Monday, May 3, 2010

Don't Mess with Texas

Ok.  So I believe Texans are a rare breed.  Those folks LOVE their state....and well, it is something to love.  Now granted I have 6 (now 5) friends that live in TX that I don't EVER get to see so throw that into the combo of a great state- it's pretty terrific!

Lina and I left early Thursday morning for Houston via Atlanta.  We did great with finding our connecting flight.  Lina is excellent to travel with.  She is helpful, carries her own backpack, loves to read (ANYthing- maps for hours) and loves an adventure.



We arrived on time in Houston and navigated our way to the car rental place, rented our car and we were off.  OFF IN A STATE I HAVE NEVER DRIVEN IN BY MYSELF.  We were to drive a Marquis, but this very TX man told us "two pretty ladies need to be in this" and put us in a sporty Dodge version of Honda Pilot.

Lina and were heading to a little town about 3 hours away from Houston to see my dear friend Kendra and her family.  I haven't seen Kendra since her twins were just born....they are now 4 and baby boy is 15 months old!  Lina reunited with Kendra's oldest, M, like they saw one another last week.  It was sweet.  Kendra lives in the CAAAA-untry!  WOW.  So cool.  They have a huge lot and the girls all just ran and giggled.  We had a delicious dinner, baths, and crashed for the night.  So good to see Kendra.  She is one my good buddies from Hannah's Prayer.  We had a fabulous breakfast and headed N to Austin.

So good to see you, Kendra!  Thanks for the wonderful accomodations and letting us disrupt your evening/morning.

We arrived in Austin with no problems and met with our dear friends from Lutheran Social Services.  This was the adoption agency we used in 2003-2004.  There are only 2 people still there from our time- the director and the girl that did all our paperwork and made sure we had all we needed.  We stayed and visited for over an hour.  Neat ladies.



Nalia played vet with Lina and Lina enjoyed every minute of it.  She would have stayed there for hours.  It was so adorable.

From that visit Lina and I headed Downtown to the Children's Museum.  Way cool museum.




Lina pretending to be a bat in Austin.  Keep reading to find out more about that.

We had lunch at a cute little place and then went to check into our hotel.  Then we met up with our friend and familia at hotel next door and enjoyed happy hour with lots of giggles.  We got to spend the night with the Heitshusens and the Ramiz family.  We had some Mexican food and lots of fun!


My 11 year old godson sucking popcorn up through a straw.  Silly boy.

Amanda's graduation was Saturday morning.  So proud of Ms. Amanda Lynn.....future teacher somewhere that will be very blessed to have her.



Saturday night most of Amanda's extended family left so it wasn't a pack of 30 traveling anymore : )  We met for happy hour again and then headed to see the bats.  Yes.  We planned on seeing bats.  SO gross.  Check this out if you don't know what I am talking about http://www.austinbats.com/   Apparently this isn't the time of year so much for them, but what we saw (and me from way far away) was pretty cool and EWWWW at the same time.  Amanda took Lina down further to see them. She, of course, thought it was all pretty neat.



Sunday morning Lina and I drove back to Houston (we made a triangle in TX) for our 5:00 flight.  I was so blessed to spend a few hours with my friend Jen while Lina played with her boys.  Those moments are few and far....she is such an amazing lady. 

Lina and I got home uneventfully around midnight.  I let Lina sleep in and miss school today.  She slept till 10:35 and it was only because Lila flung the door open and said "hey sissy".  We picked up Lydia at noon and had lunch at Panera.  The girls played sooooo nicely together all day today.  They all needed a break from routine and one another apparently.  I fully expect everyone to sleep through the night.  Lila and Lydia were both up for a good chunk of time last night, but it was ok.  I enjoyed the snuggles, kisses, and reports of the weekend. : )

2 comments:

Kelly said...

Um, where are the pictures of Kendra and kids???? Glad you had fun, Jenn!

Anonymous said...

I'll email a pic to the group.

J, thanks again for taking the time to hang at our house. We were so blessed. The girls have only asked 4 million times if Lina can come play again.