Jess: Although we had some wonderful suggestions about what to write for this blog, we decided to go the boring route and tell y’all what we did over our trip to Texas.
I think I can safely speak for both of us when I say our bi-annual trips to Texas, while wonderful, have been pretty stressful at times. With the exception of our trip last August, we have always traveled down for someone’s wedding. Wes has been in those weddings, and our trip this November will be for a wedding I’m in. Weddings are wonderful. We love seeing our friends get married, and we’re so happy that so many have included us in their special day.
But weddings are also a lot of work—even for those of us who are just bridesmaids/groomsmen. At the very least, the two or three days leading up to the wedding are filled with parties, rehearsals, and last minute planning. Hence our trip in August: we were trying to have a time where our agenda was our own. We failed pretty badly at making the trip relaxing, though, because we flew into north Texas, drove down to Austin/San Antonio, and drove back up at the end of the week. Not exactly a relaxing time.
Somehow, though, this trip has been by far the most relaxing one in the more than two years we’ve lived in New Jersey. It seems like we finally hit a good balance. We knew enough of our general plan to know when we needed to crash with friends and whose car we would borrow. But we didn’t have a million things we had to do. We had whole days where we just hung out, with little to no agenda.
To top off the amazingly relaxing experience, Tim and Brittany’s wedding was just plain wonderful. They had a little outdoor ceremony on the first hole of a golf course. Our friends Jeremy and Amanda co-led the service, and it was just awesome. Then we headed into the golf club building and the reception was beautiful, too. We were able to hang out with all of our TLU friends, there was dancing, there was cake, and the food was delicious. Although Wes and I didn’t get to see a ton of the bride and groom, we did have one awesome party experience. And we didn’t have to be responsible for anyone or anything.
We really miss our friends in Texas while we’re in New Jersey, and we love going home because we feel like we’re celebrities when we get there. Everyone is so happy to see us, they change their work schedules to accommodate our vacation, and life is just so easy. We feel incredibly blessed to have such great friends from our time in college, and even more blessed that they’re willing to go through the pain of long-distance friendship.
Wes: So Jess decided to leave it to me to actually tell y’all what we did. Our departure from Philly was one of the most potentially stressful flights that I think I have ever had. When we made it to our gate last Wednesday, we were told that we were not going to be able to make our connecting flight from Dallas to San Antonio. Instead of getting to the Alamo City at around 9 pm, we weren’t going to be able to get there until midnight. And since we had a two-hour drive after this, it wasn’t going to get us home until 2 am. That wasn’t going to work. So I called up some of our friends in the Arlington area and we sparked a plan. Elizabeth would pick us up from the airport and take us to Jon. Jon would then drive us from Arlington to Hico, where we would meet my dad and go home. It all worked out, and not only were we home before midnight; I was able to get a Dublin Dr. Pepper!
Here was the rest of our schedule in a nutshell with some major points to along with it:
Thursday—Slept in. Dad made breakfast tacos. Jess went to bachelorette party. Wes played pool into the wee hours of the morning.
Friday—Slept in a little less. Picked up Jess from Austin. Ate lunch with grandparents. Jess, Wes and Dad played pool into the wee hours of the morning.
Saturday—Hung out with family and went to breakfast. Had coffee with one of Wes’ mentors. Got lost on the way to wedding. Made it to the wedding with seconds to spare. Partied all night with good friends whom Wes and Jess dearly missed. Made some very important life decisions.
Sunday—Went to church at University United Methodist Church. Heard a great message and worshipped with Mark Swayze Band! Lunch at Magic Time Machine. Jess went dress shopping for Kelli’s wedding. Wes and friends floated the Comal River. Rudy’s for dinner.
Monday—Woke up at 5 am to drop Dad off at Texas State. Led chapel at TLU and saw more friends and great mentors. Coffee with Shook. Lunch with favorite professor. Sat in on storytelling class. 3 hrs in Freddy’s Frozen Custard doing paperwork. Dinner at Mamacitas. Late night fun and great conversations with Ryan.
Tuesday—Wes has early morning candidacy meeting with DCOM. Wes was unanimously approved! Yay! Riverboat tour on San Antonio Riverwalk. Lunch with Mark Swayze. Dinner with more of Wes’ family.
Wednesday—fly home…
Well, that was our trip in a nutshell. To be precise, a pecan shell. For those that we got to see and hang out with, thanks for making time for us! For those we didn’t get to see, please know that we love you, we just made it a point not to make any plans this time.
Goodbye for now, Texas! We promise we’ll be home again soon! But until then, you stay classy, World Wide Web.
-Jess and Wes
