howdy, yall.

This blog is coming to you live from the hot sunny large state of TEXAS!!!!

That's right. Texas. Large and in charge...just like my hips. Which are growing exponentially as we speak because TEXAS FOOD IS SO GOOD.

Matt and I arrived safe and sound yesterday afternoon and are excited for a fun and relaxing mini-vacation with family and friends. We started off with friends. Blog friends, to be more specific.

Last night Amanda coordinated a fun little get-together-and-eat-Mexican-food soiree at a tasty restaurant. The food was awesome and the company was even better-- PLUS I can add like 4 more people to my list of "internet friends I met in real life that didn't abduct and/or murder me." Beating the odds every day, I tell ya. If you're a regular reader here, you probably will recognize these girls by name if not by picture-- Brittnie is in pink (and she brought along both of her precious girls, including the one that was born about three weeks ago!) and Jaclyn (no blog, but she makes regular appearances in the comment section!) is in stripes. Jaclyn (who also brought her child. In her belly.) actually lives in Florida but ALSO happened to be traveling in the Houston area this week and so like...is that perfect timing or what??! Also, it should be noted that I was wearing shoes with a substantial wedge. I'm not actually that tall.

And that is seriously all the pictures we took at dinner. Blogger fail. There were more people and they all left before we thought to take pictures. Laaaame.

After dinner we retired to Brian and Amanda's adorable house. Since this is the second time we've met in 'real life,'  plus we've been blog/FB/text/phone friends for like 3 years (so presumably they assume we won't murder them in their sleep and/or kidnap their twins), they were nice enough to invite us to spend the night with them. Amanda wasted no time slipping into something a little more comfortable (Christmas PJs, of course), and I joined her so that we could have an official slumber party.

We did try to get our husbands to take pictures of us, but they all turned out ugly. So we went for the selfies. Selfies never disappoint. Then we Face Timed with Allison, since she was too lame to come down and join us for the evening. So it was kind of like the triplets were all together at once, only not.

We stayed up late watching the Olympics, eating cookies, telling stories, and laughing. It was great. But Brian and Amanda had to work today (laaaame), so we eventually had to call it a night and head to bed.

And that's the vacation thus far. Matt and I are still currently hanging out in the Joiners' empty house...robbing them blind? Only time will tell. For sure I'm currently occupying Amanda's "blog spot"-- the place where she says she does all of her blogging.

I'm not entirely sure if she props her feet up or not, but it seemed like a good choice. Please excuse my wet hair and no makeup...I just got out of the shower (that they took all the baby toys out of....so it was a pretty boring and un-noteworthy shower, to be honest). We're about to go get ready, pack up our belongings, and head out in search of kolaches. Brittnie's husband Brandon is a big kolache enthusiast/snob and he gave us all the insider info on where to get the best ones last night, so we're excited to embark on this awesome adventure en route back to my grandparents' house.

Since we're here to visit and celebrate with family, I probably won't have a lot of time to blog/read blogs/comment over the weekend and early next week...please forgive me and try to move on with life. :) But ya know...it seems silly to come all this way and then be holed up with your laptop the whole time. (Then again, maybe I'll get sick of real-life people after a few days and be dying for some quiet time with my computer...actually, that's pretty likely) BUT I'm keeping all the most important and exciting things updated on Instagram and Facebook, so be sure to keep an eye out there if you're dying to see a picture of me riding my grandfather's stair-chair-lift-elevator thingie...BECAUSE THAT THING IS AWESOME. I want to buy a new house with two levels just so that I can get one. Okay not really. But kind of.

Have a happy weekend!! And yay for blog friends!! :) I highly recommend you go make a blog date with one of your 'internet friends' right now...as long as they aren't a serial killer, you're bound to have a great time!