Country Strong

 A few weeks after Christmas we were able to fly out to Texas for my cousin, Jung's wedding.  It was quite the flight.  We left Salt Lake airport at 7am to land in Long Beach, CA by 8:30am.  We went up into the one and only restaurant within the airport and indulged in french toast, eggs, and bacon.  Although I probably should have planned ahead, I called my mom when we landed and an hour later we were sitting in the restaurant catching up with her.  I love seeing my mom! I know that sounds super corny, but since living in Utah, it has been extremely hard to go and visit and spend quality time with my mom.  She is such a crack up and even though I was raised by my dad and thought our personalities were a lot alike, I realize the older I get the more similar I am to my mom.  Off that tangent, we flew from Long Beach to Austin, TX.  We arrived 20 minutes late, but when we got to the rent car place, they just told us to choose ANY car down this specific aisle.  Naturally we didn't think to choose one that had decent gas mileage, but were going to style and flare.  

So here was our choice.  A red Charger!  The car was quite nice and extremely roomy and although I don't see myself as someone who would own a charger, I loved having it for the weekend.  PS: I would like to thank Lance for being 25 and therefore being old enough to rent this wonderful car without us having the pay extra for being "under age."  I, however, will have to wait another 3 and a half years until I qualify to take charge of the Charger (or any rental car for that matter).  

 

We arrived at Megan's (my cousins fiance) sisters house  where we stayed in their apartment house with my other cousins and aunt.  When we walked into the house little Rexi (my cousin's daughter who is 2 and a half) came running into the room naked (she had just had a bath) and yelling "Teenie Teenie Teenie"  (which is my nickname for those of you who don't know).  She is the craziest most wild things I've ever seen and looks like the clone of me when I was a little girl.  About an hour later my cousin Shin showed up with her husband and their little girl Kara.  As soon as Kara was in sight Rexi was entranced by her presence and kept saying "Kara, where's Kara? Kara look at this, Kara Kara Kara."  It is darling how these little girls treat one another like they are sisters since they are only 6 months apart.  

We sought to make our entire weekend dedicated to COUNTRY since we were in TEXAS.  On our drive from Austin to Houston, we took back roads that are considered highways and stopped at Whataburger which is Texas's rendition of what we on the west coast think of as Burger King or In and Out.  They have burgers on TEXAS TOAST which are quite delicious.    In addition we asked Megan's sister who lived in Houston where we should eat dinner and she suggested the Potato Patch. 

 

It doesn't look all that fancy, but the experience is what it is all about.  We were seated in a booth and there is a worker whose sole purpose is to walk around with a tray of rolls and when someone raises their hand or yells Yes in response to the workers "Rolls? Rolls?" the worker THROWS them at you!   Now these rolls aren't just the plain Sunday rolls you typically think of although they had some of those, these were speciality rolls.  Some with white chocolate chips, others with almonds, blueberries, ect.  Quite fun.  After we stuffed our face with rolls we headed down the road to the movie theatre to see COUNTRY STRONG.  It received really bad reviews, but we both really enjoyed the movie.  It was a little dark at times, but the music was stellar.  After the movie we were hungry once again, but this time wanted some ice cream.  Since we were in Texas, finding Blue Bell was a MUST.  We rushed to Walgreens and found the amazing Blue Bell and brought it back to eat with my family.

 

The sealing was absolutely beautiful and I am so happy that we were able to be there to represent my family in the temple.  The feeling of choosing to be sealed in the temple brings so much happiness to my life and I'm happy that now my cousin can experience that same eternal happiness.  

The reception was also wonderful.  It was 2 hours outside of Houston in a tiny little town.  It was in a chapel and I typically don't prefer the look of a reception in a chapel, but this chapel was decorated amazingly.  The theme was Paris, so everything was black and white.  There was a black canopy hanging from the ceiling as well as traveled down the walls and white lights strung up everywhere. 

Megan's mom even made a separate cake for little Rexi since it was "her wedding" too.  She thinks shes a princess so she LOVED her castle and all the little cousins and kids LOVED it too. 

 

My first experience in Texas as definitely worth the long flight and drive and I'm so grateful I was able to share the experience with Lancey!