Texas

I don't even know where to start with this post, the last few days have been so, so busy. Since Ed PCS'd from Germany and we had a car there, we had to have it shipped to us in Colorado. Turns out Colorado doesn't have a port to send it to and the closest one was in Lake Dallas, Texas which isn't close at all. We had to drive roughly 10 hours to get there, you would think the Army would try and find a way to get these things done closer to your duty station. That's the logical thing to do anyway and we all know the Army doesn't do things like that. So Thursday Ed had a detail in the morning that he couldn't get out of so we didn't end up leaving Fountain until around noon. I drove the first half, until I got a speeding ticket. At that point I was over Texas and we had just gotten there. Then I made Ed take over and just as I was dosing off to sleep, I heard him curse under his breath. Speeding ticket #2! What state in their right mind only has a speeding limit of 70 mph (65 mph at night)? Don't even get me started on the drivers in Texas, I mean WOW! It really made me miss California drivers, now they know how to drive! The tickets didn't even upset us though, they actually made us laugh. 1) because we thought we'd get one driving from California to Colorado and never did, and 2) because both tickets were for going the exact same speed, 84 mph. Although Ed got his at night so he was technically speeding more than I was. So we got to Lake Dallas around midnight, got to our hotel and knocked out. We were so exhausted from driving all day. Layla was such an angel too, never complained once during the whole trip. She loves hotels so she was super excited when we stopped for the night. As soon as we got into our room, she ran to the bathroom, gathered up all the mini soaps, and tucked them safely into our suitcase so she could take them home. We had a great night sleep, ate our free breakfast, and headed out to get our car the next morning which only ended up being .5 miles away from our hotel. Ed and I made guesses at how long it would actually take until we were done, he said around an hour and I said 2 hours. We couldn't believe how fast it ended up taking, like 20 minutes and we were out of there and on our way to Austin to visit my uncle Rick and his two kids, Connor and Ciera. The drive from Dallas to Austin was pure hell. Texas drivers make me want to shoot myself! Since we had two cars to drive, Ed and I kept calling each other to talk about which cars were making us mad so we could give them dirty looks and cut them off. LOL... We try to turn everything into humor, even when our road rage acts up.

3 hours later we finally arrive in Austin to Rick's house. His GORGEOUS house, might I add, and then we went to pick Ciera up at school. The girls had a really good time playing outside together. After Connor got home from school Ed and I decided to take them bowling. We went to a place called Main Event Entertainment which had bowling, a bar (this made Ed happy! LOL), mini golf, games, rock climbing, etc. You name it, they had it. We had such a good time! Connor, Ciera, and Layla were basically tied during our first game. The big competition was between Ed and I. Poor guy thought he may actually have a chance of winning against me, but we all know that wasn't going to happen. Turns out, I'm a pretty good bowler. Here, I'll just show you our score board so you can see who the winner was for yourself. After bowling and dinner we went back to Rick's house and waited up for him to get off work where we talked for the rest of the night before going to sleep. Layla fell in love with Ciera that day which I knew would happen seeing as though Layla thinks she's the same age as she is. Layla even slept in bed with Ciera that night, I couldn't believe it. She never does that in a new place! The next morning we woke up and Rick made us yummy chocolate chip pancakes before we headed out to explore Austin. First up, Inner Space Caverns! Do you see how excited we were to be there?! LOL And we couldn't be in Austin and not go see the capitol building. Our beloved George W. Bush! And Ed has a whole series like this, from all over the world. He likes just the top of his head photographed. We went walking downtown and down one of the alley's Spy Kids 4 was being filmed. Pretty cool. After that we were just going to go home and relax for a bit before dinner but Dave & Busters was calling our name so we all headed there for some gaming fun. Ed and I have never been to one before so we had lots of fun. On the way to dinner was my favorite part of the trip and I am so bummed I didn't get any pictures of it. In the distance I saw lots of black in the sky, it looked like smoke. I kind of kept my eye on it, not thinking much about it. As we got closer to the bridge and the more I looked at it, it looked like big flocks of birds. But as we actually got on top of the bridge and were right next to it, there were thousands of bats flying up from under the bridge. It was amazing! It was so neat to see the bats just pouring out, everyone else thought so too because as soon as we were at the top of the bridge the cars basically came to a stop.

Rick and the kids took us to a restaurant called Rudy's. It was so unique and the food was SO good! They don't even give you plates to eat on, you grab a paper place mat and go to town. The ribs were amazing! Mmmmm... After that we went back to Rick's and went to bed since we had a very long driving day the next day. We had such an amazing time though and I'm so glad we drove the extra few hours to visit with family. So Rick, if you're reading this, THANK YOU for letting us stay at your house and for showing us around. We had a blast! When we were first told that we would have to drive to Texas to pick up our car, I was dreading the trip but I am so glad we took advantage of the opportunity given to us, to see another part of the country we've never seen before.

On the way home, since it took 13 hours we took a lot of little breaks. During one part of Texas we saw tons and tons of cotton fields. Layla and I had fun pointing to them all and talking about what cotton is used for (you can always turn this kind of stuff into a learning opportunity). Ed called me a little while later and said we should stop so Layla could pick some. So we did! Layla loved it (ok, I'm not going to lie, I did too) and for about an hour after, she was getting the cotton and rolling it into a ball and telling me all the things we could use our new cotton balls for (to take off our nail polish mostly). Although we had a great time, it was so nice to get home, relax, and see our kitties. Now that we have our car, there are no more trips in the near future, thank goodness. We can relax knowing that we have everything we need here at home which is a really great feeling.

P.S. I thought people in Texas were supposed to be nice? Everyone we came across was so rude, it made California even look good in comparison. We were so happy to cross over to Colorado and have everyone smiling and actually friendly towards us. Unless we go visit my uncle again (which we definitely want to!!!) I will never go back to Texas. Now watch, mark my words, since I said that, where do you think we'll get stationed next?