Hallie

Saturday evening, February 23rd - Our hamster, Hallie, died. 

Rest in peace, Hallie. You were a good friend.

Katie's 40th Birthday Trip

Thursday February 14th - Mom, Katie, Jenna, and I all made our way to Ft Worth to spend the night with Leslie and then head to Waco for Katie's 40th birthday trip. Our flight arrived at DFW at 10:45, we met up with Katie, got our luggage, Dad & Matt picked us up. A little sleep and we were ready for fun!

Our rough itinerary.

Friday, February 15th - First stop - West, TX - Little Czech Bakery.

Kolaches - Yum! Jenna and I each had a sausage and cheese, and we shared a blueberry.

Once in Waco, we went to the Hotel Indigo to catch our bus tour with Waco Tours. These HIGH back chairs were fun.

The tour was great! They showed us all around Waco - iconic landmarks, fixer upper homes, etc. Lots of information about the history of the town. This is the historic ALICO building.

The Magnolia Silos 

We met Jimmy Don - the creator of the metal signs used by Joanna in decorating the Fixer Upper homes. We also met David Ridley, one of the owners of Waco Tours who had a Fixer Upper episode.

The Shotgun House featured in Fixer Upper.

 The iconic Pat Neff Hall on Baylor campus. The dome is plated with 24 carat gold.

They treated us to ice cream at Heritage Creamery or a coffee from Common Grounds (both also featured on Fixer Upper). They chose the ice cream. I chose the coffee, Cowboy Coffee with a special secret recipe only found there. All were good!

Waco Suspension Bridge

Lover's Leap in Cameron Park

Harp Design and Clint Harp's Fixer Upper house in the background.

The German Schmear House Fixer Upper, also Max Lucado's Daughter's house.

We passed by Cottonland Castle and our tour guides commented that Chip Gaines had wanted to buy it a few years ago, but lost a bidding war. There was a new "for sale" sign in front that our guides said was not there the day before. Hmmm. Sure enough, a few days after we returned home from our trip, it was announced that the Gaines had bought the Castle. Can't wait to see what they do with it!

After the fun tour, we went to the Silos for a food truck late-lunch. The Magnolia Table food truck was sold out of the chicken salad that I wanted to try. So, Jenna and I tried the "Guac This Way" from the Cheddar Box and it did not disappoint!

It's such a nice atmosphere there with people playing on the lawn, relaxing, visiting. I definitely want to go back!

We did some shopping at Magnolia and at the Seed & Supply Store.

Then, we enjoyed a relatively short line for the famous Silos Bakery Cupcakes.

Jenna got the seasonal Chocolate Strawberry and I got the Lemon Lavender. And Jenna got a fancy lemonade. The cake part was amazing, but we both agreed - too much icing. And yet, we still want to go back and try them again.

Left to right, approximately 804; 89; 1,961; 804; and 444 miles to Magnolia.

The day became quite warm and then cooled off nicely toward evening. We spent some time enjoying the Magnolia grounds and these swings.

Then we went to the house we rented from Leslie's friend's sister - really cute house. Plan A was to eat at Torchy's Tacos for dinner, but when we drove by, the line was out the door and no parking. So, we tried a recommendation from our host - Hecho in Waco. It was ok, but not amazing. It did have a good view of the Silos at night with their twinkle lights, so that was cool. We were all very tired and ready to sleep when we arrived home.

Saturday, February 16th - Breakfast at Magnolia Table.

The building was formerly the Elite Cafe built in 1919. Chip and Joanna bought it, renovated it, and opened it as Magnolia Table in February 2018.

We had an hour and a half wait for our table and were glad that we could get coffee, lemon lavender donut holes, and muffins at the coffee shop while we waited. The lavender latte and the lemon lavender donut holes were amazing!

While we waited, we shopped in the gift shop and admired the amazing tile work and details.

Avocado toast was amazing! Jenna ordered a breakfast taco that came with the best salsa ever! I used some on my toast. We all shared the biscuits and strawberry butter - so so good! They gave us caramels with our bill, Jenna bit into hers and out came a tooth! Beware the Magnolia caramels if you have a loose tooth!!

It was definitely worth the wait, and we all want to go back!

She's "sugar and spice and everything nice." Next stop - Spice Village for some shopping.

Next stop the original little Magnolia shop on Bosque, now Magnolia Warehouse shop. Then a stop at Lula Jane's for a late lunch and pie.

Back to the house to relax a little and change clothes for the play that night. Then some more exploring at the Waco Suspension Bridge built in 1870 - a crossing of the Chisholm Trail over the Brazos River.

Jenna - so funny!

She found a leaf in the shape of Texas.

It was fun to see the lights come on while we were there.

Katie and I did some exploring of the Hippodrome Theatre.

View of the Silos area from the roof of the Hippodrome.

We had a little time before our evening plans, and we were hungry so we grabbed a quick bite to eat at Cane's (the line for Torchy's was too long once again). Then, off to Baylor campus to see "Peter and the Starcatcher."

We all agreed that it was kind of hard to follow, not our favorite. But, it was neat to be on Baylor campus. When we arrived home, we were all really tired. Jenna quickly got in the shower and we were all getting ready for bed. A toilet was flushed in the other bathroom during Jenna's shower and she could hear the toilet in her bathroom gurgling, then her shower wouldn't drain well. And then the toilets wouldn't flush and started to back up into the shower drain. Late night plumbing crisis! We debated what we should/could do and finally decided that we could stay there for the night if we could all use a toilet somewhere. So we had a near midnight trip to Walmart to use their toilets. When we got back home, we were glad to find that the toilets were now flushing fine. We were still afraid to use the shower, so we went showerless.

Sunday, February 17th - We went to church at Robinson Church of Christ. Then, we finally made it to Torchy's Tacos for lunch. The queso was amazing!! Worth the wait!

Next stop, the Dr Pepper Museum. 

Dr Pepper was created by Charles Alderton in 1885 at Morrison's Old Corner Drug Store in Waco, TX. This picture is of an artesian well found in the building, the water from the well was used in making Dr Pepper.

Interesting to see all the steps in the making and bottling process.

Lots of Dr Pepper artifacts. And Jenna really enjoyed watching all the old commercials. 

We went across the courtyard to the soda fountain for a Dr Pepper float and found that there were more museum exhibits that we didn't know about and wished that we had had time to see. We had to get going over to the Waco Mammoth National Monument, but the float was delicious!

Waco Mammoth National Monument  - Jenna had fun searching for the five little mammoths hidden around the dig site.

1978 - a femur of the Colombian Mammoth was found in a ravine of the Bosque River. Scientists from Baylor began digging and researching. They found a nursery bed of some 16 mom and baby Mammoths. Then in 2015, it became a National Monument.

Jenna became a Waco Mammoth National Monument Junior Ranger. And she turned in Kellen's booklet that he did at home so he could get his Junior Ranger badge as well.

Around 3:30pm, we started the drive back to Ft. Worth - Jenna fell asleep - a rare nap for her.

We met Dad, Matt, and Lincoln at Joe T. Garcia's. Katie's first time to experience Joe T.'s and a great way to wrap up a fun trip!

Jenna emptied all the change from her wallet and let Lincoln drop them in the fountain. Lincoln read us the cutest version of"Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear?" before bed!

Monday, February 18th - Up at 2:45am to leave at 3:15am for our 5:45am flight! Jenna and Kellen were so happy to see each other again! Such a sweet moment! We were so very tired and glad to have Monday (President's Day) to recover and also thrilled to have a bonus 2 hour delay on Tuesday morning!

We had such a fun time celebrating Katie's 40th!