Austin Bound.

**WARNING: Picture OVERLOAD!

2 weekends before my wedding, my bridesmaids and I drove down to Austin for my bachelorette party!  Everyone was there with the exception of my Matron of Honor, Erin, and bridesmaid Kristen.  They were very much missed :(

Jennifer luckily had recently gotten a new car and was able to fit us all in for the road trip!  Thanks for driving, Jenn :)  Jenn picked me up Friday morning and we headed to Dallas to pick up Kelly and Alison.  We were on the road by 11!  Lauren was driving from Shreveport to meet us and we timed it perfectly!  She arrived just 30 minutes after us.

On the way down, we had to stop in West, TX (yes, that's the name of the town) for some kolaches!  YUUUUM!!!!

Alison and I stuffing our faces!

Jenn apparently stuffing too much in her face, ha!

Once we got to our hotel, we had big plans to lay out by the pool for the rest of the afternoon, but when we got all checked in, we peaked outside and the pool was P A C K E D ! ! !   It wasn't a very big pool to begin with, but there wasn't even anywhere to sit on the side.  Not fun!  So Kelly and Alison took off down the street to find the nearest liquor store :) ...they returned with some yummy margaritas in a bottle (the skinny kind!).  We turned on the music, poured us a drink, and just hung out until it was time for my lingerie shower!  We had big plans of FaceTiming w/ Erin, but sadly the internet connection was poor so speakerphone was all we could do :(

My gifts :)

Cheers!

There were some delicious cupcakes in this box!  And how fitting is their logo!!  (Traylor-Parks wedding!!)

 :)

We went to dinner at Trudy's.  We had planned on taking a cab b/c it wasn't with/in walking distance.  When we got outside, no one would take us in ONE cab!  Austin law is 4 only!  Even in a van, UGH!  While I'm jumping in a cab realizing we were going to have to suck it up and just take 2, Kelly and Jenn were off working her magic.  Next thing I know, they are waving the rest of us out of our cab b/c they got the VIP shuttle service at the hotel to take us! 

Score!!!

Back to Trudy's...they are famous for the mexican martinis (aka, deadly margarita).  We were all so worried about getting too tipsy on Friday night, believe it or not, NONE of us ordered one! HA!  We  already had a few cocktails in the hotel room before dinner, so it was probably for the best :)   We ordered sangria swirls instead.

Lauren, Jenn, Alison, Kelly, Me

After dinner, we had to find a cab (I mean 2 cabs!!).  Something easy enough, so we thought!  There were NO CABS anywhere!!  

Eventually, we were successful.  We split up and away we went, back downtown.

Kelly, Jenn and I ended up in a cab together.  We took SO MANY pictures trying to get the 3 of us in one shot.  I never knew that could be so hard, ha!  It was hysterical though :)  We ended up at a bar next door to Brad's (bachelor Brad's) bar.  We stayed for one drink, then decided to call it a night.  We were pretty sleepy and we wanted to be rested for our busy day on Saturday.  We walked back to our hotel, which seemed like FOREVER!  We made it, safe and sound :)

Saturday AM we woke up, got some food and hit the pool!  We were determined to get a spot!  Well we did and it was so relaxing.  It was pretty shady until time to go in and get ready (of course).  We had mani/pedi appointments that afternoon.  Instead of getting ready to go for lunch, we ended up ordering poolside (including a bloody mary!).  We had lunch by the pool, then RAN upstairs to throw on our clothes to make it to the manicure place!  My sweet sister in law (& bridesmaid) flew all the way from DC to meet us for Saturday night!  She took a cab from the airport to the nail place.  It was so nice having her there :)  

Kelly, Me, Alison getting our nails done.

The rest of the afternoon was spent shopping, eating and relaxing.  It was SO HOT in Austin, we really didn't want to be outside much.

Tourists?  Who?  US?

After some much needed R&R, we were dressed and ready for the big night!  

My "bride to be" sash was so cute!  I loved it!  Thanks Erin and Alison!

Kelly, Anastasia, Me, Lauren, Alison, Jenn

We went for sushi and saki!  

Some girls at a table over bought me a shot!  They own a bridal boutique in Austin :)  It was SOUR!

Cheers Ladies!
Lauren, Anastasia, Me, Alison, Jenn, Kelly

I was surprised, wait, SHOCKED at the end of dinner by a very fitting "bachelorette" dessert!  It was so gross, but so good!!   

After dinner we hit the town!  Found an awesome rooftop bar that we stayed at for the majority of the night.  They had a great DJ spinning records.  I was hooked!  Well, hooked until I heard the same song twice, that was a sure sign it was time to move on!!  But before we bailed, I had to take a picture with this dude!  His shirt was awesome!!

As the night went on, it got more and more interesting.  So interesting, we ran into several naked people, full body paint running out of the next bar we were trying to go in!  When they came running out, I went running with them (laughing SO HARD I might add!) b/c I was pretty sure if they came running OUT of there, I didn't want any part of what might be IN there!  We all got a really good laugh out of that one!  Only in Austin, folks!  We found another bar w/ some good old school dance songs.  You know, the classics like Baby Got Back and Ice Ice Baby :)

My sweet Russian sister in law, Anastasia, was a trooper while we danced to our old school favorites :)  I think she has video somewhere :)

It was a very late night!  By say, oh I don't know 3am we were done!  Our feet couldn't dance anymore.  But we definitely danced our way into hunger.  We stopped at a Korean BBQ food truck!  Best tacos ever!!!

Our men would be so proud :)

It was such a fun night/weekend!  I love these girls with all my heart and I thank them all for taking a weekend to spend with me, on one of my last weekends as a single lady!  Sunday AM we all packed up and hit the road.  We dropped Anastasia and Alison off at the airport.  Poor Alison had to fly to China for a week directly from Austin, YUCK!

Love you girls!!!  Thanks for a GREAT weekend :))))