Oh, the Places You'll Go!: November 2010


My Niece Hannah at her First Pumpkin Patch

Despite the unfortunate circumstances of having to make a last minute trip back home for dear Daddy Buck's funeral last month, I'd have to say that my time in Texas was the perfect dose of family, friends, fun, and FALL that I desperately needed! Not only was I able to meet my "new" niece Hannah who was just a couple of weeks old when I arrived, I also managed to make up (or at least attempt to make up) a lot of lost time with the rest of the nieces and nephew litter that my sisters have so generously blessed us with. We partied it up at the pumpkin patches and parks, hee-hawed it up on hayrides, slid it up down on slide after slide (after slide), and ~~threw~~ bounced it up in the bounce houses. Yep, I was that Aunt. The one encouraging the acrobatic maneuvers of a 6, 5, and 2 year old in a bounce house. The one provoking the silly shenanigans on the slippery slides. The one that gets all the questionable looks from the real parents out there thinking to themselves, "She obviously doesn't have children." I'm not quite sure who had more fun out there, me or the kids. And in between play time at the parks and hide-and-seek games at the house, I was elected to carpool duty to and from Wellington Elementary School, where I quickly learned after Day 1 that Zach's class gets out 10 minutes earlier than Madison's class....a minor little mistake I vow NEVER ever to make again. Sorry Zach. :) Don't worry, the emotional scars of him thinking nobody was ever going to come for him immediately disappeared the second we pulled up to Rita's Italian Ice and Frozen Custard. A little bit of ice cream can go a LONG way....both in curing a kid's craving AND in dripping all over one's clothes and car. How is it that all of that ice cream can come out of one itty bitty little cone?!? Yes, my time in Texas was quite a treat, in a number of ways. I spent a great week at home with mom and dad just enjoying their company, being their little girl again, and soaking up all of the flavors of my Tall City favorites I possibly could (Thank you Murray's, Rosa's, and TCBY, repeated as necessary). Repeated as necessary. Repeated as necessary. Then I got to go spend another great week with the sisters, their husbands, and kids as I tried to blend in to their everyday routines as best I could. I couldn't have enjoyed it more! I even got to see some dear friends that I've been missing terribly and enjoy spending some quality time with them at some of my favorite ol' lunch and dinner stomping grounds. And in between it all, I also managed to sneak in a trip out to the lake house with the family for a great weekend of fishin', boatin', and S'mores! The weather was absolutely perfect. The entire trip was! And to top it all off, I got to spend my last night in Texas seeing the kids get all dressed up for Halloween (Ariel and Darth Vader for Madison and Zach respectively) and then going trick-or-treating with the cutest little bunny (Halie) and "Boo" Baby (Hannah) I've ever seen. To all of you I got to see when I was back, thank you for squeezing me into your schedules and making my time at home so enjoyable. And to those of you I didn't get to see, I'm planning on making up for it at Christmas when Will actually gets to come with me! I'm so very fortunate to have had those two weeks in Texas to help tide me over until the holidays. Thank you, friends and family, and all of my great pumpkins (Madison, Zach, Halie, and Hannah) for all of the fun. I can't wait to do it all over again very soon!