A few weeks ago my friend Tiffany back in Texas, called with an idea to surprise her youngest son, Greyson, for his birthday. He really wanted his buddies, Gabe and Drew at his birthday party. So Tiff and I worked out a way to fly the boys down for a little birthday magic. It worked out well since I was hoping to go down that weekend to do some wedding business with my friend, Lauren, who is getting married in March.
Thursday, Aaron and I picked the boys up from school and dropped the big plan on them. Gabriel was jumping up and down and so excited and Drew....just sort of stood there picking his lip, trying to process the whole thing. He had just won an award in the Oral Interpretation Fair at his school. He was presented with a big blue ribbon and he sat in the car petting it.
"I want to take this with me to always remember my school by. I wish I could've said goodbye to my friends and my teacher."
"Um...Drew, we are not moving back to Texas. We are going for a visit. You will be back at school on Monday!"
The boys are seasoned travellers and always do really well. As always when we travel, the boys impressed other travellers with their poise and manners. As we got off the plane Drew calls into the cockpit to the pilot, "Thank you for the ride, my good man!" This caused bursts of laughter from many.
"Oh! I'm so glad to be in Texas! Home at last!" Gabriel exclaimed.
"Yeah. Texas is the best country ever!" Drew bellowed.
A cowboy, 10 gallon hat and all, pat Drew's head and said "You are so right young man."
Ahhh, Texans! Ha!
The next morning I put the boys in a huge wrapped box that Tiffany had left at my moms. She told her little guy that the boys had sent a birthday present for him and that it was at their Nana's house. When he tried to lift the box Drew said, "Hey Buddy! What are you trying to do?"
This caused Greyson to take a few steps back. The boys lifted the box and yelled surprise. Greyson sort of reacted like Drew had...lot's of blank staring. Finally he said, "I have Super Mario Brothers." And so we packed the boys up and went to Greyson's house to play Super Mario Brothers.
We took Gabriel up to his old school for lunch and to surprise his buddy Preston. Preston is Greyson's big brother and was also having a big weekend. A few weeks back Preston prayed for Christ to be Lord of his heart. When Gabriel heard, his first reaction was for hopes of being there when his pal was baptised and so Tiffany arranged for his baptism to be during the weekend we were there! When Preston saw Gabe he was so thrilled and he gave him a huge hug.
"Your timing is great!" he said, "There are a lot of really good things happening this weekend!"
Gabriel had lots of old friends come to say hi and ask him if he had moved back and how he liked Colorado. He said it felt like being a famous person when they are being interviewed. We stayed for recess. Gabriel and his Nerd Herd played along the back fence of the recess yard and then we took him and Preston home.
It was so fun to be there. Surreal for sure. There were a couple of times where I thought I could just run home to get something that we needed. I loved those moments of forgetting that I was just a visitor.
That night my girl, Lesley, picked me up to take me to Austin where my bride-friend lives. I started to lose my voice a bit from all of the talking. I had so much to tell her about. I'm sure Caren's ears were burning because she was in so much of the conversation! I filled Les in on everyone and everything and she did the same. It was such a comfort to be in her car again. We have had so many long talks and trips in that car. The talking did not stop upon arriving at our destination either. We were shocked to find it was 4:30 a.m! Lights had to go out to be rested for the next round of adventure in the morning.
In the morning we went to lunch with Lauren and out for pedicures. Oh! I forgot to mention! Friday, I had an appointment at my old salon to get my eyebrows waxed. If you are a blog follower, you know that it has been my plight in Colorado, to find a good place to get this much needed maintenance done. Rachel did my brows. Everyone at this salon has done them before but Rachel is always my favorite because she trims them.
"I'm so glad I got you today! You are always the most thorough."
"Well," she says, "you are pretty scraggly this time." Oh how I laughed! I love that girl! After about 10 minutes (I kid you not) of eyebrow maintenance, I snapped a shot and sent it out to Caren.
So back to the feet. First off Lauren slightly gasped when she saw them. It was a good call to get it done. The pedicurist asked me if I would like the deluxe pedicure. She said that my heels and toes were pretty dry and calloused. Really? I would think hiking in 0% humidity would work wonders on my feet. I have to say, it was the best pedi I ever had! My feet looks so pretty and supple. It felt good to return home as a proper southern woman.
Lauren took us to the venue for the wedding. I don't want to spoil anything and so I won't be giving details but....GORGEOUS! This will be a very lovely wedding for a very lovely lady. I hear the groom is alright too. ;)
Back to Magnolia for Preston's baptism. The baptism was very nice and I got to see even more old friends there! It was so good to worship next to my dear friend and to celebrate her sons new life! It was also very good to be back in a pair of high heels. Yes folks, it was! And my toes looked so pretty in them...
After the service we picked up our kids and learned that there had been a "technical" problem during their lesson. Apparently the lesson was on being Salt and Light. In Gabriel's words, this guy had a big stick with cloth at the end of it. He dipped it in a chemical and lit it on fire. He would then put the fire out by putting it in his mouth. When doing so, a spark flew off and landed in the chemical, catching it on fire. The fire eater, tried to blow it out but that caused the fire to "splash" on to him. So then his Sunday shirt was on fire! He took it off and so part of the classroom was on fire! The kids were evacuated and it seems that no one got hurt.
"Wow son! It sounds like that guy was really on fire for Jesus!" It was scary but it's one of those things that you have to laugh at. I asked our hosts if next week they planned on some snake handling.
Before leaving we were able to meet up with our old Pizza Night crew. It was the fastest hour ever but it was so good to see them and their Littles! After that we changed into our "winter" clothes and headed to the airport.
The trip was a whirlwind. I had too short of visits with everyone. I got to see my sister and meet her man briefly while in Austin. It was like that all over. Brief. Blll. It was still so good though! The boys had a great time. It was so hard to keep it a secret. We didn't tell anyone for fear that the news would some how slip out to the boys. Even the night before we were leaving Aaron asked me about our flight.
"Are you flying somewhere?" Drew had asked. We covered it to say it was about Lauren's wedding. Whew.
The flight home was another uneventful one. As we were taking off Drew said "On to the next adventure!" And so we are. We hit the ground running with all that we have to do this week. Mumford and Sons concert Wed, school Halloween parties Friday, Gorilla 5k Sat, and Halloween party and trick or treating on Sunday. Good to be home!
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