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6.27.2016

Weekend in Broken Bow

My mom's birthday was just a few weeks after Sid's! My Uncle Jim has a cabin in Broken Bow and he was going to be there for the weekend of her birthday. My mom was going, too - so we decided to join them for a quick weekend getaway! It's just under a 4 hour drive, not bad!

If you've ever been on a road trip with my husband, then you know you better be ready for whiplash at any given moment if he spots a good lookin' food (aka whole in the wall!) joint! He will flip that car around so fast you won't even know what hit you! This is what happened on our way to Oklahoma! This is definitely one of the things I love about him.

It was a hoooooooot Texas summer day and we ate outside on the side of the highway! BUT - it was one of the best hamburgers ever!!


As you can see, it was totally open aired. Even though it was hot, there was a breeze and shade, thankfully. Sid was in total heaven because he was able to watch all the big trucks zoom right past us on the highway. It was a fun little lunch stop :)

Not hot at all ;)
We were the first to arrive at Blackberry. I was ready to get Sid all set up for nap time. We hauled his stuff upstairs, only to find that the room for Sid had been infested by bees! Ah! We then realized that the air was not coming on upstairs either. THEN - we began to notice more bees around, in the big cabin windows mainly. We called my uncle who was an hour away. Thankfully his room downstairs didn't have any bees in it, so we were able to get Sid down for a nap using his room. Thank goodness the downstairs AC worked!

By the time Uncle Jim got there, he was able to get an AC repair man out there that day to fix the upstairs. He got in touch with a beekeeper who told us he wouldn't be able to come out until the next day, but not to worry because they wouldn't bother us during the night. I guess we felt pretty good about that, as we weren't noticing anymore coming in, and the ones that were in seemed to not be buzzing as the evening started to set in.

The next day we hung out at the house waiting on the bee keeper to show up. Sid had a nice breakfast and then played with his legos that we brought with us.


It was really interesting watching him do his work and learning about how these very intelligent insects operate. For lunch we went for some fried catfish at Steven's Gap. It was very very good. We took some back to Uncle Jim because he didn't get join us because the beekeeper was still at the cabin.


After lunch, the bees were all gone. Orrrrr, so we thought! I went upstairs to put Sid down for his nap, and next thing we know, we see where TONS of bees were clustering just outside of the bedroom. I completely freaked! We carefully aborted nap time, gathered all of our stuff from upstairs, and evicted the cabin for a hotel room. The beekeeper came back and took care of the rest of the bees overnight. 

We went out to dinner on Saturday night and then came back to the hotel and celebrated my mom's birthday! Sean made her crepe cake! It was delicious, but sadly, since we were in the hotel room and not the cabin, we weren't able to top it with the scrumptious chocolate ganache. We settled for Hershey's chocolate syrup instead. O'well, it did the trick!


Sunday morning we got up and headed out for a boat ride! At first, Sid wasn't so sure about the boat. But once the motor started he was fine and ready to go!


After a while on the lake, the sun started to get too hot. We went back to my uncle's cabin to check out the non-bee situation :) We soon loaded up and hit the road back to TX. We absolutely love Broken Bow and know we will be back for more memories, hopefully with no bees next time, ha!

note -

This trip post is way (as in almost a year) behind. There is one story that I'd like to tell that happened on our first night there. I can't remember the sequence of it all, so I'm adding it down here.

The first night we were there, my mom was later showing up. We waited on her arrival before having dinner. We were celebrating her retirement and 65th birthday over the weekend. But, we also had some rather special news to share with her! 

Before dinner, Uncle Jim fixed everyone a cocktail to celebrate. Once we settled on the couch for a visit, Sean handed her a FedEX envelope addressed to her. She was very confused, but opened it anyway. It was a letter from "Chateau Parks", letting her know that there was going to be some remodeling happening and her room at the chateau was going through some changes. Long story short - this was us announcing to her that we were expecting a baby in February!! She about fell off the sofa! 

6.13.2016

Colorado Bound...with NO KID!

Sean and I finally took the opportunity to take a trip alone for our friend Shelby's wedding! We hadn't even spent one night away from sweet little Sid since he was born...2 years ago!! It was time, and it went great! Grammy drove down and stayed with him for the 2 nights we were away.

We left for Denver before Sid woke up on Thursday morning.


We got to the airport early that morning. We wanted to make sure to leave before Sid saw us so that he wouldn't get upset. It worked like a charm, and I think this was the most UNstressed Sean and I have ever been traveling. We got there so early, we were able to sit and have breakfast in the airport before departing. Sean also needed to get a little work done. So he worked, and I read my book.


We landed in Denver, but then we had to drive to Estes Park. It was a little over an hour drive. But check out the scenery! And not to mention the weather was perfection!!! All of our friends were traveling in as well for the wedding.


Shelby and Ryan had a "rehearsal dinner" (there was no rehearsal - just a dinner & party!) on Thursday night. It was a fun night. We were all staying in the same condos, but many of us hadn't gotten a chance to see each other yet. I never got a headache from the altitude, but it definitely gave me sea legs for the 2 days we were there. I did a looooooooot of water drinking.

Husbandless - he had to run back to the condo to draw up an offer :)

We all retired early on Thursday night because the party location had to be shut down by 10. Since we were all staying in the same condos, we went back and did a little more hanging out before going to bed.

Hooper telling us all something EXTREMELY enlightening, I'm sure ;)
What's an after party w/o Totino's party pizzas!

The next morning, this was our view...


I decided I should move myself outside. It was the most peaceful morning I've had in a long time. The sound of the river, hot tea, and my book...all while wearing a North Face at 8am in June. I mean. Really.

We were the bottom unit. Paul & Natasha were above us.

 Sean had to work again that morning, but he did eventually join me outside for some relaxation.


Mike and Liz were right next door to us and we spent our entire trip with them. They live in Austin and we don't get to see them much, so it was really nice spending time with them. Friday morning, Mike cooked us breakfast before we headed into Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP)! Sean and I went on a Starbucks run for everyone while they cooked :)

We set out to drive to the highest point in RMNP after we ate. Liz unfortunately gets extremely car sick, so we didn't make it all the way up, but it did not matter. The views were spectacular regardless.

Sean and Mike figuring it all out!

This sign freaked me out! And to know we were still going up uP UP! Eeeesh!! The drive was seriously amazing. And we got to see cool animals along the way! Elk elk everywhere!


We eventually had to pull off for Liz. At that point, the boys set out to hike up this mountain, leaving Liz and I sitting in the car. She wasn't feeling well enough to get out of the car, so I decided to get out myself and do a little exploring for a nice photo op :)

They climbed to the top, then back down!

Once the boys came back down, Liz was feeling better and we were all able to walk through the snow a little to see the gorgeous mountains!

It was sooooo cold up there!!!!

It was really slippery walking up by myself. So I was very glad I had Sean to hang on to the second time I went walking in the snow!


After a quick stop in a gift shop at the bottom of the park, we grabbed lunch back in Estes before going back to the condo for a rest. We had to be ready for the wedding by 4 that afternoon.

Shelby's wedding day was beautiful. The venue was beautiful. She was beautiful!

Natasha & Paul, Sean & me, Mike & Liz
Lori, Liz, Me, Katie, Courtney, Natasha, & Shelly
The "Dallas" Crew with the bride!
It was a great night! We all had the best time being all together. Sean and I had an early flight out Saturday morning, so when the reception was over, we did not venture to the after party. We went back to our condo and went to bed! 5am came early! And as lovely of a time we had, there was one mama in particular that could not WAIT to get home to her baby! 

6.09.2016

Sid's 2nd Birthday Party!

We kept Sid's party small. It was the weekend Sean and I got back from Colorado, and it was Claire's high school graduation. So there was lots going on.

I decided on a train theme! We invited his best friend, Graham, and the rest was the family. Adam and Christy drove over from Shreveport and my mom came down from Arkansas. The Austin crew tried to make it but due to travel complications, they didn't make it in time :(

I designed the invitations for the party. He was obsessed with them for a while :)

Front
Back

Sid and Uncle Adam played with his favorite toy in his room while the rest of us finished setting up for the party. Sid adores this cement mixer about as much as he adores his Uncle Adam!


I made a mexican chicken dish in the crock pot and then we ordered rice, beans, tortillas, and the rest of the fixins' from our favorite local mexican restaurant for the food. Rice and beans is BY FAR Sid's favorite food! It was a no brainer :) I spent the most time coming up with a yummy, egg free/dairy free cake that would taste good to everyone! After testing several different recipes I finally found a good one. The food was good, and so was the company :)

I made the cake topper based off of his invitation
"Graham, this is MY Rice & Beans!"
Opening his art easel from his DC family :)
Liking the card Nana & Grandpa gave him

It was such a fun day. It was super NOT stressful for some reason. We gave ourselves plenty of time to get things ready and it was simply perfect. I know Sid had a great time, and that's really all that matters :)

Sid got a good nap after his party, and then woke up and played with his new gift from Grammy, with Grammy!


The next day was his actual birthday! We started the morning with giving Sid his big gift from us and making him his favorite vegan blueberry pancake breakfast!


He got a balance bike! He was pretty super excited, even though we haven't done much riding it yet.

Lookin' good little bug!
We love you, Sidney Loyd! Happy 2nd Birthday!!!