Texas Trip Part 1: Austin

The day after Brad finished finals, we took off to Texas to see the Schaack family. This trip was so perfect. We hadn't seen my siblings since our wedding, so i had been looking forward to this trip for a long time. This also was Brad's first Texas experience. :) We flew into Austin early Thursday morning, and spent time with Russ, Megan and the girls. We were in Austin for Thursday and Friday. 

Megan picked us up, and we went to their new house, which was so beautiful! They just moved in a few months ago, and they really have a perfect house in the most beautiful neighborhood ever. So played 'Ariel' on the trampoline with Brinley while we waited for Kenzie to get home from school. (Videos of the Ariel game to come. We had never laughed so hard.) 

Russ got home from work, and Kenz got home from school, so we decided to go downtown Austin. We went to Lake Austin and rented the stand up paddle boards and a canoe and went down the river. It was so beautiful. 

 I started out on my knees

 Then went to my feet...

 The girls in the canoe

 Brad came over to bug me

 Made me lose my balance, and we both fell in the water.

 Kenz and Brad had a good little groove goin here...

I obviously didn't.  I ran into a tree...

 So i traded Russ the paddle board for the canoe...

 Brin and Brad swam around for a while...

 Kenzie just loved hangin out on the paddle board

 Megan even rocked the paddle board the whole way back with the pregnant belly...

 Hangin out on the dock....

 

After the lake, we went to this yummy pizza place. I want that Mediterranean pizza right now! We had a great time walking downtown. We went to this cool old fashion candy shop, and let the girls go crazy. However, my little sweet tooth was also in heaven also!

Friday morning, we went over to see Russ' office. He really has an amazing practice, and it was fun to see him in his element. He gave us all some good body adjustments, which felt oh so good. It was also fun to meet his staff and just see what he does every day!

After our expedition at Integrative Sports and Wellness, Brad and Russ went road biking. They said they would only be gone for an hour, which ended up being a little over 2 hours. I had never seen 2 sweatier boys in my life. They sure had fun though! Us girls all went a did a little shopping in the meantime. 

While we were packing up to head to Dallas, we watched Kenzie ride her 2 wheeler bike out on the street! We had some good laughs watching her, and showing off for us! We couldn't love that Kenzie girl any more!

Megan made a yummy dinner Friday night, and then we all got in the car to head to Dallas! We had a 4 hour drive, and had a great time talking with Russ and Megan, spitting seeds, and listening to music! We love them!
*funny story: Brinley slept the whole way from Austin to Dallas that night. However, she kept on having bad dreams cause she would randomly start crying and yell ' No! stop hurting me!' and then get mad at random people. It was pretty sad and funny at the same time.
We love Austin, and the Jepson family! 

Jordy's Mission Call

My dear friend Jordy has been making me go crazy for a while here! She is such an amazing person, and her life is always full of amazing things. I envy how she does so many things, and does them all so well. Her and I have been tied to the hip since Mrs. Belliston's foods class my Junior year in high school, and I constantly learn so much from her. Our lives have gone different directions at times, but we have still always been the best of friends. 

Anyway, she told me a little bit ago that she had decided to serve a mission. I will never forget that conversation. We were eating Chic-fil-a chicken nuggets in her house, and i was telling her about one of my many weaknesses, and as the conversation continued she told me about an amazing experience she had, and how she has decided to serve a mission. I think i peed a little. I immediately started panicking how i'd survive not being able to call, talk, or see her whenever i wanted. But then i thought, 'of course she is going on a mission! She is ALWAYS doing amazing things, and this is just another one.' 

As many people know i started getting a little anxiety as it got closer and closer to her receiving her call. The day her call came, i think i was going to explode. I was having all sorts of weird dreams and just wanted to know where she was going!! Anyway, Brad got done with all of his finals with flying colors Wednesday night, and we immediately headed over to the Whitt house to find out where in the world she was going. 

Brad felt like he needed to hold on to the big white envelope for a while. I couldn't touch it or else i would have just opened it myself. 

 Opening the envelope....

 Jordy has been called to serve in the Omaha Nebraska Mission, serving at the Winter Quarters site on the Mormon Trail. 

How cool is that? 

I couldn't believe it...and i am just so excited for her!

 I look ridiculous in this picture...but I love both of these girls to death.

This was such an exciting night! I am so grateful that Jordy is joining the ranks. She will bless the lives of so many people!

Easter Weekend

Easter is probably my favorite holiday! Why? Well Easter candy is THE best! I don't even want to know how many bags of cadbury eggs I ate by myself this year. I also love it, because it means it's finally spring time! Most importantly I love celebrating the life of our Savior. He is everything to Brad and I. 

We had a great weekend celebrating Easter with Momma and Poppa Schaack on Saturday, and then with the Curtis family on Sunday. 

Saturday:

We had a great time hanging out with my parents. They are always so good to us. We began our festivities by going to dinner at Cafe Rio (Brad's favorite place). While at dinner, we began talking about how my parents were flying out of the Provo Airport to go to Texas in a few weeks. We started making all kinds of 'what if' jokes about flying out of the Provo Airport, and I think we really made my Mom nervous. So she insisted after we were done eating that we go check out the Provo Airport. It was super random and funny. The whole way there we kept on saying 'are we seriously going to the Provo Airport?' So we got there... Took a picture for memory sake...and checked out the tiny little airport. What an exciting event. 

 Then we headed back to the house to color easter eggs. Brad was so excited for this. He was really intense about making the COOLEST eggs. It was fun :)

Then onto the Schaack family tradition: Our annual Easter egg hunt in the dark, with flashlights! Brad and I should have tied the game, because we had an even amount of eggs. BUT, my father put out another empty one so it wouldn't be an even number. So Brad won, of course. 

Sunday:
After church we hurried on over to the Curtis household to celebrate with them. We had a wonderful Easter dinner, and of course we were all excited to find our Easter baskets. Marty always hides them really good for us. However, this year we were tricked. They gave us a little basket with an egg in it, and when we opened up the egg this is what we found...

So everyone was intensely trying to figure out how to use the google maps app by typing in the coordinates. Some people (Brad) got frustrated when their phone wasn't working properly and it was withholding them from finding their basket first and being the winner. 

We followed the directions on the phone and found ourselves on a mountain looking through a big field of nothing. But sure enough, we found another envelope giving us more coordinates to run to. This is when the competition began to be a little too close for comfort. I was having a hard time being a fast runner due to my stupid injured knee. So Brad sweetly came to me and said, 'Honey i love you, and i'm sorry your knee hurts, but i am just gonna go and win okay?' He took off on a sprint, and i hobbled like 100 yards behind him. He is just so competitive. 

So sure enough, we found our baskets in the Wagstaff's backyard. How happy we all were!

We missed Heather Ann and the little boys on Easter. They were enjoying their time in Washington at the time. 

We all went back to Marty and Keri's and opened our Easter baskets. Keri got us some food storage stuff, which was awesome! We are terrible in the Emergency Preparedness subject. Of course, i was bursting with joy for the cadbury eggs. (Brad, for the snickers) 

And of course, a good game of badmitten to end the night. Brad was complaining  for so long after of his shoulder being sore. Those games get pretty intense!

We love and appreciate everything both of our families do for us! Our Easter weekend was the best!!