Texas...aah, Texas!

We just got back from a week and a half in the good ol' state of Texas. What a great place. Although, I wasn't diggin' the humidity. I never felt fully dry after a shower in Houston. It brought me back to the time we were visiting Justin's family a year or two after we were married. We crawled into bed after a late night of visiting to find wet sheets. At the time I thought, "Well, maybe his mom didn't have time to dry the sheets and just stuck them on the bed, hoping they would dry on the mattress." Seriously, what a ridiculous thought! Nope, they were just damp from the summer humidity. Aah, what a great state...

We stayed at Justin's parent's house in San Antonio for the first few days. Staying up late every night playing Cities and Knights, laying waste to my opponent's said cities and knights, watching cable on their DVR (I love you DVR!), eating at The Longhorn Cafe (only Texas could have a restaurant by that name), and swimming in an awesome pool (thank you Jesse and Gwendolen). Seth was looking forward to sporting his new duds and his turtle "ride" in the pool. This kid is way too cool for school.

Ha ha, he was lounging in that floatie like he was king of the world. What a stud! That was a pretty sweet shell/shade. All who saw it were envious of that little cutie, including me. That sun was super bright. Justin climbed up in there to escape the blinding reflection off the water. He forgot his sunglasses in the car and tried several times to either guilt me into giving him mine or going back to the car to get his for him. What a funny guy. Silly Justin, sunglasses are for Jens!

The other really cool thing was half of the pool was only about 6 inches deep so you could sit your lounge chair in the water and the kids could splash around in the shallow water. Why isn't every pool like that? I'm a fan (clicking the facebook "like" button).

We stayed the weekend in Houston. I told my parents before we got there that I really missed picking blackberries when I was a kid and hoped to let my kids have that experience.

 When I was older it amazed me to see blackberries sold in the stores in those plastic cartons. When I was really little I thought everyone could go out to their back fence and pick wild blackberries. Who in their right mind would pay for something you could get for free?! ;) I think my dad was really excited about picking blackberries (since he was the one who always got us to do it so he could have blackberry jelly) and as soon as we pulled in to the driveway he had Meagan and Candace along the fence line packing their cheeks with the plumpest berries they could find.

As soon as we stepped out there my flip-flops were caked with mud. Man, I wish I'd had some rain boots or something. It rained the day before so everything was super soggy. None of us minded though. We got suited-up with bug spray and a gallon bucket and went picking.

I forgot how hard it was to navigate the thorns. There's a reason why clusters of juicy berries go untouched in the center of the vine. Not even bugs or snakes want to risk it. The kids got a better loot than I did. Nothing like when we were little though. We used to nearly fill those exact buckets. We weren't out there very long, but our tongues and fingers were still stained with berry juice. We ate as many as we dropped in the buckets.

We needed a quick dip in Frank and Christine's pool to cool off. I didn't get in because I had just showered and I didn't want to get all changed. I should have. I was way too hot and sweaty.

Friday night we had a fish fry. This little tradition was started after I left home and got married. My brothers and sisters are really good at fishing, so they would bring home tons of fish and deep fry them in this amazing batter. We had homemade onion rings, coleslaw, fries and hushpuppies with lemonade. Isn't that the epitome of a great southern meal? Ah, what a great state. *On a side note, I loved driving through town and seeing advertisements for crawfish and the Crosby Fair and Rodeo (man, I wish we could have gone).

On Saturday we saw my best friend from high school, Meredith, and her husband in their new house. We had a pretty enjoyable lunch catching up from years of being out of state. That night we played Rock Band and Settlers at Jessica and Lee's. Man, I am such an awesome vocalist! My guitar skills are kind of lacking, though. Justin was rocking out to Bon Jovi and losing his voice to "Livin' on a Prayer". It was pretty fun.

Sunday night we had dinner with my aunt and uncle. Everything at their house was exactly how I remembered it, right down to the massive cats, the little dog named Scruffy (or is it Scrappy? Well, that's what I always called him) and this really cool marble maze toy. It was my favorite thing to play with when we went over to their house. It still held that same magic it had when I played with it as a child. The only thing missing at that visit was playing pinball and printing out pretend money on their computer and a visit to their "country door". 

The country door is a little door in their bathroom that separates the sink from the toilet and shower. It looks like one of those swinging saloon doors you see in old westerns. Jessica and I were staying with them for a few days one summer when we saw this door. I had never seen one like that before, in real life anyways. So, it was dubbed "the country door" late one night when everything at that hour is hilarious. For months after, every time we saw Angela (our cousin who was with us at the a fore mentioned episode) or the door we giggled uncontrollably.

Overall, it was a nice relaxing visit. It made me want to move back. Maybe not so close to Houston, though. I don't think I could handle the hurricane nightmares every other year. I hate being so far away from family. *Sigh* Maybe Justin will get a job there after he graduates and we can move back (keeping my fingers crossed).