Magnolia Silos

This happened a while back, but babies man. They keep ya busy. The Magnolia Silos! The weekend Brendon had his lasik surgery I dragged him to Waco to go to Magnolia. I'm not sure he really saw much of it because he was basically blind, but we had a good time anyway. Or at least I did. ;)

For those of you who don't know about this place (is it possible?), Magnolia Silos are the massive retail storefront of Chip and Joanna's company on the show "Fixer Upper". I only stumbled upon this show by accident. We don't have regular tv or cable (we about dat Netflixxxx) so a lot of the times I'm clueless to tv shows unless someone recommends it. But at Thanksgiving my mom had the tv on and "Fixer Upper" was on. I was like hey this is cute. And then I saw it was based in Waco and I was like, say what?? I became obsessed with Waco when we moved to Temple, so I was obviously very interested. I watched the first season when I was preggo and the second when Indy was little bitty and still snoozed while I watched tv. Where's that third season at, Netflix? Anyway, the show is super cute. And the things they do to funky old houses is amazing. Joanna has crazy good taste and her and Chip (and their crazy big family of kiddos and animals) are adorable. What is that the youngins are saying? "Goals"? Except hold the four kids please.

The actual store/complex sells the sort of home decor stuff they use in the show, plus souvenirs, generally cute stuff, and a small amount of renovation materials. And it's all pretty marked up. Basically it's like Target. Don't go in if you don't want to watch your money fly away. The place is a money making machine. And even though the weather was questionable it was PACKED. They have food trucks outside and are going to open a bakery and garden shop soon. Just making allll the money. Those Gaineses are smart folks.

After taking this struggle bus selfie a kind woman offered to take our photo:

Why do photos taken by strangers ALWAYS come out extra awkward? Is it just us?

HEART EYES! He's so much better at this than me. I'm such a weakling.

And a parting shot of Brendon in his extra cool lasik shades and Indiana being the most adorable creature on the planet. This was at Dichotomy, which I recommend if you're in the market for real good coffee in Waco. It's a coffee wasteland between Austin and Dallas; this is an oasis. Also, Schmaltz's Sandwich Shop. Best cheese sandwich I've ever had.

Anyway, the Silos are worth a checkout if you're in the area. Just be prepared to buy a bunch of random things you absolutely do not need. But honestly, just give Waco a shot if you haven't. It's seriously a cool place. Highly underrated. Every time we go we find new reasons to love it.

Mother's Day weekend

My first Mother's Day! Woo! I love this holiday. It's the best. We spent the weekend with just the three of us and although we missed our mamas, it was just what we needed. We had the most relaxing weekend puttering around on little adventures with no plans at all. I love no plans.

Saturday we went to Cameron and Rogers which are two of the many little (tiny) towns surrounding Temple. And we found a courthouse! I have a slight obsession with courthouses, and this one was real pretty!

This is the Milam courthouse in Cameron. The weather was fab so we stopped and wandered around. In case you're wondering there is pretty much nothing else to do in downtown Cameron. It's pretty much abandoned, at least on the weekends. But the courthouse is a winner! Oh and they do have this historic old jail house/castle that is a museum now!

And as we seem to do wherever we go, we found some cats! Two little kitties, I think they were bf/gf. Very sweet.

I spy... a Bruce Wayne! And man, those trees! Texas is so green right now, I love it.

After visiting the very empty town of Cameron we stopped by the Walker Honey Farm and Dancing Bee Winery in Rogers. I highly recommend this place, it was so so neat! They have honey, honey products, mead, and wine. We did a little tasting. I wasn't a huge fan, because mead and honey wine is, duh, sweet, and I am not a fan of sweet wine. But Brendon, that boy looooves sweet drinks. Does it taste like juice? He's into it.

They also have a very good food truck outside; wood oven pizza, small plates, and sandwiches.

Seriously this place is the perfect little weekend adventure. And the weather was phenomenal. This sky!

On actual Mother's Day we mostly just chilled. Brendon special ordered some vegetarian kolaches from a little place here in Temple for breakfast, so that rocked. And then we went to Waco for some good coffee and lunch! And ice cream. Because the ice cream place (Heritage Creamery) next door to the coffee shop (Common Grounds) opened before the coffee shop? What? Good stuff though, they had all sorts of fun flavors. I got a cookie since I'm a Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla or nothing at all girl.

Pretty sweet set up. Ice cream and coffee. They're right on Baylor Campus, perfect study hangouts. There were SO MANY students there, and since we got there before they opened we walked in to a line out the door. They were poppin'! I'd suggest maybe they open earlier on Sundays? It's a very cool place though. A little grungy for my coffee shop snob taste, but their coffee is delish and the place is cute. Very eclectic, lots of fun vintage furniture. And the people who own this place were on Fixer Upper! I'm obsessed with that show and Joanna and Chip have only fueled my love of Waco. We'll eventually get to the Magnolia Silos but helllllnah not on a weekend.

My baby bear. Forever chewing on her fingers. Goodness do I love that little girl. And what a good weekend we had! After Waco we went home and vegged on the couch while little homie took a biiiig ol' nap on me and then we had dinner (pastaaaaa) at home. Happy happy happy. Super thankful to have such a wonderful little family that spoils me rotten.

And did I mention I love Mother's Day? It really is the best! Motherhood is something to be celebrated. Big time. I mean, I've always thought that but now... now I know. Being a mama is harrrd and intense and wonderful. I have so so so much adoration and respect for my mom. She's the greatest mom in the world (obviously) and I have a lot of "what would my mom do" moments these days. I'm hoping I've gotten some of her mama magic in my genes. And man, do I LOVE being a mama. I never expected to love it this much, it is one of the many things about motherhood that took me by surprise. I am not one of those folks who knew they were meant for motherhood, but I am so thankful to have gotten the chance and I adore being Indiana's mom. She is the greatest and so sweet and CUTE and just the best bundle of squishy joy. Sometimes I look at her and I can't even believe that she's mine! And I'm hers! What is life?! And I've been watching SO much Gilmore Girls lately and isn't that just the best thing to watch with your daughter napping on your chest? GAH, we are going to have so much fun. So many adventures to go on together. And Brendon can come too, because he's the best dad ever. But we'll talk about that next month. ;)

Cameron Park Zoo

GIBBONS! Y'all, I love animals! You know this. There's a zoo in Waco (the Cameron Park Zoo), and since we've moved here I've been scheming to go, but somehow it never worked out. BUT, Saturday, we went! And it was awesome! I thought it might be a little pokey zoo, but it's actually a decent size with lots of animals. The Fort Worth Zoo is, in my opinion, the best zoo in Texas. But, this one was pretty good! Especially for being just up the road!

I have this fascination with Waco. I'd driven through it about a billion times, but I'd never really stopped and explored until we moved here. It's just a short drive from Temple, and it's actually a really neat city! Almost a little hip. I think it's grown a lot in the past five years or so. Anyway, I love it. And keep finding excuses to go. And it's within my travel restrictions for this last month or so of pregnancy so I'm loving that.

This parrot was all about talking to us and doing some borderline obscene movements against the fence.

Brendon in a slide, through the otter pool!

So many of the animals were snoozing in the sun. I guess it would have been better to see them active and awake, but I thought they were all so cute sunbathing so I didn't mind! It was a sorta chilly day, but when you were in the sun it felt fantastic. And we got there pretty early, so the zoo was pretty much empty! It was awesome.

Awkward pregnant girl stance. Waddling around the zoo. And the rest of these photos were taken by Brendon! I am usually the camera queen, it's nice when he takes over every now and then.

Seriously fun morning! I'm so glad we were able to go. This zoo was awesome, and really the perfect place to take a kid! It's not huuuuge like some zoo's are, so you could probably tackle it all with a little one before they got over it. In fact, I think we were the only folks there without kids. Well, a kid outside the body anyway.

As soon as we got into the car I almost died from hunger. I'm at this awesome point these days where if I go to long without eating I feel super sick, and it hits me out of nowhere. Before I even recognize that I'm hungry I'll feel like I'm going to puke/pass out. So we've gotten kind of good at just watching the clock and saying, "Well, it's been about two hours since we've eaten, lets get a snack." I'm like a damn baby, feed me every few hours okay?

We found this really fantastic Mediterranean place, D's Mediterranean Grill, right down the road from the zoo, very veggie friendly! And I ate A TON. Seriously, shoveled that food into my face. We will have to go back, it was super good and I'm still thinking about it.