Texas Trip

Last week we went on a much anticipated family trip to Texas for our friend Megan’s wedding.  The timing was a little awkward in the middle of moving, but it was nice to see friends and family, and take a break from the hectic life that is packing.  We flew out early Wednesday morning from La Guardia, the worst airport ever, after a lovely tour of north Jersey, due to issues with the GPS, signage, and our ability to follow simple directions.  Such is life.

Once we got on the plane, though, everything went great.  This is Nora’s fourth cross-country trip, so she is an expert at flying.  (She even did better than Daddy at going through security.)  And on the plane she was a perfect angel, as our fellow passengers all told us while they were deplaning.

“You wouldn’t even know there was a baby on the plane.”

(Incidentally, she wasn’t quite as good on the plane back home from Dallas to NYC, but it had been delayed almost two hours and she was tired so no one blamed her – and I guess the flight attendant recognized how hard I was working to keep her happy and quiet, because he gave me two free margaritas.  Thank you, random flight attendant, you made my evening.)

After landing, we picked up our rental car and made a relatively easy drive up to Granger to visit Chris’ Dad (with only one pit stop at Taco Cabana).  The trip was sort of a whirlwind of family – in and out – so we only stayed at Grandpa John’s for a little over eight hours.  Not long enough for Nora to get used to him, since she’s just started to have some dislike of strangers, and she wasn’t too friendly with him or happy about him holding her, unfortunately.
The next morning after breakfast, we went out to take some pictures in his fields, which were full of Texas wildflowers: Bluebonnets, Indian Paintbrush, Black-eyed Susans, and more flowers than we could name.  It was green and beautiful enough to actually fool you into thinking Texas could be a nice place to live.

And it was interesting enough for Nora to be tricked into smiling for a picture with Grandpa.

After munching on some flowers, we got back in the car and drove down to Austin to meet Chris’ mom and step-dad for lunch at a restaurant in one of the three shopping centers within a mile radius that all have a grocery store and Chase bank (it took a while, but eventually we found the right one).  After all that driving around, wouldn’t you know, I didn’t get a single picture with Grandma Helen and Grandpa Terrell.  Hopefully, they can send me some from Chris’ and Nora’s time with them that night, while I was off planning and executing the mild debauchery that was Megan’s bachelorette party.

Friday, was time to see my family.  We met for lunch at a mall in San Antonio, where Grandma Shari spoiled us rotten with clothes and the cutest sunglasses ever put on a baby. 

After lunch and some shopping, we were on the road again to check into our hotel in downtown San Antonio and get ready for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.  Then Saturday was Megan’s wedding, which meant all day girl-time for me, while Chris and Nora went with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Andrei and Uncle Nathan to the zoo (hopefully there’s be pictures of that soon).  Then, Chris and I had date night at the wedding while Grandma and Grandpa babysat.  Our first night out since she was born!  (And probably our last, since Chris started his new job today.)  Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa – we can’t wait to see the pictures.