Weekend Recap

As you can tell, I have been pretty m.i.a. over the weekend. I ended up having about a week of vacation that I need to use before July 22 so I had a fabulous extended weekend, starting last Thursday and ending tonight. ((5 day weekends are amazing, by the way!)) I felt like I was in college again...went to bed extremely late (5am on one occasion) and slept in wayyy to late (11am on a few occasions). To say the least, it was extremely nice to not have a care in the world and to only have to worry about what my next cocktail would be. Lucky me-I'm off this Friday as well!

Thursday afternoon a group of us went to stay with Beau's Aunt Frances in Concan, TX (or the Frio River, as most people know it). It's absolutely amazing there. Not only is it beautiful, but there's no cell phone service half the time so it's pure [[bliss]].

On the way down, Kristen, Beau and I stopped in Flatonia to take pictures (and not to mention the pit stop at the local liquor store...)

Kristen & I at the cutest little gazebo

We arrived at Aunt Frances' around 11pm and decided to spend the remainder of the night sitting out on her wrap-around porch with the amazing view of her pastures, horses, donkeys, goats and mountains. (Have I mentioned how much I love this place?!) It's fabulously peaceful! We had a few cocktails, spent hours asking each other random questions, like the deep, "what would you do if"...and "if you could take one thing with you..." kind of questions. Next thing we knew, we went inside and it was 5 A.M.! I have not stayed up that late since my bartending days! After realizing that we had stayed up til the same time most of us get up for work, we agreed it was time for bed. (Plus the guys ran out of whiskey...)
Friday morning we all woke up and drove into Garner State Park. I've been there a zillion times so it's not necessarily my cup of tea but some of the other kids were dying to go plus its gorgeous so we went for a little while. Not to mention, Kristen and I got a pair of these... That's right...Sanuk Yoga Mat flip flops! If you have not seen or heard about these, you've GOT to buy a pair. Trust me. They are a little hard to find which is why I think I am so excited we found them at the Garner State Park gift shop-of all places!!

The girls (Kristen, me, Sierra) at Garner State Park.

After our adventure in the park, we enjoyed the rest of the afternoon in the ice cold river! (Hence, the name Frio?!) We aren't the floating type...it's too much work. We much rather stick lawn chairs in the water and watch other people float by. (It's so much more fun...plus...we never have to worry about where the ice chests are and who's tied up to what.) Beau & I are regulars here so we kinda have things figured out! The rest of the gang wasn't there yet so we waited for them to arrive.

That night, Raj cooked King Ranch Casserole (uh-mazing!) and we enjoyed yet another relaxing night on the porch. Well, Kristen and I went to bed early...the sun and the booze knocked us out early... Or we thought we went to bed early. That was until everyone came stumbling in (mind you there was 12 of us sleeping in Aunt Frances' upstairs t.v. room) and woke us both up...and not to mention Margie's sleep walking episode...but I won't go into details lol.

Saturday morning, the entire crew was there so the first thing on all our minds was getting down to the river!

The girls! Kristen, Ashley, Me, Meagen, Sierra & MargieJonathan, Beau & Jared "showing their muscles"...inside joke...

That night, Kevin Fowler (one of my all time favorite Texas Country singers) was playing at the local bar, House Pasture (or Horse Pasture...as Kristen insists). We headed up there around 7pm and the rest of the night was history...and so is Kristen's camera (ha-no pun intended Grube...RIP Sony!)

Sunday morning (well afternoon by the time we actually got up), the boys fixed burgers and we hit the river for our last hoo-rah before everyone went home.

This was our float that fit all of us on it AND two ice chests! (Thanks to Raj)

Everyone left Sunday afternoon but Beau, Kristen & I stayed one last night to relax. We went to Neal's for dinner and had the second best chicken fried steak in the state of Texas!

And that's all folks!

We spent too much, drank too much, and slept too much but I had an amazing time with some amazing people! (Our next river trip definitely has some competition on this one...)