Because I'd been traveling the past week and we went to Southlake that weekend, it was a low-key Monday night, followed by dinner with my mom on Tuesday. Wednesday after work, I picked up dinner for Anna and Amer (and baby Amelia) and took it over to them. It was great to see Anna - she looked so good! She ended up having an emergency c-section at 33 weeks due to pre-eclampsia. She was actually ok and could have been on bed-rest for a couple weeks, but Amelia was in distress and the doctors estimated she hadn't been growing for the past week. Everyone was healthy, except poor Amelia couldn't regulate her blood sugar, so she had to be in the NICU for 4 weeks. She is absolutely precious!
Amelia was clearly over pictures:
Thursday night I got together with our Missional Community, and then Friday was another low-key night - in other words, I was in bed by 8:30pm. I felt like a winner. But Saturday was extremely busy! I ran with Vania, saw Erin and Adrian at Pumpkinhead, got a pedicure with Meagan (!!!), met Sarah for ice cream, made cookies, and had dinner at my mom's, again. I had gotten up at 5:30am, so when my head finally hit the pillow at 10:00pm, it was lights out. Going to sleep last night, I thought, "Just one more night without Nelson" because I was picking him up the next morning!!!
When I was taking a shower before going to get Nelson at the airport, I actually teared up thinking about it. Lindsay had mentioned crying when Ben came home from a trip to Ireland not too long ago, and I thought, "Really?" But I totally get it now. I'm usually the one that's gone; not him. And 6 days is a long time! Plus we never talked. We'd text here and there, but I wanted him to have "guy time" because we could talk when he got back. And I guess I didn't realize how I'd feel towards the end of that. Luckily I didn't cry when I actually got him ;) But he was exhausted from sleeping in the airport the night before (#cheapestvacationever), so we grabbed lunch at Maudie's so he could nap before our MC Fall party at Jenni and Trevor's.
We took the cookie's I'd made to the party tonight, and Jenni and Trevor had picked up BBQ. It was fun seeing everyone and re-connecting. Since we've been meeting Sunday mornings, we've only been 1 time. We're always out of town, it seems. So it was hearing about Malachi's first birthday and swimming lessons, playing with Packer the puppy, and celebrating the (hopefully soon!) end of David and Val's adoption journey.
This picture was prompted by a discussion on, "What color is my hair?" And Allison and I realized our hair is pretty much the same color - neither blonde nor brunette!
Since I mentioned Nelson and I would text, I thought I'd share some of the pictures he sent me. I know they don't do justice to the real thing, but they were still pretty! He was sure to let me know when I would've been a "crying mess" - I just can't handle heights anymore and it scares me to the point of crying. Terrible, I know.
Arches National Park
The infamous Forrest Gump scene where he stops running.
Antelope Canyon
Horseshoe Bend
Angels Landing
Zion National Park (he said the water was 54 degrees or something!)
When he sent me this picture and I zoomed in, I could see the chain railing and I immediately started sweating. So glad I wasn't there because there's no way I would've been able to go across that thing.
They made a stop in Las Vegas, so he sent me pictures of PawPaw Jack <3
And they ended the trip with free tickets to the Arizona versus Cal football game. Lawrence's friend's dad is the equipment manager (or something?) so they got hooked up with lots of clothes.
Including $100 Texans football tickets, the rental car, gas, lodging, and food, the 6 day trip cost him about $450. These guys would get free breakfast at the hotel each morning (the hotel being ones like Econo Lodge), then put some extra in their backpacks for lunch. To say this was a thrifty trip would be an understatement.
I'm so glad to have Nelson back. And don't worry, he still heard every story I had to tell him over the course of the week because I wrote them all down so I wouldn't forget ;)
