Howdy friends! We’ve had a busy two weeks in Texas and Louisiana.
We kicked off our time in Austin with a weekend at Sasha’s house in the hill country near Lake Travis. Stacey joined us on Saturday and we spent time catching up, eating delicious food (thanks, Chef Graham!), and playing with Sasha’s puppies.
On Sunday, we relocated to Jen’s place in our old stomping grounds of north Austin. Jen is AC’s “Austin Mom” and we spent some great quality time with her. She even let me tag along to her gym so I could get a workout in. Throughout the week we met up with one AC’s former basketball teammates and with AC’s brother. AC met up with her former boss and co-worker, I met up with my favorite former RAs, Zach and Rachel, and we both went to a UT basketball game in the new Moody Center. We also made sure to visit our favorite grocery store, HEB. Nothing says adulting like excitement over a grocery store, but if you’ve had the privilege of experiencing an HEB, you get it!
We pulled out of Austin early on Thursday so that we could make it to Louisiana in time to pick up AC’s goddaughter, Brooklyn, from school as a birthday surprise. But first…BUC-EE’S! This is another place that some of y’all may be unfamiliar with, but we stop at Buc-ee’s every chance we get. Buc-ee’s is the queen of all gas stations: sparkling clean restrooms, made-to-order brisket sandwiches, kolaches, and more, and home decor because what gas station doesn’t sell home decor?! Luckily, Buc-ee’# is expanding across the southeast so more of us can experience this magic.
We also couldn’t cross state lines without visiting another Texas institution: Whataburger. Basically, we had a Masterclass on “how to Texas.” Yeehaw, y’all!
We made it to Louisiana in time to scoop up Brooklyn and take her for a birthday ice cream run. Of course, we couldn’t let the opportunity pass us by to roll down our windows as we pulled up to the pick-up line and yell “happy birthday” as loud as we could since, you know, teenagers love to be called out in public. We let Brooklyn decide where she wanted ice cream from. Of all the ice cream parlors in all the world, do you know what that 13 year old chose? McDonalds 🤦‍♀️ But it was her birthday so McDonald’s it was! Thankfully, the ice cream machine was working that day. She also ordered a 20-pack of nuggets which made AC even more proud.
After birthday ice cream, we set up camp at Grandma’s house and joined her for a pot roast dinner.
On Friday, we were the fun aunts again and checked out all 6 of AC’s nieces and nephews from school early and, again, went for ice cream. This time we went to Sweet Frog, a build-your-own-bowl kind of ice cream place. We are clearly out-of-auntie-practice because we forgot to set some ground rules regarding the size of the bowl, the number of toppings, etc. $54 worth of ice cream and crazy topping combos later, we headed to the park to run off all that sugar.
That evening, we went to Delta Downs Casino and Race Track for some horse races! We watched the first one to get the lay of the land, then grabbed some crawfish etouffee from one of the casino restaurants for dinner and headed back to the track to place a bet! I chose a horse to win across the board- meaning, I would win something if it took 1st, 2nd, or 3rd – and we won!Â
We then took the $2 profit we’d made on that race and bet an exacta box on the next race (meaning I chose two horses to come in 1st and 2nd, but it didn’t matter which order they came in). We won again and quit while we were ahead, walking away with a grand total of $8! Big money, big money!
On Saturday morning, we took Grandma garage sale-ing because that was one of her favorite past times, but she’s not quite mobile enough to go on her own anymore. In the afternoon, we met up with AC’s favorite cousins and their families for a yummy lunch of BBQ chicken and homemade sides. A lot of these cousins happen to have birthdays in March so we celebrated them with cake and rice krispie treats for dessert.
On Sunday we had all 5 nephews again while AC’s sister and brother-in-law took their daughter to a gymnastics meet in Houston. We took our gaggle to church in the morning only to discover that they sit in the front row đź‘€ Jesus, take the wheel! Surprisingly, they were pretty well behaved minus a few hand swats and “mom eyes” (you know the one). We went to Sam’s club for lunch. The boys made a beeline for the books section and gladly stayed there perusing while I ordered their requested pizza, pretzel, or hot dog for lunch from the cafe. This entire outing only cost us $13…we learned our lesson from the ice cream debacle! Pro tip: Sam’s Club is great, cheap entertainment for kids! We went home and cleaned rooms, then watched a movie and played games.
We dropped the boys off with their grandfather around 5 because we had dinner plans with some of AC’s high school friends. We met up with them for dinner and chatted for a while before we headed back to Grandma’s.
The rest of the week, I stayed with Grandma and worked while AC caught up with more friends and family.
We left on Thursday and headed to see AC’s youngest sister, Avery, and her new fiance in Mobile, AL. On our way, we made a stop at AC’s favorite roadside market for boudin and cracklings – two of her must-have Louisiana classic snacks. We used Thursday night to catch up with Avery and Devin, and play a board game. I’m not sure what they did on Friday before 1pm because I was in the zone on a work project. In the afternoon we wandered around a cute little town called Fairhope. We killed time meandering in and out of fun niche stores before heading to dinner at a yummy seafood restaurant called Bluegill. Apparently, Elvis liked Bluegill back in the day and we were seated in his favorite booth!
Today, we make our way to Chattanooga, TN to see my sister and her boys (hubby included)! We’ll be there for about a week and have several property visits lined up…I’ll let you know if we make any big decisions while we’re there!
But first…BUC-EE’S!
Until next time,
Charli
Looks like y’all had a great time! Stay safe!
Sounds like a lot of fun!