Monday, January 23, 2012

Mini Vacation

Well Hello Everyone!! Long time no Blog!! What do they say...better late than never. Oh well, I'm blogging again and I hope to do better at it.
Since my last blog...(Halloween), well we have celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas & A New Year. I really don't want to play catch up so I decided just to start my blog with our mini vacation that Lonnie and I took with Kendra and Kaleb this last weekend. 
Kaleb call a couple of weeks ago and invited Lonnie and I to go to Dallas with him. He was in need for a weekend trip and he didn't really want to go by himself. Of course I'm always up for a road trip. I even convinced him to go farther south to Austin. It didn't take much convincing since Kaleb had gone to school just south of Austin from the time he was in the 6th grade till November of his Junior year. He was all excited to be able to visit with some old friends. So it was a done deal. We would leave Thursday night after Lonnie and I got done taking picture's at CLEET  in Ada.
Monday Kendra came and spent the night with us since she was working in Prague and told me that she was going to be able to go! I WAS SUPER EXCITED!! A mini vacation with 2 of my kids!! YES!!
So Thursday night at about 7:30 p.m. we were southbound to Texas!

Kaleb & Kendra

 Since we got such a late start we decided to only drive to Denton and we got rooms there. Friday morning we all got around and grabbed breakfast in the car and headed to Sam Moon in Dallas. I just love this place...if you are a girl and you have been there you know exactly what I mean. Kendra and Kaleb made it in the store before I did but as soon as I walked in I couldn't help but laugh because Kendra was like a kid in a candy shop. She was smiling from ear to ear and she already had her hands full of goodies.
One of Kaleb's requests while in Dallas was to go to Stroker's also known as Ma's Roadhouse. It's the bar site of a mini reality show.

Kaleb & Kendra at Stroker's Dallas
Lonnie & Me 
Kaleb and Ma

We went in and bellied up to the bar and ordered a few drinks.
Kaleb & Kendra

What is a bar experience without a game of pool. So we put the quarter's up and Lonnie and Kaleb decided what they were gonna bet and it was game on!!
Kaleb
Lonnie
And the winner is...KALEB!!

After a few game's of pool we decided to go over to the gift shop so the kids could get a t-shirt and koozie's and look who we found hanging out! Yep it was Bart Simpson! How could we resist?
Kendra & Bart

Lonnie, Bart & Me

Kaleb

After stopping by Stroker's we stopped for fuel before heading farther south and this is what Kaleb came out of the quick stop with for me.

What a Mama's boy. I love this kid!

We made it into Austin early evening. Downtown 6th street was our goal for the evening. Kaleb had been talking with a couple of his buddies that he had gone to school with while we lived there. They agreed to meet us at a restaurant on 6th street for dinner. The only picture's I got of all of them together was on Kaleb's phone so I don't have any to share with you. After dinner we all walked around for a while but Kendra was nursing an ear infection and Lonnie and I ...well Lonnie & I are just plain OLD so we left Kaleb with his friends and we went back to the room to call it a night.
The next day we headed to eat at one of our favorite places when we lived there. Mammacita's Mexican Restaurant. Then it was on to another on of our favorite places while we lived there...The San Marcos Outlet Mall!! We spent several hours there shopping. We bought so much stuff that I wasn't sure how we were gonna get it all in the car, but since I am the organizing queen, we managed just fine.
That evening Wade Bowen was playing at Gruene Hall in Gruene Texas. 

If you have never been to Gruene Texas it is a must! It is so beautiful and peaceful. And how lucky could we get that Wade was playing at the Hall that night! SCORE!! 
The kids had never been there before so we went into the town as soon as we got there and checked it out. Kendra and Kaleb have been interested in wine lately, so we stopped at a winery for some wine tasting. Then it was time to go get our rooms and get all prettied up for the concert. The evening was a total blast. The concert was great, the company was awesome and who can complain about Gruene Hall. Again all the picture's from that night are on Kaleb's phone. I totally failed with the camera job this weekend. Oh well lesson learned.
The next day it was back to Gruene for some lunch and shopping before heading home. And what a way to start a day...with Mimosa's.

Kendra, Kaleb, Me & Lonnie at the Gristmill

Kaleb, Kendra & Me

Lonnie & Me in front of Gruene Hall

Kendra's shopping fun!

Kaleb & Lonnie's shopping fun!

Our final must have stop was to H-E-B Grocery for some Julio's chips and Salsa!!

Our family mini vacation was a SUCCESS! I had such a blast with Lonnie and my kiddo's...I just wish we could have stayed a few more days. I hope everyone had a blessed weekend like I did.