Postal Surprises!

I mentioned back in June how much I / we love getting packages in the mail! I think they are heavily weighted toward the kids, but even that is fun seeing how excited they get. Mostly they come from the grandparents, but we had one show up out of the blue from our friends in Houston, John and Allie. We had just seen them when we were in Texas and I am pretty sure that Allie asked for my address, but I totally failed to put 2 & 2 together until a package showed up. Yay for being easy to surprise!

Thomas was super, duper, ecstatic about all the trucks they sent. He absolutely loves monster trucks these days and guess what - Allie is psychic! I'm not sure he recognized the particular characters, but he knew they were his "Monster Trucks!" 

As a side note, I checked and the Monster Jam does *not* come to Alaska. So sad for Thomas and me... : (

Seriously - look at this excitement! He was waving it around and then pounding his little fists on the table shouting "Trucks! Trucks! Trucks!" I tried so hard to get a video of it and he (of course) promptly stopped. Trust me, Thurmonds, he loves them!

Allie - I tried to get a photo of Henry with the blanket perfectly draped over his head, but he jerked it down and then it just looked like I was throwing blankets over my child... Which reminded me of the time we were driving around in Norway with you, Jack and me in the backseat. Jack was having a blast playing with candy wrappers and fell asleep with them on his face. You took a photo to show John how funny it was and he said it just looked like we put trash on Jack. Ha!

I have no idea why I remember that, but it was motivating enough to not post blanket head baby photos. ;)

As another note, he finally has a blanket for daycare that his name on it. Woooo! I am probably the worst parent at labeling things. They probably just put anything without a label in our bin... "/

More trucks! This one might have been even more exciting because it makes noise! Lots and lots of noise!

Thanks...? ; )

Also note the football was from the other care package we got this week from Nonni and Grandpa. I forgot to give Henry that ball at first because of all the cool stuff for Thomas. So when we were skyping with them yesterday, I handed Henry the ball. He flipped out for the football! I think it was even better they got to see how excited he was over their present!

But the ball obviously wasn't cutting it when there were noisy trucks to play with... And Thomas actually shared one of them with Henry! He's not always a generous toddler, so it makes me super happy when he's so sweet to his brother. Of course, Henry isn't quite sure what to do with the truck.

I'm pretty sure he's thinking "Should I eat it?"  - mostly because I think he thinks that about everything. You can tell the boy is not starving... ; )

And look at that! A new skill! I did have to help him get up to a standing position, but he was able to hold it and seemed pretty proud of himself. Thomas was always demanding to stand up that it's been a little weird Henry hasn't been at all interested. I guess he's finally seeing the charm of being completely vertical. 

Thanks again to both John & Allie and my parents. We are super grateful that anyone remembers us up here in Alaska, getting surprise packages is just that much more exciting! :)

Happy Halloween!

I had great plans of making cupcakes for Thomas' Halloween party at school, but someone signed up for cupcakes before I managed to get on the list. So I defaulted back to a fun treat I made years ago - oreo spiders! They were more orange than they look here, but the lighting out today wasn't great - thanks, clouds... 

I went back and forth on whether to use the intended red hots or not for the kids. In the end I decided my kiddo likes hot stuff so he would probably like them. The rest of the kids are on their own. ; )

Henry wearing his Halloween outfit from his Nonni and Grandpa. The daycare planned on having the kids trick-or-treat to other classrooms and I falsely assumed the infants would be exempt. Nope - the other babies all had costumes. Whatever. We were late enough this morning we missed that part anyhow.

Truth be told, we missed Thomas' treat-or-treating as well. Apparently the times listed were guidelines, not rules. Ha! I wasn't too concerned, I hadn't been able to convince Thomas to wear his costume at all. So no need to have a huge meltdown when I tried to put it on him...

Surprise, surprise... Apparently he saw all his friends in their costumes and threw a fit when Matt tried to put the rocket in his locker. As all of his friends were taking their costumes off, Thomas was proudly strutting around as a rocket ship. Apparently he was quite the hit in his class (I was still with Henry and missed all of it!) I figured the costume would be discarded when I went back to his classroom... Boo!

Nope! They had moved to the indoor gym and he was still wearing his rocket ship!

We played with each other through the window and he was happy as a clam in his rocket ship. Go figure.

I came back that afternoon for the party and got to hang out with Thomas and his best bud, Eli (Buzz Lightyear). The rocket is pretty much impossible to sit down while wearing, but his teachers said he really liked wearing it and they had to talk him out of it for lunch. 

There were a ton of sweets at the party. Look at my kid's plate. I'm not sure this is my kid... Fruit? He has ice cream and didn't even eat it. Eli was chowing down so hard on a cupcake I had to stop him and get the partially eaten wrapper off for him. That's more my style. No accounting for genetics sometimes I guess... "/

As for the final outcome of the painted pumpkin - it looked very bold! I had to add a little bit of paint around the T before I pulled the tape off or you wouldn't have been able to tell what it was. Which is pretty much the exact opposite of last year - he spent so much time painting and repainting that pumpkin it ended up a being study in gray... It's amazing how much everything can change in a year! :)

Pumpkin Painting!

Thomas really seemed to enjoy painting a pumpkin for Halloween last year, so I thought we would give it another shot this year. I'm not quite ready to introduce cutting implements... He gets pretty excited anytime craft time involves paint - luckily for me, the paints these days really are quite washable. (Notice we still take a few precautions...!)

I let him pick the colors hoping if I limited it to three colors this year we might not end up with a completely gray pumpkin. And luckily, he picked three colors that actually go together quite well. Whew!

In case you have forgotten from last year, I used painters tape to block off part of the pumpkin and let him paint all around it for a reverse design. I decided to try a monogram this year, I figured it would be fun to mix it up! 

Again with my children and their tongues needing to be out for maximum concentration. I also noticed once he started painting that he was very specifically matching up paintbrushes with the same paint color. This is normal for toddlers, right? I worry about how particular this little guy can be...

Or he just gets it from his dad. ; )

Henry didn't get to paint this year, but he was just as happy as he could be. He loves hanging out with his big brother. Of course, all the fun toys I kept fetching for him didn't hurt...!

Look at that paintbrush control. So advanced in his painting methods these days!

He decided he wanted to mix it up and play with some of the other brush options. He really enjoyed smushing the sponge brush on the pumpkin. 

Which led to shouts of "Moon! Moon!"

I can't really argue with that. They do look very moon-ish. : )

Then he decided it was time for finger/hand painting. I've mentioned before that they do this quite a bit at daycare, so he is quite the pro at painting his hand to make handprints.

Of course, if I get distracted for a few minutes, this is what happens... Ha - not sure if he planned on arm painting his pumpkin or the temptation of the green paint was just too much. But it was pretty much the end of pumpkin painting... ; )

And it wouldn't be fall in Alaska without the occasional moose visitor! There were actually a few wandering around while we were painting, but one hung around long enough for me to photograph her "good" side... :)

Halloween Party

This year, for the company sanctioned Halloween party, they moved it from downstairs to the museum. A little less convenient, but considering how much Thomas liked the museum the first time we went, I figured it would be worth the hassle of going 3 blocks away... ;)

Henry was quite the hit in his giraffe costume. He didn't have a say in costume choice, but he didn't seem to mind it one bit! (Thanks to one of the fellow photography club members for this cute photo of us!)

Thomas, on the other hand, picked out his Halloween costume. He was super excited about finding a rocket ship on the rack at the store (never mind the fact He shoved it back when I found it, but when he re-found it 30 seconds later... Woooo!) and had so much fun playing with it that evening. "Rocket Ship! Whoosh!"

I had been trying to get him pumped for wearing it to the actual event and was not having much luck. I figured we had a 50/50 shot of him wearing it long enough for a photo, so I dug out his Halloween shirt Grannie sent him last year so he would be in theme, if not in costume. 

The photo above was the best I got. He wouldn't even put it on for me! Argh! I will try again, but don't hold your breath for a cute "toddler in a rocket ship" photo...  

Henry was happy to do double duty on cuteness photos since his brother wasn't playing along. Look at that cute little giraffe head! Awwww...

He was drawing all kinds of attention! A coworker's daughter was all about Henry. A sequin fell off her Ariel costume and she was trying to give it to him. Very Rainbow Fish, if you know that particular children's book...

I finally got Thomas to leave the exhibits and go upstairs for the Brick-by-Brick main display. The boy loves Legos, so I just promised him he could play with 'blocks' and he let me carry him away. Here he is impatiently waiting for the (biggest ever) elevator to arrive.

Also note the new shoes. He was super concerned about a superficial hole in his Thomas the Train shoes and Brittney promised him we'd buy him new ones - in the future. Which to Thomas meant as soon as we get done with our road trip...

Cue a freak out in Target when he sees the Lightning McQueen shoes! But they don't have his size and he was sooo upset. I was looking them up on the Target app to just order them right then, when I noticed they were supposedly available in his size at the store we was currently in. After some frantic scrounging around, we found the last pair of size 7's misplaced in a size 9 box...

Hallelujah! 

The exhibit upstairs was totally geared toward kids or the young at heart! Thomas wasn't sure what to think about all the Legos and a whole wall to stick them on. 

But he was quickly in the thick of it amongst the fairies and ninjas building something. The boy loves his Legos! 

I wandered with Henry over to the large sculptures and they were pretty cool! Some people are talented, not matter what the medium. The sculptures were pretty creative and well executed. My favorite one was behind glass, so it didn't photograph well, but it was a guy "opening" his chest and Legos spilling out. (Which was not nearly as morbid as it sounds.) 

But, coincidentally there were a few skulls that totally fit the theme of the day.

So...

Happy Halloween! 

Halloween Cookies!

We hadn't really tried decorating cookies since last Christmas, so I figured it was time to try again. Except this time I thought it would be fun to try actually making the cookies with Thomas. He's so interested in "cooking" with mama these days!

Also I need to thank Brittney up front for taking photos. The majority of these were hers! It gave her a chance to practice her photography skills - while I got to have fun with the kids *and* have a well documented time. Perfect! 

He seemed more interested in stacking the containers than mixing cookies, but as long as he was happy, whatever!

Henry was sure he was missing something exciting! And as a side note, is he not adorable in his fest? Eeek - the cuteness! 

Thomas wasn't too sure about me rolling out the dough. But when I pulled out the cookie cutters, he was on board!

They use cookie cutters in class with play-dough, so he knew right away what to do! I tried to help him push them down enough to cut through, but that was a mixed bag. Sometimes he'd smash the center of the cookie trying to push harder, other times he'd reposition the cutter 10 times. It made for interesting designs! 

Then I would try to get them to the cookie sheet in one piece. I say try because he was not patient with me and I had to move fast before another cookie cutter would be smacked down. See the truck? We let Thomas help pick out the cutter designs. :)

then Thomas decided he wanted to help move things with a spatula while mama was distracted. On a related note, his new favorite phrase is "I did it!!" He's totally saying that here... :)

See that focus and determination? I got forbidden in helping with the cutters "No mama! I do it!"

Patiently waiting for the oven timer to announce the cookies are done!

Patiently waiting for mama to roll out the dough for more cookie cutting. And who said coffins can't be bracelets? 

After a few rounds on the dough, I decided to hand it off for some play time. He was so proud of himself rolling out the dough like his mama! 

Decorating time! We quickly learned (once again) to give him his own decoration bowls. His first attempted at sprinkles ended with sprinkles everywhere. Those things are pretty hard to control - even more so with toddler hands!

He did much better with sprinkle placement using his fingers. I didn't put any photos of him with the icing, but he actually did a great job squeezing it on the cookies! 

Me discussing sprinkle choices for my dinosaur. I was giving the purple a little time to dry to make better orange spots on it. There's an art to decorating, you know!

Heather decorating a plane. Such focus!

he was pretty pumped about the whole event! It did take some effort to capture a true smile, but he was having a blast!

Apparently focus is key! Look at Brittney's purple icing control for her bat! ;)

The final products! The one dinosaur is labeled TOMMY because he wanted to eat it before dinner and I said no - so he licked it. Had to make sure no one else would eat it... "/

Henry didn't get any cookies, but he seemed happy enough with his veggie purée! This kid loves his food - look at that gaping mouth ready for the next spoonful! ;) 

Thanks again for the photography, Brittney! You're now the official event photographer! 

Eight (29.5) Months

Another month, another chance to try and wrangle smiles out of my sticker bedecked boys... Although they must have felt bad for all the chaos last month, look at these two happy guys!!

How on earth did I get so lucky? Two smiling faces! They aren't even upset about having to sit next to each other...

Henry is now sitting up like a champ, no need to lean on the armrest this month (although I kinda loved that pose)!

Thomas was even happy to leave his sticker on. It certainly didn't start out promising, I had to bribe him to even get him upstairs. But once had his applesauce, he was golden! 

Henry discovered his sticker this month and was trying to pull it off for a closer look. Thomas seemed to know that was a bad idea.  

Without pausing from sucking down his fruit, he reached over and stopped Henry right before he yanked it off. So helpful!

Henry looks pensive here. Thomas was doing something on the floor and he was eyeballing his big brother. Luckily I have good reflexes, because shortly after this photo was taken, Henry tried to lunge off the chair!

These boys...

It's like they have no fear!

Thomas was happy to take photos, but would not let go of his applesauce. I tried get him to do poses where he would hold it off camera, but it wasn't so successful - his arms aren't *that* long...

This particular one he was doing his "Yay!!" from tumbling class. I think his arms are supposed to be straight up, but close enough. 

And last, but not least, Henry doing the "sticking tongue out for concentration" move while trying to reach his sticker Momma stuck on the chair.

Told you it was genetic! ;)

Reindeer Farm

There's a reindeer farm up in Palmer that I've seen mentioned on the "Things to do" list and thought it would be fun to take the boys. After all, who doesn't love reindeer?

Since it is October, they were having Halloween themed events - hay rides, pumpkin patches, haunted houses, characters, and more!

Well the "pumpkin patch" was probably a warning sign, but I figured maybe people just went crazy for the pumpkins...

It really wasn't at all what I was imagining. I was thinking red barns, decorations, reindeer roaming around in big open pastures... Maybe I was overly optimistic, but it was a bit of a letdown for me. But I've decided that part of being a good parent is finding fun in less than ideal situations, so I tried!

Right off the bat, we ran into a friend from tumbling class! And what a coincidence, they were wearing the exact same jacket! (Yay for awesome & affordable kids jackets from Costco!) Xander actually looked at the camera and smiled for me - Thomas was playing coy... Shocking!

This old tractor was being used for hay rides when it broke down. They had intended to tow it off, but it quickly became a huge attraction for the kids. Thomas was super excited about the tractor!

Look at him steering that big 'ole thing - such intense concentration requires him to stick his tongue out. (That's genetic...)

By far his favorite part was when he spotted this trio. He caught on right away that it was Anna! Not sure he cared about the Sven or Kristoff, but he was super excited about Anna. I know it's hard to tell here, but he kept asking about her the rest of the day. :)

Thomas, Reindeer.

Reindeer, this is Thomas. 

He wasn't too sure about the reindeer. I wasn't too sure about pushing a stroller around an active reindeer pen, but I was committed at that point... Once I let Thomas sit in it, he did not want to get out. Apparently he was nice and cozy with his hands in his pockets!  

Henry wasn't too sure either. Aren't they cute in their coordinated jackets and Monster hats, though??

Heather tried to get a cute photo with Thomas and this was the best she got. Toddlers...

All-in-all we made a fun day of it, but I can't see us going back anytime soon. The zoo is way closer and more fun! :)

Blood Moon

Earlier this year we had a blood moon and I had no interest in intentionally waking up in the middle of the night since someone was doing that for me... A few months and one moon photo shoot failure later - I was more than happy to wake myself up at 2am! Matt on the other hand, was unimpressed enough by the first one that he didn't want me to wake him up. :(

Happily, my furry babies were super excited to hang out with their mom while she tried to once again figure out photographing the moon!  After a rough start of finding a hat and gloves in the dark, we were ready to go. I played with my zoom, shutter speed and focus until my fingers were a little numb and I think the photos show an improvement. (Except for the photo that took while I was tripping over my tripod, but that's on par for my klutziness...)

Ta-da! The Blood Moon: 

I think I did a pretty good job on the shots! Still not able to zoom in super close like I'd prefer, but I think I'll need a longer lens for that. I managed to get the focus better thanks to reading up on moon photography - apparently the moon moves faster than you would think so a faster shutter speed was necessary. Plus the shorter shutter speed keeps the stars looking like points in space.

Granted, you can't see the stars in that photo because the settings are keyed in to the moon. So I decide to do a little photo manipulation to show you both: 

Pretty cool, huh? I used a radial filter on the moon to keep it the way I wanted, then upped the exposure outside the filter so you could see the stars. Matt teases me about photos not being "real" once I start messing with filters, but I always argue that I want the photo to look like what I saw. And that is what I saw at 2 in the morning. 

It really was a perfectly clear night for the blood moon. :)

Next on the list of night photography - star trails! If only the forecast would show something other than the dreaded "cloudy"...

Fancy Henry

It's hard to tell from my previous post, but I did actually take my fancy camera with me to Texas. It's so much easier to whip out my phone for photos when running around that I found myself not taking many with the Nikon. But I did get some - not surprisingly - of Henry while we were there!

The lighting in the hotel room wasn't great for photos, but I just love his hair in this one! Poor guy definitely got his momma's hair - most of my baby photos my hair is sticking straight up...

This kid will stick anything and everything in his mouth! The wipes package had the added bonus of sounding fun, so they were a Henry favorite.

New and exciting toys at Grannie's house! He was super excited about all the choices!

He wasn't too sure about the ball that tries to vibrate away though...

Luckily it was a super nice day, so even though there was no A/C, it wasn't miserable. Plus it made for some play time outside! Grannie gave Henry this super crazy flower to play with. At first he wasn't too sure what to think of it...

Then he decided he loved his crazy flower!!! It was the coolest thing ever!

Unfortunately, his exuberant shaking of the flower did not end well for the flower... Poor guy was pretty upset. The blue flower we tried to replace it with was deemed nowhere near as cool (thus why it's discarded on the ground...)

I finally thought to take off his bib to show off just how "Handsome Like Daddy" he truly was. Which is right when he let loose with a huge amount of drool... Ha!

That's more like it! What a cutie-patootie, huh? :) 

Whirlwind Trip to Texas

Just a warning up front that this is a long one! I thought about splitting it up into "All the food I missed and gorged myself on", but the food ties in to the rest of the photos as well. So I'm just apologizing up front and throwing it all together. If you are worn out already, just scroll through and look at the photos (you know who you are!)

The lead up to the trip was a ton of planning - mostly on what food I *had* to eat, but also who all I wanted to see. And there was no way I was going to be able to see everyone I wanted to see, which was a high bummer. It also made me appreciate how much I got to see Brittney when she made trips back - if you saw me, you should feel super, duper special!

Henry got to make the trip with me since I am still pretty critical to his survival, but Thomas and Matt got left behind to have some man-time. I think I missed them more than they missed me... Anyhow, since Henry was coming along and it was a work trip, that meant that I needed some help during the day! My mom very graciously offered to help, so we flew into DFW, rented a car and started out on our trip.

I said I wasn't sure where I would stop first, but who was I kidding? I knew. And it had to be Chick-fil-A. The displaced Texans up here heard they might build one in Washington state and we decided a weekend trip to Washington to get a chicken sandwich wasn't *that* unreasonable! I don't even think my parents were all that surprised that after an exhausted overnight flight, I still stopped to get in on the way to their house. 

Then promptly handed off the grand baby and fell asleep.

I forgot that Heather had left her first jeep behind when she drove her new one up to Alaska, so I had to get a photo op of the two Henrys! No, my child was not named after her jeep - it was a family name on Matt's side. Though now Heather is threatening to name her new jeep Thomas - ha!

Before we left my hometown to head to San Antonio, we had to stop and get fried pies. I even had a nice chat with the lady working the counter about how much I missed them and I hadn't seen any up in Alaska. This of course led to the usual, "Yes, it gets cold - but it's not that bad!" and "No, it's not dark all day in the winter..." and "Yes, it is light all day in summer..."

Luckily they had apricot, so I didn't even have to settled for peach or another second-best pie. 

In all my planning, it never occurred to me that in order to drive from Dallas area to San Antonio area I would have to drive through West, Texas. It was only when I was about 5 minutes away I realized we were going right past the best kolaches in the state!!! Ah-ha-ha-ha!!!! I controlled myself and only bought a half dozen. If they kept a little better, I might have gone crazy...

After an epic journey, I finally go to the new home of my bestie, Theresa! And we finally got to meet each other's newest kids! All three of her kids have grown so much - a downside to not having seen them in so long. :(

We hung out and played for a while until heading off to bed. We had an early start in the morning to get the older two kids over to swim lessons! Anna was a champ and kept waving to us from the pool. Wallace is not quite as fond of the water, but his class still looked like a lot of fun. It made me want to put our two in swim lessons - apparently they have a few places for them in Anchorage.

After swim lessons, more Chick-fil-A! Also note that I remedied the fact I forget strawberry jam with the first chicken biscuit. Matt put me on to that condiment. I know it sounds weird, but it is just perfect with it!

After swim lessons, Theresa and I took off on our much anticipated shopping trip! We were both in pretty dire need of new clothes. The selection in Alaska is a little limited, so I was hoping to "stock" up while in Texas. Both of us had individual shopping goals, but one we had in common was to find cute boots! We both have struggled with this in the past, so we were determined! Perhaps the pile of boxes shows we were a little too determined? Whatever - we both have new boots that we love - win!

Such was our focus on shopping, we both overlooked the fact we never ate lunch. What-a-Coincidence that one of my food places was right across the street! And you might notice the drink looks a little small - I had to borrow Theresa's kid sized drink (don't ask me why she got a kid sized one) because the monster drink that came with my combo meal wouldn't fit on the dash! I had to get the #1 with cheese combo though - it's tradition!

After way too short of a visit, we had to head to Houston. Her sister and crew showed up right as we were headed out, so we got a quick hello and goodbye with all of them. (Considering that Theresa and Josh both got sick that following week, I'm kinda glad we bugged out when we did!) 

Mom had to ride in the back with Henry the whole time. My usual happy all the time baby was *not* happy in the car! I chalked it up to him being lonely - he has his brother for company 99% of the time he is in the car. That and stopped occasionally seemed to help - which is how he got to see the madness that is Buc-ee's! Overwhelmed by the plethora of choices, I ended up with a way-too-big bag of wasabi peas and a coke "slurpee". Henry had some serious eyes on my awesome drink...

My friend, Rachael, just happened to be in Houston for training as well, so we ended up getting to see quite a bit of her while we were there. And she had her son's car seat in her car, so she could even drive to dinner the first night - I was pretty down with driving at that point. I suggested going to dinner somewhere in the Heights with the side purpose of seeing our old house. 

It's hard letting go of something you invested so much time and energy into. And then to see it look so different with a new fence... it was kinda sad. It is definitely no longer our house. And it's the wrong fence. It was obviously supposed to be a white picket fence. Pfffft....

I had no choice but to drown my sorrow in a bowl of Chicken Inferno from Jenni's noodle house. It wasn't actually on my list, but when I was thinking of places to go in the Heights, it sounded so good! Somethings don't change, and that's even better!

The next night we met up with one of my mentor's from my last job and we decided to just hang out at their house and catch up. Him and his wife are now empty nesters so I think they enjoyed the company and of course playing with the baby! Ian even had a surprise gift for Matt - a bottle of Spicy Ketchup from Whataburger! (Matt is obsessed with it - good choice, Ian!)

My only request for dinner was Blue Bell!

Jamie took it up a notch and even made a pie to go with the ice cream. The best! Henry may have even got to try some ice cream - which turned him into a pretty mad baby when I wouldn't give him more. Whoops!

The next night was with Brandon and Sonia at my absolute favorite Tex-Mex restaurant in town - Lupe Tortilla. There was a group of three of us that started going at lunch and then someone quit and we had to replace him. Then someone moved to Africa and we didn't replace him. Then I quit and moved to Alaska and I got replaced... No hard feelings, Sonia! :)

There are always taunting photos sent across Facebook when someone in the group makes it to Lupe. We all deeply love their queso and especially the one who moved to a state that doesn't seem to believe in queso. Ok, I might concede that Angola may not have that much queso either...

Have I mentioned how much I love their chicken biscuits? The class I was taking was pretty hard - statistics and I are not friends because my friends don't make my brain hurt. The chicken biscuit did make it better. :)

I have absolutely no photographic evidence, but I did make it over to see the Thurmonds. They moved back from Norway shortly after we moved to Alaska - poor timing all around! Allie was actually up in Alaska earlier this year and met Henry. She was super bummed that Thomas hadn't been able to make the trip, but Henry was more than happy to give her double the amount of cuddles to make up for it. And they very nicely got us some delicious barbecue for dinner - I found out there was a bundt cake bakery near my hotel, so I provided dessert!

Thanks to trying to meet a few people at our Houston office after class on Friday and the unbelievably bad Houston traffic, I didn't end up getting to eat lunch until waaaaaay past when I should have. I was getting hangry! Luckily my hanger was somewhat tempered by the thought I would get some delicious fried chicken - not to mention fried pickles!

Henry was happy for the short break from driving before the long haul north. :)

The original plan was the spend the next two nights with Matt's parents, but unfortunately a nasty storm took out the power to a lot of homes in Dallas. So instead I went back to my parent's house, then drove over to Dallas early Saturday. My mother-in-law was happy to tag along to my favorite brunch stop, Cafe Brazil. Matt made me these crepes for our anniversary this year and I loved them, but that was months ago!

After brunch, we headed over to see Matt's brother at his new auto body shop. He seemed pretty happy we made the drive over and I was curious about his new shop. We have a project for him to work on when he gets done with his current ones, so it was cool to see where the magic is going to happen!

Then we went back and hung out at the house for the rest of the afternoon. We were packing up to head back to Weatherford just as the power came back on. Of course...! But I was trying to time it so Henry would sleep on the drive back and he was falling asleep sitting up - time to go!

Well, my plan almost worked... He woke up and commenced winding himself up about 30 minutes away from the house. So we did the logical thing and stopped at my last "must-go" restaurant - Waffle House!

Matt and I have missed Waffle House's hash browns so much! It eventually came out that I was on a visit from Alaska and the usual conversations. Then I told them how much I wished their was a Waffle House and how we have been trying to make hash browns like theirs and failing miserably. The cooks were so excited about the whole thing, they were giving me all kids of instructions and tips - I can't wait to get home and try them (technically Matt is in charge of the hash brown experimentations!). I will update if we can get it to work!

In some ways it was a ridiculously overwhelming trip trying to do as much as possible in as little time as possible, but it was so nice to see the people that we did. I swear I cared more about the people than the food, but I am awful about photographing people and great about taking photos of food!

And I'm sorry if I missed seeing you, it certainly doesn't mean I don't miss you! We miss all of the friends and family we "left behind". Luckily, there will always be a next time!