Not just another January weekend

Now that we live in Texas again, I am so blessed to be near so many of my family members and best friends. So close, in fact, that we can now have visitors drive in just a day or for the weekend! 

Last Monday Mary Alice came to visit us and stayed the night and most of Tuesday. We had fun just hanging out and playing with Kona. We visited some of her (our) favorite restaurants and had dinner with our cousin, Jerome! I love living close to my sister again. :)

That weekend Zac, the dogs and I drove down to Houston for a brunch with some of Zac's corps buddies and their wives and babies. We had a blast meeting two new K-2 little ones, meeting Erin Wagstaff, seeing Emily, Nathan, Cameron and Michelle and did I mention playing with all 3 little ones! They are so funny. We spent most of the day just catching up and entertaining ourselves with the babies. Later that evening we drove over to Pearland to visit Fi and Ryan! We had a great Mexican food dinner at Gringo's. I so enjoyed catching up with and spending time with Fi - and finally meeting Ryan.

This past weekend Mandy and Beth ventured down to College Station for a much-needed girls' weekend! (Zac participated in some of the activities, however.) :) We decided that we would do things that we never got around to doing while we were all in college here. Friday evening we met at Kyoto Sushi on Northgate to finally see how their sushi compares to other we have had. We were pleasantly surprised to find some decent sushi in a landlocked city! Afterwards we headed home to talk and rest up for the day ahead. The next morning we stopped at Kolache Rolf's and drove to Washington on the Brazos, the birthplace of Texas. We explored the museum there (yes, Zac read every single thing possible) and took a short tour of the grounds. It was extremely interesting to see where the Great State of Texas signed their declaration of independence from Mexico. And, I was proud to see "J.W. Bunton" as a signer - one of my relatives. We also toured the Star of Texas museum, Barrington farm and the home of the last president of the Republic of Texas, Anson Jones. I really am glad that we drove the short 40 minutes to see all of these things! This is a picture of the ladies at the meeting of the Navasota and Brazos rivers.

For lunch we ventured over to downtown Bryan, which looks great! The City of Bryan and its businesses have done a fantastic job making the area look cleaner, nicer and more approachable. We ate at Casa Rodriguez, a restaurant that was recommended to us by our realtor and one that we hear numerous advertisements for, and all had great Tex-Mex dishes. (I still do not think that I have met my Mexican food quota since being back from Hawaii. I love it so much!)
Zac went home to do homework after lunch while Mandy, Beth and I visited Messina Hof winery for a tour and tasting. I learned several things about wine that I had never heard before, and the wines that we tasted were (mostly) pretty good! Our tour guide demonstrated to us the correct ways to taste red and white wines. I think that I will now have a great appreciation for the different tastes of wines. Dad would be proud! :) After the tour we went back to downtown Bryan to try a new wine bar, Downtown Uncorked. We each tried one glass and had a couple of good appetizers. I look forward to visiting there more often! We then went home, relaxed for a little while, and headed up to Northgate for some more college reminiscing. We had trash can lid nachos at Zapatos, visited the Corner Bar for a few minutes, and we all decided to head home. We may or may not have admitted to feeling so much older. :)
Sunday Zac ditched us to play golf in Houston with Cameron, and we had breakfast at Coco Loco! One of our favorite breakfast restaurants in College Station! Beth, Mandy and I watched a little bit of television before the made the drive back to Dallas.
We had a couple of wonderful weekends, and I am so thankful that MA, Beth and Mandy were able to visit, and that we were able to visit the Houstonites. I truly am blessed to have so many wonderful friends. For more pictures from the past twos weekends, click here.
Me ke aloha,
RAWE

We are homeowners!

In my last post I failed to mention that we closed on our first house! (I have no idea how in the world that could have slipped my mind.) Never the less, we closed last week on our beautiful home. Our realtor, Ashley Cates, helped us find and complete all of the closing tasks and was so incredibly helpful. We are soooo thankful for her help, and would highly recommend her if anyone ever needs/wants to purchase a home in the Bryan/College Station area! http://bestbcsrealtor.com/
We are completely moved in, thanks to being able to rent the house while the closing process was taking place, and finally really feel at home here! I know that I have said this in the past, but if you are ever in the CS area and would like to stop by, please let me know!!
Another thing to be thankful for - mostly having tile in the house with a new puppy. :)
Me ke aloha,
RAWE

The Next Decade

I can NOT believe that it is 2010!
In May I will have graduated from high school ten years ago. That just feels completely crazy to me. I don't feel old enough. I don't feel like I've accomplished enough. Never the less, HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!

Zac and I had a wonderful New Year's Eve with friends in Fort Worth. CLICK HERE for pictures. New Year's Day we drove from Fort Worth to Ennis, Texas, where we picked up the newest member of our family! Introducing, Kona!

Kona is a red merle Australian Shepherd (same breed as Aidan). He is 7 weeks old today! There were 14 puppies in his litter, and all 14 puppies were completely healthy and lived. :) Zac had been wanting a puppy for a while now, and found Kona's litter in a listing online. We visited the puppy the day after Christmas, and then were able to pick him up New Year's Day, when he was exactly six weeks old. We are all adjusting to having a puppy underneath our feet and constantly chewing on everything! He is such a blessing to us, and we love him very much! His name is Hawaiian and means "leeward", or "protected", like the protected side of an island. We really wanted the puppy to have a Hawaiian name, since we enjoyed our time in Hawaii sooo much. CLICK HERE for more pictures of Kona!

Yesterday I also drove to Houston to pick up a friend's dog. We will be keeping Kodi, the yellow lab, for a few months while his family moves from Hawaii to Italy. We will send him off to Italy when our friends are settled and ready for their furry friend. Kodi is a retired service dog, and is a joy to keep. He is so smart!

I hope that you are all keeping warm and enjoying (or tolerating) this frigid Texas weather!

Me ke aloha,

RAWE

Happy Holidays!

I deserve a big fat "F" when it comes to blogging this month!

Since December 1st we have been working on situating things in the house, decorating for Christmas, going to Christmas parties and just taking it easy in College Station. (Above is a picture of part of our Christmas tree and the quilt hanging in our new house in CS.)
Last week we drove to Dallas, spent the night in Allen, then flew up to the Panhandle the next morning for Christmas!  Wednesday Mary Alice flew up and we headed straight to the Coney Island for lunch. We had a WHITE Christmas Eve and Christmas in Pampa! I was so thankful it didn't keep on snowing like it used to in NH. :) We attended Christmas Eve services at church, then had several family friends over for our traditional tamale Christmas Eve dinner. The next morning we exchanged gifts, had a big Christmas meal (including cheesy spaghetti) and enjoyed some much needed family time. Eeeaaarrrlllyyy the next morning Zac, Mary Alice and I all flew back to Dallas - and then MA on to Austin. It was soooo nice to be home. CLICK HERE for pictures from Christmas.
Once in Dallas, Zac and I had Christmas with the Elliott side of the family in Carrollton. We had fun with everyone. Beth and Neal even stayed the night at Zac's parents' house with us and we all had a waffle breakfast the next morning. Afterwards we headed back down to College Station. Zac's friend Court and his girlfriend, Nikki, came over to catch up and see the house. Shortly after that, Zac's parents, Steve and Kay, arrived to also see the house and stay the night with us.
We have had a very fun week, and are looking forward to New Years! I think that one of my New Year's resolutions should be to blog more often. :) What do you think?
Hope everyone had a very mele kalikimaka!
Me ke aloha,
RAWE

Moving In!

Aloha and howdy! Last night was our first night in our new house. While we are still sleeping on an air mattress on the floor, it still felt nice to be in our very own home! But we do have heat and water. :)
We have been going through the house finding every little thing possible for the builder to fix and the painter to touch-up. Later this week our "stuff" from Hawaii will arrive, which will mean we will be unpacking and organizing all weekend long! And yesterday we started running to Wal-Mart, Target and Bed Bath and Beyond (twice) getting things for the house. I'm sure we will be making more trips to those stores in the future, as well.
Zac has been enjoying his new job at TAMU, and has his very own office in the Trigon. He hasn't had a crazy busy schedule like we are used to, but it is nice for him to be able to relax! His Jeep also arrived last week, so I am enjoying not taking him to and from work every day. :)
I am ready for Aidan to join us at the house. Mom and Dad will bring him down in January, when they bring some things to us from Pampa and meet us and MA here in College Station for a basketball game. I will get to see him again over Christmas break, when we go to Pampa. This is a picture of him with Baby Meranda that we took in Austin.

I am going to go get my hair cut now! And we should have internet again on Friday (hooray)!!
Until then, me ke aloha,
RAWE

Happy Thanksgiving! Now...let's play catch up.

Happy Thanksgiving! 

I hope that you have had time to think about each and every thing/person that you are thankful for! I am thankful for family, friends, our health, the Great State of Texas and for the fact that we will only be "homeless" for a couple more days!
Since arriving on the mainland we have been very busy! We arrived in Dallas and tried to adjust to the fun time change. :)

I got to meet my "niece", Meranda, for the first time! She is soooo precious. She was very well behaved, gave us a tour of her cute house and even posed for some pictures with her mom and Aunties. CLICK HERE to see the pictures. Later that night we had a happy hour and dinner get together at the Iron Cactus, and got to see a lot of our friends! That afternoon/evening Zac drove up to Gainesville to pick up my new car! (I have a wonderful husband.) We are now the proud owner of a (red) Jeep Grand Cherokee. :)  Saturday we had an Elliott/Hacker/Cockrum family get-together at Zac's grandparents' house and then Sunday we went to see "ICE!" at the Gaylord Texan. CLICK HERE for all of those pics.
Sunday night we checked in to our hotel in College Station, and Monday we met with our realtor, Ashley, to look at homes there. She was super organized, and we saw 20+ homes that day! Whew - they were all starting to run together. But, we did find the PERFECT one for us, and we got it! We are now in the process of filling out paperwork and waiting to close. We will be able to move in next week! More on the house later, when we actually get to move in!! We are so excited to be first-time homeowners!!

Wednesday we ran errands and had some surprise visitors for dinner! Mary, Kaylie and Carter were in town for an archery thingy and met us at Pei Wei! This was my first time to meet baby Carter, who is perfect and already tall (go figure!). Kaylie made me laugh throughout the entire meal (she is so smart and clever), and even "read me her fortune from her fortune cookie. She said that her fortune said "You do not have to pick up your toys!" - what a great/perfect fortune for her! (She is so funny!) After dinner Zac and I went to the 10th anniversary Bonfire Remembrance at Reed Arena. I can't believe it has already been ten years since the stack fell. The Remembrance was a great way to honor the lives that were lost that day. We will ALWAYS remember them.

HAPPY 25th BIRTHDAY, SISTER! Thursday I drove to Austin to spend Mary Alice's birthday with her. We shopped around, hung out at her cute cute house and went to dinner with her roomie, Jessica, and our cousin, Emily at Z'Tejas! Friday I drove back to CS so that Zac and I could go to Yell with some of Zac's new coworkers.
Then, Saturday was Mom's and Zac's birthday! (November is a popular time to be born!) Zac and I got up and spent the morning walking around campus meeting some of the students he is advising and watched the game day activities on campus. We met Cameron and Michelle and their baby, Nathan, for the game against Baylor.

That was our first time to meet Nathan, who is sooo cute and well behaved. The weather was a little drizzly and rainy, but the game was fun! Afterwards we met Beth and Brent up at Northgate for an evening of reliving our college days. So many things have changed in Aggieland! It is so nice to live in a town that I know something about. I haven't needed to look up any directions just yet. Sunday we watched the Cowboy football game with Zac's friend, Blake. HERE are some pictures of that weekend.
Tuesday Mom, Dad, MA and Aidan came to College Station to see our new house. It had been almost a year since I had seen my puppy - but he remembered me! I have missed him soo soo much. We had lunch with Zac, shopped for a fridge and then headed to Austin. That night we met up with the Buntons/Georges for dinner. I have missed my family, and really enjoyed being with everyone. We stayed at my cousin Emily and her husband Jonathan's home, which is beautiful, and they were the perfect hosts. Wednesday we got to have breakfast with Mandy and Meranda :) , then shopped for Christmas decos for MA's house and started putting up some of her Christmas lights. That night we had our Bunton/George/Elliott Thanksgiving dinner at Emily's house. The food was amazing - including the awesome fried turkey that Jonny (assisted by Z) made. CLICK HERE for pics (from Austin and Dallas Thanksgivings).

Finally, caught up to today... We woke up this morning and drove to Dallas to have Thanksgiving dinner with the Elliott extended family. We went to Zac's cousins' new house in The Colony for a lovely (and delicious) dinner. Matt and Ashley were excellent hosts, and we all (again) ate way too much.  Tonight we watched our Aggies play t.u. in a good game. We put up a great fight, Aggies! WHOOP!
And now, we are caught up. :) Sorry for the gap in posting - I will do better in the days to come.
Me ke aloha,
Rebekah

We're BBBAAAAACCCCKKK!!

ALOHA, TEXAS! We arrived back in The Great State of Texas this week, after a long flight and dealing with some really annoying and rude American Airlines people. The flight was fine, and we are still struggling with the time change, but soon we will be back on central time.

Zac and I spent our last three days in Hawaii on the island of Kauai. We had an amazing time seeing the sights and relaxing before our big move. Our first day there we drove to Kauai Coffee and Waimea Canyon (the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific"), then we went to dinner at Duke's at the Marriott. The next morning we took a helicopter tour of the island - SUCH an awesome way to see the entire island. We were fortunate to be able to stay in a beautiful timeshare at the Westin Princeville. Our last day we kayaked up the Wailua River, then hiked to Secret Falls and swam under the falls. The trail was SUPER muddy, but it was a fun adventure. We absolutely loved our last little Hawaiian island hop trip. CLICK HERE for all of our pictures, and CLICK HERE for a few videos I took there. :)

We have already had a fun two days here in Texas, and I will tell you more about those verrry soon!

Until then, me ke aloha,
RAWE