Fixer Upper, Suckers!

 Since we were already in Texas, why not swing by Waco and visit all that is Chip and Jojo?!  While I'm not a diehard fan of the show, Carrie and Josh have watched all episodes and knew exactly where we should visit while we were there.  We started with a jaunt into Buckee's, where my children tried on Western wear and we ate brisket for breakfast  :)  Then 2.5 hours later, we're in Waco.  We got our names on the list for the Magnolia Table restaurant, and since it only opened the week before, we knew there would be a wait.  We were officially the 115th table in line  :)  We decided to kill some time by first visiting the "grab and go" section of the restaurant, where we all bought mugs and got some chocolate croissants.  Then we headed to the Silos Marketplace and Lordy be, everything caught my eye!  We got Alabama Sweet Tea from the food trucks there but the bakery line was too long to wait for cupcakes.  No matter, because the restaurant serves them too!  A quick stop at the scratch and dent sale at Joanna's original store on Bosque Street, then it was back to the restaurant for a late lunch.  We all got something different and it was all good!  We ended the meal by ordering some cupcakes to go.

Croissants so good you'll slap your momma!

The famous silos!

Inside the marketplace shop

Finally made it to the restaurant!

We even had a few minutes to stop by Clint's design studio/workshop and former house!  We were only a few of many, many tourists stopping by, so it's no wonder that Clint's family has moved and they rent the house as a bed and breakfast!

Road Trip: Katy, TX

 For Spring Break, the older kids and I decided to go visit Carrie and family.  With plane tickets costing about $535 each, I wasn't thrilled about spending that much dough to get there.  So the kids agreed to help me with a 23 hour road trip!  By help me, I mean eat enormous amounts of food from gas stations and play on their phones while I sang along to the radio.  We left Monday after Easter at 5 AM.  For our first day of driving, we made it through VA, NC, SC, GA, AL, and finally stopped in Biloxi, MS for the night.  Then the next day, we did the last 8 hours through MS, LA, and finally, TX.  
What about Tim, Emily, and Jason?  They basically moved in with Peggy and Joe and hung out for the week  :)  Tim did help his dad clean out a few sheds and Peggy got all the grandma time she could handle!

Our first taste of real Mexican food!  Jen found Ninfa's on Navigation which Pinteresting Houston hot spots.

Houston has all kinds of awesome photo ops, so we had some fun playing tourist for the afternoon after lunch.  

These giant Beatles statues are inside a brewery.  So we stopped for a couple beers and hung out on the patio.  The weather was amazing!

Blue bonnets are the state flower and they are EVERYWHERE!  We randomly stopped on the side of the highway and found the perfect field!

Double trouble in action!  :)  And that's just part of the visit!  The rest of our week needs its own post!

Easter Time!

 We enjoyed our usual Easter visit to Peggy and Joe's house this year.  I was getting ready to leave with the older kids for a week and it was nice to let someone else do all the cooking and egg hiding!  Mary and John were also there with their 3 kids.  Emily had some Joey snuggle time and loved it!  A real live baby doll  :)  At 6 months old and 21 pounds, this kid is no lightweight!

 Peggy hid 12 eggs with coins in them and the kids were off like a rocket to find them!  They each ended up with around $1.50.  Once the eggs were empty, they took turns hiding the empty eggs for each other to find again...and again...and again...

 Timmy was helping his dad clear out one of his sheds and Jason stumbled upon one of Timmy's old childhood toys.  He was happy to spend about an hour playing with this robot on the stoop.