Tag: houston

Summer Daze

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Houston gets reallllly hot in the summer. I grew up in Texas, I’ve lived through Dallas summers, I know it gets hot. But the humidity in Houston totally ups the heat game. Between that and the mosquitos, I feel like everything outdoors has been semi-miserable since June started. And I haven’t really been enjoying the summer time, just kind of waiting for it to be Fall already. This is on top of getting ready for the remodel/ being out of town all the time anyway. But thinking back, relaxing outside on summer nights at home can be pretty magical.

All this to say: thank goodness for having friends over to grill because it saved me and now I want to take advantage of the rest of the summer, even if it is hot 🙂 Oh and it may have had something to do with the watermelon, which I had for the first time this whole year. Juicy goodness.


Summer Goals:

– Make homemade ice cream

– Take Barley to the beach

– Blend up some frozen margaritas

– Not complain about the weather- embrace it as a warm hug

– Go to an Astros game

– Go swimming

I’m giving myself to the end of September 🙂

#HilburnsGetHitched

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Man, I think I’m just now starting to recover from the weekend! But my heart is so full! Katie and Josh got married Saturday night. Seeing such great friends get married is the best. Knowing that they’ll get to care for each other, laugh with one another, and love on one another FOREVER. Just the coolest and it makes me smile from tip to toe. I get way more emotional at weddings now that I’m married- knowing just how good marriage is. *Disclaimer- I may still be in the honeymoon phase*

With so many pastors in the family, it was bound to be full of great speeches and a terrific ceremony. The wedding & reception were at our church and it made for a great background. The whole thing was just beautiful. Plus, Katie got us flower crowns and I’ll be forever grateful. I could live in those things. Getting to spend time with good girlfriends all weekend was pretty great too.

I didn’t go too crazy on pics, but the photographers were amazing- they’ve already put up a couple from the first look on Instagram, and I can’t wait to see how the rest turn out!! Helps to have such a cute couple 🙂

Bridal Brunch: At Tiny’s No. 5. I’m in love with Tiny Boxwood’s so I was excited to try this location. And apparently they are opening one in Austin soon!

white jeans on the end.

the cutest gift from Katie, stocked with earrings, home made lip balm, a robe, and other goodies

The Rehearsal Dinner: At the church, with beautiful centerpieces. I was crazy nervous about giving a speech, per usual. Dan said the nerves were endearing and I’m going to go with it. Oh, and Dan made the beer and it was excellent 🙂

AXO’s!

 

Erin made the cutest stand in bride to walk down the aisle 🙂

Wedding Day Prep: We spent the morning getting ready at the Hilburn’s home then headed over to the church! There was an evening service so they had lots of volunteers there to flip the space from church to a reception hall. In less than an hour. Impressive. I’ve also never worn more makeup in my entire life.

Wedding Time: And then it was time!!! They both looked beyond ecstatic standing at the altar 🙂 We spent the rest of the night dancing, feasting on chicken and waffles, doing our wedding mad libs, and enjoying time with friends and family!

my handsome date

  

Hope you’re having fun in Nicaragua, Mr. and Mrs. Hilburn!

Washed Away in Houston

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Thanks to all who messaged us with concern about the flooding! I know my mom was having a mini panic attack when she found out we hadn’t made it back to the house.

Story time: After spending the weekend in Fredericksburg (and hitting a LOT of rain while driving out there), we safely made it back to Houston Monday evening. Since Barley had been out all day, we figured we could sneak off to a movie that night. We ended up choosing Mad Max in 3D, which was really awesome. The effects were unreal and I enjoyed the story line. It was action from the very beginning until the very end and the whole movie was essentially one long chase scene. I’m not usually a big action fan, but for some reason I loved it.

Moving on… We left the theater to employees warning us of heavy rain and flooding. Great. Everyone on the highway had their flashers turned on and were driving very slowly. It’s pretty terrifying to drive in heavy rain, especially at night. We finally made it to our exit and rain straight into deep water. No matter where we turned, we kept hitting flooding. Eventually, we gave up, found a little bit of higher ground, and waited it out. For 4 hours. In a not great part of town. Luckily, my car wasn’t damaged from all the water, even though my brakes were making some scary sounds! We saw one car goes nose first into a ditch, but the occupants were okay. Just wet! The rain finally lightened up a bit around 2 AM and somehow we found drive-able roads that led us home. Even our street, with the big, deep ditches, was flooding! Still low enough to drive through, thank goodness.  Poor, poor Barley. Alone in the house with all the loud thunder! He didn’t damage a thing and I’m so proud 🙂 The Houston Chronicle has some pictures that capture how bad it got here.


Seeing the damage the next morning was very sad. My heart goes out to those all over Texas who lost priceless items, their homes, and worst of all, family members.

Dan still went into work yesterday, but the roads around downtown were pretty bad, so I stayed home. Perfect for many loads of laundry and cleaning. Our internet was out all day, so I was actually very productive! Plus, we enjoyed a quiet evening at home with an early bed time. Hope everyone stays safe and dry! Looks like we’re in for many more days of rain.

Here’s some photos of Barley enjoying a break from the rain last night to cheer you up 🙂

The Middle Sister Comes to Town

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Tara came to visit this weekend! I love spoiling her when she’s in town since that isn’t super often, and because she’s still in grad school. It’s fun to be the big sister! Plus, sisters are great because you don’t feel the need to constantly entertain or try to impress. We hung on the couch and went grocery shopping and just enjoyed time together. Very nice. I’m sure Dan felt right at home since he grew up with 2 sisters too 😀

Don’t worry- we still did lots of fun things! Friday, we checked out Dolce Vita, which I’ve been meaning to try forever. Can’t go wrong with Tara and Italian. Our pizza was piled high with arugula and fantastic and the old house it was in was charming. We even sat right next to the open kitchen and could watch them whip everything up. Then we bar hopped along Westheimer- pinball at Poison Girl and Margaritas at the new El Tiempo. (Sidenote: Add pinball to the list of things I can beat Dan at. I’ve found #2!!! Shuffleboard is the other, in case you were curious.)

Saturday morning we went down to Market Square Park to attend “Puppies for Breakfast”- the title of this event is confusing, as we didn’t actually eat the dogs… They just had a lot of vendors set up as well as rescue groups. The breakfast part consisted of food trucks! And they had a puppy bowl in right in the middle. Barley pranced around and got his typical insane amount of attention. One guy even strapped a go-pro onto him. Hoping to see that video because he completely face planted while wearing it- he’s not the most coordinated pup. I’m a mean dog mom, finding amusement in his falls. I’m expecting that to be the case with real human children too. Hopefully they’ll all forgive me.

That night, Dan’s company hosted a family night at the Dynamo’s game. We gorged ourselves on corn dogs, sliders, and ice cream sandwiches at the tailgate, then headed over for the game. They won! 3-1! It was an exciting game.

Looking like 2 dads.

  

Sunday morning the skies opened up and it poured. We somehow made it church, but that’s about it. Dan and I didn’t even watch the Rockets game. But they made it to the semi-finals! Guess I can be a bandwagon fan.

Come back soon, Tara! Our guest room is always open 🙂

Lord Huron

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After a fun crawfish boil hosted by my manager up in Spring, Dan and I headed to House of Blues for the Lord Huron concert. Leon Bridges kicked it off and killed it. His group has the biggest 60’s soul throw back sound. From his suit & hat, swaying with his hands behind his back, and 2 awesome back up vocalists, you wouldn’t have believed it was 2015. He’s just real, real good and everyone should go listen to Coming Home ASAP. He also had a song about how his grandparents met and a special one for his mom, who was at the show. He’s from Ft. Worth too! What’s kind of amazing is that he doesn’t even have an album yet and he’s already played at SXSW and is slotted for ACL this fall. He rocks and I can’t wait to hear the entire album!


Next up- the actual headliner. Dan and I saw Lord Huron last year when they were the opener for Young the Giant (I think?) and really liked them. They are pretty easy listening and came out with their new album last month. Listen to Fool for Love from the new album and Ends of the Earth, which I sometimes play on repeat. It was a great show but we had been working on the fence/trim all day and were feeling pretty dang tired by the end. Glad we managed to stay since they played a couple of our favorites very last, even if we were leaning against a rail in the back. Ha. Maybe it’s time to buy actual seats instead of standing room only? Eek.

^^ I really liked the color changes, apparently.

Funny tidbit:: Lately, Katie & I have been buying tickets to the same shows and later find out we are both going. This happened for Lord Huron, so I texted her before we left to see when they were getting there. She had forgotten about the concert… and this is the second time that’s happened this year 🙂 Gave me a laugh. Thanks Katie! Glad y’all were able to make it, even if you were just as tired as we were.

From Housework to NYC

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After a weekend in Houston with basically NO PLANS (what?!) aside from some meals with great friends, we are off to NYC today!!! We’ve spent the last week working in the yard a lot. It had gotten pretty bad and no matter how hard we tried to keep up with the leaves collecting, it seemed it was to no avail. They kept falling. They’re still falling. It’s never ending. And we had to buy a new lawnmower because ours broke… it was only a year old so I was ticked. But now we now have a Honda which should be much more reliable 🙂 And fresh flowers and mulch! Dan also fixed the grout in the shower, which has been on our DIY list for a while and I’m really happy. It’s strange what makes you happy when you have a 1940 house. Like no cracks in your grout.

the handy man himself

On to more fun things… Dan and I are both pretty excited about our trip this weekend. I’ve been keeping a spreadsheet (duh) of all the things I want to do/ eat (mostly eat) and I’m so glad it’s finally here! Every time we watch White Collar it gets me even more excited to be in the city. Plus, we are staying with Dan’s sister, Kim, which means maybe we’ll get to see a little bit of her! Her work schedule is the craziest I’ve ever heard. I don’t know if many people can beat the amount of hours she puts in. Double plus, Al Pal will be in town for her birthday so we get to celebrate that too 🙂 Happy Birthday Alex!!

See ya soon, New York City!

Katie’s Bachelorette Bash

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This weekend we got to celebrate the fact that Miss Katie is getting married SO SO SOON! Chels and I had the honor of throwing the bachelorette party and it was a blast. And y’all know I love an excuse to plan anything, especially for someone I love so much.

We kicked off the weekend with brunch at Gratifi. Food was fabulous, per usual, and super affordable. It also may have been the best service I’ve ever had in a large group. When the server carded us, she wrote our names down as well so that splitting the tab up was incredibly easy. A +!! If you have a large party, go here!! And they allow dogs on the patio, which gives any restaurant extra points in my book.

Gift bags for the girls!

Getting pampered at Sweet Desire!! I messed up my toes as soon as I was done, ha. They fixed them… after scolding me for not being more careful. Whoops.

How cute is the bride?!?!?!

Chels came Friday from Austin and we crafted and shopped and ate grocery store sushi. I baked the cutest cookies ever- insanely easy recipe, incredibly tedious put together process. The dough as sticky and making tiny cookies is challenging. While they didn’t turn perfect, I was pretty proud of them. As far as crafting, I had seen an adorable “Cheers” sign for sale on Etsy for $50 and figured it’d be worth it to attempt to make it on our own. It definitely was.

After nails, we rushed to get the room set up at Hotel Icon using all our prep work. We loved the hotel- it’s right off of Market Square, downtown, and the rooms all have a historic feel to them while still be completely updated. I would have loved to spend some time soaking in the tub 😀 Plus, thanks to Priceline we got an amazing deal!



The whole group via selfie stick!

After we settled in, Katie opened lingerie (NO PICS!! Josh, you’ll just have to wait ;)) and we played a couple games. Throughout Katie’s life, she’s been fairly accident prone so we played a true/false game of Katie’s injuries. So fun. And we quizzed her on some questions we had asked Josh beforehand. My favorite question was “If you could get rid of anything of Katie’s, what would it be?” and Josh answered “Barrett”. Which is Katie’s dog. I was laughing out loud when he sent that. AND Erin’s bf brought up their new pup, Laura Bush (true Texans, y’all) and she was beyond precious. Cue 12 girls awing.

Best CUSTOM card by Sara. Katie’s face on a lingerie model. Basically the same body, amiright?

Then it was time for dinner at Hearsay. I really enjoyed my fish tacos, but the highlight of dinner was applying flash tats (I was able to find an off brand on Amazon for much cheaper and they were still great!).



Preface: NONE of us go out like this anymore (as in, bar hopping with tons of drinks and staying up until 3 in the morning). BUT it was party bus time! SO many memories from college on a party bus. It was very appropriate that this was the way we celebrated Katie (our president), with so many AXO’s in town. Lei Low, in the heights, was the first stop. Dan and I loved it when we went so I was excited for everyone to check it out. The only indication on the front is a neon “Rum” sign. The only tiki bar I know of in Houston. Drinks are very detailed and pretty darn good, although sometimes bitter.


Next stop: Local Pour. Super fun band playing. I loved the lighting in these pictures.

And of course, we had to hit up Midtown.


But mostly just wanted to stay on the bus because Erin’s party playlist was killing it.


Then it was the morning and we had all made our way onto the struggle bus.

The yogurt parfaits bar served in mini mason jars was an adorable idea but I’m pretty sure everyone just wanted pure grease after the night we had.

CHEERS to the best weekend with some awesome ladies. Can’t wait to celebrate together again at the wedding!!!

Should’ve Been A Cowboy

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The Houston Rodeo is a BIG deal. All my Houston friends in college raved about it. I was a little confused because while rodeos in Ft. Worth can be fun, they aren’t something to be raved about. But now that I live in Houston, I totally get it. The Houston Rodeo is awesome.

Dan’s boss gave him suite tickets at the last minute to the show last night and I was stoked. Being in a suite was pretty darn cool. Lots of food and drinks and your beer is served to you in your seat! And no line for the bathroom! I also loved all the events although I did wonder who originally decided to ride a bull and make it a sport. So dangerous! But some of those guys made it look easy. I can’t even imagine hopping onto a bull for the very first time. Plus, the announcers were hilariously entertaining.

We tried really hard to get a good photo but the lighting in the suite was just terrible and this was the best we could do.

Suite cookie! After the amazing ice cream in a cowboy hat with bailey’s and a cookie on top… sugar overload 😀

Stage set up. Happened so fast!

Oh my, Zac Brown Band. I’ve always listened to them and enjoyed their music, but they totally wowed me last night. Musically, they were spot on. Zac killed it on the guitar. And they covered Enter Sandman AND Bohemian Rhapsody. And just took down the stadium. Those are super tough songs. So basically I love Zac Brown now. They also played a newer song that definitely wasn’t country. Pulling a Taylor Swift? I dug it. And his hat? Adorable. Dan needs one. And I need to visit a haberdashery ASAP.

It was a really fun night, even if I did miss the turkey legs. SO glad we made it to the rodeo this year- it was questionable. Can’t wait for next year 😀 Maybe we’ll get lucky and get suite tickets again…

A Lazy Weekend

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So I recovered from my foul mood and we ended up having a really nice weekend here in Houston. We didn’t get out of bed until noon on Saturday OR Sunday. Such bums. We really took advantage of the whole free weekend thing, though in the least productive way possible.

To make up for missing out on NYC, we did a dinner and a movie date night on Friday. Went over to Collina’s near the house (BYOB!! with only a $2 corking fee!!) and ate pizza. Which it seems like we are eating a lot of lately. Our waistlines are surely thanking us. We had it last night too… HA. But we were near Pizza L’Vino and I couldn’t resist because it’s my favorite in Houston, even if Pink’s is my go-to. I clearly need to do a post on pizza. Afterwards, we saw Kingsman at Sundance, which we both really enjoyed. Kind of a more humorous James Bond. Typically, I’m not a huge action movie fan because I feel like the “action” parts are too long/boring. The scenes in Kingsman were just right. After the movie, we walked over to notsuoH (Houston spelled backwards) and met up with Katie & Josh. Really laid back, dive-y, bar with good music and friendly bartenders.

Try Coyam!! It was really, really great.

I feel like we need a bikini lady lamp.

After we finally got up on Saturday, we drove out to Katy to check out No Label Brewing Co. The brewery is in an old rice silo with a huge outdoor area and it was packed! They get down to business in the burbs. Lots of kids running around and people hanging out in lawn chairs. A lot of the beers have clever names- my favorite was the Black Wit-O (no surprise there). Dan chatted up the head brewer and is going to join him for a brew day on Friday! Bright and early at 6 AM 🙂 I’m really excited for him to get the opportunity to see the brew process on a larger system.

This little boy LOVED Bar. He kept telling anyone who passed, “Don’t worry- he’s friendly!” and hugging him a lot. Barley was so great with him 😀

And then… MORE BEER. And some food. We are so predictable. A couple at the brewery had told us about World of Beers (also in Katy… the suburbs have some really good things going on) so we went to check it out. Giant selection! I’m pretty sure I could have gotten anything I wanted. But I picked the Belgian flight because I’m adventurous like that.

We also had our first crawfish of the season with some friends at Woodrow’s Heights. 4 whole pounds of hard work and sticky fingers. Sidenote: Woodrow’s is not the same as Little Woodrow’s.

I swear, Barley got more attention on Saturday than ever before. Which really says something. He is such a doll and I’m so proud of how well behaved he is.

We are all on drugsss, ya! (It’s a song, mom. Didn’t really happen.)

Sunday: Shipley’s donuts & kolaches, house/yard work (Dan wore a floor length heavy duty rain coat to mow because it was pouring all day and mowing was desperately needed), church, and pizza.

I was getting really impatient with this line. Why did it take so long for DONUTS? Also, yes, my sticker is expired. Don’t worry, a new one is in the mail.

Disappointment

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So Dan and I were supposed to wake up in New York City today. We were supposed to be enjoying a super fun weekend with Jenni & Seth. We were supposed to be eating pizza and hot dogs and at delicious NYC restaurants. We were going to go to the 9/11 memorial and the Brooklyn Bridge and the Frick. We were going to see a show on Broadway and breathe in the cold, freezing air. And I’m pouting quite a bit because we aren’t going to get to do any of that and even if we go back next month, the Boyles won’t be there 😦

So basically I’m being a big baby and was a terrible grouch to Dan last night (sorry!) after our flight was cancelled (and we weren’t able to get on another one on Friday… or Saturday…). It’s especially bratty of me because we did just get back from the most amazing vacation and whooo gets to do things like that 2 weekends in a row anyway?! So I’m determined to be grateful for a weekend in Houston where we can work on things around the house (Lord knows our yard needs some TLC) and just generally hang around and be lazy.

Photo (taken by Jenny) from NYC in December with our favorite little niece who I miss so much and CAN’T WAIT to see in just 2 weeks!!