I Messed with Texas

My friend and close-as-can-be neighbor, Buffy, moved away last November. I'm still not over my friends leaving me, but I'm trying to make do. Well, a few months ago I got a sneaky little email from Ian, Buffy's husband, and he wanted to fly me out to Texas and surprise Buffy with a friend. Sweet husband, huh? "Heck YES!" was my reply to his email. After months of emailing back and forth and being so stealth, the flight was booked.

Ellery and I jumped on a 7am flight (got up soooo early) and headed to Texas. I was kind of nervous to fly by myself and I was a little more nervous to fly by myself with a baby. But we did it! She was pretty good, and aside from the man next to me trying his darnedest not to notice me nursing her, the flight was very comfortable. Does anyone else feel like they're nursing in odd, uncomfortable places all the time?

Ellery and I had no idea what Texas was like. We thought we had it all figured out when we stopped in El Paso for a minute and looked out the plane window. Dusty, Texas dirt all over the place, funny, little dirt-pile "mountains", cowboys roaming around on their horses. "Yes, this is Texas," I thought. I wondered what we would do there with all those cowboys. I don't know how or why, but I imagined Texas, all of it I guess, to be like an old Western movie.


When we landed in Dallas I realized I was wrong. For those of you who thought like me, Texas (Dallas at least) is just like Utah, except for there's no mountains and it's HUMID! I felt like my dark jeans were snow pants when I got off the plane. Ian met us at the airport and after complaining about being hot the whole ride home, we were pulling into their driveway just as Buffy was walking to her mailbox.

Her face was priceless. At first she squinted at us and was thinking, "Who is that woman in Ian's car?" And then she kind of did this confused smile. And then her jaw dropped and she started jumping around. Oh it was so fun to do that to her.

We were both very happy to see each other and had such a fun few days hanging out.

This is their darling daughter Peyton. We joked that Ellery could eat Peyton. Even though she's two months younger, Ellery has about four pounds on Peyton. It was cute to see them together. Peyton, who is a thumb sucker, was obsessed with taking Ellery's pacifier and it kept them both entertained. When we got there I noticed that Ellery was kind of fussy and showing teething signs. Sure enough her second tooth was poking through. Peyton was nice enough to share her teething rings with Elle and she was a happy camper after that.


And who's this little Texas princess? This is McKay's old pal Riley. Let me just tell you about her. We of course did some Texas shopping at a HUGE outlet mall. We were there for about five and a half hours, not including driving time, and this little girl was amazing! She didn't complain, didn't have a tantrum, didn't need to be entertained or distracted, didn't need snacks. She didn't need anything. It's like Ian and Buffy have raised this super-shopper child. McKay would have lasted about an hour...maybe. I was just blown away. She is such a little sweetheart though and I really enjoyed getting to know her again. We're already planning their wedding.

Shopping is one of my favorite things about vacation and Texas did not disappoint. Brian was glad that he missed it all when I showed him all my goods. That is the one thing we forgot to take pictures of- shopping. Lets just say we were wondering if all my new stuff would fit in my suitcase. It did, thankfully. Also, why is it so much easier shopping for your kids than it is for yourself? When did that happen?

Maybe my favorite thing of all was our nightly bowl of ice cream. Has anyone had or heard of Blue Bell ice cream? I have known people who go on and on about Blue Bell ice cream and how amazing it is. You can't get it in Utah, and Texans seem to be very passionate about this treat. Well, let me tell you they are SO right. It is heaven. Buffy had me pick out a flavor to buy and first of all, we stood in front of the freezer for about ten minutes. I have a really hard time deciding on an ice cream flavor...and especially when there's this pressure attached and about three dozen choices....it's really hard! Anyway, we finally settled on Cookie Dough. It was so good. It was incredibly creamy and the cookie dough really tasted like cookie dough. And you got a huge ball of it in practically every bite you took. I don't know if I'll ever be the same. I think I've been ruined.

While I was there I experienced a Texas tornado. Well, Buffy experienced it at least. And it probably wasn't a tornado, but that's what it felt like so that's what we're calling it...you know, for dramatic effect. Now, the pictures you are about to see do not do Buffy justice.

We hopped in the car with all the little girls to do some shopping. After about two minutes in the car it started sprinkling. We were headed to the gas station to fill up and by the time we got there the rain was pretty heavy. Buffy got out to pump her gas anyway and made sure to bring her umbrella. I was sitting in the car with the girls, thinking Buffy was peacefully filling up when I hear this thumping sound coming from the back of the car.

I looked outside and this is what I saw. Buffy was hanging on to the back of the car for dear life, soaking wet, and banging on the window to get my attention. She wanted me to know that she was in distress. She wanted me to help her. She wanted me to save her. So you know what I did? I started laughing...really hard...and then I got out my camera.

Buffy figured out I was not going to get out of the car and that she had to brave the tornado by herself. I was snapping pictures of her the whole time, and laughing. She was kind of laughing too, I think. One of the funniest things to me was every time Buffy went past the side of the car, her baby, Peyton, would let out a terrified scream. The sight of her drenched mother being tossed around in the wind and rain was kind of scary. Don't worry, Peyton only cried when she could actually see Buffy. Once she was out of sight she would stop.


See. She's okay. She made it through the tornado. But look at her umbrella. She had to throw it away because unlike her, it could not handle storm. Buffy was soaking wet. We had to forgo our plans and go back home so she could change every article of clothing she had on and we could wait out the tornado.


On the way home this is what we saw. All over the neighborhood fences were blown over. We even saw a trampoline blown against a house with a big barbecue grill dangling from it like an earring. This made us laugh even harder and made Buffy quite proud of herself for staying alive. (I just laughed hysterically all over again as I typed this)



Another memorable experience we had in Texas was getting pedicures. On our way to the salon I told Buffy about how the guy who did my last pedicure was excited to give me a free flower. He sure did give me a flower. He gave me three on each big toe! And they were huge. I hated to do it, but I asked him if he could just narrow it down to one flower and remove the others. He hated me, but he did it and I was happier. We wondered why nail people sometimes go crazy with embellishments. But then we forgot about it as we relaxed and talked in those massage chairs.


We must have impressed these nail ladies, because they too generously gave us free flowers...except we didn't even know they were doing it. At first I noticed that she had given me a rhinestone. "Okay," I thought, "one rhinestone would be fun." Then she pulled out the white flower...then the black dots...followed by more white dots. They did a similar thing to Buffy's big toes. We could hardly contain our laughter as we remembered the discussion on toe flowers just a few minutes before. This time I didn't have the guts to say anything about the lovely flower, and yes, I am aware that I have a very large big toe. Brian teases me about it all the time.

So here they are. We call them our "jazzy" Texas toes. I complimented Buffy on how cute her feet were, this was before our pedicures, and she looked down at mine and said, "...because they look exactly like yours." Don't they look really similar. This reminds me of having "who's feet are cuter" arguments with Katie. I didn't even know Buffy was my foot twin, but aren't her feet cute? ; )

On my last day there we went to their neighborhood pool and afterwards had a fun photo shoot on the lawn. You know I always love a good photo shoot.

I had so much fun with these two! Buffy and I stayed up late every night talking and catching up on SYTYCD and The Hills. We had some good food, besides ice cream, and I loved seeing their house and their cute little town. It definitely made me realize that I could maybe move somewhere else.

Thanks Ian, for this fun little trip. I had a blast. Thanks Buffy, for being my friend. I am so glad that I needed honey that one day. Do you realize that I needed honey for the pizza that I made while at your house. Full circle. I'm glad like a couple of litlte girls we realized that we could actually be "friends forever". (It's true, we had this discussion...and I love it!)

Look at this sweet sad face. She got really upset when she found out I was leaving. It was so precious. It made me so sad to leave my friends. I love them all and I'm so glad I got to go spend time with them. Except there's one bad thing that resulted in my visit. Now I'm sad all over again that they're gone...

...and also I am now an ice cream snob...