SURPRISE!!

I had an incredible weekend! 

Friday night Zac and I didn't do much; a little cleaning, cooking and watching a movie. I knew that Saturday was going to be a REALLY busy day.

Sat. morning I went up to the museum early to volunteer for the annual Easter Celebration! The event went smoothly, the weather cooperated (even if it was a little chilly and windy) and there were soooo many people in attendance. I went straight from there to the Physics and Engineering Festival to take pictures for work. After being there for an hour, I left to meet my cousin Emily, her husband Jonathan and Zac for lunch at Layne's! I was so excited that Emily and Jonathan were coming to hang out in College Station with us for the day/night. They got to see our house, the dogs and a lot of what has changed here since we were students. We gave them a tour of our house, CS and the Bonfire Memorial. (Emily and Jonathan were freshmen here when Bonfire fell in '99.) After the tours we came home and changed because Zac said that we had dinner reservations. I kept trying to guess where, but he would not tell me (typical). We ended up driving in to Bryan, to Mr. G's Pizza. We walked in the door and a bunch of people yelled "SURPRISE!!" really loudly. It took me a few seconds to process what was going on before I realized the fun surprise was for ME! WOW! I was surprised, indeed! Mandy, Beth and Zac had been plotting against me, with the help of everyone, to get me - and it worked! Mandy, Meranda, Beth, Mai, Teal, April and Becky all came in from the metroplex - Mary Alice, Jonathan and Emily were here from Austin - Jesse, his friend and Kevin came in from San Antonio/Houston - Amy and Austin came in from Houston, and Kelsey, Mack, Spike and John (and Zac of course) were here in town. :) Am I blessed or what? I have the most thoughtful/caring/fun family and friends in the whole world. Thank you, friends!! We had pizza, cake and opened presents at Mr. G's, then everyone came to our house to hang out for a while. Afterwards we headed up to Northgate. What an incredibly fun birthday celebration that I wasn't expecting AT ALL! 

Sunday morning some of us went to breakfast at Coco Loco before heading back in a million directions. That afternoon, Zac, Mary Alice and I installed my birthday present from Zac, fireplace glass! It is absolutely beautiful, and I love how it looks installed. I wanted something that wouldn't ash and stain the rock or make a mess. Mary Alice saw this done on HGTV, and luckily I had a birthday coming up so I asked for it. :) We love it! 

CLICK HERE to see a few pictures from the surprise party, and the installation of the fireplace glass! For more birthday celebration pictures, see Facebook!

Me ke aloha,

RAWE

Hamm Visit, Shelton Visit and More!

Where to begin? Since my last post a lot has been going on!
The last weekend in February, the Hamm family came to College Station for a visit, and so that Mary could shoot to qualify for nationals. Zac and I had SO much fun with Mary, Reed, Kaylie and Carter. Mary shot well, and this time Kaylie wasn't so scared of Zac. In fact, she loved him.

Kaylie was here on her 4th birthday! I can not believe she is already 4 years old. She is such a beautiful little girl, and says some pretty hilarious things. I made a list of a few of my favorite quotes of hers over the weekend she was here.

• Kaylie eating one of our Yoplait Whips yogurt: "I think your yogurt turned in to ice cream. Can I have a different one?"
• "It's my birthday?? I think I need more presents!!"
• Talking to me in the car: "You need a hair cut!" (I'm trying to grow it out for Amy's wedding in July.)

She really is SO funny.

March 8th I drove to Austin after work to meet Mary Alice, Jessica and Tiffani for the John Mayer Battle Studies concert. Yes, I have seen him several times in concert, and he does not disappoint. I think this was my 6th or 7th time to see him live. Love it. He is so talented.

And now Spring Break is upon us! Zac and I both had Thurs. and Fri. off. :) Whoop for working for TAMU! Wed. afternoon Tony, Barb, Tommy and Amanda drove down to visit us! That night we gave them a driving tour of campus, visited the Bonfire Memorial and had a fun dinner at Wings 'n More. Thurs. morning we got up, had an awesome kolache breakfast and drove to Brenham. We first visited Blue Bell Creamery! (All with hundreds of other families also on spring break.) We took the tour of the creamery, learned how they make their glorious ice cream and even got to try a scoop at the end of the tour. I had the most amazing flavor: Southern Blackberry Cobbler! If you can get your hands on it - buy some - it's in a lavender colored carton. Afterwards we drove in to Brenham to ride their antique carousel. I chose to ride a horse, and not sit on the benches. There was a sign telling adults to ride on the benches, but what fun is that? On the way back to College Station we stopped at Washington on the Brazos and walked the grounds before driving back for a Freebirds lunch. Everyone left full and happy. Then the Sheltons had to go back to Carrollton. We had so much fun with them here. :) 

This past weekend I went to a baby shower for a friend of mine from the museum. There was an exciting moment when one of the gifts caught on fire - the gift was not damaged and was extinguished by a glass of Sprite! At this momentous baby shower I ran in to my cousin! Natalie was in town visiting her God parents - and neither one of us knew that the other was in town. It was such a fun surprise. 

To see more pictures of these events, CLICK HERE! 

More blogs to come soon!

Me ke aloha, 

RAWE