Aunt Marty

I laugh even typing that title. Long story short; One of my best friends from Tennessee flew in on Thursday to spend the weekend with me! Her name is Lauren and all week before she got here, I was getting the girls prepared for her visit. The last time I saw her was 6 years ago at her wedding! Elle was about 1 1/2. So, I was talking to the girls and telling them they could call her Aunt Lauren and explaining that sometimes mommy has a friend that's so special that she is pretty much a sister to me and that would make her an aunt to them. They seemed intrigued by the idea of having another aunt :) Anyway a few days later, Ava is talking about her and asks something along the lines of "Is Aunt Marty coming today?" I cracked up! I then corrected her but I heard her do it accidentally quite a few more times. Where in the world did she get Marty from??? I told Lauren about it on the drive back from the airport and then we both started referring to her as Aunt Marty...it might just stick! At this point, I'll let the pictures do most of the talking but to say we had a LOT of fun would be an understatement. The thing that stuck out to me the most about spending time with her was that she genuinely made me laugh so hard so much all weekend long. I haven't laughed that much or that hard in I don't know how long. It was great to see her and now the balls in my court....gonna have to plan a weekend for me to come see her!

We went to a pottery place and picked out something for each other. Kind of funny what we picked...it was something that is very important to each of us. I picked an ice cream bowl and she picked a dog bowl. Then we gave each other the piece and let the other paint it for us. I go to pick them up today and can't wait to see how they look!!! After the pottery, I took her to the best burger place ever...Mighty Fine Burger. It was delicious as usual and made me proud. lol We still had a little time left, before we needed to be back at the house, so I took her to my favorite antique store. We both went gaga over lots of stuff.

That afternoon we drew on the driveway and each signed our names. Later that night, we ate at Mama Fu's and I was introduced to dumplings which I now crave every single day. Then we went for a pretty walk on the trails and that was wonderful! Later we made brownies, and watched Enchanted, which she bought for the girls and THEY LOVED. Then we put all the kids to bed and stayed up super late talking!

Saturday morning, my next door neighbor's little girl was turning 3 so we went to that party. Boy was it cool! There was a professional face painter and she was awesome! After she painted all the kid's faces, Lauren and I couldn't help but ask if she'd paint ours. We loved it!! Oh and by the way, we were the only adults (with the nerve) to get our face painted! :) We then proceeded to go to HEB and get a few groceries, with our face paint on. :)
Later that afternoon, when Shawn got back from the men's retreat and Levi woke up from his nap, we headed into Austin. When Lauren first said she was coming, I knew we had to take her to get the best TexMex ever...Pappasito's. It did not disappoint. We ordered fajitas and I only wish I would have taken a picture of her face after she bit into that first beef fajita. It was a lovely thing that almost brought tears to my eyes! lol After dinner, we went to do something that in the fours years we've been here, we've never done. We headed down to Congress Street bridge to watch the hundreds of thousands of bat emerge, something they do almost like clockwork all summer long. We had high hopes for it being really cool...unfortunately it was underwhelming. :( You couldn't see them very well by the time they begin flying out but it was still neat to be there. Check that off the list of things to do in Austin.

Even though he seems so aggravated by her at times, he can't seem to get enough of her! He loves to try to climb on her back and she loves for him to do it!

Looking over the bridge as the bats keep emerging. They say it takes them about 45 minutes to all come out. That is some serious mosquito patrol. After that, we headed to Starbucks and sipped some yummy drinks before heading home, putting the kids to bed, and again staying up way past our bedtime, talking and laughing!

And here were are Sunday morning ready for worship. She happened to be here on first Sunday so she got to eat lunch with our Christian family. Afterwards, we headed home, packed her up, and drove back to the airport. After dropping her off, I felt a true sense of loss. Weird feeling...just felt kind of down all the way home. But now I have tons of new stories and lots of memories to hold me over until we meet again! :)