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!