Caroline and I take a SECOND road trip to TX

 What's better than driving across the country to see your family?

Doing it twice in the same summer!

When Grandma passed away, I told my mom that I'd 

be happy to come out and help her if she could use me.

She took me up and my offer and at the end of July,

C and I hopped back in my car and drove back to TX.

We love road trips!

We stopped at The Works once again.

Enjoyed more delicious food.

Oh, so yummy.

Had to get another mochi donut.

This gold car was interesting.

Care Bear LOVES freeways that go in a 

spaghetti bowl like this.

As usual, Care Bear helped plan the route.

She had us stop in Arkansas at Hot Springs 

National Park. We'd never been.

We decided to do some hiking on the Sunset Trail.

It was OK, but not our favorite.

It was also really hot and we didn't have a lot of time.

Stopped for gelato afterward.

Look at this crazy car/boat that was outside!

C was able to get a lot of driving hours in.

She's a good driver.

We stayed the night in Tupelo, MS.

So, of course we had to stop by the Elvis

birthplace memorial.

It was late, so everything was closed.

But we walked around for a few minutes anyway.

If you look close, you can see the Talladega

Motor Speedway in the background here.

It is HUGE. I can't imagine what it must be like

on race days!

We're always happy to find a Bucees along the way.

Enjoyed several pretty sunsets on the trip.

We also enjoy finding random things like

Double Dutch Aerobics Studios.

One of the main things my mom wanted help with

was going through Grandma's old photos. She was

the photo-keeper of the family, so she had A LOT.

We divided them up into piles based on who was in

them and distributed them to our family.

Aunt Irene drove over to help us.

We worked ALL DAY LONG.

I started around 10 am and we did take a little

break for lunch, but I think we finished around 7 pm.

It was a fun walk down memory lane.

Grandpa and Grandma

Grandma's house

Grandma relaxing in Celeste's pool when she lived in AZ.

My parents

Grandma's mom, Amelia. We called her Mama.

Rolled ice cream.

A fave place to stop when we're in Abilene.

My mom also asked if we would paint her front room for her.

Before

During

Almost done.

After.

C and I both like painting, so it was a fun chore.

Out for yummy Mexican food.

C looking cute.

LOVE it when we can play singstar!

After all our hard work, we did take some time

to just explore downtown Abilene.

We found some cute shops and went thrifting.

C found some cute cowgirl boots.

We also took some time to teach my parents how to 

play pickleball. We had a good time, but I don't know that

they've played again since we left.

The other place they took us that I didn't take any pictures of is called La Popular. They have a couple locations around town. They are known for their breakfast burritos and the lines are LONG. But, wow, it was worth it. The burritos were great, but their aguas frescas were AMAZING. I want to drink more of them right now.

We also spent time at Bill and Irene's house.

We like to go to church with them when we're in town.

We were supposed to be able to go to our church AND

their church, but when we pulled up to our church, no 

one was there and we found out the building had been

closed down by the fire marshal. Weird.

We got to go on a city scavenger hunt with Bill and Irene

in downtown Fort Worth.

It was awesome and I loved it so much.

We got to see some cool art.

It was HOT and Irene took advantage of some of the fountains.

Giant sequined cowboy hat

We got a little over halfway through our hunt 

before we gave up. The heat was getting to Irene and

Care Bear. Maybe we'll do the second half another time. 

And C is always SO happy when she

has time with Irene's cute dogs.

And we also got to spend time in Midland with

Destiny and her family.

Arcade with the big girls.

They had the funnest game that was a combo

of coin pushing and football. Ummm...

I think they invented that game FOR ME!

I even managed to get a Drew Brees coin! :)

I haven't seen another one of these before or since.

Hopefully their popularity will grow.

Girls after my own heart!

Missing Drew and wishing we could

set a record on Space Invaders together.

Also did an escape room with it.

It was HARD! You had to do actual algebra to 

solve for a number that you needed to open something.

We kept getting the wrong answer, but finally solved it 

and escaped just in time.

Care Bear and I went back to a yummy Japanese

place we discovered last time we were in Midland

called Hibachi Express. So good.

Olivia and Quinn are board gamers, so I taught them

how to play Wingspan. They figured it out right away

and were so good at it! I wish they lived closer so we

could play more!

I took the kids to the neighborhood pool one day.

We had the place to ourselves.

The morning may have ended with two different

children in tears....

We also spent time at Urban Air Trampoline Park.

Oh my gosh! This was next-level.

They had trampolines, of course.

And a ninja course,

which isn't too surprising.

But they also had bumper cars.

Including ones that you could flip upside 

down in!

I'd never seen one like that!

We got VIP treatment and each got a free slice of pizza.

So fun hanging out with these cuties!

Destiny injured her foot a couple weeks ago and was

restricted on the things she could do, so I was happy

to step in and be the fun aunt for a couple of days.

There was also a ropes course

And this fun zip-line type thing

They also had a climbing area where you could

get in an auto-belay and try different climbing challenges.

Poor Trini really THOUGHT she wanted to do it.

So we waited in line.

But then she decided it wasn't for her.

Caroline rocked at this one where you stood on a platform

and jumped to grab the handle. They kept moving it backward

and this was as far as it went. 

Also had fun playing board games with everyone.

Hooray for cousin time!

And before we knew it,

we were heading home again.

Happy to stop at another Bucees.

AND at Nehemiah Coffee Co.

I've stopped there three times in the past 18 months.

And I live over a thousand miles away.

And I still haven't met the cousin who owns it.

But it's such a cute place!

We had some dicey weather near Atlanta.

I don't like driving in Atlanta even on a nice day.

But when it's raining buckets and your wipers

can barely keep up? That's stressful!

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