefly at the Magnolia Seed + Supply but our only gardener was less than impressed with the seeds. She said they were really overpriced and they weren't real seeds. I'm not sure what that means, but apparently the package was more pretty than informative so the seeds inside weren't really legit.

I was temped by the bath bombs but I was feeling too spendy and decided to pass them up. Another cute shop to visit with these cute ladies!

 These swings were my favorite part of the grounds. In case you can't tell, these suckers are solid: they are deep and wide and they tilt back so you never want to get up again. Even Becky wanted to snuggle a bit!

 Everyone was pretty done with The Silos by the time we got to this wall. My lack of posing skills is apparent as I could not find a good way to make this a truly Instagramable picture. I've seen so many cute pictures of people with a cupcake or a Silos bag or I dunno, just walking past it and I finally had to give up on getting my perfect picture. This will just have to do.

Not far from The Silos is the Dr Pepper Museum. Don't get me wrong, it's a fun place to visit but if you go, definitely go with a Dr Pepper fanatic who is eager to make it into the Pepper Pack. Seeing all of this with Becky was such a treat and she just made me smile with all her enthusiasm.

Becky is usually pretty steady and it cracked me up to see her so lit up about the museum.

For reasons I can't remember, there's a whole floor dedicated to the relationship of soda to the Prohibition.

I think this is the connection?

There were definitely some interesting factoids, like this one.

It cracked me up that once the country sobered up, they realized women needed to have the vote.

Another surprisingly fun corner of Waco I never expected!

Across from the museum is a gift shop where a real-live soda jerk makes a complimentary Dr Pepper. It was the perfect pick me up in the middle of the day.