will your readership complain? the stories always end the same.

santa (and his village of lovely elves) was oh so good to me this year!  chris's family took a girl's trip this year and well...i'm one of the girls.  i got to go too.  

we went to and stayed in austin with a day trip to waco on saturday to see what all this hub bub is about some magnolia place.....

haha, i've been flying delta on all of my travels lately.  thankfully they have this sweetwater 420 beer from georgia.  it was first brewed on april 20th (420).  

we're not even out of the airport and i can't keep it together.  this was right before they told me that they were serious about me being the rental car driver for the duration of the trip.

first night in austin was dinner at torchy's.  yum.  also the first rental car driving adventure of the trip.  fun fact: you can park a mini van in a compact car parking stall.

we turned in at a decent hour since we were a bit worn out from travel on Friday but also because we were making a 4:30am departure from the hotel to begin our journey to waco on saturday.  

our first stop was at magnolia table for breakfast.  it was a gorgeous morning to see the sunrise too.

at magnolia table there can often be excessive waits so they have a patio area where you can be seated and enjoy coffee and pastries.  everything was beautiful.

we got our turn for breakfast after what seemed like a short wait.  i was impressed from the time i set foot in the front door and saw this beautiful piece of tile art.

admittedly, i haven't watched much fixer upper.  before the trip (and until 2 nights before we left on the trip) i'd never seen it.  the last two nights i was home before i left for texas, chris and i watched quite a few episodes.

alas, i still did not know what the phone holder baskets were at the table.  you know, it's like that will ferrel commercial.  (watch here)

everything was my favorite.  simple, yet elegant.

ah, the lemon lavender donut holes.  seriously, worth it.

this is me with Chris's mom and sisters.  i think i was on my third or fourth coffee, i was feeling a bit more like myself.

this was one of the magnolia trees right at the entrance of the silos.  it truly was like something from a movie....er, fairytale.  

we spent a bit of time taking in and enjoying the relaxed atmosphere under the silos.  

i think after our early wake up calls we were all ok with a quick break.

at the silos there is shopping, food trucks, yard games, snacks, lots of seating.

last, but most certainly not least, was the silos baking company for the infamous cupcakes.  

these two.  a couple of real life hero's of mine.  they've taught me a lot about being a lady, having patience, holding my tongue, and a lot of other important life lessons.  they'll never admit any of the above to be true....but it is.

saying goodbye to magnolia with our faces to the sun,

and one last sniff of the magnolia tree.

we did buy extra cupcakes to bring back to the hotel.  were were sure glad that we did!  they were the perfect snack.

saturday evening we had a bachelorette party for whitney.

diet coke through the "bride" straw.  nothing says "she said yes" any better.

we grabbed some pizza slices at this little hole in the wall place.  it was perfect and lovely.  but i truly learned the definition of "hole in the wall place".  the pizza sure was good!

after dinner we had tickets for a show at ester's follies.  very hilarious political satire that made me laugh so hard i cried.  after ester's we continued on with the bachelorette celebration and a couple of drinks in a club or two.  we closed out the night with whit yelling at tweedle dee and tweedle dum that they NEEDED WATER!

sunday was mother's day.  we ventured to a very elegant and tasty mexican restaurant.  we sat at a big, gorgeous table in the atrium and were surrounded by tropical plants, great food, and a parrot.  

we did a bit of shopping on willie nelson way.

i was pleased and very relieved to have found the perfect dress to wear to whitney's wedding on the beach in san diego.  i told willie all about it.

we went to the bat bridge.  thought we had insider intel.  maybe we did, maybe we didn't...we'll never know because the big jerks never did their thing!

happy mother's day!  i treated us all to a pedicab ride back to our hotel from the disappointing bat bridge experience.

ahhhh, had to just one.  after all, i was on vacation.

on the way to the airport we stopped for a quick lunch.  i really loved being in a normal place where it's easy to have a beer with your lunch.

at the austin airport.  it was bittersweet.  i had missed chris a lot and was very anxious to see him.  but on the other hand, being in a land where good beer is abundant and easy to come by had been quite nice.  ultimately i chugged these two beasts and got to my seat on the SLC-bound flight with time to spare.